Rivals of Ixalan

From MTG Wiki
Revision as of 00:37, 6 March 2019 by >Yandere-sliver (→‎Promotional cards)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Rivals of Ixalan
[[File:{{#setmainimage:RIX logo.png}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description Orazca / Upper half of a steering wheel
Design Ben Hayes (lead)
Melissa DeTora
Mark Gottlieb
Alexis Janson
Glenn Jones
Shawn Main
Cynthia Sheppard
Eli Shiffrin
Yoni Skolnik
Development Same as design
Art direction Cynthia Sheppard
Release date January 19, 2018
Plane Ixalan
Themes and mechanics Tribal, Double-faced cards, Treasure tokens, City's Blessing
Keywords/​ability words Transform, Ascend, Enrage, Explore, Raid
Set size 196 + 9
Expansion code RIX[2]
Development codename Eggs
Ixalan block
[[Ixalan]] '''Rivals of Ixalan''' N/A
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
[[Unstable]] Rivals of Ixalan [[Masters 25]]

Rivals of Ixalan is the 77th Magic expansion, and the second in the Ixalan block. It was released on January 19, 2018, and is a small expansion.[3][4]

Set details

Rivals of Ixalan is the last regular small expansion to be released.[5] The set contains 196 cards (5 basic lands, 70 common, 60 uncommon, 48 rare, and 13 mythic rare) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. Some of the rares are Double-faced cards which were printed on a separate print sheet. Nine additional cards are found in the set's planeswalker decks (2 mythic planeswalkers, 2 rares, 2 uncommons, 2 commons, and 1 common dual land). These are numbered #197/196 to #205/196.[6] With the exception of the Elder Dinosaur cycle, all the tribes are staying in their same colors from Ixalan.

As the design of this set fell between the abandonment of the Two-Block Paradigm, but before the introduction Three-and-One Model, Rivals of Ixalan had a combined Vision/Set Design team instead of separate Design and Development teams. Notably, head designer Mark Rosewater wasn't part of the team.[7]

Storyline

“  Stake your claim. Dominate the opposition. Rule the city.  ”

The legendary city of Orazca has been found, but it is not claimed without a fight. The winner will wield the greatest power of the plane. An unexpected rival takes the prize for his master.

The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in Ixalan are: Flood of Recollection, Induced Amnesia, and Mastermind's Acquisition. This is the first set to only have three spotlight cards. These feature a Planeswalker symbol icon as a watermark in their text boxes. The icon has no effect on game play.[4]

Magic Story

Main article: Magic Story
Title Author Release Date Setting (plane) Featuring
The Flood R&D Narrative Team 2018-01-10 Ixalan, Zendikar, Ravnica, Vryn Kumena, Vona, Mavren Fein, Vraska, Jace, Tezzeret, Liliana, Alhammarret
Glimpse the Far Side of the Sun R&D Narrative Team 2018-01-17 Ixalan, Kaldheim Huatli, Angrath, Elenda, Jace, Vraska, Zetalpa, Azor
The Arbiter of Law Left Chaos in His Wake R&D Narrative Team 2018-01-24 Ixalan Huatli, Angrath, Tishana, Kumena, Vona, Mavren Fein, Jace, Vraska, Azor
Sabotage R&D Narrative Team 2018-01-31 Ixalan, Tarkir Ugin, Azor, Nicol Bolas, Jace, Vraska
Who Tells the Stories R&D Narrative Team 2018-02-07 Ixalan Huatli, Tishana, Vona, Angrath, Mavren Fein, Elenda, Zacama
Wool Over the Eyes R&D Narrative Team 2018-02-14 Kaladesh, Unknown Plane, Ravnica, Meditation Plane, Ixalan, Dominaria Huatli, Saheeli Rai, Angrath, Vraska, Nicol Bolas, Jace, Apatzec Intli III

An additionnal article was published presenting alternate endings (now non-canon) that depicted each faction gaining control of Orazca.

Title Author Release Date Setting (plane) Featuring
Rivals of Ixalan Magic Story Alternate Endings R&D Narrative Team 2018-02-12 Ixalan Tishana, Vona, Malcolm and Breeches

Marketing

Rivals of Ixalan is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card), two planeswalker decks and the Rivals of Ixalan bundle.[6] The boosters feature artwork from TBA, Angrath, the Flame-Chained, TBA, Frilled Deathspitter, and TBA. The set doesn't feature a Masterpiece Series.[5]

As part of the preview season, Wizards of the Coast again distributed trackable game pieces to stores, fans, volunteers, and some well-known community folk. As game pieces travelled from from geochache to geocache, the distances they travelled influenced the release of preview cards.[8] By tracking Dinosaurs, Merfolk, Vampires, and Pirates individually, accompanied by votes on social media, it was decided who controlled the golden city at the end of the Rivals of Ixalan story.[9][10]

Events

  • Prerelease Events took place on January 13, 2018.[11]
  • Magic Online Launch: January 15, 2018.

Promotional cards

City's blessing marker

Tokens, emblems and markers

Ixalan features six tokens and markers.[14]

  1. {R} 0/1 Elemental creature with "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this creature and return target card named Rekindling Phoenix from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste until end of turn." for Rekindling Phoenix
  2. {R} 1/1 Elemental creature, for Tilonalli's Summoner
  3. {G} 1/1 Saproling creature, for Overgrown Armasaur and Tendershoot Dryad
  4. {C} 4/4 Golem artifact creature, for Gold-Forge Garrison
  5. Emblem for Huatli, Radiant Champion
  6. City's blessing marker

The following tokens printed in Ixalan are also used for cards in Rivals of Ixalan:

Themes and mechanics

Transform and double-faced cards are carried over from Ixalan. The front side of some of them is multicolored. The backside is still a legendary land.

Enrage, explore and raid also return and the tribal component was expanded upon.[7][15]

There is only one new named mechanic:[16]

  • Ascend — If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game.[7][15]
    • If you have the city's blessing, you gain a significant advantage depending on the spell you played.
    • A special marker may be used to indicate the city's blessing on the battlefield. This is not a token or emblem, merely a representation of a game state.
    • Both permanents and spells can have ascend. If a spell has ascend, you get the city's blessing as part of the spell's resolution if you control ten or more permanents. If a permanent has ascend, you get the city's blessing immediately once you control ten or more permanents: this is a special action that doesn't use the stack and cannot be responded to.

Card types

  • Return of the Elder subtype with the Elder Dinosaurs, the first Elders that aren't Dragons.

Cycles

Rivals of Ixalan has six cycles, including one double cycle. Two of these cycles are partial due to uneven color distribution among tribes.

Mirrored pairs

Rivals of Ixalan has four mirrored pairs.

  • Uncommon lords: Two uncommon lords, each of which is 2/2 for two mana of the tribe's colors and gives other creatures of that tribe that you control +1/+1 — Legion Lieutenant ({W/B} vampires) and Merfolk Mistbinder ({G/U} merfolk).
  • Control of the city: Two rare noncreature spells with ascend that each represent a villainous figure in the story gaining momentary control over Orazca — Kumena's Awakening and Vona's Hunger.
  • Vampire combat tricks: Two common instants that give a creature +2/+2 or -2/-2 respectively, and gain you 2 life — Moment of Triumph and Moment of Craving.
  • Sacrificing Auras: Two uncommon Auras that enchant creatures, give a power and toughness boost, and sacrifice themselves if you didn't attack with a creature this turn — See Red and Curious Obsession.

Reprinted cards

As a first, this small set features four common reprints that were also printed in the large set. This was done because R&D had realized that they didn't want to make "second best" versions of those cards.[18][19] They all have the same art as in the first set.

Other reprints

Functional reprints

Card comparisons

Main article: Rivals of Ixalan/Card comparisons

Preconstructed decks

Main article: Rivals of Ixalan/Planeswalker decks

Rivals of Ixalan features two planeswalker decks:

Planeswalker
deck name 		Colors Included Planeswalker
{W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
Vraska W B Vraska, Scheming Gorgon
Angrath B R Angrath, Minotaur Pirate

Notable cards

References

  1. ↑ Product information
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ Template:NewRef
  4. ↑ a b Template:NewRef
  5. ↑ a b Template:NewRef
  6. ↑ a b c Template:NewRef
  7. ↑ a b c Template:NewRef
  8. ↑ Template:NewRef
  9. ↑ Template:NewRef
  10. ↑ Template:NewRef
  11. ↑ Template:NewRef
  12. ↑ Deeproot Champion Promo (Reddit)
  13. ↑ Template:NewRef
  14. ↑ Template:NewRef
  15. ↑ a b Template:NewRef
  16. ↑ Template:NewRef
  17. ↑ a b c Template:NewRef
  18. ↑ [[Lua error in Module:EzTumblr at line 40: Malformed URL.]]. "[{{{1}}} Why are there so many commons from IXL reprinted in RIX?]". Lua error in Module:EzTumblr at line 50: Malformed URL.. Tumblr.
  19. ↑ Template:NewRef
  20. ↑ Template:NewRef
  21. ↑ Template:NewRef
  22. ↑ Template:NewRef
Ixalan block
Annex set
Ixalan 2024
Ixalan storyline
Publications
Locations
Characters
Affiliations
Artifacts
Magic: The Gathering sets
 
M15 frame sets
Welcome & Core sets
Expansions
 
Special sets
Special series
Supplemental sets
Non-English Reprint sets
Other Box sets
Un sets
Commemorative sets
Retrieved from "https://mtg.wiki/index.php?title=Rivals_of_Ixalan&oldid=293354"