Quote Originally Posted by Crysthorn View Post
No. We've been there before: during the last decade we had such narrow, one-set/one-block only mechanics that have zero synergy with previous or next sets at least twice (Snow in Coldsnap and Arcane + Spirit in Kamigawa) and it was very bad for Standard. WotC won't repeat this mistake again.
Both of those were so restrictive because there was no previous support for the mechanic, and there was no way for the mechanic to be useful outside of (for example) snow-covered lands. A slight modification to the mechanic (something like the new Phyrexian mana that can be paid for with actual mana or life) or simply more support for subtypes like snow mana or arcane spells. Another block with "arcane" sub-type spells would open up new doors for competitive use, plus it would bring back the kamigawa block type limited and standard, which was fairly engaging.

On another note, dismissing functional reprints of dual lands because the only option given was snow-covered duals is kind of short-sighted. You could easily make bayous by a different name with a zombie sub-type, tundras by a different name with a reindeer subtype, or whatever. Functional reprints of duals that actually open up NEW uses and synergies is what we're looking for, if *actual* reprints of duals are out of the question. And really, I'd be surprised if someone argued against that, since they're not replacing the old duals, just smoothing out mana bases to an appropriate degree for those poor souls (myself among them) that can't afford both the new ones and the old ones, and without punishing them like the Ravnica duals did.

Part two of my rebuttal is that the "arcane" thing wasn't used very well, since most of the Arcane sub-type spells were reduced in power level from their non-Arcane twins, in order to compensate for the effects and benefits they'd be triggering...but the triggers all sucked and there were like 3 of them. Or something. So, very rarely is Eye to Nowhere used, in part because Boomerang is rarely used anyway and in part because there's very few reasons to use a sorcery over an instant. So there was no longevity of use built into the spell itself. Changing that would be very easily, especially if there was efficient hate available. (U, Instant, Counter target Arcane spell).