Considering that Nexus of Fate had to be banned and Alrund's Epiphany has warped Standard, why is Set Design still creating Extra Turn cards? Why haven't Time Walks followed Armageddon and random discard effects into the depths of "too unfun for Standard"?

Because players mostly enjoy extra turn effects and dislike destroy all lands and random discard effects. Yes, players dislike broken cards, but that doesn’t mean they necessarily dislike the part of the game that it’s using.

Part of what's going on here is that for a lot of players, the TWD SL seriously damaged our trust in WotC to do what's best for the game. Your part of that is that on 9/16 you said re BAB Promos "We were listening to feedback from the players. The mechanically unique Buy-a-Box cards upset a lot of people." You knew that TWD was coming, and because of that I have lost a lot of trust in you specifically. If you want to earn that trust back, you might start by explaining that post.

I understand how the players can clump Nalathni Dragon and Nexus of Fate and Rick all in the same category, but I need to stress that they were each very different things. Nalathni Dragon required you to travel to Atlanta and buy ticket to a convention that had nothing directly to do with Magic. Nexus of Fate required you to buy a box of draft boosters from your local game store while supplies last, Rick requires you ordering a Magic product online during a certain time period. The first one has nothing to do with Magic while the second two were directly tied to a Magic product. The first and second required you to go to a physical place while the third did not. The first and second were “while supplies last” while the third is print to demand. Each is different, so we have to treat it differently. There is a world where unique Buy-a-Boxes cards are problematic where a direct to sale product is not. Two weeks ago I said “we tried thing X and you communicated that you didn’t like thing X”. Now we’re trying thing Y. Yes, there are similarities, but there are also numerous differences. Maybe you’ll like thing Y. That’s why we’re trying it.I understand you might not like thing Y, but me saying you didn’t like thing X is not me lying about thing Y.

What's the policy on reprinting BAB cards? Is there any chance we'll see the non-godzilla version of zilothra years down the road when ikoria is out of print? What about reprinting cards like nexus of fate?

We are totally allowed to reprint Buy-a-Box cards.

Hi Mark, I genuinely hope you take the time to read and respond to this post. I am to understand that since Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge is apparently the buy-a-box promo, it will not be in packs? If so, how could WotC do this to us? Wasn't the backlash against Nexus of Fate enough to prevent a BaB like this from happening again? Very, very disappointing.

We’re being more careful with the Standard viability of our Buy-a-Box cards, but we’re not stopping making them. They’re pretty popular and have sold a lot of boxes for local game stores.

Sooooo, you got a new clone and he's been sorted to do R&D Tales or you're now using the banned Nexus of Fate to get time to do the videos? (or you're free from an old task and now have time for the new series)

The “R&D Tales” videos were the test for a new series of videos I (“I” can mean any of my clones) want to do. If you are interested in seeing it become a regular thing, I need to get enough positive feedback to show the people responsible for signing off in such a thing.

Now that the dust has mostly settled, do you think that printing Nexus of Fate was a mistake?

As I said months ago, it should have exiled itself.

In terms of the buy abox promos. In my opinion Firesong & sunspeaker alongside The Haunt of Hightower are successes while Nexus of fate was a mistake that should not happen(and the wurm is fine just sees play in one modern deck and thats it). I believe that for future sets the promo will be better suited for janky build around legends rather than spiky competitive cards that people will need 4-ofs, its a great opportunity to make a commander with story relevance that happens to be standard legal

We were trying something new and that requires some trial and error to get right. Nexus of Fate is not where we’re targeting the Buy-a-Box promos.

As someone who loves the idea of the BaB promo being it's own unique card, my only problem with it is entirely with its power level. Firesong and Sunspeaker was a great card but wasn't competitive and that was fine, Commander and Brawl love them. Nexus of Fate on the other hand is so extremely powerful that its making the exclusivity of the BaB promos a problem instead of a reward. I would like the BaB to remain unique but I also want them to be toned down power-wise to stop this from happening.

Nexus of Fate is of a higher power level than our target with Buy-a-Box cards.

... This is what we are telling you. Whether or not the card is standard legal doesn't matter since the BOB promo has nothing to do with the actual set.

It *is* flavored to be from the set. Nexus of Fate, for example, shows a key moment between Bolas and Ugin.

For the Nexus of fate issue; You said that even though many players were vocal about how they were against the mechanic, it was still the “favorite” mechanic of Scars. I think it’s more that it was such a strong mechanic that so many people used it, including the people that were against it. Not because they liked the overpowered mechanic, but because it would make them win. Same goes for Nexus. Many people that are against a card not in the main set, will buy boxes because it still adds value.

Infect was neither strong in limited nor Standard. Yes, it would later become a contender in Modern, but that was years later. Players said they liked infect and, at the time, it wasn’t particularly strong - they liked it despite it being powerful. That’s a huge sign that they actually liked it for what it was.