Ravnica was released in 2005. Return to Ravnica in 2012. MaRo has said they start planning blocks 7 years ahead. I believe Wizards likes returning to a good theme, and likes doing it 7 years apart so it doesn't get stale. So then Time Spiral (2006) was the nostalgia block, revisiting past cards and sets and preparing for new stuff. It was less than successful and perhaps was considered too much and they didn't want to do Time Spiral II. So instead 7 1/2 years later they introduce a core set as a time spiral redux, nostalgia 2.0. Note first the souls of blocks printed in the last 7 years (they skipped Alara and Lorwyn).
If this is true, we can guess at future returns but keep in mind they will flex the 7 year cycle to make standard gel and to stick with stuff people like. If something wasn't good, that's time to try a new theme. Lorwyn wasn't popular as a theme, so they're trying a new place. Is Alara next?
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Zendikar is most likely next, since they've dropped more references to Zendikar than Alara.
Plus, isn't Alara completely different now? Zendikar was practically left on a cliff-hanger.
Story-wise, Alara's story appears to end without any major unresolved plot lines. Alara's shard were combined again into one plane, and although there is chaos, the cards depict that the denizens are doing what they can to live in the new reality. In addition, Ajani bested Nicol Bolas there.
Zendikar was definitely left with a major unresolved storyline. The Eldrazi have been unleashed and running amok on the plane. The set was popular as well. It is a strong candidate for Wizards creative and R&D to revisit.
Also the Wedge block has been mentioned by MaRo as one of the most requested themes. Since they've scaled back on how often they do multi-colour blocks, I suspect we'll see that before we see a return to Alara
Also the Wedge block has been mentioned by MaRo as one of the most requested themes. Since they've scaled back on how often they do multi-colour blocks, I suspect we'll see that before we see a return to Alara
Also the Wedge block has been mentioned by MaRo as one of the most requested themes. Since they've scaled back on how often they do multi-colour blocks, I suspect we'll see that before we see a return to Alara
Also the Wedge block has been mentioned by MaRo as one of the most requested themes. Since they've scaled back on how often they do multi-colour blocks, I suspect we'll see that before we see a return to Alara
Also the Wedge block has been mentioned by MaRo as one of the most requested themes. Since they've scaled back on how often they do multi-colour blocks, I suspect we'll see that before we see a return to Alara
The merging of the Shards will have some Wedge elements.
Citation? I have never heard of that. Her one official lore piece never says a plane name.
I'm unlikely to find a link since the mothership is still having its fun, but one of the Uncharted Realms during M13 was a story about Nefarox. Kaalia was a girl named Lia from Bant. The Kaa bit was given to her as a title from the Nayan nacatl (I assume similar etymology to Mirrodin's Kha Regents).
I believe the story's named The Stonekiller if you want to find the story.
Ahhh, I see. Well, I have no doubts that a wedge block is in the present seven-year plan, but it likely won't be set on Alara. Conflating regular Alara and BizarrAlara confuses the issue.
Ahhh, I see. Well, I have no doubts that a wedge block is in the present seven-year plan, but it likely won't be set on Alara. Conflating regular Alara and BizarrAlara confuses the issue.
No, there is no "seven year cycle". There are far too many variables in deciding blocks' settings and themes for there to be a strict pattern of repeating everything exactly on a strict schedule, even if that made sense as a business strategy which it doesn't! Return to Ravnica, for instance, had to be at least four years after Alara because they learned in Alara that that's the amount of time they want to wait before repeating a multicolour theme (and right there the "seven years cycle" reveals its flaw, for the "cycle" to continue into the future they will have to ignore this three years after Return to Ravnica) and it also couldn't be in 2011 because then it would follow right after Scars of Mirrodin and they didn't want two returns in a row. It couldn't be any earlier either because those blocks were all part of the six-year plan and were locked in before they even knew they wanted to return to Ravnica. So there are three factors that independently lead to RtR being released when it was, and not one of them was "We need to do exactly what we did seven years ago for no adequately explored reason".
The seven-year cycle is constantly shifting and evolving, so I don't know if it was as explicit a choice as the OP has made it out to be, but M15 does seem to have one or two cards thrown in for Nostalgia reasons. If anything was going to be Time Spiral: Redux, though, I imagine it would have been Modern Masters.
Ahhh, I see. Well, I have no doubts that a wedge block is in the present seven-year plan, but it likely won't be set on Alara. Conflating regular Alara and BizarrAlara confuses the issue.
Alara's shards is no more...
I saw the same reasoning against a return to Ravnica on this forum for years. "The guilds are no more" was a popular response whenever a return to Ravnica was speculated.
Ahhh, I see. Well, I have no doubts that a wedge block is in the present seven-year plan, but it likely won't be set on Alara. Conflating regular Alara and BizarrAlara confuses the issue.
Alara's shards is no more...
I saw the same reasoning against a return to Ravnica on this forum for years. "The guilds are no more" was a popular response whenever a return to Ravnica was speculated.
Yeah. Because forming organizations anew, though with a knee-jerked explanation, is totally the same thing as splitting a friggin' WORLD into five shards that took MILLENIA to develop their unique environments and characteristics.
With the unification taking place onscreen and being a major plot issue, as compared to offscreen mention in a book that Wizards chose to retcon.
Seriously, pal, are you trying to tell me with a straight face that you consider these to be the same thing?
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100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Ahhh, I see. Well, I have no doubts that a wedge block is in the present seven-year plan, but it likely won't be set on Alara. Conflating regular Alara and BizarrAlara confuses the issue.
Alara's shards is no more...
I saw the same reasoning against a return to Ravnica on this forum for years. "The guilds are no more" was a popular response whenever a return to Ravnica was speculated.
Yeah. Because forming organizations anew, though with a knee-jerked explanation, is totally the same thing as splitting a friggin' WORLD into five shards that took MILLENIA to develop their unique environments and characteristics.
With the unification taking place onscreen and being a major plot issue, as compared to offscreen mention in a book that Wizards chose to retcon.
Seriously, pal, are you trying to tell me with a straight face that you consider these to be the same thing?
Well first let's pull back the tone on this - I'm not attacking you personally, I'm just pointing out that it's a similar argument. I think the point here is that even on planes that, at the end of their respective blocks, experience completely transformative change, creative is not averse to moving the story in a way where you can return and have the nostalgia. In the case of Alara, just because the shards are no more doesn't necessarily mean that creative can't find a situation in which the 'shards' are well represented within the converged plane.
Ahhh, I see. Well, I have no doubts that a wedge block is in the present seven-year plan, but it likely won't be set on Alara. Conflating regular Alara and BizarrAlara confuses the issue.
Alara's shards is no more...
I saw the same reasoning against a return to Ravnica on this forum for years. "The guilds are no more" was a popular response whenever a return to Ravnica was speculated.
I m not using this as a :"well we can't return because there are no more shards..."
but instead: "Well the Wedge block could be New Alara cause the only thing that kind of restricted the people of the shards to use the magic of their shard was the fact that they were inside the shards and had almost no way to learn spells off their shard's colors. After Alara reunited we saw lots of people of other shards going to a off color shard and learnning things there , and in the UR "the stone Killer" that showed us Nefarox we saw Kaalia a girl of bant that learned things with leonin from naya and started to hate demons( Nefarox)... Kaalia of the vast is a wedge color legend soo a wedge block being placed in Alara isn't out of quesion...."
get it?
I will realy like if we return to alara one day and it be a wedges and shards block...
Sometimes I feel like non standard issue sets hint at what's coming. There are some characters and cards from dominara in conspiracy. Couple that and the want for fetches could we see a return to dominara? Maybe a artifact or quest to find something to fight the eldrazi with. Go to dominara to the tolorian ruins to find a mcguven or resurrect a certain planeswalker to battle the eldrazi. We get allied fetches. Then the second set could be travel to zendikar so you have elements of both planes. last set would be a epic battle against the eldrazi and you get your enemy fetches. Now that would be fun.
Time Spiral and it's return to keywords, history and fun. I would love to go back to it more than anything. Lots of people speculate a return to Zendikar from the story blurbs about Nissa and whatever.
I maintain that the issue with Timespiral was that wasn't really very nostalgic. It had some Nostalgia, but... It was like the 1990s DARKER AND EDGIER MAGIC!
M15 seems to be way heavier on the Nostalgia than "LOL EVERYTHING IS A POST APOCALYPTIC WASTELAND, but we made some references!" ever was.
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Cyme we inne frið, fram the grip of deaþ to lif inne ðis smylte land.
For everyone thinking we will not return to a plane just because it is not popular remember that Wizards can always return to them and try to fix their mistakes that they had in the first attempt. The people at Wizards have stated that they are always trying to conserve space in terms of ideas, so why waste a perfectly good plane when you can just put it on the back burner and contemplate how to do it better?
The less popular planes might not be anywhere in the near future but I would not rule them out as never appearing again. Also personally I loved the tribal theme in Lowryn and Shadowmoor, I think it just got over shadowed by being between Ravnica / Time spiral and Alara which all were popular. I truly hope that Wizards has the guts to think, "hey we did not do so well on this set, lets put it aside and really think about what was wrong and how can we make it a better at delivering the idea." I liked what they did with the return to Mirrodin since they did a good job of making it both interesting and fun to play in new but still familiar ways. The return to Ravnica was not so good in comparison to both the first return and the first ravnica however.
You have to remember that just because we revisit a previously popular plane, it does not mean that they will hit a bulls eye again, just the same way visiting a not so popular set means it will be another disappointment.
For everyone thinking we will not return to a plane just because it is not popular remember that Wizards can always return to them and try to fix their mistakes that they had in the first attempt. The people at Wizards have stated that they are always trying to conserve space in terms of ideas, so why waste a perfectly good plane when you can just put it on the back burner and contemplate how to do it better?
The less popular planes might not be anywhere in the near future but I would not rule them out as never appearing again. Also personally I loved the tribal theme in Lowryn and Shadowmoor, I think it just got over shadowed by being between Ravnica / Time spiral and Alara which all were popular. I truly hope that Wizards has the guts to think, "hey we did not do so well on this set, lets put it aside and really think about what was wrong and how can we make it a better at delivering the idea." I liked what they did with the return to Mirrodin since they did a good job of making it both interesting and fun to play in new but still familiar ways. The return to Ravnica was not so good in comparison to both the first return and the first ravnica however.
You have to remember that just because we revisit a previously popular plane, it does not mean that they will hit a bulls eye again, just the same way visiting a not so popular set means it will be another disappointment.
That may be so, but we have heard multiple times from people working on MTG at WotC that a return to an unpopular plane (Such as Kamigawa) is just not going to happen outside of supplementary products, as it is to big of an economic risk. A block being popular on the other hand, increases the chance of a revisit significantly, which is why we got a revisit to both Ravnica and Mirrodin.
As such revisits to Alara, Zendikar, Innistrad, and Theros is all but guaranteed. It is going to happen eventually. Due to those sets popularity it is no longer a question of if we are going to revisit them, but a question of when.
That said, there have been indications on Mr. MaRo's tumbler that WotC have started to consider reusing settings that have been unpopular in the past, due to the nostalgia factor increasing their popularity over time. But whether or not this is actually going to lead anywhere is another matter (Personally, I wouldn't mind a return to Ulgrotha).
As for there being no guarantee that a return to a popular setting will be just as successful as its previous incarnation, while that is true, the last two attempts by WotC have, metaphorically speakining, knocked it out of the park, with both RTR and Scars being massive successes.
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
The reason return to popular settings works is because the chance of another success is much higher. And on the off chance it flops the players still liked the first outing meaning they could still give it at least one more try later. Sure they could try a return to Kamigawa to adjust what players didn't like about it and go for more they liked/add new things and cross their fingers, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. If the return fails as well then they wasted a year for nothing. The best we can hope for is the use of a single big set for a return to an unpopular plane. i.e- Khans of Tarkir, Dragons of Tarkir, then surprise a return to Kamigawa big set then on to the next core set. That way they give at least one good decent shot.Should it still flop they didn't waste to much time and effort. Conversely if it turns out good they can give it a more thorough try again later.
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WOut of the ground,I rise to grace...W BAfter the lights go out on you, after your worthless life is through. I will remember how you scream...B
No, there is no "seven year cycle". There are far too many variables in deciding blocks' settings and themes for there to be a strict pattern of repeating everything exactly on a strict schedule, even if that made sense as a business strategy which it doesn't! Return to Ravnica, for instance, had to be at least four years after Alara because they learned in Alara that that's the amount of time they want to wait before repeating a multicolour theme (and right there the "seven years cycle" reveals its flaw, for the "cycle" to continue into the future they will have to ignore this three years after Return to Ravnica) and it also couldn't be in 2011 because then it would follow right after Scars of Mirrodin and they didn't want two returns in a row. It couldn't be any earlier either because those blocks were all part of the six-year plan and were locked in before they even knew they wanted to return to Ravnica. So there are three factors that independently lead to RtR being released when it was, and not one of them was "We need to do exactly what we did seven years ago for no adequately explored reason".
Flawless. Logic.
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If this is true, we can guess at future returns but keep in mind they will flex the 7 year cycle to make standard gel and to stick with stuff people like. If something wasn't good, that's time to try a new theme. Lorwyn wasn't popular as a theme, so they're trying a new place. Is Alara next?
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
Plus, isn't Alara completely different now? Zendikar was practically left on a cliff-hanger.
Story-wise, Alara's story appears to end without any major unresolved plot lines. Alara's shard were combined again into one plane, and although there is chaos, the cards depict that the denizens are doing what they can to live in the new reality. In addition, Ajani bested Nicol Bolas there.
Zendikar was definitely left with a major unresolved storyline. The Eldrazi have been unleashed and running amok on the plane. The set was popular as well. It is a strong candidate for Wizards creative and R&D to revisit.
Kaalia of the Vast was mentioned as being from New Alara
The merging of the Shards will have some Wedge elements.
Citation? I have never heard of that. Her one official lore piece never says a plane name.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
http://archive.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ur/208
This is part 2. You can read part one from there as well.
The stories are still easily findable.
I'd really love it if we got another five-color-matters block, though.
Give Zaliki a CardI must have all the cats!
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Alara's shards is no more...
Nice catch OP, I'll definitely be looking to see if they're cycling similar themes to slats in khans.
I saw the same reasoning against a return to Ravnica on this forum for years. "The guilds are no more" was a popular response whenever a return to Ravnica was speculated.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Yeah. Because forming organizations anew, though with a knee-jerked explanation, is totally the same thing as splitting a friggin' WORLD into five shards that took MILLENIA to develop their unique environments and characteristics.
With the unification taking place onscreen and being a major plot issue, as compared to offscreen mention in a book that Wizards chose to retcon.
Seriously, pal, are you trying to tell me with a straight face that you consider these to be the same thing?
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Well first let's pull back the tone on this - I'm not attacking you personally, I'm just pointing out that it's a similar argument. I think the point here is that even on planes that, at the end of their respective blocks, experience completely transformative change, creative is not averse to moving the story in a way where you can return and have the nostalgia. In the case of Alara, just because the shards are no more doesn't necessarily mean that creative can't find a situation in which the 'shards' are well represented within the converged plane.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
I m not using this as a :"well we can't return because there are no more shards..."
but instead: "Well the Wedge block could be New Alara cause the only thing that kind of restricted the people of the shards to use the magic of their shard was the fact that they were inside the shards and had almost no way to learn spells off their shard's colors. After Alara reunited we saw lots of people of other shards going to a off color shard and learnning things there , and in the UR "the stone Killer" that showed us Nefarox we saw Kaalia a girl of bant that learned things with leonin from naya and started to hate demons( Nefarox)... Kaalia of the vast is a wedge color legend soo a wedge block being placed in Alara isn't out of quesion...."
get it?
I will realy like if we return to alara one day and it be a wedges and shards block...
I m 100% for the return !
Big Thanks to Xeno for sig art <3.
M15 seems to be way heavier on the Nostalgia than "LOL EVERYTHING IS A POST APOCALYPTIC WASTELAND, but we made some references!" ever was.
The less popular planes might not be anywhere in the near future but I would not rule them out as never appearing again. Also personally I loved the tribal theme in Lowryn and Shadowmoor, I think it just got over shadowed by being between Ravnica / Time spiral and Alara which all were popular. I truly hope that Wizards has the guts to think, "hey we did not do so well on this set, lets put it aside and really think about what was wrong and how can we make it a better at delivering the idea." I liked what they did with the return to Mirrodin since they did a good job of making it both interesting and fun to play in new but still familiar ways. The return to Ravnica was not so good in comparison to both the first return and the first ravnica however.
You have to remember that just because we revisit a previously popular plane, it does not mean that they will hit a bulls eye again, just the same way visiting a not so popular set means it will be another disappointment.
That may be so, but we have heard multiple times from people working on MTG at WotC that a return to an unpopular plane (Such as Kamigawa) is just not going to happen outside of supplementary products, as it is to big of an economic risk. A block being popular on the other hand, increases the chance of a revisit significantly, which is why we got a revisit to both Ravnica and Mirrodin.
As such revisits to Alara, Zendikar, Innistrad, and Theros is all but guaranteed. It is going to happen eventually. Due to those sets popularity it is no longer a question of if we are going to revisit them, but a question of when.
That said, there have been indications on Mr. MaRo's tumbler that WotC have started to consider reusing settings that have been unpopular in the past, due to the nostalgia factor increasing their popularity over time. But whether or not this is actually going to lead anywhere is another matter (Personally, I wouldn't mind a return to Ulgrotha).
As for there being no guarantee that a return to a popular setting will be just as successful as its previous incarnation, while that is true, the last two attempts by WotC have, metaphorically speakining, knocked it out of the park, with both RTR and Scars being massive successes.
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
BAfter the lights go out on you, after your worthless life is through. I will remember how you scream...B