Hey Mark,Forgive me if this is not a you relevant question - what's the logic with having infinite cycles leading to pretty much instant death? The main one I can think of is Exquisite Blood and something like Marauding Blight Priest. Is this not considered to break the game overly?(also I'd like to say thank you for this blog - I have just discovered it and spent a particularly enjoyable day reading about 50 pages of it.)

I’m not sure you can make a game with 25,000 pieces and not have interactions that win the game. We have to be careful how easy two win combinations are, but them existing if they’re hard enough to do is okay.Glad you’re enjoying the blog. I’ve answered over 35,000 questions, so there’s plenty to read. : )

As the Un-rules judge, does casting a Bile Blight on a Morph also kill a _______ (The 1U 1/1 from unhinged)? Thanks!

No, to have the same name, you have to have a name. Two barefoot people do not share a type of shoe.

People have been talking about mechanical errata recently in regards to potentially changing rampage, and have been talking about the mass Errata that phyrexians got in regards to legends with that errata, so now seems like the perfect time to ask my question:You’ve said in the past that things like the mass errata to make things phyrexian is ok as functional errata because they were always phyrexian in flavor. That being the case, would legendary errata be acceptable for proper nouns from ABUR, Arabian Nights, and Antiquities, since they are from before “legendary” was even a thing? Aladdin, Ali from Cairo, King Suleiman, Bazaar of Baghdad, and Library of Alexandria are all proper nouns. 4 of those 5 reference people/places from the real world, which we know from the portal sets do constitute the “legendary” super type. You could argue that Bazaar and Library see to much play in extended formats to get such major functional errata, but the “phyrexian” errata to glistener elf and blighted agent turned infect from a fringe deck to basically unplayable in modern. I know you guys avoid mechanical errata if ever possible because it confuses new players, but I’d be willing to bet new players would be more confused hearing “Aladdin is not considered a proper noun. Nor is Baghdad” than they would be hearing “that card from 25+ years ago has been changed” especially considering many other old cards from around that time have had serious errata to their printed text that changes some of them SEVERELY. I guess my question is just: why is the mass errata of phyrexian acceptable, when it is changing things that were always phyrexians in flavor to be so mechanically, but an errata of proper nouns to be legendary from ABUR, Arabian nights, and antiquities not acceptable, when it would be changing things that were always proper nouns in flavor to be so mechanically?

Making a creature Phyrexian does impact how other cards interact with it, but it doesn’t change how the card functions in a vacuum. Adding legendary to a card does, and pretty severely in any 4-of format.

RE: Warp World. 10 people are in favor of a warp world commander, 7 are not in favor, and another 10 say that they're ok with the effect as a one-of but wouldn't want a repeatable commander. As far as salt, I will note its #26, sitting between Teferi, Time Raveler and Blightsteel Colossus on the salt list, if that means anything.

FYI

Hello Mark. I'd like to ask about Fynn, the Fangbearer from Kaldheim. Deathtouch tribal hadn't had a lot of support in the past, but the two previous deathtouch tribal cards (Hooded Blightfang and Vraska, Swarm's Eminence) both included black in their identity. I was curious, what made him mono-green instead of green/black?

Cards aren’t often made in a vacuum, but made for a purpose. For example, Finn wasn’t designed as an open-ended design and then placed in the appropriate colors. It was designed to fill a monogreen slot. The designer of the card didn’t ask “what colors could this be?” They asked, “is this monogreen?”

Happy birthday, Mark! I started playing Magic around the time of Tempest and stopped at around Invasion (I was one of the casualties of Mercadian Masques). Many years later, my friends and I went on vacation and found out about a pre release happening nearby. We had never gone to one before, but decided we'd give it a try. It was Mirrodin Besieged and I was immediately hooked by seeing the phyrexians and Karn back. I opened a Blightsteel Colossus and actually put it in my deck. We still play. :)

: )

Your article on Core 2020 specifies that there are no non-evergreen keywords.Blightbeetle has Protection from green. Did R&D change their mind on protection being removed from evergreen? Or am I misremembering and you were just using it way less?

Protection is back to evergreen on a probationary status.

Was Lightning Skelemental called Ball Blightning at the beginning?

Yes, that was the design name. : )

In your article today, when you're talking about Gruesome Menagerie, you forgot two cards in the Cone of Flame cycle, Incremental Growth (from Lorwyn) and Incremental Blight (from Shadowmoor), so Gruesome Menagerie is actually the second black card in the cycle.

That’s correct. I forgot those two from the “Cone Club”.

'GOYF?!? i refuse to believe that the mad, mad mind behind combo winter never designed an instant win creature. did you have nothing to do with crater hoof behemoth? Blightsteel collossus? Griselbrand? bubble hulk? i could continue but i'm sure you understand where i- not rven labarotory maniac?!

I designed Blightsteel Colossus and Griselbrand.