Do you ever encounter issues where a mechanic that you want to be core to a set is too niche in its slice of the color pie? Like, food was a big theme in both Eldraine sets, but it is a mechanic that can only appear WGB, so you were limited somewhat in just how much you could use it compared to something disguise, which is a completely color-pie agnostic mechanic. When designing full custom sets I often have ideas for mechanics that seem to be total slam dunks, but are actually kind of limited in how much I can use them.

It happens from time to time. It’s why vision design checks in with the Council of Colors.

Is it ok for a mono blue card to make food? Blue's not supposed to be able to gain life, right?

That’s not something blue should regularly do.

"Is "Artifactfall" something realistic to expect considering how many Treasures, Clues and Food makers exist these days?" "It would have to take artifact token making into account." It seems to me that, regardless of how aggressively or unagressively you costed it, the "smart" way to play such an effect would be using tokens rather than actual artifact cards, since they're cheaper. Correct me if I'm wrong. Assuming I'm right, wouldn't it be better if the mechanic specified "non-token?"

We did Alliance and didn’t feel the need to say nontoken, and we make more creature tokens than artifact tokens.

From a pure flavor standpoint, "Other creatures are Food" from Ygra, Eater of All may just be my favorite four words in magic. Please give a high five to everyone involved with that card (and the set in general tbh) on my behalf!

Will do.

Hi Mark. I love Bloomburrow's design from veteran perspective! It's such a novel way to do a 10 color pair faction set. However, from a new player's perspective, I hope it won't be too overwhelming since the mechanics so far spoiled include Landfall, Storm, Flashback, Threshold, Gift, Offspring, Expend, Prowess, Forage, Food/Treasure, Valiant, 10 Typal themes, Pawprints, and Classes. Was there concern about complexity creep or do you think the 10 typal motif will facilitate learning the mechanics in the set (I'm not sure what you would call this phenomenon where, counterintuitively, adding more complexity simplifies cognitive processing, like adding hyphens to phone numbers)?

Most of the mechanics are put into a specific animal two-color pair, so you don’t end up playing the majority of these mechanics together. They are also on the simpler end of the spectrum.

I was checking out the previews for Bloomburrow and people were raising concerns about Ygra turning every creature into an artifact creature (since Foods are inherently artifacts). Someone raised the point that those tokens (Clues, Treasure, Food, Maps, Blood Junk, etc) could have been given a unique type to avoid unwanted artifact-related issues. Was that ever considered/discussed?(loving the cards so far and I already love "Hop/bounce" as a mechanic for frogs and foraging for squirrels! Also looking forward to the pay/gain life for bats since Orzhov is my favorite pair. My compliments to the chefs! Great cooking!)

We consider artifact synergy a feature, not a bug.

For Clue, Blood, and Food tokens, why have a mana cost in addition to sacrificing the token? I understand that the effects need to be balanced, but why balance them upon activation, rather than just having a higher cost to create them in the first place?

It’s just a lot easier to balance them when the tokens themselves come with a cost.

Hi, Mark!How was the reception to the food monsters in WOE? (e.g., Mintstrosity, Sugarmaw)Do you think we might see those types of designs again in a return to Eldraine, even if not as a draft archetype?

Reception was pretty good. There’s a good chance, there would be more in a return to Eldraine.

Hello, I have a party-planning question for you. How do you motivate people to engage with themes and activities?

Themes play out in three main ways at a party: decorations, food, and activities. Decorations are just there, so party goers interact with it passively. Generally, people will eat the food without much prompting. The activities need to either be something people do during the party (we often have paper games/puzzles for people to do) or they are something that happens at the party (such as the game show at our holiday cookie party).The former requires making people aware of the activity. Put it in a visible place and verbally remind each person it exists. Usually I greet people when they arrive and tell them. The latter is scheduled. Let people know when it’s going to happen. Give people a countdown, and then allow it to have a large focus. Usually people join in if they see others joining in.The key is communication and being proactive.

"Players mostly don’t want to purchase monocolored Commander decks." - Why is this? What existing monocolored precons are doing something unique vs 2+ colored precons? What are the incentives and exploits to build single color (outside Devotion), run as many basic lands as possible, etc? Players have proven willing and excited to build Rebecca Guay typal and coin flip precons. I am not convinced that this is a question that can be answered with market research alone. Food for thought.

This isn’t hypothetical. We’ve made monocolor Commander decks. There’s actual sales data.