Just FYI my wife (the one who once called you "the Taylor Swift of game design") is requesting a "Court of Thorns and Roses" Universes Beyond. She says lots of women would play. I'm just the messenger!

I’ll pass it along. It’s the first time I’ve been compared to Taylor Swift. : )

Out of all the sets you’re working on right now, which is the farthest along in the timeline? Alternatively, what’s the distance between vision design and release date?

Cairo is the in-universe Magic set that is the farthest out. It’s in vision design. I start exploratory design on a Universes Beyond set in August. The end of vision design to print is two to three years. In-universe Magic sets are closer to release than Universe Beyond ones when they come out of vision design.

What are the chances of getting some (i wouldn't want it to be all of them by any means, but some) in-universe commander precons that go all-in on theme and flavor like Universes Beyond precons do, where everything has an appropriate name and gets new art if it doesn't already fit? Something like that for, say, the guilds seems really fun

I won’t say it won’t or can’t happen, but I don ’t expect it to be something we do often with in-universe Commander decks.

"Why has the bar for supplemental sets gotten higher? Is it universes beyond?Universes Beyond and Modern Horizons are the biggest two causes." That really sucks, a lot of us really looked forward to the summer supplemental sets because of how fun they were, 2 headed giant draft and conspiracy immediately come to mind.

The bar gets raised because new products do well. More players play them, more players buy them, and more players rank them higher in market research. It’s not some diabolical plot. It’s the game evolving towards what the players are most enjoying.

To the Mark asking about cubes - I am working on my first cube, a Universes Beyond cube. I like how many of these cards that were not designed to be drafted are recontextualized by the draft environment. Currently, the pool of cards to select archetypes from is somewhat small, which is the largest drawback.

Sounds like fun. The Universes Beyond cube will get stronger, and easier to do, with time.

I have a sales question. LOTR, I believe, is the best selling set of all time, right? And if I recall, the best selling commander set of all time is Fallout, behind that being Warhammer. Goes to imply the Marvel sets will likely be the next highest selling sets of all time, if not just behind LOTR. My question is, doesn't this show WOTC should mostly just pivot to UB as the new 'standard' with old planes as the less visited product?

While will continue to do Universes Beyond as there is an obvious audience, but the Magic in-universe sets (which we call “MIP sets”) also serve an important function. There are a lot of fans who love Magic’s IP, and having sets that we have don’t have to interface with outside partners has a lot of advantages.

I feel like a lot of established MtG players underestimate how much the genre mashup and Universes Beyond sets expand to new demographics. A friend and I 100% started playing Magic because of Outlaws of Thunder Junction. We are now SUPER EXCITED for Bloomburrow and Duskmourne too. (I was exposed to Magic in college but that was a decade+ ago.)
It's not an exaggeration to say that without the cowboys set, I would not be playing Magic right now.
Anyway just wanted to share that positive message.

Thanks for the message.

Is marvel going to do the thing where you out the name of the attack on the card? What do you call that and is it popular? I liked its use in universes beyond properties as flavor.

They’re called flavor words. I can’t comment yet if the Marvel sets will use them.

You mentioned a while back that, when Universes Beyond began, you called dibs on any hypothetical Marvel set before it had even begun. Are you allowed to tell us other media you called dibs on? (Obviously, you can't tell us whether they *are* going to happen, but ones you'd be leading if they do)

I basically called dibs on most comic book-inspired properties. : )

Hi markDo you think that some of the criticisms about Universes Beyond (that dilutes to much of the flavor of the original game) and the one block structure oposed to the old 3 blocks per plane (which I heard people say that it does not give enough room to explore and get the feel of the plane) are valid? Do you think that this modern configuration is just a new way for the game to appeal to younger audiences that are more inclined to get excited about something for a short amount of time and need constant new things to keep the attention going?

The audience, through their buying habits, have expressed a strong preference for the current system over blocks. I don’t know how much of that has to do with the make-up of the playerbase.