Is it too early to ask where plot, outlaws matter, and saddle seem to sit on the storm scale? If it’s not too early to ask, then I would like to ask

It’s a little early.

How can Unfinity be the best selling Un-set and at the same time be considered so unsuccessful, it makes a future Un-set less likely. (if I recall correctly on the blog you stated that Unfinity did so bad it lessens the chance for a future Un-Set)

The issue is what it’s competing against. The bar to clear just keeps going up.

“I’d call paradox a 7”. This seems oddly high to me. Although the flavor of the ability word is limiting, the actual mechanic of “trigger when you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand” seems like it should be much lower on the storm scale. We get tons of cards that cast from exile these days, as well as graveyard. I feel like cards with the paradox mechanic (although not the ability word) could easily slit into an innistrad set where there’s lots of casting from graveyard, or eldraine set where there’s lots of casting from exile, or something similar. Does the mechanic of paradox (without the actual ability word written there) have a better rating on the storm scale?

The ability word requires a lot of structural support, so it isn’t easy to include.

Happy birthday! Can we get some birthday trivia about you on your birthday?

Sure. I turn 56 today, so here’s fifty-six things you may or may not know about me. 1) I never lost a baby tooth. Every one had to be extracted.2) I was once a contestant on Trivial Pursuit: The Game Show with Wink Martindale. I answered the most questions correct, but didn’t win. 3) I once had scarlet fever (the thing the boy gets in the Velveteen Rabbit).4) I’ve been told by doctors I have very weird blood.5) I self taught myself to juggle.6) I was a magician when I was a kid with the stage name The Wiz Kid. I mostly performed for kids parties.7) I was once a freelance greeting card writer. My favorite (that didn’t get printed) showed a jug of maple syrup tipped on its side making a puddle of syrup. In the syrup was a top hat. A hand is pulling a can of green paint with a shamrock out of the hat. You open up the card and it says Sappy Paint Hat Tricks Day. It’s a triple Spoonerism. 8) Sara Gilbert (of “Roseanne” fame) and I once went out for lunch. (It wasn’t a date or anything.) 9) I broke my collarbone doing a prat fall off a stage. 10) I once pet a cheetah. In South Africa. My face from the picture of me doing that was used as my “Making Magic” photo for years.11) I once made a root beer float for Keanu Reeves. It was at a play I was volunteering for. 12) I once get trapped inside Fred Astaire’s Estate. This factoid is oddly on my Wikipedia page.13) Starting during the pandemic, my family began fostering animals. So far, we fostered four dogs, six cats, and two Guinea pigs.14) In college, I wrote and directed two plays, started an improvisation troupe, and a writing workshop. 15) I still have all my wisdom teeth. 16) I have visited every continent except Antarctica for Magic. 17) I once asked Clint Eastwood for directions, not realizing who it was until he started talking. I was lost on the Warner Brothers lot.18) My first job in Hollywood resulted from me taking part in someone else’s interview. I snuck on the lot, and ended walking into a room where they asked “Are you here for the production assistant interview?”, and I said, “Yes.”19) I once had a disease the doctors couldn’t identify. They called it Mark’s Disease. 20) I was born in Mississippi. My dad was in the Air Force at the time. 21) I asked out seven woman to my senior prom who all turned me down. I ended up going with a friend who also couldn’t get a date. 22) I took six years of Spanish. 23) Most of my family’s vacations growing up were ski vacations, so I’m a decent skier. 24) I once delivered a pizza to Richard Gere. It was as a production assistant, not a pizza delivery person. 25) I once broke into an actor’s apartment building to deliver a script. It was so late, they were asleep and didn’t hear the buzzing of the door bell. 26) I once drove six hours (three in each direction) to pick up one five-stick package of Blackjack gum as a runner (production assistant).27) Dennis Miller once thought I was a crazy man. I was sent to get him from the parking lot for a shoot and he thought I was stalking him.28) I have over two hundred tee-shirts. They are organized by color. 29) I was supposed to pitch to “The Simpsons”, but it got cancelled when I got hired in the “Roseanne” staff.30) I pitched multiple times to “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, but never sold a script. The closest I got was a pitch about Data malfunctioning. 31) I once ate crocodile. In Australia.32) I played the Tinman in fifth grade in a production of “The Wizard of the Oz”. I was so hot, my silver make-up had to be reapplied halfway through as I sweated it off.33) My mother turned down being on “Oprah” to come to my college graduation.34) My parents are both retired. My dad was a dentist and my mom a psychologist. I used to joke I had a “paradox”. 35) Every birthday since I was 9, I’ve celebrated my birthday with crab legs. 36) Since I was in grade school, every Valentine’s Day, I hand out candy hearts, and every Halloween, I hand out mellowcreme pumpkins (basically pumpkin shaped candy corns). 37) My tee-shirts every week are themed. Some themes are pretty obvious, but they often get tricky. R&D likes figuring out the theme. 38) I got a BS in Communications (no, really) from Boston University’s College of Communications. 39) I collect superhero Minimates (they look Lego-ish). I have somewhere around two thousand. They are displayed in a number of cabinets built by my dad.40) My podcast was inspired by a talk by Kevin Smith (at San Diego Comic-Con) where he said anyone could make a podcast. 41) I have attended over twenty-five San Diego Comic-Cons.42) I am related to Lorne Green of “Bonanza” fame. 43) My dad’s family came from Germany and my mom’s from Russia. In Germany, my family’s name was Rosenvasser, but it was changed to Rosewater when they came to the U.S.44) There are so few Rosewaters in the United States, that if you meet a Rosewater odds are I’m related to them.45) I have lived in five states (Mississippi, Ohio, Massachusetts, California, and Washington, in that order).46) I have visited over thirty states for Magic. 47) I once met Jim Henson when I worked on a clip show that Kermit was on. The question I asked him was if Ernie and Bert were named after the characters from “It’s a Wonderful Life”. He said not consciously. Jim Henson is one of my idols and I feel so blessed to have met him. He died a few months later.48) I met Stan Lee at Hascon. He is another of my idols that I feel so lucky to have met. 49) On “Roseanne”, I worked with Amy Sherman-Palladino (just Amy Sherman back then) and Chuck Lorre. She made “Gilmore Girls” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. He made “Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men”. Amy was super sweet and we got along well. I don’t think Chuck liked me.50) I am a super picky eater. For example, except for apples, I don’t eat fruit. I hate bananas with a passion. 51) I have been a game player since very young. My dad loves games and introduced them to me early in life.52) I get the writing bug from my mom. 53) I used to collect lint in a giant jar. When I got married, Lora made me get rid of it. It was an impressive amount of lint.54) I have a bad tendency to burn myself a lot. My family loves to make fun of it. 55) I own over fifty flannels. My favorites are from Japan because they are more colorful with their flannels. Normally I wear a large, but in Japanese sizes, I’m an extra large.56) My favorite number is 254. I chose it when I was little.

I really like the flavor of Eldraine, but I don't like the setting, story and characters at all. I'd say I'm not looking forward to the return, but I accept it with open arms.

Okay, I have to ask, how does one not like the setting, story, or characters of a world, yet like the flavor?

I'd like to invoke the Birthday Trivia clause, please. :) Any trivia on Suspend or the upkeep in general? Big fan of the cycle of sorceries that re-suspend themselves after being cast and I always try brewing decks with upkeep triggers with Paradox Haze. hahaha Also please high five whoever designed the M21 Time Stop! Thank you!

Suspend was originally designed for a small set, but I told them it was too big a mechanic for a small set and saved it. It was the mechanic that inspired the idea of a time-themed block (aka Time Spiral black). Happy Birthday!

If you had to re-do the most powerful Kaladesh artifacts, would you do them as colored ones? Would aetherflux reservoir be a Boros card? Paradox Engine blue?

If we had to redo Kaladesh, we’d embue many of the artifacts, especially the broad, powerful ones, with colored mana. I would need to think about the whole file to properly dispense the colors.

So when is Tarmogoyf going to actually get printed in a set? It is future-shifted and then has reprints, but no "actual" printings yet. Is Tarmogoyf a paradox unto itself?

Future Sight is filled with futureshifted paradoxes.

When you printed the same card in black border and gold border, did that cause a rules paradox?

No, because gold bordered cards either have different backs or different cut cards.

Can you print silver-bordered reserved list cards since they're something you said you wouldn't do in black border, and would they be tournament legal if they were printed as such?

We can’t print the same card in black and silver border. It creates a rules paradox.