Hey Mark, I hope you’re doing OK. May your father rest in peace. I have a question regarding life. For most of my life, I have believed that the key to living a fulfilling life is to do what makes you feel happy. And for a long time, Magic has been that key for me. However, as I get older, I am beginning to feel less fulfilled by the sheer pursuit of happiness, as if something else is missing. (Not to say that I’m enjoying Magic any less… I’m a player for life!) My question is… what do you believe makes for a fulfilling life?

I think besides being happy, having a sense of purpose is important. Here’s a thought exercise (that I mentioned doing when my Dad died) that I call the It’s a Wonderful Life reflection. What would the world be like if you were never born? What things did you influence? And this includes your impact on other people. Part of having a sense of purpose is doing something that positively affects others in a way that makes your life have meaning.

Hi Mark, a lot of people have been asking for more retro frames, but I am one of the people you've mentioned that dislikes the retro frame very much. And I am really sad that the amazing new Rest in Peace art was only made in retro frame.

I think only retro frame isn’t something we plan to do often. It will mostly be an occasional booster fun option.

Having read your answer to a question about removing mana screw, this is my response to you. Being a big fan of both MtG and riot games' Legends of Runeterra, and having played Mojang's Scroll (may it rest in peace) I've found that resource generation and designing around the cost of creating that resource can be interesting. I find that LoR's system, by also using a region system similar to the color pie, but maxing out with 2 regions means it's more about resource management of cards in hand, and tools to use to advance the game plan of reducing your opponent's life to 0, and Scrolls was unique in that you had to give up scrolls to add to your mana cap to generate a resource, so it was interesting design. Overall, I've found that in games that use a universal mana system in which everyone gets an additional mana to spend each turn, it becomes a challenge of "how do we maintain a level of variance that ensures the game doesn't get stale?" I think that magic as it is designed now could never be changed to prevent mana issues. The game was always designed around the variance that lands provide. Games like hearthstone and LoR went with deck building restrictions and other systems to ensure enough variance is maintained. If a game is designed to provide mana to each player each turn, other design choices must be made to ensure variance is maintained. I personally think each system has its pros and cons, and each game I've played has done well to design around the pros and minimize the cons.

I think I forgot to make an important point in my answer. I was talking about making a trading card game that was designed to appeal to both enfranchised and non-enfranchised gamers. If you’re aiming at a more enfranchised gamer, like yourself, you do have more options open to you because that type of gamer is much more comfortable handling complex decision trees and tension. That style of gameplay though can drive away less enfranchised gamers. One of the big reasons players exit a game early on is being overwhelmed by it. They get too caught up in the choices they’re asked to make to enjoy the fun of the game. This gets into what I call lenticular design, where you create your game in such a way that the more complex decisions are hidden to the less experienced player. The mana system does that really well. I hope this clarification helps.

I’m sure you’ve heard but the great Kevin Conroy, who was the voice of Batman in so many forms of media. Would you tell us what you would consider Batman’s color combination would be and why? May he Rest In Peace.

Batman is white and blue with a black persona.

The Entomb/Reanimate with Entwine thing got me thinking, why would the Entwine cost need to be green? I'd have thought it was ok as a mono black card. The catch with black being that the card you tutor for does go to the graveyard first, so the Reanimate half still gets blocked by static graveyard hate. Grafdigger's Cage/Rest In Peace/Leyline of the Void and so on.

We need to be careful doing two monocolor effects on the same card where the combination isn’t in color.

Isn't Ashiok, Dream Render a pretty egregious color pie violation? I didn't think monoblue (which is what blue hybrid basicaly is) could have access to Rest in Peace effects.

No, it can. Blue is number one with library interaction.

"White normally exiles cards in graveyards but usually not proactively. It can as a bend." So Rest in Peace is a bend?

Yes.

Mark, Prince died. Can we please add Purple as the (actual) 6th color of Magic. Thanks!

When we made a sixth color (for a small part of design) in Planar Chaos it was purple. Rest in Peace, Prince.

I know everyone is clamoring over the wastes and Kozilek right now, but can we just take a moment to pour one out for my boy Lorthos who died without even putting up a fight? Rest in peace hopes of a new Lorthos card.

Rest in Peace, Lorthos.

I'm sorry, sir, but I don't understand WHY it's overpowered. Like, Storm is really easy to trigger, using Dark Ritual and such, Infect leads to super blow-outs, but Dredge just fills the yard. Rest in Peace and similar shut it down. WHY is it OP?

Because it circumvents the mana system which is the biggest safety net in the game