Nice detail for Oltec Cloud Guard that makes it a lot better than what most people realize; the fact that it's not a Bat. This means, when the Guard gets bashed to bits and sent to the graveyard, you can rest easy knowing that no bats were harmed in the killing of this Soldier.
I’m so excited to see a return to Ixalan. I love how many flavorful and thematic designs and ideas there are across the whole set. After this, the setting feels, I think, like one of the most well-realized and believable in the game, along with Innistrad, the Pyrexians, and so on.
Fair enough. I suppose my perspective as more of a Commander player probably colors it a bit, but I do love tribal themes in any case. I guess it makes sense too, since it has a greater focus on a bunch of themes that weren’t prevalent in the other two sets. I agree that it would’ve been cool here, but I at the same time I do personally like how this set explores new areas of what Ixalan could be, thematically at least.
@@virtueofabsolution7641 it does seem pretty hard to do any tribal theme now yes, but I do recall people saying the tribal archetypes basically put drafting on rails, kind of like onslaught draft. Where there was really no decisions to make and there are only so many tribes to be drafted for 8 players that some people got shafted. For this reason many people did not enjoy original ixilan.
I like these because you do a great job at giving perspective on these cards. So much discourse saying there’s so many junk cards. But they’re thinking in terms of standard or modern. Your set review videos are refreshing.
I think white looks really strong this time around, lots of solid commons and fantastic uncommons, personally it's my early pick for maybe strongest color if I had to pick one.
I strongly agree. And the second one might be black. BW always has the best removal combination, and in a set based around permanents, specially creatures, getting efficient removal is the key
@@Controlqueen31Red Is a lot Better than withe in the removal slot imo. White's are good It you are a slow deck, pretty bad of you are an aggro deck. And withe tends for sure to be aggressive
White definitely lacks aggressive removal, but their common creature suite looks phenomenal to pair with a color that can remove aggressively (like red or black)
Guessing before I watch it that Dusk Rose Reliquary is gonna be nice with all the map tokens and general use artifacts in the set. Excited to use it in my constructed token decks but I'm definitely looking forward to trying it in draft :)
7:24 Reliquery perfoms better with black when you consider Descend and death triggers 13:40 Kutzil's last mode is game changing in limited, against Descend, I think it's the only card that exiles the whole grave
I think it's weird that the deconstruction hammer gives the ability to the creature, but I do think it is a flavor win since a hammer by itself can't destroy a building, it needs someone to weild it (and destroying stuff keeps you busy, so you tap the creature) I like it for those reasons
It honestly reminds me a lot of Citizen's Crowbar, an uncommon from New Capenna which was similar to Deconstruction Hammer, but created a 1/1 and attached itself to that 1/1.
Regarding Resplendent Angel: I'd say that there actually is a bit of life gain in the set, as the WB vampires deck has a pretty good amount of lifelink vampire tokens that might just do the trick.
Thousand Moon smithy looks more like an A- mininum to me. Makes a solid to huge creature for relatively cheap when it enters then if it isn’t answered it just wins the game the following turn.
I think you're significantly undervaluing Warded of the Inner Sky, since there's no requirement that the artifacts being tapped need to have any sort of functionality. Just has to be an artifact, and there's plenty of free tap fodder. You can tap stuff like map tokens you're not about to use and can't use on the opponents turn, artifacts without tap effects like any equipment equipment, or cards that work the same even if tapped, like Chimil, Clay Fired Bricks, Dusk Rose Reliquary, Spring Loaded Blades and Runaway Boulder. With even a moderate board this is an easy free scry and +1/+1 counter every turn for effectively free.
Lost a game to an opponent who used the good pup to bounce their flipped Barraks of the Thousand back to their hand to evade a ray of ruin. Totally tanked any chance I had of grinding the game out, and possibly the weirdest draft interaction I've had in a while, what with a creature helping a land dodge a removal spell. Sometimes, that stuff just lines up and thwarts your plans.
Oteclan Landmark is a lot worse than Trusted Pegasus. During my own review I pegged it as more like a D-. Sure maybe sometimes it works, but you'd rather just have any of the 3 drops that don't require setup to be good.
I think you're underrating how useful a cheap artifact is in this format, even before it transforms. I am fairly confident it will be better than a D-.
I think you drastically underrated Get Lost. It's still premium removal. Getting rid of your opponent's best creature for two mana is hard to beat, even with the downside of giving them the map tokens.
I think Get Lost should be up a letter grade but for what it's worth, it's not hard to see why it is where it is. Giving artifact tokens to decks that care about tapping or sacrificing artifacts is awful, and that's going to be a good portion of what you see across the table. Even with synergy aside, the card has to be treated somewhere between removal that draws your opponent two land cards and a spell that gives them two counters across their creatures. Let's say you split the difference and your opponent always draws a land and gets a +1/+1 counter on a creature they control.. does that make Get Lost better or worse without considering synergies in the format? I dunno. Something that should be considered is that Map tokens can only be activated at sorcery speed, which does make them worse, as spending that mana on a coin flip is not great if the alternative is holding up mana for interaction. All in all, I still think it should still be up a letter grade and drafted like it's premium removal (unless better removal or a bomb is in your pack) but there's a lot of factors in play, and I'm torn between whether or not this will be a card you sideboard out or sideboard in against your opponent
I think you're underrating warden of the inner sky. 1 mana 1/2s with upside, even if it's lategame upside (note that it doesn't tap itself), just is too relevant not to pick up unless the format is heavily midgame. You tend to underrate 1 drops.
Especially since there's no requirement that the artifacts being tapped need to have any sort of functionality. Just has to be an artifact, and there's plenty of free tap fodder. You can tap stuff like map tokens you're not about to use and can't use on the opponents turn, artifacts without tap effects like any equipment equipment, or cards that work the same even if tapped, like Chimil, Clay Fired Bricks, Dusk Rose Reliquary, and Runaway Boulder. If your deck is craft focused and you pull that, by midgame it might as well say "During your main phase you may cry scry 1 twice and add two +1/+1 to this creature"
For miner’s guidewing a straight C is laughable, C+ makes so much more sense, the fact that he said a 1/1 with flying and vigilance isn’t good stats is crazy to me, I mean it could be a free land or card selection with a +1/+1 counter with a good couple chip attacks in the early game pretty easily this was definitely underrated and is an amazing common the only thing wrong is it doesn’t explicitly break the game.
Depending on how easy it is to have artifacts on the board, and in this set, looks kind of easy. That Dusk Rose Reliquary can potentially and easily reach A grade status
Calling it now. Clay-Fired Bricks is absolute unplayable garbage, you'll be dropping it by...honestly, probably two full grades. At least to a D, if not an F. Glorifier of Suffering is going way up. It can end the game on turn 3, and it's no slouch later. It only misses when it *really* misses. You're underestimating Might of the Ancestors very slightly, because vigilance is always underrated. Not sure if it's enough to grade it up, but it's going to be fine in many decks. Quicksand Whirlpool will be more useful than it appears because of the tap effects in this set. It's looking clearer and clearer that this is going to be a bit of a crazy limited set that is really designed to revitalize the 60-card meta. You're wrong on Unstable Glyphbridge. You can hit the "+" key on your keyboard more than once. *wink.* In limited, this is going to be a complete monster.
Clay Fired Bricks is the type of card you evaluate thinking of aggro strategies, then realizing that in slower decks provides a lot of value by allowing you to do land drops and gaining life
@@carlosm7325 I may have been *slightly* too hard on the card but it's pretty garbage. It can only search up a plains, and you need a plains to cast it. That means it doesn't ramp and it doesn't mana fix, all while also not adding to the board. The secondary effect costs SEVEN, while only putting 4/4 of power on the board...split between two tokens. And this format looks like it's not going to be super slow. Maybe aggro, maybe mid-range, but not slow. This card is not going to get there. It just isn't.
Bricks definitely isn't unplayable. It could be worse than a B if this format is crazy aggressive, but I think you're underrating the card just on rate alone if you think it's potentially a D or an F. Two mana, gain 2, search up a plains is a D+ or C- on its own, and we've got a lot more going on here. You're also not thinking about how useful it is in this format to just have a random artifact lying around, especially in White. Also it's FLOOR when you transform it is that you get 4/4 worth of power. It's almos always going to add a heck of a lot more than that.
@@NizzahonMagic maybe. I could be off, especially if this ends up being a slow grindy format that reliably gets to 7 mana. But I think this card misses in some critical ways that you're maybe underestimating. The do-nothing start, the poor quality of the draw, the high cost, the underwhelming final product... But hey, this is what makes these previews fun. Your predictions are always good on most and off on a few, so it'll be fun to see whether this is one of the few, and I'll happily own it if im the one who is wrong.
Def will be a solid playable cards with some early value and has some late game use are usually better than they look. If the format is slow bricks will be around a B if its not then I would give it a C+, hard to judge that before playing. Def never a D or an F in any world
Nice detail for Oltec Cloud Guard that makes it a lot better than what most people realize; the fact that it's not a Bat. This means, when the Guard gets bashed to bits and sent to the graveyard, you can rest easy knowing that no bats were harmed in the killing of this Soldier.
I’m so excited to see a return to Ixalan. I love how many flavorful and thematic designs and ideas there are across the whole set.
After this, the setting feels, I think, like one of the most well-realized and believable in the game, along with Innistrad, the Pyrexians, and so on.
Just kind of a bummer they nerfed what was one of the most important archetypes last time ie tribal.
Fair enough. I suppose my perspective as more of a Commander player probably colors it a bit, but I do love tribal themes in any case.
I guess it makes sense too, since it has a greater focus on a bunch of themes that weren’t prevalent in the other two sets.
I agree that it would’ve been cool here, but I at the same time I do personally like how this set explores new areas of what Ixalan could be, thematically at least.
@@virtueofabsolution7641 it does seem pretty hard to do any tribal theme now yes, but I do recall people saying the tribal archetypes basically put drafting on rails, kind of like onslaught draft. Where there was really no decisions to make and there are only so many tribes to be drafted for 8 players that some people got shafted. For this reason many people did not enjoy original ixilan.
I like these because you do a great job at giving perspective on these cards.
So much discourse saying there’s so many junk cards. But they’re thinking in terms of standard or modern.
Your set review videos are refreshing.
THIS is what I’ve been waiting for! Love your vids big man!
I think white looks really strong this time around, lots of solid commons and fantastic uncommons, personally it's my early pick for maybe strongest color if I had to pick one.
I strongly agree. And the second one might be black. BW always has the best removal combination, and in a set based around permanents, specially creatures, getting efficient removal is the key
@@Controlqueen31Red Is a lot Better than withe in the removal slot imo. White's are good It you are a slow deck, pretty bad of you are an aggro deck. And withe tends for sure to be aggressive
White definitely lacks aggressive removal, but their common creature suite looks phenomenal to pair with a color that can remove aggressively (like red or black)
Guessing before I watch it that Dusk Rose Reliquary is gonna be nice with all the map tokens and general use artifacts in the set. Excited to use it in my constructed token decks but I'm definitely looking forward to trying it in draft :)
Can't wait! It's finally time for the set reviews!
guardian of the great door seems like the bets target for helping hand.
The guidewing looks absolutely great
7:24 Reliquery perfoms better with black when you consider Descend and death triggers
13:40 Kutzil's last mode is game changing in limited, against Descend, I think it's the only card that exiles the whole grave
I think it's weird that the deconstruction hammer gives the ability to the creature, but I do think it is a flavor win since a hammer by itself can't destroy a building, it needs someone to weild it (and destroying stuff keeps you busy, so you tap the creature)
I like it for those reasons
It honestly reminds me a lot of Citizen's Crowbar, an uncommon from New Capenna which was similar to Deconstruction Hammer, but created a 1/1 and attached itself to that 1/1.
I can see Petrify mainly being used to turn off an artifact with Craft
Regarding Resplendent Angel: I'd say that there actually is a bit of life gain in the set, as the WB vampires deck has a pretty good amount of lifelink vampire tokens that might just do the trick.
There isn't really a vampire deck in this format.
I didn't say say there was 0 life gain, just that it isn’t a big theme.
Nice new art for Resplendent Angel.
Now I want to make a mono-white artifact deck in Explorer! XD
It's starting to feel like the Lost Caverns of Mirrodin
How so?
I think because of the huge number of gnomes and artifact machinery. @@JasonOshinko
Nice, niz vid just when i need it
Was resplendent angel mythic rare last time?
Yes
Thousand Moon smithy looks more like an A- mininum to me. Makes a solid to huge creature for relatively cheap when it enters then if it isn’t answered it just wins the game the following turn.
I think the floor of the card when played on a weaker board (a 3/3 or so) makes it not a full on bomb
i think warden of the inner sky is at least a C+, i mean its a 1 drop, and like, i just remember skaab wrangler being pretty easy to activate
Wrangler let you do it at Instant speed.
I think you're significantly undervaluing Warded of the Inner Sky, since there's no requirement that the artifacts being tapped need to have any sort of functionality. Just has to be an artifact, and there's plenty of free tap fodder.
You can tap stuff like map tokens you're not about to use and can't use on the opponents turn, artifacts without tap effects like any equipment equipment, or cards that work the same even if tapped, like Chimil, Clay Fired Bricks, Dusk Rose Reliquary, Spring Loaded Blades and Runaway Boulder.
With even a moderate board this is an easy free scry and +1/+1 counter every turn for effectively free.
Lost a game to an opponent who used the good pup to bounce their flipped Barraks of the Thousand back to their hand to evade a ray of ruin. Totally tanked any chance I had of grinding the game out, and possibly the weirdest draft interaction I've had in a while, what with a creature helping a land dodge a removal spell. Sometimes, that stuff just lines up and thwarts your plans.
Oteclan Landmark is a lot worse than Trusted Pegasus. During my own review I pegged it as more like a D-. Sure maybe sometimes it works, but you'd rather just have any of the 3 drops that don't require setup to be good.
I think you're underrating how useful a cheap artifact is in this format, even before it transforms.
I am fairly confident it will be better than a D-.
I think you drastically underrated Get Lost. It's still premium removal. Getting rid of your opponent's best creature for two mana is hard to beat, even with the downside of giving them the map tokens.
We've seen many cards like it. They are good in constructed and mediocre in Limited. Not sure why this one would be any differebt.
I think Get Lost should be up a letter grade but for what it's worth, it's not hard to see why it is where it is. Giving artifact tokens to decks that care about tapping or sacrificing artifacts is awful, and that's going to be a good portion of what you see across the table.
Even with synergy aside, the card has to be treated somewhere between removal that draws your opponent two land cards and a spell that gives them two counters across their creatures.
Let's say you split the difference and your opponent always draws a land and gets a +1/+1 counter on a creature they control.. does that make Get Lost better or worse without considering synergies in the format? I dunno.
Something that should be considered is that Map tokens can only be activated at sorcery speed, which does make them worse, as spending that mana on a coin flip is not great if the alternative is holding up mana for interaction. All in all, I still think it should still be up a letter grade and drafted like it's premium removal (unless better removal or a bomb is in your pack) but there's a lot of factors in play, and I'm torn between whether or not this will be a card you sideboard out or sideboard in against your opponent
There is no Way in hell clay-fire bricks is a B… what? Am I crazy? C+ maybe if the format is slow, but B!
There's enough you can do with Umit before crafting and the craft ceiling is very high.
I think you're underrating warden of the inner sky. 1 mana 1/2s with upside, even if it's lategame upside (note that it doesn't tap itself), just is too relevant not to pick up unless the format is heavily midgame. You tend to underrate 1 drops.
Especially since there's no requirement that the artifacts being tapped need to have any sort of functionality. Just has to be an artifact, and there's plenty of free tap fodder.
You can tap stuff like map tokens you're not about to use and can't use on the opponents turn, artifacts without tap effects like any equipment equipment, or cards that work the same even if tapped, like Chimil, Clay Fired Bricks, Dusk Rose Reliquary, and Runaway Boulder.
If your deck is craft focused and you pull that, by midgame it might as well say "During your main phase you may cry scry 1 twice and add two +1/+1 to this creature"
For miner’s guidewing a straight C is laughable, C+ makes so much more sense, the fact that he said a 1/1 with flying and vigilance isn’t good stats is crazy to me, I mean it could be a free land or card selection with a +1/+1 counter with a good couple chip attacks in the early game pretty easily this was definitely underrated and is an amazing common the only thing wrong is it doesn’t explicitly break the game.
It's more like a B-, tbh.
i love this set i love B/G deck
Warden has to be higher than a C. Even if it only grows one time, that’s a 1 mana 2/3
Wow! Piping out these videos like they are hot!
LETS GOOOOOO
Depending on how easy it is to have artifacts on the board, and in this set, looks kind of easy. That Dusk Rose Reliquary can potentially and easily reach A grade status
I don't think premium 1-for-1 removal ever goes higher than a B grade
Calling it now. Clay-Fired Bricks is absolute unplayable garbage, you'll be dropping it by...honestly, probably two full grades. At least to a D, if not an F.
Glorifier of Suffering is going way up. It can end the game on turn 3, and it's no slouch later. It only misses when it *really* misses.
You're underestimating Might of the Ancestors very slightly, because vigilance is always underrated. Not sure if it's enough to grade it up, but it's going to be fine in many decks.
Quicksand Whirlpool will be more useful than it appears because of the tap effects in this set.
It's looking clearer and clearer that this is going to be a bit of a crazy limited set that is really designed to revitalize the 60-card meta.
You're wrong on Unstable Glyphbridge. You can hit the "+" key on your keyboard more than once. *wink.* In limited, this is going to be a complete monster.
Clay Fired Bricks is the type of card you evaluate thinking of aggro strategies, then realizing that in slower decks provides a lot of value by allowing you to do land drops and gaining life
@@carlosm7325 I may have been *slightly* too hard on the card but it's pretty garbage.
It can only search up a plains, and you need a plains to cast it. That means it doesn't ramp and it doesn't mana fix, all while also not adding to the board.
The secondary effect costs SEVEN, while only putting 4/4 of power on the board...split between two tokens.
And this format looks like it's not going to be super slow. Maybe aggro, maybe mid-range, but not slow.
This card is not going to get there. It just isn't.
Bricks definitely isn't unplayable. It could be worse than a B if this format is crazy aggressive, but I think you're underrating the card just on rate alone if you think it's potentially a D or an F. Two mana, gain 2, search up a plains is a D+ or C- on its own, and we've got a lot more going on here.
You're also not thinking about how useful it is in this format to just have a random artifact lying around, especially in White.
Also it's FLOOR when you transform it is that you get 4/4 worth of power. It's almos always going to add a heck of a lot more than that.
@@NizzahonMagic maybe. I could be off, especially if this ends up being a slow grindy format that reliably gets to 7 mana. But I think this card misses in some critical ways that you're maybe underestimating. The do-nothing start, the poor quality of the draw, the high cost, the underwhelming final product...
But hey, this is what makes these previews fun. Your predictions are always good on most and off on a few, so it'll be fun to see whether this is one of the few, and I'll happily own it if im the one who is wrong.
Def will be a solid playable cards with some early value and has some late game use are usually better than they look. If the format is slow bricks will be around a B if its not then I would give it a C+, hard to judge that before playing. Def never a D or an F in any world
Good job, as always. Keep it on.