Will this year's State of Design article include The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth since it came out too late to be in last year's article?

Yes, I forgot. It will be included.

When measuring the best selling sets, is it measured by money customers spent, or number of packs sold? When LTR and MH2 are higher price point sets than anything in Standard, I gotta know

Money spent.

Hi Mark! I was a big fan of having multiple cards representing the same character in LTR, showing how they'd developed. I do think the commander decks spoiled this appreciation however, since some of the legends felt shoe-horned into certain colours to fit the decks. Perhaps the most egregious was Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant, who's essentially the same character as Bilbo, Retired Burglar but the complete opposite colours. Just passing on this absolutely minor and essentially insignificant quibble.

It has been noted by other people.

Re: Color Imbalance in Doctor Who - Each set of UB commander decks has had a different color balance. 40K had thee black decks including a mono-black deck, with only one white and one green. LTR had a closer balance with 2-3 of each color. WHO has four blue decks but only one is black. Interestingly, all three have had a Blue-Black-Red deck, which seems to be a go-to for the most villainous deck.

FYI

Hi Mark, I want to register my disappointment that it seems like whenever there's an unusual/unique draft archetype in recent sets, it's almost always severely underpowered. UW tap in WOE, UG scry in LTR, and UG transform in MOM are the three most recent sets and all follow this pattern. Moving back a little further, the RW Lorehold graveyard theme in STX and RG werewolves in MID are also good examples. Can you pass along that limited players would like to see weird themes pushed a little more?

When you’re working with something you’re unfamilar with, it’s a lot riskier to push power levels, because you have no idea exactly what power level you’re at. With themes we’re familiar with we have a better ability to pinpoint where we think they’ll end up. As we repeat themes, it becomes easier to push them appropriately.

How likely are we to see a premiere set that has a focus on clues to the same degree that LTR or WOE have on food?

Somewhat likely.

In terms of power level, would you say MH3 is closer to LTR, or to previous MH sets? (please please please say LTR)

Power level is not my forte.

Hi Mark, I hope you’re having a great day. Feedback for you to pass along: my non-enfranchised friend bought a box of LTR set boosters for us to play sealed, costing him extra and hurting our game night experience. My LGS only offers set boosters, which are worthless to me, as FNM prizes. I don’t know how to fix it, but booster products not for limited play, as they exist today, are meaningfully harming my experience and driving me away from the game.

It’s a note we’ve been hearing from the limited players. It’s an issue we’re working on.

Do you think you could you could do a podcast on when and why commons get double pips? For example, in LTR there are only two double pipped commons, Lorien Revealed and Claim the Precious. As a custom designer, its a concept that stumps me, I don't know when to use them.

We mostly don’t use them at common on cards with a mana value of there or less, with the one exception of hard counters. EDIT: A hard creature kill spells.

Loving LTR so far.Between the designs and the flavor, you really knocked it out of the park.The only issue I have is with the full art map basic lands. They're too similar. When I fan them out quickly they all look green. I think the art direction needed to emphasize something to bring out the color more.

I can pass that note along to the correct team.