Ixalan Set Review: Red

Black was allright, but Blue is I think a stronger color in this set.

Angrath's Marauders: Another EDH monstrosity. It reminds me of Gisela, Blade of Goldnight (4RWW Flying, first strike If a source would deal damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, that source deals double that damage to that player or permanent instead. If a source would deal damage to you or a permanent you control, prevent half that damage, rounded up.)
Bonded Horncrest: Mogg Flunkies for Dinosaurs.

Brazen Buccaneers: Meant for Limited.
Captain Lannery Storm: I am not seeing strength. You can cast it when your opponent doesn't have any creatures on the board and get your token, but it's easy for an opponent to be able to block this. Even after you sacrifice one of the Treasure tokens, it's still only a 3/2.

Burning Sun's Avatar: That is a really good entrance. It doesn't fly, and it doesn't get big, though.
Captivating Crew: That's pretty good. It's a repeatable Act of Treason that is worth the extra cost.

Charging Monstrosaur: Square (5/5 for 5) and solid, especially in Limited.
Dinosaur Stampede: Useful battle trick in at least Limited. It's a Dinosaur bonus, though, and that's the deck where it will go.

Demolish: Welcome back, old friend.
Dual Shot: A great way to Enrage your own creatures before they attack.

Fathom Fleet Firebrand: Made for Limited.
Fire Shrine Keeper: Part of the cycle of Limited cards with high cost mana triggers.

Fiery Cannonade: I would use it to Enrage all of my critters in a battlefield with my opponent controlling no Enrage creatures. Well costed for early game cleanups.
Firecannon Blast: Made for Limited.

Frenzied Raptor: Made for Limited.
Hijack: A more versatile Act of Treason, and reprinted from Kaladesh,

Headstrong Crew: Square (3/3 for 3) with a benefit. Should be a solid include in a Pirate deck.
Lightning Strike: Lightning Bolt would have been an amazing include, but this will do. Finally! Not a battlecruiser spell.

Lightning-Rig Crew: I love everything about it. I love the art, and its a Goblin. In a Pirate deck, you should be pinging many times with this. I would want to flicker Pirates again and again in a Red/Blue deck with spells like Siren's Ruse (in this set).
Nest Robber: Made for Limited.

Makeshift Munitions: The Pirate Goblins are at it again. If I could get an assembly line between my graveyard and my hand, I could deal a lot of damage with this. I am not yet at the point where I will figure out how to break it. Any creature that can be cast from the graveyard is perfect fodder to repeat the ping multiple times in a single turn.
Otepec Huntmaster: Pretty cool Dinosaur enabler. I would love to cast two, and then my Dinosaurs are that much cheaper to cast.

Rampaging Ferocidon: It will ping you too. It needs to be used with care. Menace is great. I wouldn't one four of these on the board if I was losing the game.
Repeating Barrage: "or player" Thanks, Wizards. We need more of these. Reads like a must have for aggro creature-heavy decks.

Raptor Hatchling: Oh yeah, this is the Enrage creature we need. This is a nod to Hearthstone's Angry Chicken. I need to buff it up first, and then start pinging it for tokens. Awesome, so awesome. This is my favorite card of the set, and I haven't even looked through the Green, Multicolored, and Artifact Creatures yet!
Rigging Runner: Great one drop for the Pirate deck.

Rile: Another Enrage enabler. Oh, and you get to draw a card. This is really good.
Rummaging Goblin: Meant for Limited.

Rowdy Crew: Reads like a junk Mythic, even it's making me think. You are discarding at random and you are not Scrying a lot in this set. If you know what you are drawing, that's another story. You draw three lands with an empty hand and this becomes 5/5, which would be awesome. Yeah, this reads too wacky to be useful.
Star of Extinction: Another improbable EDH spell. It cleans out ALL creatures and planeswalkers, including yours. If you only have vehicles on the battlefield, though, you are safe.

Storm Fleet Arsonist: Solid. I would make sure I have taken out all non-land permanents before I cast this, and then it can go for the lands.
Sun-Crowned Hunters: Reads solid in Limited, especially if you have ways to ping it.

Storm Fleet Pyromancer: Meant for Limited. It does read "or player," and that is such a welcome change from just hitting creatures and not players in classic battlecruiser.
Sunbird's Invocation: In the great tradition of 'wall of text' junk rares. It's similar to repeatable Cascade: "When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order." I like it a lot, except it's a six drop. You should have won the game by the time you can cast this, especially in Red.

Sure Strike: Limited battle trick.
Thrash of Raptors: Meant for Limited.

Swashbuckling: Functional reprint of Goblin War Paint and essential in an Enrage deck.
Tilonalli's Knight: Solid in Limited. I will not want to lower my Dinosaur count in constructed for this.

Tilonalli's Skinshifter: That's pretty good assuming you have at least one solid beater on the board. It's a really cool design and expands Red's versatility. It's really a Red Phantasmal Image (Phantasmal Image 1U You may have Phantasmal Image enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it's an Illusion in addition to its other types and it gains "When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.") This set is so much stronger than the battlecruiser sets since and including Theros (with the exception of some of Khans of Tarkir block)!
Unfriendly Fire: It deals 1 less damage than Lava Axe, yet it has the versatility that now you can hit a "creature or player" instead of just "player."

Throne of Temptation: I would have no planeswalkers, play this with Black and every imaginable creature removal to only have the second clause be valid. Alternatively, in Modern, I would put this in a prison deck in which my opponent was not able to attack with their creatures even if they had them.
Wily Goblin: It's better than the same card minus one mana casting cost and no ETB clause because you can spend that extra mana to access spells in other colors. The Treasure tokens are there to be a substitute for supporting additional colors in your mana base.

Ixalan Set Review: Black

I am already psyched about this set, and I haven't even gotten to my favorite color. That has not happened since I forget when... definitely before Theros.

Anointed Deacon: Meant for Limited.
Blight Keeper: Once again, I am not a fan of these huge mana cost abilities staples to a Limited card... there has to be a one in a million chance you will ever get to trigger it unless you draw it at the end of the game. It's a Johnny win that happens once in a lifetime.

Bishop of the Bloodstained: Love the Velazquez-like art. It can be as good as Gray Merchant of Asphodel (3BB When Gray Merchant of Asphodel enters the battlefield, each opponent loses X life, where X is your devotion to black. You gain life equal to the life lost this way. (Each Black in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to black.)) I like it a lot. It will take more setting up than the merchant, yet that's OK.
Bloodcrazed Paladin: Great to drop after a board wipe.

Boneyard Parley: Costly Parley sounds like a better name. Your usual EDH mega effect: pay 7 mana, do something ridiculous that involves multiple players.
Costly Plunder: Two mana for two cards and you can even gain something from dropping a creature in your graveyard or have an artifact you don't need as much.

Contract Killing: Meant for Limited.
Dark Nourishment: "or player" is the best part. It's solid, since you will be 6 life away from your opponent if you hit to face.

Deadeye Tormentor: Not bad, and maybe not just a Limited card. Forcing your opponent to discard is often very good.
Deathless Ancient: You still have to pay the six mana to cast it after all that effort. I would use it in Limited since it flies.

Deadeye Tracker: I would want to cause some discard first, but yeah, that's a cool effect. Exploring just reeks versatility.
Desperate Castaways: Meant for Limited.

Dire Fleet Hoarder: Meant for Limited.
Dire Fleet Ravager: "each player" means you too lose life... not so good. I like the cost, and I love Menace and Deathtouch, but it hits you for a lot of life. I would only play it if I had a big advantage over my opponents, in which case I would play something else. If it had Flying and was a 6/6, that would be another story.

Dire Fleet Interloper: Solid in Limited, I may even try it in Constructed just because I am very curious about how good exploring can be.
Duress: Welcome back!

Fathom Fleet Captain: A lot of setting up to get the token, yet you can may be able to do it consistently if you buff it or make sure your opponent has no more than one creature on the battlefield.
Grim Captain's Call: Love the artwork. It should be really good in Limited, where you may need to play all four tribes in the same deck.

Heartless Pillage: Should be really good. Three mana for two discarded cards is great. You will have to play it after combat to get the token, and that will be fine if you build your deck with this in mind.
Fathom Fleet Cutthroat: Solid in Limited, and I may even want to try it in Constructed.

Kitesail Freebooter: Love it. It could temporarily remove a threat and it is aggressively costed. In some of the weaker recent sets this would have been a rare.
March of the Drowned: That Pirate deck is going to be a lot of fun. It has support that would be OK for any creature and is excellent for Pirates.

Lurking Chupacabra: Great title! If only I could pull enough explore creatures in Limited... I definitely want to put the explore cards in a deck and see how they play.
Mark of the Vampire: Meant for Limited.

Queen's Agent: Meant for Limited.
Raider's Wake: Oh, I really want to build a casual Standard deck around this card. If it was a two drop, I would be trying it out in all formats. As a four drop, it enters too late to be a force to be reckoned with.

Queen's Bay Soldier: Black bear.
Revel in Riches: Because EDH. It's a great alternate condition win, except you need opponents with lots of creatures. It's nearly impossible to pull off in the non-rotating formats, where low or no creature decks are common. I would love to try in Standard 'just because.'

Rain Raider: Dark Confidant at one more mana and requiring setup. It should be really strong in Standard. It won't be able to kill you as fast as Dark Confidant can kill you, there is Scry in Standard, and maybe I would pack some lifegain, yet it should be a fun trip.
Sanctum Seeker: I have not forgotten that Blood Artist is a Vampire, and I am always looking for ways to build yet another deck with it (1B Whenever Blood Artist or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.). I am not sure this goes with it, I am only reminded of Blood Artist when I look at this card.

Ruthless Knave: Really good if not really strong. It will generate tokens very quickly in a deck full of sacrifice targets. It wouldn't be a Pirate deck, though. I am thinking of Gravecrawler (B Gravecrawler can't block. You may cast Gravecrawler from your graveyard as long as you control a Zombie.)
Seekers' Squire: I am loving these explore cards for a fun casual build.

Skittering Heartstopper: Love the wacky artwork. Situational Deathtouch at a low cost is good enough.
Skymarch Bloodletter: Solid flyer in Limited.

Skulduggery: Sweet battle trick. I would put it in so many decks!
Spreading Rot: A new land destruction card similar to Destroy the Evidence (4B Destroy target land. Its controller reveals cards from the top of his or her library until he or she reveals a land card, then puts those cards into his or her graveyard.) Destroy the Evidence definitely destroyed it's own evidence of being playable, and believe me, I tried!

Sword-Point Diplomacy: Tricky yet powerful. It can go sideways on you, though. Your opponent lost nine life, but you exiled three cards without seeing them first. It's a thinking card, for sure. Without some Scry, I would not be too hot about playing it.
Vicious Conquistador: "Each opponent" makes it really good in EDH. I would have to buff it to get the pinging for life benefit mid to late game.

Vanish the Weak: I guess we still have some battlecruiser cards. Same cost as Murder, but limits you to low power creatures.
Vraska's Contempt: The lifegain is insignificant compared to the exile effect, which is well-costed, Also, instant speed is awesome.

Walk the Plank: Equivalent to (and I would say better than) Victim of Night (BB Instant Destroy target non-Vampire, non-Werewolf, non-Zombie creature.) except it is a Sorcery.
Wanted Scoundrels: Another great addition to the Pirate deck. One card I would enchant to make Indestructible, or with Hexproof, or with Shroud.

Ixalan Set Review: Blue

The concept of 'fun' is so important in games. Even though historically pirates were horrible people, and definitely the terrorists of their time, in our culture they have been recast as these fun-loving beings. Dinosaurs, of course, are a young boy's dream.

Wizards has topped that by reprinting Opt and Spell Pierce in the same set. That is amazing. This set had me at 'Hello.' There are still a few remnants of the battlecruiser power level in this set, and that's all right because we can chase them down with cards like Opt and Spell Pierce.

Air Elemental: All the way from Limited Edition Alpha. A great core set reprint.
Cancel: Another core set reprint, this time from Tenth Edition. Counterspell for the masses.

Arcane Adaptation: This is really good. It means you can use spells for a given tribe without packing these in your deck. For example, in Blue/Black, you can cast a spell for Zombies without having any Zombies in your deck since your creatures in your graveyard are now zombies. It's a risky card that can go sideways, yet, it will likely be just as popular and useful as Phantasmal Image was in Magic 2012 (1U You may have Phantasmal Image enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it's an Illusion in addition to its other types and it gains "When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.")
Chart a Course: Great uncommon. Would have been a common ten or fifteen years back, yet that does not make it suck. It's similarly costed as a Sorcery as See Beyond (1U Draw two cards, then shuffle a card from your hand into your library.) Most of the 'draw two cards' spells are Instants, or costed at three mana. This is really good.

Daring Saboteur: A little constraining since you will have to discard a card no matter what. Still a solid card. The unblockable cost is low, and you can buff it with an enchantment.
Deeproot Waters: Another solid uncommon for Merfolk. I am not sure it will displace another card in that deck in Modern, for example, because the Merfolk Modern deck is packed with lords at three mana. It is still a solid card, definitely in Standard constructed.

Deadeye Quartermaster: A tutor is always very useful, and it can be any Equipment or Vehicle. It comes in one mana too late for the other constructed formats, yet in Standard, it should have a home in several decks.
Depths of Desire: Meant for Limited. If I compare it to Unsummon (U), I am paying two mana for that Treasure token. The token will give me some mana versatility, and this is a tempo loss to my opponent. I will take it, but only after I have selected lots of removal and evasion,

Dive Down: Meant for Limited. It's solid protection for something that's about to get removed.
Entrancing Melody: It can be more versatile than the five mana plus equivalents. It would be a great answer to a very aggressive strategy. It's only three mana against a pesky one drop.

Dreamcaller Siren: Definitely a battlecruiser card. They have to have two non-lands worth tapping, and that usually means creatures, and it has a blocking downside.
Favorable Winds: From Avacyn Restored. It saw next to no play back then, even though it's a cool anthem and is aggressively costed. It forces you to only pack flyers.

Fleet Swallower: Can only be useful in EDH. In any other format, you should have won by the time you have enough mana to cast this, even in mono blue.
Herald of Secret Streams: Comes in one more mana later than would make it amazing. I would still play it, but only in Standard. It will likely go in a deck with White, Green, or both.

Headwater Sentries: I love vanillas. Meant for Limited.
Jace, Cunning Castaway: The artwork is a little on the off-Broadway side of things, maybe something you would find in Kitsch bric-a-brac. It does depict Wizards jumping the shark. Someone should have caught that and changed the artwork. It evokes Wizards finally running out of ideas, which is not what is happening in this set. The Don Draper haircut doesn't help.
The +1 has too many hoops. Being able to deal combat damage to a player is a lot harder than it seems. It might as well be costed at zero. It can only come in after you have set yourself up to always deal direct damage to your opponent with at least one creature. The -2 is good, but you need to have kicked in some +1s to safely use it. The ultimate is neat, but not earth-shattering. Those tokens still have three loyalty starting off. This planeswalker lives or dies with your ability to deal direct combat damage to your opponent. If you can do that, this is a must-have. If you can't, you are delaying how long it will take you to lose.

Kopala, Warden of Waves: A great way to protect your Merfolk. A much stronger version would have given your Merfolk some sort of a boost. Costed where all the Modern Merfolks lords are.
Navigator's Ruin: By itself, it needs to trigger 15 times to deck your opponent. It's a solid addition to a milling deck, but not the key card for the deck. I would make sure I have as many of these on the board as possible. If it milled five, it would be the build around card in a milling deck, since with two of them on the board, your opponent is on a six turn clock. With two of these on the board, your opponent is on an 8 turn clock.

Lookout's Dispersal: A Mana Leak for Pirates? Sold! This is amazing. It is stronger than Mana Leak (1U Counter target spell unless its controller pays 3.) as long as you control a Pirate. Nice!
One With the Wind: Solid for an unblockable creature, actually for any creature.

Opt: One wonderful way to sell packs is to have at least one Blue common card that is really good. Think Ponder for Magic 2012, Delver of Secrets for Innistrad, and Treasure Cruise for Khan of Tarkir. We have not had one since Khans of Tarkir. That was a really long time ago.
Perilous Voyage: Solid in the early game. It will be easy to find targets to get Scry 2 out of it against many decks in Standard.

Prosperous Pirates: Meant for Limited.
River's Rebuke: Solid. It takes a lot of mana to pull this off, yet it can turn a game around. It's one mana less than Cyclonic Rift with Overload (1U Return target nonland permanent you don't control to its owner's hand. Overload 6U (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of "target" with "each.")).

Overflowing Insight: A simpler Sphinx's Revelation (XWUU Instant You gain X life and draw X cards.) With X=7, you would have needed 10 mana and here you only pay 7 minus the life gain. It's hard to tell before we see it in play, but it reads like it could be a cornerstone card for Standard control.
Pirate's Prize: Solid in Limited. I could even see myself using it in Constructed.

River Sneak: Solid trigger to play Jace in a Merfolk deck.
Run Aground: Sweet! A strictly better Griptide (3U Instant Put target creature on top of its owner's library.).

Sailor of Means: Meant for Limited.
Shipwreck Looter: Meant for Limited, yet I could see it in Constructed as well with some 'graveyard matters' cards/

Shaper Apprentice: Meant for Limited.
Shore Keeper: I am not a fan of these low drops with some gigantic mana ability. I only see them being good in Limited.

Siren Lookout: I hope exploring is as good as I am reading it. I really like this ability.
Siren's Ruse: Simply fantastic. The Pirate clause keeps it from being added to many other decks. Still, this one card makes me want to build a Pirate deck.

Siren's Stormtamer: That reads super strong. Against Red and Black, this is a great card to have on the field.
Spell Pierce: What can I say? I still can't believe such a strong card is in a battlecruiser era set, and I hope that means the battlecruiser era is over.

Storm Fleet Spy: Solid. It's going in the Pirate deck for sure.
Spell Swindle: A Mana Drain for the masses (UU Counter target spell. At the beginning of your next main phase, add an amount of Colorless to your mana pool equal to that spell's converted mana cost.) That's awesome.

Storm Fleet Aerialist: Another solid Pirate for Constructed.
Storm Sculptor: Solid in Limited. It can trigger an ETB for another card for a second time and you can enchant it and deal combat damage reliably.

Tempest Caller: A great tempo shift in a creature-heavy format. Also great with Tamiyo's -2 ability (Draw a card for each tapped creature target player controls.)
Wind Strider: Strong in Limited.

Watertrap Weaver: Another solid common in Limited. I can even see it get play in Constructed.