Mark, wonderful podcast tribute to your dad. I’ve been playing since 1997 and have heard so many of your stories about him and have even shared your Tempest design story when brining friends into the game because it’s so passionate. So sorry for your loss.

Thanks. I’m glad you liked it.

I just listened to your podcast on your father today. My father passed away due to complications from Alzheimer's in December. Your podcast really helped me. Losing a parent is so difficult, but thinking about my father's life in terms of the lives of others and that whole "It's a Wonderful Life" tribute has helped my grieving by some measure. Thank you for this episode and for sharing, and may your father's memory be a blessing.

I’m glad it was helpful. My mother, who’s a psychologist, said something that helped me quite a bit. Grief, she said, is an expression of love.

Where's persist on the storm scale? It seems to me that would be a very hard card to mechanic to put into standard because +1/+1 counters are such a common theme. For example, Tribute to the World Tree is in standard right now and could easily be part of a combo with many persist creatures.

Persist needing -1/-1 counters makes it return, at least in a premier set, less likely, but not impossible. I’ll call it a 7.

If or when: completing the Trinket, Tribute, Trophy, and Treasure Mage vertical cycle? We are missing two still. 4 MV and 5 MV, as Trinket handles 1 or less, and Treasure handles 6 or greater.

We’ll get there.

Was Barrin named as a tribute to Barry Reich?

Not that I’m aware of, but maybe.

Is Phyrexian Tribute within modern color pie? Where/how does black destroy artifacts if at all?

Black is not supposed to be able to destroy artifacts. It’s one of the weaknesses of black.

This is a little late, but can you give firm, Gideon-style shoulder claps to the people responsible for Signature Spellbook: Gideon? Regardless of opinions on what happened to Gideon in War of the Spark, I liked that tribute to the character.

Can do.

Trinket, Treasure, Trophy, Tribute... do you have enough words to do the full cycle?

The English language has a lot of “T” words.

"My article, which you obviously haven’t seen yet, states this very clearly." Why did you not get an article this week? WOTC keeps telling us that they want us to see previews with the proper context, and right now Adapt and Riot looks like slight tweaks on Monstrosity and Tribute, and we have no idea why you are confusing us with new wording.

In order to get a holiday break, I’m given a few weeks off from writing articles. While I do love writing about Magic, I also love getting a much needed vacation.

I heard a rumor once that the Headless Horsemen (a creature based off the novel, anyway) was meant to make a appearance somewhere in Innistrad or Shadows Over Innistrad, a new creature rather than a reprint of the lovely fellow from Legends. Was this a thing, and is there any possibility of a legendary Headless Horsemen tribute down the line? Mono black if you could manage it.

Headless Horseman was in the Innistrad file for a while. He proved to be a little too weak.