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!
StopShot Even then, the card's busted. Not so much in Standard, but it might be ban-worthy in EDH. 10 creatures? Pfft. Blasphemous Act is good for that very reason.
June 17, 2017 4:55 p.m.
So now better knowing the theme of this set - this was the first thing that came to mind:
June 17, 2017 5:08 p.m.
@DarkLaw, I can agree that its pretty messed up in terms of EDH, but I saw many people talking about how it would be a viable win-con in other formats such as Modern and Legacy. Maybe six was the perfect number, but I think 10 is a lot more difficult.
And though I wouldn't be surprised if it gets banned in EDH its important to note most boardwipes are sorceries which gives all the opponents at the table a turn to possibly remove the enchantment. Having a form of enchantment/permanent removal is the equivalent of having a counterspell in hand when you need it at a critical part in the game. Also just having a Ratchet Bomb on the field is an automatic reset for that strategy. I feel for the card to be optimal ten opponents creatures have to be on the field for it to work out best to then follow up with a board wipe. Any less and your opponent's can merely stop playing creatures until the enchantment is removed, so it does add an aspect that makes it situational. Six creatures on a field at once is common, but in most of my play groups the possibility of a board wipe going off before there are ten happens quite often. I think if anything Wizards are testing to see how far it will go. I certainly remember when Wizards spoiled Day's Undoing and how busted everyone ranted that card would be. We simply don't know until we play it for ourselves.
Also, if the card didn't have its second paragraph I'd still run it. My opponents are addicted to playing Contamination a card to this day I still question why its not on the banlist. If this card gets banned I'll be pretty sad Wizards banned a card that effectively addressed this problem quite well.
June 17, 2017 5:15 p.m.
Right now, I'm salivating over that legendary Pirate lord. I can finally realize my dream without having to use weaker legends...looking at you Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and Ramirez DePietro.
June 17, 2017 7:33 p.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #6
Since we have that flavorful card about that thing that killed all the dinosaurs on that one card, I hope for a reprint of smallpox for the conquistador flavor
June 17, 2017 9:05 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #7
Does anyone else find it entertaining that a set about piracy and theft was prematurely spoiled by someone who supposedly stole an uncut sheet of foils? (Shiny treasure)
June 17, 2017 9:53 p.m. Edited.
After close inspection of the sheet, here's what I have gathered:Vehicles are coming back.Mono white vampires exist now.There is a grixis pirate legend.There is a naya dinosaur tribal legend who is actually insane.A simic legend who is like a mix of zegana and kruphix.A new sun titan but as a vampire.And other individuals cards that are just bonkers.
June 18, 2017 3:09 p.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #9
Ohthenoises: Oh damn, you're right...the pirate set has been pirated. This fits too well to not be some kind of guerilla marketing.
June 18, 2017 3:22 p.m.
Bass_f13nd says... #10
How can i see a closer clearer view of the pic? I want to be ready for the new meta when bfz drops
June 18, 2017 7:03 p.m.
Just look up the spoiler from mythicspoiler.com...just type in ixalan spoiler into google
June 18, 2017 7:24 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #12
Keep in mind that it's not just BFZ. BFZ and SOI drop at the same time
June 18, 2017 7:28 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #13
That's why I've already been planning a deck with the flicker pirate not using anything from BFZ or SOI. Puzzleknot tribal with Metalwork Colossus as a backup plan.
June 18, 2017 7:30 p.m.
Oh, on River's Rebuke's flavor text...
...Do I see Bolas and Vraska in the same sentence, or am I going blind?
June 18, 2017 7:42 p.m.
Phaetion If that's correct, it could say something like "Aftr Bolas rek'd Jace's mind, he met Vraska."
June 18, 2017 8:37 p.m.
Redace878: Except, if you look closely, you can make out "compass" and "given."
June 18, 2017 8:48 p.m.
Bass_f13nd says... #17
The soi block stays until dominaria cause woc moved back to 4 block standard i thought
June 18, 2017 9:03 p.m.
Bass_f13nd,
Nope. For future ref, I recommend bookmarking whatsinstandard.com.
June 18, 2017 9:14 p.m.
I've heard the three Planeswalkers on the sheet are all Legendary, but I haven't really been following the discussions. Does anyone know if this is true, or is it just too-blurry-to-tell-for-sure speculation?
And if true, does it change anything anything except that now Planeswalkers can be EDH Commanders?
Thanks!
June 19, 2017 7:27 a.m.
I hope not. If it's true, then there will be some nasty implications...looking at you, Sorin Markov.
June 19, 2017 8:51 a.m.
Phaetion,
Yeah, there would be some crazy-powerful ones.
Thinking more about it though, it may not matter for EDH. I mean it's not like Pendelhaven or Umezawa's Jitte get to be Commanders ...
June 19, 2017 9:20 a.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #22
Maybe the legendary thing is some weird way that the changed the rules so the leaked Jace's ult works (look him up, the one where you can only see the bottom right of his card)
June 19, 2017 9:31 a.m.
RazortoothMtg,
Yeah, I thought about that, but then why make the others Legendary too?
June 19, 2017 9:59 a.m.
Winterblast says... #24
I've found an article in which the author suggest this could be in order to make certain walkers in standard sets playable for commander instead of writing "XY can be your commander" on the card. As they print a new commander set every year it could be that they make such changes in regular sets that only make sense for commander but have no impact on other formats.
June 19, 2017 10:11 a.m.
I doubt that this would be to make them legal as your commander. Firstly, they've said that they didn't let just any PW be your commander because they didn't balance them for the format. Secondly, they're not creatures.
June 19, 2017 12:45 p.m.
Winterblast says... #26
I meant maybe they change the commander criteria to "legendary planeswalker or creature" and then only some walkers will be legendary while others are not and thus won't be available as commander.
June 19, 2017 12:52 p.m.
That would just be confusing, which WotC hates since Time Spiral.
June 19, 2017 3:47 p.m.
Winterblast,
They already do that though, with the "can be your commander" text from the C14 precons (like on Daretti, Scrap Savant).
Maybe (if they're trying to reduce complexity) they're just getting rid of the "Planeswalker uniqueness" rule, and using the Legendary rule (with updates to older PWs)? Except that would then allow us to have multiple Chandras or Nissas or whatever on the board at the same time, wouldn't it (as long as they weren't the exact same one)?
Idk ...
June 19, 2017 3:55 p.m. Edited.
Winterblast says... #29
clayperce I thought they might want to remove those sentences from the bottom of the planeswalker textboxes and just make those who can be used as commander "legendary" in the future, to make certain walkers in standard sets available for that purpose without causing confusion outside the commander format.
June 19, 2017 4:17 p.m.
Check out this spoiler from HOU ... I can hardly wait to run it with Arcane Adaptation!
June 21, 2017 8:58 a.m.
My only problem with Arcane Adaption is that the only obvious thing to do with it is to stick it in tribal decks, which doesn't do much. Just turns your Solemn Simulacrum into a merfolk or something. You're probably running few enough creatures outside of your key tribe.
June 21, 2017 10:12 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #32
to be fair have you seen the 21 damage combo that came as a result of that?
Dragon Tempest + Adaptation + 0 drop creatures.
June 21, 2017 10:18 a.m.
But to do that, you need an exact hand and the top 4 cards of your deck. Wasn't Fruity Pebbles or whatever it's called just better than this?
Not saying that playing those two enchantments into Mogg War Marshal, Lingering Souls, etc. is a particularly bad plan. It just needs quite a bit to go right.
June 21, 2017 10:27 a.m.
Man, I was not expecting Gerrard and the Weatherlight to show up on Ixalan. The Gerrard vs. Vraska Planeswalker duel decks look pretty sick. I guess dinosaurs weren't the only blast from the past we'd see from this set.
June 25, 2017 11:06 p.m.
StopShot: Don't you mean Jace? Gerrard is long dead, never mind that mortality overtook Orim and Sisay...Squee and perhaps Tangarth are the only survivors. Oh, and the Weatherlight was destroyed, I believe.
June 25, 2017 11:45 p.m.
I just noticed no one here was talking about it. I presumed it would have become public knowledge by now. I've never looked into the lore of before Modern-era Magic other than vaguely-knowing Gerrard was stuck on a plane that was self-destructing implying his life was over with given the circumstance. I don't know if that's accurate, just what I recall so the source itself could possibly be fake, but I don't know enough to determine that myself given that there was nothing that stuck out way too much from my limited knowledge of the matter. (I'm more into mechanics rather than lore as I said in a prior post.) But my friends had showed me a chain of cryptic videos on Youtube last FNM that one of them discovered from some group conversation online. My playgroup is of college students at a technical institute and they did some kind of process regarding those videos to piece together small snippets and ribbons that when assembled made an image of what looked like those planeswalker starter decks, but with new artwork Vraska and Gideon that I haven't seen before, except the Gideon looking figure was without his armor and looked as if he was wearing a red shirt whom we assumed that it might be implying. (That or a new planeswalker whose name started with a capital G followed by scribbles given the quality of the final image.) There was another single image produced by a lone video that looked like some sort of rough transcript regarding the storyline transition between Ixalan to Dominaria, but this one was produced by a different source that involved another process and had several portions of information left blank with side notes saying here and there to be filled in later, but mentioned the storyline would be following a planeswalker from Ixalan traveling to Dominaria to handle some sort of problem that had recently occurred there. Next FNM I'll ask them for the links to share here as well as the pictures if posting those would be allowed.
June 26, 2017 12:42 a.m.
Ahh, I should have proof read. I apologize in advance for the run-on sentences.
June 26, 2017 12:53 a.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #40
So, Gideon (or someone else) and Vraska as the Planeswalker deck Planeswalkers? I would actually assume the G-walker is the same walker as the red/white one you can make out from the leaks, unless you can tell that the card is mono-white? It'd be sweet if Gerrard had his spark ignited somehow that we didn't know about, but it seems unlikely, so my bet is it's a new walker.
June 26, 2017 1:11 a.m.
@RazortoothMtg, Unless WotC lied about there being no more Gate Watch in future sets and that there wouldn't be any of its characters in Ixalan I doubt it would be Gideon. Also it didn't look like the red/white character either. (This character didn't have the braided pony-tail and from the looks of it there wasn't any discernible armor on the arms.)
We had a round of speculation over this. For starters this might not be the Ixlan, but the Rivals of Ixalan set's planeswalker decks. Based on how Wizards did Kaladesh and Amonkhet the first set usually is a friendly planeswalker pairing while the second is an enemy one. From all the leaked cards Vraska ended up not spoiling. (Though neither did any others, but by following this trend the enemy planeswalker, in this case Vraska, would usually appear in the later set specifically for the planeswalker deck.)
Also from what could be made of the G-planeswalker they looked as if they were standing on ship in a similar fashion that showed Vraska standing on her ship. The color of the floorboards were different giving the impression they weren't on the same ship. Whomever this planeswalker is it might be a conflict in the second set with a fight over Atlantis, and whatever Atlantis holds might be what the two are fighting over.
I have no doubt other people would have their doubts its Gerrard, but doesn't the timing seem a little too convenient? I mean, his story-line didn't out right say he had died, merely it implied it. I'm not sure how Magic specifically worked then compared to now, but have we ruled out the possibility that Gerrard could have had his spark ignite at the apex of the calamity allowing him to leave whatever doomed plane he was on? After all in some storylines when a character is presumed dead, but its never shown usually means they may come back at later key moment in time, and given the situation it kinds of feels Magic Origins-esque to me given what we know about sparks igniting. But as for what key moment in time you can notice that this set is right before Dominaria with Iconic Masters on the horizon as well as Magic's 25th anniversary, and I couldn't think of a character (maybe other than Jace or Nicol Bolas) who has been more iconic in its history. Also having one old planeswalker vs a new one would seem appealing as a way to tie in new and old players alike at such a monumental point in time. That and given Vraska now has a ship of her own I would imagine whomever she'd be up against after sailing the seas for Atlantis would be an opponent with a ship and crew of his own. (Whether its is the Weatherlight or a crew and ship he had possibly obtained on the plane having such a conflict seems both likely and an intriguing one at that.)
June 26, 2017 2:46 a.m.
For XLN, we already have Vraska (all over the official marketing, presumably still BG), Jace (on the leaked sheet, presumably still mono-U) and the unnamed RW Walker (on the packaging survey and the leaked sheet ... and I'm still holding out hope that's a Boros emblem on her chest plate).
Three Walkers sounds about right lately, plus that covers the whole color pie.
I've no idea though what Wizards may have planned for RIX ...
June 27, 2017 8:54 a.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #43
I kinda hope/think Vraska will be BUG. I know everyone was excited by the Grixis pirate leak but I really think BUG is the ideal combination for a pirate. Blue covers the sailing and cunning, Green the exploration discovery, and of course Black covers a Pirates general indifference to the well being of anyone but themselves.
Also, I had a random thought last night while talking with a buddy.
What if the "one tribe you definitely wouldn't expect" they mentioned in regards to the new commander decks was actually Dinosaurs!
It would contain a significant amount of new dinosaurs of course but also a bunch of old errata'd cards that will be dinos after the set drops. It wouldn't even have to contain any cards from Ixalan at all really.
That way when it drops building a Dino Tribal deck wouldn't be as limited :)
And no I'm not serious but I really want to play with Dinosaurs and in my magical Christmas land wizards would use this as an opportunity to print more!
June 27, 2017 2:04 p.m.
There also might be the chance that wotc might have let him
July 3, 2017 1:39 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #45
Has WoTC come out and listed which cards are going to be errata'd to the dinosaur subtype yet? Allosaurus Rider and Deathmist Raptor are likely candidates. Possibly Skyshroud War Beast as well. Have they made an official list yet though?
August 15, 2017 6:12 p.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #46
The card Allosaurus Rider technically depicts the rider, not the allosaurus, so it's still an elf. Pretty much just go to gatherer or whatever and look up creature type - lizard or lizard beast and most of those are dinos.
August 15, 2017 9:31 p.m.
So I was looking at the Magic Calendar over at MTGgoldfish, and it looks like ...
Spoilers should start September 4th!
August 20, 2017 8:55 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #48
clayperce, that is still two weeks away! I hope that I can endure that wait.
August 21, 2017 9:19 a.m.
DemonDragonJ,
Ikr? That's FOREVER away!
I was doing just fine too ... excited about pre-release of course but I'd actually stepped off the hype train for a moment. But then someone mentioned to me how well Carnage Tyrant might fit into my Modern deck (RG Ponza) ... and now I'm right back on it! Ah well!
August 21, 2017 9:41 a.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor,
I think any of the Lizards could be errata'd, but I haven't seen anything official.
LittleBlueHero,
BUG makes great sense for Pirate colors, but Vraska is more an assassin than a "real" Pirate, so I can't really imagine her in anything but BG. Plus that would nicely cover all the colors: The WR one from the splash art and leaked sheet, Castaway Jace in U, and then Vraska in BG.
StopShot says... #1
There was a certain red enchantment that got leaked that has me entirely hyped for the set. I'm not so much into the lore - just the mechanics. Seeing an effect like that in mono-red is amazing, because normally when Wizards tries to give red card advantage it comes with some draw back that renders the card seldom playable. I want to see them include this effect on more red cards, because its not an effect that exiles the top cards from your library or gives your an opponent a choice on what happens. I think if it were 5 or 10 years ago people would say the effect is ludicrous, but given that Wizards has sprinkled similar effects such as this one across various sets with moderation I think the more experienced player base can accept that its reasonably fair given from past experiences. I play-tested the card in my EDH deck last night, and while it doesn't completely warp every play I make it does give an edge I feel red has been lacking compared to the other colors. I'm definitely buying it once it hits the market.
Also there was a specific black enchantment that most people are calling out extremely busted due to its CMC, but I've found a mistake all the websites that leak it have made when it came to deciphering its blurry text. I'm not going to go in-depth but it lists "six" somewhere in the card, or at least that's what everyone believes. I ended up downloading the image onto an art program and rotated it so the text would be horizontal. I then downloaded the font used in card texts for Magic cards and adjusted the font size until it was the same size as the blurry text and then wrote out what everyone has deciphered so the words perfectly overlap. It turns out when I typed "six" where it was supposed to be listed on the card all the words on that line no longer matched up with the words on the card. The text was lagging behind, but when I replaced "six" with "ten" the words magically overlapped perfectly like a glove. I have images showing the difference, but I'm not allowed to post them here given that would be leaking card information, so I instead encourage those who question how busted they think that particular card is to do the same experiment I did. I think everyone will agree the number being "ten" instead of "six" is much more reasonable given what that card actually does.
June 17, 2017 4:50 p.m.