Rivals of Ixalan Post-Prerelease Updates (Patreon)

Hope you're all having a start to the week and had fun playing at the prerelease this weekend. I had a chance to play in 4 of them but I'm even more excited to see how the new draft format is going to look.

Although draft is a different animal than sealed, the prerelease can still give you a feel for the raw power level of cards that you may have over or under estimated. I just made a bunch of updates to the card ratings and thought I'd share my thoughts with you.

Moved Up

Squire's Devotion (.6)

Ghalta, Primal Hunger (.5)

Needletooth Raptor (.4)

Captain's Hook (.4)

Etali, Primal Storm (.4)

Forerunner of the Empire (.4)

Again you have a situation where there's an aura at common that is just way more powerful than it looks. Squire's Devotion is just a great card that gives you a lot of value for a low 3 mana investment. It catches you up from behind, enhances a threat, creates a chump blocker, adds two permanents for ascend and has synergy with maybe the most synergistic tribe in vampires. 

I knew Needletooth Raptor would be good, but thought you might be able to ignore it. When you add in the synergy with cards like Tilonalli's Crown, it can be nuts. 

Finally, the forerunners were all very impressive, with Forerunner of the Empire maybe having the most impactful ETB ability. Creatures are small in RIX and if you can get a double trigger, it is amazing.

Moved Down

Polyraptor (.5)

Wayward Swordtooth (.5)

Path of Mettle (.5)

Profane Procession (.4)

Blazing Hope (.4)

Dead Man's Chest (.4)

Most of these were harder to evaluate rares that ended up just not having the support to be powerful in the set or that are too narrow. Blazing hope is an interesting one that I thought might be playable in some situations, but I think unless you are facing down a 9/9 or 12/12 it probably shouldn't be in your deck. But it might be a good sideboard card against dinosaurs.

Let me know if anything was way better/worse than you thought at your own prerelease!

Happy drafting,

Dan