so it's been apparent for a while, and more recently confirmed, that wotc will "seed" an upcoming tribe in sets that precede it. we had a few pirates and vampires in kaladesh for this purpose. so the point of this thread is to examine out of place creature types/mechanics and use that information to predict upcoming tribes/mechanics.
for ixn/rix the main tribes are obvious (merfolk, etc.) so there is no reason to look at them. here are the rest:
cleric - 12 (black and white, split between vampires and dino support)
soldier - 19 (fairly standard class type for white/red)
knight - 17 (mostly vampires)
warrior - 13 (merfolk, the blue/green equivalent of soldier)
wizard - 13 (mostly merfolk with a few grixis pirates)
siren - 4 (pretty visible part of the pirate crews on ixalan, previously shown mostly on theros)
elemental - 5 (pretty ubiquitous creature type)
snake - 1 (pretty meager showing for coatls in ixalan)
lizard - 1 (being a lizard on a dinosaur plane is suffering)
horse - 1 (the frequency of horses has been increasing although not much)
harpy - 1 (another notable theros block creature type)
beast - 2 (chupacabra)
horror - 2 (chupacabra)
spirit - 1 (common creature type for weak flyers in black/white)
goblin - 7 (staple tribe for red, definitely big on dominaria)
phoenix - 1 (red flyer on a world without dragons)
shaman - 16 (wizards with heart, temur colors)
scout - 9 (a lot of explore creatures have this type)
dryad - 3 (could these have been merfolk? probably)
orc - 9 (orcs are back. classic tribe from dominaria)
griffin - 1 (could have been a coatl, although there has never been a white snake)
shapeshifter - 1 (mechanically dependent)
archer - 1 (mechanically dependent)
druid - 3 (mana dorks get this a lot)
golem - 3 (very standard artifact creature type)
fish - 1 (it's a big blue creature and they don't get dinos)
rogue - 1 (* looks like a pirate to me)
hound - 1 (*)
imp - 1 (*)
trilobite - 1 (*)
bat - 1 (*)
insect - 1 (*)
(*i assume there is a reason for these filler creatures to be tribe neutral, probably based on numbers and playtesting)
so nothing really stands out too much, which isn't a huge surprise. because ixn/rix were tribal sets it would make sense if the next few were a bit light on tribal mechanics. i expect there will be some goblin/orc tribal stuff on dominaria though? the harpy/siren connection with theros is also possibly relevant.
mechanical clues are a bit harder to pin down. these probably show up mostly as pay off cards or hosing cards. there seems to be quite a lot of exile effects in rix and karn does like exiling things. otherwise there don't seem to be many outliers mechanically. blood sun and silent gravestone are both good hosers but they seem to be more targeted at amonkhet mechanics.
The real seedings of creature types were the saproling tokens we made along the way.
That makes a lot of sense since we are returning to Dominaria, their original home. We may see some saproling-centric cards there.
Also, we got a trilobite, Muraganda confirmed!
Ah... it would be cool to see saprolings again. Not a particular fav of mine since the last time I saw them was Fallen Empires. But I hear players talk about the Time Spiral ones a lot. Might be fun to build a saproling deck again just for giggles.
I kind of hope they don't create some sort of divide between Saprolings like they did with Slivers.
cleric - 12 (black and white, split between vampires and dino support)
soldier - 19 (fairly standard class type for white/red)
knight - 17 (mostly vampires)
warrior - 13 (merfolk, the blue/green equivalent of soldier)
wizard - 13 (mostly merfolk with a few grixis pirates)
shaman - 16 (wizards with heart, temur colors)
Maybe some limited upcoming class tribal interactions?
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The real seedings of creature types were the saproling tokens we made along the way.
That makes a lot of sense since we are returning to Dominaria, their original home. We may see some saproling-centric cards there.
Also, we got a trilobite, Muraganda confirmed!
And would also fit well into Selesnya guild theme, if we do return to Ravnica more soon than later
I know that Selesnya is all about tokens mechanically, but I think the saproligs fit better with the Golgari from the flavor standpoint. That would make them kinda hard to use on Ravnica.
The real seedings of creature types were the saproling tokens we made along the way.
That makes a lot of sense since we are returning to Dominaria, their original home. We may see some saproling-centric cards there.
Also, we got a trilobite, Muraganda confirmed!
And would also fit well into Selesnya guild theme, if we do return to Ravnica more soon than later
I know that Selesnya is all about tokens mechanically, but I think the saproligs fit better with the Golgari from the flavor standpoint. That would make them kinda hard to use on Ravnica.
In Ravnica 1.0 both the Selesnya and Golgari guild had Saproling creating cards. Selesnya had a "go wide" theme, while the Golgari had a sacrifice theme, so Saprolings fit each guild in a different way.
I mean they seed some synergy for future mechanics into earlier sets
Since Ixalan was a Tribal set that meant seeding things like Vampires and Pirates in
However that doesn't mean that Ixalan creature types have any predictive power since the sets it is seeding for, Dominaria, M25, and whatever comes after that are likely not gonna Tribal sets considering we just did one
Saprolings being important seems like a reasonable read to me though, two cards that generate them in RIX seemed a bit out of place and specifically choosing saproling when I feel they have been more inclined to using Plant token in recent history sticks out.
goblins often have some level of tribal interaction even on non-tribal sets. they seed creature types multiple sets in advance as well. i also mentioned in the op that we could discuss the seeding of mechanics that could be important.
ixn/rix have lots of artifact tokens and cards that interact with the exile zone. i feel like an atog reprint would enjoy those artifacts but we already got an atog in kaladesh.
While I think the return of a core set definitely puta let's stress on seeding creature types that don't jive much with a plane (crested sunmare im looking at you), I think sparkling are very interesting.
The new huatli would play very well with saprolings, and a selesyna guild mechanic after that. GW token kind of thing, which the Amonkhet cats do support rather well. So that's G and maybe W.
I could very much so see goblins showing up in red. With goblin welder being released as the face of the artificiers duel deck that feels like another seed. Goblins are also on rav if we go back.
black could get orcs. I think it's pretty weakly seeded with only dire fleet ravager and ruin raider. However, they feel like they signal a mechanic like the reverse vampire mechanic from original zendikar. I.e. They get beefier when you're at 10 or less life. Both ruin raider and ravaged would be enablers without giving up too much. Ravager does not play well with all the lifelink from vamps imo because you break the synergy in a bad way. Ruin raider does. That would be a very strong design win if what I'm thinking comes around. Heck even cards like dusk legion zealot could be a little better. Would also draft well with an archetype like goblins in red where you drop your shields early on to go ham on attacking and then start slamming undercoated orcs when you're 10 or less life in the mid game. A BR life loss theme would play well with rakdos as well if we get rav 3 soon.
For blue I have no idea. Siren feels too shallow as a tribe. Maybe we'll see faeries, wizards, or something else? Maybe blue just stays merfolk and the tribe just gets a trickle of cards. Merfolk and pirates with just a draft theme in mechanics as the focus is what I'm thinking.
I could be reading into unclaimed territory too much, but after reading Melissa del toras article on potentially having mana confluence in standard, territory would have made pirates a very playable deck with potentially 12 rainbow lands with hub. Seems like this is a land they want to pull some extra weight in standard without allowing the negate in the sideboard issue that temur created. Win/win in my book.
See what happens. Shifting the tribes also stops things from getting stale/overpowered etc. GW goes tokens, black goes orcs, red goes goblins, blue stays merfolk and pirates. Al 5 colors get a good smattering of deck ideas and you don't really throw draft archetypes haywire. GW goes wide, RB stays aggressive, Ux is tempo/disruptive/hard to block.
with the dominaria set fully spoiled we can reflect on the creature types that were seeded for it.
Knights - a big tribal payoff for these in DOM. while the creature type functioned largely as a means of enhancing flavor in IXN/RIX all of those white and black vampire knights now have a lot of good synnergies with knights in DOM.
Wizards - another big winner. great synergies introduced that make cheap merfolk wizards have a lot more utility with newly printed cards from DOM.
Goblin - a characteristic tribe, so never really a surprise, but they got more tools in DOM. perhaps we'll see even more in M19 to solidify the tribe as a standard deck option.
Saprolings - i didn't include these in my original post because they don't appear as actual cards. it was a very astute observation which many other people made though. saprolings and the fungus who make them are back in good numbers with DOM. their presence in IXN/RIX was certainly strange enough to raise some red flags.
looking at dominaria we don't really have that many odd creature types cropping up. the plane has so many races throughout it's history that wotc seems to have had little room to spare for seeding odd things. we have an ooze, a cat, a unicorn, an ape, but all of them are represented in past sets from dominaria. frog spirit is a bit weird, sure, but it's also a weird card. perhaps with core set 2019 following so soon we will see more seeding there.
for ixn/rix the main tribes are obvious (merfolk, etc.) so there is no reason to look at them. here are the rest:
cleric - 12 (black and white, split between vampires and dino support)
soldier - 19 (fairly standard class type for white/red)
knight - 17 (mostly vampires)
warrior - 13 (merfolk, the blue/green equivalent of soldier)
wizard - 13 (mostly merfolk with a few grixis pirates)
siren - 4 (pretty visible part of the pirate crews on ixalan, previously shown mostly on theros)
elemental - 5 (pretty ubiquitous creature type)
snake - 1 (pretty meager showing for coatls in ixalan)
lizard - 1 (being a lizard on a dinosaur plane is suffering)
horse - 1 (the frequency of horses has been increasing although not much)
harpy - 1 (another notable theros block creature type)
beast - 2 (chupacabra)
horror - 2 (chupacabra)
spirit - 1 (common creature type for weak flyers in black/white)
goblin - 7 (staple tribe for red, definitely big on dominaria)
phoenix - 1 (red flyer on a world without dragons)
shaman - 16 (wizards with heart, temur colors)
scout - 9 (a lot of explore creatures have this type)
dryad - 3 (could these have been merfolk? probably)
orc - 9 (orcs are back. classic tribe from dominaria)
griffin - 1 (could have been a coatl, although there has never been a white snake)
shapeshifter - 1 (mechanically dependent)
archer - 1 (mechanically dependent)
druid - 3 (mana dorks get this a lot)
golem - 3 (very standard artifact creature type)
fish - 1 (it's a big blue creature and they don't get dinos)
rogue - 1 (* looks like a pirate to me)
hound - 1 (*)
imp - 1 (*)
trilobite - 1 (*)
bat - 1 (*)
insect - 1 (*)
(*i assume there is a reason for these filler creatures to be tribe neutral, probably based on numbers and playtesting)
so nothing really stands out too much, which isn't a huge surprise. because ixn/rix were tribal sets it would make sense if the next few were a bit light on tribal mechanics. i expect there will be some goblin/orc tribal stuff on dominaria though? the harpy/siren connection with theros is also possibly relevant.
mechanical clues are a bit harder to pin down. these probably show up mostly as pay off cards or hosing cards. there seems to be quite a lot of exile effects in rix and karn does like exiling things. otherwise there don't seem to be many outliers mechanically. blood sun and silent gravestone are both good hosers but they seem to be more targeted at amonkhet mechanics.
That makes a lot of sense since we are returning to Dominaria, their original home. We may see some saproling-centric cards there.
Also, we got a trilobite, Muraganda confirmed!
Ah... it would be cool to see saprolings again. Not a particular fav of mine since the last time I saw them was Fallen Empires. But I hear players talk about the Time Spiral ones a lot. Might be fun to build a saproling deck again just for giggles.
I kind of hope they don't create some sort of divide between Saprolings like they did with Slivers.
Maybe some limited upcoming class tribal interactions?
And would also fit well into Selesnya guild theme, if we do return to Ravnica more soon than later
Commander: WUBRG Superfriends, GW Rhys Tokens, WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Kitchen Table (now that's real Magic): WUBRG Domain, GU Biovisionary, UB Korlash Grandeur, UW Merfolk Mill
I know that Selesnya is all about tokens mechanically, but I think the saproligs fit better with the Golgari from the flavor standpoint. That would make them kinda hard to use on Ravnica.
In Ravnica 1.0 both the Selesnya and Golgari guild had Saproling creating cards. Selesnya had a "go wide" theme, while the Golgari had a sacrifice theme, so Saprolings fit each guild in a different way.
Commander: WUBRG Superfriends, GW Rhys Tokens, WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Kitchen Table (now that's real Magic): WUBRG Domain, GU Biovisionary, UB Korlash Grandeur, UW Merfolk Mill
Since Ixalan was a Tribal set that meant seeding things like Vampires and Pirates in
However that doesn't mean that Ixalan creature types have any predictive power since the sets it is seeding for, Dominaria, M25, and whatever comes after that are likely not gonna Tribal sets considering we just did one
Saprolings being important seems like a reasonable read to me though, two cards that generate them in RIX seemed a bit out of place and specifically choosing saproling when I feel they have been more inclined to using Plant token in recent history sticks out.
ixn/rix have lots of artifact tokens and cards that interact with the exile zone. i feel like an atog reprint would enjoy those artifacts but we already got an atog in kaladesh.
The new huatli would play very well with saprolings, and a selesyna guild mechanic after that. GW token kind of thing, which the Amonkhet cats do support rather well. So that's G and maybe W.
I could very much so see goblins showing up in red. With goblin welder being released as the face of the artificiers duel deck that feels like another seed. Goblins are also on rav if we go back.
black could get orcs. I think it's pretty weakly seeded with only dire fleet ravager and ruin raider. However, they feel like they signal a mechanic like the reverse vampire mechanic from original zendikar. I.e. They get beefier when you're at 10 or less life. Both ruin raider and ravaged would be enablers without giving up too much. Ravager does not play well with all the lifelink from vamps imo because you break the synergy in a bad way. Ruin raider does. That would be a very strong design win if what I'm thinking comes around. Heck even cards like dusk legion zealot could be a little better. Would also draft well with an archetype like goblins in red where you drop your shields early on to go ham on attacking and then start slamming undercoated orcs when you're 10 or less life in the mid game. A BR life loss theme would play well with rakdos as well if we get rav 3 soon.
For blue I have no idea. Siren feels too shallow as a tribe. Maybe we'll see faeries, wizards, or something else? Maybe blue just stays merfolk and the tribe just gets a trickle of cards. Merfolk and pirates with just a draft theme in mechanics as the focus is what I'm thinking.
I could be reading into unclaimed territory too much, but after reading Melissa del toras article on potentially having mana confluence in standard, territory would have made pirates a very playable deck with potentially 12 rainbow lands with hub. Seems like this is a land they want to pull some extra weight in standard without allowing the negate in the sideboard issue that temur created. Win/win in my book.
See what happens. Shifting the tribes also stops things from getting stale/overpowered etc. GW goes tokens, black goes orcs, red goes goblins, blue stays merfolk and pirates. Al 5 colors get a good smattering of deck ideas and you don't really throw draft archetypes haywire. GW goes wide, RB stays aggressive, Ux is tempo/disruptive/hard to block.
Knights - a big tribal payoff for these in DOM. while the creature type functioned largely as a means of enhancing flavor in IXN/RIX all of those white and black vampire knights now have a lot of good synnergies with knights in DOM.
Wizards - another big winner. great synergies introduced that make cheap merfolk wizards have a lot more utility with newly printed cards from DOM.
Goblin - a characteristic tribe, so never really a surprise, but they got more tools in DOM. perhaps we'll see even more in M19 to solidify the tribe as a standard deck option.
Saprolings - i didn't include these in my original post because they don't appear as actual cards. it was a very astute observation which many other people made though. saprolings and the fungus who make them are back in good numbers with DOM. their presence in IXN/RIX was certainly strange enough to raise some red flags.
looking at dominaria we don't really have that many odd creature types cropping up. the plane has so many races throughout it's history that wotc seems to have had little room to spare for seeding odd things. we have an ooze, a cat, a unicorn, an ape, but all of them are represented in past sets from dominaria. frog spirit is a bit weird, sure, but it's also a weird card. perhaps with core set 2019 following so soon we will see more seeding there.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.