"Over time, we (as a company, I’ve been there all along - see the Un-sets) have come to realize that Magic sets want a certain amount of levity." I don't mind levity in Magic, and it's been there from the beginning of the game. I personally don't like when very silly cards hit a certain competitive power level and show up too much in "serious" play. Shark Typhoon and Minsc and Boo are examples of cards that bug me. Does R&D still try to avoid making silly cards too competitive?

There are competitive players who enjoy the silly cards. There is an overlap in the Venn Diagram, and they get to have cards they like too.

I love Shark Typhoon and I think it fits the world of Ikoria perfectly! What screams “monster world” more and a storm that shoots carnivorous fish at you?

I enjoy that we do a range of flavors so that everyone can find something they love.

What sorts of considerations go into the relation between a card's flavour and whether it's pushed to see competitive play? Shark Typhoon, being a direct reference to an in-copyright, non-Magic property and based on - frankly - a pretty stupid idea is a card that feels very unwelcome in Standard purely on flavour grounds, speaking as someone who very much appreciates it mechanically.

We tend to push cards because they’re fun to play. Also, remember the card you creatively dislike is a card someone else loves for the very reasons you don’t like it.