Magic: The Gathering – Our ten favorite Uncommons for Ixalan Limited

1. Charging Monstrosaur

What? Whatever! Dinosaurs rule! Top of our list here is nothing too flashy or exciting, but I would easily pick this over half of the rares in the set. Charging Monstrosaur is a 5/5 for five-mana, meaning it is on curve for power, and it goes above and beyond in two ways. Haste allows it to attack the turn it comes down, often times catching opponents off guard if their creatures are tapped.

If you’re playing against an aggro deck, this is not the brute your opponent wants to see when they are defenseless and their weenie creatures are all tapped. Even if your opponent has blockers ready, not many creatures are going to stand in this thing’s way on turn five and expect to survive. In this case, it means Charging Monstrosaur will usually eat a creature and carry damage over into the player thanks to Trample, or it will take two creatures with it to the graveyard.

Charging Monstrosaur also has potential to come down on turn four if you ramp with Treasures, so it fits in any Red Pirate deck, giving it an edge as a flexible card that doesn’t need synergies to shine. In other words, this will win a lot of games from out of nowhere, like a cheap Inferno Jet only it has two legs for repeated attacks.

2. Ranging Raptors

Tutoring for lands with a spell is always a sweet deal, but being able to do is repeatedly with Ranging Raptors is just pure value. Again, there are multiple ways to trigger Enrage, making it pretty easy to get those lands, but when this effect is attached to a creature, just the threat of Enrage might be enough to keep an opponent at bay for a turn or two.

If they attack into Ranging Raptors, they have to kill it. Otherwise, Ranging Raptors spirals out of control and puts you two, three, four mana ahead of the opponent rather than just one a normal block would get you. If you attack, they have to let it through and take two damage or else, again, they’re behind a land. This card will make opponents sweat unless they have hard removal since even a Red burn spell will trigger Enrage and, again, put them behind a land.

Ranging Raptors also helps you splash after it summons up your off-color basic lands. I’m all about this card.

3. Lightning Strike

As if Red needed any more help, Lightning Strike is back. Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast boosted it to Uncommon, meaning you won’t have to be wary of 3 damage for a cheap two mana as often as you had to in previous sets.

Open Fire was a bomb in Hour of Devastation, Magma Spray dominated Amonkhet, and Incendiary Flow was a killer in Eldritch Moon. Every set needs their classic burn spell, and Ixalan is getting the best one this side of Lightning Bolt. Instant speed and being able to target creatures and players make it the most flexible burn spell since the last time we saw Lightning Strike.

It only loses a few points because the new art is just awful.

4. Imperial Aerosaur

Imperial Aerosaur is a prime Uncommon card and one of the best cards all around in the set. 3/3 and flying is already great value for four mana, but when this comes into the battlefield, you get to pump your largest creature and then send it at an opponent in the air. That’s huge, especially when they don’t have a flyer up to block.

Now, it’s also a Dinosaur, meaning you’re likely to have other Dinosaurs fighting alongside it. At the very largest, you could be sending 10 damage in the air with Imperial Awesomesaur, his new name. Winning with this card in game 1 will also scare your opponents into leaving back flyers to block, potentially ruining their aggro game. This is busted at common, and I hope to see it often.

5. Deadeye Plunderers

These guys are just as badass as they look. Five mana lands you a creature that can crank out Treasure artifacts with your spare mana. Hopefully, this will help ramp you into your strongest bomb. The problem with that logic is that five mana is already top of the line for Pirates that you want to play, and unless you’re looking to get to seven for Tishana, Voice of Thunder or Overflowing Insight, that mana will probably be used only for control and countering.

Or, of course, that Treasure also helps power up Deadeye Plunderer. Every artifact that enters the battlefield makes it just a little bit stronger, and this also includes Treasure from other creatures as well as Vehicles and Equipment that makes it onto the battlefield. Needless to say, this is a build-around where you want as much access artifacts as possible, but if you build it right, wow… there isn’t a lot of artifact hate here to slow Deadeye Plunderers down.

A 3/3 for five isn’t impressive, but a potential 6/6 or 7/7 that controls its own growth? Any day!

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/09/23/magic-the-gathering-our-ten-favorite-uncommons-for-ixalan-limited/