Post Rotation Block Speculation (Standard Speculation)

Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum

Posted on March 31, 2014, 1:41 a.m. by Davik100

So I was reading up on lore from Theros, and I came across Kiora's wiki page.

http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Kiora_Atua

READ BEFORE MOVING ONWARDS WITH THIS ARTICLE

Alright so now that you've read that, let's dissect it.

It mentions that Kiora was born on Zendikar, and that she fled from her home planet because of the awakening of the Eldrazi. Ever since she has supposedly been searching for powerful creatures of many planes oceans to put them Eldritch bitches back in their PLACE M8.

Now, get this.

Wizards is desperately trying to push the Modern format on us, and Fetch Lands are vital to a successful modern deck. They HAVE to reprint the Fetch Lands.And, where are Fetch Lands from?

Zendikar.

So, we all have a few questions here. I'll list them down.

1- Is the next block going to be a Zendikar story?

-1.5- Are the titles going to be reminiscent of the SOM block, like "Scars of Zendikar", "Zendikar Besieged", and "Fall of the Eldrazi"? Because that would be fucking awesome imo.

2- Will the Eldrazi's be reprinted or replaced with new.. not as broken versions of them? (Looking directly at you in your nonexistent eyes Emrakul, the Aeons Torn )

(But seriously does Emrakul even have a face wtf)

3- Will the planeswalkers from Zendikar be reprinted or will new iterations be introduced? And will a new Kiora be printed? That would be badass as all get out.

4- Lastly, how will (or should I say "must") the next block impact Theros standard? what new cards have to be added?

Post your answers below :D I'm interested in seeing your answers.

kmcree says... #2

The next block will not be Zendikar. So that pretty much answers the whole thread. Its already been stated that the next block is bottom up design, not a return to any previously seen plane. Also, pretty sure its been stated multiple times that they will never reprint the Eldrazi in any way.

March 31, 2014 1:44 a.m.

Davik100 says... #3

oh. I didn't know that.

March 31, 2014 1:58 a.m.

the3rdH0kage says... #4

and the fetch land thing. The titles for the fetches in ZEN block ( Scalding Tarn , Arid Mesa , Marsh Flats , Misty Rainforest , Verdant Catacombs ) are generic enough that they could be literally anywhere. Same with the Onslaught fetches ( Flooded Strand Bloodstained Mire Wooded Foothills Polluted Delta Windswept Heath ) they could be pretty much anywhere in the multiverse. But I started with Zendikar so I'm hoping we get Return to Zendikar comes sometime soon.

March 31, 2014 1:59 a.m.

cr14mson says... #5

no Eldrazi reprint? that makes me sad. i missed that block

and yea, it's been stated several times that the next block is totally different from all the other sets they've released. still, hoping we do get fetchlands in Huey

March 31, 2014 3:49 a.m.

Servo_Token says... #6

So... I'm actually hoping for fastlands of some degree out of the next block... All of this talk about reprinting fetches is making me lose sanity. All of the people that say that they are vital to the well-being of a modern deck - and that they need to be reprinted because of this - are, in my opinion, too greedy for their own good, and too cheap to buy ones that already exist. That's not okay.

And regardless, Zendikar was printed in recent memory. The return to blocks have been from sets that were out toward the beginning of the modern borders. it's going to take at least a few more years before they even consider a return to zendikar. I'd much prefer a return to lorwyn to be honest.

March 31, 2014 8:29 a.m.

Pixonova says... #7

So you're saying its not OK for people to not pay 70+ for a land? It's not OK for people to not spend a paycheck on lands?

That's a bit elitist of you. We're all sorry that we have other responsibilities in life that make spending a months worth of groceries on a playset of tarns seem silly.

It's not greedy in the slightest.

March 31, 2014 8:37 a.m.

Servo_Token says... #8

Pixonova

I'm not saying that you need to buy the fetch lands. I'm saying that if you want them, you shouldn't expect a reprint to fall into your lap. That'd be the greedy portion. What I was trying to get at is that you don't need them to run a successful modern deck, as is the popular belief.

No reason to play the butthurt victim here either. If you play Modern and are under the belief that you A: need to run the best deck to win, and B: that the best deck needs to run fetches, then you'd best have fetches and not complain about their price. If you can't meet those needs, either don't complain about it on the internet, or don't play modern.

I'd advise reading the post that you are responding to in it's entirety before saying something stupid or putting words into my mouth, or even worse, calling me an elitist. I can damn near guarantee that you make far more money than I do, and I respect your choice to not fall into the "top tier" stigma, but you don't need to disrespect someone because you didn't pay attention to what was actually being said in the conversation.

March 31, 2014 8:57 a.m.

kmcree says... #9

@ ThatBlueMage: I think we've already had this debate in another thread, but I'll just reiterate that I completely disagree with you. I don't think its unreasonable to not want to pay $70 a pop for lands. And quite frankly, almost any modern deck loses a huge amount of consistency by not running fetches. If you want to be competitive, they are pretty much a necessity. I think if anybody's being "greedy" its the people selling a piece of cardboard of $70. But thats just me.

I think in general Wizards does a good job in terms of managing print numbers, doing reprints when necessary, and ensuring that power levels between sets are fairly even. However, I think their handling of the fetch lands has been a huge failure in all of those aspects.

March 31, 2014 3:15 p.m.

Davik100 says... #10

@ThatBlueMage So yes, it does sound somewhat greedy. But that's what all magic players are. But the point isn't that wizards should reprint fetch lands, it's that they have to. With how much they're trying to push the format on us, they need to respond somehow, and fetch lands are, and should be, extremely vital to almost any modern deck (Amulet of Vigor wins this round). If fetch lands drop down to at least $50, people will start buying them more. There are so many pros and very, very few cons to reprinting fetch lands.

Pros

  • Introduces people to modern

  • Makes standard more interesting

  • brings in HUGE revenue on the set that the fetches are reprinted in

Cons

  • Somebodies trade binder maybe drops a couple hundred bucks.

We want fetch lands because we want to play modern, and Wizards needs to reprint them if they want more people playing that format.

April 2, 2014 2:17 a.m.

landstalker10 says... #11

They can always reprint them like before as non standard cards in a side format for modern. They have already done this once for some cards.

April 4, 2014 10:53 p.m.

KrosanTusker says... #12

Yeah this is being done in another thread. Just a couple of points:

landstalker10: I don't think that if they did that, there would enough of them in circulation to affect the price. Modern Masters, for example, was very limited. They reprinted Tarmogoyf but it's now even more expensive.

Everyone: I agree they have to be reprinted. Modern needs such greedy mana bases to make a lot of decks work, eg. Zoo wants a mountain, plains and forest by T2 for Wild Nacatl and there is no way it's consistent enough to get the right shock land it needs every time without fetches.

Davik100: I think fetches will be reprinted, but not in Huey. It's too soon after the giant price spike for Wizards to have reacted and put them in the file.

April 5, 2014 10:18 a.m.

Kootaroo says... #13

even if eldrazi were reprinted WotC has already claimed they will never reprint the Annihilator ability.

April 5, 2014 12:21 p.m.

landstalker10 says... #14

Well on that note, Modern needs to be updated. Its getting to vast and broken. I like alot of the old cards. However, it is reaching legacy pricing for competitive decks.

April 5, 2014 4:36 p.m.

@landstalker10: How exactly is Modern getting vast or broken?

On the price debate, Modern is more fairly priced than Legacy. Although the barrier to entry is high, the cards are relatively available because they've been printed relatively recently. In Legacy, some of the staples are expensive because they're good and hard to find.

The thing I don't like about Modern is that WOTC has poor control of the cross-deck staples. For example, Arcbound Ravager is a staple, but it's only used in one deck. Meanwhile, fetches and Tarmogoyf are staples across the format. If you play green, you want Tarmogoyf . Every deck needs lands.

The problem with the problem, though, is that reprints need to be handled carefully. Magic is a collectible card game, which means limited availability is written into the product design. WOTC can't mass-reprint everything in Standard because the cards are very powerful and would destroy Standard. They've been experimenting with strategic reprinting (see Thoughtseize ), but this takes time. The other option is special releases, which must have limited print runs to prevent existing cards' value from plummeting.

April 5, 2014 4:58 p.m.

This discussion has been closed