After getting a look at Ixalan, I was wondering what kinds of things we might see in the following set to help round out the themes and strategies present in Ixalan.
Below are some of my ideas. Feel free to include your own or comment on my thoughts.
Vampires -- Have a decent foothold as an aggro life gain/drain strategy already in Ixalan. What I expect to see in the following set is some more cards to fill out Vampires on curve. More specifically I think we could see more Vampires that either gain you life, or can use life as a payment to your benefit. I would love to see a Vampire that allows you to pay life to cast or reanimate vampires back from the dead. Survivability is key when you're trying to reach for the win in the later stages of the game.
Dinosaurs -- I would like to see some more low cost dinosaurs that are aggressively built. I would also like to see some more big dinosaurs with unique effects or that serve as just decent beaters for the late game and that provide a substitute for Carnage Tyrant. I would also really enjoy a dinosaur that allows your dinosaurs to fight creatures somehow. It would be thematic and enables Enrage.
Merfolk -- Kind of the weakest tribe of Ixalan in my opinion, as they have some strong cards but nothing to truly solidify them to be worthy of a tribal deck. I expect to see more +1/+1 counter shenanigans, but I would like to see some kind of merfolk that either help you ramp, Grant lands abilities, or have lots of interesting activated abilities considering they have a strong connection to the land.
Pirates -- Pirates seem a little wide in terms of their effects, but most of them want to attack and raid. I would love to see more pirates with Raid effects that trigger at the end of the turn. More cards to produce pirate tokens would be nice as well. I think we need some more evasive pirates or pirates that card bounce or have some sort of protection to give them some added survivability considering most of them are fragile. Additionally, I expect to see some Coastal Piracy type of card, and maybe another "Stealing" effect.
Cycles -- I really want to see another cycle of legendary creatures for each tribe to add to the theme. A cycle of "Lords" with unique effects for each tribe would also be very effective. I imagine we could see some more Flip cards that turn into lands as well.
Tribal -- There were a few cards that let you pick a Creature Type and benefit from playing with it in Ixalan, but I could see a few more cards like that appearing in Ixalan 2. I mentioned maybe a cycle of unique lords for each tribe could be good as well.
Miscellaneous -- I think Ixalan was lacking a few things. First off is mana ramp. While Explore helps you get lands into your hand, and there were ways to make Treasure tokens, and some Dinosaur tribal humans reduced the cost of your dinosaurs, there were few cards that helped you get lands into the battlefield. Maybe some basic land search or ramp cards could appear here, or what I hope for as reprints are Explorer's Scope and Expedition Map.
Little to no exploration of introduced mechanics, and a completely knew one thats also barely explored.
Probably something like the golden city or whatever opens ixalan to the multiverse and the residents go mad from the influx of power so theres vampire on dinosaur carnage resulting in vampire dinosaurs or whatver predictable generic crap they churn out
For Dinosaurs I hope for some better removal (non-creature mostly since I'm using burn spells for removal), something that rewards or pushes enrage some more (just so if you going for enrage cards you get some more pay off) and some more protection for them.
I think Angrath will be RB and be aggro to work well with Pirates and Minotaurs decks.
Little to no exploration of introduced mechanics, and a completely knew one thats also barely explored.
Probably something like the golden city or whatever opens ixalan to the multiverse and the residents go mad from the influx of power so theres vampire on dinosaur carnage resulting in vampire dinosaurs or whatver predictable generic crap they churn out
Well looks like some got some pissed in cheerios for breakfast.
Perhaps we will finally see some more Coatls in Ixalan 2?
We got some in the art of Favorable Winds and Savage Stomp. With Pirates and Merfolk already established in Ixalan, Rivals might be able to fit them in blue, since blue/green is taken up by merfolk. This a negative of tribal block you need most of the creatures to be one of the tribes.
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More flip into land cards. A land similar to Yavimaya Hollow but replace the regenerate with the second part text of Supernatural Stamina "Until end of turn, target creature gains "When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control."
Given the description in the Planeswalker's Guide. I would expect artifacts that transform into elementals.
i'm pretty sure this section was simply referencing cards like air elemental, wild wanderer, and sentinel totem. if you look at the illustrations all three show jade totems just as described in the guide.
I hope we see a Arguel, Minion of Aclazotz and Kumena, wielder of the sun
in addition to kumena there are like 5 other river herald chieftains. i can't imagine we will get them all...which makes me wonder why they decided to have so many in the first place.
Since we have mechanics for Pirates and Dinos, maybe Vampires and Merfolk get mechanics? Vampires want something lifegainy like Extort, or perhaps an additional cost requiring life payment. Merfolk could use Landfall or a +1/+1 counter mechanic. I would suggest Awaken, but ideally the mechanic would put the counter on the Merfolk.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
More flip into land cards. A land similar to Yavimaya Hollow but replace the regenerate with the second part text of Supernatural Stamina "Until end of turn, target creature gains "When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control."
Who wants to start guessing on the other 9 possible colors?
Dimir - Front side, when it hits the field Opponent Mills, flips when enough cards are in an opponent's graveyard flip side Helm of Obedience
Rakdos - Front Side, all creatures get -1/-1, flips if no creatures on the field, back side Cursed Scroll
Golgari - Front Side Self Mill 3, put a creature from graveyard into your hand, flips based on how many creatures you have, back Side Volrath's Stronghold
Gruul - Front Side make a Token, probably a Dino Token when it hits field, flips if you have a big enough creature. Back Side..Arena
I wonder whether the flip cards will evolve. The first half of the block was about exploration and discovery primarily, but the second set might shift the focus more to conquest and fighting over the spoils - maybe lands that can transform into powerful enchantments/artifacts resembling those from the past to represent players activating ancient magicks?
Or maybe they just expand the theme from colorless/monocolored into gold multicolor... (EDIT: Thinking of the back-side frame and how it is geared towards having no color markers this seems the save bet. Disregard the previous idea.)
That said I also expect mostly a continuance of keywords and mechanics in line with their realizations with regard to abandoning mechanics too soon in favor of (thematically) weaker new ones in the blocks BFZ & SOI (I would count Tarkir as well, but for that the high number of mechanics was a deliberate action grounded in the block structure rather than defaulting to "second set needs N new things" which gave us some weaker block mechanics since then (and also before in the block THS)).
I do not see necessarily abandoning any of explore, enrage or raid. They all have more design space and serve a simple purpose. I like the color definition of the tribes and don't see them going away entirely (the (mythic?) rare cycle we know about being not characteristic for the set).
Perhaps we will finally see some more Coatls in Ixalan 2? Shrugs
i honestly can't believe we didn't get any in ixalan.
I believe this to be a conscious decision. Feathered Snakes and feathered Dinosaurs are thematical similar and it seems reasonable for them to decide to have only one or the other in a particular setting; the same reason I won't expect any feathered Dragons or feathered Lizards - the "has feathers rather than scales" slot is taken by a major tribe.
In the same manner I wouldn't be surprised if feathered Dinosaurs will remain a distinctive feature of Ixalan for the time being - even with more scaley Dinosaurs now options on other planes.
Who wants to start guessing on the other 9 possible colors?
Dimir - Front side, when it hits the field Opponent Mills, flips when enough cards are in an opponent's graveyard flip side Helm of Obedience
Rakdos - Front Side, all creatures get -1/-1, flips if no creatures on the field, back side Cursed Scroll
Golgari - Front Side Self Mill 3, put a creature from graveyard into your hand, flips based on how many creatures you have, back Side Volrath's Stronghold
Gruul - Front Side make a Token, probably a Dino Token when it hits field, flips if you have a big enough creature. Back Side..Arena
Selesnya: Absolutely create tokenz upon entering. Flips once you threshold of creature number & becomes Glare of Subdual !
Vamps - I think we will probably see a 3-4 mana anthem style of vamp. I say this from the standpoint that we didn't see one in Ixilan. Its possible they don't do this but from a draft standpoint I kind of expect there to be some sort of lord that gives stats because there was not one in Ixilan. I think we will probably see some sort of uncommon level one probably similar or in the range of Rakish Heir or Stromkirk Captain level of a card.
Dinos - I fear we might be getting bigger and fatter dinos. They seem to be trying to go 5 color with them and I suspect we will probably see a 5 color legendary dino too. I fear we are probably going with the bigger badder ones rather than seeing as many small ones this set.
Pirates - im not really a limited / standard guy anymore so I have a hard time really saying where they are and what they need. I guess I would probably expect another legend or two for commander. I would like the legends to feel a little more playable on their own because tribal is really hard to pull off for pirates. I could also see something big and expensive that possibly makes the weak pirates a little better but from a non limited / standard perspective I think pirates are going to have a hard time being viable. I did think some of the pirate based vehicles were really cool in Ixilan so I guess I would love to see something a little more expensive and less geared for standard / limited for pirates to feel like maybe they could be viable elsewhere. Really I don't have any good predictions that I think will at all be realistic but I kind of do think they probably get another legend.
Merfolk - honestly if I were to take a stab at what I think Merfolk might realistically get I would say a strong G or GU merfolk from the standpoint that mono blue merfolk has not had a shake up in a long time so if they get any good merfolk that are going to be at all decent as considerations I don't think it will be mono blue from the standpoint that I think if wizards pushes a merfolk to maybe be playable in modern / legacy it wont be mono blue given the fact that they intentionally gave fish a second color here out of the norm.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Vamps - I think we will probably see a 3-4 mana anthem style of vamp. I say this from the standpoint that we didn't see one in Ixilan. Its possible they don't do this but from a draft standpoint I kind of expect there to be some sort of lord that gives stats because there was not one in Ixilan. I think we will probably see some sort of uncommon level one probably similar or in the range of Rakish Heir or Stromkirk Captain level of a card.
Dinos - I fear we might be getting bigger and fatter dinos. They seem to be trying to go 5 color with them and I suspect we will probably see a 5 color legendary dino too. I fear we are probably going with the bigger badder ones rather than seeing as many small ones this set.
Pirates - im not really a limited / standard guy anymore so I have a hard time really saying where they are and what they need. I guess I would probably expect another legend or two for commander. I would like the legends to feel a little more playable on their own because tribal is really hard to pull off for pirates. I could also see something big and expensive that possibly makes the weak pirates a little better but from a non limited / standard perspective I think pirates are going to have a hard time being viable. I did think some of the pirate based vehicles were really cool in Ixilan so I guess I would love to see something a little more expensive and less geared for standard / limited for pirates to feel like maybe they could be viable elsewhere. Really I don't have any good predictions that I think will at all be realistic but I kind of do think they probably get another legend.
Merfolk - honestly if I were to take a stab at what I think Merfolk might realistically get I would say a strong G or GU merfolk from the standpoint that mono blue merfolk has not had a shake up in a long time so if they get any good merfolk that are going to be at all decent as considerations I don't think it will be mono blue from the standpoint that I think if wizards pushes a merfolk to maybe be playable in modern / legacy it wont be mono blue given the fact that they intentionally gave fish a second color here out of the norm.
I want super cards for my Dinos, because they are reason for my comeback to Magic. Really hopes to see some small agresive dinos and fatty. Also i want some human who can pump (+1+1) dinos or even give it forestwalk.
Landwalk variants are no longer used as keywords, just in case you weren't aware.
I think they will splash BU dinosaurs not just the elders
We're still going to get Mostly RGW Dinosaurs
And the dilophosaurus maybe it will be are artifact/enchantment destroyer enrage ability it spits at a enchantment/artifact and the movie it was like acid (note for real life dinosaur expert people this is faker than anything in the movie there's no evidence it shot venom at all.)
I think they will splash BU dinosaurs not just the elders. But we will still see plenty of RGW Dinosaurs more often. And the dilophosaurus easily going to replace deathmist raptor I think it's 1,000,000% sure it will have "deathtouch" especially since it spits acid like in the Jurassic park movie (which is fake no evidence exist of this for a dilophosaurus) and depending on its venom might be are artifact destroyer if they make the poison acid like.
Below are some of my ideas. Feel free to include your own or comment on my thoughts.
Vampires -- Have a decent foothold as an aggro life gain/drain strategy already in Ixalan. What I expect to see in the following set is some more cards to fill out Vampires on curve. More specifically I think we could see more Vampires that either gain you life, or can use life as a payment to your benefit. I would love to see a Vampire that allows you to pay life to cast or reanimate vampires back from the dead. Survivability is key when you're trying to reach for the win in the later stages of the game.
Dinosaurs -- I would like to see some more low cost dinosaurs that are aggressively built. I would also like to see some more big dinosaurs with unique effects or that serve as just decent beaters for the late game and that provide a substitute for Carnage Tyrant. I would also really enjoy a dinosaur that allows your dinosaurs to fight creatures somehow. It would be thematic and enables Enrage.
Merfolk -- Kind of the weakest tribe of Ixalan in my opinion, as they have some strong cards but nothing to truly solidify them to be worthy of a tribal deck. I expect to see more +1/+1 counter shenanigans, but I would like to see some kind of merfolk that either help you ramp, Grant lands abilities, or have lots of interesting activated abilities considering they have a strong connection to the land.
Pirates -- Pirates seem a little wide in terms of their effects, but most of them want to attack and raid. I would love to see more pirates with Raid effects that trigger at the end of the turn. More cards to produce pirate tokens would be nice as well. I think we need some more evasive pirates or pirates that card bounce or have some sort of protection to give them some added survivability considering most of them are fragile. Additionally, I expect to see some Coastal Piracy type of card, and maybe another "Stealing" effect.
Cycles -- I really want to see another cycle of legendary creatures for each tribe to add to the theme. A cycle of "Lords" with unique effects for each tribe would also be very effective. I imagine we could see some more Flip cards that turn into lands as well.
Tribal -- There were a few cards that let you pick a Creature Type and benefit from playing with it in Ixalan, but I could see a few more cards like that appearing in Ixalan 2. I mentioned maybe a cycle of unique lords for each tribe could be good as well.
Miscellaneous -- I think Ixalan was lacking a few things. First off is mana ramp. While Explore helps you get lands into your hand, and there were ways to make Treasure tokens, and some Dinosaur tribal humans reduced the cost of your dinosaurs, there were few cards that helped you get lands into the battlefield. Maybe some basic land search or ramp cards could appear here, or what I hope for as reprints are Explorer's Scope and Expedition Map.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Like maybe a enrage that has a aura shards esc ability
Almost complete abandonment of theme.
Little to no exploration of introduced mechanics, and a completely knew one thats also barely explored.
Probably something like the golden city or whatever opens ixalan to the multiverse and the residents go mad from the influx of power so theres vampire on dinosaur carnage resulting in vampire dinosaurs or whatver predictable generic crap they churn out
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What if ugin appears on ixalan two.
I think Angrath will be RB and be aggro to work well with Pirates and Minotaurs decks.
Well looks like some got some pissed in cheerios for breakfast.
We got some in the art of Favorable Winds and Savage Stomp. With Pirates and Merfolk already established in Ixalan, Rivals might be able to fit them in blue, since blue/green is taken up by merfolk. This a negative of tribal block you need most of the creatures to be one of the tribes.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
i'm pretty sure this section was simply referencing cards like air elemental, wild wanderer, and sentinel totem. if you look at the illustrations all three show jade totems just as described in the guide.
i honestly can't believe we didn't get any in ixalan.
in addition to kumena there are like 5 other river herald chieftains. i can't imagine we will get them all...which makes me wonder why they decided to have so many in the first place.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
I want a Volrath's Stronghold flip land!
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Who wants to start guessing on the other 9 possible colors?
Dimir - Front side, when it hits the field Opponent Mills, flips when enough cards are in an opponent's graveyard flip side Helm of Obedience
Rakdos - Front Side, all creatures get -1/-1, flips if no creatures on the field, back side Cursed Scroll
Golgari - Front Side Self Mill 3, put a creature from graveyard into your hand, flips based on how many creatures you have, back Side Volrath's Stronghold
Gruul - Front Side make a Token, probably a Dino Token when it hits field, flips if you have a big enough creature. Back Side..Arena
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
So if we get Serra's Sanctum that would not surprise me
Or maybe they just expand the theme from colorless/monocolored into gold multicolor... (EDIT: Thinking of the back-side frame and how it is geared towards having no color markers this seems the save bet. Disregard the previous idea.)
That said I also expect mostly a continuance of keywords and mechanics in line with their realizations with regard to abandoning mechanics too soon in favor of (thematically) weaker new ones in the blocks BFZ & SOI (I would count Tarkir as well, but for that the high number of mechanics was a deliberate action grounded in the block structure rather than defaulting to "second set needs N new things" which gave us some weaker block mechanics since then (and also before in the block THS)).
I do not see necessarily abandoning any of explore, enrage or raid. They all have more design space and serve a simple purpose. I like the color definition of the tribes and don't see them going away entirely (the (mythic?) rare cycle we know about being not characteristic for the set).
I believe this to be a conscious decision. Feathered Snakes and feathered Dinosaurs are thematical similar and it seems reasonable for them to decide to have only one or the other in a particular setting; the same reason I won't expect any feathered Dragons or feathered Lizards - the "has feathers rather than scales" slot is taken by a major tribe.
In the same manner I wouldn't be surprised if feathered Dinosaurs will remain a distinctive feature of Ixalan for the time being - even with more scaley Dinosaurs now options on other planes.
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."
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Read up on Red Flags & NWO
Selesnya: Absolutely create tokenz upon entering. Flips once you threshold of creature number & becomes Glare of Subdual !
There's one on the he booster pack art Andy the booster pack art always gets a card.
Dinos - I fear we might be getting bigger and fatter dinos. They seem to be trying to go 5 color with them and I suspect we will probably see a 5 color legendary dino too. I fear we are probably going with the bigger badder ones rather than seeing as many small ones this set.
Pirates - im not really a limited / standard guy anymore so I have a hard time really saying where they are and what they need. I guess I would probably expect another legend or two for commander. I would like the legends to feel a little more playable on their own because tribal is really hard to pull off for pirates. I could also see something big and expensive that possibly makes the weak pirates a little better but from a non limited / standard perspective I think pirates are going to have a hard time being viable. I did think some of the pirate based vehicles were really cool in Ixilan so I guess I would love to see something a little more expensive and less geared for standard / limited for pirates to feel like maybe they could be viable elsewhere. Really I don't have any good predictions that I think will at all be realistic but I kind of do think they probably get another legend.
Merfolk - honestly if I were to take a stab at what I think Merfolk might realistically get I would say a strong G or GU merfolk from the standpoint that mono blue merfolk has not had a shake up in a long time so if they get any good merfolk that are going to be at all decent as considerations I don't think it will be mono blue from the standpoint that I think if wizards pushes a merfolk to maybe be playable in modern / legacy it wont be mono blue given the fact that they intentionally gave fish a second color here out of the norm.
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[Modern] Allies
Not "probably" it's "will" (most likely anyway)
https://www.polygon.com/2017/12/5/16738902/magic-the-gatherings-rivals-of-ixalan-exclusive-new-cards-art
(I'm pretty sure you saw this already)
In the interview they actually said there are going to be six elder dinosaurs
I garaenteed you number 6 is going to be 5-color (most likely will get a tribal support ability.
I don't think it would be making a token, legion's landing already does that but we haven't seen an Anthem Enchantment in a long time have we?
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Landwalk variants are no longer used as keywords, just in case you weren't aware.
We're still going to get Mostly RGW Dinosaurs
And the dilophosaurus maybe it will be are artifact/enchantment destroyer enrage ability it spits at a enchantment/artifact and the movie it was like acid (note for real life dinosaur expert people this is faker than anything in the movie there's no evidence it shot venom at all.)
Hmmmmm I can't put my finger on it but
I'm going to guess we are getting a 3 headed hydra elder dinosaur