Hi Mark! This is my birthday today. Land is my favourite card type, and instead of trivia, I would like to ask you: what are your favourite Lands both that you did and didn't design? Thank you!

As always my choices change daily. Today, my favorite land I designed were the Shock lands from Ravnica. My favorite land I didn’t design is Diamond Valley from Arabian Nights.

I believe I've read that y'all feel all lands should be able to produce mana. Presumably that means y'all are moving away fetch lands (like Evolving Wilds). If I'm mistaken, my apologies. But if not, would you please explain the reasoning behind this? On a separate note, I really enjoy your articles, blog, and podcasts. Thanks!

Fetch lands are fine because they fetch you mana. What we are moving away from, or more accurately moved away from over fifteen years ago, are making lands that have absolutely nothing to do with mana (see early Magic with lands such as Bazaar of Baghdad, Diamond Valley or Maze of Ith.)

What is your favorite land of all the time?

I’m not sure. My first favorite land was Diamond Valley in Arabian Nights. Then I was a giant fan of the Urzatron (Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Power Plant and Urza’s Tower) and Mishra’s Factory in Antiquities. I really don’t know what my current favorite land is.

It's been said that only rare cards are on the reserved list. Then why are there uncommon cards on the list like Library of Alexandria and Diamond Valley?

Those cards are, in fact, rare. The confusion has to do with how they are labeled. Back then there were only two sheets of cards (unlike the three today - not counting land). Those two sheets were called the “common” and “uncommon” sheet. The way rares worked was that they only showed up once or twice on the uncommon sheet whereas the uncommons would show up three to six times. Thus, a U1 (a card appearing once on the uncommon sheet) is actually a rare card.