Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Ixalan, where today I’ll be continuing my journey on talking about the separation of the color pie when it comes to the four major creature types in Ixalan. For the past two days, I’ve talked about how Vampires and Merfolk have branched out from their main color and gone into new colors with mono-color creatures we haven’t seen before. Today is a little different as Ixalan is providing us with a brand-new creature type with Dinosaurs! This is a fresh canvas to use and an open design space in which to use to creature these new cards. So, let’s have a look at where Dinosaurs fall in the color pie in Ixalan.
In Ixalan, the four major creature types take a chunk of the color pie and have creatures in only certain colors. Here is a review of the breakdown of the four major creature types of Ixalan and what colors they are in.
Vampires – Black / White
Merfolk – Green / Blue
Dinosaur – Red / Green / White
Pirates – Red / Blue / Black
With Dinosaurs being a new creature type, there really isn’t any history to go on when it comes to the color pie except for my intial perception of what I think Dinosaurs should be. I see them as large intimidating creatures that will overpower you. This makes me immediately think of Red and Green as the sweet spot for Dinosaurs. White does tend to have some large creatures at times such as Giants, so I’m okay with Dinosaurs being branched out to three colors. With Dinosaurs (and Pirates) being in three colors compared to the two colors that Vampires and Merfolk have, it will mean that there will be more deck combinations that you will see that play Dinosaurs when it comes to Limited. This is great, as larger casting cost creatures usually are used more in Limited, so Dinosaurs should make quite an impact. Let’s have a look some of the new Dinosaurs from Ixalan.
First off, I want to talk about a card that if cast, will have a good chance of just taking over the game. Here is Carnage Tyrant.
Talk about a creature that will be very hard to deal with when it hits the battlefield. Being a 7/6 trample, hexproof creature is fine enough for six mana, but throw in the fact that it can’t be countered, and you have a huge threat. I think that this is a creature that we are going to see in Standard on the top of the mana curve as a creature that will be able to finish off your opponent. This creature alone is a three-turn clock that you can’t really chump block and without plenty of blockers or a sweeper removal spell, won’t be going to the graveyard anytime soon.
Next, is a creature that we will probably see in Standard to replace a card that will be rotating out when Ixalan comes out. Let’s look at Kinjalli’s Sunwing.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar was always one of my favorite creatures in Standard. It gave you a tempo advantage and made it difficult for your opponent to catch up to your growing battlefield. It’s nice that Kinjalli’s Sunwing also has evasion in the form of flying as well. At only three mana, this will probably be one of the smallest Dinosaurs in Ixalan, but thanks to its ability could make the biggest impact.
To end it off, I’ve brought in the biggest, baddest, multicolorest Dinosaur of them all. Here is the massive Gishath, Sun’s Avatar.
This card is the definition of a bomb. If you get this in your prerelease pack or in a draft, please try and make it work. Playing three colors might be hard, since as of this point there is no mana fixing cards in Ixalan other than Unclaimed Territory. This creature is great on defense, great on offense, and will help gain you card advantage as well. Players will not see this card coming and could win you the game from out of nowhere.
So, there you have it folks, the biggest new creature type to come out of Ixalan. I believe that every time I will crack open some packs, whether it be at the prerelease or a draft, I’m going to be wanting to open as many of these powerful Dinosaurs as I can. Thanks again for joining me on the Daily Dose of Ixalan and join me on Monday as I finalize my talk on separating the color pie by talking about good ol’ Pirates!
