Here at Gathering Magic, we take our Magic the Gathering predictions seriously.  From time to time we go back and reflect on some of our conjectures with hindsight as our ally.  Keep in mind that we do these predictions well in advance of any knowledge about the set.  In this case, we had a few pieces of art, a general blurb about "carnage following something-or-other" and the flavorful foreshadowing from both Zendikar and Worldwake.  Generally we nail about 50% of our predictions and flop on the other half.  Let's see how we did on our most commented on article in this site's history!

1. Vol, Slave of Bolas - WRONG - It seemed like a decent enough guess.  We knew Sarkhan was on Zendikar, working for Bolas, and a little nuts.  But in the end my card wasn't even close.  Who would have guessed that the actual Sarkhan, the Mad would have only three negative abilities and no way to add loyalty counters?!  Aside from the CONVERTED mana cost, the art (which I found in a random comic) and the high-ish loyalty... nevermind, I was WAY off.  We hope you enjoyed speculating along with us nevertheless!

2. More Dual Lands - WRONG - Nope.  Wizard's trend of inserting 10 new duals into every set since Alara finally broke!  Not that we needed any more duals and I am mostly glad that we aren't having to chase another set of them!  They're always a fun addition to any set but I'm happy they aren't in Rise of the Eldrazi given Magic's recent history.  I am happy to be wrong about this one.

3. Ghostfire is in - WRONG - What happened here?  If I were going to put money on Ghostfire being in RoE I would have bet a thousand bucks that it was in!  It seems wizards didn't go for the colorless instants/sorceries as much we thought they would.  There are only a handful of actual, colorless, Eldrazi spells in Rise of the Eldrazi.  The big reason for the nixing of this card is probably because of it's uselessness.  Are you going to use 5 of them on an Eldrazi?  And why print this card when you've got Lightning Bolt and Staggershock already?  I'm happy with this decision but I was way off in my prediction.

4. Eldrazi are expensive… Help! - CORRECT - Eldrazi Temple was just the tip of the iceberg!  The entire Eldrazi Spawn token generation machine is just what any overlord needs to summon his monster gods!  We weren't sure how it would manifest itself but we were sure we'd need help getting these guys out.  Luckily, we got what we needed.  Look for these mana-ramp-helpers to be even more useful this Fall.

5. Rumors are always true… in Fantasy! – CORRECT - The rumors about Annihilate, Level Up and Eldrazi Temple all turned out to be true.  Which just goes to show.. rumors are ALWAYS, ALWAYS true!  Psyche.  You've got to look at each situation and judge for yourself.  In this case, it all seemed to fit so well that it had to be true as far as we could tell.  The fact that Wizards yanked it off the interwebs within 30 minutes of the posting was a dead giveaway for me.  That's why we report rumorish stuff guys-  because sometimes it's true.  And a little bit of good ol' fashioned speculation never hurt anyone!

6. Eldrazi equals Giant, Colossus-esque gods of Magic the Gathering - CORRECT - I think most of us assumed this already but at the time, it wasn't clear what the Eldrazi even were.  They are certainly monsterous in size, and a major threat to not only Zendikar but the entire multiverse!  Perhaps a softball prediction even given the timeframe, but I'm giving myself a point here.

7. Even more Allies, Vampires, Elves, and Kor – TOSS-UP - There are more Vampires, Elves and Kor but I don't think anyone thought we wouldn't see at least ONE more ally!  I was stunned when the orb didn't show us even one instance of the word.  I actually think this was a minor mistake for Wizards.  Couldn't one or two of these throw-away commons been given the ally creature type?  If only to make ZEN, WWK, ROE limited a tad more interesting!  That's just my opinion but I think it could have easily been included without messing up anything else.  Either way, I wasn't entirely correct here so I'll grab half a point on this one.

8. A perfect lead-in for the new “Artifact-centered” block this Fall - CORRECT - This was well before the Scars of Mirrodin announcement but there were rumors of a return to that plane forthcoming.  Rise of the Eldrazi is the absolute perfect tie-in to an artifact block.  It stands on it's own, having nothing to do with artifacts while providing some awesome stuff for a new artifact block!  Eldrazi tokens anyone?  Colorless creatures?  Seamless and perfect.

Overall: 4.5/8

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So there you go- over 50% correct!  That's about average for us, around here so I won't lose any sleep over it.  Keep this in mind when you read my Magic 2011 predictions- "1/2 of what you read in these articles is true!"  Or, if you prefer "Half of what Reinhart says is BS".  Either way, I think, given the time period when these predictions are made, you're getting a small glimpse into the future that you wouldn't have otherwise had!  Stay tuned for more amazing feats of divination.  Reinhart out.