This is part of a ten card cycle (edit - only 6 of them in ZNR though)

I'm kinda surprised to see all 10 at once, I was expecting just one and then three-five years of complaining about it being half completed before Wizards is like "Hey we're finally finishing this cycle off. Get excited."

I'm profoundly glad I won't be buying packs if ten of the bloody rares will be dedicated to this cycle.

Won't one of these pay for the pack?

This is false (at least in terms of Zendikar Rising). Weirdly, we're getting only 6. MaRo says in this post that we're getting the other four "very soon": https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/6 ... -the#notes

This image shows all six:

I get this has to be hinting at something but knowing there's just six makes me actually kinda annoyed because it's kinda messy. At least it's balanced at 3-3 Ally-Enemy I guess

Yeah, six is super weird because the colors aren't balanced. Normally each color appears on 2 lands, but in this case red and white each get 3, while the other colors get 2.

I don't know if that actually matters for constructed, but it bugs me a bit.

Waiting on WU, GU, BG, BR. These may or may not be the only DFCs in whatever set they show up in

Two pips of U, B, and G on the missing ones... perhaps they were meant to level out the value somewhat since those duals since they're liable to be some of the most popular.

I kind of like these "Quantum Indecision" duals. True, they're "Strictly better" than basics, except for the bit where they don't have the land types which is relevant in lots of formats, but I think they often won't be as good as a painland, shock, or other upper-tier dual because of how they lack flexibility. It's a design that I know has been YMTC'd before, and I think that's because it does basically work.

bold

A part of me hopes this means we will get more effects that punish the use of nonbasics.

Speaking entirely with regards to power level, I don't think these are all that great, and I don't expect them to see much use outside of two-color decks. Being able to go Lightning Bolt into Counterspell or Thoughtseize into Wrenn and Six is an important feature of dual lands.

Which is good, because I don't like fiddly lands, and these seem really fiddly. I expect the Dual Masters spells to be pretty strong, however.

Probably more likely to get cards that reward the use of basics. Original Zendikar had Primal Bellow, Timbermaw Larva, Emeria, the Sky Ruin, Landbind Ritual, Merfolk Wayfinder, Mind Sludge, Spire Barrage, and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

The reason they picked these six is that they are what they needed to support the "party" mechanic. The other four were not considered necessary to make the set work, so they didn't do them. Take from that what you will.

There's a guy with a head like a pumpkin and a dopey red tie, when he says "very soon" he means "never". Hopefully MaRo doesn't use "very soon" like that.

From today's Making Magic
"a ten-card cycle I'd made of MDFC dual lands. The moment people saw those, they were like, "We have to make these." (Six of them appear in Zendikar Rising, with the remaining four appearing in Kaldheim.)"