The previews for Zendikar Rising have begun.
In addition to mechanics like Parties (encouraging you to have a Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, and Wizard on the battlefield,) two-faced cards (including the most straightforward dual lands since the Alpha originals - just pick a side when you play it and it gives you that color of mana) and some cool lore about ancient Kor Skyclaves rising up into the air now that the Eldrazi are gone (which is giving me some amazing ideas for when my Ravnica D&D party gets to Zendikar) we also got previews of the sets to come over the next year.
These are, to be clear, just names. But there's stuff we can glean from them.
First off, finally, we're going to Kaldheim. This Norse-themed world has been hinted at since Planechase came out in like 2009, I think, and has been theorized as Garruk's homeworld. Given the icy-blue logo and the fact that its name literally means "Cold Home," I'm guessing we might have a frigid setting, possibly bringing in some Ice Age block mechanics like Snow permanents. Either way, I'd expect Sagas, Trolls, and other Viking-themed stuff.
Next is Strixhaven: School of Mages. Other than having a vaguely Hogwartsian feel (too bad the author who created said setting has revealed herself to be such a hateful person) I don't really have much to go on here. I'd assume Strixhaven is a plane in and of itself, but is the plane considered a school for mages (which would be weird, as only planeswalkers would be able to travel to said school) or, might we get a set where we have a particular location on a plane that the set focuses on, like how Ghirapur is central to the Kaladesh setting?
The next Standard-Legal set in the list is a doozy: Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. I guess after Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica and Mythic Odysseys of Theros, it makes sense that they'd flip the script and have a D&D setting featured in a Magic set. I'll be curious to see how various elements break down into the five colors, and what they'll be doing mechanically (though the introduction of parties in Zendikar Rising would be an obvious fit for Forgotten Realms.) For those of you less familiar with D&D than MTG, the Forgotten Realms has been the "default" D&D setting in 5th Edition (and I think possibly also 2nd and 3rd edition - the setting has been around since the 1980s,) and features a vast breadth of locations and famous characters.
We're also going to be getting a Modern Horizons 2, as well as Time Spiral Remastered - essentially the Amonkhet treatment but for a much older block (though it doesn't feel so old to me as that's the last block I played in before this year.)
Finally, we've got two sets that are very sparse on details for, but which I'm intrigued by: Innistrad: Vampires and Innistrad: Werewolves. I don't exactly know how these will fit in rotationally (and given the color identities of those creatures on Innistrad, I wonder where White and Blue will come in) and whether they'll be standard-legal, but we shall see (they're coming in late 2021, so no rush.)
Anyway, a pretty exciting amount of information out there. For Arena, Zendikar Rising comes out on the 17th (so a little over two weeks from today.)
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