Echoing what that other guy said, I have felt a rise in complexity recently. With so many new cards that not only make you read and remember what they do, but what the tokens they make do, then what the tokens that that token makes does, it really adds to the mental load. Some examples would be Ring Tempts You, daybound/nightbound, initiative, Venture into the dungeon, stickers, attractions, and many more.
For instance, had a vindicate, and was debating between killing Frodo, sauron’s bane and Nahar, selfless paladin, I would have to read a total of 6 cards. Each of the original creatures, plus the 3 dungeons and the Ring card. And this problem gets worse the more effects you add on, many of which don’t go away as the game continues. If someone introduces the initiative, I now have to worry about nahar exploring the underdark. This scaling complexity as the game continues now means there’s an insane amount layers of the game, which while fun, is also very daunting, and somewhat of a headache.If nothing else, I’d really like if “reading the card explains the card” was true, not “reading the card, then the three different extra cards that it makes explains the card”I do appreciate your listening, and generally a lot of the new stuff has been cool. However, this push for many “outside the game” mechanics is not great for paper play, and I would prefer less of it.

Here’s the core problem. A huge part of Magic is that we keep making new cards. When we do that, the audience wants new mechanics. (Market research shows again and again that one of the biggest draws to new sets is new mechanics.) We’re thirty years in. We’ve made a *lot* of mechanics, so we have to go to new spaces to make new things. It’s not as if there’s lots of simple, elegant, non-complex design space that we’re actively choosing not to do.What this means is if you want to play constructed formats that don’t rotate, complexity will rise with time. There’s literally no way around this. Every new card we create, every new mechanic we make, every set we put out adds complexity to the system. So if you’re finding the mental load too much, there are ways to play Magic where this isn’t an issue. Limited formats and rotating constructed formats limit complexity. Or you can choose to build your decks such that you focus on less mechanics you have to track.That said, I don’t think there’s a way for me to do my job (aka keep designing new things) that isn’t going to raise complexity. We can look at how many things we add to any one set. Maybe slow down the rise in complexity a little. But can we do so in a way that the audience is getting what they want? I’m not sure.One of the mechanics I get asked most to bring back is mutate, and that’s confusing even without the rest of Magic, so there are many forces pulling in different directions.I do like hearing the specific things that cause you all problems, because it’s possible I can figure out the style of designs that cause people problems. But the idea that we just stop making mechanics that reference things not on the card is a tough one given where Magic design technology is currently at.I do appreciate all the input, and I hope the dialogue helps me better understand what specific things are causing problems.

You've mentioned before that you want "Destroy target permanent" and "Destroy target nonland permanent" to stay in white-black and black-green even if other combinations can do it now. But Hidetsugu Consumes All destroys all nonland permanents with MV 1 or less. Does that open the door for variations or subsets of Vindicate effects in other color combinations?

We can explore subsets.

Considering that Regrowth is mechanically able to get card types that green usually doesn’t care about, it seems to me that without the flavor of the card Regrowth, the effect might be only allowed in multicolor that same way that Vindicate is a multicolor effect. I could imagine a world where both Regrowth and Demonic Tutor were only allowed in multicolor in modern Magic.

There seems to be this misunderstanding that green doesn’t get interact with various card types. Every color interacts with all the card types in their own way. One of those ways for green is through the graveyard. Green is the scavenging color.

Hi MaRo, thanks for all your hard work making Magic. Both Control Magic and Time Walk effects are massively powerful, with Time Walks getting banned even at 7 mana. Is it possible that these effects should get the "Vindicate treatment" of being only doable with two colours?

A second color isn’t the safety valve you think it is. : )

Could vindicate-style effects be WR? If not, what permanent type is the pair missing?

Neither gets “destroy target planeswalker”.

Beast Within! It's Vindicate, but better! Because I run it in Living End. In case you couldn't tell, I'm firmly in Camp Yes To Beast Within.

I’m fine with the effect. It’s just not monogreen.

Today's my birthday. Could you give me a trivia about the card Vindicate from Apocalypse. It's one of the cards I like most :D

Vindicate came about because I spent years complaining about Desert Twister, the monoGreen card from Arabian Nights that destroyed target permanent. If the ability wasn’t monoGreen (because Green shouldn’t be able to kill creatures outright), what color was it? No single color I said and made Vindicate to show what colors it could be. (Black/Green being the one other color pair.)Happy Birthday!

Do you feel focusing on story means losing a sense of immersion? When playing a Lightning Bolt, I feel like I'm the one casting it. When playing a card like Vindicate I get a sense of the story. But I no longer feel like I'm making the action happen and it takes me out of the game.

There’s a balance. I agree it’s tricky.

Utter End is a bit upsetting can we just have vindicate back again?

Development considers Vindicate too strong for Standard. Partly because it costs three mana, partly because it can target lands.

Can a card in color A with a color B activation have an effect that is only in AB's gold pie that neither A nor B can do alone? Like a white card with a black activated Vindicate.

That’s not how we do it. The black activated ability would do something monoblack could do.