FYI: amonkhet remastered on arena had both collected company and thoughtseize (with new amonkhet themed art), neither of which were in the original block. I imagine this is something a digital remastered set could do but not a paper one?

We haven’t done it yet in paper. Digital often looks to get specific cards onto digital.

I don't understand why Discard - probably the most maligned supported mechanic - is continually buffed every set.Before a player even gets a TURN, a single mana will:

• Disrupt the player's mulligan they took to keep a curve
• Reveal a deck's colors/game plan
• Disrupt the opponent's ability to interact (due to playing around known issues)
• Get rid of a deck's key piece to winning.
• Achieve card advantage

A few things:1) Discard is not the most maligned, but yes, there is a segment of the audience that dislikes it. There is also a segment of the audience that very much enjoys it and thinks it adds a lot to the game.2) By “discard decks”, I meant decks that do nothing but make the opponent discard and then use a win condition that takes advanatage of the opponent having no cards in hand (things like The Rack). 3) We do want decks (well, black ones at least) to have access to discard as a tool, but in moderation. Those individual cards can be powerful though.

In “Starting Over” you say you’d remove the spell fizzling rule. Would you just have them do as much of their effect as they could, so Thoughtseize would still make you lose 2 life even if your opponent gained hexproof?

Yes.

Why are cards like Thoughtseize and Inquisition Of Kozilek allowed to hit artifacts and enchantments if there supposed to be blacks weakness?

Artifact destruction is a problem for black. Once their opponent gets an artifact onto the battlefield, black doesn’t have answers to get rid of it. Discard is a tool black has access to.

I understand that the combination of Mutavault and Thoughtseize proved problematic in the specific Standard they were reprinted in, but the very fact that they were reprinted at all meant a lot to many players of non-rotating formats. It showed that Wizards cared about us and our needs nearly as much as they cared about Standard and Draft players. Is there any chance at all that R&D might take risks like that again with *powerful* reprints in Standard?

If we can do so without badly warping Standard.

"it undermined the core construct of the game, something that if done too much will break Magic." Is one card "too much"? I've seen you criticise aspects of the Khans format in the past - including Hornet Queen and Thoughtseize - but as far as I can tell it was the best-received Standard format for year. Hornet Queen may not have been ideal for the reasons you give, but it was an existing tool that provided the sorts of answers more recent formats have lacked to their cost.

Magic can have balanced, fun environments without resorting to having cards that hurt the integrity of its core structure.

Would thoughtseize be in white's slice of the color pie as it gave them life?

Thoughtseize is secretly a white card. Keep this between us.

The concern people have isn't that viewing hands *is* in black's pie, but the colour it's most strongly in- blue- hasn't received a card in a long time. Nobody's saying you shouldn't have printed Thoughtseize, but rather that you should *also* be printing blue cards that view hands.

We don’t like the game play so we’ve been pulling back on it in Blue. With choice discard, we have no choice but to show you the opponent’s hand so we still do that, but even that we’re careful how much we do.

Hey Mark! Question about the colour pie. Why are effects, that look into someones hand (e.g. Thoughtseize) black? It looks more blue to me, getting in someones head and erasing memories and stuff. Like Jace. Thank you and keep up the awesome work!

Blue and Black both mess with the mind in different ways. Blue is more likely to make you forget while Black lobotomies you.

I want to say that thoughtseize is different from a card like snapcaster mage or liliana of the veil, because thoughtseize can fit in most any deck in its colors and be a great fit. Snapcaster mage needs a significant amount of low-cost instants/sorceries that are relevant at all points in the game. Or more deck-specific cards like scapeshift at rare without the utility lands to make the combo, or ad nauseum, or cards along that line.

If Snapcaster Mage was in Shadows over Innistrad it would warp Standard. It warps formats with a lot more cards available to play.