Why does Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy have a gold ‘97 frame instead of a hybrid ‘97 frame like Deathrite Shaman?

Hybrid didn’t exist at the time of the old frame, so there is debate of what old frame are we supposed to use. Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy takes a old fashioned sensibility choosing a frame that existed at the time that would have been the most likely frame that would have been used if hybrid existed. Remember in ‘97, all multicolor cards had the same gold frame without any pinlines or hints at what the colors of the card were.Deathrite Shaman applies a modern sensibility choosing to make a new frame that mimics what a modern hybrid frame would look like as an old frame. It comes down to what is the purpose of the old style frames, to capture how it would have been done at the time or mimic what we do now, but with an older aesthetic. Different players want different things.

I took time out of my day to give you some notes on your product about Jumpstart boxes having 18 packs, and you called me a conspiracy theorist. You have a habit of exaggerating your critics' points so you can shoot down the straw men. Besides which, how can a company's internal decision even be a conspiracy? A conspiracy requires multiple parties. And it was such a minor complaint. All you had to say was "I see your point" and I'd move on. Instead you chose to insult me and double my grar. Why?

It wasn’t my intention to insult you. I sincerely apologize for doing so. I was just trying to make the point that most reasons behind non-game design decisions are tied to mundane production and business concerns.

Can you please keep including silliness outside of acorn cards? I don't play with acorn cards that cannot work within the game rules, but I do enjoy silliness in my Magic. The in-jokes about Coastal Piracy, clones and pirated copies are delicious. More, please. :)

There is definitely a large audience that wants some humor in the premier sets, so we’ll keep including some. That doesn’t mean the majority won’t be on the serious side.

Are coastal piracy effects in green now? We’ve gotten Toski and Ohran frostfang relatively close together, and they’re the first ones in mono-green

Curiosity is primary blue and secondary green. That’s been true for a long time.

Was there an expectation when Tolski was designed that players would make the comparison to Coastal Piracy, Bident of Thassa, and Reconnaissance Mission and question why it was green?

The ability is primary blue, so blue more often grants it to multiple creatures, but the ability is secondary in green, so that means green can do it.

Dear Mark Note Blue has Amnesia, Dismal Failure, Forget Minamos Meddling, Piracy Charm, (my favorite)Probe with Kicker, Riptide Pilferer. Venarian Glimmer potentially Apathy, Coral Net, Mind Bomb and Trapfinder's Trick are all examples of Blue Discard so, no Black does not have a monopoly on Discard.

You can do the same with non-blue counterspells. Note both lists lean pretty heavily on early Magic.

If we're talking about 2020 wish lists, any chance of another novelty draft set? I really liked Conspiracy 2 and was sad that I missed Battlebond.

We have Commander Legends coming later this year.

From the outside looking in, it seems like the time from Kaya's appearance in Conspiracy Two to her role in Ravnica is two years, while the time between when Estrid was developed for Commander 2018 versus Theros Beyond Death was just under two years. Does that help explain why sometimes we see planeswalkers seeded for future sets, versus when players perceived missed opportunities--you all just didn't know they existed yet?

We knew Estrid existed at the time we made Theros Beyond Death. She wasn’t a good story fit.

"Gary’s uncommon for his return to help balance limited." This is now at least the second common from Theros to be pushed up to uncommon for Limited (the first being Nessian Asp in a Conspiracy set, a card notorious in Theros Limited). Does R&D consider an excess of cards at inappropriate rarities to be one of the problems with Theros Limited, a format which is far from beloved?

Gary being at common was a mistake.

"We do have three slots a year to visit planes." - Sort of... you've got more opportunities via supplemental products though, right? Some of them have plane-specific themes, like Conspiracy and Battlebond. Does anything prevent a supplemental set tied to some popular existing plane X, if you don't plan to do another standard set on X in the near future?

It’s not off the table.