• In a few sentences, what is the premise of Welcome to the Unternet!?

"Welcome to the Unternet! is a high-complexity, low-seriousness, high-powered retail limited set that Wizards could never, ever print; Modern Horizons meets Unfinity meets the 2022be. The goal is to create a retail limited draft environment that plays like a powered cube, while being funny in a way that’ll make you sharply exhale out your nose (read: laugh)."

• What inspired you to begin creating Welcome to the Unternet!?

"I was originally inspired to start making goofy art edits by Chill’s 2022be. I gradually filled a set file (named simply “Ideas” to very this day) with random designs, but it wasn’t until I played Unfinity and saw the discourse about stickers that the project really started to take shape. I set out to make the most cursed set possible, heavily featuring digital-only mechanics, stickers, and planeswalkers/land destruction at common, to give a home to the silly cards that had accumulated in my “Ideas” file."

• Where would you say Welcome to the Unternet! is in the development process?

"Welcome to the Unternet! is still in early development. Getting the common skeleton where I want took much longer than expected, especially given the hiatus, but the set file is STUFFED and we are rapidly approaching our first commons-only draft."

• Unternet is marketed as high-powered-cube-level of shenanigans, how do you balance that high power with keeping the set feeling fun and approachable?

"While the power is high, I’ve tried to keep commons within a certain complexity band. They tend to do one thing, and do that thing well. So at common, the shenanigans come from interactions between simple pieces — like Ctrl+Z’ing a grip of tapelands — and higher rarities change the rules in a way that makes each draft feel unique. Because it’s retail limited, you don’t have to know the whole set going in, and there’s the opportunity to be surprised by a card you’ve never seen before. It also helps that the tone is very silly."

• How has allowing stickers to be placed on hidden and opponents' cards affected how you design the set?

"It’s opened up the design space a lot, for one. I think ditching sticker sheets and entering this hypothetical space where no one’s cards get hurt really lets the mechanic shine: for example, using stickers to modify cards in hand, or combining flicker effects with etb stickers. That means I need to pay careful attention to what sticker can go on which permanent, particularly recursive creatures. It can also introduce a lot of complexity, so a lot of stickers at low rarities are art stickers, which in turn inspired the multiple types of art tribal in the set!"

• What is your favorite card in Welcome to the Unternet!?

"This card features my favorite piece of rules text: "This works.""

• Would you like to give any special thanks to anyone for their help?

"Obviously Chill, for their work on and discussion of 2022be, and everyone in the ⁠unternet channel, for their advice, suggestions, and submissions. Without them, we wouldn’t have bangers like Griselbear."