Hey Mark, it's my birthday! Can I get trivia on DOM or ELD? They were both significant milestones in my MTG journey and are dear to me.

Dominaria was originally going to be a small block (one larger set and one small), but the small set got changed into a core set just before it was about to begin design.Happy Birthday!

Hi Mark! I would like to request some birthday trivia please! Specifically, in Dominaria United, each monocolor was assigned a mechanical theme (e.g. White = Go Wide, Blue = Sorceries and Instants matter). I was wondering if you could please elaborate the monocolor themes in Throne of Eldraine as I believe they aren't explicitly stated anywhere on l'internet.

Each of the five courts had a virtue which we built the color around mechanically, as well as flavorfully:

• White Court (Ardenvale) – Loyalty
• Blue Court (Vantress) – Knowledge
• Black Court (Lochthwain) – Persistence
• Red Court (Embereth) – Courage
• Green Court (Garenbrig) – Strength

White leaned into “go wide” with creatures helping one another.Blue leaned into control with card drawing.Black leaned into graveyard recursion.Red leaned into aggression.Green leaned into caring about creature size.Happy Birthday!

Is power creep inevitable? Will powerful creatures of today all seem weak in 4 years? Or can power plateau and stay the same?

Power creep means that the sets of today are more powerful, on average, than the sets of yesterday. It doesn’t mean individual cards can’t be the best version of something. We did up the average power level in Throne of Eldraine, adapting to a more eternal environment, but the sets since then have been of a consistent power level (giving room for some ebb and flow). So no, power creep isn’t inevitable.Non-rotating formats will go up in power level over time as cards get added to the system, but that’s the nature of non-rotation. It isn’t power creep.

You say in the Handoff document that you were surprised how marketing leaned into the Western theme. Is that analogous to how marketing leaned into the Fairy Tales theme of original Eldraine?

The exact opposite. I had to push to get the marketing of Throne of Eldraine to lean into fairy tales.

Given that Oko, theif of crowns was banned in most formats, what went into the decision to include it in OTJ limited?

It shows up at a much lower rate than it did in Throne of Eldraine limited.

>We don’t write the word “Commander” in rules text of premier set cards.Well, you did. Once. Arcane Signet from Throne of Eldraine was standard-legal because you guys were really trying to push Brawl as a format at the time.

Sorry, in premier booster sets.

Hi Mark! Next time you talk about typal draft archetypes on your podcast, could you talk about the creatures that dont get the type that matters? The berserkers in KTK that could have been warriors, the soldiers in ELD etc.

If every creature is the relevant type, we might as well just say “creature”. The reason typal is interesting for design is that it makes players evaluate cards differently.

Re: My previous ask about "caution" levels - With particular regards to Eldraine and Strixhaven, I was talking about their returns. You have said before that you all work about 2-3 years out and with something like Strixhaven (which came out in 2021), you've already announced a return, which tells me that Wizards likely greenlit a return with less data than usual. In a previous ask, you said Wizards greenlit MH2 even before seeing the full results of MH1. That's what I'm asking about

Modern Horizons 2 is the exception. We got to see the audience’s response to Throne of Eldraine and Strixhaven before we made the choice to return to either world. Note that Modern Horizons is a very different style of product and is more card-centric in its focus than our premier sets are. Its theme is more “complex and nostalgia rich designs”.

"It's just a joke" - you're right, it was just a joke in the ELD trailer, but then Syr Ginger got made into a real card. What's to stop 'Syr Ginger kills Garruk' from going from joke to card? Fblthp was a joke too, and he's become two cards. Even just a few asks down you admit that the GB vigilant angel is a When because its become "too much of a thing not to". I would really hate to see major characters and story decisions be determined by community memes and jokey fanservice

Magic has had silly components since it’s inception. Those elements existing doesn’t mean the story can’t take things seriously.

I really liked WOE’s vibe of “there’s like 10 different big events happening all over the plane” it really makes the world feel more alive then the standard plot of “there’s one big mcguffen/monster”. makes me excited for more backdrop sets

I’m glad you enjoy it. I should point out Wilds of Eldraine is not a backdrop set. It overlaps a lot in mechanical themes from Throne of Eldraine.