So we all know the running joke of "Everything is kicker", but is there a mechanic you admit is indeed just kicker with a different name in retrospect? Personally I think Cleave is one of the ones that does feel like just a slightly more complicated Kicker.

Many mechanics could be done (a few with a little tweaking) with kicker.

What mechanic do you think has the most untapped design space? For me I think it's cleave.

I’ll say kicker. : )

Are there any mechanics that were not well recieved that may have only been that way due to not being pushed enough rather than a core issue with the mechanic itself? E.g. if the real problem with cleave is that cleaving costed too much or did not do enough? Is this usually taken into consideration when evaluating whether to bring it back?

The classic example is chroma. It was poorly received. We revamped it as devotion and it was a huge hit.

You mentioned earlier in a post that Cleave was designed originally for the Obscura Family, Are there any other mechanics that were designed for other sets but were swapped? And how far into the design process does that happen?

It happens somewhat frequently. Energy was designed for original Mirrodin, for example.

When creating a mechanic like Overload or Cleave that changes the card text, do you work with your localization team in advance to understand its impact on different languages? I did a little research and found that Overload cards in Japanese actually spell out the new effect in the reminder text, for example.

Of course.

For those asking about "draw = number of creatures", Winged Portent from Crimson Vow has draw for each flyer you control or if you cleave for 4GU, you draw instead for each creature you control. Does this not mean drawing for each creature you control is UG space?

I think green/blue is the second best combination to do it, so it might get it on occasion.

Conceivably, could we see cleave and overload on the same card?

Such a thing is possible. The trick is finding a good design.

"[Cleave] didn't fit nearly with any of the families." I could see it fitting the Brokers pretty well, since messing with the wording/rulings of cards seems pretty in-character for the lawyer-focused Family. Admittedly, though, that's mostly from a flavor perspective - it might not have been a good fit for the set mechanically.

It was not. Faction sets need the faction keywords to be mechanically synergize.

In your spoilers for the new Innistrad sets, you mentioned removal for something that hadn't been able to be removed before, a lot of players speculated this meant emblem removal, but now looking back at them there doesn't seem to be any unique removal. Did it get cut from final production? I'm very confused.

You removed rules text with the cleave mechanic.

Now that VOW has run it’s course, where is cleave on the storm scale? I personally wouldn’t mind if it was a one and done mechanic.

I think it could make sense thematically in the right set. It’s probably currently a 7.