If they were willing to use mythics (wouldn't have the same problem as prerelease promos because the quantity is so limited) I think they could probably pick hits with fairly high reliability. Standouts from the last few years are:
Core 19: Nicol Bolas
Dominaria: Karn, Teferi, Lyra
RIX: Immortal Sun, Rekindling Phoenix
Ixalan: Carnage Tyrant
Hour: Nicol Bolas, Scarab God
Amonkhet: Hazoret, Gideon, Liliana
AER: Heart of Kiran
Kaladesh: Chandra, Torrential, Marvel
EMN: Emrakul
SOI: Avacyn
Oath: Kalitas, Nissa, TKS
BFZ: Gideon, Ulamog
Yes this lists benefits from hindsight and several sets are harder to figure out, but for the most part these are the most obviously pushed cards in the set. Play design should let them figure out the chase cards even better. Chase mythic promos might even sell boxes better than unique promos since you know that they're aiming these cards to be constructed staples, rather than niche cards like unique promos.
I really hope we get a straight up mill mechanic for Dimir. Something like Szadek where a creature deals damage to players as mill could work. They keep almost doing mill for Dimir, then chickening out and ending up with a mechanic with development problems. I actually love both transmute and cipher as mechanics, but the developers were obviously scared of the latter and it ended up mostly on unplayable garbage. So this time let's get all mill instead of half-mill half something else.
You mean ingest? While that works in theory, it's pretty rough in practice.
No, not like injest. I meant a template similar to Szadek, Lord of Secrets or infect, in which damage to players is replaced by the same amount of mill. I'm just giving a random example though. I would just be disappointed if the Dimir faction were split down the middle again where it has a mechanic like cipher or transmute and a disconnected mill subtheme.
I really hope we get a straight up mill mechanic for Dimir. Something like Szadek where a creature deals damage to players as mill could work. They keep almost doing mill for Dimir, then chickening out and ending up with a mechanic with development problems. I actually love both transmute and cipher as mechanics, but the developers were obviously scared of the latter and it ended up mostly on unplayable garbage. So this time let's get all mill instead of half-mill half something else.
I don't see why everyone is hating on Maria and Meghan so much. If anything their enthusiasm is a welcome departure from the Verheytron's preprogrammed corporate musings.
The continuation of unique promos is extremely disappointing. They havesaid that they view cards like nathalni dragon and arena as mistakes, they are aware of the toxic effect they have on competitive magic, and they know that they are unpopular with players. Maro specifically said he heard this message with Firesong and Sunspeaker. You'll notice the announcement is worded very politically and says nothing like "the players loved this," just that there was feedback. I suspect the real reason is that it was popular with LGSs and collectors. So it seems WOTC is willing to go back on their word when it helps these communities, even if it hurts the game, but not when it helps the game and hurts collectors, as with the reserved list.
Edit: a fewmoresources in which they clearly articulate a change of policy in which they do not produce functionally unique promos.
Interestingly, their arguments for banning Baral in the deck (as opposed to just as the commander) and Smuggler's Copter echo the complaints that a lot of players have about Sol Ring in EDH, in that it unfairly advantages the players who happen to draw it early.
This is why I want WotC to take over the Commander banlist. Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Mana Vault make games terrible when they show up on one side.
The thing is. Fast mana is fundemental to EDH. Everybody has acces to these cards. Sure, sometimes you get lucky with your fast mana. Sometimes your opponent gets lucky. Sometimes that elves player swarms you t3. Sometimes you get stormed t2. If your playgroup is not that competitive, houseban the fastmana and problem cards. Do not drag the people that like these vintage style cards and playstyles to your more casual view of what the format should be.
Also. If you like playing new cards and don't want fastmana in your group. Then brawl is the format for you.
I think it's more a problem in large LGS communities where you have casual/competitive players mixed and the only normalizing factor is the official banned list. Like, it's no fun for anyone when one person shows up with a deck trying to combo out on turn 3 and everyone else is playing more casual decks. That said, I don't know if banning the super efficient mana rocks, effectively killing competitive multiplayer, is a good idea. Also, not everyone practically has access to mana vault and mana crypt. Vault can be rare and is still medium expensive, and crypt is still prohibitively expensive for many players.
On the other hand, though, WotC promotes exactly this kind of "stakes decay" with impenetrable plot armor. Plane-devouring monstrosities? Beaten, and Chandra is a bit drained but that's it. Walking right into the ultimate villain's trap? Some get a bit beat up but in the end all survive just fine. We could use some real consequence.
We did get real consequences. Two of the best MTG characters ever, Yawgmoth and Kozilek, are never coming back because WOTC won't resurrect them.
I think a big argument for Ravnica this fall is that it's still the 25th anniversary, and Ravnica is among the most popular planes. I think it's also safe to assume that there will be two sets of Ravnica, given how big of a disappointment Dragon's Maze was. Those two sets don't necessarily have to be consecutive though. For example we could get C19-Ravnica-Theros-Ravnica and still have both sets in the same rotation.
Aside from the Fall set, hopefully we'll also get more info about C18. The return of the core set could also be a place to announce changes to the game, i.e. downgrading prowess from evergreen to deciduous. It also would be nice if they announced their changing from "any target" to "target creature, player, or planeswalker" but I'm not getting my hopes up.
They used to announce a lot of stuff during the Pro Tour, so they might be doing that. It's not a huge deal because this time it's just an announcement but sometimes WOTC reminds me of George RR Martin in that South Park episode, where he keeps saying "the pizzas are coming!" but they never arrive.
Anyone else weirded out by the artifact matters cards? Don't get me wrong- I love artifacts and Mirrodin is one of my favorite sets. I just sort of expected to see more of a classic fantasy vibe like M10 and seeing robots on the cards kind of throws it off.
Interestingly, their arguments for banning Baral in the deck (as opposed to just as the commander) and Smuggler's Copter echo the complaints that a lot of players have about Sol Ring in EDH, in that it unfairly advantages the players who happen to draw it early.
Jace also may or may not remember seeing the Raven Man. He caught a glimpse of him while he was tripping on Emrakul and fighting Liliana. He could have written it off as a hallucination but if he associated him with Liliana he'd have another reason to be suspicious of her. He certainly doesn't know much at all about him but again, one more reason not to trust her. It would have been nice if they had taken the time to write these things out though. It's strange he's just giving her the silent treatment without explaining his reasoning to Chandra and Gideon; very un-blue.
The Cylix is not the Golgothian Sylex, or at least it shouldn't be. In the MTG story podcast, Kelly Digges and Ethan Fleischer indicate that the lore points to enemies of the Thran Empire (I think the Fallaji?) creating the Sylex to destroy the Thran, until Yawgmoth did it for them. Karn says this Cylix was created by Urza to fight the Phyrexians. So either nobody at wizards talks to each other or this is a completely different artifact. It maybe could be Urza replicating the power of the Golgothian Sylex as a backup plan if Phyrexia successfully invaded Dominaria.
Core 19: Nicol Bolas
Dominaria: Karn, Teferi, Lyra
RIX: Immortal Sun, Rekindling Phoenix
Ixalan: Carnage Tyrant
Hour: Nicol Bolas, Scarab God
Amonkhet: Hazoret, Gideon, Liliana
AER: Heart of Kiran
Kaladesh: Chandra, Torrential, Marvel
EMN: Emrakul
SOI: Avacyn
Oath: Kalitas, Nissa, TKS
BFZ: Gideon, Ulamog
Yes this lists benefits from hindsight and several sets are harder to figure out, but for the most part these are the most obviously pushed cards in the set. Play design should let them figure out the chase cards even better. Chase mythic promos might even sell boxes better than unique promos since you know that they're aiming these cards to be constructed staples, rather than niche cards like unique promos.
No, not like injest. I meant a template similar to Szadek, Lord of Secrets or infect, in which damage to players is replaced by the same amount of mill. I'm just giving a random example though. I would just be disappointed if the Dimir faction were split down the middle again where it has a mechanic like cipher or transmute and a disconnected mill subtheme.
Edit: a few more sources in which they clearly articulate a change of policy in which they do not produce functionally unique promos.
I think it's more a problem in large LGS communities where you have casual/competitive players mixed and the only normalizing factor is the official banned list. Like, it's no fun for anyone when one person shows up with a deck trying to combo out on turn 3 and everyone else is playing more casual decks. That said, I don't know if banning the super efficient mana rocks, effectively killing competitive multiplayer, is a good idea. Also, not everyone practically has access to mana vault and mana crypt. Vault can be rare and is still medium expensive, and crypt is still prohibitively expensive for many players.
We did get real consequences. Two of the best MTG characters ever, Yawgmoth and Kozilek, are never coming back because WOTC won't resurrect them.