vraska4president

[vraska4president]

[vraska4president]

Hi Mark. I know you’ve made countless contributions to Magic during your 30 years career. Let’s celebrate that! Tell us one contribution you made to Magic or WotC that you’re really proud of but perhaps is not very well known by the public.

Thanks for helping make Magic an awesome game and happy holidays.

I have a co-worker at work that enjoys me telling old cards I designed. The one that surprised her the most was that I designed (and named) Cancel. : )

[vraska4president]

Mr Rosewater we've had a few legendary skeletons at this point (1/3rd of which are just different versions of Tinybones) but none of them are skeleton typal. I'd like to request a legendary skeleton who cares about other skeletons somehow

I assume we’ll make that one day.

[vraska4president]

It's always "I can't believe you dug up those graves" and "You really built a guy out of corpse parts?" and never “How was bringing the dead to life. Was it thrilling? Was it enthralling?”

[vraska4president]

Do you think the Wild Son's plane could be Shandalar or is it more likely a new plane? Personally I think it's a new plane, mostly for two reasons: 1) Lord Faldus, the evil warlord that wanted to recruit Garruk in his army, he seems a prominent and important character on Garruk's homeworld, yet we have never heard about him outside the Wild Son, this makes me think this world is not a place we have visited yet 2) Garruk's showcase forest, this may be more subjective but I don't think it fits any forest of the worlds we already know, instead it has the same look of the woods where Garruk takes refuge in the Wild Son.

I think what the plane will be will entirely depend on if it’s ever relevant to a future story.

[vraska4president]

Magnifient sideboard tech

[vraska4president]

As an enthusiast for history, it's exciting seeing historical figures like Cleopatra and Da Vinci appear on Magic cards in the Assassin's Creed set (though of course they were fictionalised). Has the concept of a "Universes Past" set based on a real world historical setting ever been discussed?

It has been discussed.

[vraska4president]

I built a Bloodborne themed MTG commander deck and decided I needed to make some appropriate proxy tokens. Here's the first four I drew up.

It was tough deciding which things from the game to adapt into the tokens. I also plan on doing a bunch of BB specific proxies for some of the cards in the deck too.

[vraska4president]

blocking isn't enough. I want to be able to kill.

[vraska4president]

[vraska4president]

What colors would Magneto fall under? Specifically, your interpretation of him, as with Marvel Comics, you could pull basically anything to justify any color combination.

He has elements of white, black, and red.

[vraska4president]

devoting its life to inventing the basilisk not because it's afraid of being tortured for eternity but because it wants to be Her specialest girl

[vraska4president]

now that gruulfriends are back in the narrative, it’s time for me crawl out of my hole and start posting again

[vraska4president]

May I suggest you to mention in an article on the mothership the " Players returning thanks to UB sets are at least in the same order of magnitude as new players drawn to magic, if not higher" detail you mentioned on this blog? I feel that without knowing it the choice to make the sets a ramp into standard where the property end up being less than 10% of the aviable cards make a lot less sense.

I’ll suggest it.

[vraska4president]

[vraska4president]

Was Chandra given her name with the intent of her being from a Southeast Asia inspired plane. Or was her origin to be from that plane created because she had been given a common women's name in Southeast asia?

There was no home plane in mind when Chandra was named, and future appearances gave her an irish look. It was pretty clear after Kaladesh was conceived that they retroactively made it her home plane.

[vraska4president]

I find it super frustrating that you keep deflecting the comment that Magic has less IP focused sets a year by saying you're basically back to the 3/1 model only the core set isn't being remade. That isn't how people think about product release. I imagine what players care the most about for the yearly schedule is what's new. To that end you're putting out 6 products with new cards next year, 3 Magic IP and 3 UB. As a fan of the Magic IP it sucks it isn't the majority release for the Magic year.

I’m clearly aware there are players who are upset. I answer questions on this blog every day, and I’m inundated with posts from people unhappy with this latest change.

But that’s nothing new for this blog. No matter what the latest change is, I’m inundated with people who are upset, and I’m always doing my best to explain why the change is happening.

This doesn’t mean I’m not empathetic. Magic has made many changes that are not why I personally would choose to do. And it usually means I fought for something, but was in the minority, and lost.

That’s the nature of Magic. It adapts to the needs of the collective whole. It used to upset me, but I came to realize it is one of the game’s greatest strengths. It becomes the game its players need/want it to be.

The good news for Magic IP fans is it isn’t going anywhere. We’re making as much (or more) in-game Magic IP content per year than we’ve made for the vast majority of the game’s life (but yes, slightly less than the last few years).

And behind the scenes, we’re putting a lot of resources into it. Our goal is to make it a property bigger than just the TCG.

Magic is constantly in flux. I try to use this blog to help explain why, but I do get that change can be difficult. My explaining is a means to help with transition to the new way, not further upset people.

I will promise that if enough people dislike a change, we will notice, and adapt. Just be aware that you personally disliking something is not inherently a sign that a majority dislike it.

This is a long-winded way of saying I’m sorry you’re hurting. I hope with time you will find things about the latest incarnation of the game that brings you joy.