The leakers keep getting it wrong. So far they pegged Kazuha twice and both times he was a no show. And when they get it wrong they come up with wild conspiracies to cover for themselves. Kazuha was "removed" as a banner back in v2.5. Now that he didn't show up as a double banner with Venti it's more of a pleading tone. "Where's my Kazuha rerun? Please MiHoYo! The fans are disappointed!" 
So I figure I'll see if I can do better so they can put their minds at ease. For me the basis will be finding a trend in how these banners are coming out and a schedule of the kinds of patches we could be expecting. That way it isn't just wild guesses. It's all still speculative though so don't take it too seriously. I just thought it might be a fun topic.
The next patch is v2.7 and we're pretty much guaranteed to have Yelan and Kuki Shinobu. Based on previous banners the new 4* is usually paired with the new 5* so that should be the first banner Yelan with Kuki. So who would be the rerun? Right now we have Kazuha (don't get excited) Yoimiya, Itto and Shenhe who are pretty old at this point with Yae and Ayato who are new. Out of those the only one that has anything to do with the new characters is Itto because Kuki is part of his gang.
Itto hasn't been around since v2.3 which ended at the start of the year. v2.7 won't start until the middle of May. So it'll be close to half a year since his banner. But lately we also have double re-runs ever since v2.2 so I'm actually going to say Kazuha is on the table this time. Since Yelan was teased this patch and her banner is dropping next it's pretty likely the story will be Liyue-based. But with Kuki I'm going to guess she wants to broaden the gang's horizons so she'll be taking advantage of the removal of Sakoku to bring Itto and the rest of the crew some culture. That'll leave them caught up in whatever operation Yelan's gotten into. And maybe Kazuha will even help them acclimate since he's practically an immigrant which is 1 of 2 reasons I think he might actually be coming this time.
I think the leakers have once again been betting on Kazuha being re-run for v2.7 but finally I think their random guessing is right. He's almost a year out at this point so he should be getting a re-run especially when characters have already started getting re-re-runs. And of course with a Liyue story it makes sense to involve him. Of course he also had a story focused on him already so they could still leave him out. Ok moving on to v2.8.
The latest Sumeru can be released is v3.0. That means Dendro and the Prologue chapter of the new Archon Quest should come out the patch before meaning that has to happen in either v2.8 or v2.9. If we say v2.8 that means Baizhu and Yaoyao will be one banner. There's probably going to be a focus on the Chasm since there's mushrooms from Sumeru down there and other things I'll get into some other time. The only re-run I could see fitting with that story though is Shenhe but it might be really early for it while Yoimiya's would be taking too long. We don't necessarily need the re-runs to relate to the story though. Itto's original release had nothing to do with the Mondstadt based story. Both of Hu Tao's banners had nothing to do with the story of the patch. So maybe we get Yoimiya's re-run along with maybe Klee's re-re-run. I mean nobody hangs out on Dragonspine anyway so who cares if it gets blown up in a "fireworks" show? (j/k Well actually blowing up Dragonspine would be a good setup for Albedo's re-re-run haha)
Now if Dendro releases in v2.9 then Yoimiya and Klee's re-run could still come in v2.8. In that case we haven't had a Mondstadt patch since v2.3. So one centered around the two new pals could work well either with a new Mondstadt character or even with just a re-run filler update. (about blowing up Dragonspine)
After that v2.9 if there is a v2.9 will be Dendro and v3.0 is easily a Sumeru only update with Cyno finally getting released and any one of the other rumored Sumeru characters with him. I'd say it'd look like the v2.0 set of Ayaka, Yoimiya and Sayu so 2 5*s with a 4*.
And finally in v3.1 we'd get Kusanali and another Sumeru character maybe Cyno's superior in the Ardwahist who we were helping in the Archon Quest. Maybe they'll even be the one put in charge after Kusanali loses her Gnosis and steps down.
Ok so my list goes:
v2.7: Yelan w/Kuki Shinobu, Itto + Kazuha
v2.8: (if not Dendro then Mondstadt Story) Yoimiya + Klee
v2.9*: Baizhu w/Yaoyao, Shenhe
v3.0: Cyno, New Sumeru Character
v3.1: Kusanali, New Sumeru Character (maybe Cyno's superior)
Do you guys think this is likely? Was there any character you've been waiting for? And who do you think might be the other Sumeru characters?
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
