It does makes a lot of sense since the mysticism of Ixalan was never really explored beyond "mostly a background thing" the first time around so there's lot of material to delve in, but I wonder how will this reflect flavor and mechanics-wise.
I don't think we'll have a major focus on death and the underworld, because this would undermine Ixalan's core flavor of "exploration" and would make too much of an overlap with Theros Beyond Death. Similarly, the mechanics would be compromised since Flip-Lands would be rather hard to do if the story focused too much in a single place and I feel Ixalan needs that hook since its other major mechanic (Treasures) became evergreen. I expect it to tend more towards pre-Eldrazi Zendikar (Quests, Traps and/or land matters) with just a slight mix of Theros Beyond Death rather than full "life, death and reincarnation".
Weird card. 5MV that's not impacting the board at Chapter 1/2 AND demanding a 3 life payment makes me want to say "not good against creature decks, probably very good against Control" but discarding only creatures and 'walkers goes against that idea. Read Ahead does makes it more flexible but 5MV reanimation is already not very good on a vacuum so even the most common ability here may not be useful, and the 2nd chapter is at its best when you can use it after untapping so you probably don't want to read ahead into it either. Feels like a combination of good effects that are priced aggressively for being stapled into a single card but together they are somehow less than the sum of its parts.
I am not into Commander but is this an auto-include in all Commander decks now or not or just the 3,4 and 5 color ones?
"3MV mana rocks with marginal upside" are now a dime in a dozen and "your Commander is now a mana dork" is not really an upside that pushes it into staple territory. If your Commander is cheap, has no tap abilities and won't get into combat then yeah, I guess this is good but otherwise Coalition Relic is also a 3MV rock that can ramp you by 2 and it doesn't requires you to both have your Commandet available and tap it for that one extra mana, and even then Relic's popularity has been going down in recent years.
It's solid, but considering the competition the only decks where I would even consider this are the ones whose Commander cost 2 or less or Legendary Tribal.
Shame it's not Legendary itself, Bard Class decks definitely want this kind of effect but every nonlegendary you run is one more potential whiff when you're storming off.
IDK, maybe still worth it, especially if you manage in to squeeze in some extra Artifact synergies in your deck, and this combined with the extra surplus of great Legendaries we'll be getting could be the boost Bard-based decks in Pioneer/Explorer needed.
Probably the best one of the entire cycle. The Defiler ramp ability is very valuable in Midrange as it allows you to both double up on a 3 and a 4 drop (which are both important slotsin Red Midrange already) or just ramp into a 6-drop if you want to. Plus, pinging potential blockers down is also very useful in Midrange, especially in a format with lot of small tokens running around.
However, I do have to mention that while this IS solid on Aggro, it'll have to compete with Raiju and I think he's not quite up to par. That said, considering how strong Red is as a Midrange color right now, I'd be shocked if it saw no play.
How good is the modularity of having both the 1-mana opposing bounce spell and the 4-mana spot removal spell? Well, if Turn // Burn is any indication, things don't look so hot....
Problem with Turn // Burn is that neither side of the equation is good, 3 mana combat trick is awful and no one is paying 2 mana for a Shock unless it also draws you a 4/3. Meanwhile, Unsummon has been proven time and again to be reliably playable in Standard when it gota marginal upgrade. Probably won't make a splash outside of Standard and MAYBE Pioneer/Explorer but I think it's fully playable in those.
Really cool card, though not exactly that powerful all things considered. Sure, if it's blue and casts Sorceries for free someone will try to play it Turns which sucks but other than that it's very weak on a vacuum and not exactly busted when it gets rolling. That said, it IS very unique and on a cool color combination, and it's quite easy to turn it into "when it attacks, destroy target creature" with stuff like Basilisk Collar while also doubling as a way to cast free spells or just accelerating you into big tempo swings. Overall excellent design IMO.
Good lord Xira Arien looks GORGEOUS. Was afraid that they would play down her aristocratic background to emphasize her being an assassin but nope, girl be makin' the finest of Cabarettis look like a bunch of boorish brutes.
Also, I just now noticed you can egg your own creatures, which is neat, but even still it's a bit of a shame she's more goodstuffs-y than what I usually play, but I'm just happy she's here.
Ohabi is cool I guess. Archer Tribal as a concept is neat but the card itself seems to lead to "pillowfort until you get value" which is not particularly exciting. I guess the main idea is abusing creatures with tap abilities and/or turning Archers into pingers... but it's one of those "even when it's working as intended it's kinda boring" synergy decks.
Really solid Uncommon Legend design, we had plenty of Spell tribal Commanders but Sorcery Tribal specifically was an unattended niche. The "spell copy" clause is good value but also doesn't clashes with safer and more versatile "spell copy" Commanders like Rootha, Mercurial Artist which IMO is a GOOD thing, let them Spell Commanders have their ups and downs.
Literally my only gripe with this is that the art pretty much screams Haste. I know 5 MV 5/4 Hasty Uncommon with other good abilities would be straight-up busted but still.
Yesss! New Xira confirmed! Shame how she shares similar design space with Chevill, Bane of Monsters but overall I'm just glad we got a flavorful top-down eumidian.
I had to laugh about this one (King Darien XLVIII)...
On the other hand, the last line scares me. There are so many people unfamiliar with Roman numerals? Or it is a joke along the lines "This creature cannot even"...?
Probably a joke, at this point sneaking in a funny ruling is a WotC tradition that happens at least once per set.
You run WU and you blink, you run this and Ephemerate. Kinda like people know EXACTLY what's Trinket Mage really all about. Not much else to say, seems exciting at first but it's deceptively straightforward, not nearly good enough for Modern but will probably see play in Commander and Historic.
Actually, this isn't a signpost Uncommon but a Rare. Then again, I made the same mistake at first, probably due to falling asleep while reading the text box.
Good lord this card is BORING. I already miss Bruenor Battlehammer, at least he was Uncommon and had a cool beard.
Imagine if WotC intentionally made Eldraine weak and Ixalan overpowered. As a joke.
Also, of all things in my mental bingo for DMU, "Banding 2.0 as a Mechanic" was not one of them.
With that said I wonder how much of a mistake putting this in Standard will be, much like Ugin a few years ago.
If the new Standard looks anything like the one right now, Lili will actually be a very healthy addition to the format.
Lili of the Veil isn't that busted on a vacuum, her real strength is either graveyard interactions and/or boosting low curve decks's matchup against mid-to-high curve decks, since low curves can empty their hand and start ticking up for free value and withering away powerful three+ drops with Edicts. Anyone playing in Standard right now can attest that the format is pretty much all three+ drops that are a nightmare to deal with because they generate free value instantly, so Lili being able to give decks focused on one- and two- drops a powerful tool to combat these threats would actually be a huge plus for the format's diversity.
We have a character named zar……ojanen which means she’s a descendant of Jedit Ojanen
which is a legend from legends so I think this locks him for a retold legend
Possible but not a lock IMO. On one hand, the initial blurb was "reimagining cards from Legends in a modern design", which seems a bit weird for Jedit since they already did that for him, but on the other hand, same thing for Ramirez technically. I can see an argument being made that this sets a precedent so that Jedit could get a new one too just as well as I can see someone saying that a "ghost" Ramirez is distinct enough from "alive" Ramirez to not count.
thats alternate universe jedit
And this changes the fact we got a modern Jedit Ojanen card how exactly...?
I don't think we'll have a major focus on death and the underworld, because this would undermine Ixalan's core flavor of "exploration" and would make too much of an overlap with Theros Beyond Death. Similarly, the mechanics would be compromised since Flip-Lands would be rather hard to do if the story focused too much in a single place and I feel Ixalan needs that hook since its other major mechanic (Treasures) became evergreen. I expect it to tend more towards pre-Eldrazi Zendikar (Quests, Traps and/or land matters) with just a slight mix of Theros Beyond Death rather than full "life, death and reincarnation".
Still probably a powerhouse in Commander tho.
It's solid, but considering the competition the only decks where I would even consider this are the ones whose Commander cost 2 or less or Legendary Tribal.
IDK, maybe still worth it, especially if you manage in to squeeze in some extra Artifact synergies in your deck, and this combined with the extra surplus of great Legendaries we'll be getting could be the boost Bard-based decks in Pioneer/Explorer needed.
However, I do have to mention that while this IS solid on Aggro, it'll have to compete with Raiju and I think he's not quite up to par. That said, considering how strong Red is as a Midrange color right now, I'd be shocked if it saw no play.
Problem with Turn // Burn is that neither side of the equation is good, 3 mana combat trick is awful and no one is paying 2 mana for a Shock unless it also draws you a 4/3. Meanwhile, Unsummon has been proven time and again to be reliably playable in Standard when it got a marginal upgrade. Probably won't make a splash outside of Standard and MAYBE Pioneer/Explorer but I think it's fully playable in those.
Also, that art? Top notch stuff.
Really cool card, though not exactly that powerful all things considered. Sure, if it's blue and casts Sorceries for free someone will try to play it Turns which sucks but other than that it's very weak on a vacuum and not exactly busted when it gets rolling. That said, it IS very unique and on a cool color combination, and it's quite easy to turn it into "when it attacks, destroy target creature" with stuff like Basilisk Collar while also doubling as a way to cast free spells or just accelerating you into big tempo swings. Overall excellent design IMO.
Also, I just now noticed you can egg your own creatures, which is neat, but even still it's a bit of a shame she's more goodstuffs-y than what I usually play, but I'm just happy she's here.
Ohabi is cool I guess. Archer Tribal as a concept is neat but the card itself seems to lead to "pillowfort until you get value" which is not particularly exciting. I guess the main idea is abusing creatures with tap abilities and/or turning Archers into pingers... but it's one of those "even when it's working as intended it's kinda boring" synergy decks.
Literally my only gripe with this is that the art pretty much screams Haste. I know 5 MV 5/4 Hasty Uncommon with other good abilities would be straight-up busted but still.
Probably a joke, at this point sneaking in a funny ruling is a WotC tradition that happens at least once per set.
Good lord this card is BORING. I already miss Bruenor Battlehammer, at least he was Uncommon and had a cool beard.
Also, of all things in my mental bingo for DMU, "Banding 2.0 as a Mechanic" was not one of them.
Lili of the Veil isn't that busted on a vacuum, her real strength is either graveyard interactions and/or boosting low curve decks's matchup against mid-to-high curve decks, since low curves can empty their hand and start ticking up for free value and withering away powerful three+ drops with Edicts. Anyone playing in Standard right now can attest that the format is pretty much all three+ drops that are a nightmare to deal with because they generate free value instantly, so Lili being able to give decks focused on one- and two- drops a powerful tool to combat these threats would actually be a huge plus for the format's diversity.