Especially since, in magical Christmas land, he can see play in standard on turn 4 with haste (with the dino reducers). Possibly even turn 3 if you're playing in the magical Christmas Heaven that you go to if you die in magical Christmas land (It might require your opponent to cast Old-Growth Dryads).
Against the kind of decks most people would be using it against, having it down on turn 5 is definitely good enough. My favorite card in the set is still a toss up between Legion's Landing and Ripjaw Raptor, though. I think either one could find a home in modern, and I'm definitely trying the landing in my BW tokens deck.
The set is solid. My favorite cards are all the Jace ones, especially Jace, Cunning Castaway (not fond of his token effect being -2 instead of 0 though) and Axis of Mortality. I may end up going to all the pre-release events or at least most.
Going to mention that Limited looks insane for this set. I'm just hoping that my luck at pre-release (assuming I make it) isn't as bad as the freaking sealed pool generator I'm using is making it look or I might be running blue red bounce and hope I kill someone with a monstrosaur.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Going to mention that Limited looks insane for this set. I'm just hoping that my luck at pre-release (assuming I make it) isn't as bad as the freaking sealed pool generator I'm using is making it look or I might be running blue red bounce and hope I kill someone with a monstrosaur.
Usually when I play around with the sealed pool generator I open up great pool after great pool... get to prerelease and I open up garbage. This time, the sealed pool generators are giving me garbage. Does that mean that reality will be great? Or even garbagier?
Going to mention that Limited looks insane for this set. I'm just hoping that my luck at pre-release (assuming I make it) isn't as bad as the freaking sealed pool generator I'm using is making it look or I might be running blue red bounce and hope I kill someone with a monstrosaur.
Usually when I play around with the sealed pool generator I open up great pool after great pool... get to prerelease and I open up garbage. This time, the sealed pool generators are giving me garbage. Does that mean that reality will be great? Or even garbagier?
I don't know, but if it works out how I'm seeing it if I open a lot of Bishop's Soldier and Territorial Hammerskull it's pretty likely I'm going white. Black seems loaded with support cards, but all of it's threats are just horrible. Green has great bombs and Red just has everything.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Well... after the pre-release my feeling on the set is that it's a great flavor win and plays great in limited, but I'm totally not seeing this set break or change standard as much as rotation did. Kind of regret jumping into dinosaurs so soon since I think all the card prices are going to crash to earth hard unless casual appeal alone is enough to keep card prices up. Pirates have the best chance as a tribe to be a tribal deck in standard, Dinosaurs as a tribe is in no way going to make the cut in competitive, though cards from dinosaurs will see play, and red has so many bolt level removal spells at 2 cmc that it's getting a little restrictive on builds (there is literally a 3 damage removal for every type of red deck and even a 3 damage removal that unconditionally kills artifacts for sideboard play... Wizards, I know we wanted Bolts that hit people in the face, but maybe this was a bit overkill?). I'm seriously hoping vampires get an anthem lord for go-wide in the future, and we really need a 4 toughness creature anthem in general.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Why did Wizards make cobbled wings a common I will never know, it is absolute destruction in sealed and will be in the top 3 picks in draft, after a more broken rare or uncommon. Imagine making one of your big dinosaurs fly, and then pay 1 mana to equip another one and so on...not to mention there are exactly 2 cards in the set that can destroy artifacts, 1 in red and 1 in green and the green one is uncommon.
Seriously messed up and overpowered card in a set where almost half the creatures played will be 5/5 or even bigger...I got wrecked two games at the pre-release today by a dinosaur deck without this equipment, but I can just imagine how much faster I would have died if he did open the equipment in his sealed pool. Why Wizards...why?
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"May he who is without mana cast the first spell!"
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Why did Wizards make cobbled wings a common I will never know, it is absolute destruction in sealed and will be in the top 3 picks in draft, after a more broken rare or uncommon. Imagine making one of your big dinosaurs fly, and then pay 1 mana to equip another one and so on...not to mention there are exactly 2 cards in the set that can destroy artifacts, 1 in red and 1 in green and the green one is uncommon.
Seriously messed up and overpowered card in a set where almost half the creatures played will be 5/5 or even bigger...I got wrecked two games at the pre-release today by a dinosaur deck without this equipment, but I can just imagine how much faster I would have died if he did open the equipment in his sealed pool. Why Wizards...why?
Funny you mentioned that. I've been first picking those wings each time in the pool just because sticking those on just about anything big is game ending. How does a dinosaur fly using those? Those have to be some seriously bonkers wings to ferry over that Charging Monstrosaur. I think it is just sailing through the air with it's mouth open like a demonic deep sea scavenger looking for flotsom...
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Did they really not do a token for Jace's ultimate? That's really lame.
It really is lame. It will be far harder to keep track of a PW's ability when you don't have a physical copy of it in some form. Hopefully this is a situation where they forgot to put it in the set, like Energy tokens in Kaladesh.
Just because the initial promo pictures showed Pirates and Dinosaurs, it didn't mean we won't get some juicy Aztec/Mayan tribes/mechanics/flavor. In the end we got nothing. I have nothing against the depiction of the natives in this block, heck I like that they gave them a fantasy look and the Dinosaurs. My problem is that the set focuses too heavily on the Dinosaurs instead of the Sun Empire.
Just because the initial promo picture showed Pirates and Dinosaurs, it didn't mean we won't get some juicy giant Mecha bot flavor and vampiric conquistadors. I don't see what this sentence wants to tell me.
And we didn't get nothing. We get a take on the mythology where instead of a pantheon of deities we get avatars of the main deity and lesser mythical beings also get their place in the world (I like to point out the "Night God").
The thing is that you claim Ixalan "Ixalan should feel like a Meso-American set because it was marketed as one" and follow that up with: "Instead we got Jurassic Pirates." And you tell that as if you feel betrayed and the set wasn't marketed as "Jurassic Pirates" despite the fact that it was - heavily, since the first promotional art got released.
So conversely I could say: "Ixalan should feel like Jurassic Pirates because it was marketed as such". And it does and that's good, so your negativity about WotC following through with a theme that you "like" is just smearing something well-done because you disagree with a choice of focus.
A long time ago, I made a custom Meso-american set (that also featured Pirates) where I had a subtheme of "sacrifice matters" and I just wished that WotC focused a little bit more on that aspect: proud warriors dressed as animals, shamans and priests, temples and sacrificing rituals, traps and prophecies etc.
Why? You already made that yourself. And probably better. How can anything WotC makes not pale against something tailor-made by you for you? And why would they try if they can instead make a set that will be loved by a broader audience?
The real question is: Would you prefer they just remove the Meso-American theme and instead use a theme of a different historical scenario of colonization like the Europeans in Africa or Asia? Even if you have no guarantees for a replacement setting using the Meso-American theme as top-down thematic pillar, texture or at all?
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
Dinosaurs as a tribe is in no way going to make the cut in competitive.
Just saving this quote for a few weeks from now.
My definition on this is a deck that purely runs the "tribe". Dinosaurs right now have no lords, require humans to ramp into themselves, and their only lord is a seven mana green dinosaur that is basically designed for sealed. I did say in the same post that we will see dinosaurs in the competitive meta, just they are going to be tossed in right now with a lot of other stuff from Amonkhet. The best pure tribal deck is probably going to be pirates until Rivals comes out. Also liking pirates more than dinosaurs at the moment.
Also, yes I get a bit annoyed when someone takes a clip of someone elses post, then takes it out the complete context and then heralds it as a "Look how WRONGZ you WEREZ!" in the derpiest manner possible. Which is about what you just suggested you are going to do.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Dinosaurs as a tribe is in no way going to make the cut in competitive.
Just saving this quote for a few weeks from now.
My definition on this is a deck that purely runs the "tribe". Dinosaurs right now have no lords, require humans to ramp into themselves, and their only lord is a seven mana green dinosaur that is basically designed for sealed. I did say in the same post that we will see dinosaurs in the competitive meta, just they are going to be tossed in right now with a lot of other stuff from Amonkhet. The best pure tribal deck is probably going to be pirates until Rivals comes out. Also liking pirates more than dinosaurs at the moment.
Also, yes I get a bit annoyed when someone takes a clip of someone elses post, then takes it out the complete context and then heralds it as a "Look how WRONGZ you WEREZ!" in the derpiest manner possible. Which is about what you just suggested you are going to do.
I’ve never had a prerelease pool scream so loudly at me what archetype to play. First 6 rares I saw went redpirate redpirate blackpirate boat compass blackpirate. Well, I guess I’m playing red black pirates!
Day was fail though. Lost games to mana flood, lost games to mana shortage, and lost games to a lack of removal that could deal with large threats (like dinosaurs!) - such is limited. When I curved out I hit some fast wins, and in some longer games I was able to live the dream of Captivating Crew + Makeshift Munitions.
My friend lost his pre-release to a guy playing Captivating Crew and Makeshift Munitions + tons and tons of card filtering raid pirates. Somehow that cannon can shoot Raptors the size of horses and the Ixalan natives must have had a good view of the forest.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I did one pre-release on Saturday afternoon and went 2-2 with a mediocre deck with about 5 dinos, 5 pirates and 7 vampires so it was a G/B all over the place deck but I needed black for removal. On Sunday I went 3-2 with a B/W Vampire/Pirates deck which ran 6 removal cards plus the Canon that deals 2 damage. I lost the two rounds to two dinosaurs heavy deck one game in which my opponent killed me with a 7/6 hexproof, trample dinosaur that had the flying equipment attached to it...I have no idea how such a thing is even possible.
So, basically you will either play Dinosaurs or you will lose to Dinosaurs, that's how sealed will be going for everyone. As for drafts, that stupid equipment that gives creatures flying will be a 1st pick common in this set, no matter what colors you're playing or what archetype, that common is a FIRST pick...mark my words.
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"May he who is without mana cast the first spell!"
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
There was certainly something... strange about the rarities in this pre-release. My friend and I played in *ALL* the pre-releases and pulled only 3 (very bad) mythics in all those boxes and all our prize packs. Same with everyone across the board. Very, very few Planeswalkers - and out of all the events this entire weekend, only 5 Jaces, none of which were the foil or the promo? Horrible, horrible. I couldn't believe it. Even the certain uncommons were unseen at all. Ixalan's Binding? Nowhere to be found. Perilous Voyage? I didn't see a single one at all - literally at all.
I don't know if the Buy-a-box packs threw off their metrics or mathematics or what, but pulling Arcane Denials back to back to back across from someone else who did too, the only Axis of Mortality were two pre-release promo ones, everyone getting the same batch of rares... Something in this set is off. This is the first pre-release my friends and I left without even seeing the Planeswalkers we wanted at all. In SOI, I walked out with two Arlinn Kords, in EMN, I had three Tamiyos by the end of the night's trades. Ixalan... No one had Jace at all. 2/5 were a RUMOR that someone pulled them.
So, basically you will either play Dinosaurs or you will lose to Dinosaurs, that's how sealed will be going for everyone. As for drafts, that stupid equipment that gives creatures flying will be a 1st pick common in this set, no matter what colors you're playing or what archetype, that common is a FIRST pick...mark my words.
So I started as WG dino's but found that there just wasn't enough play to them. If your opponent has any removal then your done. Round 2 I switched to UG Merfolk and liked it much better as they have quite a bit of evasion to pressure the opponent and can grow to decent size to prevent being run over and decent tricks to back them up. I saw some good pirate decks too as the raid train seems to be easier to get rolling than I initially expected. All in all a fun time. While it is a tribal set different tribes play decently together. Evasive merfolk help pirates, life gain helps ramp into dinos, treasure helps splash/ramp for big finishers. I think with all the treasure 3+ color decks are viable and 16 lands are probably all you need since there don't seem to be many mana sinks late in the game plus explore helps you get to your lands faster. This will be a fun set.
As for the equipment I think there are enough destroy artifacts/ kill a flyer that it won't be a big player. Sure you can get gotten by it but it's not unbeatable strategy.
There was certainly something... strange about the rarities in this pre-release. My friend and I played in *ALL* the pre-releases and pulled only 3 (very bad) mythics in all those boxes and all our prize packs. Same with everyone across the board. Very, very few Planeswalkers - and out of all the events this entire weekend, only 5 Jaces, none of which were the foil or the promo? Horrible, horrible. I couldn't believe it. Even the certain uncommons were unseen at all. Ixalan's Binding? Nowhere to be found. Perilous Voyage? I didn't see a single one at all - literally at all.
I don't know if the Buy-a-box packs threw off their metrics or mathematics or what, but pulling Arcane Denials back to back to back across from someone else who did too, the only Axis of Mortality were two pre-release promo ones, everyone getting the same batch of rares... Something in this set is off. This is the first pre-release my friends and I left without even seeing the Planeswalkers we wanted at all. In SOI, I walked out with two Arlinn Kords, in EMN, I had three Tamiyos by the end of the night's trades. Ixalan... No one had Jace at all. 2/5 were a RUMOR that someone pulled them.
Expecting to get a Mythic let alone a specific Mythic is never going to be a guarantied proposition. As for no mythics one of my opponents got 2 Varaska's which is unlikely but possible and I got a regular Axis of Mortality (wish I had basically anything else though).
There was certainly something... strange about the rarities in this pre-release. My friend and I played in *ALL* the pre-releases and pulled only 3 (very bad) mythics in all those boxes and all our prize packs. Same with everyone across the board. Very, very few Planeswalkers - and out of all the events this entire weekend, only 5 Jaces, none of which were the foil or the promo? Horrible, horrible. I couldn't believe it. Even the certain uncommons were unseen at all. Ixalan's Binding? Nowhere to be found. Perilous Voyage? I didn't see a single one at all - literally at all.
I don't know if the Buy-a-box packs threw off their metrics or mathematics or what, but pulling Arcane Denials back to back to back across from someone else who did too, the only Axis of Mortality were two pre-release promo ones, everyone getting the same batch of rares... Something in this set is off. This is the first pre-release my friends and I left without even seeing the Planeswalkers we wanted at all. In SOI, I walked out with two Arlinn Kords, in EMN, I had three Tamiyos by the end of the night's trades. Ixalan... No one had Jace at all. 2/5 were a RUMOR that someone pulled them.
Every set, every single set, someone has a story about how they noticed something weird going on with the mythic/rare/whatever distribution, presenting their anecdotal evidence as though it's significant proof. It's always meaningless, as becomes apparent when more people recount their findings, and we get more and more data points.
What you witnessed is nothing that can't be explained by variance and random chance. When you're dealing with randomization, like the contents of boosters, you're bound to get sample groups that seem odd when observed in a vacuum. You never saw a single Perilous Voyage? Well, I guarantee that some other store somewhere else got flooded with them during the prerelease, while seeing none of some random other card that you saw plenty of. It happens.
If you roll a d20 and get five 1's in a row, that doesn't automatically mean the die is rigged. Weird ***** happens sometimes.
Never said anything was rigged. Something was off with our rarities, though. It only matters to me because I'm pretty heartbroken about lack of Jaces. I thought surely someone would get a foil one... by the end of today I was just hoping someone would have one at all. And out of two events today, only one person did (naturally the guy that is a hyper-anxious value hoarder). It's possible other stores got flooded with them I suppose. Wish it had been ours. Sigh.
I'm having a hard look at enchantments-matter decks. Between Legion's Landing and Cartouche of Solidarity we've recently gotten two cards that are 1 mana enchantments that put one creature body and one enchantment on the board, adding to Hopeful Eidolon and Nyxborn Shieldmate. Add some Mesa Enchantresses and Ethereal Armors, having a look at Myth Realized... and the deck writes itself.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Usually when I play around with the sealed pool generator I open up great pool after great pool... get to prerelease and I open up garbage. This time, the sealed pool generators are giving me garbage. Does that mean that reality will be great? Or even garbagier?
I don't know, but if it works out how I'm seeing it if I open a lot of Bishop's Soldier and Territorial Hammerskull it's pretty likely I'm going white. Black seems loaded with support cards, but all of it's threats are just horrible. Green has great bombs and Red just has everything.
My last sealed pool looks nuts...
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Looks like dinosaur tribal is the one everyone is pointing they're fingers toward 35 decks found on EDHREC is using Gishath, Sun's avatar
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Seriously messed up and overpowered card in a set where almost half the creatures played will be 5/5 or even bigger...I got wrecked two games at the pre-release today by a dinosaur deck without this equipment, but I can just imagine how much faster I would have died if he did open the equipment in his sealed pool. Why Wizards...why?
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
Funny you mentioned that. I've been first picking those wings each time in the pool just because sticking those on just about anything big is game ending. How does a dinosaur fly using those? Those have to be some seriously bonkers wings to ferry over that Charging Monstrosaur. I think it is just sailing through the air with it's mouth open like a demonic deep sea scavenger looking for flotsom...
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
UBBreya's Toybox (Competitive, Combo)WR
RGodzilla, King of the MonstersG
-Retired Decks-
UBLazav, Dimir Mastermind (Competitive, UB Voltron/Control)UB
"Knowledge is such a burden. Release it. Release all your fears to me."
—Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
It really is lame. It will be far harder to keep track of a PW's ability when you don't have a physical copy of it in some form. Hopefully this is a situation where they forgot to put it in the set, like Energy tokens in Kaladesh.
Feel free to tell me yours!
Just saving this quote for a few weeks from now.
Just because the initial promo picture showed Pirates and Dinosaurs, it didn't mean we won't get some juicy giant Mecha bot flavor and vampiric conquistadors. I don't see what this sentence wants to tell me.
And we didn't get nothing. We get a take on the mythology where instead of a pantheon of deities we get avatars of the main deity and lesser mythical beings also get their place in the world (I like to point out the "Night God").
The thing is that you claim Ixalan "Ixalan should feel like a Meso-American set because it was marketed as one" and follow that up with: "Instead we got Jurassic Pirates." And you tell that as if you feel betrayed and the set wasn't marketed as "Jurassic Pirates" despite the fact that it was - heavily, since the first promotional art got released.
So conversely I could say: "Ixalan should feel like Jurassic Pirates because it was marketed as such". And it does and that's good, so your negativity about WotC following through with a theme that you "like" is just smearing something well-done because you disagree with a choice of focus.
Why? You already made that yourself. And probably better. How can anything WotC makes not pale against something tailor-made by you for you? And why would they try if they can instead make a set that will be loved by a broader audience?
The real question is: Would you prefer they just remove the Meso-American theme and instead use a theme of a different historical scenario of colonization like the Europeans in Africa or Asia? Even if you have no guarantees for a replacement setting using the Meso-American theme as top-down thematic pillar, texture or at all?
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
My definition on this is a deck that purely runs the "tribe". Dinosaurs right now have no lords, require humans to ramp into themselves, and their only lord is a seven mana green dinosaur that is basically designed for sealed. I did say in the same post that we will see dinosaurs in the competitive meta, just they are going to be tossed in right now with a lot of other stuff from Amonkhet. The best pure tribal deck is probably going to be pirates until Rivals comes out. Also liking pirates more than dinosaurs at the moment.
Also, yes I get a bit annoyed when someone takes a clip of someone elses post, then takes it out the complete context and then heralds it as a "Look how WRONGZ you WEREZ!" in the derpiest manner possible. Which is about what you just suggested you are going to do.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Dinosaurs have two lords. Regisaur Alpha and Thundering Spineback
I’ve never had a prerelease pool scream so loudly at me what archetype to play. First 6 rares I saw went redpirate redpirate blackpirate boat compass blackpirate. Well, I guess I’m playing red black pirates!
Day was fail though. Lost games to mana flood, lost games to mana shortage, and lost games to a lack of removal that could deal with large threats (like dinosaurs!) - such is limited. When I curved out I hit some fast wins, and in some longer games I was able to live the dream of Captivating Crew + Makeshift Munitions.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
So, basically you will either play Dinosaurs or you will lose to Dinosaurs, that's how sealed will be going for everyone. As for drafts, that stupid equipment that gives creatures flying will be a 1st pick common in this set, no matter what colors you're playing or what archetype, that common is a FIRST pick...mark my words.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
I don't know if the Buy-a-box packs threw off their metrics or mathematics or what, but pulling Arcane Denials back to back to back across from someone else who did too, the only Axis of Mortality were two pre-release promo ones, everyone getting the same batch of rares... Something in this set is off. This is the first pre-release my friends and I left without even seeing the Planeswalkers we wanted at all. In SOI, I walked out with two Arlinn Kords, in EMN, I had three Tamiyos by the end of the night's trades. Ixalan... No one had Jace at all. 2/5 were a RUMOR that someone pulled them.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
So I started as WG dino's but found that there just wasn't enough play to them. If your opponent has any removal then your done. Round 2 I switched to UG Merfolk and liked it much better as they have quite a bit of evasion to pressure the opponent and can grow to decent size to prevent being run over and decent tricks to back them up. I saw some good pirate decks too as the raid train seems to be easier to get rolling than I initially expected. All in all a fun time. While it is a tribal set different tribes play decently together. Evasive merfolk help pirates, life gain helps ramp into dinos, treasure helps splash/ramp for big finishers. I think with all the treasure 3+ color decks are viable and 16 lands are probably all you need since there don't seem to be many mana sinks late in the game plus explore helps you get to your lands faster. This will be a fun set.
As for the equipment I think there are enough destroy artifacts/ kill a flyer that it won't be a big player. Sure you can get gotten by it but it's not unbeatable strategy.
Expecting to get a Mythic let alone a specific Mythic is never going to be a guarantied proposition. As for no mythics one of my opponents got 2 Varaska's which is unlikely but possible and I got a regular Axis of Mortality (wish I had basically anything else though).
What you witnessed is nothing that can't be explained by variance and random chance. When you're dealing with randomization, like the contents of boosters, you're bound to get sample groups that seem odd when observed in a vacuum. You never saw a single Perilous Voyage? Well, I guarantee that some other store somewhere else got flooded with them during the prerelease, while seeing none of some random other card that you saw plenty of. It happens.
If you roll a d20 and get five 1's in a row, that doesn't automatically mean the die is rigged. Weird ***** happens sometimes.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||