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

Matthew

Szamsziel said:

I disagree with that. I appreciate sorin abilities which complement each other. Also liliana3 abilities are complementary. Thing is either abilities should work together or cover area of usage (bolas: kill, draw, retrieve from gw)

Abilities complimenting each other is fine; I'll give you that. But only insofar as those abilities are not exorbitantly priced. That's the problem with a lot of what we have so far. Costs are high enough that by the time you've generated enough loyalty to make use of their combinations, those abilities just translate into a "win more" button.

I much prefer to have abilities that cover gaps, as you put it. To me, that allows me to get more creative in my deck building, because I don't have to worry about including certain cards in the deck.

Szamsziel

With overcosted cards abilities may be far more effective that they were so far. Garruk or others token creators may become meta defining.

Tilwin90

Szamsziel said:

I disagree with that. I appreciate sorin abilities which complement each other. Also liliana3 abilities are complementary. Thing is either abilities should work together or cover area of usage (bolas: kill, draw, retrieve from gw)

The problem with Sorin's abilities is that they are all super linear and offer little to no flexibility - it's all eggs in one basket, namely playing creatures.
Sure, the ultimate gets triggered by the first and second abilities, but none matter if you have an empty board. 

Funny how in MTGPQ I also prefer planeswalkers that have flexible abilities, similar to how top paper magic planeswalkers work too. Defending themselves is rather important.

Here are the planeswalkers I like for their abilities:
Ob - literally the ability man. Draws cards, removes creatures and wins the game with the ultimate. King of abilities.
Kiora - drain slows down opponent and accelerates you, second abilities can grab a defender out of nowhere and the ultimate is literally a huge wall.
Bolas - his first ability is built-in removal.
Ajani1 - either removal or disabling nasty creatures until you can deal with them. His ultimate interacts with the board itself which is also relevant at times... though not so often.
Liliana1 - if you can't have anything in hand, you can't play anything. Her second ability is not that awful either but it does require a bit of setup/work to be super impactful.

There are of course some planeswalkers that don't really interact with the opponent or defend themselves very well, but can get out of a pinch thanks to their abilities:
Saheeli - ultimate is most often autowin with boomship or super relevant even for lesser vehicles.
Nahiri - sets up your board really nicely with her first ability, but her second ability draws and can sometimes deal with problematic supports. Her ultimate can steal games on its own.
Jace2 - once again relying on the ultimate. Supports are usually easier to keep than creatures so his first ability is also slightly more relevant than Sorin's in my books.
Koth - if you can ramp into threats or solutions, that's alright.
Elspeth - her tokens can act as removal while also being a threat themselves. Her first ability is much more annoying than people give it credit.
Gideon3/Gideon2 - both put defenders in place, it's not so bad. (though I admit Gideon2 is too linear for my taste too)

Some more powerless planeswalkers where I found their abilities to not be so great of getting you out of trouble:
Nissa2 - her ramp is not too shabby even outside energy games, but somehow it was never enough when I needed to catch up after a bad start.
Dovin - sure his first ability can save you by giving you those final points of mana, but otherwise his second and third abilities are a bit slow in my opinion.
Ajani2 - he pumps his side of the board, but his ultimate is very circumstantial and his first ability with the feeble lifegain won't do much.
Sorin - you need a board for sorin to be effective as I already explained, and that makes his first ability ramp much worse than direct mana gain or gem changers.
Samut - her abilities can steal the game out of nowhere, and her second ability can get your opponent in trouble occasionally, but she's more of a "win faster" than anything.
Tezz2 - I don't really care about his abilities unless it's a very specific setup.
Sarkhan - He's a tough cookie, haven't maxed him yet, I guess you need specific decks for him to make him truly work.
Tezz1 - No comment.

Gunmix25

Matthew said:

Thuran said:

Gideon said:

Maybe they could change his ability so that when he uses it he flips over and now he’s wearing a shirt. That’s just as useless.

You guys DO realise he spits out two different types of illusions himself, right?

Of course we do, but that's not the point. The point is that his affinity for Illusions shouldn't rely solely on Illusions he himself creates. It's awkward to have to use his ability to create the very creatures that benefit from it.

That being said, if his second ability does end up working the way the blog posts indicates it will, it's not as problematic. Just annoying. It would be much better to have Illusions you can cast and put on the field while also working towards that ability.

One particular thing of note....if his loyalty 3 ability works like I believe it does.  Jace 3 can seriously focus more on spells and supports... giving him quite an edge. 

Matthew

Gunmix25 said:

One particular thing of note....if his loyalty 3 ability works like I believe it does.  Jace 3 can seriously focus more on spells and supports... giving him quite an edge. 

Yeah, don't mistake my meaning. I'm not bashing him. I actually think he's probably the most interesting of the lot, at least for abilities (I can't overlook how it's about freaking time we get a Golgari, even if I don't care much for her abilities). J3 though has a lot of long-term potential, which is why I'm interested in him.

Gunmix25

Matthew said:

Gunmix25 said:

One particular thing of note....if his loyalty 3 ability works like I believe it does.  Jace 3 can seriously focus more on spells and supports... giving him quite an edge. 

Yeah, don't mistake my meaning. I'm not bashing him. I actually think he's probably the most interesting of the lot, at least for abilities (I can't overlook how it's about freaking time we get a Golgari, even if I don't care much for her abilities). J3 though has a lot of long-term potential, which is why I'm interested in him.

Oh, I didn't think you were bashing him. I was merely trying to add to your comment,  rather poorly unfortunately. 

At first I was a little leery of his effectiveness...  then I got to thinking on how he operates if I were to use him.  He frees up builds restrictions both in draw and creatures... making him a curiously unique PW. I'm dying to try him because I agree with you, his long term usefulness is appealing

wereotter

Thuran said:

This is perhaps the most johnny set in all of mtgpq!

It's just too bad that all these Timmys and Spikes don't understand this and are just shouting really loud about how they hate it

Mainloop25

@Tilwin90 i have one comment for Tezz1: single-support Omni.  

Stormcrow

Mainloop25 said:

@Tilwin90 i have one comment for Tezz1: single-support Omni.  

Yep. Perfect for all those occasions when Koth just isn't fast or aggro enough.

octal9

@LakeStone @Brigby

Can either of you verify whether or not there are exclusives in the cards previewed here?

If there are, which cards are exclusive, and are they Special Offers, or Event Rewards? Or ... other?

Gotcha617

octal9 said:

@LakeStone @Brigby

Can either of you verify whether or not there are exclusives in the cards previewed here?

If there are, which cards are exclusive, and are they Special Offers, or Event Rewards? Or ... other?

Honestly any sort of response to let us know you guys are around would e nice. I sure this hasn’t been the most exhalarating 24 hours

LakeStone

octal9 said:

@LakeStone @Brigby

Can either of you verify whether or not there are exclusives in the cards previewed here?

If there are, which cards are exclusive, and are they Special Offers, or Event Rewards? Or ... other?

Sorry for the slow response - Right now, the exclusives that I am aware of will be Vona Butcher of Megan, Tishana Voice of Thunder, Admiral Beckett Brass, Gishath's Sun's Avatar for special offers. I am confirming with the team if there are any others and will let everyone know if there are more.

Thuran

Gideon said:

@Thuran How many games do you play where you activate an ability more than once? The games will take longer but how many activations do you need to make it viable?

Since one of his abilities Create loyalty..a lot more than you think, depending on the base costs of those abilities, especially if you go nuts and build a deck with loyalty generators

ZW2007-

I wonder what Megan did to Vona that she deserved to be butchered.

bk1234

LakeStone said:

octal9 said:

@LakeStone @Brigby

Can either of you verify whether or not there are exclusives in the cards previewed here?

If there are, which cards are exclusive, and are they Special Offers, or Event Rewards? Or ... other?

Sorry for the slow response - Right now, the exclusives that I am aware of will be Vona Butcher of Megan, Tishana Voice of Thunder, Admiral Beckett Brass, Gishath's Sun's Avatar for special offers. I am confirming with the team if there are any others and will let everyone know if there are more.

All creatures? Interesting. 

IM_CARLOS

At least the butcher is away for awhile. Not a great card but one of the interesting some. 
The sun avatar looks interesting until you see the mana. And the rest can definitely can wait cor crafting. 

bk1234

The spells and supports seem to be the gems of this set -- I would be more likely to pay for those than overcosted creatures. 

I would even pay for some of the rares. 

Mainloop25

bken1234 said:

The spells and supports seem to be the gems of this set -- I would be more likely to pay for those than overcosted creatures. 

I would even pay for some of the rares. 

Yeah i would pay for Itlimoc before any of the creatures. 

greven

Oktagon have been done great job with Booster Crafting. And Ixalan is their first set to release. Lets not judge them to early and give them some room. As we know, this is not an easy task to do with so much things to balance in this game. They might bring new game experience more than: matching gems, summon op creatures and win in 5 minutes... or cycling, omni, huf, nyx decks...(i seldom see energize, eternalize, afflict or even vampire deck....) so lets help oktagon improving this game for the sake of our own game experiences

Doomstat

Even though I can understand the hate for the high costs, BUT this set looks like a lot of fun. Lots of synergy between creatures of the same type. Spells and supports look like fun.

Even if they don't rotate other sets right away, I'll support this set. I think Pirate Bolas sounds very interesting, and Sorin Vampire could be a top not combo deck.