The core of the Tarkir storyline was not to portray time-travel as scientificly correct as possible but rather to tell a story of change. In KTK, the Kahns were introduced and a Tarkir without dragons was characterized. FRF took us to the historically critical moments that would affect the fate of Tarkir for centuries to come. DTK contrasted how Tarkir has changed compared to it's "original" iteration and there is no better way than directly comparing important characters (e.g. khans) or places (e.g. abzan/dromoka fortress).
For me, the Tarkir storyline has done everything I wanted to see. The only thing that strikes me as "artifical" is that Sarkhan has no second iteration, I think it would have been easier and more interesting to have his DTK-version be killed by a dragon which would lead to an intresting controversy whether or not Sarkhan actually did himself a favor...
I think WotC will save the excitement of enemy fetches for BFZ, but Origins will still have an interesting land cycle, both to excite the fanbase and to set up Zendikar. Remember that Zendikar is supposed to be a plane with an overall "land matters" theme and I am pretty sure that we will see more than just one 5 or 10-part cycle in the BFZ block. The oroginal Zendikar block had a total of 36 non-basics over the 3 sets.
So did they talk about who is going to be fighting in this battle for Zendikar? Sarkhan, Ugin, maybe Gideon?
Probably Sorin, Ugin, and Nahiri. Sorin went to Tarkir to find Ugin and get the band back together, because apparently those 3 have unique abilities able to trap the Eldrazi. Nahiri's home plane is Zendikar, so they probably don't have to go elsewhere looking for her.
Well, all the most important players have entered the scene (or will when Origins comes out): Sarkhan, Ugin, Nahiri, Sorin, Gideon and Nissa.
They explicitly said the inclusion of Nissa and Gideon is due to their relevance in the forthcoming storyline, so we can expect their involvement in the Battle for Zendikar (even though they might not have their own cards in the block).
The uncharted realms article hints towards DTK set structure thats very similar to that of KTK:
- the clans are still intact (although we don't know if they still have all of their colors)
- every clan is lead by a dragon overlord, which seems to be the ones introduced in FRF
- every clan has a humanoid character as second-in-command (Zurgo Bellstriker for Mardu, Taigam for Jeskai...)
- the dragons in DTK seem to have different categories and are similar to the dragon overlords in apperance
Regarding Narset: I think it is likely to see her as a card in DTK as she is a major character of present-day Tarkir and seems very dear to Sarkhan. Since the Jeskai "khan" is now Taigam and we haven't seen any legendary creatures in KTK or FRF that aren't faction leaders, I dont think she is going to end up as a creature, but as a planeswalker. If she is, her colors are still not clear, because wizards seem very unwilling to give us 3 color planeswalker. She might be just W/R or U/R, this would give her some contrast against the allied color of Ojutai and the red underlines her rogueish-ness in DTK.
This is all speculation of course, but I doubt design will throw away all the strict symmerty they have had in this block until know, so I bet we are either going to see Narset as a planeswalker or not at all (assuming Taigam gets to be a legendary creature).
For me, the Tarkir storyline has done everything I wanted to see. The only thing that strikes me as "artifical" is that Sarkhan has no second iteration, I think it would have been easier and more interesting to have his DTK-version be killed by a dragon which would lead to an intresting controversy whether or not Sarkhan actually did himself a favor...
Well, all the most important players have entered the scene (or will when Origins comes out): Sarkhan, Ugin, Nahiri, Sorin, Gideon and Nissa.
They explicitly said the inclusion of Nissa and Gideon is due to their relevance in the forthcoming storyline, so we can expect their involvement in the Battle for Zendikar (even though they might not have their own cards in the block).
- the clans are still intact (although we don't know if they still have all of their colors)
- every clan is lead by a dragon overlord, which seems to be the ones introduced in FRF
- every clan has a humanoid character as second-in-command (Zurgo Bellstriker for Mardu, Taigam for Jeskai...)
- the dragons in DTK seem to have different categories and are similar to the dragon overlords in apperance
Regarding Narset: I think it is likely to see her as a card in DTK as she is a major character of present-day Tarkir and seems very dear to Sarkhan. Since the Jeskai "khan" is now Taigam and we haven't seen any legendary creatures in KTK or FRF that aren't faction leaders, I dont think she is going to end up as a creature, but as a planeswalker. If she is, her colors are still not clear, because wizards seem very unwilling to give us 3 color planeswalker. She might be just W/R or U/R, this would give her some contrast against the allied color of Ojutai and the red underlines her rogueish-ness in DTK.
This is all speculation of course, but I doubt design will throw away all the strict symmerty they have had in this block until know, so I bet we are either going to see Narset as a planeswalker or not at all (assuming Taigam gets to be a legendary creature).
This is my first ever post btw. Be gentle.