Why can’t we just have a whole taxonomy of creature types, so chicken, penguin, and hawk are all unique types included in the “Bird” batch, and then we have which is itself included in the “reptile” batch together with dinosaur, Chameleon, and snake.

I don’t think we want that much batching.

I'm always happy to see more Bird cards (Bloomburrow has me excited)Is there also a chance we will see more chickens without silver borders in the future?

It’s always a possibility. They would be creature type Bird.

Good evening, Mark. I would like to invoke the sacred rite of birthday trivia! I've heard of the pro-tour in which Unglued, the first un-set, was being played, and a player attacked with Hurloon Wrangler, which has denimwalk (This creature can’t be blocked as long as defending player is wearing denim.). In response, the opponent declared "I take off my pants." However, it's hard to find firsthand accounts of this. Can you tell us how it happened?

It wasn’t at a Pro Tour. It was at 1998’s GenCon. Unglued’s only prerelease events were held at GenCon. That was the event that I head judged dressed as a chicken. We had just started the first round of the first flight and I was walking through the playing area. I then hear the following exchange.“I attack with Hurloon Wrangler.” “In response to you choosing your attackers, I remove my pants.”I literally said, “What have I done?”Happy Birthday!

What was the tournament you judged in a banana suit?

There was no tournament I judged in a banana suit. I head judged the Unglued prerelease tournaments in a chicken suit, and the Unhinged prerelease tournaments in a donkey suit.

May I request an un-card representing a chicken suit (or maybe a game designer wearing a chicken suit) in an upcoming un-set?

: )

Hi Mark. I’m seeing a disconnect in some questions and answers. You’ve recently answered a few questions by saying that limited exists to make use of cards that have to exist anyway (and I do understand that those cards need to exist anyway). But you’ve also answered numerous times that thing X can’t be done (or is difficult to do) because it would impact limited. I think that’s where some people lose you - it would seem that if limited was ONLY a way to make use of cards that had to exist anyway, it shouldn’t create limitations on the designs for sets or cards. Could you perhaps expand on this to help people understand how the format can exist to make use of cards that have to be there anyway while simultaneously it impacts the design of said cards? Feels like a chicken/egg situation.

I think people are conflating two different things. Limited definitely impacts how a set is designed. We change how individual cards are designed, especially at lower rarities, to maximize their impact on limited formats (which also tends to adjust cards for super casual play - aka cards I own). What limited formats do not do is set the average power level of a set. Luckily, the cards that matter most for adjusting limited formats tend to not be the cards that are going to impact the constructed formats. Why a particular powerful reprint is not in the set is a result of power level concerns and not limited play.

Hi Mark, do you think a "farm-world" type plane is something that could happen? As in, everything is farm-themed somehow (cows, plows, chickens, crops, pitchforks etc)

Anything’s possible.

What's you favorite Weird Al song of the day?

“Chicken Pot Pie” (parody of “Live and Let Die”) which I heard him do live. He’s never recorded it because Paul McCartney didn’t okay it (because he’s a vegetarian).

Do you think Ustable could have used Cyborg support? Just like Chicken (now Bird) or Donkey before it, Squirrels, Brainiacs and Riggers got at least one tribal card. Or did the Watermark support for the Order of the Widget provide a tribal identity for this group anyway?

Yeah, we used watermark support for each of the five factions in Unstable.

Unglued had chickens. Unhinged had donkeys. Unstable had squirrels. Does Unfinity have an animal theme?

All I can say for now is the set has a fun tribal theme, but I can’t comment on whether or not it’s an animal yet.