Hi Mark! Unless there's more spoilers we're missing, what are the "two mechanics that came out in the same set return each part of a different two-color archetype" in the Bloomburrow teaser?

Flashback and threshold.

Hey mark, long time reader, also long time asker. I like a challenge when deckbuilding. When I first found out about your psychographics, I thought “woah! it even have the same name as me!” (John). Commander helps tickle that itch for me, because I can start off with a dumb premise and try to make that concept as best I can, and since it’s not a competitive format, I know that there will always be SOMEONE with a deck on a similar power level, however bad that terrible deck idea ends up being.This brings me to a qualm that I personally have, and have seen purely anecdotal evidence that other people have too.It feels kinda lame when you guys make a commander that’s just “this is the best commander for X”. More and more we’re getting legends where they’re just the *correct* choice. If I want to build a sultai graveyard deck, Muldrotha is the answer. Nothing tops it, and I doubt anything every will top it. And that’s just one archetype. 5 color sagas? Bombadil. Snow? Jorn and Isu. Flash tribal? Nymris. Sure there are other cards that can be the commander, but you can say that about anything. Sure, I COULD make a Rakdos exile deck with Pavel Maliki in the command zone, but that’s just objectively wrong. The commander is always gonna be prosper. My point is that it’s getting harder and harder to say “how do I make this work” when you’re just handing us the blueprints and all the parts with a step by step instruction booklet on what to do.To be fair, many archetypes have so much innate complexity to them and have reached a critical mass of options where it’s impossible to tell what the “best” option is, as there are so many different facets and roads to go down. Orzhov aristocrats and mono-green stompy are easy examples.But the fact that it isn’t always the case doesn’t change the fact that happens a lot. I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels this way, but I’m also sure that if it was a majority opinion in the community y’all wouldn’t be doing it this much. I just want to know if you have anything to say about this perception that I and many others hold. Thank you for all you do in magic, I hope you respond.

One of the most common requests I get here on the blog is “make this color combination Commander for this particular theme”. Eventually, for some of them, we find an opportunity to make it. We don’t know when that opportunity will arise again. We shouldn’t try to make the best Commander we can for that slot? If it’s too weak, players will just complain and ask we make another one. The reality is a lot of players want prescriptive answers, and there’s no way to make them for the players that want them and not for the players that don’t. The idea is that players who want to do something different have access to the history of Magic to find less obvious answers.

Other than flying and Island walk what would you identify as being the primary difference between faeries and merfolk? I often see designs for one of the creature types that would be easily justified as the other. Two big examples that come to mind are Vodalian Hexcatchet and Tishana's Tidebinder which to me almost feel more like faerie cards than merfolk, particularly because I felt faeries were "the flash typal archetype" that got more control and tempo elements

Faeries tend to be sneakier and more controlling.

Hi Mark, At first I thought there was a mistake in Matt Tabak’s MH3 keywords article but then I saw it was duplicated text for Flashback and I got a good laugh.
If it was a mistake, it’s perfect. If it was intentional, it’s still hilarious. Please give Matt a high five for making a rules article fun.

I’ll give Matt a high five for you.

Given the recent banning of stickers, I've just put a bunch in my cube to power up some cards, kinda ignoring their original intended purpose. What are the chances of getting new stickers in a Secret Lair? Perhaps with effects that work on instants or sorceries, for example an "Arcane" or "Flash" sticker?

New stickers seem a longshot.

To me, faithless looting never felt wrong in red. It is looting, but unlike a lot of blue looting on creatures, it is net card disadvantage when not flashbacked. I think with a blue flashback cost, it would be perfect.

We decided that we prefer red not have the foresight of knowledge on making the decision of what to discard. It helps give red a more short-sighted feel.

Hey Mark! Spree is probably one of my favorite mechanics ever, but I feel it was a bit unexploited.Can we expect to see variations on spree, such as a permanent with spree, a spree cost of a different color than the original spell, a spree cost that's not mana at all, or a spree spell with flashback or kicker?

I am optimistic we will make more spree cards.

Hello Mark. You said (I believe on a podcast) that you decided to not use flashback on stryxhaven because it was going to be used on Midnight Hunt. With the current philosophy, would you be seeing this as an opportunity to repeat a mechanic in 2 close by sets?

I wanted it in both sets (Strixhaven was handed from vision design with flashback in it), but was in the minority and it got changed.

Some people I've been talking to are confused by the reminder text for Plot. They believe that, since it says to "play only as a sorcery", that the spell in question actually becomes a sorcery and e.g. would trigger Prowess. I know that can't be how it works, both because reminder text isn't rules text and because it working like that would require massive rewrites to spell resolution, but they continue insisting that if it didn't work like that the card wouldn't say it.
Can you please clarify this?

The spell does not become a sorcery, if it isn’t one already. You can only play it at the times you can play a sorcery. The card stays the card type it is. Note, none of the card with plot are instants or permanents with flash, but there are cards that let you plot other cards.

Can red get flash/fight creatures?

Red is secondary in fight, and tertiary in flash, so the combination is unlikely, but not impossible.