I'm going to predict that Evoke WILL NOT return for Amonkhet

1. It's looking more and more likely that -1/-1 counters WILL return for Amonkhet. Adding Evoke would give us TWO Lorwyn-Shadowmoor mechs returning in the same block
2. Power issues with revolt

I think there's a good chance Amonkhet dials things down a little powerwise.

BTW, I've heard people refer to Amonkhet as the "Battlecruiser" block. What's that supposed to mean?

Think Zendikar, specifically the Eldrazi. BTW, that statement feels wrong, exactly because we left Zendikar not too long ago.

Battlecruiser Magic is where the games go long and end with huge creatures fighting huge creatures. Rise of the Eldrazi was a set specifically designed for that type of gameplay. It had a defender theme, level up, totem armor, and huge Eldrazi, all mechanics that led to slow, big games.

Wishful thinking. It looks more to me like -1/-1 counters are probably the same level of dead as Protection and Regeneration (not ACTUALLY dead like Banding or Fear, but not going to be used either)

I think THAT's a bit of an extreme position. POISON, maybe, but not -1/-1 counters.

+1/+1 counters were also a thing in Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block. In fact, they were in Lorwyn block specifically, the same one that all the evoke creatures were in.

As for the "battlecruiser" thing, I love how people have already decided what a format is going to look like without knowing any of the mechanics or any of the cards.

I love how Kaladesh block has literal battlecruisers.

MaRo loves poison, even if infect is not doable he'll find a way to make it work.

-1/-1, however, is exactly the sort of thing we'd be likely to lose: It's interactive with complex strategy, but rare enough to be "marginal" or "corner case" and Timmy hates it while loving the opposite.

Never bet against Timmy.

Poison is rated as a 2 on the Storm scale (source). -1/-1 counters are a 3 (source). So the likelihood of seeing either of them again is very high. But one of the major problems of the storm scale is that time isn't a factor in it, so even when Maro says "we will see this again" that could be in the next set, or that could be 10 years from now. The only certainty is that it will probably happen before Maro retires/dies.

So does that mean that if I assassinate MaRo 6 months from now, Amonkhet will have to be an infect block?

I guess they could bring back poison without making Infect too good in modern. As long as they don't print another cheap evasive infect dude. Another glistener elf probably wouldn't get played.

Yes, definitely. Bonus points if you do it using a lethal toxin.

I think one of the next two blocks will have a tribal theme. It's been awhile since Tribal carried a block. I could see Atlazan having maybe a Shard tribal theme.

Something like:
: Humans
: Birds
: Lizards
: Snakes
: Cats

Merfolk are prominently displayed on Atlazan packaging.

OK, nix Lizards for Merfolk.

red is going to be a very strange fit for merfolk.
Then again, blue is a weird fit for lizards too...

Question is whether dark intimations is a plant just for bolas, or for grixis/shards as well...

They won't do two gold sets back to back, although I suspect one of the next two.

Has Atlazan been confirmed? Wotc tried to claim it was just a packing sample, right?

They were very careful with their wording to say that the images that we had seen were packaging mock-ups without confirming or denying the existence of a real set named Atlazan or the fact that the art used in the mock-ups was all new unreleased art.

Basically it went like this:

Someone: *Leaked the pictures*
Everyone: Holy crap! That new set is cool!
Wizards: Yeah...uh...what you saw was just a product mock-up....
Everyone: So Atlazan is not real?
Wizards: What you saw was a product mock-up.
Everyone: So the art we saw is not a part of a soon-to-be future block staring Kiora and possibly Vraska in a Central-American themed world, possibly named Atlazan?
Wizards: We can't discuss future sets. What you saw was a product mock-up.....go look at Aether Revolt spoilers!

We JUST had a tribal Block. And please don't say that Innistrad is not tribal enough, because R&D has made it pretty clear that Innistrad is as tribal as a block can get these days.

Where did they say that? I've certainly heard from Maro that Innistrad is deliberately stepped down from Lorwyn-levels, but I was under the impression that there was room for them to push a tribal theme slightly harder if they wanted. (Not a lot of room, but some.)