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[Lucario]

Trynna figure out what to do with the copy of Inalla I ordered, started brewing Storm and am amazed at how gross this is.

Double tutors for sol ring/crypt off a single Trinket Mage
Double your draws from Augur of Bolas, Alchemist's Apprentice, Sea Gate Oracle, Merchant of Secrets, Disciple of Bolas, Gurmag Drowner, etc, creating some of the most busted draw spells in the game.
Goblin Electromancer gets doubled if you're going off same-turn
Two extra same-turn Draw 7s and an extra Yawgmoth's Will effect in Magus of the Wheel, Magus of the Jar, and Magus of the Will, with the ability to run Thousand-Year Elixir or a global haste effect to make them double up.
Solvedi Sage becomes a real card
Same-turn infinite combos with Elite Arcanist + double untap effect + land or artifact that taps for 3 or more
Fatestitcher from GY to untap a karoo is now +2 mana instead of +1
Double recursion off Snapcaster, Archaeomancer, Izzet Chronarch, etc

Gonna try to run it as an untap storm deck with pretty much entirely draw spells, twiddle effects, recursion, and lands/artifacts that tap for more than 1.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Isn't Kess strictly better in a storm deck?

 

[Lucario]

Isn't Kess strictly better in a storm deck?

You have to cast Kess, she has to resolve, and even then you only get one spell back per turn.

Inalla does more for 0 mana

edit: I know I'm understating how good Kess is, because in the setup turns for a storm deck she does do more than Inalla. Doubling all of your cantrips for a 4 mana investment is almost certainly a bigger deal than the ~6 above-the-curve inexpensive draw spells Inalla gives you access to.

Inalla makes going off absurdly easy by giving your deck access to ~15 extra broken card draw spells, another yawgmoth's will, and doubling your cost reduction wizards. It's probably close, I'm just hyped.

 

[Tunoku]

So sealed format is gonna be slow af isn't it

Huge ass dinos seem to be the deal of the day

Yeah, I hope I open a good green pool with extra fixing as well. Feel like you won't get far with a mediocre aggressive deck or try to make a bunch of Vampire tokens. Without evasion they look terrible against a 6/6.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

You have to cast Kess, she has to resolve, and even then you only get one spell back per turn.

Inalla does more for 0 mana

edit: I know I'm understating how good Kess is, because in the setup turns for a storm deck she does do more than Inalla. Doubling all of your cantrips for a 4 mana investment is almost certainly a bigger deal than the ~6 above-the-curve inexpensive draw spells Inalla gives you access to.

Inalla makes going off absurdly easy by giving your deck access to ~15 extra broken card draw spells, another yawgmoth's will, and doubling your cost reduction wizards. It's probably close, I'm just hyped.

not sure magus of the will or wheel is a good use with inalla. That's a 7 mana yawgmoth's will, a simple past in flames is more cost effective and for just 1 more you can overload mizzix mastery.
Inalla is powerful but she seems more skewed towards grixis grinding (with the combo) than storming off.

 

[Ashodin]

Yeah, I hope I open a good green pool with extra fixing as well. Feel like you won't get far with a mediocre aggressive deck or try to make a bunch of Vampire tokens. Without evasion they look terrible against a 6/6.

Yeah I'm going to be looking for stompy as well. Looks like the sealed auto generator that was linked last page seems to preference that type of deck if it's there.

 

[Repgnar]

There's quite a bit of removal though right? I think Dino's look the best right now but I could see an aggro/tempo based deck with removal doing work if they just remove the big dino you spent those turns working towards and now your board and life is behind. That being said if green just curves out and controls the board then tempo may not be enough.

 

[Ashodin]

I'll never get a sealed deck this good

 

[Angry Grimace]

Watching SaffronOlive play drives me crazy because he's not particularly good.

 

[Ashodin]

Watching SaffronOlive play drives me crazy because he's not particularly good.

does he mispronounce words?

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Watching SaffronOlive play drives me crazy because he's not particularly good.

I turn off about half of his videos halfway through because he does stupid stuff. If he's forced to play a deck with counterspells in it, I just know I'm going to cringe.

Spoiler

Why the fuck did you not just Mana Leak the Gifts Ungiven?

 

[blindrocket]

I have over $300 in credit at Cardhoarder that I haven't touched in over a year. They won't exactly let me cash it out, which is a little frustrating.
They want me to buy cards with it, then trade them the cards for Tickets, then sell them the tickets for cash. This seems very convoluted.
I was also told that there is not a unified system for trading cards for tickets. Like, a $10 card doesn't trade for a set amount of tickets. It depends on the card, so I was told. All that means to me is that I have to be careful what card I purchase because I could possibly come out with less than I should.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Limited Set Review: Red

 

[Repgnar]

Where is God Pharaoh's Gift in the meta currently?

I know it's not the greatest card but I'm really wanting to build around Fleet Swallower for FNM's. Unfortunately some of the cards that really go with mill are rotating out so looking at other options of playing with it. Tried making a U/B control deck but it's just a shittier version of U/B control that would leave the Fleet Swallower out for a turn in the late game susceptible to removal. Now i'm thinking about a U/R God Pharaoh's Gift deck that would play really similar to the version now but instead it would want to re-animate Fleet Swallower. While it's still susceptible to removal I could now play everything on one turn.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

dead to scarab god and abrade is still in the format.

 

[Angry Grimace]

dead to scarab god and abrade is still in the format.

Yep. Abrade's alternate mode is generally better for non aggro red decks with Kaladesh still around.

I don't think you'd want to drop White either. That's where you get Angel of Inventon and Refurbish.

 

[Ashodin]

Angel of Invention is sum good. Dropping her with Anointed Procession results in 4 (or 8 if two are out) tokens. Lots of swingage.

 

[Repgnar]

Yep. Abrade's alternate mode is generally better for non aggro red decks with Kaladesh still around.

I don't think you'd want to drop White either. That's where you get Angel of Inventon and Refurbish.

Are people running Refurbish? I thought the most recent decks dropped refurbish and are only running Angel of Invention? Angel is a sweet card especially coming in as a 6/6 lifelink flyer vigilance. I guess my thought process was basically replacing it with Fleet as a different type of wincon.

EDIT: now that I'm thinking about, there's even more GY hate coming in Ixalan so GPG has that going against it as well.

 

[Santiako]

Ugh, just remembered that the pro tour is not until November this time.

 

[Copenap]

Pretty excitet for prerelease tomorrow, I hope I'll get the cards to make red/white dinosaurs work.

 

[Son1x]

I'm really excited for the prerelease tomorrow. Thinking about the rotation, standard might be fun again so I'll try to build something.

So with the new legendary planeswalker rule, Lay Bare the Heart doesn'thit PWs anymore, right?

 

[Santiako]

I'm missing the prerelease

So with the new legendary planeswalker rule, Lay Bare the Heart doesn'thit PWs anymore, right?

Correct. Duress fills that role better now.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I'm missing the prerelease

Your own fault for having a social life.

 

[Justin]

I'm really excited for the prerelease tomorrow. Thinking about the rotation, standard might be fun again so I'll try to build something.

So with the new legendary planeswalker rule, Lay Bare the Heart doesn'thit PWs anymore, right?

Standard was amazing after the Marvel ban and HOU release. With so many cards leaving it's likely it get less amazing for a while.

 

[Violet_0]

draft, first pack

what would you pick? This is almost as bad as Sophie's choice

 

[Daedardus]

draft, first pack

what would you pick? This is almost as bad as Sophie's choice

Walk the Plank is a top pick, but the dino would be a pretty OK choice if you need some creatures. The rest is garbage though.

 

[Justin]

draft, first pack

what would you pick? This is almost as bad as Sophie's choice

For me it would be between Walk the Plank and the Dinosaur. The ship and the Cannon require too much synergy to really go and off if the people around you are in those colors you are going to be upset having a 2/2 boat if you only pull 2 or 3 other good explore creatures, same with the cannon and pirates.

I would probably go with the Monstrosaur for the simple fact that you can put it in any deck that plays red and can even splash for it and if you pass that card you are probably putting your neighbor into red. That card is also a beating. There is also a bunch of good removal in black so if you end up going red/black then you have many more opportunities to pick up removal.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Charging Monstrosaur

 

[Violet_0]

yeah, it's obviously between Walk and Monstrosaur, I just didn't feel like editing

I decided to go with Monstrosaur. My reasoning was that you can pick up some less efficient removal later, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a creature as good as Monstrosaur. And as it turned out, I got a bunch of dinos afterwards

e: btw, I suspect that red is going to be problematic in draft because it's the only color shared between both 3-color tribes = the most likely to be played tribes

 

[DrArchon]

I'd go Saur.

Plank is really good for sure, but I dunno. I just love a 5 mana 5/5 with trample and haste. Blow out city. And it's not like there aren't other good options for removal, especially in red. Shit, there's that common sorcery that deals 6 with raid.

 

[y2dvd]

Walk the Plank is a premium removal but the dino is easily splashable. Imma say the dino for the shear power level.

 

[Boogiepop]

Btw, I'm planning on probably sticking to just two colors for the prerelease, honestly due to lack of deckbuilding expertise making me afraid of trying to properly balance out three colors for such a thing. Is that an okay plan? Or is three colors actually a better choice than I'm assuming, and doing so is actually handicapping myself significantly?

 

[DrArchon]

Btw, I'm planning on probably sticking to just two colors for the prerelease, honestly due to lack of deckbuilding expertise making me afraid of trying to properly balance out three colors for such a thing. Is that an okay plan? Or is three colors actually a better choice than I'm assuming, and doing so is actually handicapping myself significantly?

If you have enough good cards to run a deck with only two colors, do it. It's so much easier when you don't have to worry about hitting lands for a third color.

But, again, that's assuming you have enough good cards to only run two colors. If you don't, don't pigeonhole yourself into two colors by throwing in subpar cards instead of using good cards and going three colors. Just be sure to throw in whatever mana-fixing cards you have as well.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Btw, I'm planning on probably sticking to just two colors for the prerelease, honestly due to lack of deckbuilding expertise making me afraid of trying to properly balance out three colors for such a thing. Is that an okay plan? Or is three colors actually a better choice than I'm assuming, and doing so is actually handicapping myself significantly?

Depends on what your pool look like. Playing two colors is usually the best unless there's a lot of mana fixing, but sometimes you don't have enough playables in any two colors.

 

[Violet_0]

Btw, I'm planning on probably sticking to just two colors for the prerelease, honestly due to lack of deckbuilding expertise making me afraid of trying to properly balance out three colors for such a thing. Is that an okay plan? Or is three colors actually a better choice than I'm assuming, and doing so is actually handicapping myself significantly?

you don't plan ahead in limited. It depends on your card pool. If the cards support a decent 2-color deck, great. If not, try to get some color fixing in there. You may also want to splash a color (add another color for just one or two very powerful preferably late-game cards with minimal lands in that color). And if something doesn't work out, you can always redo your deck in sealed in between the matches

 

[Justin]

Btw, I'm planning on probably sticking to just two colors for the prerelease, honestly due to lack of deckbuilding expertise making me afraid of trying to properly balance out three colors for such a thing. Is that an okay plan? Or is three colors actually a better choice than I'm assuming, and doing so is actually handicapping myself significantly?

For sealed you can run two colors but you will be playing a lot of bad creatures to meet the 15-16 creatures you want to run. This set seems harder because there is nothing like an evolving wilds or traveler's amulet to tutor up your splash colors. Explore and Treasure can help you draw lands but they are conditional.

In closing run two colors if you pull enough creatures to support it. If you need to splash make sure the cards of your splash color dont have a 2 color casting cost (ie dont splash red for Wakening Suns Avatar as it costs RRR). Also if your splash color cards are a bit higher on the curve it gives you a few more turns to draw the lands.

Edit: wow lots of people f5in this morning. Must be slow work days for us all...

 

[Imperfected]

If it's creature versus removal, I usually just ask myself, "What are the odds I get to use this removal spell on a creature of equal or greater value to the creature I could be taking?"

Pretty low odds on sniping something with more impact than Monstrosaur, especially since in the case where you hit a Monstrosaur itself it's already gotten a swing in due to Walk the Plank being Sorcery speed. You're mostly just hoping to hit the beefy Green (un)common dinos or Vishnath at that point.

 

[siddx]

draft, first pack

what would you pick? This is almost as bad as Sophie's choice

Dino for me. I almost always play aggro though.

 

[DrArchon]

It's a real shame Charging Monstrosaur won't see any standard play. I like the card well enough, but Glorybringer really hogs the 5 drop spot, and even the fact it's a dinosaur doesn't count for much when I suspect most dino decks will run either Regisaur Alpha or Otepec Huntmaster.

Oh Charging Monstrosaur, if only they had pushed you a little more.

 

[Justin]

PVDDR's Prerelease primer
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-ixalan-prerelease-primer/

His conclusions

Color identities are a bit lost in Ixalan. Instead, they’re replaced by tribal identities. Things that we’re used to knowing (such as “green has the best fixing” or “blue has no early plays”) aren’t necessarily true anymore.
Tribal synergies matter, but there isn’t that much payoff. As such, it isn’t necessary to choose a tribe and commit to it—you can have multiple tribes or no tribe at all and still have a good deck.
There’s almost no colorless fixing, and little fixing in green. Fixing is instead in blue and black because of the Treasures.
Most gold rares are worth splashing for if you can afford to.
The format is (probably) quite fast. There are multiple good 2-drops in every color and if you stumble you will die. You should always choose to play.
The removal is not as efficient as the creatures—you’ll often pay 4 or 5 mana to remove a 3-drop. A lot of the removal is splashable, but you might not even want to splash for it, as you can’t play too much. Save removal for the creatures you truly can’t beat and try to kill everything else in combat.

 

[Ashodin]

tl;dr: TURN DUDES SIDEWAYS THE FORMAT

 

[y2dvd]

Sealed usual forces you into 3 colors anyways since you have no control over card selection of your pool. There has been pools where I needed to run 4 colors just to have any depths. Others will be in the same scenario, so I think it's safer to go 3 colors. Of course if you can focus on 2 colors, do so, but I would force it.

 

[Justin]

Decent stream from prerelease in Australia if you are bored at work like me

https://www.twitch.tv/generalgamesaus

 

[siddx]

I usually mostly agree with LSV but he is just dead fuckass wrong about threaten effects being bad in limited. I have won countless games by snatching a flyer or their big bomb or suckering them into attacking thinking they had enough blockers only for me to steal one and get damage through.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

It's not that threatens don't do work. It's that they only work in certain board states, and are literal dead cards in others. The floor on a threaten is so low that it's often better to just not play it.

 

[bigjeffery]

I usually mostly agree with LSV but he is just dead fuckass wrong about threaten effects being bad in limited. I have won countless games by snatching a flyer or their big bomb or suckering them into attacking thinking they had enough blockers only for me to steal one and get damage through.

Sure, but you've also probably lost countless games with it just sitting useless in your hand.

 

[Bonethug]

Decent stream from prerelease in Australia if you are bored at work like me

https://www.twitch.tv/generalgamesaus

Nice stream. Thanks.

 

[charlequin]

I usually mostly agree with LSV but he is just dead fuckass wrong about threaten effects being bad in limited.

What's the exact context here? I can see low-valuing these effects by default for all the contextual reasons people bring up, but there's a lot of upside potential on these as well depending on the details of the whole card: obviously it does something else that's key to why it's so good, but Grab the Reins is like an all-time brutal limited bomb.

 

[ultron87]

What's the exact context here? I can see low-valuing these effects by default for all the contextual reasons people bring up, but there's a lot of upside potential on these as well depending on the details of the whole card: obviously it does something else that's key to why it's so good, but Grab the Reins is like an all-time brutal limited bomb.

I assume it's that he gave Hijack, which is a just a basic Threaten that also gets artifacts, a .5 in his Red set review. I'd maybe bump it to 1.0 or 1.5 but they generally aren't great unless you're extremely aggressive.

 

[Firemind]

It's not that threatens don't do work. It's that they only work in certain board states, and are literal dead cards in others. The floor on a threaten is so low that it's often better to just not play it.

They work fine with a sac outlet. They're at least playable in R/B vampires in Innistrad.