Hey Mark, has any thought been given recently to the Thunder Spirit problem?

It’s not really a problem. There’s just not a lot of desire to make that combination of abilities and stats at that cost. Creatures have just gotten better since then.

Would a 2W flying first strike 2/2 in white violate the reserve list, or not, since it isn't exactly functionally identical to Thunder Spirit? (Devotion makes it not quite strictly better)

It would not.

Have you ever accidentally almost made a functional reprint of a card on the reserve list? I feel Thunder Spirit could be a potential risk.

We’ve come close.

Why was the decision made to put Thunder Spirit on the reserved list? It's fairly decent for limited, probably around high/middle uncommon level. Otherwise weak and unplayable in any other format. The creature types are not super relevant and if it's the card name/anything specific about Thunder spirit itself why does it prevent a functional reprint? I asked myself this about a few cards while checking out the reserved list.

It was a rare and for some odd reason wasn’t saved in the 20% we could reprint.

Could Aven Sunstriker have been a 2/2 with Flying, first strike and Megamorph or would that be too close to Thunder Spirit?

Only exactly Thunder Spirit is too close to Thunder Spirit.

What is life like in the alternate reality where Thunder Spirit was never put on the reserve list?

It’s a Utopia with birds singing and world peace. : )

Have you ever tried to put in a 2/2 flying first strike for 3 into a set and realized you can't because Thunder Spirit is on the reserved list

I have. It might be the most frustrating card on the Reserved List for simple design reasons.

I'm sure you get tons of questions about the Reserve List, but I had some queries about its history that you hopefully haven't seen a million times. Can you tell us under what circumstances the Reserve List was created, and maybe give us some background into the decision? Why are some cards that are fairly balanced by today's standards and aren't particularly valuable (things like Thunder Spirit and Aeoliphile) on the List? Thanks!

The Reserved List came about in reaction to the release of Chronicles and Fourth Edition edition back in 1995. Both sets included cards that previously were very hard to obtain. Many players complained and Wizards in response made the Reserved List as a promise that they wouldn’t do this again. The Reserved List was all the rare cards from the sets at the time (and also the uncommons of the core set but those later got removed) that had not yet been reprinted. Wizards at the time then promised that each year they would tag a certain percentage of the rare cards (80% is my memory) and those cards would be added to the list. The 20% that wasn’t added were cards that were allowed to be reprinted. Right before Mercadian Masques came out, Wizards said they were stopping the adding of cards to the Reserved List. Note that the 20% were cards Wizards at the time believed were reprint able, but other than that the cards on the Reserved List weren’t about power level but rarity.