Why do we see so few cards that reward playing specific basic land types in Standard, such as Blanchwood Armor, Armored Ascension or Flow of Ideas? These seem like a slam dunk for encouraging monocolored decks in Constructed, something that we see less and less of as dual lands are released. Take the Darksteel Affinity for Land Type golems for instance: they solve the high mana value playability issue very well while asking for a meaningful commitment.

Those effects work best in uncommon, especially if that’s all they’re focused on. At uncommon, those cards are draft traps though if the set doesn’t support monocolor play. So, they’re not something we can just drop in most sets.

I thought "Turn the Tables" from Darksteel would have been a fun and very thematic card for the Breaking News cards. What was the process behind picks breaking news cards?

There were many factors: did it fit the sheet criteria, do players want it reprinted, did it play well with the set, etc.

Hi Maro! I'm a big fan of Darksteel Garrison! Could I get an if/when on fortifications? As a big artifact player, I'd love to see this space explored more

Fortifications are an if. We just don’t do many enchant lands, let alone ones you would want to be able to move.

Hello Mark, I am a long time colorless player and my favorite set is Darksteel. With the recent "block" featuring a return to Mirrodin, I was wondering if colorless was considered to have a "color identity" as the past few sets had notably few relevant colorless cards in the eternal format context. I would love to get excited for new sets, but the lack of representation for my favorite "color" makes it challenging. Thanks!

Colorless doesn’t have a color identity. It’s more about rate as to not step on the toes on the weakest color at an ability.

Could I stack all my p/t stickers on a Darksteel Relic in order to keep them safe from removal in an Ambassador Blorpityblorpboop deck?

You could put one. The second one would replace the first.

Have you ever considered replacing stuff like "base power and toughness 2/4" with a mini version of the P/T graphic? EX: Darksteel Mutation would be "Enchanted creature is a (0/1) Insect artifact creature and has indestructible, and it loses blah blah."

It’s an interesting idea. I don’t know the issues of doing it from a technical standpoint. Mixing text and symbols can cause complications.

Upsss Maro, I confused the articles. ARCBOUND TO HAPPEN is were you talk about your Dervish deck, to introduce Arcbound Slith.

For those that haven’t read it:https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/arcbound-happen-2004-01-12

Arcbound To Happen

I think what the last question meant was a set without white at all, then a set without blue at all, etc for all the colors. So each set would be color balanced among the four present colors.

I understood what was being asked. Darksteel and Judgment were color balanced when put together. That didn’t prevent them individually causing problems.

Can you tell us what all artifacts are hidden in the picture of Ingenuity Engine? I found sensei's top, behemoth sledge, sword of light and shadow, sword of body and mind, commander's sphere, darksteel ingot, rings of brightheart, and the classic sol ring

I cannot. Any help?

Ah I forgot to ask for Birthday trivia yesterday! I would love to learn something new about Darksteel Garrison.

When making future-shifted cards for Future Sight, we tended to take existing mechanics and tweak them. Darksteel Garrison was us riffing off of equipment doing something similar that equipment couldn’t technically do. We’ve talked about putting fortifications in sets, but land aura effects are just so narrow, it’s hard to find enough designs to justify it.Happy Birthday!