Now that the full spoiler is out and I've had to test, I've found out some interesting things about the metagame, and I thought I'd share some thoughts here.
1) The fact that the second set of duals is tap-lands makes the mana slow enough and awkward enough for 1-drops to punish.
This fact means that mono-red, Boros, b/r, or whatever other 1-drop based aggro build you want to play are, in fact, viable. Of course, it goes beyond just putting one drops in your deck, but, if you build your deck to punish stumbles, opposing decks WILL stumble enough for you to actually take advantage of it. You don't have to force your opponent to stumble.
I approve of this fact.
2) The lack of "incidental value" forces focused strategies.
There aren't a lot of cards in this format that grant "incidental value" in the same way that Thragtusk and Huntmaster of the Fells did. For the most part, a lot of the cards are pretty straightforward. This speaks to my favorite distinction in games - strategy vs. tactics.
This format rewards strategic strength, which is something I like.
Why?
Consider a card like Thragtusk. Thragtusk is NEVER bad. It is, tactically, a very strong card. This makes it strategically a very weak card because it does not cater or support one particular strategy significantly more than it supports neighboring strategies (e.g., being slightly more controlling doesn't make your Thragtusks better than the next guy's, neither does being slightly more aggressive). In formats with lots of tactically strong cards, the interactions revolve around these cards and how best to exploit these cards tactically.
Now, consider a card like Sphinx's Revelation. Sphinx's Revelation is a card that greatly rewards playing it strategically. Understanding how, when, and where to use Sphinx's Revelation has a great effect on the efficacy of the card. Strategically placing (in a deck) and utilizing (through play) the card will win and lose you games depending on how good you are at it.
The less cards you have that are tactically strong, the more you have to rely on cards that are strategically strong. The more you rely on strategically strong cards, the more you rely on how the individual moving parts of your deck interact with each other. Tactically strong decks are full of "good stuff" that happens to also interact well. Strategically strong decks can be full of "mediocre or bad stuff" that needs to come together to be much greater than the sum of its parts. Strategy is just as beautiful as tactics, although sometimes it is harder to see.
This is not to say that previous formats have been exempt from strategic play, but overall, I think Magic in recent years has been more centered on tactical play. In the end, many decks recently have been strong because they have been tactically overwhelming. They simply have more options that are equal or superior to what the opponent can do. Strategic play, on the other hand, is beautiful to watch, and has been very lacking. I am glad to see it making a return.
Limited will always be there for players who want to play tactically, as sealed and draft inherently revolve around board states and tactical options. Constructed should always reserve strong aspects of strategic play to balance things out. After all, knowing why and how to use (read, when to put in a deck, how many, and when to play) cards is, in fact, a necessary skill as well in Magic.
3) Tactical play hasn't gone away
There are still a lot of really interesting tactical interactions in this format. Individual card synergies present many different opportunities to utilize interesting aspects of your cards. An example of this is the Whip of Erebos/Obzedat interaction. Cards like Boon Satyr and Ghor-Clan Rampager also create really interesting tactical decisions, never mind something like Boros Reckoner.
Needless to say if you want your deck to have tactical strength and the capability of winning tactical battles, you can still do that.
Conclusion
I have other thoughts, but they've escaped me at the moment, so I'll end this here, but in the meantime I would ask you to think about how your cards are connecting in the decks you build. Not only is having a proper strategic focus important, but it is also important to understand how EACH card fits in that strategic plan, and not just be playing a card because it is "good."
I have a feeling there will be very few objectively "good" cards in this format, but there will be many cards that are excellent at fulfilling a smaller subset of functions, and thus utilizing each card to its maximum potential and having your cards support each other will be more important than it has been in a while.
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