Hi Mark! I've noticed a rise in named mechanics over the past couple years where there are specific keyword actions that, while very flavorful for the set they're in, are adding a lot of mental load to the game. I'm meaning the rise of things like Connive, Venture Into The Dungeon, Suspect, and now Plot and Commit a Crime coming out in Thunder Junction. I'd like to express my distaste for these types of mechanics as an enfranchised player that mostly plays eternal legal formats. Often there are only a handful of cards in each set that I'm interested in, and those cards feel a out of place in my decks. I understand that you make cards for the entirety of the magic audience, so I don't expect a single voice to make you change how you design magic, but I wanted to express my opinion on the matter.
I hope you have a great day!

I’m having trouble seeing the throughline of your examples. Can you give me a more concrete description of what you don’t like?

For your top 20 (non-evergreen) mechanics I noticed none were from this decade. What would you say is the best new mechanic from this decade so far?

Note that I would pick the mechanic that started a trend. Foretell is an awesome more recent mechanic, but Morph is the first to use face down as a resource, so I chose that for the talk.Amass, while not technically from this decade, is only five years old. Mechanics I really like from this decade include: alliance, backup, collect evidence, connive, corrupted, decayed, enlist, escape, foretell, incubate, learn/lesson, magecraft, mutate (although it has its complexity issues), party, prototype, reconfigure, role tokens, and shield counters.

Is there any concern about the current complexity of Commander games?Cards like Crystalline Giant, Wheel of Misfortune, and dozens of recent legendary creatures with 2 paragraphs of text, as well as relatively complex mechanics used only in a single set (connive, enlist, casualty, training) have lead to some games in which I've spent more time reading than playing. It comes up most often when I play with strangers and against unfamiliar decks. Thanks in advance, and I really admire your dedication to and involvement with the community :)

Formats that use cards from all the sets are inherently complex.

Dunno if this has been asked or not but how well was connive received? Will we see it return?

It was received and plays well, so I think there’s a decent chance of its return. I’ll call it a 5 on the Storm Scale.

Is it getting harder to be able to design new abilities? Because something like connive which is just like two different abilities seems kind of I don't know

What’s wrong with connive? It plays great.

Does a connive like mechanic have any potential as a blue red combat mechanic ? Maybe as an attack trigger?

I doubt we’d want to have connive (or a connive-like mechanic) happen every attack on low rarity cards.

it was my birthday a few weeks ago but i forgot to ask so i hope you don't mind me asking for a late birthday present, but could i ask for trivia on my favourite card, Approach of the Second Sun, or on one of my new favourite mechanics, Connive?

Connive was designed as a variant on explore. We liked it thematically as the Obscura mechanic, but struggled a bit as white is fifth in draw and discard. We decided to allow the bend. Happy Belated Birthday!

First and foremost, I love the idea behind the Shield Counters. I have to ask: Why are they counters, rather than token auras akin to Masks?

The white/blue draft archetype is “counters matters” as it interacts with the connive +1/+1 counters.

In your Streets of New Capenna teaser, you mentioned "multiple white cards capable of drawing a card each turn". Is this Connive or something else?

I wasn’t referring to connive.

So with connive being in the Esper faction, does that mean White can now loot? Since I assume there will be some mono-white cards with it.

We allowed it for this set as a bend because of the faction. It’s not something white will be able to do normally.