Has it become clear yet if cramming the Aftermath set into a bonus sheet was a success or not? Seeing how bomb heavy the prerelease was made me dislike that solution to your self-made problem quite a lot. Stoneforge Mystic and Oko are incredibly warping in limited.

You’re conflating the bonus sheet of reprints with the Big Score collection of new card designs ported over from the Aftermath-ish product.

Re: fedoras on weirdsMAKM looks conpletely on-brand for Ravnica to me. Ravnica has always had urban elements, and cards like Tin Street Dodger, Frilled Mystic or Ral Zarek all feel "dressed up" in a way that's still "high fantasy" without feeling out of place amongst MAKM art. "High fantasy," whatever that means, has the spaciousness to include detective agencies, and why couldn't they look vaguely like Vincint Price movies? Ravnica, a sprawling metropolis, surely has room for varied easthetics, including tall collared coats, fedoras, and shifty characters. Bottom line, the vibe and creative of MAKM are amazing so far, it's not out of place on Ravnica, no complaints. It's possible the neigh-sayers are picking up on the difference in tone. The last ravnican outings have been fairly serious or forboding, being either a planewide invasion of undead supersoldiers, or the unstable political situations leading up to that. In contrast, MAKM is pulpy, fun, and much less dire in scope. Murder is still dark, sure, but unraveling a mystery is very different from stopping a planeswalker genocide. For fans who identify strongly with 'Serious Ravnica,' this set could feel off-brand.

I do think Ravnica has enough breadth to hit multiple tones.

"It’s not something that’s easy to monitor. If an opponent plays a banned card, you know to call a judge. But if not a combo was banned, you don’t know."But if they don't play the combo, it doesn't matter that they do have it. If anything its a huge drawback since that means that if they draw piece A, then they can't ever play their piece B and they'll have to literally hide their hand from onlookers (possibly for the whole tournament) or they'll be disqualified.I don't see it being more complicated then Stoneforge Mystic that was banned EXCEPT if you were playing the exact decklist of the precon deck that included it.

The Stoneforge Mystic thing was only because we banned a card before a preconstructed deck with the card got released. It was a wonky work-around. That shouldn’t be a precedent for anything.

Regarding your recent point that "if nothing ever gets banned, we aren't doing our job properly", I think I agree. However, players will often point to the decade from 2006 - 2016 in which only two cards (Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic) were banned in Standard for contrast. Do you feel that more cards should have been banned during that time, or that R&D wasn't pushing the envelope enough?

I think we weren’t aggressive enough in our banning.

Given that we already have Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, and Elvish Mystic, would you print a 4th 1-mana 1/1 green creature that taps for G, and if so would that be a good candidate for the "any number in your deck" mechanic?

Unlikely.

I have been searching to see if you have answered this question, because I am sure you have, but I can not find it. Why are identical cards printed with different names, like Terramorphic Expanse | Evolving Wilds, Mind Control | Persuasion, or Llanowar Elves | Fyndhorn Elves| Elvish Mystic?

If cards aren’t problematic in number, we will sometimes change the flavor to better match the creative of the set it’s in.

I know it's a big one, but my preferred batch would be Centaur, Ally, Fractal, Mystic, Yeti, Owl, Octopus, even though the sound of it is something quite precocious.

: )

So a command is 4 options, pick 2. A charm is 3 options, pick 1. Are Confluences like fiery confluence and mystic confluence a thing then? (3 options, choose 3, you can pick any option more than once)

They exist, so clearly they’re a thing. Do people want more of them?

For the people talking about historic being "standard +" Historic already has had five or six anthology expansions, all of jumpstart, most of the mystic archives, and two remastered sets with cards that weren't in standard. Historic Horizons isn't really unprecedented except there are brand new cards in it

FYI

Wait if Mystic is a supported creature type why is Elvish Mystic a Druid?

It’s supported more in that we haven’t changed the old cards with it than we’re actively making more,