MTG Salvation

On the subject of the bannings, these are sensible decisions, but I have to say the ban fatigue is definitely setting in for me. I'm in favour of being willing to do standard bans regularly, not just as an emergency answer, but there has been quite a few recently and it's a little exhausting. I like that the cards being banned here have all been in standard for a while so its more like an early rotation than a card just being erased, but I hope WotC finds a way to get the number of banning down a bit in future. Would like to hear more from WotC about this and what they are doing in response.

Quote from Mystic_X »

Clearly powercreep has gotten way out of control!
If there's one thing which should be banned and never printed again, it's mythic rarity!
What has it done for the game except drive up the cost for all of us?
Has it actually made the game more "fun"?

At the risk of sounding nostalgic about the 90s (which admittedly I am), without mythic rarity things would go back to normal (at least in standard), the game can be properly balanced and slowed down (surely we can all agree that standard feels faster than it should be), chase cards in standard won't be $50+, and then nothing will need to be banned because cards won't be absurdly designed, created intentionally as auto-includes for particular colors (or archetypes), and pushed to sell packs to the consumer under the false pretense that those players can actually use the cards contained within for at least as long as they remain legal in standard format.

Banning these cards now is nothing short of trying to fix one mistake by making another which directly alienates and upsets customers who buy these cards with the understanding they can actually be played with in sanctioned events (regardless of whether live events are on hold for the time being which is entirely circumstantial and irrelevant to the ban decision, as many among us still purchase physical cards which we hope(d) to use when live events eventually resume.

Well, before mythic rarity was introduced, rares were actually rarer. Rares from the larger sets (because sets varied more in the number of rares) were actually as rare as mythic rares were, and they are making mythic rares slightly more frequent now as well.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/year-living-changerously-2008-06-02
The problem with mythic rarity is a problem with the TCG format in general. WotC simply aren't going to stop pushing high rarity chase cards, because that's the business model. Reprint products and reprints in general are the best chance we have of keeping individual card prices in check, because WotC is very unlikely to make any major changes to the rarity system when it's so central to the game's monetisation.

Quote from Dontrike »

Quote from DJK3654 »

Yes, Zendikar has been affected by the Eldrazi, but that doesn't make the actual Eldrazi themselves hanging around on the plane part of Zendikar's identity. Not everything that appears on Zendikar is a necessary part of the plane's identity.

What? Everything on Zendikar is part of its identity, that's literally how you identify it. From the way the vampires and goblins look compared to other planes to the hedrons that we've seen for all five sets. This will quite literally be the first time we won't see Eldrazi there, as again we've been seeing them and hints of them since day one of the plane. To say they are not part Zendikar's identity is just false. They were on the plane for thousands of years, affecting those living on the plane in some way and it shaped it so much it's literally how we were introduced to the plane, by showing that they have been affecting it since imprisonment.

Some hints to the Eldrazi will be in Zendikar Rising. Zendikar Rising will be very much like original Zendikar set in that regard. Was original Zendikar inconsistent with Zendikar's identity? No? Then Zendikar Rising won't be.

The Eldrazi don't need to be there.

That's true of anything on Zendikar, from elves to landfall.

Not really. Some of the more obscure elements of the world definitely don't need to be there, but things like the elves and the kor do because they're going to be expected to be seen. The same would be true of the Eldrazi, if not for the fact that there is a very good reason why we would not expect them to show up. Nothing inextricably needs to be there, but some things require work to be done to remove them. The work for removing the Eldrazi has already been done.

Just because the Eldrazi were there once doesn't mean they always need to be there. Things can change. And in fact, they were always going to. The Eldrazi were never going to be on Zendikar forever.

I'm fine with them dwindling and eventually not being there. I'm not arguing against change. I'm arguing against change done poorly. Rey becoming a Palpatine in Star Wars was a dumb unneeded change because some fan boys got upset that their laser samurais were tampered with and weren't 100% the way they thought it should be. In this case them just cleanly going "Oh, this was take the mothership down and they all do" is a cheap way to try and fix some negative reviews rather than showing that yes, Zendikar is healing, but there is still work to be done.

The Eldrazi disappearing like that is perfectly sensible and congruent for them. It's not a late addition slapped on contrary to what was previously established. It was established years in advance of this set where the Eldrazi vanish, and not something we are only finding out about now.
I'm pretty sure there will be a clear sense of work to be done in the recovery with this set. It just won't involve any Eldrazi.

Look, if by some chance the art shows the world is recovering, but you see the scars of the Eldrazi then that's great and it shows a natural progression, but if we go back and it's just *snap* "What're Eldrazi? Nothing happened!" then that's just bad story telling. Remember, BFZ barely happened a few years ago in story time, if that, for the world to be fully recovered would just not believable.

We've already seen artworks with ruined hedrons lying around the place and such. There's every indication there will be scars.
Also, seeing the scars of the Eldrazi is different from seeing Eldrazi. Why do you keep switching between the two and blurring the lines? There is no 'ignore the Eldrazi all together' option being advocated in this argument.

Are the Eldrazi part of Innistrad's identity too now that they showed up there as well? Do we need to see Eldrazi next time we visit Innsitrad as well?
Are they part of its identity currently? I don't think so at this time, but if they stick around and continue to affect the story, then yes.

Yes, I do in fact believe we should see them the next time we go there. Many denizens of the plane were mutated and Emrakul is not dead (if that does affect the mutation and/or minions.) Unless there's an eldrazi equivalent of the Cursemute that cures everything before we go back or it's been 20+ years in story time so all of them can be killed then I absolutely think there should be the mutated eldrazi that we saw previously.

Based on what happened on Zendikar when the Eldrazi were originally imprisoned there, we have every reason to believe that Emrakul's imprisonment will cut off the spawn too. And that's not a retcon or a late addition- it fits with what was established about the Eldrazi from the very beginning.

Mirrodin got taken over by the Phyrexians, does that mean Mirrodin could never be rid of the Phyrexians in the future without it betraying Mirrodin's identity?

Here's the problem with that. We've seen Mirrodin without Phyrexia, we know what it's like, but we have not seen Zendikar without the Eldrazi in some way. Also, it's quite likely to never see Mirrodin we knew again if it gets blown up, which is what I expect.

The original Zendikar set only had scattered hints to the Eldrazi. Zendikar Rising will only have scattered hints to the Eldrazi. Again, this is not new. This is a return to how the plane was before.

Stop equivocating not including any Eldrazi on cards with ignoring the Eldrazi existed at all. I'm sure you know full well it's entirely possible to avoid the later without doing the former, so stop saying this, because it's dishonest.
Zendikar Rising is very obviously not going to ignore the Eldrazi ever existed, but there won't be any actual Eldrazi.

I don't know, that seems to be exactly what people want and seems to be what you've been arguing for. Every time I argue for even three cards you keep going on about how wrong it would be.

What on earth are you talking about?
What is 'that' that you think I'm arguing for? Ignoring the Eldrazi existed at all? Because of course I'm not arguing for that. I've said several times that I think that's not what's going to be in Zendikar Rising and that that is good.
What I am arguing is that makes perfect sense for WotC to do a Zendikar set without any Eldrazi on plane or on cards given the story setup of the BFZ, community reaction to BFZ, general opinion about the Eldrazi, and popularity of the Zendikar world in absence of the Eldrazi. I'm not even really arguing that it would be wrong for WotC to not do this and include Eldrazi instead, but that it is unreasonable for people to expect WotC to have done it differently when doing it this way is obviously a very compelling option.

Quote from 5colors »

So question? Was having no Phyrexia creatures mean they eased the history of Phyrexia on Dominaria? How about not having any snow related cards, does that mean they forgot the ice age?


For them being alive, at the time creative left themselves wiggle room. The minor spawn are tied to the titans they outright said the spawn would either die off or become inert. There could be eldrazi alive in small numbers, but like slivers in Dominara, we just won't see them on card. But more likely that in the 3 or so years since BtZ the eldrzi grew so weak it was easy to kill them off.

And finally it amazes me that no other site can start arguments over something we haven't seen. Maybe wait and see Zendiakr 3 looks like before complains they eased the eldrazi or the worlds don't evolve.

I mean, we haven't seen much, but MaRo has already made it pretty clear there won't be any Eldrazi. He's said this will be a return to original Zendikar 'without the Eldrazi'. I don't believe we've gotten any explicit confirmation that there will be no Eldrazi on cards or no Eldrazi on plane, but it's a pretty safe assumption. Meanwhile, we also know that there will be reference to the *aftermath* of the Eldrazi.
So we haven't seen the details, but we have a pretty decent idea of what to expect here.

Quote from Flisch »

Quote from DJK3654 »

The point was that the Eldrazi were already eliminated from Zendikar. It's not a decision that's been made with Zendikar Rising, it had already been made in advance. Zendikar Rising was always going to be an Eldrazi free Zendikar even before the bad reaction to the Eldrazi in BFZ.

That's not true. In-lore we know that Eldrazi can exist without their titans, like shown on Vestige of Emrakul and out-of-lore we were told after BFZ/OGW that with the titans being defeated, some Eldrazi remain in some remote corners of Zendikar. That was the plan for the next return. Then BFZ/OGW was a complete disaster (apparently, not playing competitively myself I didn't really mind it but there you go) and wizards completely recoiled in shock and terror like a child burning themselves on the stove and refusing to enter the kitchen anymore.

Vestige of Emrakul was around while Emrakul was still around, just not on Zendikar. But Ulamog and Kozilek have been destroyed, or at least, essentially destroyed, and Emrakul has been trapped in a way that presumably stops her spawn as well given that the Hedron prison seemed to have stopped all three of them from using their spawn previously.
As far as I can tell, The lore in BFZ and OGw already established that the Eldrazi spawn are all entirely dependant on the larger titan, so the fates of the three titans in BFZ and SOI blocks already set up for all of the Eldrazi to disappear.

The real reason why there are no Eldrazi in Zendikar Rising (as in, one or two cards, as opposed to half the set) is because of the power level of BFZ/OGW. It has nothing to do with world-building or how popular eldritch horror is in a vacuum.

People in WotC have explicitly stated that they thought it was a mistake to focus on the Eldrazi so much in general, not because of the power level. You can claim it was just about power level and they're lying if you like, but you'll need some fairly good evidence to back that up. And even if that's true, there is plenty of reason regardless for WotC to want to do a new Zendikar block without the Eldrazi because there's plenty of people who just want more Zendikar (and only Zendikar).
After all, (according to WotC people) the Eldrazi were literally added on to the original Zendikar block because of concerns about whether the world could carry three sets in a row, and not part of the original concept for the world.
I also find it somewhat unlikely that they would ever do just one or two Eldrazi cards in a set regardless of any lore context. You wouldn't have just one or two Phyrexians. They're a whole thing. It kind of goes against the point of them to do them like that.

Quote from DJK3654 »

You simply can't win this debate,, because you've already lost it.

I find this to be a very callous and dismissive thing to say. Why are people allowed to say that there should be no Eldrazi but not that they want to see at least one or two Eldrazi on Zendikar? How would we know what is a majority opinion, if some opinions are told to shut up whenever they appear?

Nobody here is attacking others for not wanting Eldrazi (the music analogy kind of skirted that a little though) so I fail to see why voicing disappointment over a decision some of us disagree with is something that needs to be shut down immediately.

No one was told to shut up or that they can't have whatever preferences. But it's worth pointing out how far preferences go, especially when there is a suggestion of an actual problem with it not being done that way.
If people just want to express their preferences they should stop arguing with me when I say that WotC's decision was justified whether those people prefer it or not. You shouldn't debate someone on a point you agree with, if people do indeed agree. And if people aren't agreeing with me on that, then of course I'm going to respond in kind.
We can tell what the majority opinion was about the Eldrazi based on WotC's statements and the general community response you saw around. I don't have actual concrete statistics to look at to prove it, but I don't think the margins look close enough that you particularly need to prove it as far as this discussion is concerned. And even if it wasn't the majority opinion, it was certainly a popular one regardless, to the point that it makes sense for WotC to throw a bone to those people with Zendikar Rising. The pro-Eldrazi-on-Zendikar people already had their block, whether it was particularly good or not. And there will most likely be more Eldrazi on some plane in the future. They did very conspicuously *not* kill off Emrakul, and leave open the possibility of more titans we just haven't seen/heard of yet.

To be clear, I'm not even anti-Eldrazi, or anti-Eldrazi-on-Zendikar.

Quote from Dontrike »

Quote from DJK3654 »

The Eldrazi were never a Zendikar thing.

You're right, they were so not part of Zendikar that the denizens of the world didn't mistake them as their various gods, they didn't have an entire prison system that showed up on near every piece of art for the plane, and there was no history or lore with them on the plane whatsoever.

Look, alien invaders or not you don't hint at something for two sets, have a set dedicated to them (before BFZ), have a backstory where major characters were involved with them in the past on that very plane which also pushed character motivations recently and currently, are the reason vampires exist on the plane, and go "they are not part of the world whatsoever." From the beginning of Zendikar as we know it the Eldrazi were always part of that plane. Yes, the Eldrazi are not 100% the plane, what Zendikar is all about, nor its entire identity, but you cannot sit there and say they are not part of Zendikar's story just like Disney can't go "Rey Palpatine who?"

As I said earlier:

They were designed with Zendikar in mind and vice versa, but they were always supposed to be separate things. The Eldrazi were never supposed to be part of Zendikar's identity, and while you might put them as part of it, many other players did not and WotC has no reason here to go against their own intentions and the majority of the playerbase for the sake of the minority.

Yes, Zendikar has been affected by the Eldrazi, but that doesn't make the actual Eldrazi themselves hanging around on the plane part of Zendikar's identity. Not everything that appears on Zendikar is a necessary part of the plane's identity. The Eldrazi don't need to be there. Just because the Eldrazi were there once doesn't mean they always need to be there. Things can change. And in fact, they were always going to. The Eldrazi were never going to be on Zendikar forever. Are the Eldrazi part of Innistrad's identity too now that they showed up there as well? Do we need to see Eldrazi next time we visit Innsitrad as well? Mirrodin got taken over by the Phyrexians, does that mean Mirrodin could never be rid of the Phyrexians in the future without it betraying Mirrodin's identity?

Quote from Dontrike »

Again, I'm not arguing that we need a set filled with them, f*** no, but to try and ignore the Eldrazi existed at all is ignoring part of Zendikar's story. I'm not arguing for the Eldrazi themselves, but arguing for why it is important to acknowledge that they did in fact exist and that a giant battle for a plane took place rather than trying to ignore it because a pair of sets was accepted poorly. I am arguing for a breathing world that feels real and not just trying to ignore something because some wish it hadn't happened.

The good and the bad should always be remembered in a story.

Stop equivocating not including any Eldrazi on cards with ignoring the Eldrazi existed at all. I'm sure you know full well it's entirely possible to avoid the later without doing the former, so stop saying this, because it's dishonest.
Zendikar Rising is very obviously not going to ignore the Eldrazi ever existed, but there won't be any actual Eldrazi.

Quote from Dontrike »

Quote from Xeruh »

As said, the way the lore currently works the Eldrazi are gone. If you wanted to complain about that you missed your window by over four years now.

Not sure what the hell you mean by this. I played BFZ and it was terrible. I played RoE and it was great.

The point was that the Eldrazi were already eliminated from Zendikar. It's not a decision that's been made with Zendikar Rising, it had already been made in advance. Zendikar Rising was always going to be an Eldrazi free Zendikar even before the bad reaction to the Eldrazi in BFZ.

Quote from Dontrike »

[quote from="Xeruh »" url="/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/818169-zendikar-rising-first-look-on-july-25th?comment=115"]
I don't care about the Eldrazi specifically just that because people whined like their five that the world of Zendikar loses part of itself. It would be like people getting tired of vampires and they no longer exist on Innistrad. If WotC can just blink things out of existence from worlds then they no longer feel alive and it gives those things a "Why did they exist in the first place if you're just going to get rid of it" sort of feel.

Sorry, but I'd much rather have worlds that feel alive rather than a company removing crap just because some people didn't like a thing.

The Eldrazi were never a Zendikar thing. From the beginning, the Eldrazi were always something separate from the plane they happened to first appear on. They were designed with Zendikar in mind and vice versa, but they were always supposed to be separate things. The Eldrazi were never supposed to be part of Zendikar's identity, and while you might put them as part of it, many other players did not and WotC has no reason here to go against their own intentions and the majority of the playerbase for the sake of the minority.
You simply can't win this debate,, because you've already lost it. Opinions were already heard, the scales were already weighed, plans were already made. Different people want different things and have different expectations from the game, and there's constantly going to be people who miss out on that. And you can't really argue that your wants and expectations are simply more valid than other peoples. Good game design is not all personal taste, but some of it is and that clearly comes into play here. You can't expect to reason people out of not wanting to see any more Eldrazi. At a certain point, people either like it or they don't. And when it comes to the Eldrazi, a lot of people don't. And that's the end of it.

Quote from Dontrike »

Quote from DJK3654 »

We haven't seen it again, because, as what stated, it requires resources to be set aside for a set. That, combined with the issues of confusion it causes with some players, the trickiness in getting it right for design and development, and the need for certain flavour backing—which all make it less likely to be used without a stronger fit.

A card every so often that requires colorless mana, even in ability activations, doesn't need a set strictly made for it. It's not like colorless mana was hard to figure out. If they can bring back phasing with little to no issues on one or two cards they can do it with colorless mana.

Colourless mana requires support in set in order to be able to consistently activate, and like hybrid mana, it's sheer existence in a set no matter the volume adds complexity such that it's not really worth adding just one or two colorless cards to a set (just like with hybrid). Besides, the whole point of colorless mana costs was to be a whole thing with infrastructure. That was part of the appeal. Like a lot of mechanics, it wants to be built around. That's where much of the fun lies.
Phasing has no support necessary and no inherent build around element. It's as to scry to colourless mana costs are to devotion. They aren't comparable in this regard. The fact that phasing can be used like scry scattered wherever in sets is crucial to it being considered as deciduous, while colourless mana costs are not.

Quote from Dontrike »

Quote from DJK3654 »

The set is called 'Zendikar Rising'. Why do you think it's 'rising'? Look at some of the art they've revealed already also— the set will very clearly have a theme of being in the aftermath of the Eldrazi. There won't be any actual Eldrazi on plane or on cards, but their former presence will clearly be felt in art and lore.

Uhuh, no one is claiming that Zendikar isn't healing from the Eldrazi, but the idea that they have all been wiped out and WotC should ignore that they exist(ed) is just silly.

That's my point. They're not ignoring the Eldrazi existed.

Just because BFZ was terrible and Eldrazi got tiring doesn't mean you ignore an active and living world.

Again, I am not arguing for a set filled with them, but a few in the set isn't going to suddenly mean the eldrazi are coming back full force. You fumigating your house to get rid of ants doesn't mean all ants disappear forever.

I don't know what to tell you dude, the Eldrazi are gone from Zendikar. WotC and many players do not want them to be there. You might, but that's not going to change anything. You're just on the losing side here.

Quote from RSSR »

The new design space I LOVED that OGW introduced was colorless mana now matters. MaRo has gone on record saying that to do more of that in future sets requires colorless mana resources set aside in the expansion design to make it work, but that’s always something I wish they explore more of, maybe in Zendikar Rising.

This is something I've been waiting for. They made colorless mana matters and we haven't seen any of it in near five years. It amazes me that there hasn't been one other card since then that requires colorless mana.

We haven't seen it again, because, as what stated, it requires resources to be set aside for a set. That, combined with the issues of confusion it causes with some players, the trickiness in getting it right for design and development, and the need for certain flavour backing—which all make it less likely to be used without a stronger fit.

Quote from Dontrike »

Quote from Xeruh »

Not... really. The Eldrazi titans are wiped out (and as the lesser Eldrazi are the equivalent of their fingers or the like this takes care of the tiny ones). Unless you want Emrakul to break free and invade there really isn't any Eldrazi to deal with. This is just following the lore they set up. To have more Eldrazi you need to either bring out a new titan (which would not likely be met with resounding success and lead to Zendikar being invaded again) or use Emrakul (which likewise is not really a great option, especially as to do so would be ignoring Innistrad). None of this is ignoring history here.

That's under the idea that all the Eldrazi were wiped out just because Kozilek and Ulamog were killed, but I'm sure this isn't like taking out the mother ship and the rest of the minions go down.

No one is really arguing that the set has to be filled with Eldrazi, just that it would be strange to not show any. Personally, I'd be fine with 3-10 Eldrazi cards, and that's it. At the very least seeing art and lore that shows that BFZ happened and not go "don't pay attention to the damage and history over there, look over hereto the full art lands, quests, and traps."

The set is called 'Zendikar Rising'. Why do you think it's 'rising'? Look at some of the art they've revealed already also— the set will very clearly have a theme of being in the aftermath of the Eldrazi. There won't be any actual Eldrazi on plane or on cards, but their former presence will clearly be felt in art and lore.

Quote from Guesswork »

Quote from DJK3654 »

Except for many other players what defines Zendikar for them is not the Eldrazi, and for many of those players BFZ block was a disappointment. It was a popular reaction to the block to wish the Eldrazi weren't there. WotC has said as much. This will be the Zendikar return for those fans who didn't want the Eldrazi. That's just where the numbers lie.

Rise of the Eldrazi was the amazing, revolutionary prog-rock album that the masses didn't understand.

Blaming people for being too stupid or uncultured or whatever to appreciate something is not the best move. Especially something like this, where one of the major complaints was that newer players were confused or felt tricked by the limited format, because expecting newer players to be up to your standards is unreasonable.

Quote from Guesswork »

Then, Battle for Zendikar was a cover of that album by a no-talent teenage boy band. It was Magic's Puberty Love.

Oh, BFZ was definitely badly executed on a number of levels.

Quote from Guesswork »

And then WotC had the stones to be like, "I guess that's what you get when great artists cover crappy source material" and signed the boy band to a 10-album contract.

Yes, of course BFZ was garbage. It and OGW were literally, without hyperbole, the worst sets since Homelands and quite possibly the worst Magic sets ever. BFZ / OGW Eldrazi were awful. That doesn't mean that Zendikar was better without the Eldrazi. The Eldrazi were the mystery that made ZEN and WWK interesting. ROE was a masterpiece. You take the Eldrazi away, you need to put something else in their place, because otherwise there is no hook to the setting. Calling Zendikar "the adventure plane" or whatever they're rolling with is a complete non-statement, and unless WotC comes up with a stronger identity for Zendikar minus Eldrazi, pretty soon it's going to be Magic's worst setting.

WotC at no point, despite your repeated claims, claimed that the only failure of BFZ was the inclusion of the Eldrazi, or that the inclusion of the Eldrazi lead to all the mistakes. But one of the major complaints against BFZ was that many players felt like the Eldrazi were too omnipresent, and a number of people just wanted to see plain Zendikar. And that's just a fact. Doesn't matter what you or I think of it, it happened. If BFZ block had been better executed in general it would have been better received even with the Eldrazi, but the Eldrazi were a negative for a lot of players. Maybe MaRo was wrong and there were enough pro-ELdrazi players to justify including them, but even still the anti-Eldrazi players are still there and they want their turn with Zendikar. The Eldrazi could show up elsewhere, and in fact they already did.
As far as Zendikar's identity, the first two Zendikar sets were very popular (and no, not just because of the treasures thing) without the Eldrazi. Sure, you could argue the Eldrazi's hidden background presence was a large part of that. I would argue that's not at all true though. The Eldrazi were hinted at in the first two sets, but this mystery captivated far fewer players I think than what you are giving it credit for. It just wasn't that big of a deal, and a lot of players really don't pay much attention to lore. People *did* like the 'Adventure plane'. People wanted BFZ to be exactly that. If the Eldrazi were definitively what made OG Zendikar block interesting, why did so many people want to get rid of them?
It's not like there won't be anything new going on here anyway.

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

Quote from Mimeofacture »

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

No Eldrazi. BOO!!!

At least some remnant Eldrazi would have been nice. My interest is waning.

I'd be shocked if there wasn't at least one mythic Legendary Artifact/Enchantment that represented the hedron or binding spell or what-have-you that led the Zendikari to victory, or otherwise represents the Eldrazi's defeat. It's not like they won't even be mentioned. They just won't be there.

ELDRAZI CARDS. A small handful of Eldrazi that escaped or weren't bound. CARDS

The set might as well be Ixalan or Alara without any Eldrazi for me. It's like showing up at a renowned burger joint only to find they aren't selling burgers, pointless. A mention doesn't help me PLAY a game of Magic.

Except for many other players what defines Zendikar for them is not the Eldrazi, and for many of those players BFZ block was a disappointment. It was a popular reaction to the block to wish the Eldrazi weren't there. WotC has said as much. This will be the Zendikar return for those fans who didn't want the Eldrazi. That's just where the numbers lie.

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

No Eldrazi. BOO!!!

At least some remnant Eldrazi would have been nice. My interest is waning.

Do you want WotC to commit suicide? Because, seriously, a whole bunch of fans would tear them to shreds if they saw even a single eldrazi in this set. I'm afraid you're going to have accept the fact that you are going against the grain here.

Quote from Shiroe The Enchanter »

I really wish Wizards made a booster that has known useful constructed cards only. But, Wizards wouldn't be able to keep the price down, because they know how much such cards are worth on the secondary market and would seek to maximize profit on the booster.

How would WotC also distribute these packs? They don't know ahead of time what cards will be played in meta. So they'd either have to guess and probably overestimate, so chaff would still get in, and they'd still miss includes, or they'd only be able to ship these packs after the first few weeks of the format, which would be poor business for something like this.

Quote from soramaro »

Final four artworks. The third one gives off strong GW dual vibes, but I guess it could also be a basic forest.

My guess is basic forest.
Perfect artwork to showcase the world here— Zendikar healing from the devastation of the Eldrazi. And not very dramatic looking compared to most duals. Maybe a common dual.