Why move the State of Design article a week to announce GDS3 though?
Why not just announce it in his article two days ago, and then let the State of Design article fall in its usual slot?
You could ask that of nearly any reasonable possibility. The answer could be as simple as "it wasn't ready at the time."
I don't see this being about Khans. If it were, it would be announced at SDCC/Pax instead, or during the first week of previews. A special announcement the week before previews suggests that it's about something different.
GDS3 does seem the most likely possibility at this point. He's said in the past that they wouldn't do another GDS until they had an open slot to fill. Does anyone know if any Magic designers have left recently?
Most of the things people suggest can be eliminated because Maro would not be the one announcing them.
So what would they have Maro announce? An un-set is one possibility, but since it would very likely take the summer special product slot this would be the wrong time of year for such an announcement.
I drafted Red almost every time. It's the best color in the format by far, and has enough depth at common that you can almost always draft it as at least a support color. This is relevant for one big reason: Cone of Flame. It's the best uncommon by a mile, and it's not splashable, so being Red is a huge benefit in M15. It means you can get Cone of Flame in Pack 2 or 3 without opening it.
Cone is good, but a single uncommon isn't really that significant in the format as a whole, especially now that we're up to 80 uncommons in a large set. And I think it's worse than it has been in previous formats. There are lots of board states where you simply don't get good value from it, either because stuff is too big or too small.
I disagree with a lot of the other things you say. I mostly agree with the points/conclusions of this article:
While I'm not huge on Morph either here or in the X-Men, one thing I see really going for it here is the fact that even if you don't have your colors together on turn 3, the cards don't need to be dead in your hand. It's nice to have the option to play Colorless Ogres in a three-color format when your fixing isn't there yet.
The flip side of that is with people playing 3+ colors it's less possible to determine what an opponent's morph is or even narrow it down to one or two options.
Morph at least will give you something to do when you inevitably get color screwed. Though it still won't be enough against an opponent who gets the equivalent of Woolly Thoctar out T3.
The wedge/tricolor aspect is likely what's going to define Khans limited, not morph. And unless they do something radical, make it suck like Alara did.
I'd also like to note that R/W Convoke is VERY good with support from Stoke the Flames, Borderland Marauder, and the plethora of red's cheap creatures/burn. Adds a lot to your deck. However, G/W is still better.
I'm not so sure. Green and especially white have very little removal in this set so you risk being wrecked by something you just can't answer. I had a crazy GW Sealed deck which looked very much like this convoke draft deck. I easily won the first three rounds then was completely crushed by a Burning Anger both games the final round. I just had no answers.
Plate Mail is great, especially in a Convoke deck. It's at its best when it's turning irrelevant 1/1s into must-answer threats.
You could ask that of nearly any reasonable possibility. The answer could be as simple as "it wasn't ready at the time."
GDS3 does seem the most likely possibility at this point. He's said in the past that they wouldn't do another GDS until they had an open slot to fill. Does anyone know if any Magic designers have left recently?
So what would they have Maro announce? An un-set is one possibility, but since it would very likely take the summer special product slot this would be the wrong time of year for such an announcement.
I can think of a couple of good possibilities:
1. The return of the Magic Invitational.
2. GDS3.
Cone is good, but a single uncommon isn't really that significant in the format as a whole, especially now that we're up to 80 uncommons in a large set. And I think it's worse than it has been in previous formats. There are lots of board states where you simply don't get good value from it, either because stuff is too big or too small.
I disagree with a lot of the other things you say. I mostly agree with the points/conclusions of this article:
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/pantheon-testing-magic-2015-limited-stats/
For what it's worth, I play in 8-4s rather than Swiss, which may make a difference.
Hopefully this is a step towards that.
The flip side of that is with people playing 3+ colors it's less possible to determine what an opponent's morph is or even narrow it down to one or two options.
The wedge/tricolor aspect is likely what's going to define Khans limited, not morph. And unless they do something radical, make it suck like Alara did.
I'm not so sure. Green and especially white have very little removal in this set so you risk being wrecked by something you just can't answer. I had a crazy GW Sealed deck which looked very much like this convoke draft deck. I easily won the first three rounds then was completely crushed by a Burning Anger both games the final round. I just had no answers.