Wait there was a set that wasn't greenlit that was designed around making cards as strong as ancestral recall? Or was that a joke?

It was an idea pitched by Bill Rose that never got made. I don’t think Bill was super serious about it.

Hi Mark, thanks for answering my last ask, now I get the vantage point from which you answered the original ask.But that got me thinking...In his article, Paul mentions that there were 2 mechanics that were created for Purple: [new mechanic A] and [new mechanic B]. For instance in the file there were:CP3 - 2P - 2/2 [new mechanic B]UP 3- 3PP - 3/3 Flying, [new mechanic A]RP1 - 1PP - 3/2 First Strike, [new mechanic A]He mentions that they playtested these mechanics and that they were quite powerful.As was the policy at the time, R&D didn't disclose information about unused mechanics, so they were edited out of the document. Now that the policy of sharing such information has changed, would it be possible for you to ask around or look into your email archives to let us know what they were?His last email where these were discussed (at least from those he shared with us) is dated July 18th 2005 at 1:34 PM and was sent to Bill Rose, Matt Place and yourself if that helps unearth this mystery.

I won’t have access to my work computer until the office opens back up which won’t be for a few months. I won’t have old emails, but I could have old card files. Remind me when I start having “Drive to Work” podcasts that are actual drives to work.

I would have figured landfall was the mechanic you "had to fight tooth and nail to get in." Was historic that much harder to convince the rest of Wizards about than landfall?

I barely got historic in Dominaria. I had to do extensive work to prove to Bill Rose, the VP of R&D, that it deserved to be there:

A Historic Story | MAGIC: THE GATHERING

if I may request a piece of birthday trivia, do you perhaps have any interesting facts about Kamigawa you'd like to share?

It came about because Bill Rose, then the Head Designer, wanted to do a set where we designed the world before making the mechanics. The runner-up to a Japanese inspired set, was an Egyptian one.Happy Birthday!

Just started listening to your awesome Drive to work podcast. Which members of the early early Magic testers have you had the opportunity to have on the show? From an oral history perspective it'd be awesome to have more of them on for a Magic anniversary event.

I’ve had Richard Garfield, Bill Rose, Charlie Catino, Skaff Elias, and Jim Lin on.

Who actively works on magic that’s been around the longest, other than you?

Bill Rose has continually worked on Magic for three weeks longer than me, although as VP, he’s less hands on.

Hey Mark! My birthday was yesterday, and I was wondering if you had any trivia about one mana value cards over the years?? (I have a One Drop Cube!)

Phyrexian Dreadnought (Mirage)This card came about because I wanted to add a 12/12 to Magic. You see, Alpha had an 8/8 in Force of Nature. Antiquities had a 9/9 in Colossus of Sardia. The Dark then got a 10/10 in Leviathan. Followed up by the 11/11 Polar Kraken in Ice Age. This seemed like a fun game that I wanted to continue playing. Bill Rose, now Vice President of R&D, was the lead designer of Mirage. He said he would add it if I could design a cool enough card. The next day I returned and said, “Is a 12/12 trampler for 1 cool enough?”Happy Birthday!

Today is my birthday! I'd love to know if you have any trivia about my favorite forgotten creature, ovinomancer. I loved ovinize and makes me think there might be some more to know!!!

Back in the day, a lot of Magic R&D played Warcraft. We had a LAN at work, and it was a popular late night activity. One of the spells in Warcraft let you turn creatures into sheep, and Bill Rose loved using the spell. So much so, that he made a Magic card that turned creatures into sheep. I was not interested in playing Warcraft, so instead, I used my time talking to the receptionist who sat by the LAN. (We were testing the waters of opening game stores and we had one at work to test it and that’s where the LAN was.) Her name was Lora. This year we celebrate our 23rd anniversary. : )

Just for fun, could you roll a d20 and give us trivia based on the resulting number?

Okay, I rolled a 12.The first 12/12 was Phyrexian Dreadnaught. Alpha had Force of Nature which was an 8/8. Antiquities had Colossus of Sardia which was a 9/9. The Dark had Leviathan which was a 10/10. Ice Age had Polar Kraken which was an 11/11. In Mirage development, I wanted to make a 12/12, but Bill Rose, the lead developer of the set, said he would only add one if it was a cool design. I created Phyrexian Dreadnaught and showed it to him. He put it right in the set.

Mark! I wanted to say I loved your podcast with Bill Rose! It was really nice hearing about both of your experiences in the super old days of Magic... That said, I was a bit sad that he ended up saying nothing about the modern days of Magic in it, like... I was really curious, what does he even do nowadays at WotC? Like, I know he is the VP of Magic, but what does that mean? Like, what does the job of a VP entail? I was really curious about that, would be nice if you could tell us a bit! >.

I’ll probably have Bill on again. He and I have worked together on Magic for 25 years. We have a lot to talk about.