Tribe lands seems to be pretty powerful... I can't wait to see how these play out in standard.
Problem is, if some of the tribes are useless (like giants), their tribe land might be hard to use unless you play with Changelings. I wonder what the elemental tribe land will be like...
I'm guessing there won't be one since the articles mentions that not all tribes will be getting a custom tribe-land.
With Elementals being spread over all five colours that makes them a logical choice to not get one.
It also mentions that they're designed to benefit more weenie aggro decks. So Giants and Treefolk may be left out as well.
not really as strong as the duals that have rotated, but let's just take what we can get... i hope they would be somewhat the same price as painlands (or even less)...
...nice art though... kinda looks a bit japanese for me...
Leaving G/U, U/R, W/B, and R/G for... ?
Who knows, though!
no. There won't be those lands, sry, they don't fit into the number crunch. In fact, as i have stated on the number crunch, there is only enough room to do five of the above mentioned dual lands. those are W/U for merfolk, U/B for faeries, B/R for goblins, B/G elves, and R/W for gaints. Kithkin won't get a daul land because they only slightly dip into green.
Do we have any rumors or speculation about the other races used for the tribal lands?
I expected the Elf land to be BG, but that still leaves the rest of the races. I think the most important information remains that all races will NOT receive tribal lands. That will definitely make the races without early mana fixing either less powerful or less focused on an aggro rush deck.
Whatever tribal lands we do see should indicate the most aggressive 2-color combinations in Lorwyn. I therefore expect RB (Goblins), WG (Kithkin), UW (Merfolk), and maybe WUBRG (Elementals -- now, that would be interesting) or UB (Fae).
That leaves RU, RG, RW, GU, and WB without tribal (race) lands. Hmm, a future set in this block? Maybe, they will represent creatures from the second block -- Jelly/Doughnut.
I really don't see a drawback to these tribal lands, since they basically allow you to play an aggressive aggro deck without a penalty, but still allows control to put a dual land into play tapped. Doesn't control always use tapped dual lands?
Time to start speculating on which tribes WON'T get a dual land.
Thinking as a developer, there are probably two plausible ways they could've taken. The first is to limit the lands to two colors only, meaning Elementals and Treefolk are out. The second is to provide speed and consistency bumps to certain tribes, be it tribes that are not oriented to weenie strategies (Merfolk, Treefolk), or tribes where access to such a resource would be overtly powerful (Goblins).
Whichever path they took, I'm gonna be disappointed if the Merfolk end up without a dual-land and the goblins get one. I expect the developers worked out the balance of power between the tribes, both for Standard and Block Constructed, but man if it wouldn't suck to see the Goblin tribe get an uneven power boost of this magnitude...
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People hiss and grunt at Mark Rosewater for the state of the game. Few realize, though, that it is Aaron Forsythe who is directly responsible of the current state of affairs due to negligence as head of Magic R&D and a completely skewed view of the game as a whole.
So next time you want to make an avvy with Rosewater pissing on something, take a deep breath and consider pasting Forsythe's face there instead...
This is a really solid dual IMO. So many decks with green run elves anyway, and that is with so few around. Most G/B decks should run enough elves to make this land very useful, and better than Overgrown Tomb in some decks
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--e.hemmingway
no. There won't be those lands, sry, they don't fit into the number crunch. In fact, as i have stated on the number crunch, there is only enough room to do five of the above mentioned dual lands. those are W/U for merfolk, U/B for faeries, B/R for goblins, B/G elves, and R/W for gaints. Kithkin won't get a daul land because they only slightly dip into green.
What does 'they only slightly dip into green' have to do with the number crunch?
To me the art seems kinda similar to something.....oh yeah Lord of the Rings Online, Elf towns look eerily similar to this. But a kewl land nonetheless.
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Decks: Vintage Oath (35 card proxy) Legacy Vial Goblins (R/B) / 2 Land Belcher Extended Elf Ball / ThopterDepths / Naya Zoo Standard Jund / Koros / Boss Naya
no. There won't be those lands, sry, they don't fit into the number crunch. In fact, as i have stated on the number crunch, there is only enough room to do five of the above mentioned dual lands. those are W/U for merfolk, U/B for faeries, B/R for goblins, B/G elves, and R/W for gaints. Kithkin won't get a daul land because they only slightly dip into green.
Actually, I haven't seen anything that indicates that there isn't room for all six. It would just be 11 artifacts, 17 land as opposed to 12 artifacts and 16 land. Or do we know there are 12 artifacts somehow? 17 land would be 5 vivids, 5 hideaway, Secluded Glen, Shimmering Grotto, 6 tribelands. Shrug.
if we're to take Devin Low at his word and recognize that the intention was to give weenie decks lands that can tap for the right colors of mana on turns 1 and 2 more consistently that would suggest the following
Kithkin - W/G dual. Would be very important at making a one drop W kithkin and a two drop WG kithkin (such as Gaddok Teeg). This one seems likely to me.
Boggarts - B/R dual. Considering that we've already seen 1 drop goblins in both black and red this one seems likely to me as well.
Merrow - U/W dual. This is a color combination that is not often an aggro deck, however Fish decks are generally aggro-control decks that utilize 1 and 2 drop creatures backed by counterspells and bounce. Making your creature drops consistently is vital to the classic Fish strategy so this land seems likely.
Faeries - U/B dual. Already rumored. Seems like a definite fit for the set considering Faeries are very weenie oriented.
Elves - G/B dual. Confirmed.
Thats 5 lands. Which is probably the whole cycle. The other three tribes can be disqualified for various reasons.
Treefolk - G/w/b More then two colors makes a dual land impossible and three color multi-lands are almost unheard of in Magic. This is also not a weenie tribe and doesn't need early game mana fixing.
Giants - R/W This could be the 6th dual if they do 6 but I don't think they will. This is not a weenie tribe and doesn't need early game mana fixing.
Flamekin (Elementals) - R/w/b/g/u This is a prismatic tribe based in Red. Considering the cycle of Vivid lands, it seems unlikely that a 5 color tribal land would be printed. Flamekin also have a mana producing/fixing theme as part of their tribe mechanic and can probably fair better without early game mana fixing. They just need red to get started and then can make their own mana to play off color elementals.
Seems ok-they almost could have tacked on the forest/swamp types to really push this tribal thing all in.
I'll go ahead and make another one of my bad predictions for the set. I'm thinking we won't see either merfolk or faeries since those are the traditional control colors. I wouldn't be surprised to see goblins shorted on this either.
However, if I had to pick 5 I would say kithkin (WG), merfolk (UW), giants (RW), treefolk (GWB!?) and elves (GB) of course.
I'm going with merfolk since R&D have stated that the players have demanded their return-hence the land support. Plus Devin states "The clues are all there if you think about them, THOUGH THE ANSWER IS NOT EASY." Therefore I picked treefolk as the odd race choice. Some of the staff at Wotc seem excited about this race so maybe they figured out a way to do this fairly. All in all, I am very curious on how they do this.
Well, of course the Ravnica lands were better; that goes without saying. Ravnica was the multicolor block, so they designed the lands to reward people who played multicolor heavily by making them really, really really good. Llorwyn is the tribal block (I know, surprising, right?) so they made these lands to reward people who play with creatures of a certain type.
Complaining that the Rav lands were better because you can fetch 'em is like complaining that Ice Cream is better than a kick in the ass. No kidding, sherlock.
I guess the only weak point in that analogy is that I like the tribe lands a lot more than I like getting kicked in the ass.
But seriously, stop whining that Rav lands are better. We know they are. It was on purpose.
I don't see there being any way Giants get one of the "Race Lands". There (most likely) will not be any 1cc, 2cc, or 3cc giants that would need the early mana fixing he talks about through his ENTIRE article. That said, they wanted to push aggresive creature decks in Lorwyn, so the most aggresive tribes are the logical bet to get a land:
MOST LIKELY NOT
Elementals (???) WUBRG
Giants (???) W/R
Treefolk (???) WBG
Changelings (???) WUBRG
I base all the above because the entire article is about benifitting small, aggresive weenie style decks. Kithkin and Goblins definitely fits this role, Merfolk aren't ultra aggresive from what we've seen, but make more sense than our other choices. Giants and Treefolk don't seem to benifit the same way an aggresive aggro deck would because of higher casting costs. I don't see Elementals being in because a five color tap land would be just to good (at least in comparison to every other 5 color producing land we've ever had). Changeling would be an amazing (and amazingly horrible) surprise, due to the fact they don't do much on their own and have the same kind of five color restrictions that the elementals should have.
Giants are not a weenie tribe, but they still have playable cheap creature drops. Jotun Grunt would be very happy if the nice folks at wizards gave him a dual land in exchange for sticking him in coldsnap.
And yes, Jotun Grunt can be the right play on turn two.
edit: And after checking the spoiler, we already have a 3 drop aggro Giant, Blind Spot Giant, who really wants a giant in play on turn two.
Like I said when first spoiled, awesome in Tribal decks, but complete jank otherwise.
Lorwyn continues to disappoint.
An explanation of WHY Lorwyn is disappointing you would help remarks like this make more sense. Unless you are against the theme/flavor, which is understandable (it is a take from the norm), I hate people complaining about the quality/quantity of certain colors when only half of the set is revealed. -_- This card is not complete "jank"- first of all, it's an enemy color tapland, something that some colors might want for the upcoming format regardless of whether they play elves. (A U/R deck would certainly enjoy mroe mana fixing outside of Reefs).
The fact that this will often drop as a painless painland will make it just powerful enough to be used a lot, but not stupidly powerful to warp the format. I think it's a clever way to design niche card.
It's odd, I can see printing the G/B land, since G/B doesn't have any other way to make mana except pains (unlike the 5 FS lands, which give those color combinations more options). But seeing as the faerie one got spoiled... that's 2 lands with B. Maybe they are going to favor B with the lands, like they did with the Tainted lands? This is confusing- 8 tribes and not 8 lands.. =\ Well, I'm trying for Faeries, so I know I'm set (4 FS lands, 4 pains, 4 reveal lands..). And yes, Christopher Moeller is the bomb (he's actually very similar to Kev Walker in his approach to art. Maybe it's because they both work in the same medium, and have very similar tastes/jobs outside of magic) Copper-Leaf Angel is still one of my favorite cards, mostly due to that sweet pic. =)
I don't see there being any way Giants get one of the "Race Lands". There (most likely) will not be any 1cc, 2cc, or 3cc giants that would need the early mana fixing he talks about through his ENTIRE article. That said, they wanted to push aggresive creature decks in Lorwyn, so the most aggresive tribes are the logical bet to get a land:
CONFIRMED:
Elves (Gilt-Leaf Palace) B/G
Faeries (Secluded Glen) U/B
MOST LIKELY:
Kithkin (???) W/G
Goblins (???) B/R
POSSIBLE
Merfolk (???) W/U
MOST LIKELY NOT
Elementals (???) WUBRG
Giants (???) W/R
Treefolk (???) WBG
Changelings (???) WUBRG
I base all the above because the entire article is about benifitting small, aggresive weenie style decks. Kithkin and Goblins definitely fits this role, Merfolk aren't ultra aggresive from what we've seen, but make more sense than our other choices. Giants and Treefolk don't seem to benifit the same way an aggresive aggro deck would because of higher casting costs. I don't see Elementals being in because a five color tap land would be just to good (at least in comparison to every other 5 color producing land we've ever had). Changeling would be an amazing (and amazingly horrible) surprise, due to the fact they don't do much on their own and have the same kind of five color restrictions that the elementals should have.
WOTC knows lands sell sets - they'll complete the cycle. They said "8 races duke it out", but only 6 are 2 color races. That means the other 4 lands will probably be in the 2nd set... with a possible 4 other races, or perhaps 4 new color allianced races.
Saying giants won't get a land because they're not weenie creatures is just confusing...
Although, I wouldn't be surprised to see a city of brass varient with elementals...
Well, I guess Treefolk won't likely be getting one of these lands, but it doesn't exactly seem like to me that a deck couldn't be made that wants some early drops with the Harbinger and Doran and so forth...
But I would guess if they made one it would be W/B, since it's mainly green, and the main problem for the Treefolk will be ensuring it can play those colors more so than getting green (esp. for getting out Doran).
But it probably won't anyway. Merfolk seem a likely candidate tho.
I think that these lands are well designed for their purpose: supporting a two-color weenie strategy. Going off of this info, I think we can glean that the others will go as follows, in agreement with prior posts:
G/B for elves (as previewed)
U/B for faeries (Secluded Glen, as spoiled)
W/G for kithkin - as previously mentioned, this can guarantee a one-drop for W and then a second-turn Gaddock Teeg or what-have-you
B/R for boggarts - as if they need it
U/W for merrow - very intriguing
I'd very much doubt a land would follow suit for elementals, as they're spread across the color spectrum but have their base in red which, as previously stated, already has an enabler in the form of Smokeroller. Plus, elementals don't bolster a weenie strategem. Going with this logic, giants and treefolk are similarly unlikely. It's probably about turn three/four before you can put down a giant (that matters, i.e. Brion Stoutarm), so you'd likely have the right colors to work with by then. Treefolk are a little more prickly (pardon the pun), but from what we've seen so far the black and white treefolk only have one colored mana in their casting costs and are all cmc 3+, so color-fixing wouldn't be so much of a problem for the early game for that tribe (turn three Doran aside). I'm pretty sure that we'll only see lands for elves, kithkin, boggarts, merrow and the fae.
Excellent to hear IM bro, it's a shame Kithkin lose their land, but I guess it makes sense, they are mainly white afterall.
This is why i sugested that kithkin won't get a dual land. Yes Gaggok Teeg is awesome and needs to hit the field early, but he is going to be one of a very few green kithkin- my saurce is the MaRo article a while back when he discussed the color issue of each tribe. Since there won't be very many green kithkin, from a tribal perspective there wouldn't be a need for a G/W dual land.
Although giants don't seem to have any weenies in Lorwyn (at least so far), there are other giants that will be in the same Standard environment that already take up one-drop, two-drop, and three-drop spots (Ivory Giant, Jotun Grunt, and Jotun Owl-Keeper). If they were left out it would mean these lands went to four allied-pairs and only one enemy-pair, as well, which is weird and too close to a normal cycle to be justifiably done as anything other than a normal cycle. If there are only five of these duals, I think an allied-pair would have to be left out.
Do you think Lorwyn's hype is dying down? I didn't have any problem accessing the site.
I had to wait 20 minutes. I'm on DSL.
Faeries (:symbu:) are all but confirmed. Elves (:symbg:) are now confirmed.
Given the subtle but intentional way they've played and off against each other in the tribes' color distribution*, I think it would be most elegant for there to be either 4 or 6 such lands, half of them involving black and half involving white.
We already have two lands.
The only land left for black that we don't know about, one way or another, is the land for Goblins.
But aren't Boggarts slow? They might not get one.
If the correlation between a tribe's speed and how much it deserves one of these lands is the key determinant of whether the tribe will get one, Giants shouldn't have them either.
Printing this cycle without lands for Goblins or Giants, but with Merfolk and Kithkin would leave sort of screwed, but it would support the :symw:/:symb: contrast.
So just four of them (Merfolk/Kithkin/Faerie/Elf) seems possible to me.
Otherwise I predict six (Merfolk/Kithkin/Giant/Faerie/Elf/Goblin).
MAYBE there will be a Treefolk land, but I doubt it.
*Others have mentioned this elsewhere; I can't take credit for discovering it. Of the 8 tribes, there are 3 :symw:/:xmana: two color tribes and 3 :symb:/:xmana: two color tribes, with each of :symu:, :symg:, and filling the second position once or twice. The two other tribes are elementals, which are five colored, and treefolk, which are traditionally but also both AND :symb:.
EDIT: After seeing the post by Imps Mischeif [sic] on page 3, I think that perhaps Kithkin and Goblins will miss out.
I'm guessing there won't be one since the articles mentions that not all tribes will be getting a custom tribe-land.
With Elementals being spread over all five colours that makes them a logical choice to not get one.
It also mentions that they're designed to benefit more weenie aggro decks. So Giants and Treefolk may be left out as well.
...nice art though... kinda looks a bit japanese for me...
no. There won't be those lands, sry, they don't fit into the number crunch. In fact, as i have stated on the number crunch, there is only enough room to do five of the above mentioned dual lands. those are W/U for merfolk, U/B for faeries, B/R for goblins, B/G elves, and R/W for gaints. Kithkin won't get a daul land because they only slightly dip into green.
I suppose the rest of them will be made up in the next set in the block if at all.
Giants might not get a land, since they don't need the early plays as much as elves or kithkin would.
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I expected the Elf land to be BG, but that still leaves the rest of the races. I think the most important information remains that all races will NOT receive tribal lands. That will definitely make the races without early mana fixing either less powerful or less focused on an aggro rush deck.
Whatever tribal lands we do see should indicate the most aggressive 2-color combinations in Lorwyn. I therefore expect RB (Goblins), WG (Kithkin), UW (Merfolk), and maybe WUBRG (Elementals -- now, that would be interesting) or UB (Fae).
That leaves RU, RG, RW, GU, and WB without tribal (race) lands. Hmm, a future set in this block? Maybe, they will represent creatures from the second block -- Jelly/Doughnut.
I really don't see a drawback to these tribal lands, since they basically allow you to play an aggressive aggro deck without a penalty, but still allows control to put a dual land into play tapped. Doesn't control always use tapped dual lands?
Seems like a really well-designed cycle.
Thinking as a developer, there are probably two plausible ways they could've taken. The first is to limit the lands to two colors only, meaning Elementals and Treefolk are out. The second is to provide speed and consistency bumps to certain tribes, be it tribes that are not oriented to weenie strategies (Merfolk, Treefolk), or tribes where access to such a resource would be overtly powerful (Goblins).
Whichever path they took, I'm gonna be disappointed if the Merfolk end up without a dual-land and the goblins get one. I expect the developers worked out the balance of power between the tribes, both for Standard and Block Constructed, but man if it wouldn't suck to see the Goblin tribe get an uneven power boost of this magnitude...
So next time you want to make an avvy with Rosewater pissing on something, take a deep breath and consider pasting Forsythe's face there instead...
--e.hemmingway
:symu::symb: momentary mannequin :symb::symu:
What does 'they only slightly dip into green' have to do with the number crunch?
Vintage Oath (35 card proxy)
Legacy Vial Goblins (R/B) / 2 Land Belcher
Extended Elf Ball / ThopterDepths / Naya Zoo
Standard Jund / Koros / Boss Naya
Actually, I haven't seen anything that indicates that there isn't room for all six. It would just be 11 artifacts, 17 land as opposed to 12 artifacts and 16 land. Or do we know there are 12 artifacts somehow? 17 land would be 5 vivids, 5 hideaway, Secluded Glen, Shimmering Grotto, 6 tribelands. Shrug.
Kithkin - W/G dual. Would be very important at making a one drop W kithkin and a two drop WG kithkin (such as Gaddok Teeg). This one seems likely to me.
Boggarts - B/R dual. Considering that we've already seen 1 drop goblins in both black and red this one seems likely to me as well.
Merrow - U/W dual. This is a color combination that is not often an aggro deck, however Fish decks are generally aggro-control decks that utilize 1 and 2 drop creatures backed by counterspells and bounce. Making your creature drops consistently is vital to the classic Fish strategy so this land seems likely.
Faeries - U/B dual. Already rumored. Seems like a definite fit for the set considering Faeries are very weenie oriented.
Elves - G/B dual. Confirmed.
Thats 5 lands. Which is probably the whole cycle. The other three tribes can be disqualified for various reasons.
Treefolk - G/w/b More then two colors makes a dual land impossible and three color multi-lands are almost unheard of in Magic. This is also not a weenie tribe and doesn't need early game mana fixing.
Giants - R/W This could be the 6th dual if they do 6 but I don't think they will. This is not a weenie tribe and doesn't need early game mana fixing.
Flamekin (Elementals) - R/w/b/g/u This is a prismatic tribe based in Red. Considering the cycle of Vivid lands, it seems unlikely that a 5 color tribal land would be printed. Flamekin also have a mana producing/fixing theme as part of their tribe mechanic and can probably fair better without early game mana fixing. They just need red to get started and then can make their own mana to play off color elementals.
I'll go ahead and make another one of my bad predictions for the set. I'm thinking we won't see either merfolk or faeries since those are the traditional control colors. I wouldn't be surprised to see goblins shorted on this either.
However, if I had to pick 5 I would say kithkin (WG), merfolk (UW), giants (RW), treefolk (GWB!?) and elves (GB) of course.
I'm going with merfolk since R&D have stated that the players have demanded their return-hence the land support. Plus Devin states "The clues are all there if you think about them, THOUGH THE ANSWER IS NOT EASY." Therefore I picked treefolk as the odd race choice. Some of the staff at Wotc seem excited about this race so maybe they figured out a way to do this fairly. All in all, I am very curious on how they do this.
Maybe the Rumor Gods can enlighten us, eh Hydro?
Complaining that the Rav lands were better because you can fetch 'em is like complaining that Ice Cream is better than a kick in the ass. No kidding, sherlock.
I guess the only weak point in that analogy is that I like the tribe lands a lot more than I like getting kicked in the ass.
But seriously, stop whining that Rav lands are better. We know they are. It was on purpose.
Now that I think of that, though, it reminds me of the Berenstain Bears' house. (Which is still awesome.)
CONFIRMED:
Elves (Gilt-Leaf Palace) B/G
Faeries (Secluded Glen) U/B
MOST LIKELY:
Kithkin (???) W/G
Goblins (???) B/R
POSSIBLE
Merfolk (???) W/U
MOST LIKELY NOT
Elementals (???) WUBRG
Giants (???) W/R
Treefolk (???) WBG
Changelings (???) WUBRG
I base all the above because the entire article is about benifitting small, aggresive weenie style decks. Kithkin and Goblins definitely fits this role, Merfolk aren't ultra aggresive from what we've seen, but make more sense than our other choices. Giants and Treefolk don't seem to benifit the same way an aggresive aggro deck would because of higher casting costs. I don't see Elementals being in because a five color tap land would be just to good (at least in comparison to every other 5 color producing land we've ever had). Changeling would be an amazing (and amazingly horrible) surprise, due to the fact they don't do much on their own and have the same kind of five color restrictions that the elementals should have.
And yes, Jotun Grunt can be the right play on turn two.
edit: And after checking the spoiler, we already have a 3 drop aggro Giant, Blind Spot Giant, who really wants a giant in play on turn two.
An explanation of WHY Lorwyn is disappointing you would help remarks like this make more sense. Unless you are against the theme/flavor, which is understandable (it is a take from the norm), I hate people complaining about the quality/quantity of certain colors when only half of the set is revealed. -_- This card is not complete "jank"- first of all, it's an enemy color tapland, something that some colors might want for the upcoming format regardless of whether they play elves. (A U/R deck would certainly enjoy mroe mana fixing outside of Reefs).
The fact that this will often drop as a painless painland will make it just powerful enough to be used a lot, but not stupidly powerful to warp the format. I think it's a clever way to design niche card.
It's odd, I can see printing the G/B land, since G/B doesn't have any other way to make mana except pains (unlike the 5 FS lands, which give those color combinations more options). But seeing as the faerie one got spoiled... that's 2 lands with B. Maybe they are going to favor B with the lands, like they did with the Tainted lands? This is confusing- 8 tribes and not 8 lands.. =\ Well, I'm trying for Faeries, so I know I'm set (4 FS lands, 4 pains, 4 reveal lands..). And yes, Christopher Moeller is the bomb (he's actually very similar to Kev Walker in his approach to art. Maybe it's because they both work in the same medium, and have very similar tastes/jobs outside of magic) Copper-Leaf Angel is still one of my favorite cards, mostly due to that sweet pic. =)
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WOTC knows lands sell sets - they'll complete the cycle. They said "8 races duke it out", but only 6 are 2 color races. That means the other 4 lands will probably be in the 2nd set... with a possible 4 other races, or perhaps 4 new color allianced races.
Saying giants won't get a land because they're not weenie creatures is just confusing...
Although, I wouldn't be surprised to see a city of brass varient with elementals...
But I would guess if they made one it would be W/B, since it's mainly green, and the main problem for the Treefolk will be ensuring it can play those colors more so than getting green (esp. for getting out Doran).
But it probably won't anyway. Merfolk seem a likely candidate tho.
G/B for elves (as previewed)
U/B for faeries (Secluded Glen, as spoiled)
W/G for kithkin - as previously mentioned, this can guarantee a one-drop for W and then a second-turn Gaddock Teeg or what-have-you
B/R for boggarts - as if they need it
U/W for merrow - very intriguing
I'd very much doubt a land would follow suit for elementals, as they're spread across the color spectrum but have their base in red which, as previously stated, already has an enabler in the form of Smokeroller. Plus, elementals don't bolster a weenie strategem. Going with this logic, giants and treefolk are similarly unlikely. It's probably about turn three/four before you can put down a giant (that matters, i.e. Brion Stoutarm), so you'd likely have the right colors to work with by then. Treefolk are a little more prickly (pardon the pun), but from what we've seen so far the black and white treefolk only have one colored mana in their casting costs and are all cmc 3+, so color-fixing wouldn't be so much of a problem for the early game for that tribe (turn three Doran aside). I'm pretty sure that we'll only see lands for elves, kithkin, boggarts, merrow and the fae.
Excellent to hear IM bro, it's a shame Kithkin lose their land, but I guess it makes sense, they are mainly white afterall.
This is why i sugested that kithkin won't get a dual land. Yes Gaggok Teeg is awesome and needs to hit the field early, but he is going to be one of a very few green kithkin- my saurce is the MaRo article a while back when he discussed the color issue of each tribe. Since there won't be very many green kithkin, from a tribal perspective there wouldn't be a need for a G/W dual land.
I had to wait 20 minutes. I'm on DSL.
Faeries (:symbu:) are all but confirmed. Elves (:symbg:) are now confirmed.
Given the subtle but intentional way they've played and off against each other in the tribes' color distribution*, I think it would be most elegant for there to be either 4 or 6 such lands, half of them involving black and half involving white.
We already have two lands.
The only land left for black that we don't know about, one way or another, is the land for Goblins.
But aren't Boggarts slow? They might not get one.
If the correlation between a tribe's speed and how much it deserves one of these lands is the key determinant of whether the tribe will get one, Giants shouldn't have them either.
Printing this cycle without lands for Goblins or Giants, but with Merfolk and Kithkin would leave sort of screwed, but it would support the :symw:/:symb: contrast.
So just four of them (Merfolk/Kithkin/Faerie/Elf) seems possible to me.
Otherwise I predict six (Merfolk/Kithkin/Giant/Faerie/Elf/Goblin).
MAYBE there will be a Treefolk land, but I doubt it.
*Others have mentioned this elsewhere; I can't take credit for discovering it. Of the 8 tribes, there are 3 :symw:/:xmana: two color tribes and 3 :symb:/:xmana: two color tribes, with each of :symu:, :symg:, and filling the second position once or twice. The two other tribes are elementals, which are five colored, and treefolk, which are traditionally but also both AND :symb:.
EDIT: After seeing the post by Imps Mischeif [sic] on page 3, I think that perhaps Kithkin and Goblins will miss out.