Rivals of Ixalan Limited Set Review: Red

Welcome back friends. 0.0 bad, 5.0 good.
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Rating: 0.5

This card cantripping makes it marginally better, but it is almost textless against most decks. I wouldn't play this except against a deck with a bomb flip card that your deck can't beat otherwise.

Rating: 3.5

And here we have part 4 in the cycle of "boring, efficient common removal." It kills what you need to kill in the mid game at instant speed for as cheap as you're going to get in limited. 

Rating: 0.5

If you can afford to take 7 mana to not affect the board, you're probably already winning the game, in which case having double mana the next turn is not very helpful, especially when compared to the beaters you could be playing at this mana cost. I would not want this effect in almost any deck.

Rating: 3.0

This is a solid card in any deck, a Hill Giant with some acceleration and fixing that lets you ptoentially hit a 6 drop the next turn makes me almost never want to cut this from any deck.

Rating: 2.5

I'm normally not very high on combat tricks but the flexibility of this to use it to either win a combat or smash for a ton of damage makes this a card a lot of pirate decks will want at least one of. It has the potential to sit in hand and do nothing, but the potential upside is high enough where I'm willing risk it.

Rating: 3.0

4/4 tramplers for 5 are decent, but the fact that this has potential to just smash for eight makes this pretty good in both aggressive pirate decks that can use this as a finisher and slower dinosaur decks that can play this as a beater.

Rating: 2.5

If you're playing a deck that can consistently activate this on turn 1, a 1 mana 2/2 will likely rule the board the first couple turns of the game. Obviously, if you're forced to play this for 3 mana or you topdeck it late it's pretty bad, but thus is the risk of one drops in limited.

Rating: 3.5

A 2/1 first striking pirate is a pretty decent turn 2 play in a 2 drop focused format like this. However, if you can snapcast something, especially a removal or card draw spell, this card gets pushed into absurd territory. Good early, good late, great card.

Rating: 4.5

If you can stick this for a turn and swing into a profitable attack, I don't see a world where you lose the game. Essentially drawing and playing two cards for free every turn is value you absolutely cannot compete with, making this the perfect finisher for aggressive red decks or a great ramp target for slower dinosaur decks.

Rating: 2.0

In an aggressive red deck, especially pirates, I'm actually not too averse to playing this card. It triggers raid in the early game and can ping off flyers or something in the midgame, or maybe even deliver lethal. It being a tap ability does negate the trickiness a little bit, but this is a fine playable in red pirate decks.

Rating: 3.5

A lot of the big bombs in this set are dinosaurs, making me pretty happy to play this card to fetch the best creature in my deck, even if the stats are pretty bad. The activated ability is where I'm really looking though, as it clears vampire tokens and smaller pirates and enables enrage on all your dinos. This will be a great card in any dinosaur deck, and if you have a couple dinos you really want to draw like Etali, this is playable.

Rating: 3.0(?)

Ok, this card is weird as hell and I've never played with Form of the Dragon, but it seems pretty good in a long game. Being able to kill something every turn clears the way for blockers and basically makes topdeck wars unlosable. It does of course open you up to a bumch of face damage, but if you're clearing their board I don't think it should matter too much. This seems like a pretty good payoff for ramp decks, although I don't know if faster decks will want it.

Rating: 3.0

With the aggressive lean of pirates and dinosaurs in red, this is a great 3 drop that will either hit for 3 damage a turn or trade into something and still deal 2 face damage, making it kind of a 1.5 for 1. This seems like a card every aggressive red deck in the format will want in multiples, making it one of the stronger commons.

Rating: 2.0

The two drops in this format are pretty strong, and while this isn't great it'll do the trick in pirates decks. It triggers raid in the early game and gets in for some damage, and the 1 toughness isn't super relevant since it can't be blocked by single tokens. I wouldn't be thrilled to play this, but it's decent enough.

Rating: 1.5

This is okay removal, but I'm not super excited about it. For the most part it's never going to be able to kill their largest creature, and can only be used if they have multiple things on board. This scares me from the card because there seem like a lot of situations where it'll sit dead in hand, even though it can be 1 mana deal a bunch of damage at its best. I'm pretty skeptical about this card but wouldn't be surprised if I'm underrating it a ton.

Rating: 3.5

This will almost always at least 1 for 1 trade with a bigger minion, but it isn't hard to imagine a scenario where your opponents can only attack with one creature at a time for fear of getting blown out by the raptor. However, this starts to get really absurd once you have enrage synergy pieces such as the dinosaur tutor which let you remove almost anything at will. I'd be ecstatic to play this in slower dinosaur decks with some synergy, and it still probably makes the cut in more aggressive decks.

 Rating: 2.5

3/4s for 4 are generally well positioned in limited, profitably blocking almost every 3 and lower mana creature. This card is boring, and might be cut from pirate decks, but dinosaur decks will always play this card as a curve filler.

Rating: 3.0

I was a pretty big fan of Tormenting Voice and Cathartic reunion in limited, and this is almost as good. Pirate decks will be running out of steam kind of quickly, so a refill card like this that also lets you power out whatever you draw the same turn seems like a good addition to most red decks.

Rating: 2.5

This card is fairly similar to Mutiny except the other creature needs to be on your side of the board instead of their side. However, it seems less hard to engineer a situation where this isn't killing one of your own dudes and can remove an enemy, so this will be played in most red decks, even if it is a risky card.

Rating: 4.5

Holy cow this card is nuts. A 4 mana 4/3 flyer is already above the curve in limited, but you absolutely need two removal spells in a turn to deal with this. Barring an exile effect, this will smash for 4 every turn unless your opponent decides to two for one themselves, in which case you are free to play your other beaters. This is an early consideration for best limited card in the set.

Rating: 3.0

This seems like a pretty great addition to pirates decks that can curve into this on turn 2 or 3. It isn't hard to think about a scenario where you play this on your 2 drop and have free attacks until turn 5 or so when they can finally play something that doesn't die to first strike damage. Dinosaur decks will probably pass on this, but the most aggressive ones will consider it.

Rating: 2.5

This is a dinosaur synergy card more than anything, and if you can even get one value activation out of an enrage creature like Needletooth Raptor this is a 2 for 1. There are also a decent amount of X/1s in this set between pirates and vampires, so I could see this being played in the sideboards of other decks as well.

Rating: 0.5

Some formats are shatter formats. This is not one of them. 

Rating: 3.5

This is a monster that is a great top end for aggressive decks and ramp decks alike because of its aggressive leaning stats and pseudo-evasion. I do wish it were nonland permanent so it would always hit creatures, but destroying lands can still be relevant late especially against slower decks.

Rating: 3.0

A 4/4 dino isn't so far behind the curve that I'm completely unhappy playing this without haste, but with haste this is a great way to seal a game you were already ahead in, immediately bashing for 4 and creating a sizable threat. This seems like a pretty good payoff piece at common for an aggressive dinosaur deck.

Rating: 3.0

This is a 2 drop that is good enough in the early game and will probably trade with something bigger than it in the late game, if not surprise close it out with some pump spells. This gets better in pirate decks, but some slower decks just need bears, and this does the job well.

Rating: 2.5

This is a two drop that is abysmal in the early game, but is actually a pretty great mana sink late, giving you a bunch of damage to the dome if you can afford multiple activations of the ability. This fits in dinos more than pirates, but will be a decent card in both.

Rating: 2.5

Curving a two drop into this after attacking or trading into something is a pretty solid curve for an aggressive pirates deck, and most red decks will pretty consistently be able to activate raid, making this card reasonable. 3/3s for 3 are about as good as common 3 drops in limited get, so you'll want to take these if you're firmly in red.

Rating: 2.5

The fact you need an enrage creature to make this good makes me a little hesitant, but if you have an enrage creature this ventures on nutty, triggering the enrage and making a monstrous creature they will probably have to block, which will still get trample damage through and trigger enrage again. I really like this card in the aggressive R/W dino deck although its playability in other archetypes is questionable.

Rating: 3.5

This is a great late game one shot token generator that could potentially hit for a ton of damage. Don't play this in the early game because if you can stick it for a turn late you can make a huge board and do a ton of damage, making this a great finisher in any red deck.

Red gets a lot of good rares this set, but no stand out common other than the requisite decent removal spell. It definitely leans very aggressive, but has some nice payoffs for ramp and dino decks as well.

Top 5 Red Commons

1. Bombard

2. Brazen Freebooter

3. Frilled Deathspitter

4. Stampeding Horncrest

5. Orazca Raptor