Unfortunately some of our folks here have newer Reddit accounts that are limiting their response time. This answer comes from Andrew Brown (WotC_Abro):

"Is it weaker? Only time will tell ;) The main differences we want to get across is that each individual party type can have its own deck as well as feed into a full party deck. We also tried to carve out an identity for each party type and not make it like classic tribal decks where all you want to do is spam out little creatures and play lords."

Here's James Wyatt (u/aquelajames) on this one:

"There's a notion that life has continued to thrive and adapt in relatively closed environments within the Skyclaves since they fell, so unique breeds of common creatures can be found within the newly opened ruins. Magic being what it is, these creatures have taken on some of the visual patterning we see in the ruins. That's a visual way for us to link these creatures to the new thing in the environment."

Here's James Wyatt (u/aquelajames) for these questions:

"In the BFZ block, Kalitas was among the vampires who obeyed their Eldrazi masters' call and returned to their service. That made him a foil for Drana and the other vampires who resisted the call. In the post-Eldrazi world, Drana carries the standard for the vampires—and the title of "the last bloodchief," which at least strongly suggests that Kalitas is no more.

Omnath is a locus of mana, and since he was released from his prison, mana is just drawn to him regardless of its color. (That's sort of a flip answer, and it's possible we'll get a better one out of the web fiction coming up.)"

James Wyatt (u/aquelajames) on this one:

"Iona's role in this set is sort of defined by her absence. After standing guard over Emeria—the ruined Tazeem Skyclave—for centuries, she descended to fight the Eldrazi and left the Sky Ruin unguarded. That allowed adventurers to enter the ruin, discover its true nature, and awaken the other fallen ruins."

From Andrew Brown (u/WotC_Abro):

"We tried out Bloodghast, but ended up changing it to Skyclave Shade."

From Andrew Brown (WotC_Abro):

"We ended up cutting the rogue matters text on this card near the end because the 8 cards already made it feel rogue-y enough. I believe it was "CARDNAME has menace as long as you control another rogue.""

From Andrew Brown (WotC_Abro):

"We added Maddening Cacophony to help out in the milling department. As a gold card, glimpse is tough to fit into sets, we would have had to cut Zerath San to make room for it. Our playtest name for Maddening Cacophony was "Glimpse the Unconsiderable""

Here's a big update from Matt Tabak (WotC_MTabak) on some of the rules surrounding Modal Double-Faced Cards:

"Many of you have questions about the new modal double-faced cards (MDFCs), so I thought I'd try to address some of them with a general post before diving into specific questions.

MDFCs are a new twist on the double-faced cards introduced back in Innistrad. In fact, they're more twisty that our usual twists. The fundamental difference between MDFCs and what we now call transforming double-faced cards (TDFCs) is that MDFCs are designed to be played using either face. TDFCs are designed to always be cast front face up and have some way to transform to their other face or return to the battlefield transformed.

This means any time you play or cast an MDFC, you can choose which face you're playing or casting. This is true no matter what zone you're playing or casting it from. You look at the face you're proposing to see it if it's legal. For example, if an effect says you can play lands from your graveyard, you could play either face of an MDFC that's a land. If an effect allows you to cast a specific card from your graveyard, you can cast either face that's not a land. (None of the ZNR MDFCs have back faces that aren't lands, but, you know... the future is a long time.) If an effect allows you to play a specific card from your graveyard, it's any face, spell or land.

But for everything else, if an MDFC isn't on the stack or on the battlefield, it has its front face characteristics only. If you're searching your library for a land card, you can't find an MDFC that's front face instant, back face land. This is an important one: If you're choosing the target of a spell or ability, even if that spell or ability will eventually allow you to play or cast the card, you have to adhere to the targeting criteria:

"You may play lands from your graveyard" = Playing the back face of a front face instant, back face land is OK.
"Put target land card from your graveyard onto the battlefield" = Can't target that same card."

From James Wyatt (u/aquelajames):

"For a variety of reasons, the War of the Spark art book (coming in October) will be the last of its kind published by Viz Media. Abrams is publishing another line of art books, starting with last year's "Rise of the Gatewatch: A Visual History" and continuing with "Legends: A Visual History" coming out soon. Fundamentally, with Magic visiting three or more new worlds every year, there's no way for our art books to keep pace. But we're always looking for new ways to get more information about our worlds into your hands."

From James:

"Thanks! That is one of my favorites stories I've written.

I'm not sure what I can add about her. That story, to me, gives her a lot more depth than just "angry person who's mad at being imprisoned in the Helvault" or "godlike Planeswalker who doesn't understand the full ramifications of her power." I thought a lot about what it would be like to be as old as she is, to live so many lifetimes, to see and know so much. I have a lot of compassion for her, though she can be very villainous."

From James Wyatt:

"One thing that happens when you do six sets on the same plane is that you establish a lot of characters! Going into design, there's never an assumption that we're going to make cards for all of them. Who are the ones we need for the story, who are the ones we want to highlight, and what new ones are we going to introduce?

Wrexial is a big sea monster whose existence primarily serves to illustrate that Zendikar has big sea monsters. With this set, we opted to shine the spotlight on a couple of other big sea monsters, like Charix and Verazol."

From James Wyatt:

"I confess I'm a little surprised by the outpouring of love for Iona in this thread. As I mentioned elsewhere, her absence from Emeria is relevant to the discovery of the Skyclaves, but we shouldn't assume she's gone forever. Maybe we'll see her next time!"

From James Wyatt:

"I really enjoy the story of the Skyclaves. I like the depth they give to the kor of Zendikar—the idea that they have a history that's very different from their present nomadic existence. Their oppressive ancient empire is a reminder of what White's emphasis on order and community can look like when taken to an extreme."

Oh hey, a question for me personally! I think generally the thing that's most important about being on this team that I love is being one of the people responsible for closing the feedback loop between the community and the rest of Wizards. Everyone on my team reads... a LOT... of what everyone says online. Being one of the people who takes all that discussion and tells everyone on the team about it is awesome. They see your enthusiasm, your criticisms, everything.

Way less important, but still deeply enjoyable, is making all the called shots on the kinds of jokes people are going to make about new cards. Never gets old.

Yep! Nothing special here, just an alphabetical naming convention centered around a sports theme. Pretty weird having a bunch of hallway conversations about Cricket around the office though, not gonna lie.

From my side of things on community and social, I have a huge soft spot for Zendikar since I got my start at Wizards just before BFZ came out. I have a framed picture of the Eldrazi sculpture at PAX hanging above my desk right now, in fact!

A fun anecdote from this preview season: Deep in the social plans for Zendikar Rising we had penciled in the idea of some posts and tweets that would encourage folks to build a ZNR adventuring party using their favorite warriors, wizards, rogues, and clerics from Magic's past. It turns out people started doing that on Twitter... about 30 minutes after the Party mechanic got revealed. Beat to the punch!