I feel the art of the game is getting worse as time goes on. Compare original art maelstrom wanderer to eternal masters reprint. Beautiful hand drawn piece compared to what looks like a video game screenshot. I realize you have no control over this, but what are your thoughts on the matter?

I couldn’t disagree with you more. I believe the art is the best it’s ever been. As far as I’m concerned, our art directors and artists are hitting it out of the park set after set.

So you said before that creative couldn't make stories during the time between Aether Revolt and Amonkhet because they were too busy with two blocks per year, but we got stories for Commander 2016 and Eternal Masters which was still during the two blocks per year system. So what changed? Why were they able to do stories every week before, but not anymore?

They can do so much a year. Choosing to bunch a lot of them together doesn’t change that fact.

Why do supplemental sets have less planeswalkers than standard sets of the same size? Standard large sets have 3 or 4 planeswalkers each, while Conspiracy, Modern Masters, and Eternal Masters sets only have 1 or 2. Why not include more? (It's not like there's a popularity issue.)

Because we restrict how many planeswalkers we make so that we can make them all playable.

Shame on you guys for not streaming the stand alone Legacy event. It's a format that gets little appreciation from WOTC and you deprived yourselves of immense marketing value. It shows the depth, diversity and history of the game. It also shows that your cards can retain their collect-ability over the years. Outside of these points, there are a ot of cards being played from Conspiracy 2 and Eternal Masters- heck, Eldrazi is basically a standard deck. Many Pros in the top8. Shame on WOTC.

Oftentimes we have to make the tough choice between two different audiences. When that happens we tend to choose the larger group to maximizing making the most players happy. While Legacy is a much beloved format, it has a relatively small audience compared to formats like Standard, Modern and Booster Draft. The Super Sunday Series was hosting a pre-Prerelease for Aether Revolt and there was a lot of excitement to see that format played for the first time.

What's the difference between reprinting color-pie breaks in Eternal Masters, which is ok, and reprinting Chaos Warp in Commander sets, which you said was contentious and slipped through? Chaos Warp already exists... is reprinting it in a supplemental set really that bad?

Eternal Masters is nothing but old repeated cards with a theme that clearly communicates it’s from the past.Commander has new cards and feels contemporary.Having a color break in Eternal Masters says “oh yeah, they used to do that” while in Commander it says “we do this now”.

But isn't wizards still doing stories that don't involve the gatewatch? I don't remember them showing up in the Eternal Masters stories, or the conspiracy story.

Yes, we do tell stories without any member of the Gatewatch.

Re: damnation. Are you able to expound on to *why* eternal masters, modern masters I & II, conspiracy I&I, commander, and other supplemental sets were *not* perfect fits? It totally makes sense that it's difficult to include it in most blocks due to story/flavor/power levels, but it feels like supplemental sets are the perfect homes for cards like damnition and others that are hard to place

I think people are thinking as if “Could Damnation fit?” is one of the first questions asked. Yes, there are many sets where if we prioritized its inclusion, we could put it in.The issue is we usually don’t start designs asking if card X fits. We make fifty others decisions first to maximize making it a fun set to play. And then, we start asking about what specific card reprints we could include.All cards come with issues. Previous decisions in the design can raise one or more of the issues making the card not fit.Here’s a metaphor. You’re building a house. There’s a neat feature that you would include if you could, say a distinctive type of fireplace. If your goal is to build around it, sure you can include it, but if you prioritize other features, there’s just a lot of architecture plans it doesn’t fit in.That’s what’s going on with Damnation. It requires some parameters that often make it unworkable when other choices are made first.Yes, there will be a day where it fits in the structure of the set and we’ll reprint it. Just because it hasn’t happen yet doesn’t mean it never will. There’s just a bunch of priorities in front of “Can we include Damnation?”.

I'm sorry if you are getting too many complaints about the SOI story resolution.I think this spring block story got hit twice, both with breaks for Eternal Masters and Conspiracy 2, that truncated the amount of story as opposed to BFZ (which had to handle Commander, I know). BFZ also benefitted from being able to use the Origins chunk of storytime to ramp up to it. Has this been recognized as an issue to be worked on as you continue with the 2 Block structure?

I know the story team is collecting all the feedback and is working to continually improve both the story and how we tell it. As criticisms go, “We loved it and want even more of it” is pretty good. : )

Hey Mark! I got to draft Eternal Masters Friday night for the first time, and I brought a newbie friend with me expecting it to be a SOI draft. It was his first ever draft, and he opened a foil Force of Will. I just brought him back into the game a few months ago after a hiatus, and it was one of the most exciting things I've been a part of in magic after 20+ years of playing. Thanks for sticking that in there for him (especially since he traded it to me)!

: )

With the popularity of the Commander 2015 stories and the recent Eternal Masters stories, is fiction based on supplemental expansions something fans can expect going forward?

I believe so, but I’m not sure it’s going to be done for every supplemental set.