Ixalan Card Gallery (2/12/18) *Updated

James13

I noticed a number of playable to good cards on my first pass.  Few in terms of creatures, though.  But there were a couple notables even there.

A lot of cards will simply be collectors items at this point, but there are others I'm interested in.

I want to see the flip side of the "land" flips.  Those seem to be missing from the gallery.

A number of typos and questionable/ambiguous language choices.  And some confusing effects.  Example: "Whenever a non-token pirate enters the battlefield, reduce it's cost by 2" : Huh?  You've already payed for it at that point...?

Overall, I'm still intrigued.  There are some cards I want to try.  Not quite as exciting as other previews, but I think there are a couple clear gems.

FindingHeart8

I'm trying to find a way this could work.  I mean, if the Ixalan event mechanics allow for extra mana per turn, it would make sense, I guess, to make everything more expensive to even it out.  However then you're limiting the new cards to the new events, as they'd get easily beat down anywhere else.

I'm all for slowing the power creep, but these cards need to be at least somewhat competitive.

Matthew

wereotter said:

Because the creatures on their paper counterparts actually have vigilance. There are definitely ways to turn that into an advantage. Cartouche of Solidarity comes to mind....

This entirely misses the point of his question. Whether or not they have Vigilance in paper is irrelevant. The real issue here is that Vigilance in its current form is practically a waste of time.

I think you should be able to either choose upon ETB if you want that creature to be a blocker, or (perhaps this is a bit much) choose at the end of each of your turns. That would be more true to the paper version of the mechanic.

Regarding the cards, I like that there are a lot of mana-cheap commons and uncommons that, while not necessarily top-tier in their value, are still useful to a new player. There still appears to be some room for improvement in that regard.

And hallelujah for Dowsing Dagger, yes, but at the same time, there should still never be an objective that relies on what your opponent decides to put in their deck. Especially since Dagger is still a Rare, and therefore not necessarily easily accessible by all.

wickedwitch74

Some thoughts on cards from this set...

1. This is the direction that Oktagon wishes to take the game. They are scaling back on power levels and aggressive casting costs.

2. They are gearing events to strongly nudge players into using Ixalan-specific cards and tribes, further separating their new direction from "mistake" cards in previous sets.

3. I would not be surprised to see a re-balancing of some cards from this set in the near(ish) future. It's better to release underpowered cards and then scale them up than to do the reverse.

FindingHeart8

I'm gonna make a deck that Omniloops with no other creatures or damage spells except Nest Robber.  You've all been warned **Laughs maniacally, while ordering a black cape/hairless cat/fake mustache on ebay**

DBJones

The costs mostly seen too high to me. Also, isn't the point of tribal strategies to get out several of whichever tribe you're using? Why then are creatures generally harder to get out and kill spells still just as accessable (including 2 new board wipes that only hit your opponent, all creatures in white, and all creatures and supports in blue)?

donvnny45

Umm... This card seems counter-productive: 

Admiral Beckett Brass

Deck: Ixalan
Type: Creature
Rarity: Mythic

While this creature is on the battlefield, other Pirates you control get +2/+2.When this creature deals damage, if you control 2 or more Pirates, gain control of the first creature your opponent controls.So its' only useful if the other guy has a pirate on the board, otherwise you negate one of the abilities that would justify the 26 mana cost.  SMH

Gotcha617

donvnny45 said:

Umm... This card seems counter-productive: 

Admiral Beckett Brass

Deck: Ixalan
Type: Creature
Rarity: Mythic

While this creature is on the battlefield, other Pirates you control get +2/+2.When this creature deals damage, if you control 2 or more Pirates, gain control of the first creature your opponent controls.So its' only useful if the other guy has a pirate on the board, otherwise you negate one of the abilities that would justify the 26 mana cost.  SMH

Unless we now can have 4 or 5 creatures

Tilwin90

So let's see... People are going to cry and complain, and I'm definitely part of the riot this time.

Honestly guys, I can tell these cards are meant to be original and interesting and giving a fun twist, but many of them are a convoluted mess. If there's one thing I've learned from paper magic design, it's that you have to keep your set's complexity in control and not have uncommons that are pulled in THREE or FOUR directions! Plus the whole point of this is not to have some cool cards to design that are then obnoxiously useless in gameplay... oh, and I'm not even talking about the huge costs (we'll get back to that).
- Adanto Vanguard - how did this end up a common? Activations are more complex in MTGPQ as they are not such a common part as they are in paper magic. Plus the original was an uncommon anyway.
- Belligerent Brontodon - literally a walking and talking algebra with teeth. Way more complicated than creatures just dealing damage equal to their toughness. 
- Deathless Ancient, Bishop of the Bloodstained etc. require keeping manual track of something the board never cared about COUNTING when the game offers no support in this direction. Programmatically counting reinforces must've been fun, but for the players themselves it's extra complexity! Quite some complexity especially when math is added to all that.
- Deadeye Quartermaster - you have literally 2 vehicles in this set. Why this parasitic card? Paper magic allowed searching for an equipment at least. AND OMG, YOU ACTUALLY MARKED SUPPORTS AS EQUIPMENT!!! tinny kitties everywhere!
- Duress vs Heartless Pilage - rarities & costs, just look at them again... and now again! See the issue? If not, repeat until it becomes clearer... or get stuck in an infinite loop of madness.
- Field of Ruin - a lot of mumbo jumbo hocus pocus for a COMMON. If it doesn't translate properly, don't force a translation from paper magic, it's just poor...
- Sheltering Light - so now white can select-fetch... I don't mind that...
... aaand so many others (sorry, those huge costs simply distracted me away from what the card did... though no matter, when you get a 4/4 for 30 that crews and... that's it)

The mythics and rares are a complete nightmare too. At those costs I'm not even gonna bother with Ixalan packs that much. Saving my crystals for god knows what (I guess hunting for Omniscience remains better than digging for Ixalan mythics)... I literally want ONE or TWO mythics and those I won't even play more than for fun... As for the rares, I can count them on my right hand, really really silly designs.

Now to leave on a positive note, here are the goods:
- Finally blue can bounce supports, hooray for that. Hope to see this more, other than a sweeper (don't destroy, but regular bounce a la Unsummon)
- The transform supports are interesting and make sense. Beautiful and simple design, looking forward to seeing their execution in game.
- Finally a means to deal with planeswalker abilities. That inevitability now has an answer. Expensive but available. Good to know.
- Settle the Wreckage is elegantly executed. Lets hope it is not totally bonkers with Starfield or everyone will blame it for some absurd control matchups.
- Hostage Taker is another elegant card. Maybe not overly powerful but it brings a new element MTGPQ can do but paper magic can't (keep opponent cards in hand, black bordered)
- Happy to see the first tricolored creature (though at that cost nobody will care)

And now I'll leave you to the rest of the riot who has a lot more to say about these silly costs as compared to the effects (Costly Plunder sure is costly...)

Gotcha617

Slow clap for the post above

Gideon

Everyone.
PANIC!!!!!!!!
All hands on deck MTGPQ is taking heavy fire. The ship is sinking. Help them plug the holes.

IM_CARLOS

I see some interesting cards that will find it's place  in old  or new decks, but  nothing that could breakbthe reign of cycling.

All in all the meant to be way slower than now, but cards like huf and some other need a drastic nerf to make it slower or 90% of ixl cards are just dead meat in hand, 20+ mana later on the board. 

Mainloop25

... As former Hibernum employees look on, laughing. 

Gideon

So which of these turds is gonna be for sale?

Szamsziel

Does it even matter?

bk1234

I'd like to know what the exclusives are as well

TheExaminer

Am I the only one, who is going to spend all the gold I've saved, on HOD after these spoilers? I mean, I will wait for about 10-12 hours before doing that, but as for now, I am not gonna waste my precious resources on RIX, no way.
I see exactly 0 playable uncommons, commons make me literally cry, and there is about 3.5 cards at rare, which could be useful. 
P.S.: some of the mythics look pretty strong to me, so here comes a question: how in the world do you reduce a "power gap" (or whatever they called it in the latest blog) by literally overwhelming boosters with unplayables at "Newbies have access to this" rarity and adding a slim chance to get an unbeatable bomb? Isnt it literally the opposite to what they claimed they desired to do?

Drewster

UweTellkampf said:

You wont put a 31 mana 4/6 vehicle in all your decks???!!!

Now we need Goblin Charbelcher. Thanks for the update!

Gilesclone

Matthew said:

Gilesclone said:

They have completely abandoned the beginning player.  The commons and uncommons are just unplayable.

I disagree with this completely. There are actually a bunch of them that are good.

The spells are ok.  The creatures are just bad.

ArielSira

There are a few cards that look like I could put them in my current decks (I like Blight Keeper for my Lili3 deck for example) but the initial plan of spending my crystals (stillcallitgold) on tons of packs is cancelled. Vraska will still be my babe though.