Rivals of Ixalan - Blog Post (3/8/18)

Enygma6

Kinesia said:

You could try something totally new like...

"Given to the top 50 players who DO NOT ALREADY HAVE IT", so by performing higher you get it faster, but eventually it trickles down...

I'm okay with this, so long as a repeat-performer top-tier player is still given something for their effort.  Random rare from the set, or a nice fat Orb bonus in place of being given a dupe from the limited allocation special card pool.

bk1234

Brigby said:

wereotter said:

-snip-

Will this set be added to Ixalan packs like Aether Revolt, or will it be treated as a stand-alone set like Hour of Devestation?

I just received word that Rivals of Ixalan will be its own stand-alone set

@Brigby since RIX will be a standalone set, the crafting premium will be dropped on IXN one month after RIX drops, correct? 

IM_CARLOS

I think so, but what do you what to craft? Filler mythics? If you have river rebuke u got everything what this  set have to give. If you are a collector you can wait untill ix leaves standard. Saves a lot of orbs and rix probably have more to give. 

ZW2007-

Here is my concern about RIX coming already: XLN added a lot of new bugs and re-added a lot of old bugs (or should I say un-did some old updates?). Are these going to be addressed? Here's just two bugs that have been very detrimental to my game play. 1) Zendikar's Roil is generating twice the amount of tokens it is supposed to, sometimes quadruple. I have seen a few players abusing this in Kiora builds and I don't think it's a coincidence that I've been seeing more of a card from Origins than I have in over a year. 2) I killed an enemy Avaricious Dragon and it continued to triggered its effect each turn for the rest of the game, and sometimes even on my turn. Here's a bonus bug that didn't negatively effect me but potentially could: AI cast Tragic Arrogance (pointlessly) on my 1 creature and his 3 creatures. The two target creatures gained prevent damage like they should and his other two creatures were destroyed as normal, it becomes my turn, I do my thing, AI's turn again, he makes his swap, he casts two creatures, Tragic Arrogance is triggered (according to battle log) and the original AI creature that was targeted by Tragic Arrogance simple vanishes from play. I did not have a Gideon's Intervention or anything like that in play (or in my deck) that could have caused this.

If these aren't being fixed, how many more fun and exciting bugs can we expect with RIX? What is the point in pushing out more and more content if it just makes the game worse? Just so we can have MOAR?

Also, can we please just put EXCLUSIVES to rest? There is no harm in rewarding a mythic to top ranks if the card isn't exclusive. If John can buy it for $40 and he wants to, good for him. He knows that he can potentially open it in a pack but he'd rather guarantee it with $40 than risk not getting it anytime soon. Meanwhile maybe Jenny can get lucky and open it from a booster pack. If $ cards must still be made exclusive like that, at least make reward exclusives not exclusive. Dynavolt Tower was my bane during KLD. There wasn't a single card in the set that I wanted more when they first previewed the set. Then I found out it was exclusive, then I found out it was a reward exclusive which meant I couldn't even buy it if I wanted to. I finally got it when booster crafting came out, and promptly pulled it from my next KLD premium pack the next day. Bottom line: Events should reward mythics from time to time but they should not be exclusives. Those very same cards should be featured in an Elite Pack following the end of the event that rewarded it.

Brigby

bken1234 said:

Brigby said:

wereotter said:

-snip-

Will this set be added to Ixalan packs like Aether Revolt, or will it be treated as a stand-alone set like Hour of Devestation?

I just received word that Rivals of Ixalan will be its own stand-alone set

Brigby since RIX will be a standalone set, the crafting premium will be dropped on IXN one month after RIX drops, correct? 

Yes. Ixalan's crafting cost should drop down to the Standard crafting cost once Rivals of Ixalan enters Booster Crafting one month after its release.

HypnoticSpecter

What about HoD, which is now past due for the decreased booster crafting cost?

ZW2007-

It stands to reason that if XLN will go to Standard crafting cost after RIX enters booster crafting (which is one month after it enters the game), then HoD will have its cost reduced to Standard cost once XLN enters booster crafting (which is, again, one month after it entered the game - or March 19th if memory serves.)

HypnoticSpecter

I'm pretty sure the XLN elite pack was in the shop for 31 days. It went away a couple days ago. The one month has past.

Gunmix25

HypnoticSpecter said:

I'm pretty sure the XLN elite pack was in the shop for 31 days. It went away a couple days ago. The one month has past.

Pretty sure that count down started with 28 days. Which I thought was weird at the time

khurram

Gunmix25 said:

HypnoticSpecter said:

I'm pretty sure the XLN elite pack was in the shop for 31 days. It went away a couple days ago. The one month has past.

Pretty sure that count down started with 28 days. Which I thought was weird at the time

Countdown started with 25 days and some hours

GrizzoMtGPQ

31 days is on March 17th

Magic:PQ Support Team

bken1234 said:

Brigby said:

wereotter said:

-snip-

Will this set be added to Ixalan packs like Aether Revolt, or will it be treated as a stand-alone set like Hour of Devestation?

I just received word that Rivals of Ixalan will be its own stand-alone set

@Brigby since RIX will be a standalone set, the crafting premium will be dropped on IXN one month after RIX drops, correct? 

Once RIX is released, XLN's duplicates will yield Mana Orbs normally and RIX's duplicates will yield 1.5 times the normal amount of Mana Orbs for a month. Once RIX enters the crafting system (one month after its release), it will become the latest set in the crafting system and will have the same price as XLN currently does. At this point XLN's price in the crafting system will lower.

Magic:PQ Support Team

THEMAGICkMAN said:

the immortal sun reward concerns me, if it's game breaking and great and only available to top 10 coalitions then that'll be a HUGE problem. hopefuly it's cosmetic, and doesn't impact gameplay. you have a very large audience outside of the top 10, don't block them off from something great 

We are aware that the reward being given to the top 10 coallitions doesn't seem accessible. Keep in mind that, eventually, this card will be obtainable through packs and the crafting system.

Magic:PQ Support Team

Babo21 said:

Good work. Everything looks nice except for the charges on the nodes. Having only 8 hours untill the max number of charges is reached will impact the way a great number of players will deal with the game. I have a job and do 12 hour shifts pretty often. If the event starts at 9 am local time I'll be at work during the time it reaches max charge. I might not be able to play all my games during those 8 hours and lose some charges, hurting my team's score in the process. Starting with less charges would be better (one charge, and a max of 3).

I also have another concern. Will any other set rotate out of standard?

We want a system that allows players to play the event in the way that their schedule/time zone allows them to. However, with the changes to event design, we also want newer players, with less access to powerful cards that can handle several situations easily, to have more attempts and tries to beat each node. We are looking into long-term solutions to the node charges problem that will allow both things to happen. For now, we will be closely monitoring the situation and make adjustments as we go.

 

Kaladesh and Aether Revolt will leave standard.

Magic:PQ Support Team

Matthew said:

The fact that these two Planeswalkers don't seem like they will be tied to this set is a fantastic move. I hate that so many of the current walkers are tied to mechanics that will eventually be irrelevant for Standard. Bravo on the design for both of them.

The two cards you've shown us also look very interesting. Timestream Navigator was actually one of the paper cards I was most hoping to see, and I think you've done it justice, especially since it's Activate ability has a number higher than one (Activate 1 should never, ever be a thing!!!). And while 10 cards in play does seem like an awful lot to achieve, it's still definitely doable. One question I have about this point is this:

Brigby said:

While a card with Ascend is in play or when one is played, it checks whether or not the sum of your creatures, your supports and your reinforcements is greater than or equal to 10.

What exactly does the bit about "reinforcements" mean? Creatures and supports? Are token creatures included in there? Do token supports count?

Finally, the event looks superficially quite interesting and also challenging (something this game has lacked for quite some time now). I guess we'll have to see when it gets here. I'm also curious to see how the Immortal Sun reward will get doled out. There's a pretty consistent list of names in the top 10 coalition placements, with only a little bit of variation here and there. Will this card only be rewarded once? Will you earn a second copy if you place high enough on a second run of the event? Will there even be a second run of the event?

Overall, I'm super excited to see this! It was very unexpected. When can we hope to see this update? I'm sure we're all thinking it, so I'll just go ahead and as: will it be here in 4-ish days, when the current timer on the EP runs out??

Ascend will count your creatures, the amount of times they were reinforced, your supports and the amount of times they were reinforced.

Magic:PQ Support Team

khurram said:

Can we get a word if the supports created by those PWs will have a countdown? It makes a difference.

Exciting stuff otherwise.

No, the supports created by G/W Huatli and Angrath won't lose shield with each turn.

Gunmix25

Oktagon_Daiane said:

Matthew said:

The fact that these two Planeswalkers don't seem like they will be tied to this set is a fantastic move. I hate that so many of the current walkers are tied to mechanics that will eventually be irrelevant for Standard. Bravo on the design for both of them.

The two cards you've shown us also look very interesting. Timestream Navigator was actually one of the paper cards I was most hoping to see, and I think you've done it justice, especially since it's Activate ability has a number higher than one (Activate 1 should never, ever be a thing!!!). And while 10 cards in play does seem like an awful lot to achieve, it's still definitely doable. One question I have about this point is this:

Brigby said:

While a card with Ascend is in play or when one is played, it checks whether or not the sum of your creatures, your supports and your reinforcements is greater than or equal to 10.

What exactly does the bit about "reinforcements" mean? Creatures and supports? Are token creatures included in there? Do token supports count?

Finally, the event looks superficially quite interesting and also challenging (something this game has lacked for quite some time now). I guess we'll have to see when it gets here. I'm also curious to see how the Immortal Sun reward will get doled out. There's a pretty consistent list of names in the top 10 coalition placements, with only a little bit of variation here and there. Will this card only be rewarded once? Will you earn a second copy if you place high enough on a second run of the event? Will there even be a second run of the event?

Overall, I'm super excited to see this! It was very unexpected. When can we hope to see this update? I'm sure we're all thinking it, so I'll just go ahead and as: will it be here in 4-ish days, when the current timer on the EP runs out??

Ascend will count your creatures, the amount of times they were reinforced, your supports and the amount of times they were reinforced.

this was a big one, thank you for clearing that up.

wereotter

Oktagon_Daiane said:

THEMAGICkMAN said:

the immortal sun reward concerns me, if it's game breaking and great and only available to top 10 coalitions then that'll be a HUGE problem. hopefuly it's cosmetic, and doesn't impact gameplay. you have a very large audience outside of the top 10, don't block them off from something great 

We are aware that the reward being given to the top 10 coallitions doesn't seem accessible. Keep in mind that, eventually, this card will be obtainable through packs and the crafting system.

This is hardly a legitimate appeasement. Problem quickly has become, at least in the past, that you get steamrolled in events for weeks or even months by people who won it, and then hope you can get it for yourself later. Even with crafting, unless you can craft that card specifically, you could still be looking at over 100,000 orbs to get what you didn’t win in the event. 

babar3355

wereotter said:

Oktagon_Daiane said:

THEMAGICkMAN said:

the immortal sun reward concerns me, if it's game breaking and great and only available to top 10 coalitions then that'll be a HUGE problem. hopefuly it's cosmetic, and doesn't impact gameplay. you have a very large audience outside of the top 10, don't block them off from something great 

We are aware that the reward being given to the top 10 coallitions doesn't seem accessible. Keep in mind that, eventually, this card will be obtainable through packs and the crafting system.

This is hardly a legitimate appeasement. Problem quickly has become, at least in the past, that you get steamrolled in events for weeks or even months by people who won it, and then hope you can get it for yourself later. Even with crafting, unless you can craft that card specifically, you could still be looking at over 100,000 orbs to get what you didn’t win in the event. 

Well, I am not sure this is a meta warping card.  The draw feature is nice and the reduction in spell costs will be relevant. +1+1 to creatures is silly.  However, the big deal is the shutdown of PW abilities.  When I first read this, I thought it was totally OP.  Then I realized that both PWs will have their abilities shutdown, not just the opponent.  In other words, I don't think this is a "steamroller" type card, although if they price it low enough it could be very good.  Otherwise it will probably just be a situational splash card against certain walkers (looking at you Koth) rather than a core card.

babar3355

While you are clarifying things Mrs. Daiane, do we have a release date?