Wallet Warriors: Rivals of Ixalan Legend Review

Welcome back Wallet Warriors! I’m here for the Rivals of Ixalan Legend Review!

I’m going to be looking at all the new legendary creatures from the set and grading them based on how well I think they will impact our format. Keep in mind I will be looking at these through the lens of a more casual player since that is what the majority of our format are.

I will be using the same rating system as I did for the Ixalan Legend Review:

As a Commander: How well I think a legend will do as the leader of its own deck. Cards can get points for being fun build arounds, fun to play with and just being powerful overall.

As Part of the 99: This is to accommodate the legends that may not fit exactly as a general but are still sweet cards in the format and will work better in the 99.

Versatility: This is how well a legend accommodates different playstyles or archetypes.

Budget Friendliness: This is how easily a legend can be built on a budget while still being functional and fun to play.

Overall: The rounded average of the scores

Without further ado, let’s get to our first legend!

Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

We’re going to start with the elder dinosaurs to make things simple and because they’re mostly really awesome.

The first is unfortunately not that exciting. Zetalpa is an eight mana dino with a bunch of key words but doesn’t really impact the board enough for that high of a mana cost. It doesn’t fit all that well in the command zone since being limited to just white mana reduces the ramp options we have significantly.

The two places I can see Zetalpa doing work are in a Gishath, Sun’s Avatar deck as well as an Odric, Lunarch Marshal Deck.

In Gishath, you have access to green and are trying to get to eight mana anyway to cast your commander. Beyond that you ideally won’t have to cast Zetalpa at all because you can just hit it off Gishath’s ability and slam it directly into play.

In Odric, if you are able to get to eight mana and have both the Primal Dawn and Odric in play, your whole team will get all five keywords which can get out of hand very quickly.

As a Commander: 2/10

As Part of the 99: 6/10

Versatility: 5/10

Budget Friendliness: 6/10

Overall: 5/10

Nezahal, Primal Tide

As far as the elder dinosaurs are concerned, Nezahal is a step in the right direction. This control finisher will likely draw you a bunch of cards and has some good built in protection. Something I really wish it had was any kind of evasion. Islandwalk, flying, anything so that it can’t just be chumped would make this card much more potent.

Nezahal doesn’t excite me much as a commander since it’s a little unfocused and there are already lots of good options for those cruel mono-blue control players among us. With that being said I think if someone cracks the blue elder dino at the prerelease and wants to build a rudimentary control deck I’m sure they would be able to get some results. It is worth noting it has the sweet spot of 7 power, meaning only three hits for lethal commander damage.

Overall I feel as though Nezahal fits more cleanly into the 99 of a control deck looking for some late game card advantage on a body to help finish the game. A fine card, but not that impressive in general.

As a Commander: 5/10

As Part of the 99: 6/10

Versatility: 7/10

Budget Friendliness: 6/10

Overall: 6/10

Tetzimoc, Primal Death

I want to start by just acknowledging how cool Tetzimoc is. From the art, to the name, to the flavor of the abilities, this card is just awesome. It also has the potential to be incredibly powerful with enough mana.

This is the one dinosaur we clearly do not want as a commander since you actually need to work to get it into your hand and start using its ability. The home for Tetzimoc will be in mono-black strategies looking to take advantage of the mana doubling effects you can get with swamps such as Crypt Ghast and Cabal Coffers.

Also I want to note that unfortunately there are no other cards currently that put prey counters on things so there’s no way to set up Tetzimoc for the alley-oop. However some others have quickly found the awesome synergy with Horobi, Death’s Wail. This was one that almost flew under my radar but being able to kill any creature for just one black is so great I’m glad I didn’t miss it.

This card will make for a great one-sided board-wipe option in decks with a lot of black mana lying around. Even in a more budget build without tons of mana Tetzimoc can kill a few things and bring a big deathtouch body to boot.

As a Commander: 2/10

As Part of the 99: 8/10

Versatility: 7/10

Budget Friendliness: 6/10

Overall: 6/10

Etali, Primal Storm

Etali is the red elder dinosaur and is surprisingly the first one that looks like it will fit nicely into the command zone. Mono red has traditionally had a difficult time keeping the cards flowing. A lot of the card advantage options red has access to come in the form of “play it or lose it” effects such as Outpost Siege or Vance’s Blasting Cannons.

Etali is the new poster-dino of this effect and they did not pull any punches on its design. It’s great for commander since it hits everyone’s library and it lets you cast what you hit for free! This is a great ability and I love that it scales with the number of players in the game!

I can see Etali being a scary commander and also fitting nicely into some existing ramp strategies. Just remember to include lots of ways to give it haste and get more than one combat. I can imagine targeting it with Xenagos, God of Revels’ ability will go over very well.

As a Commander: 7/10

As Part of the 99: 8/10

Versatility: 7/10

Budget Friendliness: 6/10

Overall: 7/10

Ghalta, Primal Hunger

This was one of the first Rivals of Ixalan cards revealed (with a great alternate art Game Day promo) and I’m still excited to get brewing with it. Ghalta has fearsome build-around potential and is great for a super budget build looking to stomp people to death with commander damage. With 12 power it only takes two hits for that 21 commander damage kill and it can even trample over chump blockers.

All it’s looking for are loyal troops with lots of power which are pretty easy to come by in green. Some notable cards are vehicles since they typically have high power for their cost. Cultivator’s Caravan is perfect since it can add mana as well as reducing Ghalta’s cost by 5! We’ll also want some pants that give it haste. We have the usual suspects of Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves but there are also a couple nice budget options in Chariot of Victory and Haunted Cloak

As a Commander: 8/10

As Part of the 99: 7/10

Versatility: 6/10

Budget Friendliness: 8/10

Overall: 7/10

Zacama, Primal Calamity

Man does this card pack a punch. Zacama is an easy front runner for my favorite card of the set since it just screams commander. I was really glad I wasn’t drinking anything when I read the line “untap all lands you control” because it would have definitely gone all over my computer. This card is just crazy powerful. Zacama has the potential to completely take over a boardstate on it’s own with those first two abilities. It can pick off utility creatures or even big threats with enough mana but beyond that having a repeatable Naturalize for three mana is ridiculous in our format where mana rocks are abundant as well as full on artifact and enchantment strategies.

Zacama isn’t all upside though, keep in mind it’s nine whopping mana to get into play and if it’s countered you don’t get the untap ability. Even with this in mind it’s making it difficult to decide between it and Gishath as the leader of a Naya Dinos build.

As a Commander: 9/10

As Part of the 99: 9/10

Versatility: 7/10

Budget Friendliness: 6/10

Overall: 8/10

Azor, the Lawbringer

This is a card I have seen a lot of excitement for that I am frankly not on the same page with. Now, I really love the flavor of this card. The fact that we are seeing some lore crossover between Ravnica and Ixalan is really cool, I wish they would do more of that considering the game is now centered around moving from plane to plane. Beyond that this is a sphinx that can cast Sphinx’s Revelation every time it attacks! How can you not love that flavor?

As far as overall power level I think this card is being a bit overrated. The strength of the card Sphinx’s Revelation is that you can cast it at instant speed meaning you can hold up some counter magic with a revelation in hand, then if nothing was cast worth countering you can spend all your excess mana and turn it into cards and life. Azor looks like it wants to be the commander of a control deck but is somewhat at odds with it’s own game plan because to get use out of the activated ability you need to attack and leave yourself vulnerable while spending mana on your turn instead of holding up counterspells or removal.

Also the enter the battlefield ability seems very limited since it effectively reads “Opponents can’t cast sorceries on their next turn”. This is a very minor amount of disruption. Decks with plenty of sorceries will likely also have some instants to cast on another player's turn if the former are temporarily turned off.

As a Commander: 5/10

As Part of the 99: 6/10

Versatility: 6/10

Budget Friendliness: 7/10

Overall: 6/10

Elenda, the Dusk Rose

Elenda is an interesting new addition to the Orzhov commander list. Elenda will likely take a spot next to the Orzhov “aristocrats” commanders. The “aristocrats” archetype centers around getting value from sacrificing your own creatures. Teysa, Orzhov Scion and Ayli Eternal Pilgrim provide outlets to sacrifice your creatures at will and both provide repeatable removal. Elenda is almost on the opposite end of the spectrum where she is a payoff for sacrificing creatures (notably any creature, not just non-tokens). She is also unique in the sense that she can poop out a ton of tokens of her own if she happens to hit the bin, keep in mind that if she goes to the command zone it does not count as “dying”.

I like having Elenda as a different option but I have a feeling she will be overshadowed by the other commanders I’ve mentioned. She will definitely see some inclusions in the 99 of those decks though, no doubt about that.

As a Commander: 4/10

As Part of the 99: 6/10

Versatility: 5/10

Budget Friendliness: 6/10

Overall: 5/10

Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca

We’re not toning things down for the final legend of the day. Kumena is a great merfolk lord that will be instantly swimming with the best of them. This is our third tribal focused Merfolk legend and he is likely the strongest. Sygg, River Guide and Kopala, Warden of Waves both have their place but the sheer card advantage Kumena brings to the table is difficult to match. Kumena’s second ability is definitely the one that will be activated the most and for good reason, who doesn’t love drawing cads? Kumena also doesn’t need to tap to use any of his abilities meaning you can use them as many times as you have the merfolk.

Kumena is a very welcome addition to the tribe that has been around since the beginning of the game with a player following just as old.

As a Commander: 9/10

As Part of the 99: 7/10

Versatility: 4/10

Budget Friendliness: 8/10

Overall: 7/10

Wrapping Up

There we have it folks, another legend review in the books. Rivals of Ixalan is looking like another great set for our format and that's not just including the legendary creatures!

I hope you all have fun with it and play lots of Commander!

Cheers!