Has it ever been considered to add being destroyed to the list of things protection prevents? I know it changes what the mechanic does, but it is WILDLY UNINTUITIVE that something like “protection from white” doesn’t protect a creature from something like wrath of god

Most destruction is targeted, so it matches intuition. The problem with untargeted effects is there isn’t a clean way for the rules to reference them. Trust me, we’ve tried.

In Alpha, protection was an exemption from everything, like, a Black Knight was immune to Wrath of God for a hot second there until they clarifed the rules. The more strict rules of Revised and on could not do that so they settled on the damaged, enchanted, blocked and targeted effects. Interestingly, with today's tech (like phasing's "Treat it as it doesn't exist") they could change the rules so it works like it did originally, if they wanted to. Not sure that would play well although it'd be easier to learn.

The original version of protection made sense from a general intuitive sense, but it didn’t actual work in the rules. It was very hands-wavey. The game can’t function like that. The rules need to be very exact. We have to be able to program them for digital versions, for example. So, I don’t think there is a viable way to return to the “old way”.

When designing a card… How much mana would you personally add to a strong sorcery to make it safe at instant speed? Something like a Wrath of God or Armageddon for example.

There’s no set amount of mana as it changes based on what the effect is. For instance, things that can affect combat become significantly more powerful as an instant than a sorcery.

could white get "Each player sacrifices each creature they control" for 2WW?

Not a play designer, but my gut it’s too good at that cost. Wrath of God is already strong and this card is stronger.

You (or one of the readers of this blog) wouldn't happen to have the gif of the original damnation spoiler where the wrath of god changed into it would you?

We recently looked for it for an article, but it wasn’t usable based on how it was originally created.

On the topic of protection from wrath of God, can the rules even identify an effect that affects a permanent without targetting it?

No, that’s part of the problem.

Have you guys ever discussed some kind of "Protection" that allow a creature to completely ignore effects from a certain color (even global effects)?

We’ve tried for years to make an ability that protects a creature from Wrath of God to very little success. The rules have problems protecting from untargetted, non-damage based effects.

Hey mark, you stated earlier that destroying all enchantments is uncommon (back to nature comes to mind). And that made me wonder. How come that desteoying all enchantments or destroying all artifacts (shatterstorm) are possible at uncommon, but destroying all creatures (wrath of god) or destroying all lands (armageddon) are always rares?

Because they’re more impactful and we want them happening less in limited.

Have you seen the top 8 of the Magic Bracket? Would love to hear your thoughts on the 8 cards that have survived the mother of all tournament brackets. (FYI, top 8 is: Lightning bolt vs Counterspell, Wrath of God vs Ancestral Recall, Birds of Paradise vs Dark Confidant and Jace, the Mind Sculptor vs Black Lotus)

The Top 8 are all classic Magic cards. I’m curious to see which one takes it all. I’m honored that I had a hand in two of them (Dark Confidant and Jace, Mind Sculptor).

Even if regenerate was still evergreen, would you print Wrath of God in a core set?

Probably not.