Ixalan – Magic: The Gathering Card Set Impressions

Well, it certainly has been a while since I’ve done one of these articles. I’m honestly not even sure when my last set impression was, but I know it has been over 3 years at the very least. I sort of fell off the Magic bandwagon for a while, for a variety of reasons, so to say I’m out of the loop would be an understatement. So what brought me back? One word, dinosaurs. Why? Because dinosaurs are cool as hell, man. Truth be told, I never lost my love for Magic as a game I just had things going on that hindered me from keeping up with all the newest sets. I figured now would be a great time to jump back in and after seeing all the cards in the Ixalan set I’m stoked to discuss these new cards.

With all that out of the way, there’s a ton I want to cover so here’s how I’ll break it all down. Ixalan is set heavily focused on a tribal theme, so I’m going to give each of the four most prominent creature tribes (dinosaurs, pirates, merfolk, and vampires) their own section. After that I’ll discuss a series of new double-faced cards revolving around specialty lands. Following that will be a few other cards that stood out to me, including the set’s new planeswalkers. And finally I’ll cover some of the cards that I feel have the best flavor and then run down my eight overall favorite cards of the set. In total we’re looking at nearly 100 cards I want to highlight, so let’s do this thing.

Oh and there’s one last thing I always like to mention at the beginning of these set impressions. I am by no means a professional Magic player. Hell, with as little as I actually get to play, I’m barely an amateur. I do these to show off some sweet Magic cards because I love the game and want to share it with anyone who’s interested in hearing about it. I also write these as if the reader has some previous knowledge of the game, so keep that in mind and enjoy!

Dinosaurs

Pirates

Vampires

Merfolk

Double-Faced Cards

Planeswalkers/other

Flavor

Wrap-up/Favorites