nameitlater asked:

I've seen you field the question a fair amount of times recently and you state market research supports the that most players like humanoid PW characters more. I don't doubt the notion, but isn't it an unnecessary slight to a seemingly-vocal subset of fans to not make a crazier, fantasy-monster PW once in a while? Throw us a bone (please)! I know these things take time and you might already be on it, but I also know some fans would be over the moon for an odd monster smart enough to be a PW.

We make crazy fantasy monsters all the time and occasionally even make them legendary creatures so they can be things like commanders. If players want to bond with crazy fantasy monsters, we have you covered.

Planeswalkers are our story conduit. Things that we can make main characters in our stories, not just in the trading card game, but through other expressions like the Netflix series. We have a limited number of slots, so we need to be careful with how we use that resource.

And note we have two Dragon planeswalkers, a hybrid Dryad/Treefolk planeswalker, a Golem planeswalker, a Demon planeswalker, a Minotaur planeswalker, a Merfolk planeswalker, a Goblin planeswalker, a Gorgon planeswalker, an Elf planeswalker, a Vampire planeswalker, a Werewolf planeswalker, a Leonin planeswalker, a Vedalken planeswalker, a Kor planeswalker, a Moonfolk planeswalker, a Cyborg planeswalker, a Satyr planeswalker, a Devil planeswalker and whatever the hell Ashiok is.

We’re not shying away from doing crazy fantasy things, but yes we lean towards humanoids because that’s what best fills the function of what we need planeswalkers to do.

And while I respond to questions like this all the time making it seem like a large pool of players wants non-humanoid planeswalkers, our data actually shows it’s a very tiny percentage.

So they don’t work all that well for how we need to use them and statistically speaking they’re unpopular. We still just made Wrenn and Six. We’re not saying we’ll never do weirder stuff, but it’s something that has to come organically out of a need we have rather than just doing something to say we did it.

And trust me, I know the message that most people don’t want the thing you want is frustrating to hear, but I’m trying to use this blog to be honest with all of you and explain business realities. Most players want something, we’ll make it. Some players want something, we’ll do it where we can. A few players want something, we’ll fit it in if we find a place where it makes sense, but we’re not going to force it. That’s how a multi-million dollar brand works. I’m just being brutally straight-forward.