Hey MaRo! I recently watched a really interesting video about Innistrad recently. The thesis is that there is a subtle “missing” creature type of UG wizards that were cut for some reason, probably for thematic reasons within Innistrad.I was wondering if you could give any insight if that was the case? Here’s the video, it’s 13 minutes long but it’s very solid and it convinced me soundly as a viewer.https://youtu.be/12X5wgYikqk?si=WW2i_Hr4cZrDHZ_SI also love the idea that the wizards were explorer/pirate wizards in the Hinterland harbor a lot

I haven’t watched the video, but as the guy who led the design, I know that the only five creature types we cared about were the four monster creature types (Spirits, Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies) and Humans. No other typal themes were ever part of the design.

Just starting off, I love the buffet metaphor and what it stands for. But in real life we can't always go to another table if we need to get away from seafood. The people at my table stopped coming to the buffet. I now eat at a small niche buffet online that doesn't always fill me up and is missing my favorite dishes. (Explorer) We're wondering if you have to make seafood, could it not smell so fishy? We're here to.

When we design a subset of cards we prioritize making it for the people who love it, not the people who hate it.

I assume it’s been considered, but why are there no restricted cards in formats like Standard/Pioneer/Modern, or even in digital-only formats like Explorer/Alchemy? It seems like there’s a lot of room between cards that need to be banned entirely and cards that it’s fine to allow four copies of.

Restricted cards greatly up the variance in formats, and we try to lessen variance in tournament viable formats (at least on tournament mattering cards) to allow skill to maximally matter.

Today, 3/3, is my birthday! In honor of it. I wanted to share that my favorite 3/3 is Homarid Explorer, and thus, I request trivia about the tribe which look like crab and tap like creatures.

We have a Homarid fan that sends things to R&D requesting their return. Happy Birthday!

I'd didn't get to play in the pre-release, but I did play Explorers of Ixalan with a couple of friends last weekend. The tiles add an additional level of fun to the games. I played once as the vampires and once as pirates. This weekend I will pick up the Rivals of Ixalan Planeswalker decks and add them to the box as alternative decks to play with. As a lapsed player I'm definitely one of the targets with these products and this one is a win for me. High fives to all involved.

High fives to be applied.

When will hear more about the 4 new products that come out next month?

There was an article about Explorers of Ixalan today. Info on other things coming soon.

I'm not sure if you've answered yet, but is ixalan bottom up? I feel like since kaladesh the line has blurred as the mechanics and flavor work together to create a cohesive feel better than ever (inventor, dissonance and now explorer)

Ixalan was built bottom up. It does have some top-down pieces though.

I just finished "A Kick in the Seat of the Pants" and I was wondering which of Explorer/Artist/Judge/Warrior you consider yourself best at in magic design.

Part of being Head Designers is taking on all four roles. Probably I’m best at being the Artist but I’ve discovered that I have to spend a lot of time being the Warrior.