I m gonna throw my speculation that maybe the hint/plants for eldraine in core 2020 are: Portal of Sanctuary and Hard Cover and that Bilivus, master archivist may be one of the braw deck legendaries. It is litle but they kinda fit the book/teleportation art.(i know, generic, only connection are the books and flavortext(kinda), but this is a speculation)
Now for a question does some of the stuff printed in commander 2019 foreshadow anything?
I was wondering the same thing. Commander 2017 had interactions with Amonkhet's cats, Ixalan's vampires, and Dominaria's wizards. 2018 kind of hinted at planeswalkers and the lands matter in modern horizons. I don't think any of the keywords synergies have any obvious themes that would fit in Eldraine. Maybe a discard theme that synergizes with madness but isn't madness?
Commander 2018 hinted at land in grave cards, artifact cards, "top of the deck" and enchantment. The land in grave was a theme in modern horizons, artifact had suport in urza and goblin engineer, top of deck and enchantment got together a land (Hall of heliod's generosity), and it announced a planeswalker heavy year imo.
If we have to look at Commander 2019 for themes foreshadowed i would guess:
a Morph set.
A mechanic that values cards going into graveyard/ can be recast from the graveyard (maybe eldraine book mechanic is a flashback for creatures...)(not like creating a token of the creature but having a cost that would be prohibitive to pay over and over again, for exemple the goldilocks could be exile 3 creatures from any graveyard to play her from graveyard)
For populate/tokens deck i can't imagine a good/new mechanic for it soo maybe a return of embalm or eternalize? Or maybe we see a new Army token/mechanic that is not like Amass but can benefit from it. If we are going to a viking set i could see we geting a embalm mechanic but instead of making a zombie token you instead make a spirit army token...
Does anyone think a second deck like contraptions for the story book idea?
Don't see contraptions entering black border unless it works with sideboards (like war of the spark karn or mastermind acquisition)(saving spots of the sideboard for cards that can search for them or interact with them, the "out of the game" zone). Adding a seccondary library is a thing that will probably never comeout of silver border or conspiracy-type draft products.
I expect Sagas to return with Theros following Throne of Eldraine. Sagas would be perfect for Theros, as a distinct enchantment type that can easily represent myths, legends, and odysseys. And hey, what better way to follow up the Fairy Tale plane than with the Greek Mythology plane?
Also the sagas were done with existing lore instead of New lore (except for like 1+ of them) soo they have done them with stories we know for nostalgy.
Theros has alot of background lore of the feats of heroes and also from the gods and monsters.
We know that Polukranos was a hydra that destroyed a city then got trapped by Nylea and the other gods (or make it before getting killed by Elspeth) <- good for a saga imo (maybe a saga that you put a creature from your hand into play then it fights then you shuffle it into your deck)
We know the Story of the city Heliod destroyed <- maybe a saga that you destroy creatures with power 4 or more, then 3 or less, then you destroy a land.
There are alot of potential lore for sagas but if we indeed return to Theros i want to see the evil Archons from the past...
Commander 2018 hinted at land in grave cards, artifact cards, "top of the deck" and enchantment. The land in grave was a theme in modern horizons, artifact had suport in urza and goblin engineer, top of deck and enchantment got together a land (Hall of heliod's generosity), and it announced a planeswalker heavy year imo.
If we have to look at Commander 2019 for themes foreshadowed i would guess:
a Morph set.
A mechanic that values cards going into graveyard/ can be recast from the graveyard (maybe eldraine book mechanic is a flashback for creatures...)(not like creating a token of the creature but having a cost that would be prohibitive to pay over and over again, for exemple the goldilocks could be exile 3 creatures from any graveyard to play her from graveyard)
For populate/tokens deck i can't imagine a good/new mechanic for it soo maybe a return of embalm or eternalize? Or maybe we see a new Army token/mechanic that is not like Amass but can benefit from it. If we are going to a viking set i could see we geting a embalm mechanic but instead of making a zombie token you instead make a spirit army token...
Don't see contraptions entering black border unless it works with sideboards (like war of the spark karn or mastermind acquisition)(saving spots of the sideboard for cards that can search for them or interact with them, the "out of the game" zone). Adding a seccondary library is a thing that will probably never comeout of silver border or conspiracy-type draft products.
Also the sagas were done with existing lore instead of New lore (except for like 1+ of them) soo they have done them with stories we know for nostalgy.
Theros has alot of background lore of the feats of heroes and also from the gods and monsters.
We know that Polukranos was a hydra that destroyed a city then got trapped by Nylea and the other gods (or make it before getting killed by Elspeth) <- good for a saga imo (maybe a saga that you put a creature from your hand into play then it fights then you shuffle it into your deck)
We know the Story of the city Heliod destroyed <- maybe a saga that you destroy creatures with power 4 or more, then 3 or less, then you destroy a land.
There are alot of potential lore for sagas but if we indeed return to Theros i want to see the evil Archons from the past...