• In a few sentences, what is the premise of Valir?

"Valir: The Banished Isle is a 3-color faction set focused on 5 different creature classes across the shard color pairings, featuring Esper Warlocks, Grixis Rogues, Jund Mercenaries, Naya Rebels, and Bant Druids. It takes place on a secluded island-city plane cut off from the rest of the multiverse by a spiteful pre-mending planeswalker centuries prior, as different factions begin to clash over a remnant of that planeswalker's power to either liberate their loved ones or further their own ends."

• What inspired you to begin creating Valir?

"My initial dive into this project began with very loose ideas back in 2016, while I was embroiled in my love for Dishonored leading up to and during the release of its sequel. I loved the idea of seeing some of the ideas there come to life on cards, and what started as the equivalent to a modern-day Universes Beyond set morphed into the plane I've got now. I leaned into imagery inspired by that game's world, populated the set with Rogues and Assassins as kindred types for the project to focus on, and ran off with my imagination. The world evolved from there, taking form as the secluded island plane it is now, and while many things look substantially different compared to nine years ago I think some of the set's influences are still visible on its sleeve."

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

"Valir is currently being built back up after a heavy shift in approach at the start of the year. I'm putting the finishing touches on the commons and finding the last few pieces of art there, as well as getting uncommons-upward designed, arted, and polished as I go, with over half off the cards above common in some state closing in on complete. The hope is that I can have a clean enough version of the set to submit to the next Field Test to put the constructed-aimed cards through their paces, and I have a further-off goal of having the set ready to submit for one of the next Revolution rotations, be it at the turn of the year or at the two-set rotation next May."

• Valir's mechanical environment has gone through a lot of iteration. What is most important to you when it comes to making mechanics, and how have you approached refining Valir to accomplish those goals?

"The three biggest priorities for me when designing mechanics for this set have been about how I can best create meaningful strategic overlap between factions and colors, supplement or support the different factions' intended playstyles, and ensure that each mechanic feels thematically and flavorfully linked to their corresponding faction. In most cases, the mechanic came about from a desired play pattern for the faction emerging, such as wanting to push an Esper sacrifice strategy for Warlocks or a creature-storm feel for Rebels. Making sure I strike that balance between flavor and function has remained on my mind as I iterate, and that includes my current foray into including Escape as a factionless mechanic to give all five colors a bit of added splash on designs where I feel they make sense and give noncreature spells something interesting to do in such a creature-focused set."

• We tend to see typal sets focus on races, such as Ixalan's Merfolk, Dinosaur, and Vampire factions or Bloomburrow's various animal factions. Valir, on the other hand, focuses on classes. What inspired that decision, and how did it affect designing your factions?

"As I mentioned previously, it really started at a simple baseline of trying to adapt Rogues and Assassins into the set in honor of the game that inspired it, but as I filled more of the world out it became clear to me that there needed to be more going on than just thieves and killers. I started pulling Rebels into the set and initially treated the project as a window to give less-supported creature types some love, though Rogues, Assassins, and even Rebels have had a bit more support in the years since this set began. The biggest challenge in figuring out which factions felt right was in making sure there was enough visual distinctions to separate them without leaving any one feeling out of place within the world or setting—factions built around types such as Assassins and Knights took a step back in favor of what are now Mercenaries and Druids respectively. So ultimately, it's been less a puzzle of mechanical design and more a challenge of artistic direction."

• What is your favorite card in Valir?

"My favorite cards in the set fluctuate as I design, but for the time being, I really love the design seed for Frontline Victor. It's evocative of familiar temporary haste threats like Ball Lightning or Reinforced Ronin, with enough setting it apart to make it a meaningful tool to help get repeat Momentum triggers for Rebels over the course of the game."

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

"There are so many people that have helped me over the many years I've been chipping away at this project, from the folks that have frequented my current set channel and weighed in my mechanical reworks, to friends at my LGS and external online playgroups that have given me access to non-designer perspectives on how fun the cards look and feel, to people that remember and engaged with much earlier versions of this project years ago when I had the original channel for it—I'm so grateful to all of you for sticking by what I'm making and helping me guide it to where I want it to be. I do want to give a particular shout-out to the Revolution Curators that have popped by the channel here and there to weigh in on when designs are starting to stray from the power level the format tends to work with (or chime in when they're excited about a specific design!), as well as to DrChipmunk for providing so much assistance in getting a rough feel for how the limited environment looks from an overhead perspective."