Planechase is all planes, no planeswalkers. I think you're confused.
It's not all planes either. The Plane cards are the new and cool thing about Planechase, but it also has precon decks, each with a spoiler card from Zendikar.
With four precons and two spoiled by ultra pro (sorin and chandra) what do you tthink the remaining two will be? A lorwyn walker? Sarkhan, tezzeret, elspeth, or gideon? or more completely new walkers? And how would that effect the price of planeswalkers if included in precons?
Chandra and Sorin haven't really been spoiled officially, the artwork has, which leads us to believe that they'll be printed in Zendikar, but not Planechase, which most likely won't have any planeswalkers. Zendikar will have 3 walkers, Nissa Revaine, most likely Chandra Nalaar as the returning walker that Maro mentioned, and the third is speculated as Sorin due to the spoiled artwork from Ultrapro.
Out of the creatures you mentioned only BoP, Hierarch, Bloom Tender and Elves see serious play. Red doesn't have a problem with killing mana dorks, it has problems with Colossus, Clique and other efficient fat.
Cenn's Tactician has seen top 8, it's too soon to say for Ball Lightning, and BBE sees more serious play with Aggro Jund than any of the mana rampers, and she is a 3/2, which fire could kill, and she can cascade into a Ball Lightning, which fire could also kill. Hence why a Fire for R would be great. Lightning Bolt couldn't take out Colossus either, which is why you play Act of Treason in your sideboard.
I also mentioned some M10 cards, which makes your post uninformed. The point is that a fire could take out 2 "mana dorks" as you call them, rather than just one. It would also be a good spell for a deck that uses Ball Lightning in case your facing a mirror match.
These hypothetical arguments are always hilarious. In the situation you just posted, you have 1 card left in your hand. Your opponent may be at 8 life, but you're essentially out of gas.
Dark ritual into Hypnotic Specter is so frightening because hippy starts to disrupt your gameplan on turn 2, and he doesn't stop. You have to deal with him immediately, or he completely takes away your draw step. Ball Lightning off of a ritual deals with itself at end of turn (or beginning of end step, whatever). While it would be a good way to quickly deal damage, a threat that comes down eary off a ritual that will keep hitting your opponent, such as Boggart Ram-Gang, Ashenmoor Gouger, or Deus of Calamity is going to be a lot more frightening.
Of course I wasn't the one that played the first turn. Either way, the spectre isn't that frightening when I have a lightning bolt in my hand. Although turn one Angry ritual, angry ritual, Deus of Calamity would be more frightening.
There's nothing saying that these promo planes at the Planechase launch parties and the Zendikar pre-release/launch parties will be different from the 40. After all, I just got a promo card at the M10 prerelease, and it wasn't something that we haven't already seen in M10 (Vampire Nocturnus).
Intuition propaganda or Mystical Tutor as an uncommon also would be perfect
&
Gamble
Blue is about to be a complete joke of a color when Lorywn rotates out. Conflux block gave it zilch. And the biggest ability of blue (card draw/card selection) is pretty much unplayable crap or non existant. Blue needs Fact or Fiction + Serum Visions/Impulse when Lorywn rotates out more than any color needs anything else.
Without any decent card draw blue simply isn't blue.
Gamble I picked bc the card so perfectly encompasses red and it illustrates reds choas better than any other card ever printed. I'm very surprised it didn't show up in m10.
Blue has alternative winning conditions currently, with or without Lorwyn. Mono blue isn't very strong, but it's hard for any mono color to be strong when an entire block focusing on multicolor just came out.
And about your comment on Gamble...did you not see Burning Inquiry? Seriously?
My guess is that they won't reprint very many cards. The only cards they'll probably reprint, if any, are the one's Maro alluded to in his reply answering what a hint to Zendikar would be. They'll be the cards that the entire block ended up being designed around.
Suddenly
T1: Dark Ritual, Hypnotic Specter. Go
T2: Smash, discard.
Would Suspend work like this? I always thought Suspend was:
Suspend X - [COST]: Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay [COST] and exile it with X time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.
What your card is interesting, and it's certainly very good design, but I don't think suspend works with it.
Possibly a new keyword?
Something like:
Recurr (If this is exiled with Time counters on it, remove one of those Time counters at the beginning of your upkeep. When you remove the last Time counter, you may play this without paying its mana cost*).
*Or, possibly, return this to play would fit better. Also, there's probably a much better way to word the reminder text.
Suspend does work like that. If something has the keyword suspend, that simply means that if it has time counters on it while it's in the exile zone, you remove one of those counters at the beginning of your upkeep, and when the last is removed you play it without paying it's mana cost. If it's a creature it gains haste. Take the text on Jhoira of the Ghitu for example:
2, Exile a nonland card from your hand: Put four time counters on the exiled card. If it doesn't have suspend, it gains suspend.
If something has suspend without a suspend cost, then you can't suspend it from your hand, just like if something has no mana cost but a suspend cost, then you can't hard cast it (unless you cascade into it).
Almost certainly the same as on Mindslaver itself: "You control target player's next turn."
Admittedly, it isn't a perfect fit, but it could be "Destroy or steal or force you to do anything."
Why wouldn't it fit? "Destroy, steal, or control anything." True, it's not a pretty fit, and steal and control are rather similar, so I doubt it would be a mindslaver ability.
Some good points have been brought up, which leads me to one conclusion:
If Delve is returning (or perhaps debuting?) as a mechanic in Zendikar, they'll need cards that interact directly with the exile zone.
Unwelcome Return 1RR
Sorcery
Return target creature from the/your exile zone to the battlefield under your control. It gains haste and "At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice this creature." (I don't know if the change to an exile zone gives each player their own exile zone, or if there's only one global exile zone.)
Salvation's Herald WW
Creature - Human Cleric WW, T: Return target creature from the exile zone to the battlefield under your control.
1/2
Resilient Phantasm 2UU
Creature - Spirit Soldier
Suspend
Whenever Resilient Phantasm is exiled, put 2 time counters on it.
3/2
It definitely has some very interesting design possibilities.
Actually, they only start design on a set just over a year from release ('Lights' design started a month or two ago, confirmed by MaRo's twitter).
As the info points towards Gideon being in development, not design, I'd say he's likely to appear in one of the two sets after ZEN. (Zendikar being locked in already, and the set after finishing up very soon)
Yeah, I said at least a year in advance. Sometimes it's more than a year in advance. I'll edit this when I check what date she saw the template, but there's a good chance he won't be in the ZEN block at all. And like I said before, one of the articles on the Magic website mentioned artwork for a card that was getting a template redesign, and that was less than a month ago, which could very possibly be Gideon.
EDIT: Okay, so I couldn't find out when she was shown the card, but it was mentioned over a month ago on Gleemax, and I did find the article I was talking about, although he didn't see a template, he saw artwork that needs to be tweaked.
I'm type-typing away, listing out alternatives for an upcoming keyword mechanic. (Spoiler alert: a future set has a keyword mechanic in it.) Brady Dommermuth, creative team manager, drops a printout on the table that separates my cube from that of fellow creative team writer, Jenna Helland. It's a sketch of a planeswalker character, done for a set that won't release for over a year (spoiler alert, etc.). This "sketch" was done in full, blazing color by one of our top artists, and it is awesome. There are a few details that aren't working for us, and we discuss them—the weapon needs a tweak, and the hair is too reminiscent of somebody else's, and one detail of the costuming should go away—but all of that will get handled. That is the work part of the discussion. The rest of it is that the piece is unmistakably cool. Throughout the day, we keep showing it to fellow Wizards who happen by. The verdict continues to be in favor of its coolness.
The most interesting an plausible ideas I've heard for Zendikar are "Life totals matter" and "mana matters". Mana matters has been used a lot before, what with cards from the Ravnica and Shadowmoor blocks that care about what color of mana is spent for a spell, but they haven't gone much into how much mana is currently in your mana pool. The only card I can think of that does this (I'm not very familiar with the Mirrodin block) is an elf druid (I believe) that has "T: destroy target artifact with converted mana cost less than or equal to the amount of mana in your mana pool." It's a really interesting mechanic, and I would love to see something like that be a resounding theme, which also allows for "free" spells and abilities, being that you already need mana in your mana pool to play the spells you're currently trying to play, and it would work well with cascade, and having no mana burn would allow you to be able to add mana to your mana pool to (ab)use the affect without taking any damage.
Depends entirely on the meta. Right now it's Bolt because 1 toughness just desn't happen right now. Back when Faeries were King it would have been New Fire.
"Consume Spirit for 20" - Pretty simple and flavorful for Sorin if the thing about him being a vampire is true.
"Destroy all non creature permanents" - Nissa.
Chandra's would probably be a destroy all effect of some kind.
In the background there is a purple haze. Purple is associated with black. Somone said that in the Purifying Fire Chandra hates white because it restricts her and she like to have as much freedom as possible. Though that would make Chandra RG.
Oddly enough, I was thinking that Nissa would be BG, Chandra RG, and Sorin BR.
Still, Chandra, if she gets a color change and/or an abilities change, it would most likely be BR, and I'd guess Sorin to be a UB, although I personally feel like vampires work better in BR, despite the fact that throughout Magic they've existed mainly (if not solely) in UB.
However they will never have a "consume spirite for 20" on any 'walker, vampire or not. Also, Nissa doesn't feel like a "destroy all noncreature permanents" kind of card, being that she very much looks like an elf druid, and druids care more about land and mana than creatures.
Cross off the dead.
Cross off pre-revisionist (although I enjoyed reading about Geyadrone Dihada)
Cross off the illogical.
Tack on Gideon
Then take a wild guess.
I wouldn't trust that wikipedia page if my life depended on it. The page about Jaya doesn't even talk about the fact that she was Chandra's mentor, and says that she's confirmed as dead, although that was most likely an event that occurred in the Time Spiral block, which would make it null.
It's not all planes either. The Plane cards are the new and cool thing about Planechase, but it also has precon decks, each with a spoiler card from Zendikar.
Chandra and Sorin haven't really been spoiled officially, the artwork has, which leads us to believe that they'll be printed in Zendikar, but not Planechase, which most likely won't have any planeswalkers. Zendikar will have 3 walkers, Nissa Revaine, most likely Chandra Nalaar as the returning walker that Maro mentioned, and the third is speculated as Sorin due to the spoiled artwork from Ultrapro.
Cenn's Tactician has seen top 8, it's too soon to say for Ball Lightning, and BBE sees more serious play with Aggro Jund than any of the mana rampers, and she is a 3/2, which fire could kill, and she can cascade into a Ball Lightning, which fire could also kill. Hence why a Fire for R would be great. Lightning Bolt couldn't take out Colossus either, which is why you play Act of Treason in your sideboard.
I also mentioned some M10 cards, which makes your post uninformed. The point is that a fire could take out 2 "mana dorks" as you call them, rather than just one. It would also be a good spell for a deck that uses Ball Lightning in case your facing a mirror match.
Of course I wasn't the one that played the first turn. Either way, the spectre isn't that frightening when I have a lightning bolt in my hand. Although turn one Angry ritual, angry ritual, Deus of Calamity would be more frightening.
Blue has alternative winning conditions currently, with or without Lorwyn. Mono blue isn't very strong, but it's hard for any mono color to be strong when an entire block focusing on multicolor just came out.
And about your comment on Gamble...did you not see Burning Inquiry? Seriously?
My guess is that they won't reprint very many cards. The only cards they'll probably reprint, if any, are the one's Maro alluded to in his reply answering what a hint to Zendikar would be. They'll be the cards that the entire block ended up being designed around.
before you get your T2:
T2: Lightning bolt, angry ritual, Ball Lightning again, swing, go.
Suspend does work like that. If something has the keyword suspend, that simply means that if it has time counters on it while it's in the exile zone, you remove one of those counters at the beginning of your upkeep, and when the last is removed you play it without paying it's mana cost. If it's a creature it gains haste. Take the text on Jhoira of the Ghitu for example:
2, Exile a nonland card from your hand: Put four time counters on the exiled card. If it doesn't have suspend, it gains suspend.
If something has suspend without a suspend cost, then you can't suspend it from your hand, just like if something has no mana cost but a suspend cost, then you can't hard cast it (unless you cascade into it).
Why wouldn't it fit? "Destroy, steal, or control anything." True, it's not a pretty fit, and steal and control are rather similar, so I doubt it would be a mindslaver ability.
And let's not forget Inferno Elemental, with a different equivalent of "firstest strike".
If Delve is returning (or perhaps debuting?) as a mechanic in Zendikar, they'll need cards that interact directly with the exile zone.
Unwelcome Return
1RR
Sorcery
Return target creature from the/your exile zone to the battlefield under your control. It gains haste and "At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice this creature." (I don't know if the change to an exile zone gives each player their own exile zone, or if there's only one global exile zone.)
Salvation's Herald
WW
Creature - Human Cleric
WW, T: Return target creature from the exile zone to the battlefield under your control.
1/2
Resilient Phantasm
2UU
Creature - Spirit Soldier
Suspend
Whenever Resilient Phantasm is exiled, put 2 time counters on it.
3/2
It definitely has some very interesting design possibilities.
Yeah, I said at least a year in advance. Sometimes it's more than a year in advance. I'll edit this when I check what date she saw the template, but there's a good chance he won't be in the ZEN block at all. And like I said before, one of the articles on the Magic website mentioned artwork for a card that was getting a template redesign, and that was less than a month ago, which could very possibly be Gideon.
EDIT: Okay, so I couldn't find out when she was shown the card, but it was mentioned over a month ago on Gleemax, and I did find the article I was talking about, although he didn't see a template, he saw artwork that needs to be tweaked.
You can find it here.
On a side note, I greatly enjoyed that article.
Birds of Paradise, Ball Lightning, Elite Vanguard, Akrasan Squire, Ashenmoore Liege, Aven Squire, Awakener Druid, Bloom Tender, Llanowar Elves, Cenn's Tactician, Child of Night, Noble Hierarch...I wouldn't be surprised to see any of these hit the board in a standard game. And a Fire that costs R is versatile enough to take out a creature with toughness 2, not just two creatures at toughness 1, not to mention that if there's not another creature to target, you can ping your opponent. Seems like Fire takes out mana ramping 1 drops and 2/1's for W, or small exalted creatures that will get very annoying later on.
Oddly enough, I was thinking that Nissa would be BG, Chandra RG, and Sorin BR.
Still, Chandra, if she gets a color change and/or an abilities change, it would most likely be BR, and I'd guess Sorin to be a UB, although I personally feel like vampires work better in BR, despite the fact that throughout Magic they've existed mainly (if not solely) in UB.
However they will never have a "consume spirite for 20" on any 'walker, vampire or not. Also, Nissa doesn't feel like a "destroy all noncreature permanents" kind of card, being that she very much looks like an elf druid, and druids care more about land and mana than creatures.
I wouldn't trust that wikipedia page if my life depended on it. The page about Jaya doesn't even talk about the fact that she was Chandra's mentor, and says that she's confirmed as dead, although that was most likely an event that occurred in the Time Spiral block, which would make it null.