We might also want to consider that what is not here as a hint of sorts. There has been a bit of complaining about how the board wipes have suddenly gotten expensive in M15 to the point that they do not appear until you have 6 to 7 mana. So maybe we should also consider that board wipes becoming more expensive to play as a hint as to what to expect.
Indeed, and it all points to my theory, which I still think is the most logical: Large armies of creatures, combat matters. A lot of what everyone else is suggesting is simply draft strategies, like U/R artifacts and such. Those make little sense, since they're so "confined" into two-color pairs. The support for large armies is there in all colors to some extent, but well hidden behind the guise of the returning mechanic.
I have had the same theory for a while now as well. It might be that each color has the same end goal of building up an army with the difference being how they make them or the driving mechanic how their respective armies fight. Preeminent Captain supports that we will be seeing a lot of soldier cards in the near future and Obelisk of Urd makes me think that creature type or possibly token creature type will be a focal point. As a long time lover of the strategy of over whelming someone with- numbers, I can tell you that if we are going to be building armies it will be through token creatures.
We have Coral Barrier and Hornets nest as well in which they support a sort of initial defense that contributes to a later attack force through the creation of tokens that have evasive abilities. To be honest I think coral barrier is a big hint. It was not designed by an outside source like Chasm Skulker yet is produces the same token type. This does not mean we will see squid tokens but rather walls that help build armies by producing tokens. Sort of like how in strategy games like Rise of Empires in which you build buildings that later produce soldiers for your army.
One of the quotes that we currently have from the set (which you can find in the first post of the "Khans of Tarkir revealed" thread) is "Become a warlord and embody the power of the infamous dragons." I am not sure about the dragon part but for a warlord you need two things. The first being a base or camp that protects you from other warlords that would love to turn your skull into a coffee mug. and the second is an army that will help you increase your own collection of "coffee mugs". The first part of this thinking, about defenses, supports the idea of walls and the second part supports that we will be seeing armies of some kind.
For some reason I expect fortify to come back, part of artifacts playing a role, as well as fits into the theme of a big war.
I would love this. They really explored some interesting design space in Future Sight, and the Fortify mechanic was one of the most realistic, feasible, and yet promising things to come out of the set.
If life loss matters ends up being a thing, I will be very pleased. Life loss is one of my favorite aspects of the game, ranging from Black being my favorite color, to my love for Phyrexian cards.
And Wizards just ends up trolling us with Riggers and Contraptions...."X was a hint, you did't think they'd work like that?!"
1. Basic land types matter. I think we began seeing hints of this in Journey into Nyx, and I think cards continued to be printed that support this in M15. It also plays well with devotion because devotion tends to promote mono-colored strategies, which basic lands definitely support. Cards that support this theory from Journey Into Nyx and M15 include:
2. I think creatures in graveyards matter is another thing that has clearly developed in M15 as well. A lot of cards in the set would play well in some type of Morbid, Dredge, or Threshold strategy. I think we are going to see a new type of graveyard mechanic. I don't think it will be any of those 3, but something that meshes well with those kind of strategies. Cards that interact with graveyards or interact with things going to graveyards and thus support this theory from Journey Into Nyx and M15 include:
1. Basic land types matter. I think we began seeing hints of this in Journey into Nyx, and I think cards continued to be printed that support this in M15. It also plays well with devotion because devotion tends to promote mono-colored strategies, which basic lands definitely support. Cards that support this theory from Journey Into Nyx and M15 include:
2. I think creatures in graveyards matter is another thing that has clearly developed in M15 as well. A lot of cards in the set would play well in some type of Morbid, Dredge, or Threshold strategy. I think we are going to see a new type of graveyard mechanic. I don't think it will be any of those 3, but something that meshes well with those kind of strategies. Cards that interact with graveyards or interact with things going to graveyards and thus support this theory from Journey Into Nyx and M15 include:
I am not too sure about point 1. It seems more like that it was put into Journey into Nyx for the sake of helping Devotion decks. And what I am seeing in M15 is either the uncommon cycle which is just a continuation of a previous one in a core set in the past which did not lead to much of anything in the following block. Nissa, Worldwaker and Kalonian Twingrove may be pro-forest but they are more about producing numbers.
As for point 2 I can kind of see it but at the same time not so much. Jace, the Living GuildpactTormod's CryptRotfeaster Maggot do a good job of suppressing graveyard play. The souls are a cycle to the core set and so there is little chance of them playing much of a role in the future block. however there are some cards that interest me now that you have pointed me in that direction.
Unmake the GravesReturn to the Ranks and Endless Obedience both play into graveyard play but the fact they have convoke encourages you to have creatures already to make it easier to play these cards. Then you have Profane Memento which has a morbid like play style to it, but it feels like something that would play best in scenarios in which large amounts of creatures are dying, since we do not have cheap board wipes or a lot of removal the next best thing would be dying through combat hence armies clashing. Liliana Vess is a graveyard focus but just like Nissa she is more have an army builder.
Now I did not talk about all the cards you pointed out and that is because not all of the cards are graveyard focus and are instead discard, exile, or utility focus (draw, life gain, etc.).
Thoughts?
when you can find more than a handful of cards, then it's not considered support seeds for the upcoming block. but rather a subtheme of the current set, a design trend of current set, or coincidence. it's even harder to accept a cycle as 'hidden' seeds.
Graveyard hate is everpresent. for M15 it could very be tech against same set chase cards, including souls of the planes and the common lhurgoyf.
Am I the only one thinking that Khans could be a tribal block?
The signs are all there...
- the (relative) lack of efficient sweepers, allowing people to vomit creatures on the board
- Convoke rewarding you for playing many creatures
- Devotion rewarding you for focusing on a single colour/pair of colours
- several "tribe matters" cards in M15 (regarding: Soldiers, Spirits, Zombies, Goblins, Dragons, Walls, Slivers and potentially more that I don't remember). I might be wrong, but I think there were less in M14
- pseudo-lords (Paragons, Obelisk)
- thematically, having several armies led by their respective warlords could easily be represented by a tribal theme (maybe with legendary warlords, too?)
- all we know for sure is that a certain creature type matters a lot to the people of Tarkir
I also found it weird that there are no colour hosers at all in M15 (as far as I remember, they have been present in some form in all the modern Core Sets). Maybe those would be too redundant with the likely tribe hosers that would show up in a tribal block?
While I think there are usually tribal themes in the core sets, I think you hit the nail on the head here. We haven't seen a strong tribal block since lorwyn so I think it's about time.
new players as they show up maybe twice with some budget deck they've spent the week designing and testing only to be beaten into oblivion by expensive decks they cannot hope to obtain and I think this is a tragedy.
when you can find more than a handful of cards, then it's not considered support seeds for the upcoming block. but rather a subtheme of the current set, a design trend of current set, or coincidence. it's even harder to accept a cycle as 'hidden' seeds.
Well, the legendary creatures in the first Ravnica block were designed with Kamigawa in mind, the enchantment subtheme in M14 was intended to be a seed for Theros, blocks following or preceding multicolor blocks now tend to contain a higher proportion of multicolor cards than they would otherwise, etc. Blocks (and core sets) are designed to accommodate the themes of the two blocks they'll share their time in Standard with, and one of the ways to accomplish this is by building elements of the other blocks' themes into each block.
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I am not too sure about point 1. It seems more like that it was put into Journey into Nyx for the sake of helping Devotion decks. And what I am seeing in M15 is either the uncommon cycle which is just a continuation of a previous one in a core set in the past which did not lead to much of anything in the following block. Nissa, Worldwaker and Kalonian Twingrove may be pro-forest but they are more about producing numbers.
As for point 2 I can kind of see it but at the same time not so much. Jace, the Living GuildpactTormod's CryptRotfeaster Maggot do a good job of suppressing graveyard play. The souls are a cycle to the core set and so there is little chance of them playing much of a role in the future block. however there are some cards that interest me now that you have pointed me in that direction.
Unmake the GravesReturn to the Ranks and Endless Obedience both play into graveyard play but the fact they have convoke encourages you to have creatures already to make it easier to play these cards. Then you have Profane Memento which has a morbid like play style to it, but it feels like something that would play best in scenarios in which large amounts of creatures are dying, since we do not have cheap board wipes or a lot of removal the next best thing would be dying through combat hence armies clashing. Liliana Vess is a graveyard focus but just like Nissa she is more have an army builder.
Now I did not talk about all the cards you pointed out and that is because not all of the cards are graveyard focus and are instead discard, exile, or utility focus (draw, life gain, etc.).
Thoughts?
I think getting creatures into graveyards might be important. So anything that allows for a discard outlet, mills, sacrifices a creature, or has a positive effect when it or another creature dies is something I included. If getting creatures into graveyards is important, then I thought that maybe there would be graveyard hate, which in the past 2 sets there is a lot of it actually. I also think that the two best board sweepers in the set, Perilous Vault and Aetherspouts, dodging the graveyard could have significance as well. And then on top of that Liliana Vess is significant because Liliana of the Veil may have been too good of a discard outlet for "get creatures in graveyards" decks. Dissipate also is a significant reprint because it was printed in the last "graveyard matters" meta, when Innistrad was in standard. Another important meta card in Innistrad standard was Pillar of Flame, and while we don't have that we have something very similar that was printed in Magma Spray.
So what I see in M15 is a cycle of Souls that are pure value if milled into a graveyard, the most playable board sweepers avoid the graveyard, and we have anti-graveyard cards like Tormod's Crypt, Dissipate, and Magma Spray. Something just seems to add up here. I don't know what, but when they print hate cards they usually do it for good reason. With the printing of Magma Spray, and the printing of Necromancer's Stockpile it has me wondering if we'll see Gravecrawler or Lord of the Undead show up in the next block.
True but we also have to remember that Innistrad is still not that far into the past. As for the Liliana I already pointed it out that the one we are getting in M15 might put stuff in the grave through discard but she also tutors and in the end brings forth an army unlike her viel counter part.
Parilous vault is in there probably because it was stated that Zendikar is one of the hosting planes for M15. As for Aetherspouts it is more of a deterrent card, if we are in a numbers matter theme in this next block Blue is going to need combat tricks.
As for Dissipate it might be related to what you are saying, at least in the fact that we have some good cards that bring back cards from the grave in the black cards of M15. Plus just because it was printed for a certain block does not mean that its reprint signals the return of said theme. Dissipate is a good card and as with Parilous Vault Innistrade is one of the hosting planes for M15 so it stands to reason that this card is simply a call back to the original block.
I was thinking about it, and there is a mechanic that could work flavor wise with a plane of quarrelsome clans. Imagine a plane where clans fight one another repeatedly. When the factions clash, and people lose their clansmen bitterness and resentment can build up and there can be a desire to avenge the deaths of the clansmen. They could build in a mechanic where your forces get more powerful if you have x number of creatures in your graveyard and could code word it as Revenge, Avenge, Retribution, Atonement, or something along those lines.
You'll have to understand my skepticism in this. Since this is a mechanics first with the flavor fallowing after we would need some more evidence to back that idea up.
The only things we have right now is what he have collected in the Khans of Tarkir revealed thread, which isn't much. What we do have is the emblem which is a shield and swords, a picture of an army in uniform-ish attire, and a quote that says "Become a warlord and embody the power of the infamous dragons." That is all we really have to go one with this set so far that can be considered backbone evidence, and so far it looks like it is more focused on the waging of war then on revenge.
This is not to say that we will not see something like a clan or group that acts the way you described, just that if it is the mechanic it might have been more blatant.
Amen, brother. Amen. There are few to no playable dragons to go with that in current standard. Stormbreath Dragon is it as far as I know. I'm expecting 1, 2, and 3 cmc dragons to get printed.
Other themes that are pure speculation on my part would be tribal (creature and job), graveyard, tokens, armies, land/mono-color matters, goblins, dwarves, artifacts, enchantment-hate, walls, elves, and I hope salamanders (not very serious about this one). Salamanders might persuade me to play blue for once.
Also I think you guys are missing the trees looking for the forest, remember Lodestone Golem? this little artefact matters card that was in the core set before scars?
my picks are Brood keeper and as mentioned crucible of fire.
I think a lot of this speculation here is fixating on things that are M15 themes and are complete in our view of them
Walls, There is a enough presence and walls matters for it to be an M15 theme.
Token Makers, seems to be a complete vertical cycle, i.e. there is a key Rare token produce like Chasm Skulker and Hornet Queen and then several lower rarity token makers for the same token type.
Armies and going wide, I think this aspect may continue in KTK, but I think it is also a design/ development balancing of the limited environment in M15 and the use of convoke and also a shift from theros block limited.
Honestly if you see more then 3 cards that support your idea then it's a theme for this set, not the next set.
(Okay dovetail themes like the hybrid cycle in RTR block leading to devotion are going to be more then 3 cards, but then we are looking at theme and mechanical evolution which I think we can all agree that strive points to armies and going wide)
Correction, Lodestone Golem was in worldwake not the core set, but I do see what you were saying. Cards like Launch the Fleet fit in this in a way.
It is arguable that the inclusion of convoke with populate being still in standard is possible evidence that it is meant to support something in the future block. Heck your pick of Brood Keeper would be a perfect transition card from a enchantment theme to a army building theme. Crucible of fire could be an attempt at making dragon tokens a thing.
And again this is a mechanics first setting, meaning the flavor is following the mechanics. this means that the flavor that we get will lead us to the mechanics or theme. So far we have the names of the three sets, two of which are "Khans of" and then "Warlords of" and the last is "Dragons of". We also have a picture of an army in matching colors and symbols. and then the quote that we have that I keep having to show again "Become a warlord and embody the power of the infamous dragons." This is all we have in terms of the flavor and so far it points to two things, one we will have dragons and two we will see armies of creatures.
Now by the end of the month at comic con we will be given more info about this set. So until that time or until new info comes in to chum the waters I think armies and growing wide is the best bet.
hehe senility. oh steel overseer was the core set example. I think there are a couple more obvious n hindsight examples.
I think it's also useful to look for brought forward art or card designs stolen from upcoming sets, where development has needed to fill a hole and have used a card from upcoming sets.
So since I am still in the camp that is supporting the Army building theme I thought I would take a look at what might be the returning mechanic that would fit into a numbers matter block. Or might fit in a world at war theme.
Affinity
Annihilator (not likely)
Battle cry (not likely)
Clash (more for the flavor so not likely)
Devour
Flanking
Frenzy (maybe)
Multikicker (maybe)
Ninjutsu (something similar since we would have multiple attacker and you only need one to get through.)
Offering
Rampage
Grandeur (unlikely unless we have a lot of legendary)
Kinship (if we see a more tribal rather than token theme)
Radiance
It's probably artifacts or tokens. They need to make the previous block irrelevant to sell more packs. Devotion is a huge part of the current standard meta.
Well, the relatively high number of Walls in M15 coupled with the 4 Walls matter cards (Wall of Mulch, Siege Dragon, Invisibility, Juggernaut) would lead me to assume that Walls will have something to do with Khans of Tarkir. I doubt it will be a Wall-centric or heavily Wall-themed block or set, that's just... weird... but Walls must play an important role in some way, I'll assuming. It makes a little sense to try something like that, considering the history of the Great Wall of China and the Mongols, etc., fits in with the Mongolian theme of Khans.
There also seems like there could be an artifact theme, with all the artifacts matter cards. I wouldn't be surprised there, either. But I think we're going to see some kind of Wall Lord, haha. There has never been a Legendary Wall yet!
Maybe Wall creatures designed to house tokens. Do it in the form of +1/+1 counters on the wall. Remove a +1/+1 counter to summon a 1/1 token and sac a token creature to put a +1/+1 on the Wall creature. Some walls then have some X ability depending on the number of +1/+1 counters they have.
Heroes' Podium seemed out of place in Theros, a block with few Legendaries. Perhaps a Legendary sub-theme is coming?
There are 26 different legendary creatures in the Theros block. And there are an additional six in M15. How is it out of place?
Yeah, saying Theros is a block with few Legendary Creatures doesn't make any sense... the only blocks to ever have more Legendary Creatures were Time Spiral and Kamigawa.
Yeah, saying Theros is a block with few Legendary Creatures doesn't make any sense... the only blocks to ever have more Legendary Creatures were Time Spiral and Kamigawa.
Now, granted, a lot of that was the Gods, but still.
Also, Wizards is actively printing EDH cards now, and 5 Color decks full of legendary dudes with Progenitus as the Commander are fairly common among people who have been playing a while (Most players I know who have played for more than 3 years have built one). This is a card that works perfectly in that build.
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I have had the same theory for a while now as well. It might be that each color has the same end goal of building up an army with the difference being how they make them or the driving mechanic how their respective armies fight. Preeminent Captain supports that we will be seeing a lot of soldier cards in the near future and Obelisk of Urd makes me think that creature type or possibly token creature type will be a focal point. As a long time lover of the strategy of over whelming someone with- numbers, I can tell you that if we are going to be building armies it will be through token creatures.
We have Coral Barrier and Hornets nest as well in which they support a sort of initial defense that contributes to a later attack force through the creation of tokens that have evasive abilities. To be honest I think coral barrier is a big hint. It was not designed by an outside source like Chasm Skulker yet is produces the same token type. This does not mean we will see squid tokens but rather walls that help build armies by producing tokens. Sort of like how in strategy games like Rise of Empires in which you build buildings that later produce soldiers for your army.
One of the quotes that we currently have from the set (which you can find in the first post of the "Khans of Tarkir revealed" thread) is "Become a warlord and embody the power of the infamous dragons." I am not sure about the dragon part but for a warlord you need two things. The first being a base or camp that protects you from other warlords that would love to turn your skull into a coffee mug. and the second is an army that will help you increase your own collection of "coffee mugs". The first part of this thinking, about defenses, supports the idea of walls and the second part supports that we will be seeing armies of some kind.
Thoughts?
I would love this. They really explored some interesting design space in Future Sight, and the Fortify mechanic was one of the most realistic, feasible, and yet promising things to come out of the set.
If life loss matters ends up being a thing, I will be very pleased. Life loss is one of my favorite aspects of the game, ranging from Black being my favorite color, to my love for Phyrexian cards.
And Wizards just ends up trolling us with Riggers and Contraptions...."X was a hint, you did't think they'd work like that?!"
1. Basic land types matter. I think we began seeing hints of this in Journey into Nyx, and I think cards continued to be printed that support this in M15. It also plays well with devotion because devotion tends to promote mono-colored strategies, which basic lands definitely support. Cards that support this theory from Journey Into Nyx and M15 include:
2. I think creatures in graveyards matter is another thing that has clearly developed in M15 as well. A lot of cards in the set would play well in some type of Morbid, Dredge, or Threshold strategy. I think we are going to see a new type of graveyard mechanic. I don't think it will be any of those 3, but something that meshes well with those kind of strategies. Cards that interact with graveyards or interact with things going to graveyards and thus support this theory from Journey Into Nyx and M15 include:
I am not too sure about point 1. It seems more like that it was put into Journey into Nyx for the sake of helping Devotion decks. And what I am seeing in M15 is either the uncommon cycle which is just a continuation of a previous one in a core set in the past which did not lead to much of anything in the following block. Nissa, Worldwaker and Kalonian Twingrove may be pro-forest but they are more about producing numbers.
As for point 2 I can kind of see it but at the same time not so much. Jace, the Living Guildpact Tormod's Crypt Rotfeaster Maggot do a good job of suppressing graveyard play. The souls are a cycle to the core set and so there is little chance of them playing much of a role in the future block. however there are some cards that interest me now that you have pointed me in that direction.
Unmake the Graves Return to the Ranks and Endless Obedience both play into graveyard play but the fact they have convoke encourages you to have creatures already to make it easier to play these cards. Then you have Profane Memento which has a morbid like play style to it, but it feels like something that would play best in scenarios in which large amounts of creatures are dying, since we do not have cheap board wipes or a lot of removal the next best thing would be dying through combat hence armies clashing. Liliana Vess is a graveyard focus but just like Nissa she is more have an army builder.
Now I did find four other cards in M15 that are graveyard focused but have no visible connection with a build your army theme; Necromancer's Assistant, Restock, Undergrowth Scavenger, and Vineweft.
Now I did not talk about all the cards you pointed out and that is because not all of the cards are graveyard focus and are instead discard, exile, or utility focus (draw, life gain, etc.).
Thoughts?
1: mono-color matters with hybrid/tribrid cards to allow mono color decks to be viable in limited.
2: army matters cards with "equipments" that equip to multipl creatures and those creatures attack together.
Or both
Graveyard hate is everpresent. for M15 it could very be tech against same set chase cards, including souls of the planes and the common lhurgoyf.
........................
While I think there are usually tribal themes in the core sets, I think you hit the nail on the head here. We haven't seen a strong tribal block since lorwyn so I think it's about time.
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I think getting creatures into graveyards might be important. So anything that allows for a discard outlet, mills, sacrifices a creature, or has a positive effect when it or another creature dies is something I included. If getting creatures into graveyards is important, then I thought that maybe there would be graveyard hate, which in the past 2 sets there is a lot of it actually. I also think that the two best board sweepers in the set, Perilous Vault and Aetherspouts, dodging the graveyard could have significance as well. And then on top of that Liliana Vess is significant because Liliana of the Veil may have been too good of a discard outlet for "get creatures in graveyards" decks. Dissipate also is a significant reprint because it was printed in the last "graveyard matters" meta, when Innistrad was in standard. Another important meta card in Innistrad standard was Pillar of Flame, and while we don't have that we have something very similar that was printed in Magma Spray.
So what I see in M15 is a cycle of Souls that are pure value if milled into a graveyard, the most playable board sweepers avoid the graveyard, and we have anti-graveyard cards like Tormod's Crypt, Dissipate, and Magma Spray. Something just seems to add up here. I don't know what, but when they print hate cards they usually do it for good reason. With the printing of Magma Spray, and the printing of Necromancer's Stockpile it has me wondering if we'll see Gravecrawler or Lord of the Undead show up in the next block.
Parilous vault is in there probably because it was stated that Zendikar is one of the hosting planes for M15. As for Aetherspouts it is more of a deterrent card, if we are in a numbers matter theme in this next block Blue is going to need combat tricks.
As for Dissipate it might be related to what you are saying, at least in the fact that we have some good cards that bring back cards from the grave in the black cards of M15. Plus just because it was printed for a certain block does not mean that its reprint signals the return of said theme. Dissipate is a good card and as with Parilous Vault Innistrade is one of the hosting planes for M15 so it stands to reason that this card is simply a call back to the original block.
Thoughts?
The only things we have right now is what he have collected in the Khans of Tarkir revealed thread, which isn't much. What we do have is the emblem which is a shield and swords, a picture of an army in uniform-ish attire, and a quote that says "Become a warlord and embody the power of the infamous dragons." That is all we really have to go one with this set so far that can be considered backbone evidence, and so far it looks like it is more focused on the waging of war then on revenge.
This is not to say that we will not see something like a clan or group that acts the way you described, just that if it is the mechanic it might have been more blatant.
Look at Crucible of Fire being in M15.
Amen, brother. Amen. There are few to no playable dragons to go with that in current standard. Stormbreath Dragon is it as far as I know. I'm expecting 1, 2, and 3 cmc dragons to get printed.
Other themes that are pure speculation on my part would be tribal (creature and job), graveyard, tokens, armies, land/mono-color matters, goblins, dwarves, artifacts, enchantment-hate, walls, elves, and I hope salamanders (not very serious about this one). Salamanders might persuade me to play blue for once.
my picks are Brood keeper and as mentioned crucible of fire.
I think a lot of this speculation here is fixating on things that are M15 themes and are complete in our view of them
Walls, There is a enough presence and walls matters for it to be an M15 theme.
Token Makers, seems to be a complete vertical cycle, i.e. there is a key Rare token produce like Chasm Skulker and Hornet Queen and then several lower rarity token makers for the same token type.
Armies and going wide, I think this aspect may continue in KTK, but I think it is also a design/ development balancing of the limited environment in M15 and the use of convoke and also a shift from theros block limited.
Honestly if you see more then 3 cards that support your idea then it's a theme for this set, not the next set.
(Okay dovetail themes like the hybrid cycle in RTR block leading to devotion are going to be more then 3 cards, but then we are looking at theme and mechanical evolution which I think we can all agree that strive points to armies and going wide)
It is arguable that the inclusion of convoke with populate being still in standard is possible evidence that it is meant to support something in the future block. Heck your pick of Brood Keeper would be a perfect transition card from a enchantment theme to a army building theme. Crucible of fire could be an attempt at making dragon tokens a thing.
And again this is a mechanics first setting, meaning the flavor is following the mechanics. this means that the flavor that we get will lead us to the mechanics or theme. So far we have the names of the three sets, two of which are "Khans of" and then "Warlords of" and the last is "Dragons of". We also have a picture of an army in matching colors and symbols. and then the quote that we have that I keep having to show again "Become a warlord and embody the power of the infamous dragons." This is all we have in terms of the flavor and so far it points to two things, one we will have dragons and two we will see armies of creatures.
Now by the end of the month at comic con we will be given more info about this set. So until that time or until new info comes in to chum the waters I think armies and growing wide is the best bet.
I think it's also useful to look for brought forward art or card designs stolen from upcoming sets, where development has needed to fill a hole and have used a card from upcoming sets.
I would love that.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Affinity
Annihilator (not likely)
Battle cry (not likely)
Clash (more for the flavor so not likely)
Devour
Flanking
Frenzy (maybe)
Multikicker (maybe)
Ninjutsu (something similar since we would have multiple attacker and you only need one to get through.)
Offering
Rampage
Grandeur (unlikely unless we have a lot of legendary)
Kinship (if we see a more tribal rather than token theme)
Radiance
There also seems like there could be an artifact theme, with all the artifacts matter cards. I wouldn't be surprised there, either. But I think we're going to see some kind of Wall Lord, haha. There has never been a Legendary Wall yet!
Maybe Wall creatures designed to house tokens. Do it in the form of +1/+1 counters on the wall. Remove a +1/+1 counter to summon a 1/1 token and sac a token creature to put a +1/+1 on the Wall creature. Some walls then have some X ability depending on the number of +1/+1 counters they have.
Yeah, saying Theros is a block with few Legendary Creatures doesn't make any sense... the only blocks to ever have more Legendary Creatures were Time Spiral and Kamigawa.
Now, granted, a lot of that was the Gods, but still.
Also, Wizards is actively printing EDH cards now, and 5 Color decks full of legendary dudes with Progenitus as the Commander are fairly common among people who have been playing a while (Most players I know who have played for more than 3 years have built one). This is a card that works perfectly in that build.