If smothering tithe is a break then is hullbreecher also a break?

We don’t want blue doing too much treasure making (Ixalan got too much), but blue gets a little. It has a small amount of access to other color mana that white doesn’t (such as changing basic land types).

Hey Mark,

Fairly recently, on one of your podcasts you were talking about when designing new sets how important it is to generate hype and excitement among the audience with new mechanics/cards/ideas. To me, it feels like in many of the recent sets with bonus sheets, reprints of 10+ year old cards that many enfranchised players have already played with or against are the aspects of the sets that are causing the most enthusiasm. Similarly, these cards often strongly influence Limited games to the point where games are won or lost because of old cards rather than new designs.To me it feels kind of underwhelming that the most powerful cards I can encounter in a draft or collector booster for a brand new Premier set aren't new cards but instead old staples (i.e. think Smothering Tithe and Rhystic Study in Wilds of Eldraine).

Reprints are important and players enjoy them, especially veteran players, but I do feel they take away the spotlight and attention when it comes to new premier sets.

Magic has tons of ways to reprint highly sought after cards (i.e. Secret Lairs, "The List", Reprint exclusive Masters sets, Commander pre-constructed decks) so why has there been an increased proliferation of lots of highly sought after reprints in new premier sets?

It has proven to be the means players enjoy the most. You get the reprints in the sets you’re already purchasing instead of having to buy other products specifically for the reprints.

is there a particular reason you chose to put things like Smothering Tithe and Doubling Season into a Masters set (especially at mythic just days before showing that they would be in a different set? I noticed that with Concordaant Crossroads as well, a major reprint right after a Secret Lair. It feels like there would have been lots of other cards for one slot or the other. A card gets reprinted for the first time in a long time, then another immediately after. Any special reason for the trend?

A lot of balls are getting juggled, and their release dates can often change mid-development.

Does Smothering Tithe predate the Council of Colors?

I believe so.

Would smothering tithe be as big of an issue if the tokens it created produced exclusively whife or colorless mana?

It solves the color washing issue, but not the ramp issue.

I overall like treasures, but i feel like they are warping commander because three of the most overpowered cards of all time for the format (smothering tithe, Dockside Extortionist, and hullbreacher) all generate treasure, which leads to the mechanic being warping.

Ah, eternal formats, where mistakes live forever. : )

"It can with the following restriction. White should not be able to reliably generate effects that are not within its color pie. So, white taxing something that would happen infrequently and unpredictably, could play around with non-white effects, but one that is very exacting in its taxing, meaning it would happen often and predictably, could not."Given that idea, and that idea as a whole, would you consider Smothering Tithe a bend or a break?

I’ll call it a strong bend that we shouldn’t have made.

You said Smothering Tithe and Monologue Tax aren't in White slice of the color pie, but they're both taxing cards which is something in-pie for White. Does that makes the treasure generation a small bend in both cards?

I said treasure generation isn’t particularly a white thing. Taxing very much is a white thing.

If Hullbreacher can't be a white card, does that mean that either Spirit of the Labyrinth or Smothering Tithe are no longer white effects? Because it seems like Spirit + Tithe pretty much make Hullbreacher, unless this is a case of "green gets deathtouch, and it gets fight, but it can't get a fight card with deatchtouch"?

Two things:1) It is possible for a color to do two things, but not be able to do those two things combined on a single card such as your green example.2) Those two cards combined are not the same thing as Hullbreacher. White can universally set rules to prevent something and it can tax something, but it doesn’t take something away from someone else and get a reward each time it does that.

Could a white permanent have the "leaves play" part of Daxos's ability, but gaining mana instead of life? IE; "add W whenever a creature you control leaves the battlefield." Feels obvious in red or green, but is smothering tithe a signal that this could be white?

Mana production is less of a white thing.