Ixalan Spoilers
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on June 16, 2017, 2:50 p.m. by clayperce
Hi everyone!
We've been chatting about Ixalan here for a while, but on 21 Aug Wizards got into the act with four promo cards (and some upcoming tokens):
And then on 28 Aug they posted a BUNCH more:
- Mechanics and some new cards are here: Ixalan Mechanics
AllMost of the previously-leaked cards are here: Behind the Scenes with the Alleged Ixalan Card Theft
So let's talk Ixalan!
@Argy, she actually got me back into the game soon after we met. It's definitely become more my thing now, but she knows I love the prereleases and agreed to 2HG. She's so good to me <3
We ended up taking third in 2HG. I played U/B control, and Shannon played W/R aggro. I had an insane amount of removal and counter-magic; only playing 8 creatures. Shannon was the exact opposite w her deck; tons of beaters plus a few of the w/r instant-anthems
This set is so fun!!! Tons of dynamic plays and interactions. Lots of close games for me this weekend. Pirates were my jam. Taking 2nd and 3rd at the two events I attended feels good :D
September 24, 2017 1:47 p.m.
Was able to squeeze in a rerelease in Austin at Pat's Games.
Thanks for the heads up on that place, clayperce.
My pool was absolutely dreadful.
I end up playing Merfolk.
When it synergised it was unstoppable ... but that was rare.
Ended up going 3-5-0
Did pull some cards needed for Ahoy, Me Hearties!, so that was good.
September 24, 2017 4:20 p.m.
TezzeretofCarmot21 says... #4
I need less aggro-y reds and more treasure producing cards! I'm planning to trade for a Deadeye Plunderers.
September 25, 2017 7:33 a.m.
I went to a prerelease and came to some decent conclusions.
Revel in Riches can be a thing. It's absurdly easy to obtain large amounts of Treasure and a lot of times I was wishing I had pulled the card. I could have won many close games on the spot if I had pulled it.
treasure map and Conqueror's Galleon are both great. I pulled neither but the guy I played who had them put them to great use. The ability to Scry early, produce treasure, and use excess treasure to draw cards allowed my opponent to keep drawing good cards and avoid missing land drops. Conqueror's Foothold allowing you to continually add cards from your graveyard to your hand was also really great as it made it super hard for me to keep a board state. Every turn he could just grab his removal from the yard and kill my things. Fortunately, said removal was Walk the Plank and I had a couple of Merfolks including Jade Guardian but still, my big dinos were useless against it (didn't pull a Carnage Tyrant)
Costly Plunder is an Allstar. The ability to turn a chump block into card advantage for 2 mana swings games, trust me. Just don't do it when blocking a Trampler. It's also useful as a counter to your opponents removal.
Shaper's Sanctuary is also really great, it resolves before the spells and abilities that trigger it and quite often drew me answers to them. Top decking the aforementioned Costly Plunder in order to turn my opponent's removal into cards was a highlight of my night.
Grim Captain's Call is an allstar in Limited. In a limited format most people are often forced to at least splash 1 or 2 other tribes along with their main one. I ended up having to play all 4 tribes. Being able to restock my hand with 4 cards late in the game by only paying 3 mana was incredible. This card might not hold up as well in Constructed but I could not have been happier with it at the Prerelease.
September 25, 2017 12:14 p.m.
Coding on Treasure Map not only failed but turned the T and M lowercase. Interesting.
September 25, 2017 12:15 p.m.
MWorl91,
Yeah, for whatever reason, you have to go ...
[[Treasure Map (XLN)]]
September 25, 2017 12:20 p.m.
I found Dowsing Dagger to be a great card at my prerealease. Not only did the extra 2 damage on my Sky Terror's help a bunch but when flipped at the right moment was able to net me extra dinosaurs right when I needed them thanks to the extra mana. (also was used by my opponent in the one game I lost.)
September 25, 2017 12:23 p.m.
TezzeretofCarmot21 says... #11
MWorl91 I drew Revel, but in one of the packs I drew after finishing. Revel is really good - I'm planning to troll my friends by making Grixis treasure (because of Lannery Storm) with Mechanized Production!
September 25, 2017 3:48 p.m.
333hellopeeps333 says... #12
Now that I've recovered from the weekend, I can chime in with my prerelease experience! I had a really fun time, playing U/B Tempo, splashing red for 2! Lightning Strike and an Unfriendly Fire. Went 3-1, only losing to the most janky thing I've ever seen in limited. The guy had Makeshift Munitions out, with multiple tokens, which he sacced, pinging Sun-Crowned Hunters to kill me. I'm not even mad about that. People have been hyping dinos through the roof, but none of them really were very good against me... That said, I did open Hostage Taker, some recursion for it, a couple Air Elementals, and a bunch of removal. The other really stupid cards I had were Fell Flagship, and Entrancing Melody. Notably, this limited environment can be pretty quick or pretty slow. Either way works, but remember the age-old saying: Removal is king.
September 25, 2017 7:08 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #13
In an article, today, WotC announced that they are changing the wording on cards such as Celestial Dawn and Conspiracy, but the new wording is longer and more ungainly than the old wording, so why would they change it? The old wording was much easier to understand, so what was the reason for this change?
September 28, 2017 10:15 p.m.
nfi
I'm still annoyed about them making PWs Legendary.
September 28, 2017 11:06 p.m. Edited.
LittleBlueHero says... #16
I am! I missed the pre-release so I am super hyped for draft tomorrow. I'm still looking for someone to play two-headed with me :)
September 29, 2017 9:57 a.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #17
I MIGHT go to draft weekend. if I'm lucky. Hope I do, bc a lot of people have said its a great draft format, even tho my prerelease was horrible. Maybe drafting will give me a better pool than that TERRIBLE sealed pool.
September 29, 2017 11:37 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #18
Argy, I am, as well; the previous rule made planeswalkers much more unique and was flavorfully accurate, but the new rule is clearly the result of WotC not wishing to have two similar yet different rules simultaneously.
September 29, 2017 4:29 p.m.
I'm in the process of making a Gishath EDH deck! Just traded for him today!
September 29, 2017 4:48 p.m.
DemonDragonJ The new planeswalker rule is a result of WotC wanting Gideon-Tribal to be a thing, obviously. XD
September 29, 2017 5:09 p.m.
TezzeretofCarmot21 says... #23
My dog chewed up my prerelease card. Man, I was pissed!
September 29, 2017 9:06 p.m.
TezzeretofCarmot21 says... #25
Suns_Champion Deeproot Champion. Also an Entrancing Melody, Deeproot Waters and Cancel.
September 30, 2017 7:32 a.m.
demon_vayu says... #27
Anyone know why the Dowsing Dagger is showing as illegal in all formats on here? Any where else I look it shows as legal..
September 30, 2017 6:20 p.m.
demon_vayu,
Yeah, it always takes forever for T/O to update legality when a new set comes out. Not to worry, it's totally legal.
September 30, 2017 7:06 p.m.
It's because it's too good and TappedOut doesn't want you to use it.
Or probably what clayperce said.
September 30, 2017 8:46 p.m.
Looks like I got to wait to draft the new set Tuesday or Friday. No one is showing up at my LGS to draft this weekend.
October 1, 2017 5:15 p.m.
I'll be drafting it tomorrow. My LGS is doing a special draft for my Brother's birthday
October 2, 2017 11:18 p.m.
So, the store was completely sold out of Ixalan so we drafted Hour of Devastation and Amonkhet instead. Still had a lot of fun though.
October 4, 2017 11:59 a.m.
Who's going to the first Ixalan Standard Showdown this weekend? I'm playing RaWr Dinos, probably.
October 5, 2017 3 p.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #36
My store does it like this:
Standard Tournament, 3 rounds.
If you go 3-0 you are given a special "standard showdown pack" that contains premium cards and mythics/rares etc.
If you are new to the shop you get a Standard showdown pack.
If you played in consecutive weeks you get a standard showdown pack.
Outside of that they also offer the usual prize distribution.
Apparently its just packs that the stores can give out for whatever reason they want at the tournament. Our standard showdowns don't start till the 15th though :/
October 5, 2017 4:03 p.m.
Argy,
Wizards is trying to rebrand FNM for casual play, and Standard Showdown as a new competitive weekly event. More here.
October 5, 2017 4:12 p.m.
clayperce they will need a lot of luck if they want our FNM to be casual, when half of them netdeck.
That happens at all the FNMs I've played across the world, too.
October 5, 2017 9:28 p.m.
My LGS does Commander free play and drafts on Friday, so it's fairly casual.
October 6, 2017 7:34 a.m.
Yeah but that's not Standard, which is what we are talking about.
October 6, 2017 11:59 a.m.
Honestly ixalan is a pretty sweet set, but what they did with rotation ruined the fun of standard for me. Like, black white control lost everything it had going for it and got two or 3 fairly situational or high costed cards, meanwhile rdw got love again and along with gruul is continuing to suffocate my meta at the very least. Like we now have one control deck, one cats deck, and my lifegain deck which lost a lot of pieces that Im learning what to replace with, and all gruul, rdw, and temur. I know the meta shifts and sometimes one type of deck is really dominant, but red and green were dominant before ixalan, and now I feel like with the loss of so much removal, the decks I like arent worth playing.
Sorry for the vent. I know it probably wasnt all that justified. I just... i loved standard and now I feel like the only format I can comfortably play is commander, because I cant afford to build modern yet. It makes me a sad panda.
I guess I can only hope that rivals of ixalan will bring some balance back to the spectrum
October 6, 2017 12:49 p.m. Edited.
Pffft balance?
No OP cards for ?
This is WIZARDS we're talking about.
I bet they seriously had a meeting where they said, "Let's make Naya Dinosaurs OP, we'll give them two mana dorks that let them be cast for less and get Haste, for a start.
We'll make all these other pissy Tribes that people will initially build with, and then they will have to turn to Dino's because CARNAGE TYRANT! lol gg
By that time there will be less copies, so we will sell more packs.
Brilliant!"
In other news StuBi played Ahoy, Me Hearties! tonight in a mirror match, that went like this.
Player 1: I play Hostage Taker and grab your Kitesail Freebooter, which has MY Fatal Push pinned down, then I'm gonna Push your Siren Stormtamer. Pass Turn.
Player 2: I'm gonna cast Hostage Taker stealing YOUR Hostage Taker, getting my Kitesail Freebooter back. On ETB Kitesail Freebooter takes another Fatal Push.
P1: I cast Hostage Taker, targetting YOUR Hostage Taker, which returns MY Hostage Taker to the field, which then steals your Kitesail Freebooter, giving me back my Fatal Push.
etc.
The cycle was broken when one player used Siren Stormtamer to prevent their Hostage Taker being a target ... to which the other Player responded by flickering their Hostage Taker with Siren's Ruse, and stealing it anyway.
Only one deck had Siren's Ruse. That deck would be Ahoy, Me Hearties!, hereafter known as the winner.
October 6, 2017 5:05 p.m.
I'm probably going to Standard Showdown at my LGS today. It's free entry!
October 8, 2017 8:47 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #45
Why is Drowned Catacomb much more expensive than the other dual lands? Is it more popular? I went to my local game store to purchase several copies of it, but it was nearly twice as expensive as the other four dual lands, so I did not purchase it.
October 11, 2017 6:04 p.m.
U/B control was played at Worlds and I think has been doing well online.
October 11, 2017 6:14 p.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #47
My Search for Azcanta
just keeps climbing! For once, luck is on my side!
October 11, 2017 9:50 p.m.
Still haven't drafted Ixalan, but I have gotten one of the Ixalan standard showdown packs.
October 16, 2017 9:38 a.m.
Yeah, I got one too.
Played my first Standard Showdown last week at a very small new LGS that has opened in my area.
The foil Rebecca Guay lands are niiiiiiice.
Shame the ones we got WEREN'T in our colours. Might have better luck this week.
I got a Search for Azcanta as one of my prerelease promos, RazortoothMtg.
I am using it in one of my decks.
GREAT card.
October 16, 2017 9:55 a.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #50
Ya Argy, that foil is BEAUTIFUL. Especially the Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin Flip side. Absolutely stunning. I don't personally have it in a deck because I only play EDH decks that don't want it, which makes me sad :(
BS-T says... #1
Went 3-2 with my Pirates, not bad but got stomped by bomby Dinos. Had no bombs or top end in the deck, 3x 3/3s being my biggest creatures so had to aggro out as much as possible and racing dinosaurs just wasn't possible.
Won all but one game that Hostage Taker came out, she is harsh. Combined with 2xSiren's Ruse did make for good shenanigans. Ruin Raider did some good digging but it was a bit dangerous. Skulduggery was a really good performer.
September 24, 2017 1:08 p.m.