Is there anything to stop Ugin from, say, being Arcades Sabboth or Palladia-Mors or something? Colorless dragon magic is apparently really good at disgusing the true nature of creatures, after all, as we've learned from the flavor of morph in KTK.
With the time travel theme, we're looking at, what? Present-day Tarkir, second set takes place in the past, third set is present-day Tarkir but with the dragons alive?
If that's the case, then there's some interesting story stuff. Like, it would imply that the clans wouldn't be around in the present (since they're based off the extinct dragons) and instead, the five dragons themselves would be defining the different factions.
Also, I think it's amazing that Khans is cramming in like, everything that fans were wanting. Morph, wedge-colors, time travel storylines, more races, an Asian-inspired setting, a focus on more traditional-style artwork, a better solution to prerelease rares... so much stuff. I see now what Maro meant when he was talking about how much cooler than Theros this would be.
Since Theros and Born of the Gods are not as multicolored as RTR, I decided to see how the monocolored cards fit into my breakdown of archetypes, and how they contribute to the different color combos.
Looking solely at the archetypes that Theros draft has, I decided that each color had one Major area and two Minor areas. For example, with White, I determined that its Major is "midrange" - because it appears in both archetypes in the midrange category, while its Minors are "control/fliers" and "aggro" - because it appears once in each category, if that makes sense.
The results I came up with were... interesting. Namely, each color's areas correspond exactly to how the color fundamentally works. Observe:
White MAJOR: Midrange MINOR: Control/Fliers MINOR: Aggro
Blue MAJOR: Control/Fliers MINOR: Removal/Grave MINOR: Ramp/Tempo
Black MAJOR: Removal/Grave MINOR: Aggro MINOR: Midrange
Red MAJOR: Aggro MINOR: Ramp/Tempo MINOR: Control/Fliers
Green MAJOR: Ramp/Tempo MINOR: Midrange MINOR: Removal/Grave
What this means is that WotC is keeping each color as intuitively "pure" as possible. It's.... it's as if each color is its Platonic ideal, and each color combination is the same way. Contrast that to RTR's guilds, where each combination is viewed through the lens of the guild.
There are two conclusions I'm able to draw from this, one that applies to Theros Block Limited and one that... well, you'll see.
In regards to Limited: The uncommons and commons for each color are set so that they fall into the categories I described, which means that there is a lot less competition between archetypes. The Major cards are going to be desired the most, of course, but the Minor ones are pretty much going to filter to the specific decks that want them. This is how it currently works in THS/THS/THS and from we've seen of Born of the Gods, that will continue to be the case.
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The other conclusion: This is definitely entering the realm of speculation, but please bear with me. Now, we know that WotC has been working on making inter-block synergy a lot better - which is why Theros has a lot of cards that synergize really well with Return to Ravnica.
My analysis shows that that is largely because the colors here as pure and ideal as they could be. If WotC just needed them to hook in to RTR, they could have made them a lot more in line with the guilds... they didn't need to make them as idealized as they did.
My guess is that the reason that they would have done this is because the upcoming block is going to add its own spin to gold cards, and that would have been incompatible with the Ravnica guilds. What spin is that, you ask?
Look again at the chart in the first post. Do you see how each line equates to a three-color combination?
A three-color wedge combination?
What I'm getting at is that, based on this information, my guess - again, this is a long shot, and I could be overthinking this - is that the next block is going to be what MaRo's been calling "Bizarralara".
The thing with the Reserved List being abolished is... well, if you remember, WotC used to defend the decision to have it.
As of a few months ago, however, people in WotC started talking about how they actually didn't support it, but that the decision to keep it was out of their control.
If you look at the success of Vintage Masters on Magic Online, it's breathed a lot of life into Legacy and Vintage as formats.
Finally, I'm convinced that if it does get abolished, that Power 9 will actually hold its value, simply because it's over 20 years old. People with P9 don't sell or really play with it - they sit on it as an investment. Doing newer versions of P9 (with the new frames and with new art, of course) would be a responsible, safe way to ensure that everyone wins. Collectors and players looking into getting into Vintage.
Calling it now: The big, gigantic, incredible revelation that has everyone at WotC so jazzed will be the announcement of Hasbro allowing the Reserved List to be abolished.
It's pretty obvious to me. If I combine the various bits of speculation and hints I've been picking up on since Theros, and combine it with some of the new info floating around, Khans of Tarkir will...
Be the Bizarrala block.
Furthermore, here are what the various wedges will have as their focus:
Oros (R/W/B): Swarms of creatures - supported by the heavy, heavy emphasis in Theros/M15 on token production in these colors. Junk (B/W/G): Enchantments - Notice who got the most constellation cards? And who keeps getting more good enchantment stuff in M15? America (R/W/U): Artifacts and spells - specifically, dead artifacts and spells. There are a lot of looting enablers, random artifacts, and a sprinkling of "spells in graveyard" cards already in these colors. RUG (Er... R/U/G): Giant creatures and ramping - this one's almost there already, and is just missing a specific mechanic to really reward it. BUG (B/U/G): Delve. Maro's article today said, "I believe delve is not a question of if but when." Also, just look at the insane amount of cards in Theros and M15 that dump stuff into your graveyard. Right now they kinda work together a little, but it's the perfect setup for a series of good, awesome delve cards.
Nissa is exactly what Jund in Standard needed: A way to ensure you'd never have any dead draws for the rest of the game, plus the ability to do very unfair things every now and then.
Unfair things like... oh... cast Rakdos's Return for 6 or 7 the turn after you play her. That's pretty much game right there.
Soul of Ravnica is absolutely insanely good. Look at it like this... it does the following:
1. Draws you 3-5 cards.
2. At instant speed.
3. And can't be countered.
4. Oh, and doesn't even cost a card to use.
...and just so happens to have an alternate cost where you can turn it into a 6/6 flyer if you really need one.
Points 2-4 are irrelevant when Point 1 can't be fulfilled without spending 7 mana AND having 2-4 more colors on the board, other than the SoR's color. He's basically French Vanilla: a 6/6 flyer for CMC 6. At MYTHIC. You act like Point 1 is a given, when no one here is denying drawing 3-5 cards at instant speed, uncounterable and repeatable is tremendously powerful, it comes at a cost, and that cost, 7 mana and several more permanents of other colors in play is too unrealistic/unreasonable of a cost. You seem to disregard that cost in your assessment of its power, therefore the assessment is incomplete.
It's turn 7 and presumably you're playing him in a control deck. It's not unreasonable to assume that you have a couple of permanents in play.
You're totally right on those suggestions. Honestly, in such an unformed meta I'd probably go for something a bit more midrange-y myself, at least until archetypes have been a bit more established.
If that's the case, then there's some interesting story stuff. Like, it would imply that the clans wouldn't be around in the present (since they're based off the extinct dragons) and instead, the five dragons themselves would be defining the different factions.
Also, I think it's amazing that Khans is cramming in like, everything that fans were wanting. Morph, wedge-colors, time travel storylines, more races, an Asian-inspired setting, a focus on more traditional-style artwork, a better solution to prerelease rares... so much stuff. I see now what Maro meant when he was talking about how much cooler than Theros this would be.
Even down to what each wedge would embody. Hot damn, I can't believe it.
As of a few months ago, however, people in WotC started talking about how they actually didn't support it, but that the decision to keep it was out of their control.
If you look at the success of Vintage Masters on Magic Online, it's breathed a lot of life into Legacy and Vintage as formats.
Finally, I'm convinced that if it does get abolished, that Power 9 will actually hold its value, simply because it's over 20 years old. People with P9 don't sell or really play with it - they sit on it as an investment. Doing newer versions of P9 (with the new frames and with new art, of course) would be a responsible, safe way to ensure that everyone wins. Collectors and players looking into getting into Vintage.
Be the Bizarrala block.
Furthermore, here are what the various wedges will have as their focus:
Oros (R/W/B): Swarms of creatures - supported by the heavy, heavy emphasis in Theros/M15 on token production in these colors.
Junk (B/W/G): Enchantments - Notice who got the most constellation cards? And who keeps getting more good enchantment stuff in M15?
America (R/W/U): Artifacts and spells - specifically, dead artifacts and spells. There are a lot of looting enablers, random artifacts, and a sprinkling of "spells in graveyard" cards already in these colors.
RUG (Er... R/U/G): Giant creatures and ramping - this one's almost there already, and is just missing a specific mechanic to really reward it.
BUG (B/U/G): Delve. Maro's article today said, "I believe delve is not a question of if but when." Also, just look at the insane amount of cards in Theros and M15 that dump stuff into your graveyard. Right now they kinda work together a little, but it's the perfect setup for a series of good, awesome delve cards.
Unfair things like... oh... cast Rakdos's Return for 6 or 7 the turn after you play her. That's pretty much game right there.
A mediocre player sees a new card and their first reaction is to find reasons to support their conclusion that it's bad.
A great Magic player sees a new card and tries to find situations that can make the card good.
What I'm getting at is that instead of writing off new cards as being terrible, try breaking them instead. You have nothing to lose by trying.
It's turn 7 and presumably you're playing him in a control deck. It's not unreasonable to assume that you have a couple of permanents in play.
OH MY GOD
Garruk's Packleader reprint.
That card was my favorite engine enabler from M13, and I was really sad to see it missing from M14.
Ohhhhh, Sign in Blood as well. Time to pull out my textless ones again.
1. Draws you 3-5 cards.
2. At instant speed.
3. And can't be countered.
4. Oh, and doesn't even cost a card to use.
...and just so happens to have an alternate cost where you can turn it into a 6/6 flyer if you really need one.
Going by the Monomyth/Hero's Journey outline, Elspeth is... well... you can see exactly where she's at.