Personally, I'm looking forward to whenever Scars of Mirrodin/New Phyrexia/Mirrodin Pure is confirmed. The Ravnica storyline ended in a kind of status quo, where everything that made Ravnica special from other planes was shattered, except for that which nobody knew about. (Spoilors nty)
I don't think so. Arabian Nights has an incredibly strong cultural background coming from the original source material (ie. the name of the set) and Mirage brought in some African mythology as well. Kamigawa might be the most recent blatant cultural mythology, but it certainly wasn't the first.
This is true. My point, however, is that, while Arabian Nights and Mirage drew from non-Western mythologies for inspiration, Magic was not yet popular in either the Middle East or Africa. Kamigawa was then the first set when the designers and creative team had to tackle the idea that they were using a mythology for inspiration that some of their playerbase would likely be intimately familiar with, while other players would not be.
Returning to an old plane is welcome.
For one, lots of block mechanics in Mirrodin, Kamigawa, Ravnica, even Lorwyn and Alara are yet unexplored. Ravnica has 10 mechanics not fully expanded in all colors, perhaps when the guilds break mechanics will now spread. Affinity can be tied to cards in hand, life, or some other resource outside the battlefield. Splice as we know can be not limited to Arcane, and the Spiritcraft or soulshift mechanic can give rise to similar mechanics.
Flavor wise it would be a good return to as we want to know what happened after their respective storylines.
This is true. My point, however, is that, while Arabian Nights and Mirage drew from non-Western mythologies for inspiration, Magic was not yet popular in either the Middle East or Africa. Kamigawa was then the first set when the designers and creative team had to tackle the idea that they were using a mythology for inspiration that some of their playerbase would likely be intimately familiar with, while other players would not be.
For one, lots of block mechanics in Mirrodin, Kamigawa, Ravnica, even Lorwyn and Alara are yet unexplored. Ravnica has 10 mechanics not fully expanded in all colors, perhaps when the guilds break mechanics will now spread. Affinity can be tied to cards in hand, life, or some other resource outside the battlefield. Splice as we know can be not limited to Arcane, and the Spiritcraft or soulshift mechanic can give rise to similar mechanics.
Flavor wise it would be a good return to as we want to know what happened after their respective storylines.