On Monday, Wizards of the Coast will begin their official previews of the new set (Magic 2010 (orM10)) —a set that promises to change the very nature of core sets. Since that’s by far the biggest thing in Magic news at the moment, I figured it was worth an article to talk about. After all, who isn’t excited about seeing what sort of new cards might get printed, or reprinted?

In order to get you all, and myself, into the spirit of the new set, I thought I’d take some time to speculate on what cards I’d most like to see come back in M10. After all, we all have our wishlists of what will come back, don’t we? Keep in mind, this is in no way a claim that any of these cards will be in M10, just my own speculation and a vehicle to discuss how M10 will affect Standard.

So, here are my speculations on M10. They’re sorted by color, but otherwise in no particular order.

White

To Arms!: When I saw this in Ravnica block, I honestly thought it was a plant for a future core set. After all, Roar of the Kha rotated out the same time this rotated in, and that was such a useful effect for White Weenie and token decks that the printing of To Arms! seemed to me like Wizards was saying “We want you to always have this.” Add to that the potent flavor of the card (literally, a call to arms), the fact that it cantrips (which Wizards leaned heavliy on in 10^th because of the way it smooths out drafts), and the extra-cool factor of the exclamation point in the card name (proving that it’s serious business, and giving new meaning to the term “announcing a spell”) makes this one feel like the perfect go-to reprint.

Carom: Big bonus points if you remember what this card does. But if Bandage got to be reprinted in 10^th, Carom deserves a spot in M10. Not only is it also a cantrip, but reprinting it now would work beautifully with the introduction of the new combat rules. I honestly think these new rules make Carom a better card. It hasn’t gotten worse with damage no longer using the stack, and it lets you cheat the “ordering the blockers” rule a little. See, when a lot of people I’ve heard complain about not being able to assign damage among blockers anymore, the most common example I keep hearing is a 4/4 being blocked by two x/4’s. Under current rules, you can assign two damage to each blocker, in order to set up for the Pyroclasm in your hand. With M10, you have to assign lethal to the first blocker before you can assign any to the next one, and so you can only kill one of those two creatures. But if you had a Carom, you could redirect one point of damage to a creature down the line whom you couldn’t have otherwise.

Mistmeadow Skulk: Since the rules for Lifelink are also changing, it seems fair to give the core set a few decent creatures with lifelink. And its unique form of protection makes the Skulk a very versatile card, suddenly making your opponent think twice about what cards he’s chosen as his removal spells. In addition, but the flavor perspective of a little Kithkin being too small for big creatures to do anything about is adorable enough to give the Skulk a place in many players’ hearts.

Armored Ascension: White just doesn’t get many good big creatures, yet Wizards has told us that all five colors should be able to get them. Players love throwing an Aura onto a creature and smashing face with it. Wizards likes to encourage players to use basic lands when the format starts to depend too much on nonbasic lands (like it does now). Seems like a perfect choice to me.

Blue

Careful Study: This one was always useful in Onslaught block, where it gave you an opportunity to play it turn one and thus sculpt your hand into something you might otherwise have mulliganed into something you can make work for you. Of course, it was also the block of Threshold, Madness, and Flashback, so just as often you played it to discard a free Basking Rootwalla or set yourself up for a turn-two Deep Analysis. We don’t have those mechanics around anymore. We do have Unearth, but most cards with Unearth are arguably better if you get to cast them from your hand the first time around, and there’s really no Uneath card that could get all that crazy if you have a free way to discard it turn one. Add to that the fact that Careful Study actually leaves you at -1 cards, and it seems perfectly acceptable in Standard today.

Force Spike: We know they won’t give us Counterspell back, but having a counterspell with a low converted mana cost is important to control players. Yes, it hardly ever really counters anything after the first few turns, but there are a lot of aggro decks in the format right now, and Force Spike has always been a great way to slow down their initial curve by that one turn, in order to give the control player a chance to catch up.

Tunnel Vision: M10 has been advertised as a flavor-driven core set. This card is just plain funny. I also like how it can serve two purposes: a psuedo-tutor for you, and a way to mill your opponent. Granted, the Tunnel Vision/Junktroller combo won’t be around, but is it necessary for this to be a decent card?

Sigil Tracer: We already know that there’ll be some tribal cards in M10 (check today’s Card of the Day if you don’t believe me), and blue has never really had a headline race. Personally, I think class-type lords make more sense than race-type lords anyway, and so a Wizard lord seems fine to me. I also like how this one really feels like a leader of Wizards—he gets your other Wizards to work together and copy that spell… into their spellbooks I’m sure.

Pongify: You get to turn a creature into an ape. It’s flavor-driven, and it’s a great answer to a lot of creatures out there. Would giving it to blue be too much of a stretch of the color pie? Possibly, but blue had it once and things were okay. Besides, blue currently has Unsummon, Remove Soul, Curse of Chains, and a host of other ways to handle creatures. Destroying it and giving your opponent a 3/3 token seems fair enough.

Black

Seizan, Perverter of Truth: With Legendary creatures coming to the core set in 10^th edition, I think Seizan would make an excellent candidate. Not only does he serve as a substitute for Phrexian Arena, a card many black mages have wanted back for some time now, his flavor is easier to understand than the Arena’s. He’s the Perverter of Truth—he’ll tell you some tales and teach you some things, but you may suffer in the learning. And since they gave us Graveborn Muse in 10^th and nobody really wanted to play it, I can see them giving us a different “Arena on legs” creature instead.

Vampire Hounds: Okay, I admit it: I had to do some real digging to find this one. Why reprint this of all things? Well, check today’s Card of the Day. It goes great with that card. It also makes a great replacement for Scathe Zombies, a card I desperately want to see gone from the Core Set.

Headless Horseman: Yeah, I just want to get Scathe Zombies out of the Core Set. At least this one has some better flavor. It’s the Headless Horseman, for goodness sake. And it’s a Knight! Kinsbaile Cavalier says hello.

Haakon, Stromgald Scourge: This one was so much fun when it was Standard legal, and they’ve confirmed that they’re reprinting Black Knight. Now would be a great time for Haakon to rise from his grave once more!

Strands of Undeath: We’ve just learned that Regeneration (the card, not the mechanic) isn’t being reprinted, most likely because it was never worth the effort of playing it and risking losing two cards. Strands of Undeath solves that issue nicely, as well as being a solid discard spell in itself. And if the rumors are true that The Rack is coming back, discard spells will be in high demand.

Red

Game of Chaos: If M10 is going to be a showcase of flavor, then people need to see Red’s reckless side. Red is, after all, the color of chaos. And who doesn’t love a little minigame in their games?

Thunderblade Charge: Red needs to play up its “I can get my stuff back from the graveyard” side more often. After all, when you’re the color that can’t draw cards, you need some way to restock your hand. And with an aggro-heavy format like this one, and Ball Lightning coming back, the Charge would be a very nice touch.

Blood Knight: Hey, if Black Knight is coming back, why not? And you just know White is getting an equivalent Knight, even if we’re not sure which one.

Goblin Ringleader: Nobody really expects Goblin King to be reprinted, but everybody seems to expect a Goblin lord of some sort. And since I’m all for giving red some alternative way to “draw cards”, this guy would fit right in.

Green

Heartbeat of Spring: Now that mana burn is no longer a part of the game, this card is all upside. And everybody loves lots of mana, right? This card, or its red incarnation from Alpha, has been the backbone of crazy combos and cutthroat multiplayer politics for years. It’s the opposite of non-interactive strategies like land destruction or discard, which don’t let your opponent play his game at all. It encourages your opponent to play out his hand, so you can then wipe the board or whatnot. How is that not fun?

Gilt-Leaf Archdruid: Like I said, I like class tribal better than race tribal, and in my opinion, Elves can take a season on the sidelines. I know they won’t, of course, because M10 is supposed to be heavy on traditional fantasy flavor, and that means Elves. But it also means Druids! Druids are always around in Magic somewhere, and this card can get absolutely nuts if you let it. Right now in Standard alone there’s 25 Druids!

Serpent Skin: See Strands of Undeath above. This card goes a long way towards demonstrating why Auras can be a disadvantage—by not being a disadvantage. It has Flash, it pumps yor creature, and it gives the creature a way to keep itself alive.

Sakiko, Mother of Summer: I’ll say it right now—I think the legendary green creatures chosen for 10^th Edition were kind of a punt. Mirri was cool, but for some reason nobody plays her. Maybe because for the same mana cost, they can have Troll Ascetic? And Molimo? He’s a big trampling dude, nothing more. Legendary creatures should feel legendary, like they do something you can’t get form just any creature. Sakiko is exactly that—a big, powerful ability that you can’t find anywhere else. And with the new mana burn rule, all those cards from Kamigawa block that put “temporary green mana” into your pool are getting reworded. It would be nice if one got reprinted so we could see it.

Artifacts

Krark’s Thumb: See Game of Chaos above. Mark Rosewater once said that people don’t like randomness in their games. I say, give them the tools to improve the odds in their favor. Maybe M10 could have this as a mythic rare, then a rare, uncommon, and common that involve coin flips?

Scythe of the Wretched: Loxodon Warhammer was fun, but it’s getting out of hand. Any deck can just throw one in, equip it to anything, and swing for huge life swings. In Standard, Faeries are running this. Faeries? What that tribe really expected to be able to swing for five, with trample and lifelink? It seems like it’s time to give the Hammer a rest. Scythe of the Wretched makes a good replacement, and a very flavorful one. It’s the Grim Reaper’s scythe, and whoever you kill with it rises from the grave to wield it.

Darksteel Pendant: This might be asking a lot of a core set. Not only is it indestructible, its ability is effectively “scry 1”, and neither of those two abilities has ever been in the core set. But it would be useful to have that little tool to filter your draw each turn.

Conjurer’s Bauble: Oh, the tricks you could do with this little trinket. It gets a card in your graveyard back into your deck, and draws you a card. Combo decks like this little guy. And so do I.

Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang: Okay, I noticed that all my artifact picks so far were from Mirrodin. Guess I’m showing my age there. It was a toss-up for me between this and Grifter’s Blade. One is a legendary sword infused with the spirit of an ancient dragon, the other is the blade of a cutpurse. Traditional fantasy has always had rogues, pickpockets, and thieves, but it’s also always had dragons. Guess what wins.

Lands

Vesuva: If Clone and Sculpting Steel can be in a core set, so can Vesuva. Besides, it’s one of the few lands that really feels like a place.

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea: We know Jace Beleren is being reprinted. This could go well alongside him in a mill deck. Although it may be competing with Howling Mine, since the two have similar effects.

Mutavault: 10^th edition had the cycle of colored “man lands” (Treetop Village et al.), and only two of them really saw play. This could easily replace all five, and see play in a wider variety of decks. Just remember it if you’re building a Gilt-Leaf Archdruid deck!

That’s all I can come up with. I hope you enjoyed my self-indulgent stroll down What If Lane. If you have any opinions of your own, or responses to my opinions, feel free to send them to me!

And here’s hoping Magic 2010 fulfills all our wishlists!