What would be the pros and cons of changing the back of magic cards?

Pros - there are outdated elements we could fix, we could make it look nicerCons - the cards don’t all match, we lose some history

Hi, Mark! I know you don't play a lot of Commander, but (I do and) you've said you design with it in mind. I have a weird request: At least in terms of Commander-design, can we see less "legendary matters," please? In 60c, it's neat to see how designs work when you only get the one, but in singleton format, it just means you're playing with above-rate cards, a "restriction" that isn't fun once players get a game out or at all for their opponents.Strangely, it's also one of the weaknesses I feel UB has. Because you all are trying to cram entire franchises into single products, there are an overabundance of named, legendary cards. As such, we see a lot of "legendary matters" themes (WHO and ACR quickly come to mind). I really do think that UB products would benefit by being "deckmaster" products with multiple sets to allow full exploration of the IP and give them more time to breathe (though I'm sure there are issues with that proposal I haven't yet considered).Thank you for answering our questions honestly, informatively, and kindly!

We are trying to be more carful how often we go to the “legendary matters” well.

Bit of an odd question. Do you know if the Magic card back in the running for the most printed image in human history?

My gut it’s far from the most printed image, but I do think it’s in the running for top 100. Maybe.

Why would a silver bordered card need a new name to be reprinted into black border formats? Couldn’t you just say the silver bordered printings aren’t tournament legal, like gold bordered cards?

All cards with the same English name are treated the same mechanically.EDIT: As noted in the comments, gold-bordered cards have a different card back.

I love that y'all have kept up the tradition of every set having a different color for the card back.
My question is, do you think you'll ever run out of new colors and have to settle on a default? I'm partial to Arabian Nights purple myself.

It’s getting tougher. We’re starting to look at ombres.

Another unrules question:
Can I use Mastermind's Acquisition to get a card in the absolutely-removed-from-the-freaking-game-forever zone of the main game into the subgame? At the end of the subgame would I still put that card back in the library of the main game as usual?

No card can get a card back from the absolutely-removed-from-the-freaking-game-forever zone. It only comes back when the game ends.

Is it possible for old Heroes of the Realm cards to get into a bonus sheet for Secret Lairs? Like they would still have the Heroes card back. I understand that Heroes of the Realm is for WoTC employees, but I feel as if there is a call for some prints available to the public at this point.

I never say never, but I’ll call it highly, highly unlikely.

"Printing process shenanigans"I know anything extra you ask a printer to do costs more money to design/contract/test -- and efforts to optimize printer technology aren't always worth it.The discussion on mixing black/silver border cards has my mind down a rabbit hole. If you were able to include a row of cards rotated 180 degrees, you would have cards with silver 'bottoms' and black 'tops.' Theoretically, this could allow different 'splits'. Which obstacle would be more challenging to overcome:

• Printing blanks with rows rows of 'upside down' card backs. (And then ensuring those were kept separate from regular blanks.)
• Righting any inverted rows prior to placement in boosters.
• Something else entirely.

Unless we were okay with cards being upside down in booster packs, we couldn’t do this. There’s no way to rotate cards from the printing sheet (that I’m aware of).

How did double-faced cards come into existence if the cardback had to be locked, even down to the long-forgotten "Deckmaster" concept? I'm sure you've answered before, but I can't find the info.

We were trying to make the most evocative design possible for werewolves. (And we borrowed the idea from Duel Masters.)

Hello Mark,I liked the theme of planeswalkers losing their sparks in Aftermath.Was there ever any thought about making “reverse” magic origins-style planeswalkers? (A planeswalker on the card front transforming into a creature on the card back)As far as we know, other planeswalkers are bound to lose their spark in the future, so Is that concept something Set Design might be interested to do?Thanks for reading!

We wanted to be consistent with how we did the desparked planeswalkers between sets, and not all sets have DFCs.