Dave Humpherys, set design lead for Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, dives into the diverse mechanics that make up this monster of a set.
magic.wizards.com
* Cards like Arboreal Grazer and Leyline Prowler were meant to be plants for the old version of mutate that only worked on creatures that shared a type or keyword.
* Mutate is centered in Simic colors.
I feel like this is the mutate most likely to actually see play, since you can "haste" out the activation cost for 1GU.
Surprised to see a mix of counters on one card.
Seems fun
* Dave Humpherys and others were very interesting in mechanics that made use of deck building constraints, and he saw an opportunity in Ikoria. It was intended to be easy to pull out if it was troublesome.
* Unlike Khans of Tarkir, there are no three-color cards at common and uncommon.
* Humans are focused in white-black.
* There are lots of cards encouraging you to play both humans and monsters.
Seems pretty good.
* Cycling is focused in white-red.
* Compared to Amonkhet, there are many more cards with low cycling costs. Due to the set's multicolored nature, few cycling costs are colored.
Meris Mullaley asks Doug Beyer, Andrew Vallas, and Jehan Choo about the creation of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoth's unique world.
magic.wizards.com
* They got people who did concept art for Simic to develop this world, of course.
* The thing that really kickstarted Ikoria was this concept image drawn for "Monster Island World"
* There was an idea of the landscape ever changing and evolving too, but that was too close to Zendikar.
* How mutate looks in-world
* Nightmares were including to appeal to fans of "whoa, what even is that?!" monsters.
* This sketch makes reference to a classic Magic card.
More art in the article.
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