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Phoenix Ignition
01-14-2018, 01:42 PM
Which cards do people think will make it to Modern in more than a small sideboard fashion?

Blood Sun has potential in my eyes as a Tron mainboard card to ruin decks that play fetchlands since it's a free cantrip that hurts a lot of non-them decks. Most of the people I talk to about this disagree and say it's too expensive. I still think it's kind of insane for them.

Azor's Gateway is my top pick so far for something that is going to be widely played/good. https://www.cardkingdom.com/images/magic-the-gathering/rivals-of-ixalan/azors-gateway-29727-medium.jpg. It really strikes me as something that midrange/control decks could make great use of. The flip is almost irrelevant, but some decks can even use the crapload of mana it provides. I think this card is going to be huge for decks that use 6+ Thoughtseize/Inquisition because of how dead they can turn out to be later on. Tezzeret decks are going to absolutely love this card, and it might bring them into the realm of high tiers.

It might not make it into blue decks, since they already have this kind of thing figured out, but RW midrange, Tezzeret, Death Cloud, and probably tron will love the card selection it provides. I will definitely be running 2+ in most decks I play since those (aside from tron) types of decks are my favorites.

Anyone have other cards to look out for or differing opinions?

Ace/Homebrew
01-14-2018, 05:22 PM
I second Blood Sun in Tron, but I'm not sure if it's in the main deck.

I think Warkite Marauder could make it into Humans. And some of the merfolk look interesting.

Brontodon looks like it does the kind of stuff Mono-Green wants to do.

kombatkiwi
01-15-2018, 12:40 AM
Blood Sun also protects tron from Ghost Quarter / Field of Ruin, I think it might be good in that deck somehow (or at least somewhere in modern). Problem is that yes it is kind of slow and I don't think the most popular Tron builds even play red anymore

I'm not sure the looty thing is that good:
- If you're trying to combo off with it somehow you need to untap it 5 times fast, which seems hard
- If you aren't trying to combo off with it and have looted for at least 5 turns in a row you probably don't need much (or any) extra mana (obv if you're playing Death Cloud for 5 or something then that's fantastic but do you really want to spend a card on a looter in your GB midrange deck)
- For many decks in modern putting 5 different CMC of things under this is actually very hard to do

As a simple looty artifact thing it's probably better than [Key to the City] but is it really enough better to be modern playable?

I want to play a Season's Past deck in modern with the new 2BB wish but that's probably not very good

I'm not too sure what else could be played, I'll have to look at the set again (haven't played with the new cards yet)

Phoenix Ignition
01-15-2018, 01:16 AM
Agreed on the flippy part of Azor's Gateway, it's the looting effect I'm thinking is going to be amazing. The mana it gives if you flip it sucks compared to draw/exile a card per turn. There just hasn't been an easy way to filter cards in Modern for non-blue decks, Nahiri/Chandra are decent in RW control, Bob is always great but very restrictive for black, and green only gets Explore/Courser of Kruphix.

Smuggler's Copter is a great example of something similar to this, but it requires you to have a creature in play for it to work (and has summoning sickness). This can be played in strict control decks with no creatures whatsoever.

And every once in a while I could see gaining 5 life off of the flip effect helping against some last second burn spells.

Mr. Safety
01-15-2018, 09:52 AM
Direfleet Daredevil might be good enough, it's similar to Abbot of Kheral Keep in it's ability to do a pseudo-snapcaster mage card advantage trick. First strike is nice.

Azor the Lawbringer is borderline playable in straight UW control. I don't think it will see play, but a repeatable Sphinx's Revelation could be very good. It gives a silence effect, letting you basically untap and have mana available to protect him. I can see t4 Verdict, t5 Azor, t6 attack and leave Cryptic up with the opportunity for Sphinx's Revelation if they don't kill him. A 6/6 flyer for 5 mana is above the curve as well, even with the complicated mana cost. I definitely want to try it, but I love jank.

AsianGuy1137
01-16-2018, 03:53 AM
Azor the Lawbringer is borderline playable in straight UW control. I don't think it will see play, but a repeatable Sphinx's Revelation could be very good. It gives a silence effect, letting you basically untap and have mana available to protect him. I can see t4 Verdict, t5 Azor, t6 attack and leave Cryptic up with the opportunity for Sphinx's Revelation if they don't kill him. A 6/6 flyer for 5 mana is above the curve as well, even with the complicated mana cost. I definitely want to try it, but I love jank.
Azor costs 6 mana, and it is definitely not playable in a deck that runs 3-4 verdicts main. At 6 mana, Elspeth is usually much better.

Mr. Safety
01-16-2018, 09:08 AM
Azor costs 6 mana, and it is definitely not playable in a deck that runs 3-4 verdicts main. At 6 mana, Elspeth is usually much better.

My mistake on 6 mana, sorry. Six mana isn't a deal breaker if the creature is powerful enough, look at the Titans and Torrential Gearhulk.

I don't think playing verdicts main is a deal-breaker at all, I mean even in the old days people played Serra Angel with Wrath of God. If you have to wipe after your threat is on the board, you wipe after your threat is on the board. Four copies of Colonnade are always a standby finisher. I definitely like Elspeth SC in the sideboard for grindy matchups, but I don't think she is correct as a general finisher. I think Azor is actually very good, and as I said, borderline playable.

Phoenix Ignition
01-18-2018, 02:11 PM
Azor the Lawbringer doesn't seem to protect itself enough to be playable at 6 mana. It has a great effect if you can untap with him in play, but the majority of decks will kill him at instant speed on your turn. If he had an effect that prevented them from killing him immediately AND on their next turn it'd be another discussion.

On another note, Path of Mettle would be so much fun in a control deck if it had a different (non-creature based) way to flip.

Anyone come up with something good to do with Mastermind's Acquisition? I'm coming up blank even though I'm sure there's some 2 card combo that would be much better with this card, a la Living Wish -> Dark Depths/ Token remover.

Mr. Safety
01-23-2018, 04:01 PM
It would have to be a combo deck that can:
1) Afford the slots dedicated to a (slow) tutor
2) Make it to the mid-game to make it a viable tutor
3) Have enough mana to cast the tutor + combo cards

Ad Nauseam is really the only deck with enough mana because of Bloom/Prism. I don't see it as better than Mystical Teachings though, not by a long shot, and that deck has been solved with Spoils of the Vault for quite a while. I suppose it could be ok in something like the Krark Clan Ironworks combo deck, that deck has mad mana capability.

Mr. Safety
02-14-2018, 09:43 AM
So, best card from Rivals of Ixalan so far is Jace the Mind Sculptor. Close second, Bloodbraid Elf. These cards will effect the format more than the last 3 SETS.