I looked through the spoiler for Theros and I believe its almost impossible not to notice that each color coincidentally has at least 2 cards that have activated abilities with colors opposite it the color wheel. I believe that this might mean that in either the rest of the block or the next block entirely will be wedge themed. It's a small thing in this set but i believe it might be expanded upon throughout the rest of the block.
I guess OP wants it to be 'keyworded' like "dies" was. What word would you replace ETB with though?
When Aegis Angel is born?
When Huntmaster of the Fells arrives?
When Kitchen Sphinx lands?
When Faerie Imposter busts in?
When Dread Cacodemon pops in?
When Malfegor shows up?
Each block has ties with both the next block and the previous block. It could be that those are just ties to Ravnica. I don't know about next block, but this block won't be wedge themed thanks to Devotion.
I'd go one step further and say that we're done with bottom-up themes like "wedge". It used to be that we'd have the tribal theme, the multicoloured theme, the artifact theme, whatever. But if you look at the last four blocks we don't see that. What was the overarching theme of Zendikar, exactly? Scars of Mirrodin wasn't nearly so artifact heavy as the original, and was instead based on a plotline. Innistrad had a subtheme of tribal, but the main theme was flavour driven (as in, it was a far cry from Lorwyn). Now RtR obviously focuses on the guilds, but the flavour still has more of a focus than in the original Ravnica - this is obvious just from the block structure where we had 5 guilds, 5 guilds, all guilds instead of a 4-3-3 split where they were just printing cards of certain colours.
So what does a "wedge themed" world look like? It's hard to say exactly. It's also hard to imagine a wedge theme fitting naturally with a preexisting storyline. Basically, I don't see it happening. At least not for no reason.
Each block has ties with both the next block and the previous block. It could be that those are just ties to Ravnica. I don't know about next block, but this block won't be wedge themed thanks to Devotion.
I'd go one step further and say that we're done with bottom-up themes like "wedge". It used to be that we'd have the tribal theme, the multicoloured theme, the artifact theme, whatever. But if you look at the last four blocks we don't see that. What was the overarching theme of Zendikar, exactly? Scars of Mirrodin wasn't nearly so artifact heavy as the original, and was instead based on a plotline. Innistrad had a subtheme of tribal, but the main theme was flavour driven (as in, it was a far cry from Lorwyn). Now RtR obviously focuses on the guilds, but the flavour still has more of a focus than in the original Ravnica - this is obvious just from the block structure where we had 5 guilds, 5 guilds, all guilds instead of a 4-3-3 split where they were just printing cards of certain colours.
So what does a "wedge themed" world look like? It's hard to say exactly. It's also hard to imagine a wedge theme fitting naturally with a preexisting storyline. Basically, I don't see it happening. At least not for no reason.
Actually, Maro has stated that most designs will be bottom up simply because resonant top-down designs are such a finite resource. Zendikar was a "lands matter" block, if you recall. It just happens that even bottom-up designs are heavily influenced by top-down design in this era of Magic.
The rest of the block will be monocolor-themed, wizards has said this. The multicolored cards were most likely simply for carry over from RTR.
Where, specifically? Could you be misinterpreting this statement?
What do you mean by 'monocolor-themed'? As Rosewater has stated on countless occasions (for instance, the articles "Communications Theory" and "Absence"), humans like patterns. Therefore, it seems only reasonable that there would be completion of the presently 5-card Temple cycle and that there would be parity across the two-colour combinations. Further to this, it has been stated that there will be two-coloured gods ("A Theros by Any Other Name, Pt. 1").
If, by 'monocolor-themed', you simply mean that there isn't a focus on multicoloured, then that's a fair statement. It needn't mean that there's strong support for monocoloured, after all, which is consistent with the Theros product (aside from devotion, which notionally ties into any monocoloured themed).
I believe that a 'wedge' theme in the remaining sets of the Theros block is incredibly unlikely, given that Ravnica II, a block with a heavy multicoloured theme, was the preceding block.
Although there may be, and indeed are, a few thematic and mechanical ties between blocks, it would be contrary to the design of a novel block to be largely similar to the preceding one. In fact, it would be quite overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time.
Moreover, in light of the fact that will be 10 bicoloured minor gods in the remaining sets, it does not seem at all sensible to have tricoloured supporting cards, if any, instead of bicoloured cards.
Therefore, we can reasonably exclude any wedge theme in this block. As for the next block, it seems almost too soon to have a wedge block two blocks after a multicoloured block. I do, however, think that a wedge theme would be feasible three or four blocks after Ravnica II.
Actually, Maro has stated that most designs will be bottom up simply because resonant top-down designs are such a finite resource. Zendikar was a "lands matter" block, if you recall. It just happens that even bottom-up designs are heavily influenced by top-down design in this era of Magic.
Exactly! I wasn't very clear in my previous post, but forcing a "wedge theme" or anything like it really really constricts the top-down design. I know they do have some bottom-up still (they have to to keep the set's gameplay focused in some way), but it's been very loose and easy to build a world around - like "lands matter" or "maybe there's a tribe here" instead of "choose one of five 3-colour sets to play in limited", you know?
My guess is that this block will have a similar multicolor support to inistrad maybe a little more. We got the gatecrash lands to give those guilds a few extra months since they were shorted last time, and also to reinforce the split in lands wont be allies/enemy as much anymore. Some the the cheap creatures were give off color effects to support that.
Next block will have less gold support. That doesn't mean something like the fetch lands might not show up, they may be even in M15. But all signs point to WotC giving mono/multi color an ebb and flow. Frankly a very mono era is the most likely time to to see the fetches to make them less unusually powered in standard.
Now after a gold stuff is all gone in the Fall 2014 block, the will probably dribble a little into 2015. A wedge based structure may appear, jsut to give it a feel different from the guilds of Ravnica. but it could be entirely different if an appropriate top down theme is developed.
Well, when they did Alara, they split into subteams for each of the shards to figure out what that shard was about, and that included some brainstorming about the flavor.
I imagine a theoretical wedge world would work similarly.
I really like this cycle, along with the Flinthoof Boar and Lingering Souls pseudo-multicolored cycle that we've had in recent years. I hope that cycles like this will begin to become more common. They offer players reasons to play specific color combinations in Limited, which can be nice.
It is infinitely more likely that it is a form of "support" for decks built around ravnican guilds. Also, a multicolor block replacing another multicolor block in standard isn't likely to happen.
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor replaced Ravnica in standard once upon a time. Granted it wasn't until Shadowmoor where it became a multicolor block. Time Spiral also had a high amount of multicolor in it though(it had a high amount of everything to be fair though) so multicolor never really stopped dominating standard for the 5 years since Ravnica came into standard and Shards of Alara went out. That's not to say it was all gold all the time but we do know that Wizards isn't afraid to print multicolor blocks back to back , Shadowmoor into Shards being the best example.
More on the topic of Wedges in particular I remember back before Theros had been spoiled maro posted a "short list" of block ideas on tumblr. Along with "greco roman" and "enchantment matters" I remember that "wedges" were on the list. So "soon" I guess?
Unfortunately every try hard from Sacramento to Shanghai preaches from the top of their 27 lands + Mana Reflection that Tooth and Nail and Time Stretch are fine to play in the same turn but Armageddon is unfair.
Exactly! I wasn't very clear in my previous post, but forcing a "wedge theme" or anything like it really really constricts the top-down design. I know they do have some bottom-up still (they have to to keep the set's gameplay focused in some way), but it's been very loose and easy to build a world around - like "lands matter" or "maybe there's a tribe here" instead of "choose one of five 3-colour sets to play in limited", you know?
Seriously? Three color sets are silly-easy to build a world around.
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Lorwyn/Shadowmoor replaced Ravnica in standard once upon a time. Granted it wasn't until Shadowmoor where it became a multicolor block. Time Spiral also had a high amount of multicolor in it though(it had a high amount of everything to be fair though) so multicolor never really stopped dominating standard for the 5 years since Ravnica came into standard and Shards of Alara went out. That's not to say it was all gold all the time but we do know that Wizards isn't afraid to print multicolor blocks back to back , Shadowmoor into Shards being the best example.
More on the topic of Wedges in particular I remember back before Theros had been spoiled maro posted a "short list" of block ideas on tumblr. Along with "greco roman" and "enchantment matters" I remember that "wedges" were on the list. So "soon" I guess?
Nope. Players didn't like repeating themes, so they scaled back on it.
Everyone knows that good luck and good game are such insincere terms that any man who does not connect his right hook with the offender's jaw on the very utterance of such a phrase is no man I would consider as such.
Seriously? Three color sets are silly-easy to build a world around.
Yeah, I some wedges easier than otherrs... URG - elemental/natural forces BWG - life, death, the afterlife WBR - chaos, angels, demons, the apocalypse?
RWU and GBU are a bit harder, but they have their flavours, just haven't been developed very much traditionally.
Building flavour for 4 colour combinations becomes a bit more difficult - they tend to become defined by the colour that is missing. I'm not sure thats entirely healthy?
Not going to happen. The rest of the block has some two color themes and a possible 15 factions.
The next 10 gods and their weapons if they have them are the 10 dual colors. The factions are each of 10 dual colors:
RW: Akros
GW: Setessa
WU: Meletis
BR: Minotaurs with some of the angered Returned
GB: Gorgons
BU: The Returned
BW: Fates/Archons the place/rivers between Theros and the Underworld
RU: I think the evil Tritons will go here, the art for Portent of Betrayal depicts them using red and betraying what's possibly a good/Meletis merfolk... and a merfolk has a red ability.
GU: I think the evil centaur tribes or something we haven't seen yet.
RG: Satyrs
As you see we almost fully have 10 factions for each color along with a god for them, plus 5 mono color themes.
Wedge is going to be big—it's one of the most asked-for themes—so I think they'll want it to be present from the beginning of the block. That means it's the next gold block. Let's look at historical precedent.
Ravnica (2005) GOLD
The start of MaRo's time as head designer with block planning and interblock synergy, and the first gold block since Invasion.
Time Spiral (2006) NOSTALGIA
They knew Time Spiral was going to be an experiment, so it helped to sandwich it between two known-quantity block themes like gold and tribal. "Nostalgia" didn't pan out as a theme on its own under this execution, but it was a valuable learning experience, as this is basically the reason New World Order exists.
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor (2007) TRIBAL/HYBRID
The first tribal block since Onslaught, but this wasn't such a smash hit. The execution undermined each of these themes.
Shards of Alara (2008) GOLD
During initial planning, R&D thought gold blocks could be much more frequent, but the (relatively) last-minute addition of the Hybrid theme as Shadowmoor became a block unto itself compounded Ravnica's recency, making for "too much, too soon" on the gold front. Gold blocks will be used more sparingly from now on.
Zendikar (2009) LANDS/BATTLECRUISER
The land theme was an unknown quantity at the time, but MaRo has since said that Zendikar was such a smash hit that it will likely return. Rise of the Eldrazi was reasonably successful, but its style of Magic is a major departure from the norm.
Scars of Mirrodin (2010) PHYREXIAN WAR
A sort-of prelude to the major advent of top-down block design, this was arguably an artifact block in the vein of Mirrodin before.
Innistrad (2011) HORROR
Top-down block design is hugely successful. There's a tribal theme at work here, but not to the degree that Lorwyn or Onslaught tried to do. MaRo has pointed out this was much more successful; I don't expect to see mechanical themes dominate the design the way they did in those sets again. (See also some of the problems suffered by Alara Reborn and Legions.
Return to Ravnica (2012) GOLD
Another bottom-up block design like the gold blocks of old. Maybe not as successful as Innistrad, so major mechanical themes will likely continue to be lessened in favor of contributing to an overarching flavor theme.
Theros (2013) GREEK
Enchantments have a lessened major theme like artifacts did in Scars and tribal did in Innistrad, and while it's too early to say, I think it's going well.
Based on this, I'd predict we'll get our wedge block in the fall of 2016—the sets codenamed "Lock", "Stock", and "Barrel". I'd imagine "Blood" in 2015 to use tribal components for whatever atmosphere it wants to create. Next year's "Huey" will probably have a minor artifact or land theme, since the enchantments of Theros were an unknown quantity. Either way, Huey will likely use one of Magic's established settings, factions, or villains—probably Nicol Bolas, but the Eldrazi might make an appearance instead.
I am kind of amazed at [...] the fact that somebody on this thread called Mind's Eye, Mirari's Wake, Decree of Pain, Desertion, AND Scroll Rack, all before they were officially spoiled. I will edit this post VERY shortly with the username of this user who deserves at least all of the cookies. Probably more cookies than that.
Another bottom-up block design like the gold blocks of old. Maybe not as successful as Innistrad, so major mechanical themes will likely continue to be lessened in favor of contributing to an overarching flavor theme.
I'm unclear on how you're stating that RtR was "maybe not as successful as Innistrad". From a pure sales standpoint, Innistrad shattered records and then RTR shattered those. The exception being that Avacyn Restored was hugely popular in terms of sales, while Dragon's Maze was probably considered underwhelming, probably about the same as Dark Ascension (which is another small set and, more importantly, was still a popular seller, just not to the level of Inistrad or RTR).
Now if you mean from a design standpoint, I also politely disagree. RTR had a very rich, diverse limited format defined by the various interworkings of 11 (11!) mechanics. Innistrad had DFC, which were super popular, and Undying was successful as well. Morbid and Soulbond, though, were considerably less successful in my opinion. Flashback sort of hits a happy medium between successful and not; it's not exactly the most memorable part of the block, but it's also a returning mechanic, which RTR lacked.
I am kind of amazed at [...] the fact that somebody on this thread called Mind's Eye, Mirari's Wake, Decree of Pain, Desertion, AND Scroll Rack, all before they were officially spoiled. I will edit this post VERY shortly with the username of this user who deserves at least all of the cookies. Probably more cookies than that.
Wedge is going to be big—it's one of the most asked-for themes—so I think they'll want it to be present from the beginning of the block. That means it's the next gold block. Let's look at historical precedent.
Ravnica (2005) GOLD
The start of MaRo's time as head designer with block planning and interblock synergy, and the first gold block since Invasion.
Time Spiral (2006) NOSTALGIA
They knew Time Spiral was going to be an experiment, so it helped to sandwich it between two known-quantity block themes like gold and tribal. "Nostalgia" didn't pan out as a theme on its own under this execution, but it was a valuable learning experience, as this is basically the reason New World Order exists.
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor (2007) TRIBAL/HYBRID
The first tribal block since Onslaught, but this wasn't such a smash hit. The execution undermined each of these themes.
Shards of Alara (2008) GOLD
During initial planning, R&D thought gold blocks could be much more frequent, but the (relatively) last-minute addition of the Hybrid theme as Shadowmoor became a block unto itself compounded Ravnica's recency, making for "too much, too soon" on the gold front. Gold blocks will be used more sparingly from now on.
Zendikar (2009) LANDS/BATTLECRUISER
The land theme was an unknown quantity at the time, but MaRo has since said that Zendikar was such a smash hit that it will likely return. Rise of the Eldrazi was reasonably successful, but its style of Magic is a major departure from the norm.
Scars of Mirrodin (2010) PHYREXIAN WAR
A sort-of prelude to the major advent of top-down block design, this was arguably an artifact block in the vein of Mirrodin before.
Innistrad (2011) HORROR
Top-down block design is hugely successful. There's a tribal theme at work here, but not to the degree that Lorwyn or Onslaught tried to do. MaRo has pointed out this was much more successful; I don't expect to see mechanical themes dominate the design the way they did in those sets again. (See also some of the problems suffered by Alara Reborn and Legions.
Return to Ravnica (2012) GOLD
Another bottom-up block design like the gold blocks of old. Maybe not as successful as Innistrad, so major mechanical themes will likely continue to be lessened in favor of contributing to an overarching flavor theme.
Theros (2013) GREEK
Enchantments have a lessened major theme like artifacts did in Scars and tribal did in Innistrad, and while it's too early to say, I think it's going well.
Based on this, I'd predict we'll get our wedge block in the fall of 2016—the sets codenamed "Lock", "Stock", and "Barrel". I'd imagine "Blood" in 2015 to use tribal components for whatever atmosphere it wants to create. Next year's "Huey" will probably have a minor artifact or land theme, since the enchantments of Theros were an unknown quantity. Either way, Huey will likely use one of Magic's established settings, factions, or villains—probably Nicol Bolas, but the Eldrazi might make an appearance instead.
Don't forget, Innistrad had a massive graveyard theme. Also, enchantments aren't a theme in Theros. There are no global enchantments (other than artifacts and creatures). There is very little enchantment support. All that they did was stick the word enchantment on a bunch of cards, give them reverse Living Weapon, and call it an enchantment block. Its like if they put a bunch of humans, elves, zombies, merfolk, and goblins in a set, had no lords or cards that cared about creature types, and called it a tribal set. It doesn't work.
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor replaced Ravnica in standard once upon a time. Granted it wasn't until Shadowmoor where it became a multicolor block. Time Spiral also had a high amount of multicolor in it though(it had a high amount of everything to be fair though) so multicolor never really stopped dominating standard for the 5 years since Ravnica came into standard and Shards of Alara went out. That's not to say it was all gold all the time but we do know that Wizards isn't afraid to print multicolor blocks back to back , Shadowmoor into Shards being the best example.
More on the topic of Wedges in particular I remember back before Theros had been spoiled maro posted a "short list" of block ideas on tumblr. Along with "greco roman" and "enchantment matters" I remember that "wedges" were on the list. So "soon" I guess?
Maro didn't count hybrid as multicolor, so that really doesn't count.
Also, enchantments aren't a theme in Theros. There are no global enchantments (other than artifacts and creatures). There is very little enchantment support. All that they did was stick the word enchantment on a bunch of cards, give them reverse Living Weapon, and call it an enchantment block. Its like if they put a bunch of humans, elves, zombies, merfolk, and goblins in a set, had no lords or cards that cared about creature types, and called it a tribal set. It doesn't work.
Right, and they weren't a theme in Urza's Saga, either, but that doesn't stop MaRo and R&D from considering that an enchantment block, too. Just because you don't think they executed a theme well doesn't mean that it isn't a major theme in R&D's eyes.
Good catch about the graveyard components, though—I quit playing from Invasion through Kamigawa, and we haven't had (and aren't likely to have) a bottom-up graveyard themed block since Odyssey, so I keep forgetting that that was ever a thing.
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I'd go one step further and say that we're done with bottom-up themes like "wedge". It used to be that we'd have the tribal theme, the multicoloured theme, the artifact theme, whatever. But if you look at the last four blocks we don't see that. What was the overarching theme of Zendikar, exactly? Scars of Mirrodin wasn't nearly so artifact heavy as the original, and was instead based on a plotline. Innistrad had a subtheme of tribal, but the main theme was flavour driven (as in, it was a far cry from Lorwyn). Now RtR obviously focuses on the guilds, but the flavour still has more of a focus than in the original Ravnica - this is obvious just from the block structure where we had 5 guilds, 5 guilds, all guilds instead of a 4-3-3 split where they were just printing cards of certain colours.
So what does a "wedge themed" world look like? It's hard to say exactly. It's also hard to imagine a wedge theme fitting naturally with a preexisting storyline. Basically, I don't see it happening. At least not for no reason.
Actually, Maro has stated that most designs will be bottom up simply because resonant top-down designs are such a finite resource. Zendikar was a "lands matter" block, if you recall. It just happens that even bottom-up designs are heavily influenced by top-down design in this era of Magic.
What do you mean by 'monocolor-themed'? As Rosewater has stated on countless occasions (for instance, the articles "Communications Theory" and "Absence"), humans like patterns. Therefore, it seems only reasonable that there would be completion of the presently 5-card Temple cycle and that there would be parity across the two-colour combinations. Further to this, it has been stated that there will be two-coloured gods ("A Theros by Any Other Name, Pt. 1").
If, by 'monocolor-themed', you simply mean that there isn't a focus on multicoloured, then that's a fair statement. It needn't mean that there's strong support for monocoloured, after all, which is consistent with the Theros product (aside from devotion, which notionally ties into any monocoloured themed).
I believe that a 'wedge' theme in the remaining sets of the Theros block is incredibly unlikely, given that Ravnica II, a block with a heavy multicoloured theme, was the preceding block.
Although there may be, and indeed are, a few thematic and mechanical ties between blocks, it would be contrary to the design of a novel block to be largely similar to the preceding one. In fact, it would be quite overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time.
Moreover, in light of the fact that will be 10 bicoloured minor gods in the remaining sets, it does not seem at all sensible to have tricoloured supporting cards, if any, instead of bicoloured cards.
Therefore, we can reasonably exclude any wedge theme in this block. As for the next block, it seems almost too soon to have a wedge block two blocks after a multicoloured block. I do, however, think that a wedge theme would be feasible three or four blocks after Ravnica II.
Nor the one after that
MaRo has said that going forward they want at least 3 blocks in between gold blocks.
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I believe he said an average of 3 years. So, while it's fair to say it probably won't be multicolored, there's no definitive proof.
Exactly! I wasn't very clear in my previous post, but forcing a "wedge theme" or anything like it really really constricts the top-down design. I know they do have some bottom-up still (they have to to keep the set's gameplay focused in some way), but it's been very loose and easy to build a world around - like "lands matter" or "maybe there's a tribe here" instead of "choose one of five 3-colour sets to play in limited", you know?
Next block will have less gold support. That doesn't mean something like the fetch lands might not show up, they may be even in M15. But all signs point to WotC giving mono/multi color an ebb and flow. Frankly a very mono era is the most likely time to to see the fetches to make them less unusually powered in standard.
Now after a gold stuff is all gone in the Fall 2014 block, the will probably dribble a little into 2015. A wedge based structure may appear, jsut to give it a feel different from the guilds of Ravnica. but it could be entirely different if an appropriate top down theme is developed.
I imagine a theoretical wedge world would work similarly.
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Lorwyn/Shadowmoor replaced Ravnica in standard once upon a time. Granted it wasn't until Shadowmoor where it became a multicolor block. Time Spiral also had a high amount of multicolor in it though(it had a high amount of everything to be fair though) so multicolor never really stopped dominating standard for the 5 years since Ravnica came into standard and Shards of Alara went out. That's not to say it was all gold all the time but we do know that Wizards isn't afraid to print multicolor blocks back to back , Shadowmoor into Shards being the best example.
More on the topic of Wedges in particular I remember back before Theros had been spoiled maro posted a "short list" of block ideas on tumblr. Along with "greco roman" and "enchantment matters" I remember that "wedges" were on the list. So "soon" I guess?
Seriously? Three color sets are silly-easy to build a world around.
Nope. Players didn't like repeating themes, so they scaled back on it.
Define "silly easy" after taking a full course on the economics of design. It's only easy if you don't plan to make money.
- To my youngest sister when she was 6.
Yeah, I some wedges easier than otherrs...
URG - elemental/natural forces
BWG - life, death, the afterlife
WBR - chaos, angels, demons, the apocalypse?
RWU and GBU are a bit harder, but they have their flavours, just haven't been developed very much traditionally.
Building flavour for 4 colour combinations becomes a bit more difficult - they tend to become defined by the colour that is missing. I'm not sure thats entirely healthy?
The next 10 gods and their weapons if they have them are the 10 dual colors. The factions are each of 10 dual colors:
RW: Akros
GW: Setessa
WU: Meletis
BR: Minotaurs with some of the angered Returned
GB: Gorgons
BU: The Returned
BW: Fates/Archons the place/rivers between Theros and the Underworld
RU: I think the evil Tritons will go here, the art for Portent of Betrayal depicts them using red and betraying what's possibly a good/Meletis merfolk... and a merfolk has a red ability.
GU: I think the evil centaur tribes or something we haven't seen yet.
RG: Satyrs
As you see we almost fully have 10 factions for each color along with a god for them, plus 5 mono color themes.
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Based on this, I'd predict we'll get our wedge block in the fall of 2016—the sets codenamed "Lock", "Stock", and "Barrel". I'd imagine "Blood" in 2015 to use tribal components for whatever atmosphere it wants to create. Next year's "Huey" will probably have a minor artifact or land theme, since the enchantments of Theros were an unknown quantity. Either way, Huey will likely use one of Magic's established settings, factions, or villains—probably Nicol Bolas, but the Eldrazi might make an appearance instead.
Commanders:
Basandra, Battle Seraph | Diaochan, Artful Beauty | Mayael the Anima | Nath of the Gilt Leaf | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Raksha Golden Cub | Rayne, Academy Chancellor | Roon of the Hidden Realm
I'm unclear on how you're stating that RtR was "maybe not as successful as Innistrad". From a pure sales standpoint, Innistrad shattered records and then RTR shattered those. The exception being that Avacyn Restored was hugely popular in terms of sales, while Dragon's Maze was probably considered underwhelming, probably about the same as Dark Ascension (which is another small set and, more importantly, was still a popular seller, just not to the level of Inistrad or RTR).
Now if you mean from a design standpoint, I also politely disagree. RTR had a very rich, diverse limited format defined by the various interworkings of 11 (11!) mechanics. Innistrad had DFC, which were super popular, and Undying was successful as well. Morbid and Soulbond, though, were considerably less successful in my opinion. Flashback sort of hits a happy medium between successful and not; it's not exactly the most memorable part of the block, but it's also a returning mechanic, which RTR lacked.
Commanders:
Basandra, Battle Seraph | Diaochan, Artful Beauty | Mayael the Anima | Nath of the Gilt Leaf | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Raksha Golden Cub | Rayne, Academy Chancellor | Roon of the Hidden Realm
Don't forget, Innistrad had a massive graveyard theme. Also, enchantments aren't a theme in Theros. There are no global enchantments (other than artifacts and creatures). There is very little enchantment support. All that they did was stick the word enchantment on a bunch of cards, give them reverse Living Weapon, and call it an enchantment block. Its like if they put a bunch of humans, elves, zombies, merfolk, and goblins in a set, had no lords or cards that cared about creature types, and called it a tribal set. It doesn't work.
I thought that he said that he was aiming for 4 after what happened with Alara.
Maro didn't count hybrid as multicolor, so that really doesn't count.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Right, and they weren't a theme in Urza's Saga, either, but that doesn't stop MaRo and R&D from considering that an enchantment block, too. Just because you don't think they executed a theme well doesn't mean that it isn't a major theme in R&D's eyes.
Good catch about the graveyard components, though—I quit playing from Invasion through Kamigawa, and we haven't had (and aren't likely to have) a bottom-up graveyard themed block since Odyssey, so I keep forgetting that that was ever a thing.