If the way they handled Scars of Mirrodin is any indication, RtR won't share much with Ravnica beyond flavor, and even there it will be limited.
Actually, RtR being like Ravnica has even more going against it than SoM being like Mirrodin, since multicolored has been done two different ways since Ravnica (Shadowmoor and Alara), while Artifacts was only done in Mirrodin.
I have a feeling we won't see any of the guild-specific mechanics from Ravnica, because I don't think we're going to see all of them and I don't think seeing just some of them would feel right, especially given that the guilds are supposed to be dissolved now. This is a contrast with SoM because Mirrodin's mechanics represented it as a block, rather than just one tenth of the block, so bringing back Imprint felt like a nod to Mirrodin.
I think we WILL see Hybrid, though not as a major theme, since it feels like Ravnica while representing the breakup of the guilds very well.
I think there's a good chance we will see the Ravnica duals since they've always intended to reprint them, they convey a lot of what Ravnica is, they've been printing decent duals pretty consistently, and they play well with any environment that isn't strictly mono-colored. I also think way may see only the allied colors or allied colors in the first set and enemies in the second.
I suspect we'll see more planeswalkers, maybe even at Rare. I think we'll see more like the Fiend walker--that is, cheap and non-game winning.
One of the problems with the 10 mechanics in Ravnica is that it was followed by Timespiral, which also had a ton of mechanics. For this reason I think we may see a lot of mechanics in RtR, followed by a set with few mechanics. A lot of mechanics would feel like Ravnica (the first block), and convey the cosmopolitan and eclectic nature of the plane. Only in this circumstance would I expect to see some of the mechanics from Ravnica return.
Chaos and Order seems like a good one to me too. Not sure what it's effect would be, but it seems vague enough that most things would work. - Sword of Faith and Treachery. (Untap all creatures you control; creatures that player controls must attack if able.) - Sword of Summer and Winter could work, considering white gets the sun and red gets ice. (+1/+1 counter on target creature; 1 damage to each creature that player controls.) - Sword of Earth and Sky could work, but would make more sense for Red/Blue. - Sword of War and Peace. (Same as Faith and Treachery.) Or Sword of Chaos and Orb. (Tear this card up and drop it on the battlefield. Any touched permanents are destroyed.)
I can tell already I'm going to hate (playing against) Etched Champion. It's one of those cards that has a good chance of just completely hosing another deck. (The Spike in mean would probably enjoy playing it if the Cheapskate in me didn't want to pay for it.)
My understanding was that the AaB structure of Zendikar (Big set, theme A; small set, theme A; big set, theme B) was something they were reserving for when they wanted to use a theme that wasn't big enough for 3 sets. I could see artifacts being a theme that is a little too small for 3 sets (look at how 5th Dawn fared, especially considering that its theme was basically "5 colors"). However, if that were the case, then the 3rd set definitely wouldn't be all artifact.
I could see something like this:
Scars of Mirrodin
Mirrodin Besieged (all artifacts because of something the Phyrexians did)
Third Set (not artifact themed, its own draft environment, representing the "come back" of the Mirrans)
However, SoM doesn't seem to be headed toward an artifact only set, for the reasons I gave in my last post.
Given that, a) artifacts can be both creatures and non-creatures, which is more than can be said of creatures (I'm looking at Legions here), and b) Wizards is willing to make colored artifacts a significant element in a block (looking at Esper), I think there's absolutely no problem with them making an all-artifact set (especially as a third set).
However, it doesn't look like Scars of Mirrodin is going in that direction, in the sense that they're prominently featuring the Mirran faction, which seems to be made up significantly of non-artifact creatures. Now, it's possible that the Phyrexian oil will predominate or something and somehow we'll turn all of Mirrodin's inhabitants into artifacts (a lot of them are most of the way there anyway), but that doesn't strike me as very probable.
Another problem with doing that is, as already pointed out, all artifacts would only not mess up drafts big-time if colored artifacts were used a lot, but we just had that in Esper, so it doesn't seem like a good time to do it. We also just had an "all something" set in Alara Reborn, so that would also take some of the wind out of this sets sails.
So, while it seems like the idea could see execution some day, it doesn't seem like now's the time. Of course, if not now, when? Probably not in the near future. Maybe in Mirrodin 3.
Related to this, I speculate that the next set or two are going to have 50%+ Phyrexian aligned cards. In SoM, they represent an emerging threat, then they're going to represent an overwhelming problem.
If I were WotC, I would want the core planeswalkers to be closer in power level than they currently are. I could see them doing a new set of 5 or just replacing some of them. But Ajani is not the obvious one to replace, since his power level is right about in the middle. I think they need a new red PW or they could power things down with a new green PW.
Note: I think we will see Sunburst in SoM, based on the evidence. The following just expresses why I hope we won't, why I'd rather see Affinity (let alone one of the other mechanics), and why I think it's possible we won't see Sunburst.
Honestly, as a mechanic, I liked Affinity more than Sunburst. Sunburst just seems like a secret way of pricing artifacts as WUBRG, which seems like the complete opposite of what artifacts are. I know it's not that simple. But Sunburst basically meant that you wanted to spend only colored mana on colorless cards which felt like it really restricted your land base. Bottom line: the mechanic is uninteresting, restrictive, and contrary to the basic idea of artifacts. My impression was that, even though Affinity was hated, Fifth Dawn was the least popular set in the block, and Sunburst an unpopular mechanic. That's certainly how I felt.
Affinity was broken because of artifact lands, pure and simple. The "Affinity" cards that I hate playing against the most don't even have the mechanic: the lands, Arcbound Ravager, Cranial Plating. Really, the core of the problem was that artifacts with Affinity for artifacts + artifacts lands was a very broken idea, and then there were a couple power cards (Ravager, mostly, though) to make the combo unbeatable. As long as we don't see that again, Affinity could be a lot of fun.
If you played one Sunburst card, that basically forced your whole deck into playing at least four colors. And while Affinity for artifacts also forced your whole deck, there's nothing intrinsic to Affinity that makes it so insular. See the end of the post for some examples.
In contrast to Sunburst, Affinity has already been templated as a much more versatile mechanic. I loved the Affinity for basic land type cards, and there's so much more that can be done with that, let alone Affinity for other things (of which there are many options).
Some examples of other ways to use Affinity that don't force you to build your deck around it:
Fire Stone 3
Artifact
Affinity for sorcerers
Sacrifice ~: ~ deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
Another Artifact Wizard 4
Artifact Creature - Wizard
Affinity for wizards and artificers
Artifact creatures and wizards you control have flying.
2/2
Growth Stone 2
Artifact
Affinity for non-basic lands
Sacrifice ~: Search your library for a basic land, reveal it, and put it into your hand.
Counterstorm 1UU
Instant
Affinity for spells on stack (Just your spells.)
Counter all spells.
If Esper and Sarcomite Myr are anything to go by, I'd fully expect the second Mirrodin block to very much not be full of colorless permanents.
I would be surprised if they didn't have colored artifacts in the next Mirrodin block. I would be very surprised if anything more than half of the artifacts were colored, though. Lack of color (especially in mana cost) is probably the most distinct thing about artifacts. Color the mana cost of too many artifacts and it will be like you've made a "creature-focused" set where most of the creatures can't attack or block.
The problem with everything you list is that it's all still incredibly parasitic. Instants, sorceries, enchantments, and non-artifact creatures are almost never colorless in normal situations, so the interactions are going to be extremely limited outside the specific block in question.
"Incredibly parasitic" is an exaggeration. The mechanics are far less parasitic than some of the mechanics they've printed over the last few years. (Tribal (the card type), Snow, Arcane.) Every set has lands and artifacts, and so these kinds of cards would have interactions with every set. Sure, their interactions would be less novel outside of set, but they'd still interact. Of all the examples I gave, only Twilight Shield would probably not fit fine in decks outside of the block or an artifact deck.
You also simply can't do most of the workmanlike designs that work for X-matters type themes with colorless. "Count your colorless permanents" is always going to give you the number of lands you control plus. "If you control a colorless permanent" is pointless because you always will. And so on.
The fact that it would always count your lands a) makes it more widely relevant (a good thing) and b) distinguishes it from other X-matters themes, because the counts are always going to be higher than normal.
True, you can't do "If you control a colorless permanent," but that's not a significant barrier--there are many variants that would work:
- If there is a colorless card in your graveyard...
- Reveal X colorless cards in hand...
- As long as the top card of your library is colorless...
- ...gets -1/-1 for each color among permanents you control.
- If you control X or more colorless permanents...
- ...costs 1 less to play for each untapped colorless permanent you control. (A less/more broken affinity?)
I think Ghostfire is certainly showcasing RotE's colorless theme, just like Nacatl War-Pride showed off Alara's monocolor theme and Mistmeadow Skulk showed off Shadowmoor's CMC-matters theme.
More seriously, I haven't really seen anyone flesh the idea of a "colorless theme" out into anything that actually makes sense as a potential block theme, so I'm still extraordinarily skeptical of it at this point.
Zendikar's theme is lands; next year's block theme seems to have a very high chance of being artifacts. What do lands and artifacts have in common? They're the two colorless permanents. If they are ever going to do a set with a "colorless theme," I think ROE would be the time to do it, since it's a mechanically stand-alone set in-between two other blocks that focus on colorless card types. The design space could probably only fill one set at most anyway, so it fits perfectly from that perspective. Iona, Shield of Emeria is another card that makes colorless matter.
Twilight Shield 1W
Enchantment - Aura
~ is colorless.
Enchant colorless permanent
When ~ comes into play choose a color.
Enchanted permanent has protection from the chosen color.
(Protects lands, artifacts, or other colorless permanents in ROE.)
Colorless Familiar U
Creature
~ is colorless.
When ~ comes into play, reveal the top card of your library. If it's colorless, put it into your hand.
1/1
(Can grab you a card from any of the three sets.)
Cycle of the Soulless 2B
Instant
Return target colorless permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.
Force Blast 3R
Instant
~ is colorless.
~ deals damage to target creature equal to the number of colorless permanents you control.
Knight of the Wild 1G
Creature - Knight
Protection from colorless
2/2
There's not a LOT of possibility, but you could definitely make a sub-theme out of it, at least.
I also posted these two cards a while ago:
Twilight Regrowth :2mana::symg:
Sorcery
~ is colorless.
Search your library for a non-artifact colorless card and reveal it. If it is a land, you may put it into play tapped. Otherwise, put it into your hand.
Twilight Research :2mana::symu:
Sorcery
~ is colorless.
Search your library for a non-land colorless card, reveal it, and put it into your hand.
If anything, instead of doing a Green vs. Artifacts version of the sword, which breaks all sorts of symmetry, I think it would be much better if they filled things out with three new cards making it an enemy-color cycle.
Sword of Life and Death, Sword of Earth and Sky, Sword of Faith and Treachery.
While it is true that the mechanics of Ghostfire may have nothing to do with the Zendikar sets, it seems strange that they would choose to use a name from Ghostfire and completely ignore the mechanics of the card itself, unless they were planning to have Ghostfire in these sets and then later changed their mind, which seems pretty unlikely, given that they're still using the "eye of Ugin." There is a similarity to Graven Cairns, but the most significant difference is that there hasn't been a set yet that is directly tied to the flavor-text of Graven Cairns.
Another possibility, though, is that Ghostfire is from a completely hypothetical "return to Zendikar" block, where the Eye of Ugin again plays an important role.
Or (the last one), if the Eye of Ugin is so powerful, it may simply play a role in the plots of multiple blocks. For example, at the end of Zendikar, it might be taken to Mirrodin and play a role there.
Going back to the idea of Ghostfire somehow being relevant to Zendikar, if Poison is in Prosper, like it seems it might be now, this would tend to indicate that Worldwake might have a "colorless matters" sub-theme, a natural progression from the "land matters" theme.
Twilight Regrowth 2G
Sorcery
~ is colorless.
Search your library for a non-artifact colorless card and reveal it. If it is a land, you may put it into play tapped. Otherwise, put it into your hand.
Twilight Research 2U
~ is colorless.
Search your library for a non-land colorless card, reveal it, and put it into your hand.
I completely agree that there are way too many elves and goblins in Magic. Why, oh why, do goblins have to show up on every single plane? Most of them would never see play in any self-respecting Goblin deck anyway! Same with the Elves. So why not give them a creature type that might actually matter in some deck somewhere?
I completely agree there are too many humans, goblins and elfs in mtg. I also HATE elves, they are just tree loving human hippies with pointed hears. They suck; especially because they keep new races away from green with is my favorite color. The Kor look interesting but white already have a bunch of races (leonine, Rhox, Loxodon, aven and the hobbits rip of) so it would be nice to se a new original green, red or black (something like a wolf race in green, a hyena race in black and mole race in red ).
Back to the original topic. If he does show up as a Planeswalker, it would probably be in Prosper or never, because that is when it would make the most sense. And it would probably be because he managed to regain a spark somehow. Also, the last time they printed multiple cards representing the same character it was Lorwyn/Shadowmoor when they had mechanically separate sets on the same plane, just like Zendikar/Prosper. But you can never say never in Magic, so you never know.
Actually, RtR being like Ravnica has even more going against it than SoM being like Mirrodin, since multicolored has been done two different ways since Ravnica (Shadowmoor and Alara), while Artifacts was only done in Mirrodin.
I have a feeling we won't see any of the guild-specific mechanics from Ravnica, because I don't think we're going to see all of them and I don't think seeing just some of them would feel right, especially given that the guilds are supposed to be dissolved now. This is a contrast with SoM because Mirrodin's mechanics represented it as a block, rather than just one tenth of the block, so bringing back Imprint felt like a nod to Mirrodin.
I think we WILL see Hybrid, though not as a major theme, since it feels like Ravnica while representing the breakup of the guilds very well.
I think there's a good chance we will see the Ravnica duals since they've always intended to reprint them, they convey a lot of what Ravnica is, they've been printing decent duals pretty consistently, and they play well with any environment that isn't strictly mono-colored. I also think way may see only the allied colors or allied colors in the first set and enemies in the second.
I suspect we'll see more planeswalkers, maybe even at Rare. I think we'll see more like the Fiend walker--that is, cheap and non-game winning.
One of the problems with the 10 mechanics in Ravnica is that it was followed by Timespiral, which also had a ton of mechanics. For this reason I think we may see a lot of mechanics in RtR, followed by a set with few mechanics. A lot of mechanics would feel like Ravnica (the first block), and convey the cosmopolitan and eclectic nature of the plane. Only in this circumstance would I expect to see some of the mechanics from Ravnica return.
I could see something like this:
Scars of Mirrodin
Mirrodin Besieged (all artifacts because of something the Phyrexians did)
Third Set (not artifact themed, its own draft environment, representing the "come back" of the Mirrans)
However, SoM doesn't seem to be headed toward an artifact only set, for the reasons I gave in my last post.
However, it doesn't look like Scars of Mirrodin is going in that direction, in the sense that they're prominently featuring the Mirran faction, which seems to be made up significantly of non-artifact creatures. Now, it's possible that the Phyrexian oil will predominate or something and somehow we'll turn all of Mirrodin's inhabitants into artifacts (a lot of them are most of the way there anyway), but that doesn't strike me as very probable.
Another problem with doing that is, as already pointed out, all artifacts would only not mess up drafts big-time if colored artifacts were used a lot, but we just had that in Esper, so it doesn't seem like a good time to do it. We also just had an "all something" set in Alara Reborn, so that would also take some of the wind out of this sets sails.
So, while it seems like the idea could see execution some day, it doesn't seem like now's the time. Of course, if not now, when? Probably not in the near future. Maybe in Mirrodin 3.
Honestly, as a mechanic, I liked Affinity more than Sunburst. Sunburst just seems like a secret way of pricing artifacts as WUBRG, which seems like the complete opposite of what artifacts are. I know it's not that simple. But Sunburst basically meant that you wanted to spend only colored mana on colorless cards which felt like it really restricted your land base. Bottom line: the mechanic is uninteresting, restrictive, and contrary to the basic idea of artifacts. My impression was that, even though Affinity was hated, Fifth Dawn was the least popular set in the block, and Sunburst an unpopular mechanic. That's certainly how I felt.
Affinity was broken because of artifact lands, pure and simple. The "Affinity" cards that I hate playing against the most don't even have the mechanic: the lands, Arcbound Ravager, Cranial Plating. Really, the core of the problem was that artifacts with Affinity for artifacts + artifacts lands was a very broken idea, and then there were a couple power cards (Ravager, mostly, though) to make the combo unbeatable. As long as we don't see that again, Affinity could be a lot of fun.
If you played one Sunburst card, that basically forced your whole deck into playing at least four colors. And while Affinity for artifacts also forced your whole deck, there's nothing intrinsic to Affinity that makes it so insular. See the end of the post for some examples.
In contrast to Sunburst, Affinity has already been templated as a much more versatile mechanic. I loved the Affinity for basic land type cards, and there's so much more that can be done with that, let alone Affinity for other things (of which there are many options).
Some examples of other ways to use Affinity that don't force you to build your deck around it:
Artifact
Affinity for sorcerers
Sacrifice ~: ~ deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
Another Artifact Wizard 4
Artifact Creature - Wizard
Affinity for wizards and artificers
Artifact creatures and wizards you control have flying.
2/2
Growth Stone 2
Artifact
Affinity for non-basic lands
Sacrifice ~: Search your library for a basic land, reveal it, and put it into your hand.
Counterstorm 1UU
Instant
Affinity for spells on stack (Just your spells.)
Counter all spells.
Swamp Lurker 1B
Creature - Zombie Rogue Warrior
Affinity for swamps
2/1
Bloodthirster XXRR
Creature - Elemental
Affinity for damage dealt this turn.
~ comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it.
1/1
Vilephile 3G
Creature - Elemental
Affinity for poison counters on you
If a -1/-1 counter would be put on ~ put a +1/+1 counter on instead.
4/4
Peer Pressure 4W
Sorcery
Affinity for tokens
Gain control of target token.
I would be surprised if they didn't have colored artifacts in the next Mirrodin block. I would be very surprised if anything more than half of the artifacts were colored, though. Lack of color (especially in mana cost) is probably the most distinct thing about artifacts. Color the mana cost of too many artifacts and it will be like you've made a "creature-focused" set where most of the creatures can't attack or block.
"Incredibly parasitic" is an exaggeration. The mechanics are far less parasitic than some of the mechanics they've printed over the last few years. (Tribal (the card type), Snow, Arcane.) Every set has lands and artifacts, and so these kinds of cards would have interactions with every set. Sure, their interactions would be less novel outside of set, but they'd still interact. Of all the examples I gave, only Twilight Shield would probably not fit fine in decks outside of the block or an artifact deck.
The fact that it would always count your lands a) makes it more widely relevant (a good thing) and b) distinguishes it from other X-matters themes, because the counts are always going to be higher than normal.
True, you can't do "If you control a colorless permanent," but that's not a significant barrier--there are many variants that would work:
- If there is a colorless card in your graveyard...
- Reveal X colorless cards in hand...
- As long as the top card of your library is colorless...
- ...gets -1/-1 for each color among permanents you control.
- If you control X or more colorless permanents...
- ...costs 1 less to play for each untapped colorless permanent you control. (A less/more broken affinity?)
And that's just off the top of my head.
Zendikar's theme is lands; next year's block theme seems to have a very high chance of being artifacts. What do lands and artifacts have in common? They're the two colorless permanents. If they are ever going to do a set with a "colorless theme," I think ROE would be the time to do it, since it's a mechanically stand-alone set in-between two other blocks that focus on colorless card types. The design space could probably only fill one set at most anyway, so it fits perfectly from that perspective. Iona, Shield of Emeria is another card that makes colorless matter.
Twilight Shield 1W
Enchantment - Aura
~ is colorless.
Enchant colorless permanent
When ~ comes into play choose a color.
Enchanted permanent has protection from the chosen color.
(Protects lands, artifacts, or other colorless permanents in ROE.)
Colorless Familiar U
Creature
~ is colorless.
When ~ comes into play, reveal the top card of your library. If it's colorless, put it into your hand.
1/1
(Can grab you a card from any of the three sets.)
Cycle of the Soulless 2B
Instant
Return target colorless permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.
Force Blast 3R
Instant
~ is colorless.
~ deals damage to target creature equal to the number of colorless permanents you control.
Knight of the Wild 1G
Creature - Knight
Protection from colorless
2/2
(Can't be hit by Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle.)
There's not a LOT of possibility, but you could definitely make a sub-theme out of it, at least.
I also posted these two cards a while ago:
Twilight Regrowth :2mana::symg:
Sorcery
~ is colorless.
Search your library for a non-artifact colorless card and reveal it. If it is a land, you may put it into play tapped. Otherwise, put it into your hand.
Twilight Research :2mana::symu:
Sorcery
~ is colorless.
Search your library for a non-land colorless card, reveal it, and put it into your hand.
Sword of Life and Death, Sword of Earth and Sky, Sword of Faith and Treachery.
Something like that.
Another possibility, though, is that Ghostfire is from a completely hypothetical "return to Zendikar" block, where the Eye of Ugin again plays an important role.
Or (the last one), if the Eye of Ugin is so powerful, it may simply play a role in the plots of multiple blocks. For example, at the end of Zendikar, it might be taken to Mirrodin and play a role there.
Going back to the idea of Ghostfire somehow being relevant to Zendikar, if Poison is in Prosper, like it seems it might be now, this would tend to indicate that Worldwake might have a "colorless matters" sub-theme, a natural progression from the "land matters" theme.
Twilight Regrowth 2G
Sorcery
~ is colorless.
Search your library for a non-artifact colorless card and reveal it. If it is a land, you may put it into play tapped. Otherwise, put it into your hand.
Twilight Research 2U
~ is colorless.
Search your library for a non-land colorless card, reveal it, and put it into your hand.