Additional pieces and complexity have always been part of the game, in Alpha ,The Hive made tokens; Clockwork Beast, Cyclopean Tomb, Fungusaur, Gaea's Liege, Living Artifact, Rock Hydra and Scavaging Ghoul used counters of some kind. In the same set Aspect of Wolf, Fireball, Gaea's Liege and Personal Incarnation involve fractions with rounding up and down(many players still have some difficulty using these cards) and then just out right comp lexity, Camouflage, Illusionary Mask, Lich,Raging River and Word of Command. Not to mention Banding, Protection, interrupt batches, tapped artifacts turning off, tapped blockers dealing no damage, in addition to individual card interactions. This game has always been complex and drawn on other components outside of just the cards. All to the enrichment of its players. Do you think without the conceit of this complexity as many early board, minature, rpg, card game players would have been drawn to this azmazing game?

I think complexity is more feature than bug, but it’s still a dangerous force to be used carefully.

I was really mind blown by Grist even it was spoilt. I love their “exotic” abilities but what surprised me is that They seem to break the known basics of pw characters. Grist doesn’t look like sapient for instance (more like a simple swarm of insects). In case it represented a Lich of some kind, it would also break the known rule that only living beings can hold a spark. Could you elaborate a bit about Grist background or if anything have changed in planeswalker characters design? Thanks :)

I can’t get into stuff that hasn’t been publicly said yet about the character. I can say Grist is sapient, but can’t get into details of how Grist “works”.

Finally is my birthday, could I get any trivia about my favorite commander Jarad, Golgari lich Lord or about Golgari guild? :D

In original Ravnica design, it took us a long time to find the Golgari mechanic. I’m not exaggerating when I say we examined forty mechanics. We ended with dredge, which definitely saw play. : )Happy Birthday!

Is it theoretically possible to have a zombie planeswalker or the dying process make the spark disappear? I think it would be flavorful for a lich character to spark from the shock of experiencing death and then be resurrected as a zombie pw

I believe the dead can’t hold a spark. Note that the vampires in Innistrad aren’t technically dead which is why Sorin can.

About "form of" cards, do you consider the several Lich versions as black forms of the lich?

Kind of.

23 years, wow! How does it feel to have an entire generation of people alive today who grew up knowing only one person at the head of R&D? And do you have any comment on reports that you're actually a lich lord who periodically requires the souls of rules managers in order to sustain your immortality?

No comment. : )

Un-rules question here. So, let's say I have a Little Girl enchanted with Lifelink and a Lich's Mastery out. Whenever she deals damage, I gain that much life. Whenever I gain life, I draw that many cards. How do I draw 1/2 a card?

You can’t. You can only draw whole numbers of cards.

re: undead planeswalkers. Sorin is undead so that's possible. And every player is a planeswalker, and some of them have cast Lich or one of the lich variants which, by flavor, turns the player into a lich. That means that a lich planeswalker is canon.

Soren isn’t actually undead. Vampires work a little differently on Innistrad.

For the Lich Girl song, you missed out on "You can rely on the old man's body" which fits better.

The problem is on social media I have to be extra careful about innuendo and I worried “old man’s body” is too close to the line.

Why was Lich's Mastery a rare and not mythic? I thought that was where you try to keep the really complex and weird effects in a set.

No, usually the most confusing cards are rare because mythic rare cards need to be splashy and confusing cards usually aren’t splashy.