General Rivals of Ixalan (RIX) Spoilers

FlowerSunRain

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
I think these are shoe ins
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oathswornvampire.jpg
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I think these are solid gridfillers and alternates that will spend some time in the list
momentofcraving.jpg
siegehornceratops.jpg
archoforazca.jpg
martyrofdusk.jpg
thrashingbrontodon1.jpg


I am interested by, but have reservations about
hadanasclimb.jpg
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I like, but probably won't include because they're bad designs for my cube
slaughterthestrong2.jpg
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Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I almost feel like cutting the human synergy from my cube. Currently I run...



Don't know if I want to go full vampires though. There's no support for them in blue or green, so allied colors are completely devoid of options. That's mainly why I went with human support...
 
Peter LaCara

Peter LaCara

Just got back from my prerelease. Does this set feel kind of phoned in to anyone else? Every game felt exactly like Ixalan, except you had to stop and count to 10 every couple of turns. This is the last small set, right?
 
shamizy

shamizy

Still very aggressive like Ixalan, but there are neat little tricks here and there. I had a pretty sweet Grixis Pirates pool, went 3-1:

Grixis Pirates










For some reason the visual deck tags aren't pulling the right card, the two 4 mana spells are Impale, the black kill a creature sorcery. My MVPs were Slippery Scoundrel, Hostage Taker (no surprise here) and Golden Demise. Scoundrel closed out like 2 games for me as just a bigger Invisible Stalker once I got the City's Blessing. I lived the dream in one game equipping it with Tilonalli's Crown and just going to town after a boardstall. Speaking of the Crown, I used it more to remove pesky x/1 bodies than actually suiting up my guys most of the time, fun little trick there. Golden Demise helped me stabilize in two games where I would have otherwise lost. I was facing down that rare that allows you to firebreathe out some 1/1 elementals until EOT unless you have ascended. I think my opponent untapped, swung, and made 6 bodies and I didn't have enough to survive another attack but that timely demise combined with the Hostage Taker in my hand allowed me to steal his bomb, wrath his side of the board, then untap and deploy his bomb (which he was forced to remove immediately).

Sea Legs was a super clutch combat trick for me, mostly to save my guys in combat or in the face of damage based removal. Opponents just did not see it coming, it's like this set's Skulduggery. I'd have to say that the sweetest plays I made all night were based around this guy:



In one game I held it back until I could play it and get ascend on my side of the field and then I flashbacked my opponent's Secrets of the Golden City to draw 3 cards. Another game, I made some trades the previous turn so that I could untap and play it to flashback a Recover to grind out some more value. It is one hell of a card and really fun. Not having Flash does put it a peg below Snappy, but this card was an absolute blast to play with. It's more often a 5-6 mana play though the base case of bashing in with a 2/1 First Striker is not bad at all if you're on the aggro plan like I was in a few games. It can definitely get in for like 4 damage that early in the game. I'm a huge fan, can't wait to play with it in my cube.

Speaking of which, these are the only additions I'm trying out from this set:



I think the first two will stick, just trying out giant Dino to see if it's any good as a big dumb beatstick for rampy green decks. It will definitely close out games in a hurry if your opponents isn't prepared, but it is also the most miserable of topdecks on an empty board. I really want to see someone just curve Regisaur Alpha into it, that would be fucking great.
 
Kirblinx

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
When you open a Deadeye Rig-Hauler in every pack but don't have enough blue cards...

RW Hauler









If this deck didn't win by turn 6, then it probably wasn't winning. It was a decent aggro deck ( I did mange to 3-0). 16 lands and evenly split colours meant that it mulliganed a lot but still managed to have aggressive enough draws to keep me in the game.
  • Relentless Raptor is great with combat tricks as you have no control when it attacks or blocks the opponent doesn't know if you are goading combat tricks or not. Nice clock too.
  • Tilonalli's Crown was my favourite card in the deck. It made the 2/3 flyers a real clock in the sky. It also comboed with the Warkite Marauder to kill any creature.
  • Deadeye Rig-Hauler isn't the Man-o-war I hoped it could be, as you can't use it to get blockers out of the way. Still a decent tempo play, was mainly used to save my own creatures from pacifisms, but not worth warping my manabase around
  • Never saw Slaughter the Strong, it probably didn't really work with my deck either, but how can you not play a boardsweeper in limited?
I think Warkite Marauder is my favourite card from the set. Could make Favorable Winds a thing in standard.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Dire Fleet Daredevil is super expensive for what it does. Its average sell price on magiccardmarket has already fallen from 10 euros to 5, and I expect it to end up just above bargain bin price. I do want one for my cube, but I put it on my "intrigued" list just because I don't want to spend several euros on it.

Anyway, looks like a sweet deck Shamizy! The mana is a bit sketchy, I bet you had to use some treasures to get to double black for the Impales a few times. I might have played another Swamp over an Island. Other than that though, I see a lot of cards I would be happy to play in the same deck. Here's to hoping I open a similarly sweet pool in about three hours! :D
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Ascend is a sweet mechanic, had a lot of fun with it today! Went 4-1-1 at my local prerelease and finished 3rd (tied for points with 4th place, but quite a lot ahead on omw percentage). Started with an aggressive {R/W} build, but abandoned that for an {R/G} build splashing white for removal and evasion after being unable to break through a not even that impressive defense (a 3/3 and a 4/4). The second build played a lot better.

Individual card notes.


This thing is not fun. I did beat it in one game, but instead of the fun "it's coming!" vibe I was expecting, it instead was horribly uninteractive (you know it's coming, but what are you going to do about it if you don't play black discard spells) and plain super swingy.


More fun than I anticipated. It's good, which I expected, and it triggers ascend fast because you get an extra permanent each turn, but it's not nearly as overbearing as I thought! The 2/2 is easily dealt with, and at that point you're left with a bunch of 1/1's. On the other hand, if they don't deal with it, it doesn't drag out the game, but finishes your opponent relatively fast. Like!


I missed this card during Ixalan, but it's a fun limited card. The baseline isn't too bad, and either drawing a card, or scrying for 1 and entering as a 3/2 first strike is pretty sweet.


This card was likewise missed, but had a lot of fun with this one. Obviously bad if you get stuck with only this, but somehow people are afraid to block the creature it copies and let the Skinshifter live, for fear of it copying something much larger down the line.


Might as well be unblockable!


Yep, great baseline in the color, and I turned it into a double striker multiple times.


Actually legit in an aggressive deck. Great with combat tricks (I had an Agressive Urge) and it dealt a final 2 on its way our after a trade multiple times. Great target for the Skinshifter as well :)


Was great in my deck that tried to get to 10 permanents. Comparable to Tormenting Voice if you sack the tokens immediately, much better if you don't. Should be fun to copy with Pyromancer's Goggles!
 
sigh

sigh


I saw this tested yesterday, in EDH mind you, and I really like it. Enchantments/Artifacts that trigger at the beginning of combat are the bees knees, removing some of the delay in playing a card that won't do anything until the next turn. even if you don't flip it, it is consistent power advantage throughout the game stackable how you see fit. And flipping it closes games quickly because it not only grants power boost but also flying.

Not sure I have the space for it right now, but I think it's testable for sure
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Got some testing in...

<3
Accidentally drafted this combo and loved every minute of it! Trapjaw Tyrant seemed perfectly at home in my environment. It's trigger is awesome, but not that difficult to play around. Hard removal does it of course, but I've also chump blocked it, then threw an Incinerate at it with the triggered ability on the stack. I'm pretty sure I'm adding this one.


The more I play with this, the more I'm convinced it's not cool. Yes it's easy to remove, but it's a super hard removal check, because if they don't have it, they lose. I also played it in a deck with some recursion (Karador, Ghost Chieftain), and I got Meren of Clan Nel Toth vibes all over again. I.e., it's a value engine that snowballs out of control over time and that is very hard to stop in any deck that runs a modicum of reanimation tools. I am playing against an imperfect AI though, so if anybody has a more positive experience with this card in PvP I'm eager to hear!


This is cube material right here! It looks innocious, but this is everything a red aggro deck wants. Its power to cmc ratio is perfect, and the enrage trigger is exactly what you're looking for in an aggro deck!


This is exactly the kind of 6 drop artifact I like. The "Players can't activate planeswalkers' loyalty abilities" line took me by surprise a few times, definitely an include!


This looks very hard to remove, but when I drafted it, it promptly got cleanly answered by Declaration in Stone. It fit very well in the U/R spells shell I drafted as a hard to answer threat, since you can't afford to play too many creatures. This card is interesting to me if it doesn't prove too hard to deal with.


I was sceptical, but this is a perfect pay-off for the Naya ramp archetype. It's fun to play with and it has immediate impact, which, I think, is pretty crucial for a nine drop. I currently run Woolly Thoctar, Marath, Will of the Wild, and Rith, the Awakener as my Naya slots, maybe I can replace Rith with it?


Hard to remove, because it gains a lot of loyalty, but relatively low-impact once on the board. This felt pretty pleasant actually! It's best at turning an lead into a win, but it's actively bad when you need to get back from behind. Tentatively adding this if I can get it at a good price.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Added in just a tiny bit more support for enrage, with these options being solid enablers now:



Siegehorn Ceratops and Needletooth Raptor have both been surprisingly solid with these 1 damage options. I've had test games where an Ulvenwald Tracker and Siegehorn Ceratops completely took over the game. Of course the AI kept putting out smaller creatures, but even in PvP I expect this combo to sabotage your opponent's available lines of play.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Oh boy, I completely forgot to mention this card:



I have always liked playing with this card, as it's so versatile, but boy has its stock risen with enrage! For me this is now the number one Naya card, finally a rare that surpasses Woolly Thoctar as the best Naya card in my cube! :)
 
sigh

sigh

seems strong with that enrage dino that puts a +1/+1 on each other creature you control when damaged :eek:
 
Kirblinx

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
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