Magic: The Gathering – Dinosaurs vs Pirates vs Vampires vs Mermaids… no lie

Creatively, it’s a bold new direction to take, and from a marketing stance, it helps alleviate some of the problems longtime fans were having with the game. The Gatewatch, while loaded with popular characters, was seen as becoming too much of a crutch for consecutive stories to lean on. Much like how moviegoers suffer from “Marvel fatigue,” every Magic set focused entirely on these five characters showing up and saving the day, and fans got fed up with them after only two years.

Now, we get to focus less on them and more on the brilliant worlds and stories that Magic is known for creating.

Details are still scarce on the story, but from what we can tell, Ixalan is a land of high-faring adventures, expansive empires, underwater societies, and giant lizards, both tamed and wild.

The main show: Dinosaurs and Pirates!

Dinosaurs are the biggest addition to this new Magic: The Gathering set, and while this is not the first time they’ve been revived from extinction to be put into the game, this is the first time that they have taken center stage. The older sets that are now rotating out featured a race of massive octopus aliens called the Eldrazi, and fans seem more than willing to set Dinosaurs up on a pedestal to make them the new brutes of Magic.

So far, we’ve seen through spoilers that Dinosaurs will cover the Naya colors of Magic’s pentagon, meaning White, Red, and Green mana. As with most creatures that fit these colors, Dinosaurs will be BIG with large casting costs and large payoffs in power and toughness. Gishath, Sun’s Avatar, the Legendary Dinosaur in this set, will come down hard at eight-mana for a 7/6 creature with all three abilities associated with his colors. Vigilance for White, Haste for Red, and Trample for Green.

As a bonus, when he tears through enemy blockers, which he will assuredly do, he can summon up a host of more dinosaurs to wreck opponent’s life totals.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/09/17/magic-the-gathering-ixalan-info/