What part of Nicol Bolas' personality makes him red? He's clearly blue/black, but his whole "plans that span millennia" thing seems pretty opposite of red's impulsiveness and living in the moment.

Bolas has strong emotions that sway him more than they should. Also, he’s a dragon.

Hi Mark! My birthday was actually a few days ago but I just got the chance to post. could I possibly get some trivia on Minotaurs, my favorite tribe to play at the moment? And may I also put a request in for more Minotaurs in Theros? :)

The Hurloon Minotaur was adopted in the early days as an unofficial mascot for Wizards. As a result a lot of employees falsely believed that the card was much more popular with the players than it was. It took my years to convince people outside of R&D that it was a weak card. Happy Birthday!

Have you ever thought about representing the moment a legendary creature sparks in a different way than a flip card? Say a lengendary Aura or domething likevthat?

I think double-faced cards have become the way to show it. They’re very popular.

You said the writer in you would say two planeswalkers having a baby, the baby is likely to have a spark too. The analyst in me want ti know why. How does two planeswalking parents makes it so that their baby have a spark too, when it their birth that gives it to them(or from the Kenrith twins and Nicol Bolas&Ugin, it seems not the moment of birth but the devellopement of the fetus).

The writer in my said yes because it makes for a good story. I didn’t say the scientist in me. : )

Could you see R&D changing snow mana to specify a "snow source" rather than a "snow permanent"? At present it wouldn't change anything as snow sources are all permanent at the moment but it opens up snow rituals like you mentioned.

I don’t think we’re going to issue functional errata in order to design one or two cards.

Hi Maro— based on comments (and I agree with them)— the moment you guys introduced Arena, it became a defining way to play Magic on its own. Thus, the philosophy of “make it popular in tabletop/paper then we’ll introduce it in Arena” is a little antiquated I believe. Brawl WILL become more popular when introduced in Arena. In fact, it seems perfect and more suited for that medium. People will build their Brawl decks from their current Standard pool, find it easier to find other players, etc.

I think my last answer was received differently than I intended. If you have an interest in seeing Brawl on Magic: The Gathering Arena, it’s important for you to stress that interest so that the people choosing what to prioritize for MTG Arena will recognize the desire for Brawl. One way to do that, but not the only way, is to show enthusiasm for the format in tabletop. If you are interested in seeing Brawl on MTG Arena and have no interest in playing Tabletop Brawl, that’s fine. Just find other means to publicly express an interest. That’s all I was trying to say.

You've mentioned that you tried the most obvious implementation of Legendary sorceries (can't cast if there's already a copy in the graveyard) and decided it wanted to live in a set with a graveyard exile mechanic. Can you talk about why you chose to use the Dominaria version instead of sitting on it until the right environment came along?

Vision design did opt to “move along” as we couldn’t find a version we thought was intuitive. Set design explored some more and came up with the legendary spells mechanic (something we hadn’t tried). They chose to use it as the set had a strong legendary theme and there was this feel that the audience would expect legendary spells. It’s very easy with 20/20 hindsight and a pocketful of data to make a different call. In the moment, given the information they had, I get why they made that call.

So Mark, given that M19 did allow for going back to the past (which is why all the Elder Dragons who were dead could be put in card form) why couldn't there be a dead Planeswalker that is being taken from the past (Xenagos at the moment of his spark, Venser in a period before making it to Mirrodin/New Phyrexia)? Not a criticism, an honest question, thanks Mark!

We use the Core Set to introduce planeswalkers to newer players, so we’re less likely to introduce one to new players that’s dead. “Welcome, to Magic. Come meet our planeswalkers. Like this one? He’s dead, you’ll never see him again.”

Philosophically, the Aetherborn seem like they would at least be partly red due to their "live life in the moment" culture. Are they monoblack because the set's color balance needed it? Were they perhaps made to highlight more of black's (often overlooked) positive traits?

They made sense in Kaladesh in black, but yes on another plane they could be red.

What future, still-codenamed set are you most excited for at the moment?

There’s so much awesome coming. It’s hard to pick one. Today, I’ll say Milk.