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@mcfernis

30 posts

Hey Mark,

With the penny being officially retired, I would like your 5 cents worth on this issue:

How is it that the CASUAL magic format, Commander, that is intentionally social, still doesn't have UnSet cards, the official casual magic cards, allowed in it?

A deck can contain every MLD card there is, and within the rules of Commander with no special requirements, but having a Hurloon Wrangler requires you convene a subcommittee?

Why do you think the CASUAL format of Commander isn't allowed to be ultimate expression of Casual (without subcommittee meetings, and voting)?

You feel my pain. : )

As a followup, if you don't mind... Do UnSet have to have "Un" in the name? I was thinking a draftable Commander UnSet (think Commander Legends) called Commandeer would be great if not.

Although, I am really holding out for the Secret UnSet you have been developing called "Unexpected" that is going to be launched by Surprise in 2028 on the 30th Anniversary of Unglued.

Hey Mark! So goblins outside of red tend to lean black the most. To me, Boros makes more sense. I’d love to see some goblin typal Boros commanders. Thoughts on this color combo?

I would argue Goblins are not particularly white. I’m not saying we couldn’t create a world with white Goblins, but it’s far from their natural chaotic state.

Consider this if you will. Goblins are so insanely orderly that we lesser creatures, unable to parae their patterns, see only chaos...

I used to be a skeptic ,but today I ended up trying a full Un-deck (the list Ben Brode played during the Commander at Home live show) and It was probably the most fun I've had playing Commander EVER! I had no idea how much silly fun the un cards actually are, thanks for making them! Theyre the perfect fit for a social fun-first format like commander , I encourage everyone else to try playing un-cards in Commander if they haven't already!

Always happy to hear from Un-fans.

@markrosewater

We call fans of Un, "Funs".

least favorite card?

Today I’ll say Maze of Ith.

Why?

"Me not telling you that there’s a surprise party for you next week does not make me a liar in any ethical sense."

You knew players (at least us online ones on here) saw UB in Standard as a bad thing.

It's less like lying about a surprise party, and more like telling your kids their mother doesn't have cancer when they notice she's getting skinnier, pretending everything is okay, and then coming out with "Oh, she'll probably be dead in the couple of days."

Yes, most fans according to data like UB. Great. But those aren't the people you are speaking to with these asks.

They're other neighbourhood kids who don't care whether they know.

But for those of us that do, that clearly didn't like the idea, stop pretending it was a party. It wasn't. That's just another way you're being disingenuous about it all.

The second I knew Universes Beyond was going to be in Standard, I stopped saying it wouldn’t be. I didn’t tell you it was going to be, because we don’t announce things until they become relevant for you (as we work so far ahead), but I stop saying things I know not to be true.

Any post you can find where I say this is how we’re doing things. At that time, that was how we were doing things.

The only “white lies” I say are about things that I believe will make some players happy that we expect to be exciting when we announce it (such as us returning to Kamigawa or Lorwyn). And even then I use language like “I’m skeptical”. I don’t say things won’t happen that I know are going to happen. In fact, I seldom say things couldn’t happen. One of my mantras is “I never say never.”

So this idea that I know “bad things” are happening and continue to lie to you about them simply isn’t true.

So, if Mark Stops saying they won't reprint the Reserve List, we know it is getting reprinted? If Mark isn't saying we are sticking to 5 Colors of Magic, then Purple as six, Orange as seven, and Yellow as eight are on the way?

To say, I stopped voluntarily stating that UB was NOT going to be in Standard as a way of being honest is called a Lie of Omission.

I'm often very empathetic to issues with Magic design, but I genuinely think the "common legendary creature issue" is a problem of your own making. If a UB property can't stand on its two feet without having a dozen legendary creatures at common in the set, I feel like that UB property genuinely should not be a consideration for UB. I know obviously you disagree but I think that's what separates the strong UB properties for Magic versus the weaker ones.

It's an ongoing part of a bigger problem that already exists. If I want to make a 1G, 2/2 that says "All Dogs get +1/+1.", choosing whether or not it's legendary forces me to take a card two different groups would adore and only let one group play with it.

The goal of Magic design is to give players what the fundamentally want. When you turn a property into a Magic set, the fans of that property want to see the things they most emotionally connect to. For most properties, that's the characters. Saying we should only do properties more about environment than characters (because that's what Magic does) would be cutting off a lot of very popular properties.

And we'll make a lot of sets without common legendary creatures, because we can. But if we fundamentally aren't delivering what players really want, we're just making sub-optimal design choices.

And again, it's the drawback to legendary that's the issue, not the fact that common creatures represent characters you know.

As a common theme of today, I can't predict the future. And what I believe is not necessarily what the majority of R&D believes, and nothing is changing until R&D, as a whole, agrees to change it. I'm just pointing out that there's a certain game mechanic that has been causing problems for a long time, that I, as Head Designer, would love to change because I think it would lead to us having better tools to design cards and would lead to cards more players would enjoy.

No, no, no - please do not get rid of the Legendary Mechanic. The limitation of only having one of any given named legendary permanent on the battlefield at a time is a great way to limit things. Making a card a "dead card in hand" is a good Constraint.

Having 4 Tolarian Academy's on the battlefield at once, would have been even worse. Having 4 Ragavans on the battlefield at once, this is NOT a better space to be in. 4 Meathook Massacres, 4 Vivis, 4 Oko, 4 Omnaths, 4 Jace the Mind Sculptors... How is this a better game state?

Have there ever been proposals about just, re-releasing a set as a bonus bit of product for a year? There are certain draft environments that are beloved but the sets are out of print now so they're too expensive to get hold of (eg original Innistrad), is there a market for such rereleases so players can do "flashback drafts" (a name stolen from MTGArena as they'll sometimes do reruns of older sets (in the context of Arena's lifetime, so back to Ixalan or so))?

The challenge is when a set goes out of print, we have promised not to print that exact same set again.

Good day Sage of Renton,

When is a set officially out of Print? Like is Neon Dynasty and New Capenna out of Print? Is Brothers War and Warhammer 40k out of print?

If or when, old un cards that work within the rules, reprinted in a black border?

If. We can reprint them with new names. Making them legal but exist only in silver border is a bigger challenge.

I really need Krark's Other Thumb in Black Border!

Following up on my previous ask: do you think that "Power Metal/Hard Rock World" could be added to the Not Very Short List? Would love an entire set that looks like it came off of a Meatloaf album cover 😁

I can add it.

Here here! A world of Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Blind Guardian, Visions of Atlantis, Dio, Helloween, Nightwish, Sabaton, etc.

After two sets of them, I've realized I don't care for common legendary creatures very much. I don't mind them necessarily when they're the second version of a popular character that got a single higher rarity card as well, but when they're one of 6 or more versions of a character in the main set alone they contribute to that feeling of too many versions in the same product. As for characters whose only card is a common, it's not as bad when it's an obscure or incredibly minor character who might not have gotten a card otherwise, but when popular characters like Jennika from TMNT have their only card being an underwhelming common, it's a huge disappointment to the fans. And how "popular" a given character is can be tricky to actually track because every character is someone's favorite. It just feels like for every positive of common legendary creatures, there's an equal if not greater potential negative.

There are some good discussions about how many versions should exist of a single character, but I think you are glossing over the biggest advantage of common legendary creatures.

The number one advantage is more people get to open up a pack with a card of their favorite character. Many of you are enfranchised players (being you are on my blog), so you open *way* more cards than the average player.

Being in common, also means the character is relevant in limited in a lot more games. Having the crux of games be minor characters that many don’t know does not deliver on the property as well as it could.

And yes, the sets have to be designed to address the legendary drawback (and there are ways to do it). Longtime readers know I’ve been trying to get rid of the drawback (unsuccessfully) for years.

The Legend Rule isn't a drawback, it is a parameter. That is like saying having a 7-card hand is a drawback, having only 20 life is a drawback, drawing only one card per turn is a drawback, having Lands is a drawback.

Just because we don’t like the way a rule works, doesn't make it a drawback.

The Legend Rule is far "kinder" now than it once was. Clone used to be Creature Removal, and given that power to Blue was a bit much, especially with all the copy abilities nowadays - so augmenting the Rule made sense.

But getting rid of the ONE distinction a Legendary Permanent has seems like a bad course of action. It would be like making Sorceries into Instants.

Hi Mark! What do I need to do to be able to one day get a Nicol Bolas onesie like the one Vorthos (the Human Gamer) has? Pictured in her card and the Attraction card [[Trivia Contest]]

The more people that ask for it, the better.

Asking, for a friend!

Every day I see a new Squen and Cragg video is a day with an extra smile. High fives to those responsible, and please keep them coming!

High fives shall be delivered.

Yes, we need more of them. I am thinking a Netflix Series.

If or when, a red tutor with "tutor" in the name

Mr. Mark,

Any reason this would have to be an Acorn card in 2026?

What is the issue with printing beebles? I feel completely lost every time they are brought up? I remember them from Urza block, but don't understand why they can't be printed.

There’s a belief that they are a bit too silly.

We will have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Cheesey Islands, Spider Man with Bagels and Hot Dogs, Students from Strixhaven fighting Captain James T. Kirk, Kraang, Captain America, and Bilbo Baggins on the Starship Enterprise, in STANDARD by the end of the Year - and Beebles are too Silly???

Do Over Day: Nephilim?

I would have found another set for them, and I would have made them legendary.

Sounds like an inclusion in Modern Horizons 4, or a Secret Lair... "Named" Legendary Nephilim.

Piggybacking off the ask about making Instant a supertype, do you think we'd see more instant speed permanents if they were Instant Creatures (for example) instead of creatures with flash?

A little more, but maybe a smidgeon less on legendary permanents. Although, if we’re doing do-overs, legendary would be a shorter word and only be a marker.

What does it means when you say "only be a marker?" Is that like the card type symbols on the Future Sight cards, or the color dot on the back of transform cards?

@markrosewater

Thank you for all the hardwork you and the rest of the MTG team do.

Are you able to comment on if we can hope to see more MYSTICAL ARCHIVES and/or Learn/Lesson cards on our return to Strixhaven.

Mystical Archives have been one of my favorite bonus sheets, from both a frame design, art work selection, card selection, and the alternative Japanese language cards.

Thank you

#mtg commander #mtg #magic the gathering #strixhaven

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