Two Color

In-Universe Commander Deck Chances

What are the chances of getting some (i wouldn't want it to be all of them by any means, but some) in-universe commander precons that go all-in on theme and flavor like Universes Beyond precons do, where everything has an appropriate name and gets new art if it doesn't already fit? Something like that for, say, the guilds seems really fun

I won’t say it won’t or can’t happen, but I don ’t expect it to be something we do often with in-universe Commander decks.

Art Commander Commander Decks Flavor Two Color Universes Beyond

Maths on Imbalanced Factions

Does the math on imbalanced factions change if it's just five two color factions with two of them being the same typal/theme. Something like Izzet Weirds, Simic Elementals, Golgari Squrrels, and Mardu (Boros and Orzhov) Vampires?

Five two-color factions isn’t “imbalanced”.

Boros (R/W) Colors Elementals Factions Golgari (B/G) Izzet (U/R) Kindred / Typal Mardu (R/W/B) Orzhov (W/B) Simic (G/U) Two Color Vampires

Expectations for Guild Names

Before the release of Ravnica, did you have any expectation that the guild names might become nicknames for the color pairs?

We did.

Colors Two Color

World Building in Bloomburrow

Sets like Outlaws and Karlov Manor haven't been my particular cup of tea recently, but the sheer wonder and fantasy that oozes from everything about Bloomburrow makes me want so much more. In particular the world building feels so charming and natural with the cultures of each of the animalfolk existing in ways that just seem so perfect and make so much sense, it makes me wish Bloomburrow was a Ravnican style set with each set focusing on 5 of the 2 color pairs, rather than all 10 in 1. Was this ever considered when designing the set?

It was always one set.

Bloomburrow Colors Oozes Two Color

Simic Guild Symbol Story

the simic guild symbol sticker from the Return to Ravnica prerelease guild kit has been on my family's sliding glass door for over a decade now, serving as a way to make it obvious whether it is open or closed to birds and humans alikei just though maybe you'd get a kick out of hearing that : )

I do.

Birds Humans Humor Prerelease Return to Ravnica Sealed Format Simic (G/U) Stickers Story / Lore Two Color

Animals for Bloomburrow Color Pairs

Did the ten animals for the two color pairs in Bloomburrow get announced somewhere and I missed it? You and other folks on here seem to be talking about them but I haven't seen it anywhere.

They were announced at the preview panel at MagicCon Amsterdam.

Bloomburrow Colors Conventions Spoilers Two Color

Mono vs Multicolor Decks

I've heard it said one mild shortcoming of the game's engine is that basic lands don't quite support 2 color decks reliably. Do you agree with that and do you see it as a shortcoming? If we assumed it were, would basics being able to be played as any type be too powerful a fix?

I don’t see that as a shortcoming. The tension between the mana system pushing towards one color and the color pie pushing towards multicolor is key to the game’s balance.

Basics Color Pie Colors Lands Mana Two Color

Understanding Top Versus Bottom-Up Sets

You said Duskmourn started as 70/80s horror, but also said it's a bottom up set. I thought top down/bottom up was the thing that kicked off the initial idea for a set, and I'd think trying to capture the flavor of 70/80s horror would put Duskmourn in the top down camp. Can you explain the distinction and what makes Duskmourn bottom up?

The difference between top down and bottom up is how is the set structured. I’ll use Ravnica and Innistrad as examples. If you took off all the names, art, creature types (replaced with non flavorable words - “Creature Type A”), and flavor text from both sets and showed them to a player. Ravnica would make sense. It’s core structure is mechanical. You might not get all the flavor of the guilds, but you understand how it’s put together.Innistrad, in contrast, will be harder to understand how the component pieces come together. It will feel more random, because the connective tissue to the structure is the flavor.The idea of top-down and bottom-up was much cleaner back in the day, but we’ve gotten so good combing mechanics and flavor, it’s hard to tell.It’s too early to talk about Duskmourn, so I’ll use Bloomburrow as my example. We started with a flavor, anthropomorphic animals, but quickly decided that having ten two-color pairs, each one a different animal was a great core to the set structure. That structure is mechanical, so technically it’s bottom-up.Let me end by stressing that top-down vs. bottom up in a world where we blend mechanics and flavor so much doesn’t have as much meaning as it once did, except if you’re really in to design.

Art Bloomburrow Bottom Up Creatures Flavor Flavor Text Horror Innistrad Mechanics Top Down Two Color

Unreleased Mechanics

can you give us any information on mechanics that were in any set design but didnt make it to the final design? i.e[any mechanic that was tested for golgari for ravnica city of guilds etc]

I occasionally talk about mechanics we tried, but didn’t use, much more than I did say ten years ago.

Golgari (B/G) Mechanics Set Design Two Color

Clarifying Chandra's Ignition

Is Chandra's Ignition still in pie for Red? And if not, would it's effect be in pie for another color, or two color combo?

Still in pie.

Chandra's Ignition Colors Red Two Color

Golgari Guild Trivia

Today is my birthday, and I would like to request some trivia on the guild of my first deck, The Golgari. Thank you!

We made more mechanics for the Golgari than the three other guilds combined in original Ravnica. It was the last guild we found a mechanic for. Happy Birthday!

Appreciation Birthday Golgari (B/G) Mechanics Two Color

Lost Ravnica Guild Articles

Hey mark, i'm trying to find an old article series on Ravnica guilds style guide, and can't seem to find it anywhere. Were they lost on the last website migration? Can you let someone know about that?

Sadly, a *lot* of articles were lost in the website migration.

Two Color

Guild Set Challenges

What makes a 10 guild set unlikely but other 10 faction sets, like Kaldheim, possible? Is it the color intensity?

We don’t make ten guild sets. We make two five guild sets next to each other. The bar to make back-to-back sets on the same plane is just really high, so new worlds are usually off the table as they are too unknown.

Colors Factions Kaldheim Two Color

MDFC Lands Archetype Focus

I really like the cycle of 2 colour MDFC lands. It was a bit disappointing that the UR and UW ones only get maximally used in energy decks. Do you know why 2/10 of a cycle of generically useful type (dual colour land) were focused in on one very specific archetype?

I believe all the lands leaned towards their draft archetype.

Colors Cycles Draft Formats Izzet (U/R) Lands Modal Dual Faced Cards Two Color

Multi-Planar War Impact

If R&D "strongly belived" that players didnt want to see the consequences of a multi-planar war why have the war at all? I strongly believe that creative's ability to tell a story is severly disserviced by wotc's desire to placate players. Help me understand the need to have a storyline if its going to be so consistently undermined by the whims of the company, most releases dont have one, so why do premier sets need them if they're not going to be allowed to live to its potential?

The Phyrexian War has huge impacts on many planes. Just look at the ones we visited. It totally destabilized Eldraine, wrecked the courts, and resulted in a large chunk of the populace being in a sleep spell. It drove Ixalans underground. It resulted in huge divisions in the guilds and major murders on Ravnica. And Thunder Junction is full of refugees who fled their suffering worlds. All of the above of which is shown on cards. Us not wanting to have a year of downbeat sets doesn’t mean we don’t want consequences. It means Magic is many things to many people and we like changing things up for variety.

Game Design Phyrexian Planes Premier Sets Premier Sets Story / Lore Two Color

Nicol Bolas's Abilities

Sorry for my english (is not my mother language) I've waited so long for this birthday trivia and i want to ask you: Nicol bolas is my favorite magic character of all times, love him. In the Nicol bolas, planeswalker card. since BR is a guild that easily can destroy any creature, why his first ability can't destroy a creature?

It is to differentiate it from the second ability. The first ability deals with noncreatures and the second deals with creatures.Happy Birthday!

Birthday Creatures Destroy English Nicol Bolas Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker Planeswalkers Two Color

Color Indicator Design

Why not use the mana symbols/guild symbols for the color indicator to be more color blind friendly?

It’s an odd flavor fit outside of Ravnica.

Colors Flavor Mana Two Color

Names for Mana Combinations

What's your thoughts on people still referring to 2 color/3 color combinations with the Ravnican/Alaran names? Have you seen anyone use the Capennan names?And does the team or you personally want to give similar names to the 4 color combinations?

We expect vocabulary to stay the same. I assume we’ll give names to the four-color combinations one day.

Colors Four Color Mana Three Color Two Color

Innistrad's Random Murders

“I'm not sure anyone really cares about random murders on Innistrad. They happen constantly.”That was a plot point in the story of MKM. There were plenty of random murders on Ravnica, nobody cared until a high ranking person in the guilds was murdered. (If this gets answered, all of you need to read the MKM web fiction it is excellent)Though the point of Innistrad being too horror focused for a murder mystery still stands

People care. There are police on Ravnica and they solve murders. The original Ravnica novel was literally about a cop solving a murder.

Horror Innistrad Murders at Karlov Manor Plot Story / Lore Two Color

Multicolor Card Design

I asked a question the other day and didn’t get the answer I was looking for, although that’s because it was based on a faulty premise, and your response was correcting said premise, so that’s on me for asking a bad question. I am now going to rephrase the question using your correction:Y’all don’t like putting effects that are tertiary in a color on a multicolored card, which makes sense. But would that still be the case if the effect is tertiary in both colors of a 2 color card? What if it’s tertiary in 2 out of the 3 colors on a 3 color card, but isn’t in the 3rd color at all?

With a few rare exceptions, if all of the colors on a multicolor card have an ability as tertiary or lower (aka it doesn’t have it at all), that ability won’t appear on the card, even if multiple colors have it tertiary.

Colors Rares Tertiary Three Color Two Color