It may seem a bit premature to throw up a list of predictions for an upcoming set in the midst of Worldwake’s launch.  But we here at Gathering Magic enjoy getting our predictions out well in advance of any possible information.  Anyone can extrapolate what a set is going to be like with 75% of the information available.  It’s another thing entirely to try and do this with only mild rumblings.  In the past, my record has teetered around 50% accuracy.  This means, half of what you’re about to read is likely to be true!   Okay, so I’m no mathematician, but the fact of the matter is, we get a lot of things right given the earliness of our predictions.  So hold on to your Worldwake hats because Rise of the Eldrazi is going to be here sooner than you think!

Vol, Slave of Bolas – Let’s start this thing off with a bang, shall we? For most casual players, the chase card in any modern expansion is the inevitable planeswalker card.  We know that Jace, Sarkhan, Nissa, Chandra and Sorin are all present on Zendikar.  The only one that has failed to materialize thus far is Sarkhan.  I am predicting that he will be the only planeswalker card in Rise of the Eldrazi.  Five is enough for any block considering Alara only had five, in total.  If you didn’t catch the reference, this card is a play on Slave of Bolas.  Vol is apparently working for Nicol Bolas on Zendikar guarding the legendary Eye of Ugin, and it is clear that he is slowly losing his sanity.  Thus my predictions of abilities that affect both you and your opponent.  He’s a bit unstable these days, you see.  While I can’t possibly predict each of his abilities, mana cost and starting loyalty, this is our best guess on the almost certain inclusion of Sarkhan Vol.

More Dual Lands – There comes a point when there are so many dual lands in standard that it can’t possibly hurt to include 10 more!  That seems to be the attitude with the Zendikar block as Worldwake brought us even more dual colored lands.  Rise of the Eldrazi is said to be a stand-alone drafting set so you’re going to need a few dual lands to get that going in limited.  I can’t tell you what the lands will look like, just that they’ll be there, without a doubt.  I’d expect lands that have to do with Eldrazi spells costing less or two more.  Personally, I think the idea of lands that come into play tapped is a bit played-out and I’d like to see Wizards try something else.  Though, Amulet of Vigor can help you with that if you’re not feeling Alara’s tri-colored lands.

Ghostfire is in – There’s a debate raging right now over the simplest of cards.  Ghostfire premiered in Future Sight and refers to the Eye of Ugin so many people assume it’s a shew-in for RotE.  On the other hand, the card isn’t an “Eldrazi Spell” so it won’t get any bonuses from the Eye, or any other card that denotes “Eldrazi” as a type.  Perhaps we’ll see a quick errata here in the coming days.  My own prediction is that the card will be included in the set at a common rarity.  It isn’t a horrible limited card and could easily grab a bonus from anything buffs that RotE might give colorless spells.  Not a great card out of context, but I think the evidence points ever so slightly to its inclusion.  Expect to see other colorless cards within the same vein; overpriced, but when paired with something like Eye of Ugin come in as great additions.  Imagine eight Lightning Bolts coming your opponent’s way in one deck!

Eldrazi are expensive… Help! – From all flavor indications, the Eldrazi are giant, world-wrecking beings of nearly unlimited power.  That kind of energy is sure to cost a lot of mana.  Eye of Ugin tells us a lot about how expensive these guys will be by suggesting that we’ll “need help” casting them and/or finding them in our library at the right time.   Look for more cards like Eldrazi Temple and the Eye to help you get these guys out quicker.

Rumors are always true… in Fantasy! – Last year, a mysterious poster on the popular forum mtgsalvation dropped a spoiler-bomb on the MTG community.  He claimed to have access to Eldrazi-ish information and threw up a few quick notes on the set.  The first was an ability called “Annihilate X” meaning -  “When this creature attacks, the defending player sacrifices X permanents.”  A fitting ability for a giant, world ruining race of Eldrazi, no?  It seems overpowered at first but I think these Eldrazi “gods” will cost an arm and a leg to get out.  Basically, I think the entire game will be focused on either summoning these guys, or preventing their summoning.  Either way, “Anihilate 1″ wouldn’t be so bad on a giant creature.  The second ability was something called “Level Up X“.  Meaning - pay X, put a level counter on this creature. Level up only as a sorcery.  What those levels will entail, we can only guess.  This one is tad more believable because we’ve already seen it on at least one card.  Figure of Destiny is a fan favorite that was never really thought to be overpowered.  This ability also seems both plausible and fun.  The same rumor monger also had a full card to “spoil” called Eldrazi Temple who’s mockup is featured to the left.  This card caught my eye in particular because it included the phrase “Colorless Eldrazi Spells” which, at the time, hadn’t been seen before (this was at least a month before “the Eye” was spoiled).  Now, whether or not this guy got things mixed up with an early copy of Eye of Ugin– only time will tell, but this card seems likely as well!

Eldrazi equals Giant, Colossus-esque gods of Magic the Gathering – Prepare to feast your eyes on some of the most powerful creature cards ever printed.  As I said eariler, all signs point to these guys being huge, and hard to deploy.  My thought is that the Eldrazi will be Legendary beings with unique names, perhaps 10 or 15 of them in the set.  They’ll cost an arm and a leg but it might just be worth the price considering the power I’m expecting these guys to pack.  They might even include the aforementioned “Level Up” ability.  Maybe they need to do some good old fashioned grinding before they become even remotely terrifying!  Some have even speculated that an entirely new card type will be created for the Eldrazi.  Doubtful in our humble opinion but who knows how these freaks will work!  They will, of course, be colorless but it remains to be seen if they’ll actually be “artifacts” or they’ll include colors in their mana cost (ala Ghostfire) whilst remaining colorless.  Either way, these guys are going to be huge, often indestructible, tramplers with crazy abilities.

Even more Allies, Vampires, Elves, and Kor – *possible spoiler alert!* We already know that Sorin and Nissa band together (along with their respective tribes, I presume) to defeat the Eldrazi.  I presume that the Kor and even Goblins will also follow suit if the fate of their world is at hand.  I think allies, as well, were created to go up against these guys.  If you take a look at our Memnor mockup above, you can see that this is probably a group of dedicated allies attempting to bring down the cloud giant.  Expect a heavy Braveheart style “Unite the Clans” theme going on.  For this you’ll need more actual ally, elf and even (yes, more) Vampire support!  It seems as though everyone in the multiverse– Bolas, Sorin, Jace, Elves etc thinks that letting the Eldrazi run free is a bad idea.  They must be at least moderately badass to scare a 10,000 year old dragon, after all.  It will take the entire multiverse to stop them.

A perfect for lead in for the new “Artifact-centered” block this Fall – This prediction may not be proven or disprove by the time we know everything about Rise of the Eldrazi.  Rumor has it (and you know how I love rumors!) the next block will be a return to Mirrodin.  This news comes from a recent trademark registration by Wizards that included the names: New Phyrixia, Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Pure.  Colorless cards and lands that produce colorless mana will mix very will with an upcoming artifact block.  A colorless heavy block will also be a great way to say goodbye to the multicolor bonanza brought to you via Alara.  Mirrodin was also Magic’s “Hay day” and I think Wizards is ever so eager to recreate that success.  If these rumors turn out to be true (and I’m betting they will), we’ll look back at the Rise of the Eldrazi spoiler list and think: “What a brilliant move to make right before an entire block of artifacts…“

Alright kiddos, you know the drill.  We’ll take a look at these predictions as soon as the set is released this April 23rd, 2010. Make your mark on MTG history by posting a comment here, early enough to count, with your very own predictions.  If it comes true, you can tweet me with an “I told you so!” every day for the next three years.  You know I’ll be doing the same!

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With the official release of Worldwake still one day away, many MTG fans are already looking forward to Rise of Eldrazi.  The full visual spoiler is up, and many players have already opened a few packs too.  Looking toward the future while ignoring the present is human nature.  But what fun is predicting the future, when you can’t look back and show the world what an idiot you were.  Or at least how little you knew long long ago.  On that note, lets revisit a group of predictions made here back in October.

Well, yeah. . .
Jace Beleren will be back. CORRECT – Looking back this was an easy prediction to make.  After all Jace had landed on Zendikar not long after Chandra Nalaar, and she was already featured.  Two factors of note however.  First, look how spot on Jace Ascendant is in regards to Jace, the Mind Sculptor.  Same casting cost, loyalty and two of the abilities are close enough for government work.  All this without any idea of the actual card, or if it would even be Jace.  And yes, this is what the kids call bragging.  One thing that I could have never predicted was the amazing popularity of the newest Planeswalker.  At the Seattle Pre-release they were being sold for $50.  That is the inflated price of a card that nobody has yet, but I heard very few complaints and even saw a few purchases.  A $50 card without a deck, or any proof of true value!?  Now players are wondering if this is the best walker ever printed.  Not what we expected back in October.

More Eldrazi remnants but still no sign of the Eldrazi themselves. CORRECT – Take a look at Eye of Ugin and tell me I was wrong.  While you are looking stop and think, is this the strangest rules text of any card printed since Tarmogoyf included planeswalkers in Future Sight?  I would say so.  As not to confuse too many loyal duelists , the sets one true colorless creature was errated to being an artifact and stripped of its uniqueness (Walking Atlas was surely not a misprint, can we all agree on that?).  Allegedly an oversight by WotC, but more likely an attempt to give us a taste of what is coming up in RoE.

Full art lands will be the new standard- This was not a true prediction for Worldwake, only for the future of MTG.  The idea was to state boldly that no future sets would have regular text lands.  Obviously Worldwake has the same lands as Zendikar.  This ‘prediction’ is being removed from the list.  In fact lets stop talking about it all together.

Bold Predictions. . .
A Touch of Gold. CORRECT – Here is the opening sentence of this prediction: You read that correctly. After swearing off multi-colored cards for all of two sets (M10 and Zendikar) they’re back. Not in droves like Shards of Alara, or as a gimmick like Alara Reborn, but as a way to emphasize certain legendary creatures.  Spot on with what Worldwake brought to the table: Novablast Wurm and Wrexial, the Risen Deep.  Reinhart has already asserted that this is how multi-color should be done.  Agreed, a perfect mix of power, awe and a blend of both colors.  Things Alara Reborn threw out the window.

The land will come alive. Um, its not Wrong per se – To be truthful, when I said lands were going to come alive I didn’t exactly picture a cycle of land enchantments like the Zendikons, or special lands like the duals.  That does not mean it wasn’t correct.  Although predicting land would come to life in a set called Worldwake isn’t Nostradamus’ best work.  The lands themselves are a perfect mix of the 10th edition living lands and CIPT duals.  In his recent column for dailymtg.com Jacob van Lunen sang the praises of these under-appreciated lands.  I am inclined to agree.  The option of having an extra creature (in almost every case a good extra creature) is more than enough to make up for playing them tapped.  Raging Ravine could be a tournament staple in Jund, another 2-for-1.

Few if any vampires, and a return of elf tokens. WRONG, oh boy was I Wrong -

<munch…munch…munch>  Ugh, that crow was disgusting, but a promise is a promise.  Vampires abound in Wordwake, and many of them (like Ruthless Cullblade, Bloodhusk Ritualist, and Kalastria Highborn) are awesome.  So that half of my prediction went about as well as Pets.com.  On the elven side of things, there was nothing but more disappointment.  Joraga Warcaller is pretty impressive, but that is about all Worldwake had to offer as far as unique elves.  And definitely no elf tokens.  File this under the ‘hope nobody reads this’ section.

Hopes and Dreams. . .
No more dual/fetch lands. WRONG – A mono-colored fanboy can dream can’t he?  This represents the fifth cycle of allied dual lands available in Standard now.  The truly scary part for us color pie fanatics could be another set in Rise of Eldrazi.  As much of a fan as I am of these new lands, when is enough truly enough?  Perhaps my next prediction will be the end of basic lands.  We aren’t too far off.

Better or More Complete Allies. CORRECT – The only hope for Worldwake that actually came true.  Here is what I said in October: ..How about a little effort on the abilities Wizards? With the exception of some rares, Zendikar allies basically read ‘creatures get +1/+1 counters whenever a creature of the same type enters the battlefield’. Useful but very boring. We need some more unique abilities. Allies you control gain flying until end of turn, or trample, or any other ability.  Perfect, that is precisely what happened with cards like Talus Paladin and Join the Ranks.

A True Sweep for Black. WRONG – If I only had said red, everything would be fine.  Chain Reaction is a perfect sweep with a reasonable drawback.  Black didn’t even get another Infest equivalent.  Which is okay, but those vampires would look a whole lot prettier if a psuedo-Damnation had seen print in Worldwake.  After all, vamps are not a true aggro strategy and thus need a sweep to reset.  Just like white tokens.  We are not asking too much, are we?

Final Score: A fairly solid 5 out of 8.  In hindsight I missed a few very obvious ones (vampires and dual lands), but overall I am happy with the performance.  Of course 62.5% gets an D- in most cases, so maybe ‘happy’ isn’t the right word.  But the mistakes are lessons for Rise of the Eldrazi, more vampires and allies, and probably more dual lands (after all this is a ‘draft-alone’ set.)

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No list of Worldwake prediction wrap-ups would be complete without a look at the Bazaar Trader prediction column written in December.  Here were the three possible options given then (see the link for larger images):

The images are a little small, but that is intentional.  Why?  Because in three valiant attempts to guess the newest rare goblin, Gathering Magic missed on all three.  Three strikes equals an out.

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