Rivals of Ixalan - Card Detail Sneak Peek (3/12/18)

khurram

ElfNeedsFood said:

khurram said:

All those people annoyed by Omniscience should rejoice. They'll have an answer to Omni loops in the form of Sphinx's Decree, an uncommon. 

Omni is a support and it can fuel other supports and creatures. I suppose it will stop Whir from bringing it back but that’s also going to exit Standard with the launch of this set.

Spells do constitute the largest chunk in an Omni deck. (my own most optimal versions include at least 6 and mostly 7 spells).So while omniscience will be able to keep casting just supports and creatures when you have rashmi on the board, it wont be able to proc itself using spells, which will make a difference. It will fizzle after 3 or 4 cards. I wouldnt wave aside the implications of not being able to cast spells.

ZW2007-

Mainloop25 said:

ZW2007- said:

Red has Manglehorn and a few of the ETB board bombers (Rambler, Abbott, the pirate) but that's about all I can think of.

Manglehorn is green. 

HA, I always thought it was Red/Green because I seem to run into it in a lot of Samut decks.

ZW2007-

So after looking at the set some more, and looking at what we are losing with KLD block rotating out, I have concerns that red will become much weaker now. Unlicensed Disintegration at 9 mana for unconditional removal was amazing for red. I don't expect a replacement for this anytime soon since it is a black/red spell but that's a huge gap in reds arsenal. Fateful Showdown is another strong card that red is losing. 6 mana for up to 10 direct damage to a creature is pretty solid. Now the only good red removal is at rare or higher and there don't seem to be any new cards coming at common or uncommon. Red burn removal needs to be mana efficient in order for it to be useful. Red removal fails if: 1) It can't kill most creatures in 1 shot, and 2) It takes too long cast which makes it more likely the creature will get reinforced/buffed out of burn range. Exquisite Firecraft is an oldie but goodie.

Here's my golden rule for good red removal: 1 mana for 1 damage. This should be the baseline for all red spells, give or take a little. Higher rarity should increase utility. Increased utility at lower rarity should increase cost but only very slightly.

Exquisite Firecraft being a rare can hit creatures or players so it is always useful.
Hour of Devastation at mythic hits all creatures and the players (some may argue this is OP but I disagree and think it's existence is absolutely essential for red).
Deem Worthy (a card I honestly rarely played because of cheaper alternatives) becomes much better now and also follows the 1 mana per damage rule closely and only hits creatures. Being a rare it has utility in Cycle 4, deal 3 damage. So it can be cast for 11 to kill something big, or for 4 to kill something small.
Inferno Jet, another rare and another rule follower, is also a good, balanced card. High damage for a similar casting cost that only targets the player.
As far as I'm concerned, those are the only good red removal cards left.

Sweltering Suns, while efficient, is just not good. Dealing 6 to all your opponents creatures for 11 mana is great, but at the cost of 6 to all your own creatures just doesn't seem worth it to me. Red needs to rely heavily on its creatures in this game so killing them yourself is bad strategy.

Looking at the remaining burn cards from AKH, HOU, and XLN, there is:
11 mana C that does 3 to a creature or 6 to a creature if you raided. - no good;
10 mana C that does 5 to a creature - no good;
9 mana C that does 4 to creature or player - no good;
7 mana U that does 2 damage to all non-pirates - no good;
6 mana C that does 3 to a creature or player - no good;
5 mana U that does 4 to a player - decent but generally not worth the card slot unless you lack a better alternative;
3 mana U that does 10 only to a red creature - great but very limited (and very frustrating to have in hand if your red opponent keeps dropping colorless or creatures of the dual pw's other color); and that is the end of the list.

Coming in I see one card Reckless Rage (U that does 4 damage to opponents creature and 2 to your first creature). I don't need to see the mana cost to say this isn't very good. It suffers from the same issue as Sweltering Suns of working against yourself. The thing about Reckless Rage in paper is 4 damage will kill most creatures your opponent controls and the 2 damage to your creature is usually either irrelevant (because damage drops off at the end of each turn) or even beneficial because it can trigger an enrage effect. This card could be made far better by either increasing the damage to the opponents creature by 2 damage or by decreasing the damage to your own creature to 1 or both even. This of course assuming the mana cost isn't too high. 6 mana U that does 6 damage to a creature and 2 to your first is a good card imo. 6 mana for 4 damage and 1 to your own isn't as good in most cases but better for an enrage deck.

Lightning Strike was a card that was skipped from XLN that could be a good U - 8 mana for 5-6 damage to a creature or player. 5 damage is a good card, 6 damage is a great card.

Bombard is a card that is being skipped from RIX that could be a good C or U - 6 mana for 8 damage to a creature.

Red really needs these additions in my opinion. Unlicensed Disintegration was a card almost everyone had or could easily get at U and was honestly in every single red deck that didn't have a better alternative from another color.

Edit: Forgot to filter for all cards lol. Missed a few from XLN in my analysis but they are rare or higher and still not even that good.

Gunmix25

Taking a wild guess.... but are the Primals future exclusives? @Brigby

Enygma6

That would give one per color, but they’re all dinosaurs.  I’d guess it would be one per tribe again.

Enygma6

Zacama as the multi-color Primal is the one I suspect could get the Exclusive treatment.

wereotter

Enygma6 said:

That would give one per color, but they’re all dinosaurs.  I’d guess it would be one per tribe again.

The elder dinosaurs wouldn't surprise me, but yeah. If I were to wager what cards are exclusive, I'd put it on Kumena, Elenda, Zacama, and maybe Azor.

bk1234

@LakeStone the library is still showing HOU Exclusives as exclusive. Can we please get this update to reflect the RIX Exclusives — or at the very least a list of RIX exclusive cards. Thanks! 

ZW2007-

As far as I can tell by looking at the card pool in the Vault vs the card pool in the Cards section, Tendershoot Dryad and The Immortal Sun are the only exclusives.

wereotter

ZW2007- said:

As far as I can tell by looking at the card pool in the Vault vs the card pool in the Cards section, Tendershoot Dryad and The Immortal Sun are the only exclusives.

Except the Immortal Sun is still showing in the free 2-hour packs