And considering Sagas fall under the "Historic" banner and Eldraine is a new-to-us plane, it's unlikely the set will include much of its' history on the first go-round.
There's no reason sagas have to appear alongside Historic.
That's not what I said. They may not have to appear alongside Historic, but they will still trigger Historic effects on existing cards, which means flavor-wise the cards have to explore historical events and people on Eldraine. Unless the set is going to have a deep focus on the history of Eldraine while also advancing the story of whatever Rowan and Will are up to in the (possibly) present day, Sagas are unlikely.
Triggering historic cards from other sets that won't even be in standard at the time doesn't mean Sagas need to be particularly historic. It would be very counterproductive to set such a significant bar on a mechanic that we already know WotC is keen to use multiple times.
Also, it's probably also unlikely they'd do two different alternate-layout cards in the same set.
I don't see why.
One takes design space away from the other? Their low bar of what it takes to confuse magic players?
Having an alternate frame doesn't have anything to do with design space. Level up and Split cards both use alternate frame but they don't really share any design space. At best, alternate frames are correlated with certain design space as they tend to be used most often for some form of modal cards that may operate similarly, say Level Up and Transform, but even then, not that similarly.
The complexity cost is more of a reason, but that's not really any different from putting any other two complex mechanics together, which is happened plenty before, and Sagas, despite the special frame, aren't really very complicated.
MaRo specifically just said 'they will return'. He has also said 'maybe' about sagas specifically returning in ELD. It's not at all off the table.
Mark says maybe to a lot of things, mainly because the asker specifically asks for a maybe. I wouldn't read too much into it, as the alternative is probably Mark saying no to a lot of things.
But he definitely didn't say no. @fettpett was making it out like they had been confirmed not to be in ELD.
And considering Sagas fall under the "Historic" banner and Eldraine is a new-to-us plane, it's unlikely the set will include much of its' history on the first go-round.
There's no reason sagas have to appear alongside Historic.
Triggering historic cards from other sets that won't even be in standard at the time doesn't mean Sagas need to be particularly historic. It would be very counterproductive to set such a significant bar on a mechanic that we already know WotC is keen to use multiple times.
Having an alternate frame doesn't have anything to do with design space. Level up and Split cards both use alternate frame but they don't really share any design space. At best, alternate frames are correlated with certain design space as they tend to be used most often for some form of modal cards that may operate similarly, say Level Up and Transform, but even then, not that similarly.
The complexity cost is more of a reason, but that's not really any different from putting any other two complex mechanics together, which is happened plenty before, and Sagas, despite the special frame, aren't really very complicated.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
But he definitely didn't say no. @fettpett was making it out like they had been confirmed not to be in ELD.
There's no reason sagas have to appear alongside Historic.
I don't see why.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
MaRo specifically just said 'they will return'. He has also said 'maybe' about sagas specifically returning in ELD. It's not at all off the table.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/186572902238/i-love-sagas-as-a-fun-take-on-enchantments-that
This makes me think, it could be in Eldraine. Sagas make sense for the fairy tale and arthurian story-telling theme. A larger enchantment theme, even, would make sense for this world.
Would it be a little too soon to see Sagas in ELD?
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice