Rivals of Ixalan FULL REVEAL

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Magic: the Gathering players this weekend will likely be spending a good volume of time pouring over the full reveal of all Rivals of Ixalan cards which was posted by Wizards of the Coast's card image gallery linked right here.  With all the cards now out it will indeed take a bit to soak in and evaluate.  

What is clear at the moment is that we have support designed for 10 two-coloured draft archetypes.  This of course is the most obvious paths, but the beauty of Magic: the Gathering is individual innovation.  Should you be exploring something with a more tribal theme, then you should want to include the appropriate 'forerunner' as mentioned in the below section in the cycles.  For now, here are the 'suggested servings' of critical cards all at Uncommon rarity to build upon - 

• Blue / White ASCEND - Resplendent Griffin
• Blue / Black ASCEND - Deadeye Brawler 
• Black / Red PIRATES - Fleet Neckbreaker
• Red / Green AGGRO - Raging Regisaur
• Green / White RAMP - Atzocan Seer

• White / Black VAMPIRES - Legion Lieutenant
• Black / Green (? Recursion / Elementals) - Jungle Creeper
• Green  Blue MERFOLK - Merfolk Mistbinder 
• Blue / Red PIRATES (Raid) - Storm Fleet Sprinter
• Red / Whte AGGRO - Relentless Raptor

Here were three late Rivals of Ixalan previews from yesterday, before the full reveal - 

Hadana's Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca - one of my favourite enchantments - low casting cost, and relatively easy to transform into a relevant and useful land with utility to shoot over an evasive and pumped up threat.  Little doubt that this will be at the very least a two of in my Merfolk tribal build in the new standard.

Wayward Swordtooth - A 5/5 dino for 3 mana - what's the catch here ?  It allows an extra land drop each turn which is damn fine - what's the drawback.  It can't attack / block unless you have the City's Blessing, which should not be that difficult.

Twilight Prophet - 2/4 Vampire for 2BB.  Has flying and ascend, which when you have the City's Blessing

allows for a card draw with a damn solid drain 'n' gain - classic Orzhov goodness here.  A decent four-drop, with the only restriction here the doulbe-black casting cost, unless you are going in for a build with mostly swamps.

OF NOTE - 
The Rivals of Ixalan Release Notes have been loaded as well (pop over to this linky), so do read about the new Ascend mechanic, the returning ones and of course, the card specific notes.  All we will touch upon, now that we do have all the cards posted, are the card cycles you can expect.  Not noted is the cycle mentioned above in the draft archetype section.  Note that given we have a unique arrangement of the four tribes, the tradition colour distribuion would not have the full 'wrap-around' (we're certain there is a better phrase to convey this).  Anywhoos, here they are - 

Elder Dinosaurs: 
Five rare legendary Elder Dinosaurs and one mythic -
• Zetalpa, Primal Dawn 
• Nezahal, Primal Tide 
• Tetzimoc, Primal Death 
• Etali, Primal Storm 
• Ghalta, Primal Hunger 
• Zacama, Primal Calamity

Legendary transforming enemy color enchantments: 
Five rare legendary enchantments in enemy color pairs that transform into legendary lands whenever a condition is met. Each of these lands tap for one mana of any color and have other powerful abilities -
• Profane Procession // Tomb of the Dusk Rose (W/B), 
• Journey to Eternity // Atzal, Cave of Eternity (B/G), 
• Hadana's Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca (G/U), 
• Storm the Vault // Vault of Catlacan (U/R), and 
• Path of Mettle // Metzali, Tower of Triumph (R/W).

Forerunners: 
Four uncommon creatures, one for each major tribe. Each has an enters the battlefield ability that tutors a creature of the respective type to the top of your library, and a triggered ability whenever a creature of that type enters the battlefield under your control -
• Forerunner of the Legion (W vampires)
• Forerunner of the Coalition (B pirates)
• Forerunner of the Empire (R dinosaurs)
• Forerunner of the Heralds (G merfolk)
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