“Wizards, seriously. Fish-octopus-crab and the name “sharktocrab”. […] And we can’t have squirrels apparently in black border, but we can have sharktocrab”—SaffronOlive

Preaching to the choir.

Do you have any responses to Saffron Olive's recent article regarding your statements on modern reprints?

I think I was a little more hyperbolic than I intended. There are many problems with reprinting cards in Standard legal sets, the impact on Standard being probably the biggest factor. We don’t want to use a reprint if we feel it will have a negative impact on Standard. In addition, we have the problem of preferring that Standard is focused on new cards that players have to figure out rather than a returning card that everyone already understands the power level of. In addition, it’s important that cards make sense in the set that they appear on, so printing reprints that are safe only because they are completely off theme is not something we’re fond of doing. Finally, creative continuity is very important, so we don’t to reprint something that is flavorfully out of place. For instance, Saffron talked about Eye of Ugin being on Theros. The Eye of Ugin is a specific location on Zendikar. It doesn’t make any sense existing on another plane. I know some players don’t care about that, but we very much do.This isn’t to say that we never want to do sought after reprints in Standard-legal sets. It’s just important to understand that we have a lot of priorities to juggle and it’s harder than many players might realize. It is an issue we are aware of and we’re working to find solutions.