Invoking the hallowed and ancient rite of birthday trivia, I was wondering if there was anything new you could share about your original vision for the end of the Weatherlight Saga? Failing that, is there a villain in Magic's past that you personally would like to see return?

Our original pitch was for a three-year story (with the idea that we’d tell more stories; this was the first story arc). Year one was Rath. It mostly matched with what happen save Crovax going evil and killing Mirri.Year two was Mercadia. A completely different story, and a very different world from what was made.Year three was Dominaria, but in the future. The crew returned to warn Dominaria about the upcoming Phyrexian invasion only to learn the portal they traveled through sent through time and the Phyrexians have already taken over Dominaria. The crew is able to defeat both the Phyrexians (using the hourglass pendant to rewind time) and Volrath who is aboard the ship disguised as Tahngarth.Happy Birthday!

Tempest Block was indeed the last block to print cards that cared about graveyard order - Tempest had Corpse Dance and Phyrexian Grimoire, and Stronghold had Volrath's Shapeshifter (Exodus did not have any).

That was my memory.

If or when - a card for Vuel before he became Volrath?

I’d like to believe when, but probably if.

All these Vorthos questions are getting a bit silly. Naming "Vol" won't get you Volrath, it'd get you Sarkhan Vol, since Vol is his given name (Sarkhan is technically his title, given to him by Bolas, then claimed for himself later).

Naming Vuel will get your Volrath though. (That’s his original name.)

Hi Mark! It’s my birthday today! And I have a question for you. Are slivers only found on dominaria, or are they on other planes as well, and if so, how did they get there?

Slivers have been seen on Rath, Dominaria and Shandalar. (Rath has since been overlaid on Dominaria). We know Volrath got the Slivers from an unknown plane that is not any of those three.

There are actually only two 3-color Phyrexian creatures post errata: Volrath in UBG and Ertai in WUB. I would love to see more.

FYI

After looking at the responses to my “set with both silver and black bordered cards” ask, I genuinely think the nay-sayers never saw or played with Unstable. The three main mechanics of the set are all completely fine for black bordered play. They do not have rules issues. They do not require dexterity. They don’t care about weird traits like set symbols. They are mechanics directly in black border now. Host/Augment is Mutate. Contraptions are Dungeons. Dice rolling is dice rolling. Modern Horizons 2 even had a Squirrel tribal theme! Yet people think silver bordered means Chaos Confetti and Volrath’s Motion Sensor. It’s as out of touch and removed from the reality of the game as thinking “I don’t want to play black border, it’s too competitive because of all the ante cards and it’s all just counterspells and lightning bolts anyway.”

I agree.

It's my birthday the other day, but I think my question got lost in the shuffle. As usual, could I get some previously unshared trivia about the original weatherlight saga? (For reference, you've shared that Volrath was going to be disguised as Tahngarth and that the hourglass pendant Gerrard gives to Pol Cordel had a giant role in the original third act of the story). Thank you!

In our version Crocax doesn’t betray the crew and kill Mirri. They both play important roles later in the story. Happy Belated Birthday!

Hall of Heliod's Generosity, Tolarian Ruins, and Volrath's Stronghold are 3 cards that hint a cycle. While keeping in the color pie, could Green do Lands and Red do planeswalkers?

Just because something hints at a cycle, doesn’t mean it needs to be made into a cycle.

Do you consider Volrath's native plane to be Rath or Dominaria?

Vuel’s native plane was Dominaria..You could argue I guess that Voltath was a different entity than Vuel in some metaphysical sense and his native plane was Rath. But basically, Dominaria.