Mark, the 16th was my birthday and I think my ask may have gotten lost in the shuffle. Can I get some trivia on Zurgo Helmsmasher? He's my favorite commander. Also, thanks for all you do!

In Alpha, Richard made Sengir Vampire. It had an ability, since dubbed by R&D as the “Sengir ability”, which made the creature bigger when it kills things. The ability has proven hard to use as players either avoid blocking it or make sure to block it with enough creatures to kill it, meaning that it doesn’t often get counters.
Zurgo was designed to try and make the “Sengir ability” actually relevant. It has to attack, it’s powerful enough that it’s hard to ignore and it has indestructible on attack so it lives through combat. It’s probably the most success “Sengir” creature to date.
Happy Belated Birthday! (You share your birthday with my twins, Adam and Sarah.)

I remember in one of you podcasts you mentioned you couldn't make a Hercules character with really high power/toughness because creative doesn't want humanoids to have P/T beyond a certain level. Is Zurgo Helmsmasher at the limit of that, or beyond it? I would expect a creature with 7 power to be the size of a bus, not just a really big guy.

Hercules was originally 12/12 which is significantly bigger than 7/7 which creative allows superhuman figures to be.

How was Zurgo Helmsmasher white? The Black and Red make sense, but I have a hard time seeing the white.

He was the leader of the Mardu.

Sorry to chime in on the color pie debate - just wanted to say that you might underestimate the power of blues Pongify-esque Polymorph. It's essentially creature kill, even when fitting 1000% into the "it's CHANGING the creature" flavor. A 3/3 or 2/2 is nothing compared to a Vorinclex or Zurgo Helmsmasher. Especially not in larger-than-standard formats (including kitchen table). Also, exiling makes it even stronger, because it hoses opposing Recursion/Reanimate effects a lot.

Blue can also steal an opponent’s creatures. Isn’t that way worse than turning into a 3/3.

Zurgo Helmsmasher seems like a design answer to an Aggro curve top, given every ability and aspect (except for attack each turn - not exactly a downside) that he has rewards you for the strategy. Can we expect the other warlords to be this elegant?

Each khan is specifically designed to fit the style of deck for their clan. Zurgo is a perfect example. This is the long version of me saying yes.