MaRo gave us some hints when he talked about Zendikar Rising. One of the hints was that the Eldrazi are no longer there, but that there are remnants and probably (my words, not his) scars from their presence.
So let's get creative w/ ideas of what might have been left behind.
My guesses:
- Someone (or thing) w/ black magic might've tried to resurrect or animate dead Eldrazi... so maybe some sort of Zombie/Skeleton Eldrazi?
- Hedrons might be unstable or falling from the sky, so some sort of destroy or damage spell involving the hedrons.
- A return to "leveling" cards, possibly lands, artifacts & enchantments ("level up" planeswalkers... that sounds like it would be confusing) since there may be new areas that were once occupied by some Eldrazi that are no longer there.
- Allies may still linger, but maybe tribe specific as there are tribes of goblins, vampires, humans, etc... there which might become "factions" or the equivalent.
That's all I can think of for now as there is really barely anything to go off of. I always find it interesting to see what speculations are close/spot on and what ones are off or so off that the opposite is true.
Anyone else have some ideas where an Eldrazi-less Zendikar would be like (mechanics and/or story wise)?
Zendikar as a plane where story things happen seems to be in a pretty awkward position.
While some posters claim that Zendikar has no identity without without Eldrazi, I don't feel that is true. The fact that an entire DND guide to Zendikar could be printed shows that the plane has its own sense of identity. Vampires from Zendikar are easily recognizable, the plane is one of the major homes for Kor at this time (and is the home of Nahiri, a highly recognizable walker), and the attitudes/structure of the various races seem pretty solid. Even the presence of the roil and its elemental/landscape features is highly recognizable in the absence of eldrazi, mystery cults, and hedrons. Plus, the data indicating that players were expecting more "adventure-world" last time around shows that there was something about the original block people liked.
As far as Zendikar being the site of a story, however, the previous over-reliance upon eldrazi kind of makes things awkward now. As I mentioned DND earlier, imagine a fantasy campaign where everything of historical relevance all hinted at and built up to a dramatic encounter with the BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy)... and expecting to keep the story going after the cosmic struggle has concluded. Remember when Ravnica printed Priest of Forgotten Gods and hinted at darker and slumbering forces in the plane and didn't provide immediate pay-off? In spite of the original block being "adventure world" and having 5 sets to work with, Wizards has been very bad at seeding possible future stories for Zendikar that weren't related to Eldrazi (with one exception, which I'll get to). While you can certainly keep the campaign going at this point, going back to "adventure world" is hard as most of those adventures aren't meaningful when we know exactly why all of the relics and dungeons and hedrons exist and know that the eldrazi have already been dealt with... and introducing a bunch of previously unmentioned lore/history would look... bad.
With that said:
1. The roil is still very much a thing. The constant shuffling of physical landmarks always provides possible adventure hooks in terms of exploration.
2. The geopolitics of zendikar can also be used to tell a story. The collapse of alliances in the absence of a common enemy (possibly with the loss of the ally creature type), possibly goaded by a Nahiri hellbent on getting Zendikar's Kor to exterminate it's vampires out of raw spite for Sorin is a real possibility.
3. While it wasn't properly printed in an actual Zendikar set, it's a possibility that Wizards will follow up with the giant demon from infernal reckoning
Combine that with the corruption of Nissa and the purification of Omnath and you might have enough story-beats for something resembling a slower story. With that said, though, Wizards really does need to take the time to seed hints of what Zendikar can be in the future as it is essentially a plane without a usable history at this point. Mentioning tiny hints of other relevant history facts not connected to Eldrazi in one-off cards and flavortext can pay dividends down the line and Wizards will hopefully use its story (if it has a real story at all) to set up future points/characters for exploration.
Edit: I will confess that I am not a big story buff from the period of BFT/OoG. If there were loose story threads left dangling from the short stories printed at that time, I apologize for missing them.
Edit Edit: And yes, high power level and hidden treasures/masterpieces have provided extra hype for this plane in the past. I don't feel that makes the statements about the plane being recognizable or creating new stories being difficult less true.
So let's get creative w/ ideas of what might have been left behind.
My guesses:
- Someone (or thing) w/ black magic might've tried to resurrect or animate dead Eldrazi... so maybe some sort of Zombie/Skeleton Eldrazi?
- Hedrons might be unstable or falling from the sky, so some sort of destroy or damage spell involving the hedrons.
- A return to "leveling" cards, possibly lands, artifacts & enchantments ("level up" planeswalkers... that sounds like it would be confusing) since there may be new areas that were once occupied by some Eldrazi that are no longer there.
- Allies may still linger, but maybe tribe specific as there are tribes of goblins, vampires, humans, etc... there which might become "factions" or the equivalent.
That's all I can think of for now as there is really barely anything to go off of. I always find it interesting to see what speculations are close/spot on and what ones are off or so off that the opposite is true.
Anyone else have some ideas where an Eldrazi-less Zendikar would be like (mechanics and/or story wise)?
While some posters claim that Zendikar has no identity without without Eldrazi, I don't feel that is true. The fact that an entire DND guide to Zendikar could be printed shows that the plane has its own sense of identity. Vampires from Zendikar are easily recognizable, the plane is one of the major homes for Kor at this time (and is the home of Nahiri, a highly recognizable walker), and the attitudes/structure of the various races seem pretty solid. Even the presence of the roil and its elemental/landscape features is highly recognizable in the absence of eldrazi, mystery cults, and hedrons. Plus, the data indicating that players were expecting more "adventure-world" last time around shows that there was something about the original block people liked.
As far as Zendikar being the site of a story, however, the previous over-reliance upon eldrazi kind of makes things awkward now. As I mentioned DND earlier, imagine a fantasy campaign where everything of historical relevance all hinted at and built up to a dramatic encounter with the BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy)... and expecting to keep the story going after the cosmic struggle has concluded. Remember when Ravnica printed Priest of Forgotten Gods and hinted at darker and slumbering forces in the plane and didn't provide immediate pay-off? In spite of the original block being "adventure world" and having 5 sets to work with, Wizards has been very bad at seeding possible future stories for Zendikar that weren't related to Eldrazi (with one exception, which I'll get to). While you can certainly keep the campaign going at this point, going back to "adventure world" is hard as most of those adventures aren't meaningful when we know exactly why all of the relics and dungeons and hedrons exist and know that the eldrazi have already been dealt with... and introducing a bunch of previously unmentioned lore/history would look... bad.
With that said:
1. The roil is still very much a thing. The constant shuffling of physical landmarks always provides possible adventure hooks in terms of exploration.
2. The geopolitics of zendikar can also be used to tell a story. The collapse of alliances in the absence of a common enemy (possibly with the loss of the ally creature type), possibly goaded by a Nahiri hellbent on getting Zendikar's Kor to exterminate it's vampires out of raw spite for Sorin is a real possibility.
3. While it wasn't properly printed in an actual Zendikar set, it's a possibility that Wizards will follow up with the giant demon from infernal reckoning
Combine that with the corruption of Nissa and the purification of Omnath and you might have enough story-beats for something resembling a slower story. With that said, though, Wizards really does need to take the time to seed hints of what Zendikar can be in the future as it is essentially a plane without a usable history at this point. Mentioning tiny hints of other relevant history facts not connected to Eldrazi in one-off cards and flavortext can pay dividends down the line and Wizards will hopefully use its story (if it has a real story at all) to set up future points/characters for exploration.
Edit: I will confess that I am not a big story buff from the period of BFT/OoG. If there were loose story threads left dangling from the short stories printed at that time, I apologize for missing them.
Edit Edit: And yes, high power level and hidden treasures/masterpieces have provided extra hype for this plane in the past. I don't feel that makes the statements about the plane being recognizable or creating new stories being difficult less true.