• In a few sentences, what is the premise of Iapeonara: Sound of Revolution?

"Iapeonara: Sound of Revolution is a Shard faction focused Magic: The Gathering set at standard power level, inspired by Brazil's culture, traditions, and the military regime of the 1960s. It portrays a plane filled with cultural diversity, natural beauty, and ancient spiritual customs, all under the oppressive rule of 'The Iron Veil.' The set centers on a popular uprising led by bards and rebels, inspired by the rhythms of Bossa Nova and artists like Chico Buarque, as various species rise up to restore freedom and dignity."

• What inspired you to begin creating Iapeonara?

"As you might have guessed, I'm Brazilian. The idea for this set came to me while researching some history for a project. It sparked a vision of a "fantasy" Brazil, which I created before I even started playing Magic. After I got into Magic and began designing custom cards, the release of the capybara creature type in Ixalan gave me the push to revive and rewrite my old lore and integrate it into an MTG set."

• Where would you say Iapeonara is in the development process?

"The set's development is moving along! I’ve pretty much completed all the commons and have the archetypes and skeleton of the set in place. Now I just need to finish some uncommons, rares, and mythics, and clean up or redesign a few cards."

• This set takes a bit of an interesting approach to a multicolored limited environment. Could you explain why you choose to give the set a multicolor focus as well as what made you choose the M20 approach to three-color factions rather than the traditional approach?

"From the start, I envisioned Iapeonara as a three-color environment. As a newer Magic player, Streets of New Capenna (SNC) first came to mind, but while I loved the aesthetics and mechanics, it didn’t fully encourage drafting three colors the way I wanted. I looked to Khans of Tarkir (KTK) for inspiration, since it hit Arena just as I began planning the set. KTK did a fantastic job promoting three-color drafting, so I blended it with some ideas from M20, where archetypes bridged an allied and two enemy color combination to form their wedge based archetypes. This diversity aligned perfectly with the set’s theme of portraying Brazil's rich variety, encouraging players to explore 3+ color decks."

• Iapeonara is a set that tackles a culture not previously represented in MTG. Could you share how you've managed to balance the top-down pressures of accurately portraying that culture with the mechanical pressures of the set's limited environment?

"Balancing the cultural elements of Iapeonara with mechanical design has been challenging but rewarding. The Tupã spirits, musical themes, and variety of species all reflect Brazil’s essence, while mechanics like 'Compose' and 'Commune' enhance the gameplay experience. I didn’t stress too much about the specific color identities of creature types—I’ve got a green vampire, a white Azra, a WUB elf—it’s all about embracing the set’s diversity. The draft environment, with each region representing one of Brazil’s five geopolitical regions, helped ground the cultural aspects in gameplay."

• What is your favorite card in Iapeonara?

"Choosing a favorite card is very ver very hard (feels like picking a favorite child!) But if I had to choose, I’d say CordaTupã of Time. In my opinion this card captures the diversity of the plane’s species and the concept of the Tupãs as these powerful spirits. It’s not the most powerful card, but I love its clean, elegant design. Plus, I’m always thrilled to feature Brazilian art, and João Queiroz’s work in this card is fantastic."

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

"I’d like to thank a few people who helped bring this set to life: Stasis for assisting me in setting up and fine-tuning the mechanics, DrChipmunk and Enter for providing solid feedback on my designs, and Laurel for helping me think through the mechanics more deeply. While not on this server, i think it would be unfair to not give a shoutout to the folk in the MSE server for Always being very helpful for this and other projects."