deckstats.net
You need to be logged in to do this.
The buttons above will open in a new window. Please return to this window after you have logged in. When you have logged in, click the Refresh Session button and then try again.

Author Topic: Ixalan Prerelease - first impressions  (Read 673 times)

CardAgain Sweater

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 535
  • Karma: 186
  • Decks
Ixalan Prerelease - first impressions
« on: September 24, 2017, 12:16:48 am »
A thread to discuss experience playing new cards in Ixalan Prerelease; its a sealed format, but that is no reason a card's impact on other formats are off topic. What did you learn about the new mechanics, a certain card, or archtype/tribe?

First thoughts:

Duress is terrible in a tribal limited format and that black discard enchantment is not worth playing duress. The enchantment is ok on its own in a raid deck, but no reason to have duress.

Tillonali's Skin Shifter is dope. Sure it is just 1 toughness outside of attacking so open to almost any removal, but the ability to mimic keywords and abilities, let alone P/T, is nice with haste.

Evasive aggro holds its own against dino, if both sides have equal pools. The tribes can blend easily if the colors are right.

Explore is very powerful. Ensuring land drops or getting some serious creature value is very welcome. I don't think I was ever bummed about exploring even if I didn't reveal a card I wanted. Whereas raid was definitely more hit and miss, sometimes feeling like value was lost on casting a creature without attacking 1st.

Grixis Pirates (with treasure tokens, rootbound crag, and unknown shores letting me splash Vraska) did very well with a treasure map, lots of flyers, 2 2x march of the drowned, and 2 pirates cutlass dug out by a Quartermaster Pirate guy. I faced Dinos all night and only one game did I get stomped, and even that was a blast!

EDIT: Skymarch Bloodletter is crazy good for a common. 2B for a 2/2 flyer that drains etb. Bonus tribal vampire.

I'm expecting at least 2 new decks to take hold in standard, and the prerelease definitely helped me get a feel for what they might be; anyone else attend a prerelease and care to share what you saw / thought / surmised?
« Last Edit: September 25, 2017, 03:11:54 am by CardAgain Sweater »
http://deck.tk/1PJd2YnD - Krokodil; my favorite Standard deck which focuses on -1/-1 counter synergy; currently illegal due to ban on attune. I'm brewing a post ban version...

Standard decks I'm trying:
http://deck.tk/4ixH1ndX - Mono G Monument
http://deck.tk/94QF5WSF - Booty Sac

ladof

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 563
  • Karma: 171
  • Decks
Re: Ixilan Prerelease - first impressions
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2017, 04:53:29 am »
Wasn't overly impressed. My pool wasn't great, but wasn't terrible, maybe slightly below what i would assume to be average. The set just felt limp. I had two flip cards that people around me were excited to see play, but there were more times where I wished I hadn't flipped the dowsing daggees and vance's blasting cannon was okay, but almost impossible to flip in sealed.

Dinos were okay, but most of mine were weaker or hard to get on the board (red avatar was my promo and played well, but died almost instantly every game to hard removal).

Overall, I definitely liked AMK and HOU more so far. I think IXN will add some good flavor to standard, but with how many cards are leaving, that had to be true or Standard would be in a terrible place.
Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.

CardAgain Sweater

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 535
  • Karma: 186
  • Decks
Re: Ixilan Prerelease - first impressions
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2017, 05:23:27 am »
Wasn't overly impressed. My pool wasn't great, but wasn't terrible, maybe slightly below what i would assume to be average. The set just felt limp. I had two flip cards that people around me were excited to see play, but there were more times where I wished I hadn't flipped the dowsing daggees and vance's blasting cannon was okay, but almost impossible to flip in sealed.

Dinos were okay, but most of mine were weaker or hard to get on the board (red avatar was my promo and played well, but died almost instantly every game to hard removal).

Overall, I definitely liked AMK and HOU more so far. I think IXN will add some good flavor to standard, but with how many cards are leaving, that had to be true or Standard would be in a terrible place.

I think i had an above average pool with a plainswalker and so-so rares in lands and artifacts (allowing me many color options), but one player pulled the 4-5-6 ultimate dino curve, so I know mine wasn't top drawer. For sure better than my last few sealed pools :)

I heard a lot of players saying they chose not to flip their daggers. I believe there is definitely a critical mass of power and toughness you need to have to make a dino centric deck work. They can be good filler in limited, but to commit to big cmc, you really need the payoff cards.

I think I am spoiled by only getting into limited since Amonkhet, so I may not have the same experience to compare. Amonkhet seemed more rushed and frantic; this set is about a turn or two slower to me. More forgiving in that it is not "board presence or die", but also more punishing as later rounds turn to bigger threats. Better do something good with that extra turn or two, or your opponent will!
http://deck.tk/1PJd2YnD - Krokodil; my favorite Standard deck which focuses on -1/-1 counter synergy; currently illegal due to ban on attune. I'm brewing a post ban version...

Standard decks I'm trying:
http://deck.tk/4ixH1ndX - Mono G Monument
http://deck.tk/94QF5WSF - Booty Sac

Soren841

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5088
  • Karma: 606
  • Decks
Re: Ixilan Prerelease - first impressions
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2017, 05:53:57 am »
Wait is Ixalan out 😂
Nils is the God I worship

CardAgain Sweater

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 535
  • Karma: 186
  • Decks
Re: Ixilan Prerelease - first impressions
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2017, 06:00:59 am »
Wait is Ixalan out 😂

Just Prerelease fun this weekend :) Standard wont change until this upcoming Friday. $20 gets you a sealed tournament at your LGS. Some have higher prices to support bigger prize pools, but even at $20, you get a pack a win usually. Also, as it is meant to ease people into limited/standard/magic in general, the atmosphere is very relaxed. Everyone gets to play with new cards a week early! I highly recommend checking one out this weekend if you can.
http://deck.tk/1PJd2YnD - Krokodil; my favorite Standard deck which focuses on -1/-1 counter synergy; currently illegal due to ban on attune. I'm brewing a post ban version...

Standard decks I'm trying:
http://deck.tk/4ixH1ndX - Mono G Monument
http://deck.tk/94QF5WSF - Booty Sac

ladof

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 563
  • Karma: 171
  • Decks
Re: Ixilan Prerelease - first impressions
« Reply #5 on: September 24, 2017, 06:28:50 am »
Wasn't overly impressed. My pool wasn't great, but wasn't terrible, maybe slightly below what i would assume to be average. The set just felt limp. I had two flip cards that people around me were excited to see play, but there were more times where I wished I hadn't flipped the dowsing daggees and vance's blasting cannon was okay, but almost impossible to flip in sealed.

Dinos were okay, but most of mine were weaker or hard to get on the board (red avatar was my promo and played well, but died almost instantly every game to hard removal).

Overall, I definitely liked AMK and HOU more so far. I think IXN will add some good flavor to standard, but with how many cards are leaving, that had to be true or Standard would be in a terrible place.

I actually had the opposite problem. I got curved out a lot more in IXN prerelease than I ever did in AMK sealed. I lost a number of games where I didn't draw the right color mana in 3 tries and was dead by turn 5 (my deck didn't have a ton of early game, so it wasn't the end of the world to not have correct mana early, just on time.) I rarely had overly aggressive opponents in AMK block sealed, but IXN so far was about 50/50. (granted, extremely small sample size.)
I think i had an above average pool with a plainswalker and so-so rares in lands and artifacts (allowing me many color options), but one player pulled the 4-5-6 ultimate dino curve, so I know mine wasn't top drawer. For sure better than my last few sealed pools :)

I heard a lot of players saying they chose not to flip their daggers. I believe there is definitely a critical mass of power and toughness you need to have to make a dino centric deck work. They can be good filler in limited, but to commit to big cmc, you really need the payoff cards.

I think I am spoiled by only getting into limited since Amonkhet, so I may not have the same experience to compare. Amonkhet seemed more rushed and frantic; this set is about a turn or two slower to me. More forgiving in that it is not "board presence or die", but also more punishing as later rounds turn to bigger threats. Better do something good with that extra turn or two, or your opponent will!
Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.

Firegriff

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 779
  • Karma: 270
  • Decks
Re: Ixilan Prerelease - first impressions
« Reply #6 on: September 24, 2017, 08:59:08 am »
Played in 2HG.  I ran Grixis, mostly pirates, with Vraska splashed in.  Treasures, 2 Unkown Shore and an Unclaimed Territory let me play her fairly easily even with no green lands.  River Sneak and Storm Sculptor worked well with Prying BladeLightning-Rig Crew became a terror.  Partner played black white vampire tokens.  Used One with the Wind more on the vampire tokens than anything else!

We won two of the three matches, losing the one to opponent's Dire Fleet Ravager hitting both sides for 2/3 of life and a burn spell.

robort

  • Patron
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1725
  • Karma: 437
  • Decks
Re: Ixilan Prerelease - first impressions
« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2017, 11:49:07 pm »
This set just feels meeeh, but played 2 pre-releases. 1 regular and 1 2HG.

The regular was first and I got some pretty good cards. My first pick in a pack was varaska, but was sort of hard to splash considering a heavy amount of cards in my pool were red. I did go black green and red though. With the use of explore, treasure tokens, and 2 new horizons. Mana issues were almost never a problem.

Dire Fleet Ravager was a beast when he came out.
Sunbird's Invocation did work for me 2 games. One was against this control player. He didn't like the fact that yes he could counter my 1st spell but the 2nd spell I got to play for free especially when I had other 5 and 6 drops.During our 2nd game he had to counter both spells because I played my first spell of Contract Killing and forgot what was next but I also ran 3 Contract Killings and that was a bonus.

The card that drove my opponents nuts was Raiders' Wake. My attacking creatures were making my opponent discard and lose 2 life especially when they have a good amount of cards left. Eventually they were top decking and if they top decked a land, they had to play it because if I had any board state I was attacking.
A legend in my own mind or so what the voices keep telling me

robort

  • Patron
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1725
  • Karma: 437
  • Decks
Re: Ixilan Prerelease - first impressions
« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2017, 11:56:01 pm »
As for the 2HG, my partner made a very good merfolk deck. It was very agro and I had a red black agro deck with lots of removal. Biggest problem is of course when we ran out of gas, fixed it after 2nd game with some card draw cards.

Treasure Map // Treasure Cove was very good for my card draw and even scry. Once I flipped it, drawing 2 cards per turn for 3 turns was definitely card advantage.

I will say the treasure tokens are definitely a great way to get/save/ or use mana without fear of losing any. I needed a red mana and had a token on the field and cast the red card with the token
A legend in my own mind or so what the voices keep telling me

HowlingLotus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 176
  • Karma: 53
  • Decks
Re: Ixalan Prerelease - first impressions
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2017, 03:56:05 am »
Missed Pre-Release as it fell on my birthday, which really sucked as it was my first planned sealed event to attend. Oh well.

From the feedback I've seen so far on various places.... I'm kind of hoping that Dinosaurs bomb.... only so that the prices fall. I understand pre-order prices are super inflated, but I don't want to spend $20-$40 per playset for some cards. I don't play standard so my opinion is biased (and so is my budget). The general feedback for the set so far is actually kind of disheartening as a whole. I've been really psyched for it and I feel the set has a lot of beautiful art and I like the mechanics.
Mainly play Casual Multiplayer and EDH.