On the other hand, if the major design issue that is solved in Kaladesh that MaRo keeps talking about is Contraptions, Steamflogger Boss could slide in there somewhere. Maybe we don't see goblins in much of the Origins art because they are secluded. The soldiers in the new art for Goblin Piledriver look like they have similar hats as the Kaladeshi military. Also if goblins live there, that would mean that maybe Enthralling Victor is from there as well.

Do you mean the art for the Magic Origins version? Because that is the original art from Onslaught.

Actually that is the art from Origins....which is just the art from Onslaught. The different art version is from Vintage Masters.

Also, now that I am reminded that the Origins art is just recycled Onslaught art, I withdraw that bit of speculation because it's clearly wrong.

Time for baseless speculation that Barinellos will hate.

Clearly the "untouchables" of Kaladesh are ancient oil infected machines kept under the city. A play on the word and potential link to explain why Phyrexian and The Thran feel like Sanskrit.

The apparent absence of non-human races is a pity, though it might be a classical case of "we ain't seen nothin' yet". Maybe they could just go with anthropomorphic depictions of Hindu gods, or holy animals, or just animals native to India and base races off of them. Tiger people are somewhat unlikely, given tigers are already represented as horned beasts and Creative tries to avoid having both anthropomorphic animals and the real animal in the same setting. But maybe we could get Panther Warriors. Loxodon could also totally be a thing, and so could minotaurs and rat people. Nagas, too, though the nagas on Tarkir bothered me for not having the Snake type and generally looking kinda boring. Or maybe Kaladesh really won't have many non-human races to not distract from the artefact creatures too much. And I want it to have atogs or gremlins

Edit: Wasn't there an avatar in one of the Duels games that looked like a panther warrior with a vaguely Kaladeshian helmet or something?

Steamflogger Boss isn't happening.

Yes, that is what I am saying. I was asking if you meant the latest art (from Origins) by "new art" and saying that it was from Onslaught.

Yeah, but that's not stopping people from buying it up, speculating that it might.

I thought they were based off ancient greek? Even their names are hellenic.

Been told by someone who knows quite a bit about Indian culture that they seem similar to him. So I try to go by people who have more knowledge than myself on the subject.

Anyone got a guess as to what big iconics we can expect?

I fully expect a return of the rebel and mercenary classes, albeit in a less broken form than in the Mercadian Masques block.

Well both Avaricious Dragon and Managorger Hydra look like they could be from the same world. With all the gold that is so plentiful as to go to waste, the dragon's flavor text would imply it could be from Kaladesh and there's a lot of aether for the hydra to feed on. Angels might take a back seat to Archons this go around unless we do colored artifacts again, in which case gleaming clockwork angels could easily fill the sky, warding off dragons from stealing all the gold and defending people from whatever demons Kaladesh can offer.

I've not seem much water in the world, so I'm not sure how we're going to get a Kraken.

Sphinx are blue's icon though.

That's right, had a brain fart there for a second. If we get Sphinxes, I expect them to be as tricked out as the ones from Esper.

Honestly, I really hope we have some variety.
Coming straight off of Innistrad the "no freaks allowed" plane, we are overdue for something besides humans.
That said, I do hope they don't just cough up the fantasy races and call it a day. Theros comes to mind.

Also, when has catfolk and cat beasts being on the same plane ever stopped Wizards? I'd be down for some more tiger-folk to panther and leopard-folk.

Do you make these beastfolk the Doc Moreau-influenced creations of a mad druid that lost his fortunes in the artificer's rat race, or should they be folk that have been present from the very beginning?

I'd say from the beginning but shunned from the more populated human areas. I can see the Kaladeshi authority pushing the other races away into the more wild places, or at least keeping them out of sight of the human population.

It's just hard because I'm pretty sure every story bit we have from Kaladesh never references other races besides humans. Chandra's parents don't bring it up, Chandra doesn't, nobody does.

Perhaps we've only seen a very little bit of Kaladesh? That's one thing I've noticed about recent blocks - Theros, Innistrad, Tarkir - these all feel like really small worlds compared to, say, Alara. I'd tack on Kamigawa, but its gotten quite old now.

Its kind of neat how well Avaricious Dragon's flavor text fits the plot hinted at through the artbook cover and the second set's name. Waste, being the mess that follows revolution, want being whatever contributed to the extravagance we see on the artbook.

I don't really care what they do with Kaladesh, but from an objective point of view, I agree this shouldn't be another humans-only plane. What do you mean by "fantasy races", though? Are you talking about the usual suspects in Magic like elves, goblins, merfolk etc. or about the anthropomorphic animals and folklore creatures people would expect in an Indian-themed setting? That said, I was generally fine with the races in Theros. Some of them had a few flaws IMO (gorgons, sirens, nymphs), but overall I liked what they did with them.

Well, Naya and Bant were designed by different groups of people and started out as separate planes, so diversity is to be expected. Ravnica is another plane where that rule doesn't seem to apply, though, so who knows. But someone from Creative actually stated a few years ago that they try to avoid that sort of thing. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there's a convincing reason why tiger beasts and tiger people would clash, personally. I'm always down for more tiger folk, or cat people of any kind really.