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.

[caption id="attachment_5202" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Gathering Magic does it again"][/caption]

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 -

[caption id="attachment_7484" align="alignleft" width="201" caption="Anowon would like some words with me"][/caption]

<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.)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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.