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We got quite a lot of information from this video first posted on September 1st, 2020. If you don't like spoilers I suggest you skip this article.
While there is a ton of spoiler information in the video, I'm going to highlight the things I'm most excited about and what speculation opportunities I see due to the new cards.
Zendikar Rising Spoilers
Party Mechanic
At first glance, I almost brushed this mechanic off. The idea is that you need to control multiple creatures with specific creature types to get additional benefits from spells with this mechanic. A party consists of:
- Cleric
- Rogue
- Warrior
- Wizard
We don't have a lot of cards spoiled that include this mechanic just yet, but some of the first ones are impressive if you can reliably get a full party quickly.
I misread this mechanic at first thinking it was completely broken with Changelings, however, the wording appears to mean that even if you have a creature that meets the subtype requirement multiple times you are still limited to only benefiting from that creature once. This feels like a mechanic that WoTC felt they could push the power level of the cards IF you manage to get a full party only because it will likely be difficult to do so, and equally difficult to maintain it.
Landfall Mechanic Returns
The landfall mechanic appears to be the permanent one associated with the plane of Zendikar. So far, spoilers containing landfall cards have been somewhat sparse and I haven't seen any that make me want to take some action, however, if you were inclined to pick up cheap Azusa, Lost but Seeking wouldn't be a bad call. It's a powerful Commander card that also finds a home in Modern ramp decks that tend to play Primeval Titan.
Creature Subtype Matters
While I sort of touched on this with regards to the party mechanic, this set appears to have a lot of dual subtype creatures which opens the door to older cards that interact with any of those subtypes for significant gains. We have already seen Edgewalker spike in price and I expect to see more cards from that era do the same.
Kicker Returns
I've been a fan of the kicker mechanic since it was first announced in Invasion. Making a spell semi-modal gives players flexibility, something that is highly desirable in a game with a fair amount of variance. My biggest concern with it is that WoTC so far has seemed to be a bit afraid of pushing the boundaries on this mechanic as there have already been 137 cards with the kicker mechanic (or multikicker) and only a small handful ever end up seeing meaningful play in any given format.
"Pog" Lands
I'm not sure what the official name for the new rare dual land cycle is, but I've heard people call them "Pog" lands and I enjoy that nostalgic throwback, so until there is an official name I'm going to stick with that.
These lands serve as "dual lands" when in your hand, but only tap for mana of whichever color you play them as once they leave your hand. This clever design allows players to fix mana the turn they play it but forcing them to live with the decision afterward. I think these lands are hard to evaluate in a vacuum because we don't know how much this restriction will affect deckbuilding. I do think we may see some of the blue options in Merfolk decks as a way to help get around Choke.
On a similar note, there are other dual-faced card lands in the set that instead of having a different land on the back instead have a spell. My two favorites so far are:
While these DFC lands come into play tapped when played as a land, the spell sides seem quite powerful. Regrowth for 1 more mana seems very good later in the game when the additional cost is minimal and the same goes for Valakut Awakening. While some of the other options are a lot less impressive, these two stand out to me so far.
One thing to look for with regards to these lands is older cards that return lands to your hand, as they can potentially sit on the battlefield (protected) from hand disruption, and then if you can return them when you'd like you can cast them when needed.
Expeditions Return
Apparently foil versions will only be available in Collector Boosters, unlike previous Expeditions, which were always foiled. Nonfoil versions will be available in draft/set booster boxes as box toppers. Collector Booster boxes will also include 2 non-foil Expeditions as box toppers. So far we have seen all the Expeditions spoiled, as the video states that there are 30 total and we have 30 spoiled:
- Scalding Tarn
- Misty Rainforest
- Marsh Flats
- Arid Mesa
- Verdant Catacombs
- Polluted Delta
- Flooded Strand
- Wooded Foothills
- Windswept Heath
- Bloodstained Mire
- Prismatic Vista
- Wasteland
- Strip Mine
- Cavern of Souls
- Grove of the Burnwillows
- Horizon Canopy
- Luxury Suite
- Morphic Pool
- Sea of Clouds
- Bountiful Promenade
- Spire Garden
- Darkslick Shores
- Copperline Gorge
- Seachrome Coast
- Blackcleave Cliffs
- Razorverge Thicket
- Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
- Creeping Tarpit
- Celestial Colonnade
- Ancient Tomb
The List
Lastly, we were told that the set boosters may contain a card from "The List" which seems to be a curated list of 300 cards from Magic's past. The likelihood is apparently around 1 in 4. We got the following 3 cards spoiled from "The List"
- Food Chain
- Simian Spirit Guide
- Slimefoot, the Stowaway
Judging by the images this appears to have the same planeswalker symbol in the bottom left-hand corner that we saw with Mystery Booster cards.
Kaldheim
All we were told about Kaldheim is that it is a Viking themed plane. That isn't a whole lot to work with, but it would make sense to have creature types like warrior or berserker in the plane so for those who really like to gamble look for cards that play with either of those subtypes as potential specs.
Strixhaven: School of Mages
This appears to be a plane with 5 Colleges of Magic. We didn't get much regarding this set, but it would seem likely that wizard might be a prominent creature subtype for this set, so some possible speculation targets might be something like:
Riptide Laboratory has only 2 printings: Onslaught and Jumpstart. Supply is likely to be pretty minimal of course there is a fair amount of risk that it gets reprinted and the price collapses. This is a card I will have in my card as spoiler season rolls around and should it be eliminated from possible contention in the set I'd probably buy a few copies.
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
This is the Dungeons and Dragons crossover set. My knowledge on that game is pretty limited to games like Baldur's Gate that came out years ago so I don't have any potential speculation opportunities for this set currently.
Return to Return to Innistrad
While the set names haven't been released yet, there will be 2 sets in a return to Innistrad with 1 focusing on werewolves and the other on vampires both of which are beloved casual tribes so keep an eye out on older cards that interact well with either creature subtype.
Time Spiral Remastered
I actually took a break from Magic during my college years which happened to include the Time Spiral block, so I never got to enjoy drafting the block but have been told it was a lot of fun. Similar to the original Time Spiral block they will include timeshifted cards in the packs that include the old style borders, so artifacts will be brown, etc.
As old-style borders tend to be more desirable to many competitive players there could be certain timeshifted cards from the set that become more valuable than their original printing based solely on the old-style border. We got to see the following cards spoiled as timeshifted:
- Path to Exile
- Relentless Rats
- Chalice of the Void
I've recorded every deck from every event that happened in August that was posted by noon on Monday, August 31. And it was a strange month data-wise. Early on, there was some kind of bug that prevented new Preliminaries from posting. Instead, the same tournament from August 6 was posted repeatedly. A MOCS season also ended, which meant championships and additional events that boosted the data. Afterwards, there was a week of no Challenges, just lots of Preliminaries.
The actual control elements have been shaved down to facilitate more lands for more Field of the Dead triggers. These decks are banking on Uro's ramp and lifegain, with some disruption keeping them in the game until Field takes over. It feels like a very fragile strategy, and I'm curious to see if it persists.
Why it's this way is a good question. Prowess has been doing well 
The nature of these decks hasn't changed very much, so I'm not sure why they've gained so much ground. Temur Reclamation was at the bottom of Tier 3 last time, and Bant didn't even make the list.
partial reflection of each deck's power. That system doesn't work anymore both due to MTGO changes and the fact that there's no paper, but using a weighing system to examine deck strength does appeal to me. So I adapted the pointing system.
The first thing worth mentioning is that the power metagame is one deck smaller than the prevalence metagame. The missing deck is Goblins, which only mustered 13 points, just under the cut. Its omission suggests that while the deck may be a popular choice, it doesn't necessarily perform well in practice. Putting 10 results into the data is no small thing, however, as most results were 3-2's. We could therefore peg Goblins as perhaps overplayed relative to its strength.
was no evidence to back that up. Reclamation variants weren't special during the 
By averaging the point totals against the prevalence total, we get the average points per entry for each deck. This practice seeks to answer the question of which decks earn their tier position based on popularity versus actual strength. I've long wondered and 
Humans was second despite only being Tier 3. It might not come out often, but when Humans does, it comes to win. This suggests it's being underplayed overall. Temur Reclamation came third, which would confirm my earlier speculation: it may win many events, but it struggles to gain adherents. It's striking to me that most of the top performers lie in Tiers 2-3. Eldrazi Tron is the only other Tier 1 deck in the top 10 with 1.56. There may be no difference practically, but the meta is defined by decks that are popular, not dominant. In other words, we may be due for a meta overhaul!
We've seen midrange decks lean on other plans but still rely on 4 Hour of Promise before, most notably 
It turns out that in Uro mirrors, ramping yourself while de-ramping opponents is the sauce, even if that's not to happen until the mid-game. Indeed, Bant Moss 
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter was hardly singled out as a Modern-playable upon its release, costing enough to emerge on the turn many decks end the game by and refusing to trigger until the next turn. But 
Didn't I tell ya? No Uro! Instead, 
After its Challenge placing, Reclaimer Toolbox 
The real clincher, though, is haste. The best of Magic's evergreen mechanics, haste is Time Walk on a creature, and compensates for Swift's low starting power. Even without any prowess boosts, Swiftspear has dealt 2 damage by the end of its second turn on the battlefield--the same amount as something like Savannah Lions. (Of course, it often deals much more.)
If I were to ask a given group of Modern players which cards should be banned from the format, I'd be extremely surprised to hear Swiftspear among them. But I think there's a compelling parallel to be drawn between Swiftspear now and Wild Nacatl back when the 3/3 was banned. Here's what Wizards 
. With shock lands, 
Natch, Treefolk Harbinger wasn't much of a staple at the time this announcement was made. And similarly, I can't think of many lesser one-drops trying and failing to break into Modern, as since they're failing, they aren't necessarily on my radar. The reason in 2011? People just played Nacatl instead. And now? They play Swiftspear.
That's playing out in the numbers, too; most Nacatl decks were simply Zoo decks, with very little difference in composition. By contrast, Swiftspear is splashable enough to find its way to multiple aggro strategies, often with diverse means of achieving their shared goal of reducing opponents to 0 life.
Then there's the issue of Punishing Fire. I've long held that Wild Nacatl was an unneeded Modern ban, caught in the crossfires of a larger issue: the Punishing Fire-Grove of the Burnwillows combination. These cards together, coupled with the slower speed of the format a decade back, made it difficult for any aggro deck relying on x/1s or x/2s to break into the tournament scene. Nacatl was so important for aggro decks not only because it was very efficient, the reason given for its banning, but because it was the only Stage 1 creature immune to Punishing Fire. It's my belief that only banning Fire would have greatly decreased Nacatl's share among aggro decks by virtue of the move letting other x/1s and x/2s into the fold.
Another Glass of Red
I've recommended 
I was wrong. A more experienced player warned me before the tournament that I was, and should play Orb instead. I'd already lent out my Orbs, so I forged ahead and suffered. See, I'd fallen into the causality trap where I correlated the combo with losing. I was fixated on losing after fighting Twin to a stalemate and then getting combo'd out of nowhere. I was looking only to attack that angle. It didn't work because that's not the real reason I was losing. Twin was a tempo creature deck. It was heavily if not entirely dependent on its creatures actually gaining value when they hit. It's not like a 1/4, 2/1, or 2/1 flier is very impressive on its own. Especially against my 3/2's, 3/4 flier, or 6/6.
Tron wins by getting seven mana on turn three, then dropping big colorless bombs. 
The answer was that Tron lands aren't the problem with Tron. Yes, they're the whole namesake of the deck, but the problem isn't that Tron ramps. The problem is that Tron drops big colorless monsters early. I realize that the former problem enables the other, but dealing with the former won't solve the latter. Too many players thought Moon was a solution to Tron, not realizing that Tron doesn't actually need colorless mana. Just generic mana, meaning red is just as good. Yes, Moon means that Tron can't hit those monsters early anymore, but there's nothing stopping Tron from hitting them later. And Karn Liberated is still a huge threat on turn seven. The problem isn't the Tron lands, the problem is Tron's threats.
Worse is when players bring in Damping Sphere. The first spell isn't taxed, meaning that Prowess still gets to play its game. Not as much of it, and Sphere is still effective at preventing the explosive turns. As I learned against Izzet Phoenix, a smart player will be judicious with their spells so as to maximize their value and play around and through the Sphere. Unless you can really take advantage of it, the time that Sphere will buy is meaningless.
cast. The mana base is geared to only cast Humans, and I either had to save an Unclaimed Territory or draw Ancient Ziggurat/Aether Vial to actually play the thing. I've recently switched to Izzet Staticaster, and while it's not as powerful, it has been more effective because I cast it more often and easily. Theoretical power is meaningless if it's too hard to cast.
Which is an elaborate way of introducing the fact that for the first time in 
I will admit that at least part of this is simply that I'm me. I've been playing Merfolk a 
The metagame is 
is very good, but it costs three. And Noble Hierarch only lives past the first turn in games Humans is never going to lose against Prowess. Thus, Mage is too slow most of the time.
that's mostly one-mana spells. It's the main reason that Eldrazi Tron's been relevant so long. Add to this Merfolk not playing many one-mana spells, and it's a huge beating. And Chalice is also good elsewhere.
Ponza is an accelerated beatdown deck. Its creatures are enormous, and it has plenty of removal between Bolt, Bonecrusher Giant, Glorybringer, and Chandra, Torch of Defiance. The mana from Utopia Sprawl and Arbor Elf let this ostensibly midrange deck play more like an aggro deck and just outmuscle Merfolk... in theory. But there's a reason we play the game, and it turns out that the matchup is a lot better than I thought.
really target a single deck, and if a deck's gameplan is only good against a single type of deck (or just one specific deck), it is doomed to fail.
The answer is a flat no. The reason that Souls is good against Jund is that it mutes Liliana of the Veil. Discarding Souls to Liliana is still positive value, and the tokens provide ablative armor against her downtick. Thus, Junk dodged Jund's best card while getting full value from its Liliana. It wasn't the tokens but their context that mattered. Yes, trading a Bolt for a Spirit token is poor value. However, that doesn't make it no value. It also ignores that the tokens are 1/1s facing huge Tarmogoyfs and Scavenging Oozes.
This deck is touted as a new and potent metagame deck. The idea is to race Prowess by chumping while beating in the air, especially now that Crash Through sees little play, while going wide and tall with all the anthem effects against everything else. After testing it myself (and 
Metagaming is hard. It's really easy to fall into a trap and miss the subtleties of a deck or a particular matchup and focus on the wrong thing. The new tokens deck is making the same mistakes as the old tokens deck in thinking that going wide with 1/1s is enough to beat attrition decks. It isn't, and never has been. Token decks snowball well, but the ball breaks apart easily, and catching up is very hard. The mono-white version has an advantage in that it can get explosive with anthem effects, but that doesn't excuse the underlying weakness of needing to draw the right cards in the right order.
Stoneforge also gives a juicy turn two option, and a proactive one at that, for a deck that's historically lacked such options; in the past, UW Flash has slammed creatures as unappealing as Wall of Omens (provides card draw down the road with Restoration Angel, maybe) or otherwise hoped opponents give them something to Mana Leak or Remand. Since neither of those counterspells are particularly alluring in a deck that likes going long, Stoneforge lets Flash decks totally omit them in favor of a question rather than an answer---many decks, still, will lose to Batterskull if they can't immediately take out the Kor. Wielding that threat allows the deck to 
Slamming Puresteel Palladin and then a series of 0-cost equipment not only refills a pilot's hand, but allows them to suit up Palladin to survive Lightning Bolt and the like. Alternatively, equipment can go to the evasive Ornithopter, itself especially fond of Cranial Plating. Still, the star of the artifact show is Colossus Hammer, a cheap weapon that benefits greatly from Palladin's cost reduction; while the trinket generally costs a whopping 8 mana to attach, in this deck doing so often costs 0, letting players toss it around freely between their 0-drop creatures until opponents run out of Fatal Pushes. Even though it energized Cheeri0s the first time around, Sram, Senior Edificer dodges inclusion here, as it doesn't synergize well with Hammer; instead, Sigarda's Edge is employed to add consistency to the Hammer plan via more cost reduction.
Space is so tight because of the combo components in play; Aid makes a return, but Palladin is replaced by Magnetic Theft. As an instant, Theft can save creatures from toughness-based removal, but its juiciest application is to end the game as early as turn two: Kor Duelist into Hammer and Theft yields a cool 20 damage. Inkmoth Nexus also threatens instant death when it hits with a Hammer, if not before turn three.
Both creatures roughly ask the same thing of pilots: that they cast instants and sorceries during their turns. And while Phoenix is robust in that it comes back from the graveyard each turn, Stormwing is by virtue of resisting Lightning Bolt (with an instant), Fatal Push, and Inquisition of Kozilek. It helps, too, that the graveyard hate frequently employed to deal with Arclight, such as Grafdiggers' Cage and Surgical Extraction, does absolutely nothing to Entity, a feature the Elemental shares with Thing in the Ice---that said, conditionally disrupting opponents with Thing and still dying to Push seems a lot worse than just getting them dead with Stormwing while staying strong against more disruption.
