With the many sets that Wizards of the Coast have been releasing seemingly non-stop,
we have seen the arrival of 8 sets - in order of age, oldest first, Shadows over Innistrad,
Eldritch Moon, Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, Ixalan, and now,
Rivals of Ixalan.
Ixalan/Rivals of Ixalan -
we have seen the arrival of 8 sets - in order of age, oldest first, Shadows over Innistrad,
Eldritch Moon, Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, Ixalan, and now,
Rivals of Ixalan.
Ixalan/Rivals of Ixalan -
Pirates, Dinosaurs, and Merfolk.
The stress on the Blue & Green Merfolk in Ixalan and Rivals is not new completely, however,
with new Blue-Green Legendary Merfolk creatures, they add to the EDH and Standard
formats greatly. The Black & White Vampire synergy in the new sets gives a new addition to
the current Mardu colored (Red, Black, & White) Vampire Tribals, and makes for a good
bonus to EDH soon after the release of the Edgar Markov deck. The Naya (Red, Green,
White) Dinosaurs are a relatively new idea, making big waves in both Standard and EDH,
with both being ideal formats forthe three color deck, as the formats don’t require for a
super fast mana curve/ deck.
The benefit to Grixis (Red, Black, & Blue) Pirates with the implementation of the new sets
are large, as the ability to run a true Pirate Tribal is now on the seas of imagination, (hopefully
with no idea pirates around) andone may add in a touch of Green due to the new Vraska
Planeswalker card. The new Planeswalkers, should they be from Pre-cons or the packs
themselves, are most certainly valuable and follow their color “identity” which they follow, as
the Pre-con Hautli isRed-White and the Rivals Hautli is Green-White. The new Jaces are
both very strong, with the Pre-con Jace being better than Party Jace (Jace Beleren), and
the new Legendary Jace from the packs allotting now for the use of multiple Jaces at one
time. Thus, all formats are forever changed by this ruling making new decks able to revolve
around a single type of Planeswalker.
New Planeswalker Rulings-
formats greatly. The Black & White Vampire synergy in the new sets gives a new addition to
the current Mardu colored (Red, Black, & White) Vampire Tribals, and makes for a good
bonus to EDH soon after the release of the Edgar Markov deck. The Naya (Red, Green,
White) Dinosaurs are a relatively new idea, making big waves in both Standard and EDH,
with both being ideal formats forthe three color deck, as the formats don’t require for a
super fast mana curve/ deck.
The benefit to Grixis (Red, Black, & Blue) Pirates with the implementation of the new sets
are large, as the ability to run a true Pirate Tribal is now on the seas of imagination, (hopefully
with no idea pirates around) andone may add in a touch of Green due to the new Vraska
Planeswalker card. The new Planeswalkers, should they be from Pre-cons or the packs
themselves, are most certainly valuable and follow their color “identity” which they follow, as
the Pre-con Hautli isRed-White and the Rivals Hautli is Green-White. The new Jaces are
both very strong, with the Pre-con Jace being better than Party Jace (Jace Beleren), and
the new Legendary Jace from the packs allotting now for the use of multiple Jaces at one
time. Thus, all formats are forever changed by this ruling making new decks able to revolve
around a single type of Planeswalker.
New Planeswalker Rulings-
Now with the release of Jace, Cunning Castaway, the ruling that you can only have 1
Planeswalker of the same type (i.e. a Gideon, Chandra, Nissa planeswalker) on the field at
a time has gone away to be replaced by the Legendary Planeswalker rule, which basically
means that as long as your Planeswalker has a different name, and is non-legendary, you
can run as many Planeswalkers of the same type (i.e. a Gideon, Chandra, Nissa
planeswalker) on the field as there are varieties of it. This could allow for decks to arise in
both Modern and EDH (Commander) formats that focus on the abilities of one Planeswalker
type, such as Gideon, as the example below explores.
The change in ruling allows for players to dominate the field with powerful abilities like
Gideon of the Trials’ +0 ability, making it truly impossible for you to lose the game, or for your
opponent(s) to win the game, as long as you control a Gideon Planeswalker. Combo this
with the fact that now you can play as many Gideon Planeswalkers with different names on
the field as you want, and you have the potential to shut down win conditions such as
Black-Blue Mill, Infinite Combos, Storm, and Door to Nothingness decks.
