When you add a semi-rare creature type to a set as a one-off, how much consideration is put into sharing/building a mechanical identity with past creatures? I ask specifically about my beloved archons who somewhat share a theme but-not-really, though there are others like spiders (besides being GB and having reach) or giants

Usually, a card has a lot of things it needs to do for the set it’s in, so there isn’t a lot of space to necessarily synergize with older cards. That said, if it’s the same shape and size, often times it can lean into a similar mechanical space.

If a Universes Beyond's lore used a certain word that's already a creature type in Magic but doesn't mean the same thing, would you use that word? For example, Starcraft but they're not white a avatars of justice with giant flying mounts. Would they still be Archon creature type?

My best guess is yes, we would use it.

Hi Mark, I just got to Through the Breach an Archon of Cruelty on my opponent's end step and then Saw in Half it the same step to untap with two of them. Saw in Half is such a cool card, please give my applause to whoever designed it (especially if it's you)!

I think Chris Mooney designed it, but I’m not 100% sure. It wasn’t me.

Could Cruel Ultimatum be printed as a mono-black card? I was looking at it the other day and realized black can make people sacrifice creatures, return creatures from GY to hand, drain opponents for life, draw cards, and make opponents discard. The only thing I think is somewhat outside of black's wheelhouse is drawing cards without some additional cost (sacrifice, life, etc.) but it can still sometimes do that if the MV is high (e.g., Archon of Cruelty). Is it Grixis just for Bolas flavor?

The draw three cards is the only part black can’t do. And no, spending more mana doesn’t get you around having to pay an additional cost.

RE: different Angel tokens- there's currently: 4/4 Angel Warrior, 4/4 Angel with Vigilance, 4/4 Angel, and 3/3 Angel. Apart from the 3/3 they all have minor differences that make it extremely difficult to keep track of what kind of Angel you have and from where. The plain 4/4 Angel tokens are also extremely common to come by, so if you're representing your 4/4 Angel Warrior with Vigilance with one of those, then you might not notice the tribal synergies or the additional keyword.

A number of people have complained about the Angel token issue. I will pass along the note to the set design teams to think about how many versions exist at one time, but it’s not as easy to solve as it might appear at first blush. Because sets rotate, the only simple way to keep one Angel creature token in Standard is to lock into one thing and only ever make the Angel creature token that thing (say 4/4 flying) in new sets.What that means though is sets can’t adjust the token for the needs of that set. The Angel couldn’t gain Warrior to work with party, for example. The other fix is to just make more different kinds of tokens, the 3/3 flyer is a Gargoyle, the 4/4 with flying and vigilance is an Archon, for example, but then we get the Angel fans sad that we’re just making a lot less Angels. For people that care about this, would you prefer different creatures types if the stats/abilities are different?

It feels over the past few days like one of the issues might be R&D is willing for some colors to print major bends (Kenrith's Transformation), push boundaries (ETB fights), and outright breaks (Nissa's land-based draws), but has historically not done so for White, which doesn't see its Eternal options grow the same way as a result. Many colors also see strange and weird one-off effects, but we don't see those in White (except I think the Archon in Eldraine).

There was a point in time where green was the color everyone complained about and said was the weakest. The game ebbs and flows. White will have its tine to shine. And yes, it’s something we’re working on.

I always thought white could destroy/exile any kind of permanent given enough mana, color symbols, or other costs/conditions. At the very least it has a lot of effects that are pretty close (Archon of Justice, Mangara of Corondor, Saltblast, Angelic Purge, Karmic Justice, etc.). The flavor's always made sense to me as a high-level judgment that something has gone beyond being safely/effectively imprisoned, particularly if taking care of it requires some self-sacrifice for the sake of society.

White can Oblivion Ring “target permanent” but monowhite isn’t supposed to get “destroy (or exile) target permanent”.

Maybe it's just me, but lately, I have the idea Archons are slowly replacing Angels as the White characteristic race. Am I imagining things?

Angels didn’t work for the workd of Theros. Angels at large are still white’s iconic. They’re not going anywhere.