Dear Mark, your said "Adventures - not remotely parasitic". Please. Inkeeper? Lucky Clover? And this could be applied to most of the supposedly "non-parasitic mechanics". Little matters if the mechanic is not parasitic per se, if later we need to play the usual "pre-conceived deck" to compete. This kind of design hampers creativity and freedom in deckbuilding. I don't like it.

You are confused about how parasitism works. Cycling is a very non-parasitic mechanic. You can easily throw a cycling card in any deck with full mechanical utility. But Astral Slide and Lightning Rift, as well as many other cards, exist. Those cards encourage you to play a lot of cycling cards in one deck, but it doesn’t make the mechanic parasitic. Yes, we’ll make cards that encourage you to play a lot of the same mechanic in a deck, and that might even be a tournament-viable strategy. None of that makes a mechanic parasitic though. You might be arguing that you don’t like cards that encourage a player to put a lot of the same mechanic in one deck, but those types of cards are, on average, very popular. So, I’m not sure what I can say to assuage you. You dislike something that a lot of players enjoy. Luckily, there are plenty of non-linear tournament-viable strategies available. I would try focusing on those.

Hey Mark, I'm a bit late as my birthday was Tuesday. But could I get some late Birthday trivia? How about something about my favorite card, Astral Slide? Or some relatively unknown trivia if you have nothing for Slide. Thanks.

Astral Slide came about because I was trying to make cycling matters cards and I love flickering. The fact that we made Lightning Rift have a cost but not Astral Slide shows we underestimated how powerful the effect was. Happy Belated Birthday!

Was there any consideration for a 'fixed' version of Astral Slide (meaning an enchantment that could only flicker your own creatures whenever you cycle)? Feels like a big miss when bringing back cycling to standard

Because what could go wrong with continually blinking your own stuff? : )

will we ever get to see cycling cards / cycling-matters (astral slide/lightning rift) again?

Cycling is too good a mechanic for us to never use again.

I'm losing hope we'll ever see Astral Slide or Lightning Rift again. What are the chances of a Blue, Black, or Green version sometime in the future?

Cycling has a good chance of returning so there’s hope. Well, Astral Slide has a low chance of returning.

So Maro... is Astral Slide still too powerful for standard or would it be acceptable in the new block paradigm? : )

Still too powerful. (Assuming there are cycling cards, but you wouldn’t print it in a set without them.)Oops, I mean, I’m not a developer. Still too powerful. (Assuming there are cycling cards, but you wouldn’t print it in a set without them.)

So you don't like cycling triggers, but what about cards that depend on other cards cycling, re: Astral Slide?

Those I do like.

Any chance there will be some future love for cycling? My astral slide deck is looking dusty.

Cycling is a 1 on the Storm Scale. It’s when is it coming back not if.