I order some scrambled eggs knowing that the eggs came from a chicken. Sometimes a quail or a duck, but at least its a bird. I get concerned when the menu tells me they will be serving iguana eggs. I know it's an egg. I know how they'll cook it. I'm gonna be sitting nervously at my table regardless. When it gets served to me and it turns out to be nothing like what I know scrambled eggs to be like, I'm not going to be thrilled to see the seasonal menu next week list shark eggs.

There is a lot of consistency in Magic: the rules, the color pie, templating, etc. Creative is the place where we take, and have taken, the most liberty in pushing new boundaries.

“Lands produce colorless mana at a rate over three times higher than artifacts”But lands also often produce colored mana whereas when an artifact produces mana it is almost invariably colorless.

Banners, cameos, cluestones, crystals, diamonds, eggs, keyrunes, lockets, monuments, moxes, Myr, obelisks, signets, and talismans beg to differ. And those are just the cycles. : )

How does wizards design for audiences that have desires that disrupt balance or have "bad play patterns"? Think fans of affinity, storm, "eggs" decks, taking turns decks, or the new Geological Appraiser combo deck. Most of the time these strategies get a card banned so its tough to enjoy these for a satisfying length of time.

We design cards for that group. We just keep the overall power level capped in competitive play. You can play with friends and ignore bans if you want a higher power level.

Why is the line "if you control one or more eggs" necessary in Palani's Hatcher? If you didn't control any, you wouldn't be able to sacrifice an egg, right?

But it will still create the 3/3 green Dinosaur creature token, which wasn’t the intent.

I think food doesn't feel like it meshes with artifacts because artifacts have been supported in the direction of metal, robots, etc. for so long. This will hopefully even out over time as more cards similar to food are made. Because I agree that card types should be a high barrier, and artifact is for physical things. But this raises the issue: does "artifact" capture the broadness of "physical thing"? I think its a legit wrinkle that food doesn't >feel< like an "artifact" by most definitions.

Here are objects that were artifacts in Alpha: an egg, a prism, a flower, multiple glasses, a mask, a cup, a book, a bell, and many precious gems. Yes, there were also objects that were more metal-y and robot-y, but the idea that Artifacts is only tied to those things has never been true in the history of the game. Artifacts were various objects from day one.

The other day I realized that Spirited Companion and Virus Beetle (from neo) were foils of each other. Are there any other eastereggs like that that you haven't seen many people notice or talk about?

We do reflections in a lot of sets.

If/When: An un-set modal card with flavor words of "If" or "When"? A little easter eggs for the question marks.

A Blogatog Un-set would be fun (but far too small an audience to make it financially feasible).Suggest some card titles for the Blogatog Un-set.

Mark, as a vegan and someone who’s always loved dinosaurs since I was young, it is so cool to see Resolute Veggiesaur. Always wanted a veg creature in magic so I’m happy this was made and is even eternal legal. Shout out to whoever designs and did the creative/flavor text on it

Glad you like it.

Hi Mark. I’m seeing a disconnect in some questions and answers. You’ve recently answered a few questions by saying that limited exists to make use of cards that have to exist anyway (and I do understand that those cards need to exist anyway). But you’ve also answered numerous times that thing X can’t be done (or is difficult to do) because it would impact limited. I think that’s where some people lose you - it would seem that if limited was ONLY a way to make use of cards that had to exist anyway, it shouldn’t create limitations on the designs for sets or cards. Could you perhaps expand on this to help people understand how the format can exist to make use of cards that have to be there anyway while simultaneously it impacts the design of said cards? Feels like a chicken/egg situation.

I think people are conflating two different things. Limited definitely impacts how a set is designed. We change how individual cards are designed, especially at lower rarities, to maximize their impact on limited formats (which also tends to adjust cards for super casual play - aka cards I own). What limited formats do not do is set the average power level of a set. Luckily, the cards that matter most for adjusting limited formats tend to not be the cards that are going to impact the constructed formats. Why a particular powerful reprint is not in the set is a result of power level concerns and not limited play.

so when exactly are we getting the enemy coloured eggs, a la odyssey?

My guess is there are no current plans to make them.