Ixalan Blog Posts *Updated (2/8/18)

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  • Krishna
    Krishna Posts: 205 Tile Toppler
    MADAFAKA said:
    On a serious note, are you guy tweaking them objectives for events?
    In this event for instance, how are you supposed to kill 3+ creatures when Greg is creatureless?
    The re is nothing wrong with creatureless decks but the objectives 
    Welcome to the real world. A Cruel Reality if you will
  • Iworb
    Iworb Posts: 61 Match Maker
    Vraska, this what I'm waiting for. It looks like ROI not comes with XLN and there's still content and PW's to make.
  • khurram
    khurram Posts: 1,090 Chairperson of the Boards
    Krishna said:
    wereotter said:
    Gunmix25 said:

    That last mythic, sorcerous spyglass, locking down planeswalker loyalty abilities? Hoooo boy. That will be interesting to play and face.

    I can't wait to use it against Koth and his "I'm gonna use my loyalty ability and cascade every turn" stupid, ugly face :P
    Im looking forward to sideboarding the spyglass. but When it gets popped, prepare for the Ai to Ultimate :neutral:
    My thoughts exactly. Greg doesn't have any self restraint right now. But this well help him save his loyalty and then demolish and BOOM!

    Looking forward to the fun matches.  :)
  • Tilwin90
    Tilwin90 Posts: 662 Critical Contributor
    Krishna said:
    wereotter said:
    Gunmix25 said:

    That last mythic, sorcerous spyglass, locking down planeswalker loyalty abilities? Hoooo boy. That will be interesting to play and face.

    I can't wait to use it against Koth and his "I'm gonna use my loyalty ability and cascade every turn" stupid, ugly face :P
    Im looking forward to sideboarding the spyglass. but When it gets popped, prepare for the Ai to Ultimate :neutral:
    Play your cards right and it won't really matter. Notice the number of shields is reduced by 1 at the end of your OPPONENT's turn (so until their next turn they can't use their loyalty abilities).
    Especially annoying for people relying on their ultimates in their Jace2 and Ob Nixilis decks, since those have the toughest time dealing with supports. (goes to brew concoction involving Spyglass, Whir of Invention and Starfield of Nyx)
  • Martin
    Martin Posts: 31 Just Dropped In
    I see that Ixalan design is full of the same mistakes and assumptions that Hibernum used to make when they started designing.

    A bit disappointing. Still, at least they don't seem to be making too many of the mistakes and decisions that Hibernum were making before they got fired.

    Maybe in a year we'll hit a sweet spot again.
  • ArielSira
    ArielSira Posts: 520 Critical Contributor
    Care to elaborate Martin?
  • Thuran
    Thuran Posts: 456 Mover and Shaker
    edited February 2018
    Uhm, are you sure you understand what is going on?

    Yes, they are de-powered, which is sorely needed to stop the power creep from getting out of hand, and allow lower rarities a chance to compete.

    You use two cards to say they forgot about board size, yet both are compatible with a 3-creature board, you seem to forget that all token making creatures work under the same restrictions ;) 

    As for the boat, its a johnny card! 

    Yes, a 2 mana reduction is close to nothing, but that is fine for commons and uncommons  :) also, its a permanent reduction, even if your dude dies. If you just have 2-3 dinosaurs when it enters, that is a pretty good deal of a 4 mana 2/3 with upside.

    Heck, I like that the dork has defender. It comes down, reduces cost, takes. Hit, and dies so you got room for your newly discounted dinosaurs!

    Or you want another set of 12/12's and 16/16's that makes Commons and uncommon unplayable? ;)

    Heck, you just assume there won't be ANY enrage enablers, despite the card set being full of them, and ignore that Huatli's first ability is built specifically to trigger all your enrages ;)
  • ZW2007-
    ZW2007- Posts: 812 Critical Contributor
    Thuran said:

    Yes, a 2 mana reduction is close to nothing, but that is fine for commons and uncommons  :) also, its a permanent reduction, even if your dude dies. If you just have 2-3 dinosaurs when it enters, that is a pretty good deal of a 4 mana 2/3 with upside.

    Heck, I like that the dork has defender. It comes down, reduces cost, takes. Hit, and dies so you got room for your newly discounted dinosaurs!
    Maybe you're looking at different cards? Both those dino enablers very specifically say "While this creature is on the battlefield" meaning... well, while it's on the battlefield dinos cost 2 less. Once it's gone, the sales over.

    Thuran said:

    Heck, you just assume there won't be ANY enrage enablers, despite the card set being full of them, and ignore that Huatli's first ability is built specifically to trigger all your enrages ;)
    Again maybe we're looking at different things but the Huatli I see has a first that does nothing to trigger enrage and an ultimate that triggers enrage; an ultimate that you will not be using very often due to the fact that it's her ultimate and they generally cost enough that you can use it once or twice a game.
  • ElfNeedsFood
    ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
    ZW2007- said:
    Thuran said:

    Yes, a 2 mana reduction is close to nothing, but that is fine for commons and uncommons  :) also, its a permanent reduction, even if your dude dies. If you just have 2-3 dinosaurs when it enters, that is a pretty good deal of a 4 mana 2/3 with upside.

    Heck, I like that the dork has defender. It comes down, reduces cost, takes. Hit, and dies so you got room for your newly discounted dinosaurs!
    Maybe you're looking at different cards? Both those dino enablers very specifically say "While this creature is on the battlefield" meaning... well, while it's on the battlefield dinos cost 2 less. Once it's gone, the sales over.
    This is one of those we won’t really know until we have the card things.  The wordi difference between the two helpers might actually indicate different outcomes?
  • Martin
    Martin Posts: 31 Just Dropped In
    ElfNeedsFood said:
    ZW2007- said:
    Thuran said:

    Yes, a 2 mana reduction is close to nothing, but that is fine for commons and uncommons  :) also, its a permanent reduction, even if your dude dies. If you just have 2-3 dinosaurs when it enters, that is a pretty good deal of a 4 mana 2/3 with upside.

    Heck, I like that the dork has defender. It comes down, reduces cost, takes. Hit, and dies so you got room for your newly discounted dinosaurs!
    Maybe you're looking at different cards? Both those dino enablers very specifically say "While this creature is on the battlefield" meaning... well, while it's on the battlefield dinos cost 2 less. Once it's gone, the sales over.
    This is one of those we won’t really know until we have the card things.  The wordi difference between the two helpers might actually indicate different outcomes?
    Even if it did permanently reduce the cost of the cards in your hand (and, naturally, I hope the devs might be reading this and taking feedback on board), you could save yourself 13 mana for playing Dinos with by merely not casting a Kinjalli's Caller.
  • ElfNeedsFood
    ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
    Martin said:
    ElfNeedsFood said:
    ZW2007- said:
    Thuran said:

    Yes, a 2 mana reduction is close to nothing, but that is fine for commons and uncommons  :) also, its a permanent reduction, even if your dude dies. If you just have 2-3 dinosaurs when it enters, that is a pretty good deal of a 4 mana 2/3 with upside.

    Heck, I like that the dork has defender. It comes down, reduces cost, takes. Hit, and dies so you got room for your newly discounted dinosaurs!
    Maybe you're looking at different cards? Both those dino enablers very specifically say "While this creature is on the battlefield" meaning... well, while it's on the battlefield dinos cost 2 less. Once it's gone, the sales over.
    This is one of those we won’t really know until we have the card things.  The wordi difference between the two helpers might actually indicate different outcomes?
    Even if it did permanently reduce the cost of the cards in your hand (and, naturally, I hope the devs might be reading this and taking feedback on board), you could save yourself 13 mana for playing Dinos with by merely not casting a Kinjalli's Caller.
    Yep. Still a pretty feeble pair of cards. Just like the Pilots in KLD, these will get no real play other than experimenting to see what they do. It’s unfortunate. 
  • ZW2007-
    ZW2007- Posts: 812 Critical Contributor
    I like the boat to an extent. The trouble is it relies on having two other creatures that have explore, that you can trigger often to make it grow enough to make it worthwhile. Extra copies of it will also become worthless because 19 mana to reinforce a 4/4 is terrible. Hopefully there ends up being a way to give the boat itself the explore ability.

    As for the token generating creatures, I think the rare pirate is leaps and bounds better than the mythic dino. The pirate needs another pirate to start doing its thing and we've actually seen another playable pirate already. It also has evasion so it will probably survive combat most of the time to keep making its tokens. 3 mana for a 2/2 that doesn't cost a card each turn is nice in my book (I'd imagine it triggers even if you don't have three mana, it just drains whatever you do have). The dino on the other hand is pretty lame in a vacuum. 18 mana for a 6/6 that also gives you a 3/3 with haste. Future 3/3 tokens won't need the haste part, and future Regisaur Alphas won't either. That leaves its main ability effecting one other creature slot. If his ability was "Dinosaur creatures you control have haste" meaning he gives himself haste, that would be better. If his other ability was "When a non-token dinosaur enters the battlefield under your control, create a 3/3 blah blah" that would be way better and not broken. Currently its a 2:1 mana:power ratio with the only benefit being it gives two creatures meaning it partially survives one single-target removal spell. We'll have to wait and see what the rest of the spoilers show us but realistically a spoiler season should not be disappointing and rely on "hopefully it will be better once we see the full set".
  • Martin
    Martin Posts: 31 Just Dropped In
    ElfNeedsFood said:
    Martin said:
    ElfNeedsFood said:
    ZW2007- said:
    Thuran said:

    Yes, a 2 mana reduction is close to nothing, but that is fine for commons and uncommons  :) also, its a permanent reduction, even if your dude dies. If you just have 2-3 dinosaurs when it enters, that is a pretty good deal of a 4 mana 2/3 with upside.

    Heck, I like that the dork has defender. It comes down, reduces cost, takes. Hit, and dies so you got room for your newly discounted dinosaurs!
    Maybe you're looking at different cards? Both those dino enablers very specifically say "While this creature is on the battlefield" meaning... well, while it's on the battlefield dinos cost 2 less. Once it's gone, the sales over.
    This is one of those we won’t really know until we have the card things.  The wordi difference between the two helpers might actually indicate different outcomes?
    Even if it did permanently reduce the cost of the cards in your hand (and, naturally, I hope the devs might be reading this and taking feedback on board), you could save yourself 13 mana for playing Dinos with by merely not casting a Kinjalli's Caller.
    Yep. Still a pretty feeble pair of cards. Just like the Pilots in KLD, these will get no real play other than experimenting to see what they do. It’s unfortunate. 
    I enjoyed playing games for Mastery with Pilots and Crew. I wish they'd been more playable in constructed.
  • khurram
    khurram Posts: 1,090 Chairperson of the Boards
    Octo-devs seem more willing to listen to players and generally have been introducing positive changes , and players may want to defend their first set. But I doubt if they don't want feedback. And I gotta agree with shteev...erm I mean Martin. 

    Regisaur Alpha and Shadowed Caravel are making me cringe. I have nothing against their abilities, they just cost 6-8 Mana too much.
    I was so excited for pirate ships and dinosaurs. Let's hope the rest of the cards will be more exciting.
  • Martin
    Martin Posts: 31 Just Dropped In
    ZW2007- said:

    As for the token generating creatures, I think the rare pirate is leaps and bounds better than the mythic dino. The pirate needs another pirate to start doing its thing and we've actually seen another playable pirate already. It also has evasion so it will probably survive combat most of the time to keep making its tokens. 3 mana for a 2/2 that doesn't cost a card each turn is nice in my book (I'd imagine it triggers even if you don't have three mana, it just drains whatever you do have). 
    Yeah, I could be totally wrong about that guy. I dislike the way that him+pirate tokens+another pirate = 3 creature slots, but at least he grows the stack of pirate tokens (albeit slowly). We'll see.
  • khurram
    khurram Posts: 1,090 Chairperson of the Boards
    I also think that Fathom Fleet Captain has potential. Pretty decent as far as black creatures go.
  • Martin
    Martin Posts: 31 Just Dropped In
    Oh, note that Fathom Fleet Captain doesn't have Menace himself, only his tokens.
  • khurram
    khurram Posts: 1,090 Chairperson of the Boards
    Martin said:
    Oh, note that Fathom Fleet Captain doesn't have Menace himself, only his tokens.
    That symbol is for menace.  :)
  • FindingHeart8
    FindingHeart8 Posts: 2,731 Chairperson of the Boards
    ElfNeedsFood said:
    ZW2007- said:
    Thuran said:

    Yes, a 2 mana reduction is close to nothing, but that is fine for commons and uncommons  :) also, its a permanent reduction, even if your dude dies. If you just have 2-3 dinosaurs when it enters, that is a pretty good deal of a 4 mana 2/3 with upside.

    Heck, I like that the dork has defender. It comes down, reduces cost, takes. Hit, and dies so you got room for your newly discounted dinosaurs!
    Maybe you're looking at different cards? Both those dino enablers very specifically say "While this creature is on the battlefield" meaning... well, while it's on the battlefield dinos cost 2 less. Once it's gone, the sales over.
    This is one of those we won’t really know until we have the card things.  The wordi difference between the two helpers might actually indicate different outcomes?
    well...I mean...it's fairly solid to conclude it's just a bad card.

    Unless their implementation of the cards goes against both the wording of that card (referencing Kinjalli's Caller) and the wording of cards from past sets (cards that permanently reduced the cost of creatures and spells either said "this card gains X mana" or would not have "while this creature is on the battlefield..." for the reduction of effect costs.

    It either does what it says and should be a common at best, or what the card actually does doesn't match its abilities.

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