With Cameo mechanics a thing why does Officious Interrogation not have strive?

Cameos existing doesn’t mean we label every string of words that has been keyworded before.

"Why is it so important that players know immediately that an effect can only be used once?" I would dare to say it's just human psychology. If I recall correctly, boast was badly received because "it was a downside" whereas "When this creature attacks, you may pay" has no problem. Escalate and strive were also badly received, but kicker and replicate are beloved or at least okay. It seems people really care a lot about templates "taking away" what the rest of the card does.

We default to “additive” templates when we can, but not everything is templatable that way in a form that’s easily grokable.

May I voice a concern of mine? Of all new Planeswalker introduced since Eldraine, 6 of them are men, 1 non binary, 0 women. (I don't count the D&D set ones because they have a lower chance to come back. Still, even counting them, we have a 8-3 rate). It seems to me that we're returning to the old times where most of the cast was men. Can I request (a lot) more woman Planeswalker?

Here’s a list of all the female planeswalkers premiering on a planeswalker card since Throne of Eldraine: Ellywick Tumblestrum Zariel, Archduke of Avernus Lolth, Spider QueenGrist, the Hunger Tide Geyadrone Dihada Jeska, Thrice Born B.O.B. (Bevy of Beebles) (male & female)Gender representation is important to us, and we strive to have a balance. The reason for the slight lean towards male, is we repeated more female planeswalkers as we had them playing bigger roles in the stories, which is also super important. I will stress having a gender balanced planeswalker roster is important to us and something we monitor. Note that we count all planeswalker cards.

It's confusing that Syr Carah, the Bold allows you to play lands you exile with it but Robber of the Rich only lets you cast spells it exiles. Please consistently choose one or the other and stick to it in the future.

I’ve decided to try something new on my blog. I’m going to start commenting on how to give better feedback. Giving feedback is an important life and job skill, so I’m going start giving advice to help people get better at it. Here’s my first piece of advice. When suggesting something, it’s comes across much better if you say it’s something you personally would like to see done rather than demand as an imperative that it must be done. For example, your point about inconsistency of effect is a good one. It is confusing when two effects work slightly differently and as a general rule, we as game designers should strive to avoid that confusion where we can. But as someone who’s done this job for a long time, I know that while that’s a great ideal to have, game practicalities can often get in the way. Sometimes, in order to make something work within the rules or to avoid play design issues or to not cause digital issues, you have to create sone inconsistencies. It’s not ideal, but it’s the reality of the process.So when you, the feedback giver, demand I do something, it puts me on the defensive. It implies that if I don’t do what you ask, I’m doing it wrong. It makes me retreat to a stance of “well, they don’t know all the issues at hand”. It forces unnecessary confrontation and creates distance between the feedback giver and the feedback receiver. But if you word it as a desire, as something you would like to see rather than as a demand, it makes me, the feedback receiver, more willing to listen. People in general want to be helpful. If you present your idea as a means of you trying to help me rather than you trying fault me, I’m much more receptive. Now, I want to hear what you have to say.So as to why the two are different. Syr Carah is a straight impulsive draw card exiling cards from your own library. As they are your cards, it’s assumed you have the mana needed to cast them. Robber of the Rich is stealing cards from the opponent’s library. As such, it needs the rider that you can spend mana of any color to cast them. The rider needs to use the word “cast” as it’s referring to mana costs. My best guess is they didn’t want the confusion were part of the text talks about “playing” the spell while a different part talks about “casting” it. The different words, besides being confusing, might also lead to odd rules issues.Hopefully, this answer is helpful on two different fronts.

When we return to Theros, which mechanic is most likely to return: Heroic, Monstrous, Constellation, or Strive?

Here’s a good question for all of you. If we returned to Theros, what is your preference order for a returning mechanic? Number 1 through 4 with one being first choice and four being last choice. If you want to explain why, that would be great.

I'd argue that any card that has an optional additional cost you can choose to pay that then modifies or adds to the functionality of the card is essentially kicker. To me, mechanics like Entwine, Bestow (even though Bestow is an alternate cost instead of an additional), Awaken, Escalate, Strive are all kicker variants. (May I also request the next time we see (Multi)Kicker we get a permanent with an activated ability to "Kick target spell." ?)

My job is to more finely chop up design space to create flavorful new mechanics, not broaden things so everything feels like a rehash.

Why is wizards trying to fix something that isn’t broken? A game with a majority male player base, pro scene, and company staff (at least from what I’ve seen of r and d credits) makes sense to have majority of cards be male. You always talk about how people want to see themselves in the card, you are doing just that with a majority male representation.

Seeing a warped world is harmful for everyone, men included, because it leads to a warped world view. Seeing less women or minorities in entertainment sends a message that they are less important in the real world, that they play less of a role. Having a majority of male players makes it even more important that we strive to make the game reflect the real world, because perceptions shape reality. And that’s not even getting to the huge value for everyone else seeing themselves in the game. It’s hard when you’re used to seeing yourself always represented to get how much it means to people who don’t frequently have that opportunity, but I hear it each and every time we do it. It means a lot. So, no warped entertainment *is* a problem and it does need fixing.

Regarding the "Colors in one word" response from earlier -- Blue as Strive? I thought Blue's theory was more about learning and knowledge than conflict. Same for green. Isn't green all about survival of the fittest? That seems more like striving than accepting.

Strive to be the best version of yourself you can be.Accept the world as it is and understand your place in it.

Ever since the poll, which hasn't been too long ago, I've noticed that the topics discussed on Blogatog have been quite a bit more interesting. The effort does not go unnoticed. Thank you.

You’re welcome. I believe that one should constantly strive to improve. While I’m happy with Blogatog, I know it can be even better.

Was BFZ *that* bad?

I strive for excellence. There is a lot of room between “not excellent” and “bad”.