Honestly, other than Convoke and maybe Bloodthirst, I don't think there's any Ravnica mechanic that is loved enough that it could come back and not disappoint players for not being a new mechanic. There's a reason those two came back in core sets.
They're going to do new mechanics. Some old guild mechanics can't come back (because they're bad or have limited design space) and it would be insanely disappointing to fans of some guilds if their guilds didn't get a new mechanic while other guilds did. Plus, guild mechanics are a good place to use mechanic ideas that are too limited to show up as a keyword under normal circumstances. At most I can see them returning something like Convoke which is a beloved home run mechanic, but most guilds simply never got a mechanic that was as good as Convoke. Off the top of my head, neither Dimir or Izzet mechanic is something I could see coming back.
The only major issue I'm seeing with doing so many back to back ravnica sets is diminishing returns. Is the plane really special if we hit it three times in a row, even with different or new mechanics across them? That's an entire year dedicated to nothing but one plane, and it sounds like the complete opposite of what they were trying to do with going to single big sets.
Under the old block model, we would have spent a year in Ravnica too, three sets in a row. I don't worry about diminishing returns in this sense because Ravnica is very broad (there's ten guilds to include which necessitates at least two sets anyway), and they've been explicit that the third set is really about something else even if it happens to take place on Ravnica.
Basically imagine if you got RTR block, except instead of the "pivot set" Dragon's Maze, you have an Avacyn Restored/Rise of the Eldrazi style "breakaway set" in that slot, which is explicitly not about the guilds.
People liked RTR-RTR-RTR and GTC-GTC-GTC draft more than DGM-GTC-RTR, and a lot of people like RAV-RAV-RAV. In fact, trying to "cross the streams" in DGM is the widely accepted misstep in RTR's design. The color imbalance complaint just isn't borne out by how draft formats have historically been received.
If you're going to cite someone, cite them. Don't just assert that a specific person said a specific thing and go like "but I don't care to justify my argument."
Also, if you disagree so much with that "worldview" (which I presume means such radical ideas as "trans people are real" or "women should be represented well in fantasy art"), I don't understand why you're still around to complain about it. I certainly don't go out of my way to buy media made by people whose beliefs I find contemptible.
People love Ravnica because the original Ravnica block was a landmark for Magic's design, flavor, and gameplay and was generally hugely popular and successful, and those warm fuzzy associations have stuck with the plane through the (mostly successful and well-liked) Return to Ravnica block. Also the concept intrinsically invites people to identify with the setting ("choose your guild"), which gives people a really strong emotional bond to the setting.
I do think people going "well I don't like Ravnica [the setting] so I'm not going to touch this at all" are being silly. I didn't really care much for Ixalan or Amonkhet but Magic is big and there was stuff I enjoyed in both of these.
I mean Karn is a very powerful card in decks that are interested in playing Karn, and I figure if 1v1 Brawl ends up being a very midrangey value format dominated by powerful rate cards... which it probably will, then yeah Karn will have that role which is unfortunate. But I figure they won't then ban Karn because of multiplayer. Sigh.
I seriously doubt they're going to reprint fetchlands into Standard. Fetchlands are awful for tournament play and they do the job of Standard dual lands very poorly. Shocklands are a definite possibility but I don't think it's guaranteed, and I actually think the checklands being in Standard is a reason to think they're not bringing back shocklands - because the "shock and check" manabases of Innistrad-RTR Standard led to a midrange mush format which I don't believe is very well-regarded internally. I figure play design probably doesn't want a repeat of that.
Most of the reasonable and rational people in mtg will go "eh I don't like this set much" and play less for a time, and then maybe come back when something that's more their thing comes around. I played very little during Amonkhet and Ixalan blocks, because I wasn't interested in Constructed and I didn't care for either Limited format very much. I somehow managed not to shriek endlessly about how the game is being killed off by Hasbro's greed during it.
1. This is yet another flip-flop on the blocks versus single large sets change. Yes, each is a large set, but they are basically 3 sets conjoined by setting, theme (two-color combos) and plot (Bolas, again). In essence, this is a three-large-set block released over a full year.
From the article announcing the current "three-and-one" set model:
The reason for that is because from a creative standpoint, we plan to stay on worlds for as many sets as makes sense for the story. Some worlds will be a single set while others might be two or three sets. If we stay on a world for more than one set, something about how the world is structured will let us have a delineation between the sets. Sometimes, but not all the times, we will have mechanical carryover between sets that share a world. For instance, under this new model, if we chose to stay on Kaladesh for two sets, we might have chosen to use energy in both sets (most likely playing around in different design spaces), but the rest of the mechanics would have been unique to their set. Note that sets that share a world won't necessarily overlap in any mechanics.
MaRo explicitly said they would be doing things like this, and people who were paying attention at the time already had it pegged as basically necessary for coming back to Ravnica - you can't do just one set of Ravnica, there's no room for all ten guilds.¹ I wish people would stop making up "promises" wizards made.
2. This suggests that they do not have any new ideas. They stated that they want to layer new and old settings like bacon, 1 new, 1 old. This is a breaking of that promise. Ixalan was for children. Dominaria was fun but watered down power-wise. Surely they have a Viking world or Western world or post-apocalyptic world they can use in the next 12 months?
Please link to where someone said they were explicitly alternating between 1 old world and 1 new, because we had three new worlds in a row before Dominaria. As far as I know they want to do 1:1 old and new worlds on average, that doesn't mean strictly alternating.
3. Each set will be drafted separately, as they are large sets. This leads to the stupidity of unevenly-colored limited play. This is why I did not enjoy Ixalan draft: the color combos are not balanced. Now, each of the first two large sets will have only have the guilds. Dragon's Maze was the most fun Ravnica to play in limited, and that will not happen this time around.
Reactions to Dragon's Maze draft are mixed at best, and both RAV-RAV-RAV, RTR-RTR-RTR and GTC-GTC-GTC draft have defenders.
This, combined with the far-left tilt of the virtue signaling in Magic, makes me feel like the current team lacks both creativity (right brain) or business sense (left brain). Or did I get that backwards? Anyway, this is my take, and its too long, but it is what it is. I feel like the IP is being wasted, and ideology and culture is overshadowing ideas and logic.
Oh, right, you're some kind of ideologue who thinks SJWs are destroying games, I should have seen this one coming. Carry on.
1: "But what about Dominaria," I hear people whining already. What about Dominaria? Dominaria is a jumble and dropping some elements [like slivers] doesn't create an incomplete pattern like dropping some Ravnica guilds would.
I feel if they had faith in this set it'd be MaRo and/or Forsythe spoiling cards and finished art. Them revealing concept art in the unhypest way possible tells me this set maybe wasn't even meant to be Ravnica to begin with.
Actually, I think the reason they're not pulling out all the hype stops months before the set releases and with several other spoiler seasons still to go is that they're very confident in the set and they know it's going to be a hit with the players.
See, I too can engage in bull***** kremlinology by guessing at set contents based on who appears on an early announcement video!
They can both use a minus ability on the turn they enter the battlefield if they can't target something to plus, and both - abilities help get a creature into play to plus. My suspicion is that they used to be worded "up to one target creature" and playtesters kept plussing them without a target instead of getting value, and they got changed to encourage a better play pattern.
If Wizards took over the Commander ban list they would probably not ban fast mana but only because of the same stockholm syndrome that keeps cards like Lion's Eye Diamond and Force of Will legal in Legacy: the format is ostensibly balanced around those broken cards. Since Brawl is a chance to start over, they probably feel a lot freer to not let the format be defined by must-play colorless cards.
This online community, like many others, is another example of a highly invested, vocal minority being contrarians and just not liking popular things. I bet there would be just as many people complaining about Theros if that was the popular plane we're returning to the second time already. "Gods again? UGH! Wizards is getting so lazy and greedy!"
Yeah seriously. people are shocked and dismayed that they're going back... to the most popular setting the game ever had. It's like everyone on this website forgets nightly that Wizards is trying to make money and is saddened to rediscover the fact in the morning.
Also: comparing the buy-a-box promo to Nalathni dragon is ridiculous... Nalathni dragon was a card you could only get from attending one specific convention in 1994.
Firesong & Sunspeaker is a card you get for buying a box at an LGS, meaning it's available wherever Magic cards are. Without market data it's hard to tell how many of them should be around, but it's definitely enough. Because a lot of boxes get opened by dealers or sold by non-WPN retailers, it's not exactly 1 firesong = 1 box, but they're definitely not particularly rarer than a typical rare; probably comparable to a mythic. The market bears this out: They're at $3.50 right now, which is less than sadly-unplayable Jaya Ballard is going for. So the ceiling on them is probably the same $60-ish ceiling that Karn is hitting, but those cards are being specifically designed not to impact Standard, which Wizards is perfectly capable of doing as demonstrated by the fact that no Planeswalker Deck exclusive has even so much as scratched the surface of Standard.
Original Ravnica block was so much fun to draft, return to ravnica was equally awesome. I have high hopes (and even higher expectations after dominaria). Little surprised we're getting 3 sets there given each set is supposed to be standalone now.
The three sets are standalone (as in, not drafted together and not mechanically connected), they just all take place in the same plane and form a longer story arc there. When the 3+1 model was announced it was explicitly said they might do multiple sets in a plane if it's warranted, that seemed at the time like a pretty clear nod to "we can still do Ravnica even though we know we can't cram 10 guilds into one set".
I can't imagine there's a version of the "giant ancient evil dragon goes to world whose most popular character is a giant ancient dragon" story that doesn't result in a giant ancient dragon fight. That's just leaving giant dragon fight value on the table.
edit: Yes, Niv-mizzet is the most popular Ravnica character. Niv-mizzet thinks so, and he's never wrong.
Under the old block model, we would have spent a year in Ravnica too, three sets in a row. I don't worry about diminishing returns in this sense because Ravnica is very broad (there's ten guilds to include which necessitates at least two sets anyway), and they've been explicit that the third set is really about something else even if it happens to take place on Ravnica.
Basically imagine if you got RTR block, except instead of the "pivot set" Dragon's Maze, you have an Avacyn Restored/Rise of the Eldrazi style "breakaway set" in that slot, which is explicitly not about the guilds.
If you're going to cite someone, cite them. Don't just assert that a specific person said a specific thing and go like "but I don't care to justify my argument."
Also, if you disagree so much with that "worldview" (which I presume means such radical ideas as "trans people are real" or "women should be represented well in fantasy art"), I don't understand why you're still around to complain about it. I certainly don't go out of my way to buy media made by people whose beliefs I find contemptible.
I do think people going "well I don't like Ravnica [the setting] so I'm not going to touch this at all" are being silly. I didn't really care much for Ixalan or Amonkhet but Magic is big and there was stuff I enjoyed in both of these.
From the article announcing the current "three-and-one" set model:
MaRo explicitly said they would be doing things like this, and people who were paying attention at the time already had it pegged as basically necessary for coming back to Ravnica - you can't do just one set of Ravnica, there's no room for all ten guilds.¹ I wish people would stop making up "promises" wizards made.
Please link to where someone said they were explicitly alternating between 1 old world and 1 new, because we had three new worlds in a row before Dominaria. As far as I know they want to do 1:1 old and new worlds on average, that doesn't mean strictly alternating.
Reactions to Dragon's Maze draft are mixed at best, and both RAV-RAV-RAV, RTR-RTR-RTR and GTC-GTC-GTC draft have defenders.
Oh, right, you're some kind of ideologue who thinks SJWs are destroying games, I should have seen this one coming. Carry on.
1: "But what about Dominaria," I hear people whining already. What about Dominaria? Dominaria is a jumble and dropping some elements [like slivers] doesn't create an incomplete pattern like dropping some Ravnica guilds would.
Actually, I think the reason they're not pulling out all the hype stops months before the set releases and with several other spoiler seasons still to go is that they're very confident in the set and they know it's going to be a hit with the players.
See, I too can engage in bull***** kremlinology by guessing at set contents based on who appears on an early announcement video!
Yeah seriously. people are shocked and dismayed that they're going back... to the most popular setting the game ever had. It's like everyone on this website forgets nightly that Wizards is trying to make money and is saddened to rediscover the fact in the morning.
Also: comparing the buy-a-box promo to Nalathni dragon is ridiculous... Nalathni dragon was a card you could only get from attending one specific convention in 1994.
Firesong & Sunspeaker is a card you get for buying a box at an LGS, meaning it's available wherever Magic cards are. Without market data it's hard to tell how many of them should be around, but it's definitely enough. Because a lot of boxes get opened by dealers or sold by non-WPN retailers, it's not exactly 1 firesong = 1 box, but they're definitely not particularly rarer than a typical rare; probably comparable to a mythic. The market bears this out: They're at $3.50 right now, which is less than sadly-unplayable Jaya Ballard is going for. So the ceiling on them is probably the same $60-ish ceiling that Karn is hitting, but those cards are being specifically designed not to impact Standard, which Wizards is perfectly capable of doing as demonstrated by the fact that no Planeswalker Deck exclusive has even so much as scratched the surface of Standard.
The three sets are standalone (as in, not drafted together and not mechanically connected), they just all take place in the same plane and form a longer story arc there. When the 3+1 model was announced it was explicitly said they might do multiple sets in a plane if it's warranted, that seemed at the time like a pretty clear nod to "we can still do Ravnica even though we know we can't cram 10 guilds into one set".
edit: Yes, Niv-mizzet is the most popular Ravnica character. Niv-mizzet thinks so, and he's never wrong.