Why are backdrop sets a thing? If we are going to Ravnica and I don't get what I expect from Ravnica, im disappointmented. If the set does well, it still feels like a waste of Ravnica. Duskmourne seems similar where it could be a spooky house on any plane. Why are these sets so frequent now

So frequent? (War of the Spark, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, and Murders at Karlov Manor) We’ve done three, two of which (the last two) were successful.

Some Magic-inspired stories, all about bonding with my son, who is now 7-and-a-half: I don’t remember what I did first to get him interested in Magic, but it was probably playing with my friend Max, who taught me and my now-wife how to play - but I know Duels of the Planeswalkers on Xbox 360 helped get my son into the game with the effects and music but especially archenemy variant and a Nicol Bolas final match.In the years since then, he and I occasionally get to talking about his favorite creature types and characters, and after quite some time, we have slowly narrowed down his choices to 4: Spiders, Zombies with Liliana, Nicol Bolas, and Niv-Mizzet. Not surprisingly, two of Magic’s most common dragons in that list. I don’t know what it is with dragons but I’m glad WotC had realized their appeal so they’re prominently there for my son to enjoy, and with quite a few options so he may get a Nicol Bols dragon deck that’s much different than any dragon deck I have tried to make myselfThanks to War of the Spark, I finally created a Horde Magic deck and he loved hearing about the storyline of Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation leading up to the actual WAR set, as I explained those stories using key cards before we started the game, to establish the setting. Coincidentally, it was my son with his Gideon that ultimately dealt the final blow - no need to sacrifice himself the way it played out in our match! My son will still reference this game and it’s nearly been a year.Also since that time I learned that the classic Planeswalker webcomics had been bundled as graphic novels, so I got those and our nighttime routine for a bit was to read about Garruk’s corruption by Liliana and that build up to Rise of the Eldrazi and Mirrodin Besieged; coincidentally we finished as March of the Machine previews were going on, and my villain-loving son is now waiting for me to build a Phyrexian horde so he can battle Elesh Norn. We look forward to many more years with the game, and especially learning what comes next for some of our favorite still-active villains: Ashiok, Oko, and Tezzeret!

Thanks for sharing.

Was amass more well-received in Tales of Middle-Earth than War of the Spark, and if so, why do you think that was?

It was received well in both.

When you made the Wanderer for War of the Spark, did you already know she would be the Emperor of Kamigawa, or did that come later?

I don’t believe it was known when we first made her, but we knew we’d use her again.

Hi Mark! Bit of a lore question here.Magic has introduced a LOT of planeswalkers over the years, and not just the major story players. Side characters, War of the Spark walkers, walkers that only show up in supplemental sets and nowhere else.In the wake of the Desparking, how likely are we to see the ultimate fate of all of these planeswalkers, be it in story or on cards? Is it a question of "when, not if" across the board, or is WotC happy to leave some of them a total mystery?

The idea is we learn about them as they appear in sets. Most sets have both sparked and de-sparked planeswalkers in them.

I've completed my thirty-second rotation around the sun today! One month (and one day) from now will be the five-year anniversary of War of the Spark's release. May I get some trivia about my favorite character, Gideon Jura, in relation to the WotS set?

***SPOILERS***We knew this was Gideons last card, and he plays a major role in the story, so we wanted him to have an exciting card. War of the Spark was the first set where we could (regularly) use static abilities on planeswalkers, so we liked that that was how he become a creature. On your turn, as we wanted him to be more offensive than defensive.Happy Birthday!

Since people are talking about the Thunder Junction previews, I just wanted to pop in and say this is the set that has started to make me warm on omenpaths. In some ways the world felt smaller when we had lost most walkers and there were only a few crossplane cards per set. Seeing a set with such a variety of characters without the need for a major event like the war of the spark seems like great change for people like me who love to hear about how side characters are doing.

Glad you’re enjoying it.

"Introduce mechanics, then expand upon them *is* how blocks worked."In a nutshell, this kind of design sense should work. After looking at the reason why blocks were retired, the second sets selling less, I think that blocks existing wasn't the problem. The power level was.I would say the culprit is actually the power level. You can have the most beautifully flavourful world you ever made, but Modern Horizons has shown that power level is what sells. Battle For Zendikar is a good example here. I *LOVE* the flavor of this set. Standard aside though, there isn't really any reason to look at any of the mechanics here. Consume is an interesting mechanic, but there aren't any viable strategies that can utilize it. Devoid gives colored decks the ability to play colorless spells, but there aren't really any payoffs to using colorless spells over the colored spells, especially when the colored spells are more mana eficient.This idea is backed up by War of the Spark. That set, to my knowledge, sold very well. It had a very strong flavor and it took the idea of planeswalkers to a brand new level. But unlike Battle for Zendikar, players had a solid reason to play these cards. This is just my two cents, and I can definitely be wrong here. I'm sure the person who works for Wotc most definitely has a better idea on why blocks were retired than the person who doesn't work for Wotc.

The 100%/80%/60% trend of block sales was consistent regardless of set power level. Mirrodin, for example, definitely wasn’t too weak, yet had the same trend line.

Over the last two years, my husband has gotten into Magic. He's bought every set since "War of the Spark" and drafted them with friends. His 35th birthday is coming up, and I want to set up a "Day of Magic" to celebrate. What would be the best set (or sets) from the past to get for him for a special draft that day? Do you have a favorite you would recommend or one that you thought was particularly interesting to draft?

I’m not sure what your budget is. Something that could be fun, although possibly pricey, is to do what is called a Chaos Draft where you draft with a mix of different sets. You need twenty-four booster packs. If you started with War of the Spark and got every set that came out after it (basically all the sets since he started playing), you’ll get pretty close to twenty-four packs. If that’s too much, another option is to do a Chaos draft but just with sets from 2023 and 2024 which will be easier to get.Does anyone else have good suggestions? Hope this helps.

"Amass, while not technically from this decade, is only five years old." It is insane to me that it has already been half a decade since War of the Spark. Where does the time go Mark?

Today I realized Magic 2010 came out *fifteen* years ago. At MagicCon, I had tons of adult players tell me how they read my articles when they were small children. Time is fickle, my friends. : )