Initial Ixalan Insights
We are finally getting a good look at the cards of Ixalan. I am super excited for this new set and cannot wait to run my Pirates into Dinosaurs. Wait, that seems like a losing proposition. Ok, I have switched sides! Running my Dinosaurs into the Pirates. I am going to give a quick over view for each of the mythics spoiled so far as of September 8th. Sit back, relax, and enjoy all of the Dinosaurs!
Admiral Beckett Brass
Finally! A Pirate lord for our Pirate tribal decks! This is probably a lot better in more casual formats than competitive play. If you are getting hit by 3 Pirates that have been pumped you probably have other issues going on than just losing a permanent. This art does remind me of older style Legend styles with the way the colors pop off the card.
Boneyard Parley
This is Fact or Fiction for creatures and graveyards. This will be a cool EDH staple of black decks since it chooses from all graveyard. It is far too expensive to see play in competitive formats and a lot of decks are not filling up the graveyards with creatures to bring back usually. Standard should slow down a little bit but unless you are winning the game on the spot you are probably not wanting to cast this.
Carnage Tyrant
Let’s kick control while its down! Surprised “Flash” is not one of the abilities on this card too. I am not sure if this card will see play, but I suspect some decks will want it out of the sideboard. Good luck ever beating this card in limited too. If there is one ability I hate more than others it is definitely “hexproof.” Why would we ever want to interact with our opponents, right?!
Gishath, Sun’s Avatar
This card is very similar to Admiral Brass where if it deals combat damage to a player there are more things to worry about than putting some dinosaurs on the battlefield. There are way too many dinosaurs being made for Wizards to not want them to be at least playable in Standard. If not this set, then at least next set we will hopefully see something to make these awesome predators be more playable in Standard.
Huatli, Warrior Poet
This is the first planeswalker we will come across in Ixalan. This card is either going the very good in aggro v. aggro matchups or not be good at all. Five mana is a lot in a format full of Censors, Disallows and Supreme Wills. Tapping out for this on turn 5 also seems dangerous when Glorybringer and Skysoverigns are starting to see more and more play.
Jace, Cunning Castaway
Maybe the planeswalkers should have skipped this plane because they are really coming up short. I like that we get some decent flying creatures to go along with Jace’s first ability but the 2nd ability is rather weak and I think you just win if you are in a spot to take advantage of Jace’s ultimate. Three mana planeswalkers have been good historically but I think this one definitely has an uphill battle.
Overflowing Insight
Draw. Seven. Cards.
Ok, I was just going to leave it at that, but I guess I need to say a little bit more. It is a very expensive Sorcery speed card. If there is a way to cheat this spell than by all means, play it. If we are playing it than that means it is probably in some sort of disgusting combo deck that chains these together and makes everyone miserable. Let’s hope it does not come to that.
Rowdy Crew
THIS is a mythic?! This might get the award for biggest mythic fail of all time. First off, I would think that every ship has a rowdy crew. If they are not rowdy what are they? Well-mannered and polite?! Secondly, this will only ever replace itself, the card you get is totally random, and the effort to figure out what the odds of it being a 5/5 are well above the effort I get paid for.
Star of Extinction
This is the exact opposite of Rowdy Crew. What is more mythic feeling than the “FREAKING ASTEROID THAT DESTORYED THE DINOSAURS?!” If they wanted to up the flavor feel they would have it turn all lands into “Wastes.” In fact, I am about to downgrade the flavor because they forgot to do that! I also have no idea what kind of deck is going to get to 7 mana and want to cast this card in Standard.
Tishana, Voice of Thunder
So, this is just a worse version of Prime Speaker Zegana right? If they destroy your only other creature than you are out of luck and this one dies too. I get that it needs to be big and splashy, but at 7 mana I don’t think this is really going to do it. EDH I am sure it is great! The more I look at this set, the more I think the Commons and Uncommons will be the high impact cards.
Vona, Butcher of Magan
I don’t know what it is, but I am a sucker for these Black-White creatures that lifelink and destroy permanents. Maybe I just really love Vindicate in all of its forms. I wonder if Spiritmonger would have been a mythic. It ha enough keywords but I don’t remember it in the story. Pernicious Deed on the other hand totally would have. It represented Freyalise planted a soul bomb to destroy a level of Phyrexia. Oh…Vona, yeah, I think she passes the mythic test. Any time you have a Legendary creature that has destroy a place it should be mythic.
Wakening Sun’s Avatar
Another mythic that we are just probably never going to play unless they printed a 1-mana creature that taps for 3 or 4 mana that can only be used for Dinosaurs. I understand that Dinosaurs need to be big and big stuff costs mana, but in the end this is going to be one of those sets that is going to have very low impact on standard when it comes to the mythics of the set. That is good for players because that makes magic cheap, but that is bad for people that want Dinosaurs to be competitive. Rawwwwr!
Hope you enjoyed this quick review of all the mythics spoiled as of now. This new set is looking to be super enjoyable from a flavor point of view and that is good after the past few sets have been very focused on mechanics.
-Stu
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