The problem I have with the term "linear" is that it really doesn't say anything.
Back in Journey Into Nyx standard, I played a UR control deck that did almost nothing but react to my opponent. The only cards in the deck that weren't either draw spells, counters, or removal were a few copies of Keranos and Prognostic Sphinx. The deck was bad, but fun so I played it for most of that standard format, and I saw a ton of players tilt off against me. At the time I thought this was just because people didn't want to lose to a janky control deck that generally won through sending Keranos bolts to the face, but I realized that what they actually hated was the feeling that my deck only really had one way to win and they couldn't stop it.
Now this is the problem with the term "linear." My janky control deck was the antithesis of what a lot of "linear" decks are, because it almost exclusively interacts with the opponent, but is it really any less linear than a deck just trying to ramp into a big threat or zooicide or infect? Obviously no, so what does linear really mean? A deck that is only trying to do one thing to win? But then that means pretty much any deck aside from a select few is linear. So what's the point of even saying it?
You're right, the game was so fun back when land destruction and 2 mana hard counters ran rampant and Flametongue Kavu was the best creature ever printed.
In limited, Dragoon is almost certainly better due to the greater flexibility and the fact that flying is far, far better evasion than trample.
In constructed, Furyblade is better because (I assume) it would be in an aggro deck, in which case it's greater damage per turn potential is ridiculously better. Not to mention that the flash blocker thing is much less relevant in an aggro deck considering if you're worried about blocking, you've probably already lost.
That said, I don't think either really belongs in a constructed deck.
It's a tricky question because I suspect that only one previous mechanic would return from old Theros. The question would probably be between heroic and Devotion, as none of the other block mechanics were particularly exciting.
The problem is I don't know how much more design space they have for either of those mechanics. I feel like there's only so many more effects they can come up with centered on mana symbols. They may have a bit more room to work with Heroic, but I'm afraid there would need to be a significant number more that just get +1/+1 counters in order to fill out a significant portion of a large set with heroic creatures.
Devotion would probably be more likely though, as there are more options for something new to represent a hero's journey than there are to represent praying to gods. If Heroic did return though, I hope they would make it more aggressively cost as I feel it was generally underpowered compared to other archetypes in standard.
An underrated problem with rarity in standard recently was that up until SOI, mana bases were super easy. in the past 5 years or so they went from checklands and shocklands to shocklands and fetchlands to fetchlands and battlelands to now battlelands and whatever you want to call the SOI lands. Particularly when the fetchlands were in standard, any deck could play literally any color. It's how Siege Rhino ended up in basically every deck for a while. When any deck can play basically any card, the strictly best cards will be the only ones that are played. More decks had access to Rhino, mantis rider all the Khans charms and commands, all of these cards that were supposed to have very restrictive mana costs could be played in decks that weren't necessarily Abzan or Jeskai. Not to mention basically every deck could play Jace with almost no downside so his price shot up like a rocket. Rares are almost always stronger than commons and uncommons as far as creatures are concerned, so of course with more decks having more access to more colors, only the best creatures will be played, so only the rare creatures got played. The charms and commands were special cases that also followed this mold.
TL;DR: Fetches made only the best cards playable, and those best cards happened to all be rares and mythics.
That problem is mitigated a bit now by the fetches rotating out, but the next big thing we need to see a return of is efficient removal returned to uncommon and common. I understand that making removal slower/more conditional allows for more archetypes in draft, but take it from someone who plays almost nothing but limited, that's not always a good thing and it's not worth it for how much it hurts constructed.
In oath-oath-battle, if you weren't drafting BW allies you were losing. The strategy simply had the best synergy and most powerful cards. This wouldn't have been as much of a problem as it was if the other archetypes had the removal they needed to combat it. Red needs a 2 mana bolt at common. Green needs an efficient fight card at common. Blue needs a 3 mana claustrophobia effect. None of them had enough of this stuff to combat BW, especially when those were the two colors that had unconditional removal at common.
I miss the days of doom blade at uncommon, murder at common, lightning strike at common, etc.
Yes, sometimes these cards had better versions available at higher rarity for standard, but at least they gave people the option to try with. Most of the commons and uncomms that see standard play are usually counters, burn spells, black and white removal, utility creatures. There are just far fewer of those now.
I used to seriously stress about the price of magic until I realized that when you pay for cards, you're paying for their tournament legality. I'm never going to play in a non-limited tournament, so there's no reason for me to buy real cards. I do maintain a cube and a couple EDH decks to play with my friends, and anything more than a few dollars I proxy. It isn't difficult at all to print high quality proxies in your own home. For the purposes of playing at the kitchen table, a proxy in a sleeve is no different than a real black lotus. I highly recommend implementing proxies with your friendly matches.
The black already has the following colors for walkers. BW, U, RG, RW, and with Lilliana basically confirmed, B again, so that's 2xB, 2xW, 2xR 1xU, and 1xG. To avoid a color imbalance in the block, the last walker needs to be mono-blue, mono-green, or UG, and none of those color possibilities is congruent with Garruk at this time. Considering we already know Taimyo is in the story, I find it more likely that she will get a mono-blue card, and then green will just be underrepresented in the block.
Of course, they could have 7 walkers in the block, making a U Taimyo and a BG Garruk. That would give 3xB and 2x everything else. Though 7 walkers in one block seems excessive as well. BFZ-OGW only had 5.
It'll be at it's strongest in commander and limited, but those calling this card meh will be surprised I expect. I'm willing to bet there will be at least one standard deck to use it effectively.
It's effect is punishing in commander. You get to use an opponent's resources for what's best for you, but then don't take their turn outright, so you also give that player a bit of an advantage over other opponents as they just got two turns in a row. That's a nice bit of politicking.
I don't think this card will be good for anything other than casual play or finally giving people their werewolf commander, but yeah every spoiler season is full of cards people call awful that end up great, or awful cards that people called great. It's without fail, and there's no use fighting it. Just let everyone realize it when the cards they preordered for $20 are bulk rares and the "jank" they turned back over to the store after the pre-release is seeing modern play. It happens every time.
I've seen some people do some things I would consider low in order to time someone out, but if it's as simple as your opponent is in command of the game but can't actually kill you and then they run out of time, that's on them. I've had a few times when my opponent timed at with me still at 5 or even 10 minutes. If you're playing that slow compared to me, that's not my fault. There's no way, even with MTGO's interface, that someone should be holding priority for 10 minutes longer than their opponent over the course of a typical limited match.
I think your friends need better/new wives. Mine asked if I wanted to buy a case. I decided to just go with 2 boxes.
Not only is this horribly offensive, but regardless of how much their significant others may want to let them, a huge number of people cannot afford to simply drop even the MSRP of $240 on a box of magic cards. For some, that's as much as they can afford to spend on magic in half a year.
I legitimately don't think I will be able to afford to play more than one draft of this set. Even at MSRP, it will just be too expensive to blow on cards considering the responsibilities I have. The person that can buy two boxes of EMA and feel comfortable about it is not at all common.
This isn't me saying I think the set is overpriced. I'm one of the few who believes the MSRP is correct. It's just a reality, this set isn't for me. I think the real issue here is that many of those upset with the price believe that all formats and cards should be available to everyone. In an ideal world, maybe so, but the only way that would ever be true is if someone new could get every relevant card they need for every format for very cheap. Nobody want's to admit that 20 years later, if you want to play legacy, you've missed your chance unless you can afford to shell out thousands. The fact that I came into the game during original Innistrad means that legacy is not available to me until I can afford to play it. That's fine, just about every hobby you can do reserves the most elite level for those willing to pay for it. There's no reason for Magic to be different other than our own selfish desires as the consumer that is currently priced out of whatever format.
I don't understand what people expect out of these sets. Mono legacy playable cards? They've made it clear that the masters sets are primarily used to make a compelling draft format under the guise of printing cards for modern or legacy or whatever. The sets succeed in lowering the prices of a decent number of expensive cards and sell well because they are a compelling draft format. I guess that's not good enough for those that want to pay $100 for a box and walk away with a legacy deck. that's never going to happen. If you are opening sealed product with the sole purpose of gaining value and you are not doing so as a mass market store, you will be disappointed, it's that simple.
I could also launch into a long-winded soliloquy about why making all the expensive cards significantly cheaper would be bad for the game, but much smarter people than I have done so on this very site, and obviously failed to make an impact on those that disagree. I'll just say that there's nothing wrong with Wizards' MSRP on this set. The problem lies with the stores selling it for twice MSRP because of the perceived value of each booster, forcing people into $50+ drafts rather than letting the product function as intended. Not saying I blame them because they're just following sound economics, but Wizards could make the MSRP $1 and the secondary market would still make these things cost what they're going for simply because of the "EV" of the pack.
That's just because all we really know about it is that artifacts will play a heavy role (traditionally blue and red own most of the artifact interaction in the color pie). All of our knowledge about this plane comes from Origins and Chandra's backstory. In Origins Kaladesh got the RU artifacts theme, and Chandra is a red planeswalker, so of course it is synonymous with UR right now.
Obviously the other colors will carve out their own space in the block. Green (possibly green/black) will fight against the artifacts, UW is assumed to be the antagonists as well. I wouldn't be too worried about any colors taking up too much space because even in past artifact blocks, Wizards hasn't allowed that.
Back in Journey Into Nyx standard, I played a UR control deck that did almost nothing but react to my opponent. The only cards in the deck that weren't either draw spells, counters, or removal were a few copies of Keranos and Prognostic Sphinx. The deck was bad, but fun so I played it for most of that standard format, and I saw a ton of players tilt off against me. At the time I thought this was just because people didn't want to lose to a janky control deck that generally won through sending Keranos bolts to the face, but I realized that what they actually hated was the feeling that my deck only really had one way to win and they couldn't stop it.
Now this is the problem with the term "linear." My janky control deck was the antithesis of what a lot of "linear" decks are, because it almost exclusively interacts with the opponent, but is it really any less linear than a deck just trying to ramp into a big threat or zooicide or infect? Obviously no, so what does linear really mean? A deck that is only trying to do one thing to win? But then that means pretty much any deck aside from a select few is linear. So what's the point of even saying it?
You're right, the game was so fun back when land destruction and 2 mana hard counters ran rampant and Flametongue Kavu was the best creature ever printed.
In limited, Dragoon is almost certainly better due to the greater flexibility and the fact that flying is far, far better evasion than trample.
In constructed, Furyblade is better because (I assume) it would be in an aggro deck, in which case it's greater damage per turn potential is ridiculously better. Not to mention that the flash blocker thing is much less relevant in an aggro deck considering if you're worried about blocking, you've probably already lost.
That said, I don't think either really belongs in a constructed deck.
The problem is I don't know how much more design space they have for either of those mechanics. I feel like there's only so many more effects they can come up with centered on mana symbols. They may have a bit more room to work with Heroic, but I'm afraid there would need to be a significant number more that just get +1/+1 counters in order to fill out a significant portion of a large set with heroic creatures.
Devotion would probably be more likely though, as there are more options for something new to represent a hero's journey than there are to represent praying to gods. If Heroic did return though, I hope they would make it more aggressively cost as I feel it was generally underpowered compared to other archetypes in standard.
TL;DR: Fetches made only the best cards playable, and those best cards happened to all be rares and mythics.
That problem is mitigated a bit now by the fetches rotating out, but the next big thing we need to see a return of is efficient removal returned to uncommon and common. I understand that making removal slower/more conditional allows for more archetypes in draft, but take it from someone who plays almost nothing but limited, that's not always a good thing and it's not worth it for how much it hurts constructed.
In oath-oath-battle, if you weren't drafting BW allies you were losing. The strategy simply had the best synergy and most powerful cards. This wouldn't have been as much of a problem as it was if the other archetypes had the removal they needed to combat it. Red needs a 2 mana bolt at common. Green needs an efficient fight card at common. Blue needs a 3 mana claustrophobia effect. None of them had enough of this stuff to combat BW, especially when those were the two colors that had unconditional removal at common.
I miss the days of doom blade at uncommon, murder at common, lightning strike at common, etc.
Yes, sometimes these cards had better versions available at higher rarity for standard, but at least they gave people the option to try with. Most of the commons and uncomms that see standard play are usually counters, burn spells, black and white removal, utility creatures. There are just far fewer of those now.
Of course, they could have 7 walkers in the block, making a U Taimyo and a BG Garruk. That would give 3xB and 2x everything else. Though 7 walkers in one block seems excessive as well. BFZ-OGW only had 5.
It's effect is punishing in commander. You get to use an opponent's resources for what's best for you, but then don't take their turn outright, so you also give that player a bit of an advantage over other opponents as they just got two turns in a row. That's a nice bit of politicking.
Not only is this horribly offensive, but regardless of how much their significant others may want to let them, a huge number of people cannot afford to simply drop even the MSRP of $240 on a box of magic cards. For some, that's as much as they can afford to spend on magic in half a year.
I legitimately don't think I will be able to afford to play more than one draft of this set. Even at MSRP, it will just be too expensive to blow on cards considering the responsibilities I have. The person that can buy two boxes of EMA and feel comfortable about it is not at all common.
This isn't me saying I think the set is overpriced. I'm one of the few who believes the MSRP is correct. It's just a reality, this set isn't for me. I think the real issue here is that many of those upset with the price believe that all formats and cards should be available to everyone. In an ideal world, maybe so, but the only way that would ever be true is if someone new could get every relevant card they need for every format for very cheap. Nobody want's to admit that 20 years later, if you want to play legacy, you've missed your chance unless you can afford to shell out thousands. The fact that I came into the game during original Innistrad means that legacy is not available to me until I can afford to play it. That's fine, just about every hobby you can do reserves the most elite level for those willing to pay for it. There's no reason for Magic to be different other than our own selfish desires as the consumer that is currently priced out of whatever format.
I could also launch into a long-winded soliloquy about why making all the expensive cards significantly cheaper would be bad for the game, but much smarter people than I have done so on this very site, and obviously failed to make an impact on those that disagree. I'll just say that there's nothing wrong with Wizards' MSRP on this set. The problem lies with the stores selling it for twice MSRP because of the perceived value of each booster, forcing people into $50+ drafts rather than letting the product function as intended. Not saying I blame them because they're just following sound economics, but Wizards could make the MSRP $1 and the secondary market would still make these things cost what they're going for simply because of the "EV" of the pack.
That's just because all we really know about it is that artifacts will play a heavy role (traditionally blue and red own most of the artifact interaction in the color pie). All of our knowledge about this plane comes from Origins and Chandra's backstory. In Origins Kaladesh got the RU artifacts theme, and Chandra is a red planeswalker, so of course it is synonymous with UR right now.
Obviously the other colors will carve out their own space in the block. Green (possibly green/black) will fight against the artifacts, UW is assumed to be the antagonists as well. I wouldn't be too worried about any colors taking up too much space because even in past artifact blocks, Wizards hasn't allowed that.