Magic: the Gathering |OT13| Ixalan - Port to Sideboard

Prerelease Primer

MaRo's article mentions that
* Explore came from design. It was the highest rated mechanic in internal polling, so it never got changed by development.
* Amonkhet originally had vehicles, with the intention of it becoming evergreen, but there was already enough going on in the set, and they realized this would be a consistent problem, so it was made deciduous and won't appear at common.
* Plunder was a bloodthirst variant, where on ETB, you looted if dealt combat damage. They kept on looking for a raid like mechanic, until they just used raid.
* For dinosaurs, they explored the space of monstrosity and the Phantom mechanic, but it didn't seem like a good fit.
* Merfolk focused on prowess, which did mean testing prowess in green. There were multiple issues, including prowess being weird in green, spells matter diverting from the tribal theme, and them feeling prowess is too complex in large numbers at common.

EDIT: BTW, if anyone is unfamiliar with any of those terms, feel free to ask.
 
red13th said:
Carnage Tyrant is now preordering at $18, wow. And to think I didn't preorder it at $9 because I thought it was too expensive. Glad I got it for $13.
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it doesn't look that outrageously powerful to me. It's Bristling Hydra's bigger cousin with a few extras. I might undervalue the card, however
SigmasonicX said:
EDIT: BTW, if anyone is unfamiliar with any of those terms, feel free to ask.
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I had to google "deciduous"
 
red13th said:
That's true. I was thinking specifically of Hydras that are suprisingly ubiquitous but the others were sometimes left out indeed.
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Hydras technically show up in more blocks just because they don't imply much metaphysically about the plane. Like, Alara, Scars, RTR, Khans, BFZ, SOI, and Kaladesh all have exactly one hydra in the block, since there's no real worldbuilding cost to it and there's usually at least one design per block that makes the most sense as a hydra. (Compare Sphinx, which shows up in a lot less blocks but tends to be 3-4 cards when it does.)

Violet_0 said:
I had to google "deciduous"
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In Magic terms it's any mechanic that's allowed to show up whenever but doesn't appear in every block -- so currently, hybrid, vehicles, split cards, DFCs, and protection.
 
Violet_0 said:
it doesn't look that outrageously powerful to me. It's Bristling Hydra's bigger cousin with a few extras. I might undervalue the card, however
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At least it can be played outside of energy decks. It's more expensive but somehow more versatile for deckbuilding purposes.
 
charlequin said:
In Magic terms it's any mechanic that's allowed to show up whenever but doesn't appear in every block -- so currently, hybrid, vehicles, split cards, DFCs, and protection.
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figured as much from the context, I'm just not a native speaker and never heard of the word before. It was also a bit of a dumb joke since SigmasonicX was probably referring to the specific Magic mechanics
 
I'm so distraught when brewing control. I'm just looking at my current UR deck just way worse because of a lack of manlands.

Red is literally the only colour with instant speed removal at 2 mana. That's ridiculous.
 
xRaizen said:
I really wanted to play some form of grixis pirates but I guess it just isn't good enough, oh well. I'll have to settle for UB instead.

Going to preorder the rares and lands.
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For all of the good stuff red has, pirates really aren't one of them. Lannery Storm is OK I guess, but other than her there aren't really any compelling red pirates. Fiery Cannonade is probably the best reason to run red with pirates honestly.

It's a shame the red pirate mythic has to be one of the worst mythic cards ever printed.
 
Violet_0 said:
looking over the list, I don't see a single white card that seems interesting for EDH, aside from Axis of Mortality shenanigans and the legendary vampire
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I was gonna praise this card for shutting down Karador strategies w/o nuking your own yard but then I realized you don't gain life when your opponent is going off on your turn as their persist/undying trigger is put on the stack after your lifegain trigger meaning they can kill you before even one of them resolves.
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Should have just read "creatures dying don't cause abilites to trigger."
 
DrArchon said:
For all of the good stuff red has, pirates really aren't one of them. Lannery Storm is OK I guess, but other than her there aren't really any compelling red pirates. Fiery Cannonade is probably the best reason to run red with pirates honestly.

It's a shame the red pirate mythic has to be one of the worst mythic cards ever printed.
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It's expected. Red isn't allowed good mythics very often
 
Violet_0 said:
looking over the list, I don't see a single white card that seems interesting for EDH, aside from Axis of Mortality shenanigans and the legendary B/W vampire
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Ashes, Axis, Ixalan's Binding, Sanguine Sacrament, Tocatli Honor Guard, Waking Sun's Avatar. (With Alms Collector, some of these seem to shut down Arcane craziness.)

Some of the other creature cards are really interesting. Though, new player, so...
 
HK-47 said:
It's expected. Red isn't allowed good mythics very often
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Yeah, but that card could make you discard two cards of your choice and it still wouldn't feel much better than a rare. Or they could've given it Haste.

Oh well. At least red still has Chandra and Hazoret.
 
Farside said:
Ashes, Axis, Ixalan's Binding, Sanguine Sacrament, Tocatli Honor Guard, Waking Sun's Avatar. (With Alms Collector, some of these seem to shut down Arcane craziness.)

Some of the other creature cards are really interesting. Though, new player, so...
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yeah, fair point. I tend to approach EDH with a "Sun Titan isn't good enough" perspective. The dinosaurs become more exciting when there's enough good cards of them to make a decent deck, but even then they're mostly limited to tribal
 
What are you playing that Sun Titan isn't good enough? I'd say I'm close to 90% competitive and he's still up for consideration every time.

Only have it in 1 of my 8 decks though at the end of the day.
 
Familienoberhauptvogel said:
What are you playing that Sun Titan isn't good enough? I'd say I'm close to 90% competitive and he's still up for consideration every time.

Only have it in 1 of my 8 decks though at the end of the day.
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my first very rough Taigam list (basically just a big collection of "I want, maybe" cards from all sets), aside from the usual tutors, removals, cantrips and so on, are cards that make Taigam indestructible and ideally hexproof, and lots of sweepers to chain uncounterable rebounding mass removals all day because that's just my admittedly narrow idea of fun. Not a great place for creatures to be and there aren't that many 3 mana permanents to retrieve, I'm considering Emeria Shepherd instead to get back stuff like Mind's Dilation for example

okay, to be more precise, Sun Titan is really good but maybe not that great in that specific deck
Farside said:
Sun Titan seems legit. And another card to buy...
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search "essential EDH cards" for a list of the most commonly played Commander cards. There's also a site where you can see what the most popular cards for every Commander is, to get some ideas
For starters, consider getting Mimic Vat because it's a cheap card, goes into everything, very good and it's also just hilarious. Isochron Scepter, because chaining Condemn or just Ponder every turn is fun and incredibly annoying

since you're playing tribal, you'll absolutely want Door of Destinies and Coat of Arms, if they're aren't in the base deck already. Cauldron of Souls, Selfless Spirit, if you want your creature-heavy decks to survive a board wipe or two
 
Scryfall now le's you sort by EDHRec rank too which is an amazing feature.
Violet_0 said:
my first very rough Taigam list (basically just a big collection of "I want, maybe" cards from all sets), aside from the usual tutors, removals, cantrips and so on, are cards that make Taigam indestructible and ideally hexproof, and lots of sweepers to chain uncounterable rebounding mass removals all day because that's just my admittedly narrow idea of fun. Not a great place for creatures to be and there aren't that many 3 mana permanents to retrieve, I'm considering Emeria Shepherd instead to get back stuff like Mind's Dilation for example

okay, to be more precise, Sun Titan is really good but maybe not that great in that specific deck
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I have one of those myself but I'm about ready to scarp it and start from scratch. I've also been discussing him with a friend of mine intending to build it who's also considering to go fairly voltron.
I don't really see the need to protect taigam. You get his effect the moment he attacks and can just go crazy with removal to protect him fromt here. No need for hexproof and evasion.
 
Violet_0 said:
search "essential EDH cards" and for a list of the most commonly played Commander cards. There's also a site where you can see what the most popular cards for every Commander is, to get some ideas
For starters, consider getting Mimic Vat because it's a cheap card, goes into everything, very good and it's also just hilarious. Isochron Scepter, because chaining Condemn or just Ponder every turn is fun and incredibly annoying

since you're playing tribal, you'll absolutely want Door of Destinies and Coat of Arms, if they're aren't in the base deck already. Cauldron of Souls, Selfless Spirit, if you want your creature-heavy decks to survive a board wipe or too
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Scryfall just integrated with EDHREC so you can do your Scryfall search and then hit sort by EDHREC and it will order them according to the amount of times they show up in EDH decks.
 
Carnage Tyrant isn't particularly great, I don't get why it's $18 beyond being guaranteed to see play out of the board.
 
Reading Maro's article, and does anyone get the impression design handed over a file of nothing to development for this set or something? Not a single major mechanic was done, none of the tribal mechanics were sorted and the only thing that seems to have stuck are the double faced lands and the pirate ships.
 
Justin said:
Scryfall just integrated with EDHREC so you can do your Scryfall search and then hit sort by EDHREC and it will order them according to the amount of times they show up in EDH decks.
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Familienoberhauptvogel said:
Scryfall now le's you sort by EDHRec rank too which is an amazing feature.
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oh, neat, that should make things easier, thanks
I don't really see the need to protect taigam. You get his effect the moment he attacks and can just go crazy with removal to protect him fromt here. No need for hexproof and evasion.
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yeah, evasion seems unnecessary when you make him indestructible. Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots plus some tutors like Stoneforge Mystic and Open the Armory should be enough for hexproof. Don't wanna just stop the party because some jerk was holding a Path
 
Firemind said:
Splash b for scarab god
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I already am.
Violet_0 said:
yeah, evasion seems unnecessary when you make him indestructible. Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots plus some tutors like Stoneforge Mystic and Open the Armory should be enough for hexproof. Don't wanna just stop the party because some jerk was holding a Path
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I'm also running almost any counterspell with mutliple functionalities.



Woah, not sure if someone pointed this out before but Iconic Masters is the first time Azorius charm is going to be reprinted.
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Look at that sexy formating.
That leaves Gruul, Simic, Dimir and Orzhov to be updated still.
 
Maledict said:
Reading Maro's article, and does anyone get the impression design handed over a file of nothing to development for this set or something? Not a single major mechanic was done, none of the tribal mechanics were sorted and the only thing that seems to have stuck are the double faced lands and the pirate ships.
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Explore came from design, and what tribes to use, the general mechanical spaces, and what colors they went in were also settled by the end of design.
 
Also they lost a version of the Monarch mechanic to Take the Crown. The way MaRo wrote about it seemed like it was going to be a big focus of the set before they lost it.
 
I mean red does have the two most powerful mythics in standard right now. Are there even any other mythics in tier one decks at the moment aside from The Scarab God?
 
Firemind said:
Yeah voltron doesn't really work when you have uril
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you can still go voltron, an 8/8 trample kills quickly when paired with Gisela or Aurelia.
Justin said:
I mean red does have the two most powerful mythics in standard right now. Are there even any other mythics in tier one decks at the moment aside from The Scarab God?
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Vehicles is huge again so gideon and worldbreaker and ulamog for ramp
 
Familienoberhauptvogel said:
you can still go voltron, an 8/8 trample kills quickly when paired with Gisela or Aurelia.
Vehicles is huge again so gideon and worldbreaker and ulamog for ramp
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Oh yeah I forgot that somehow vehicles became a thing again in the last two weeks. I guess its because of people moving away from the decks that are not surviving rotation.
 
I think Huatli is pretty good in control. If you EoT Gearhulk then follow up with Huatli you're gaining 5 life with a 5 loyalty walker and a gearhulk in play. Otherwise she just poops out 3/3s

Opt is so much worse than expected.
 
I'm almost wondering if the 2 Mana Catalog effect is good enough for Modern in some form. 2 Mana Draw 2 in any kind of Midrange/Aggro deck that wants the card advantage.

Like, it naturally lends itself well to something that's always attacking.
 
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