Drowned

GRN Rares Cycle

Were the GRN rares that reference a single color an intentional cycle? (Light of the Legion, Drowned Secrets, Mausoleum Secrets, Runaway Steamkin, and Hatchery Spider)

If they’re all at one rarity and each color is referenced exactly once, odds are it was a planned cycle.

Colors Drowned Hatchery Spider Light of the Legion Mausoleum Secrets Rares Rarity Spider

Colorless Cards Philosophy

Hi Mark! Gonna re-try for my birthday ask because it probably drowned in the sea of asks. Can you tell me the philosophy behind making colorless cards like Deceiver of Form and Warping Wail?

We were trying to create the Eldrazi to be a force that mostly circumvents the color pie because they predate it. Happy Birthday!

Birthday Color Pie Colorless Colors Deceiver of Form Drowned Eldrazi Warping Wail

Transformative Card Possibility

My birthday was last week, but apparently my question drowned in your popularity. So... will we ever see another card in the spirit of Form of the Dragon or Form of the Squirrel, that allows a planeswalker to "transform" into some thematically appropriate creature?

Both were complex, but I could see us visiting it again some day.

Birthday Creatures Dragon Drowned Form of the Dragon Form of the Squirrel Planeswalkers Spirit Squirrel Transform

Community Feedback Variance

You often talk about not returning to Kamigawa and players disliking Lorwyn even though your poll when asking for a return plane reflected otherwise. With both being in the top 4. Why don’t they coincide? I am not a fan of the un-sets either but I don’t mention it because they cater to other players. Does this mean my voice gets drowned out if I don’t voice my dislike of something?

Blogatog is a super enfranchised audience. I love hearing all of your feedback, but I take into account it’s very skewed. I mix it with the many other sources of data we get to get a more rounded picture of things. Not voicing your opinion just means we don’t hear it at all.

Drowned Experienced / Enfranchised Players Kamigawa Lorwyn Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Wort Birthday Trivia

I think my birthday question got drowned. Do you have any trivia on Wort, the Raidmother, my favorite commander?

Wort’s design says to me we were running low on red/green overlap for hybrid. Red and green were the Goblin colors and then we overlapped with the new mechanic in the set.Happy Birthday!

Birthday Colors Commander Drowned Goblin Green Gruul (R/G) Hybrid Mechanics Red Wort, the Raidmother

Character Fatalities

Re "Don’t kill anyone off, but kill lots of people off. Got it. " I'm not necessarily saying kill anyone important, but kill enough unimportant characters that there's an actual sense of danger for the important ones. When Gideon was drowned in the mud puddle, my heart wrenched and I thought he died. But then the next story came and it was fine. Things like that make it seem like the writers are afraid of anything that might make us sad. Stories need emotion though, and one without grows dull.

At the same time, I’m getting angry letters because we’ve done bad things to characters on Innistrad they really liked.

Drowned Innistrad Story / Lore

Shift to Green Hydras

Hydras started out as part of the Red color pie (Hydra and Balduvian Hydra) and fitted it nicely because they had the whole Fireball on legs vibe to them. What has been the philosophy behind the shift to Green?

Green is the color of growth and ferocity. Also, hydras kind of got drowned out by dragons in red.

Balduvian Hydra Color Pie Colors Dragon Drowned Ferocity Green Hydra Red

Innistrad's Missed Opportunities

Hay Mark Rosewater, I just wanted to say, that even though I really REALLY liked Innestrad(first set I bought a box of), I was sorta let down by the unexplored territory. I wish there were more Spiders, Skeletons, Blue/Black zombies closer in flavor to the old card Drowned, and by the time it got around to Avacyn, the angel/demon/human creature bulk only left 2 actual Wolfir cards, and NO gryffs, just a single rider. Maybe I just like support for underused types, but I feel a missed opportunity.

There’s always something left unexplored. That’s the nature of the beast. The good thing is that Magic keeps making new cards and new sets so there’s always a chance to do it later.

Angel Beast Black Blue Creatures Demon Dimir (U/B) Drowned Flavor Human Keyword Actions Mark Rosewater Skeleton Spider Zombie

Reprint Considerations

Was Drowned ever an option for reprint? A blue zombie that died in the murky depths with a black regenerate cost seemed very appropriate for this block.

As we were doing blue zombies, we looked at The Drowned (the only previous blue zombie from The Dark) as a possible reprint. The thing that most kept us from doing it is that the set has very little off-color activation, none of which at common.

Black Blue Card Printing Colors Drowned Regenerate Reprints The Dark Zombie