I can see the point of the new ones being a bit lazy. Stats + evergreen creature keyword is a pretty generic way to do a cycle. The WWK ones weren't like that. Only one of them was simply stats + evergreen keyword, while the others mixed it up with two evergreen keywords, one non-keyword mechanic, a triggerd ability and an activated ability. This has nothing to do with rose-tinted glasses: Even if all ten came out together, I would have noticed that the allied ones were more diverse and interesting than the enemy ones.
We haven't seen the final two though. Maybe those two don't follow the generic scheme and do something more interesting. If the BG one has indeed regeneration, that would be a bit better than simply having deathtouch, since it would give us a second one with an activated ability. I hope the UR one has evasion plus saboteur looting. Or maybe "whenever this attacks, tap target creature".
Edit: Bringing up Iroas's Champion makes me especially bitter that the RW one isn't a 2/2.
I don't think the simplicity of the BFZ man lands was a result of laziness but a conscious design decision.
Unfortunately, the simple design is probably a trend you can count on just based on set context. Original flavor Zendikar was a less crowded block and with a much heavier focus on the "lands matters" theme. It makes sense that the manlands of that set would be a bit flashier. With the BFZ the focus is split much more with lands/allies/eldrazi so it follows that the manlands would use a more simple design because they aren't the marque anymore. Doesn't help that a lot of the sets complexity went into mechanics that don't matter for cube (devoid/ingest/processors) so there wasn't as much left over for the manlands a cube builder might want.
The sad tragedy of cards having to come out in a broader context then just themselves.
I don't think the simplicity of the BFZ man lands was a result of laziness but a conscious design decision.
Unfortunately, the simple design is probably a trend you can count on just based on set context. Original flavor Zendikar was a less crowded block and with a much heavier focus on the "lands matters" theme. It makes sense that the manlands of that set would be a bit flashier. With the BFZ the focus is split much more with lands/allies/eldrazi so it follows that the manlands would use a more simple design because they aren't the marque anymore. Doesn't help that a lot of the sets complexity went into mechanics that don't matter for cube (devoid/ingest/processors) so there wasn't as much left over for the manlands a cube builder might want.
The sad tragedy of cards having to come out in a broader context then just themselves.