February 2012
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fangfabio asked: I've just watched The Sorcerer's Apprentice, but didn't see any Magic connection. Did I miss something?
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hunter61 asked: Which set is Shawn Main working on?
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fangfabio asked: What's the probability of opening an specific mythic rare in a booster of a large set? What about in a small set?
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hunter61 asked: Aren't you forgetting Max McCall and Billy Moreno? They were GDS contestants as well.
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fangfabio asked: When you use a design skeleton, every card has a rarity. But what about top-down designed sets? E.g., if you want to design a jar of eyeballs or a creepy doll, how do you start designing them if you don't know what rarity they are? Or did you designed them as rares from the beggining? I guess you'd have designed a very different jar of eyeballs or creepy doll, should they've been...
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ddi-pixelvenser asked: That's not related to basically anything you do except for being part of Magic, but, who was the artist behind the creation of the Magic card back? And by the way, the Deckmaster thing, I always noticed and found it nice, too bad it's obsolete like you said. =/
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natespringer asked: They always promised that tarmogoyf wouldn't get reprinted but i've heard a lot of rumors that we might see him again. Is this still a promise wizards intends to keep?
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bickhamscript asked: What set(s) have had a milling theme? Milling is my favorite alternate win condition! "I'm sorry, did I make you forget all your spells? Muahahahaha!!"
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phalanxrobot asked: What was the Deckmaster image on the card back supposed to represent?
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uticayouthevents asked: Here's the list of books (part 1). Also emailed you via the Magic website with the full list including links, since I can't post links here. Next Level Magic by Patrick "The Innovator" Chapin; Deckade by Michael Flores; My Files Part One by Zvi Moshowitz; Understanding Gush by Stephen Menendian; Johnny Magic and the Card Shark Kids: How a Gang of Geeks Beat the Odds and...
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uticayouthevents asked: books continued - Secret Force: The Quest for the Pro Tour 2 by Jamie Wakefield; Grinder: The Brad Nelson Story by Rich Hagon. Thanks for answering so many of my questions recently. Also, have you heard this Tha Gatherin' (Bill Boulden and Patrick Chapin's Magic rap album on StarCityGames)?
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serpens asked: I don't doubt that designing 4-colour cards is quite hard; I know it'd completely go over my head. Could you explain how each of the Nephilim embodies "not the fifth colour"?
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eternalcheechako asked: Has the addition of the mythic rarity made designing rares easier or harder?
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zerwyn asked: Do we have a chance to see a set with an 'alternate win condition' theme? Or would it break the core of the game (20 damage = death)?
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nutellakingdom asked: Is it possible for us to see more cards with the "Stars" Power/Toughness, like Nightmare or Broodstar ?
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cryptrat asked: If I remember correctly, you said that Design adds vanilla creatures into sets. To what degree is Development involved with the end result of this?
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fangfabio asked: I know it's not your field of expertise but I don't think I could ask this in custome service, so I hope you can help me. How bad is it to play a DKA-DKA-DKA draft? I have a DKA booster box and I love to draft, but I don't have any ISD boosters. Thanks!
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ellerycrane asked: When you're trying to make a theme important to a set, what kind of ratios do you usually use in your design skeleton? Something like two to three mechanics based around the theme, and then 15% of the cards have each mechanic? (Side note: just noticed that there are exactly 13 creatures in DKA with undying. Nice.)
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a-screaming-clear-area asked: How many of the GDS1 & 2 contestants are still working at Wizards?
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chillspeaks asked: I'm guessing that there haven't been many days of Magic R&D productivity lost recently? :)
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fangfabio asked: Dexterity cards? What are those?
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omegaplatinum asked: You've once again brought up my favorite tribe: Squirrels. Is there ANY possibility of seeing a "From the Vault: Squirrels" or any kind of casual deck product to bring them back in the not-so-distant future?
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uticayouthevents asked: Is there a "reserve list" for cards that were printed solely in products such as Commander, Planechase or Archenemy? Or could they be reprinted in future sets? For example, could we go to Trest someday and find Edric reprinted?
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eternalcheechako asked: Can we get some more of your "what X says/what X means" comics?
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paperparachute asked: So there's clearly going to be an increased focus on demons in Avacyn Restored. But some of the other monster types will still get some love too, right?
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havelockv asked: You create a product that has to satisfy a lot of people. What would you do differently with Magic if the only person you had to satisfy was yourself? (Aside from printing a card that doubles your Beebles.)
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lizcrissplanty asked: You've talked about doing improvisational comedy in college. What kind of improv did you do: long-form or short-form? How was the experience?
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cowthulhuth asked: Color combinations are very popular, but there are not many four color cards. Do you see in the future a block or something similar focused on this aspect? What's the most difficult thing about making a card with that many colors? I think if there are enough cards to support them, like in the shards block, they can be playable and fun in casual or commander games. Any other opinions?
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bentheflyer asked: I would just like to say that it feels like you really hit a sweet spot for commons and uncommons in the Innistrad block. Many of the most powerful cards are at lower rarities (like Lingering Souls). As someone without a huge Magic budget, thank you!
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dukkhasatva asked: In today's article, you've said that Zendikar made you care about your land drop, but not other aspects. How does that factor the allies or vampires' 10-or-less-life subthemes? Doesn't every set have a few subthemes besides the main theme? So yes, 15 things that care about thing A, but also those 5 things that care about thing B and five things that care about thing C.
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ranapuer asked: Can you show us a preview card from Mood Swings?
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fangfabio asked: Since Lorwyn, we have planeswalkers (which change a lot of thing, right?), and around that, New World Order was "established", right? Why isn't Modern based on sets from NWO? Besides, one of the goals of making Modern, if not *the* goal, was to make a non-rotating format easily available to current players, wasn't it?
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cryptrat asked: What have the GDS (1 and/or 2) winners been up to lately?
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spaceyjdjames asked: Do "-" or " " in Stone-Cold Basilisk's name count as letters for the purpose of determining what creatures are destroyed?
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maromanofmydreams asked: Will we ever see a reprint of Damnation?
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topiotts asked: Was there ever a consideration in the return of dexterity cards?
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uticayouthevents asked: A question was asked about the planeswalkers first appearing Lorwyn, and you mentioned that they were originally slated for Future Sight. I've asked a few times, but was Jaya Ballard originally a planeswalker? The 3 abilities looks like a prototype...
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uticayouthevents asked: In regards to the earlier post about books to learn about Magic, I have a list. I'm a librarian that runs Magic programs at my library, and have added these to our collection. Is there a way to post the list?
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segoli asked: Who designed the cards that appear in the film The Sorcerer's Apprentice? And is there any possibility that we could see silver-bordered versions of these cards?
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williamwriting asked: Is there a list of cards you have designed?
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eternalcheechako asked: One thing that I got from your article was that designing commons are hard because of the high volume necessary, and uncommons are hard because of the small amount of available space. Is there no way to alleviate both of these problems simultaneously?
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eternalcheechako asked: Does having the clear but strict guidelines contained in the New World Order make design harder or easier?
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eternalcheechako asked: Could you clarify the modern use of design skeletons? I recall a comment from you a while back where you stated that sets you designed didn't necessarily have them anymore.
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pseudolias asked: I read your newest article recently, & in it you said that there are few commons with more than 3; Blue gets 1 & green 1 or 2, if I recall. But I can can think of plenty of red commons with 4 or more power from recent sets. Perhaps you don't recognize the names (Since IIRC, you know most cards by their playtest names.) but Wall of Torches, Arc Runner, Flameborn Hellion, Bonebreaker...
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bearsonhoverboards asked: Do you play DnD? Does anyone you know from the DnD team play Magic?
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confessionsofapuzzledwizard asked: You said to eternalcheechako that when someone reads "Stone-Cold Basilisk" they can't respond to the turning to stone ability, why is this? It's worded like a basic triggered ability and even abilities from unhinged must use the stack, as a judge, I don't see why the player can't respond to the ability.
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"Nuts & Bolts: Higher Rarities" →
This is my fourth annual “Nuts & Bolts” column where I talk about how to make your own Magic set.