Feedback on Ixalan for Octagon

FindingHeart8

I through out a poll pre-Ixalan release on everyone's opinion for Octagon (which may have helped with positive results), but I think it's time for a second one now that the set has been released and we have experience with the cards.

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being horrible and 10 being amazing) how would you rate your satisfaction with the new set?  Feel free to explain in further detail in the comments section.

Thuran

8. Happy (There's a few things I'd alter but the benifits outweigh any downsides)

Note that the happy vote doesn't mean I think the cards are insane, but rather reflects a good direction for the game, cards which are serviceable and interesting concepts.

The set gets crushed by other broken sets, but its either rein in the power creep, or make a competitive set. 

But if the cards should compete with previous set, we would never be able to come down to where the game wants to be, so having the set squashed until other sets rotate or get banned is inevitable.

Paper also had "bad" sets which became great after rotation.

Ofc the set feels a little incomplete without rivals, but as said the vote is not for the power of ixalan, but the direction, improvements and interesting options that the set represents. 

DBJones

3. Dissatisfied (I expected better from this set)

I do like the new event design, especially Across Ixalan. It's just that the cards you get out of it are barely worth the 20 crystals. I'm not Platinum, so I don't get crystals back.

ILikePancakes

7. Pretty content (Not everything is perfect, but I still have a good feeling about this set)

I'm pretty content. Might be because I pulled River's Rebuke.    The cards are interesting--I wish some of the transformable land supports started out with 2 shields instead of 1. Excited for events that aren't legacy. I still like legacy, but it will be nice to play different cards.

FindingHeart8

3. Dissatisfied (I expected better from this set)

I couldn't find much synergy with the new set and any of the decks I'd made for my planeswalkers, so I'm yet to spend anything beyond a handful of crystals pursuing it

wereotter

8. Happy (There's a few things I'd alter but the benifits outweigh any downsides)

Overall, I think the cards from this set are fun and interesting. It's nice to have things spiced up as the same cards month after month gets stale and boring for me. That said I think there are some technical things that need adjusting, such as all declare attack triggers should happen at once rather than on a creature by creature basis considering how many tribal buffs are attached to our creatures, and the general dissatisfaction that there's no PvE this round.

Additionally there seem to be more bugs with new cards than usual, but if short development time for this studio is to be believed, then this is to be expected. I'll be more satisfied once those are fixed

AdriA

5. Neutral (Meh...there's some good stuff, there's some bad stuff...whatevs)

I was excited to see all the new abilities and when it was released I was very happy to know that the new totp is standard, faster and with good implementations. Plus, enrage ability is awesome.

There are useful cards specially rare cards but most of them isn't playable, high cost and only very few usefull mythics. 

So, not that good and not that bad.

FindingHeart8

3. Dissatisfied (I expected better from this set)

AdriA said:

I was excited to see all the new abilities and when it was released I was very happy to know that the new totp is standard, faster and with good implementations. Plus, enrage ability is awesome.

There are useful cards specially rare cards but most of them isn't playable, high cost and only very few usefull mythics. 

So, not that good and not that bad.

Yeah I'm a big fan of the new "Across Ixalan" ToTP.  Really glad they did that.

Mainloop25

2. Very Dissatisfied (This set was a pretty big let-down. You could have done better Octagon, much better)

All the new mechanics are underpowered compared to other expansions, and a lot of cards are needlessly complicated. They do nothing to change the current meta which is what you really want a new set to do. Oktagon tried so hard to capture the flavor of the paper set but, from what it feels like, lack a fundamental understanding of what makes PQ fun to play. 

James13

7. Pretty content (Not everything is perfect, but I still have a good feeling about this set)

Biggest issue I have is that I think a few (most?) set mechanics were under-represented.

For example: there are 6 total cards with the enrage mechanic.  3 of which are unusable by Huatli.  All of these were uncommon or common level rarity creatures.

I wanted to use Shadowed Caravel but didn't see much in terms of explore triggers (I didn't get the two rares with repeatable explores).  My next plan here is to use it in Across Ixalan node 2 and maybe nowhere else until I pull a better enabler.

But mainly I'm content.  I've been playing around with the cards and hit a few nice combos.  (Hint: Vanquisher's Banner is surprisingly good.  The tribal draw hits with every token generation.)

Brakkis

4. Slightly dissatisfied (I'm not going to stand on a podium and complain, but there are things that could have been better)

The Masterpieces/Elites for the most part are a joke.

The Mythics are either hit or miss with some looking pretty decent while others are actually worse than their rare/uncommon counterparts (Burning Sun Avatar).

The cost of some of the cards is still too high, while some others were adjusted down after the preview.

And of course... I can't log In! For 2 damn days!

Bil

3. Dissatisfied (I expected better from this set)

The cards are a big deception ... i did pull actually a bunch of cards that looked good and result awful because of hazardous mechanics... which is even worse than a bad card. For me, the supports were the big promise of the set and most of them ain't worth the effort ( when they arent unplayable at all).

Once again, the lack of balance among the cards is painful... Some mythics are brutal while some others aint worth an uncommon card. Ive been (un)lucky enough to pull burning sun avatar, argels blood fast and mavren fein as my first mythics ...if i didnt knew already now i know what disapointed means ...

Sarahschmara

1. Extremely Dissatisfied (Grab the torches and pitchforks! Tonight, we riot!)

We’re trying to stay positive considering 65% of D3NIED’s players are still unable to log in.

wereotter

8. Happy (There's a few things I'd alter but the benifits outweigh any downsides)

Sarahschmara said:

We’re trying to stay positive considering 65% of D3NIED’s players are still unable to log in.

You have my sympathy. The same issue occurred with my coalition a couple weeks back. None of us were able to access the game for over a week.

Ultimately it took them completely deleting our coalition and recreating it to restore us to the game. Hopefully they’ve learned from our issue and can resolve yours more quickly. 

arevala

7. Pretty content (Not everything is perfect, but I still have a good feeling about this set)

26 mana for admiral breckett brass?? and they plan to sell it for real money? Let say Ixalan mechanics are only usefull with ixalan set. So, maybe i can find some of them very interesting, but since u cannot add them to any set u previously have the set is a bit dissapointing. On the other hand, i think Octagon made a good work, i mean, standard is awfull by itself in paper mtg cards already, so the awfulness of them are in the standard format designed by woc

ElfNeedsFood

6. Content (I'm not going to preach how great this set is, but I'm comfortable playing the cards.)

There are some things that are interesting. There are some cards that will never see play, like every set. There aren’t a lot of every deck cards. 

Sarahschmara

1. Extremely Dissatisfied (Grab the torches and pitchforks! Tonight, we riot!)

wereotter said:

Sarahschmara said:

We’re trying to stay positive considering 65% of D3NIED’s players are still unable to log in.

You have my sympathy. The same issue occurred with my coalition a couple weeks back. None of us were able to access the game for over a week.

Ultimately it took them completely deleting our coalition and recreating it to restore us to the game. Hopefully they’ve learned from our issue and can resolve yours more quickly. 

They’ve offered kicking everyone to a new coalition (with the promise of restoring our historic scores—not that we care about that, we just want to play!) as a solution. The catch? Our leader is also affected. No kicking possible and leaving independently doesn’t seem to resolve. 

On a a positive note, we’ve stumped the devs and there’s a sense of achievement there!

We’re 14/20 or 70% locked out as of this post. 

Azerack

4. Slightly dissatisfied (I'm not going to stand on a podium and complain, but there are things that could have been better)

I've been trying to find some sense of synergy with the new Ixalan cards (of all the 10 packs I bought only 2 mythicals, but obviously Hostage Taker doesn't suck, but Regisaur Alpha has been tough because even with 21 others to choose from I'm not yet "feeling" the dinosaurs (and Huatli is underwhelming so she's not on my purchase list), 13 Rare, at least with River's Rebuke being one and Treasure Map..well.. trying to make that one work..

So far the best I've come up with is Tezzeret the Schemer using Hostage Taker, Prying Blade and River's Rebuke, the rest focusing on Tezz' 3rd ability (Underhanded Designs, Insidious Will, Cartouche of Ambition, Alhammaret's Archive and Cascading Cataracts)
(Doomfall and Herald of Anguish after that, btw).

Maybe once I get a few more that have better synergy? Treasure map is hard to work with without losing it or taking too long to build up.

But so far, yeah, just feeling underwhelmed.. Bring Vraska up, willya? 

bk1234

6. Content (I'm not going to preach how great this set is, but I'm comfortable playing the cards.)

I hated Kaladesh when it was described and it's my favorite set of all of them. I was really excited about AKH and it's just meh. I'm taking my time with this one and so far, I'm finding it more enjoyable than I thought i would. There are quite a few hidden gems that don't look so good at first glance but really shine in Standard decks. 

I haven't played Across Ixalan yet (you all kept me busy here the first couple of days) so I can't weigh in on events, but so far, I'm having fun with the cards, with Hautli, and look forward to seeing what it can really do in events and with Vraska and dirty Jace. 

Furordraco

6. Content (I'm not going to preach how great this set is, but I'm comfortable playing the cards.)

I like some of the improvements okta made to the AI i'm getting my **** kicked much more then before. Frustrating but challenging. Asfar as the cards of Ixalan I'm neither excited nor unhappy. It's a very mediumish set. What im looking forward is to buy Vraska when she comes out

Tyrannicide

3. Dissatisfied (I expected better from this set)

There is still a lot of potential here, which is why I went with just dissatisfied, but the mechanics are very underwhelming. Only 1 meaningful support for treasures, and any creatures with explore have a ridiculous cost. (Origins green C/UC have better gem conversion for a fraction of the price.)

Enhance the creatures with explore, explore should yield at a minimum 2 gems converted and a max of 4.
Treasure yielding supports would be fantastic beyond 1 red support. Especially to help offset the increased cost of this set.

As of now, there is nothing drawing anyone to buying cards from this set, which is a shame. And as much as I would hate to see the power creep continue, creating a plateau and making these new mechanics relevant would be extremely helpful. These new mechanics do nothing to stop powerful combos from the last 4 sets or even give a chance. Short of all events requiring summon X+ of merfolk/pirate/dinosaur/vampire, this set will collect more dust than Depala.