1. Swords to Plowshares will be reprinted in the next three years.
From reciprocate to condemn to Path to Exile to Oust, Wizards has slowly been making better and better one mana white creature removal. A similar pattern preceded lightning bolt being reprinted (lava spike, volcanic hammer, char, incinerate, rift bolt) and with the way small creatures have been made more and more efficient it seems that STP is approaching an appropriate power level for white removal. Also, Wizards always has to thrown in some wow reprint cards in every core set and few cards seem to be as reprintable and have such a high-wow factor as this one.
2. Control Magic will be reprinted in the next three years.
Does control magic really seem that overpowered anymore? And once again Wizards seems to slow be printing better and better control magic-ish cards leading up to its reprinting.
3. Stone Rain will not be reprinted within the next three years.
Magic is just selling too well right now, partially because of the removal of more efficient land destruction and counter magic. Second turn land destruction god hands are not fun and three mana land destruction will be reserved for niche or sideboard cards like cryoclasm.
4. Scars of Mirrodin will have little in common with Mirrodin Block.
With colored artifacts as the new fad and the mistake of affinity and artifact lands, I doubt Wizards wants to revist Mirrodin without significant changes. My long shot guess is that an extended deck (if extended will even still exist anymore) will feature Mishra and some new hot artifact cards.
5. Dan will start playing magic again in the next three years.
Time is about due for him to bust out his tooth and nails and Sanka to duel once again.
I think you're spot on about STP. I hadn't really thought much about control magic effects, but it's a similar style trend...they continue to ramp up creatures and answers to creatures while leaving combos, counters, and LD a little neutered.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they'll print Stone Rain anytime soon. I certainly don't miss Counter Spell at all, but I think Stone Rain might not have caused that much havoc. But I get the rationale that new players don't like having their lands nuked or their spells countered.
I hope you are right about Scars. I think they've learned a lot from Mirrodin, so I don't expect the same mistakes.
I hope hope HOPE you're right about Dan. And I hope I'm there to see it. The smile on his giggling face has he casts T&N. I just hope he plays for longer than 3 weeks. I predict that regardless of how long he plays, Dan will drop several hundred dollars ($500ish) to play the best deck in whatever format he takes a shine to.
Here's another prediction: Martin and Alex will be playing that same Blue/Green pump creature deck (or the Resurrection deck, or BoW) when they're 80 without changing a single card in it. Plus, at age 80 Martin is like 50 times more likely to shuffle several other decks into Alex's BoW deck. However, at 80 Alex will only notice this half the time.
Let these and other terrifying visages of the future lull you to sleep dear friends, for the future is about tomorrow and tomorrow is just the day after today. Goodnight!
I think I agree about STP. They've printed just about everything but at 1W mana removal. But I bet they rename it Swords to Exile. Same goes for control magic. Persuasion is the exact same thing as control magic but one more. Creatures are getting more powerful so it stands to reason that the removal will get better. Me am sad about no more Stone Rain and Counterspells. They always seemed to spice up the game with different deck types. Mirrodin = Blehhh. All the artifacts are definitely going to be colored no doubt which kind of makes them less artifacty to me. As for Dan, we probably won't see him for a period of another 2 years like the Hailey's Comet. One last prediction. Bottle Gnomes! (German Accent Man says "Vere is Bottanome?")
ReplyDeleteIf they rename it Swords to Exile, it would mean you could play a deck with 8 STP effects! That might be crazy...although who knows? Wizards am play gods. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
ReplyDeleteI agree about colored artifacts being less artifacty, and colorless non-artifact creatures and spells also feel a bit weird flavor wise. I understand the Eldrazi situation, but when I think colorless, I think artifact. But making a bunch of non-artifact colorless creatures allows them to do things they might not otherwise be able to get away with because of cards like Tinker. Imagine tinkering for Emrakul. Plus, colored artifacts means they can print artifacts that are stronger than they might normally be, since the colors will restrict their use. These changes get an A for function, but a C- to D+ for flavor.
I hope Dan shows up...maybe for the set after Scars, since he was around for Kamigawa block. It would be fitting for him to rise from the depths once more to dominate like a magic playing leviathan (or Kraken).
Remember to eat your cheetos!