Alright so ever since the new phyrexia then return to Ravnica I was wondering if we would also go through the motions of all the sets, alara and lorwyn, before we hit Zendikar. I kinda assumed that it would happen. Seeing as that obviously will not happen I'm curious as to why they jumped them. The only thing I could think was that the lorwyn/shadowmoor block didn't have enough presence to force through, so instead they put the value cards they couldn't fit into the theros block (bitterblossom/clique) into MM2015. Thoughtseize really didn't have a theme and could be easily fit into standard and so they did. Alara didn't really hold too much value that was imperative to be reprinted in a standard set but instead had more commander based cards that can easily be put in sealed commander decks. But what I really found was the themes of the sets. Return to Ravnica was followed by theros, a tribal/greek mythical set with the intention of pulling new players into the game. Ravnica was followed by Lorwyn, a tribal/lore mytical set with the intention of pulling new players into the game. One of shadowmoors abilities was Chroma. Chroma=Devotion. Theros was followed by Khans, a dragon based multicolor themed set. Lorwyn/shadowmoor was followed by Alara, see previous sentence. one of alara's themes was Domain. Domain=converge(a set late but it does). Did wizards knowingly skip Alara and Lorwyn and intentionally plant their ideas into some of these newer sets? Sorry it's really been bothering me.
Value is good. But Dredgevine isn't supposed to be about value. It's supposed to be about V-8; 2000 pounds of nitro boosted war vegetables. The more velocity, the better.
Modern:
DredgeVine EDH:
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Anima Standard:
Why would you expect them to repeat all of the old sets, and do it in order? Ever since moving to the format of each block moving the story to a new plane (as opposed to the days of pretty much hanging around Dominaria all the time), we hadn't actually returned to anywhere until Scars of Mirrodin, followed by Return to Ravnica (Kamigawa was between original Mirrodin and original Ravnica) and finally we're going back to Zendikar (Time Spiral, Lorwyn, and Alara were between original Ravnica and original Zendikar, plus Coldsnap finishing off the Ice Age block). There isn't any actual pattern, so why would you expect one?
Wizards is going to revisit the planes they thought were the most successful and well loved first, as they are much safer bets than some of the other planes. I do find it amusing that Kamigawa and Lorwyn were very high on Rosewater's recent poll for plane that needs to be revisited. If I remember right it went 1: Innistrad 2: Lorwyn 3: Dominaria 4: Kamigawa 5: New Phyrexia. This brings me much hope as I am one of the Kamigawa hold outs, and would love for them to do the plane justice.
Also a reason Wizards would push something like Devotion after RTR is that RTR was heavily multicolored, and pushing mono colored decks is a good thing to do to break up the format, and make it feel fresh. Devotion is a reworked Chroma, and a much better version if you ask me, and fit mechanically and lore wise into what Wizards wanted to do. Wizards constantly is revisiting old mechanics and trying to improve on them, but many of these mechanics can be used on different planes, so why stay tied down to the same old same old? New planes sell, and they know this, as do the widely popular ones (looking at you Ravnica). They will use this and try to get us to buy all the product just out of hype, and it typically works.
Modern:
DredgeVine
EDH:
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Anima
Standard:
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Also a reason Wizards would push something like Devotion after RTR is that RTR was heavily multicolored, and pushing mono colored decks is a good thing to do to break up the format, and make it feel fresh. Devotion is a reworked Chroma, and a much better version if you ask me, and fit mechanically and lore wise into what Wizards wanted to do. Wizards constantly is revisiting old mechanics and trying to improve on them, but many of these mechanics can be used on different planes, so why stay tied down to the same old same old? New planes sell, and they know this, as do the widely popular ones (looking at you Ravnica). They will use this and try to get us to buy all the product just out of hype, and it typically works.
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