Ixalan & Rivals of Ixalan


The Basics
The Basics of Booster Draft/Reid Duke
Beginers guide
Understanding signals

Archetypes
Channel fireball
Rivals of Ixalan
Colors
Allied Colors
Enemy Colors

Limited Resources /PodCast by Marshall Sutcliffe & Luis Scott-Vargas
Ixalan Archetype -Deep dive-
Ixalan Archetype -Deeper dive-
Rivals of Ixalan

Set Review
Limited resources / PodCast by Marshall Sutcliffe & Luis Scott-Vargas
IXALAN
XLN Commons and Uncommons
XLN Rare and Mythic Rare

Set Analysis
Men from Modo
Rival me this
Hornswoggled
X Marks the Spot

Lords of Limited
RIX first Report
Drafting with a plan
Choosing your plan in draft

RIVALS OF IXALAN
RIX Commons and Uncommons
RIX Rare and Mythic rare

ChannelFireball
Luis Scott-Vargas
This are the gold reviews, but just at the top of the article there is a link to the individual color review for limited, make sure you check those
XLN Gold, Artifacts & Lands
RIX Gold, Artifacts & Lands

Compleat Guide

To test your skills
DRAFTISM


Happy draft!!

Thanks for the work you put in around here man.
This place will hop again, I'm sure of it.

Cucho is doing God’s work

Yes great stuff Cucho, you had an eye, and attention to detail in working with me on Magic Duel’s IOS last Trials of Amonkhet tourney. A fine swan song after the proverbial HOD rug got pulled from under Magic Duels. Still leaves a salty taste in the mouth that one. SD

Thanks, guys!!

Bump because current QD format

EDIT: And, so this isn't an empty post: I've actually skipped RIX draft entirely IRL, so this is my first real exposure to the format. First draft went pretty okay I'd say; deck's fairly linear but according to what I've heard that's pretty par the course in RIX, and it certainly feels fairly powerful (which is also reflected by its current 2-0 record). Could use another spell or two though.

EDIT2: Just got to 5-0, stopping for now. 19 creature Selesnya all the way.

2-0 with a RB hyper aggro Pirates so far

Still don't know why RIX is back again instead of running triple KLD at least once. Oh well.

Ouch, new formats are always hard to learn

P1P1 Journey to Eternity, Majestic Heliopterus, Crested Herdcaller, or Divine Verdict? I'm judging these as the best cards in the pack, but with no experience in the format, I could be completely wrong and one of the other cards much better.

The Herdcaller seems like the best card - it's a 6/6 trampling creature for 5 mana - but Journey to Eternity looks unbeatable if it flips.

Yeah, I'd grab Journey to Eternity and look to go GBR Dinosaurs. Herdcaller is good, but it's not some unbeatable threat.

Journey to Eternity is a booooomb! ...but I dunno if golgari is a good shel in that enviroment

Thanks for your work Cucho.

I didn't see this one:
http://www.draftaholicsanonymous.com/p1p1-rivals-of-ixalan/

I've used the Dom version for a while. As of now I'm out of resources to draft for I've spent everything on Dom trying to get Dual lands. Also it was considered the best format of the past years by several different pros.

edit: Interesting to see 3 Merfolk cards in that list's top20, of which the top 2 aren't used (much) in Constructed.

How does Journey to Eternity work with dinosaurs?

I'm having second thoughts since it might not be possible to force the creature to die.

If the creature doesn't die despite you attacking with it every turn, it's not that bad for you; especially since you are inclined to cast Journey onto your bet creature and there's not much exile removal in the set (Baffling End only works on CMC less or equal 3, Vraska's Contempt is a rare. There's Luminous Bonds and Waterknot I guess, but you also have the option to pick up stuff like Hunt the Weak or Pounce).



On to my own experience; after the GW deck went 6-3 (after starting 6-0...) I had a UW Pirates deck crap out on me with 2-3 (that deck needed another creature or two; though I admit to raredrafting in pack 3 (picked a Sorcerous Spyglass over mediocricy in my colours P3P1 and Glacial Fortress over Siren Lookout P3P2)). My third draft I just finished with a 7-1, but the deck was off-the-charts bonkers (My Forerunner of the Empire could find one of my two Needletooth Raptors, a Raging Swordtooth, a Charging Monstrosaur or a Ghalta, Primal Hunger, for instance).

Also the AI has the weirdest draft priorities. Being on colour or not, a Charging Monstrosaur should never still be in the pack pick 5 (even if it's pack 3; the card is better than most Rares and splashable off two things that create Treasures)

Reason to go Dinos:

1. You're already going to be playing green for Journey.
2. Golgari by itself is meh this set.
3. Dinos have big useful bodies that can win games, so it gives you reanimation targets.

I mean, is the alternative that they just get out of the way of your creature every turn? You'll beat them down awfully fast if a decent sized threat gets pseudo-unblockable.

I wrapped up 6-3 with Radkos Pirates. Basically just a bunch of 2-drop pirates + Bloodfast for gas + some tricks and removal.

Fourth draft; went from 0-2 to 7-2:

1 x Shore Keeper
1 x Opt

1 x Kitesail Corsair
1 x Shipwreck Looter
1 x Dusk Legion Zealot
2 x Moment of Craving

1 x Sailor of Means
1 x Slippery Scoundrel
1 x Crashing Tide
2 x Secrets of the Golden City
1 x Reaver Ambush
1 x Recover

1 x Siren Reaver
2 x Spire Winder
1 x Dusk Charger
1 x Fathom Fleet Cutthroat
1 x Ravenous Chupacabra
1 x Run Aground

1 x Deadeye Plunderers
1 x Contract Killing

9 x Island
8 x Swamp


Amazing removal suite with solid enough creatures to get the job done (shoutout to Spire Winder).
Shore Keeper looks kinda eh, but enabling Raid turn 2 is decent as is holding back non-evasive attackers, and the ability to sac it to draw 3 actually came up during the games. Not a card to go out of the way for, but in a deck that wants to go long it's a fairly decent 1-of (never more though).
Most mediocre card in the deck was Deadeye Plunderers; but they did have some lategame utility and weren't completely horrendous most of the time.

I crashed and burn 3 times! and my best record was 3-3... I draft fairly decent doggy poop decks but and got a horrendous streak of mana screw.
I tried Grixis Pirates
2 Dire Fleet Daredevil
1 Forerrunner
1 Dire Fleet Neck breaker
1 Marauding Looter
and a cople of Dinos
1 Impale
2 March of the Drowned
the pile was awful in retrospective...

Dimir Sultai Control
Kitesail feebooter
Deadeye Brawler -piece of crap-
Ravenous Chupacabra
Deadeye Plunderers -more caca-
Tezimoc! I could not cast this thing once... and I draw it 3 times!
Vanquish the Weak
Cancel
HornsWoggle
Walk the Plank
Hadana´s Climb -splash which I thought was worth it... never cast it and I drew it twice.
Kumena´s Awakening

This pile looked hald decent... but I got mana screwed badly

Boris Dinos
Just a bunch of stupid Dinos, I think I was too tilted when I drafted this pile... next time I will hold my gold
I´m done with this block, same with M19...

Ha, draft is hard. I crashed and burned also - my Journey to Eternity deck went 4-3. I tried to draft Dinos but the archetype really wasn't open, and my "best" dinos were just the 4/4 haste if you have another dino. I even wound up tricolor just for that Journey to Eternity, and lost two games to color screw because of that. But as they say, even if you have a trainwreck of a draft, you can still win games by being aggressive if the opponent stumbles ... and so I went 4-3. Journey single-handedly won one game where I'd otherwise have flooded out, Tilolani's Crown was absurdly terrible in my deck since even if I could cast it, the enchanted creature just dies instantly and it becomes a burn spell to the face.

Draft 2, I first picked Dire Fleet Poisoner which should be really good, and then am looking at Slaughter the Strong and Impale as the standouts in pack 2. There's also Waterknot but that's comparable to Impale and it's in another color, so not really considering it. Is the sweeper worth it? It seems like it'd work well in a pirate deck since all the creatures are so small, but it doesn't help me get ahead on the board in the first place.

Think you have an easy Impale there. Slaughter is good, but leaving their best creature alive; Waterknot is a good bit worse than Impale.