In our previous Magic Story recap, we took a look at how Ixalan’s themes of discovery and exploration helped develop Vraska from a young, unjustly imprisoned convict to a confident pirate captain. This week, we’ll examine at how these same themes propel Ixalan’s native Planeswalker, Huatli, into a place of introspection and character growth. Huatli’s search for the Immortal Sun …
The Far Side of the Self: Vraska’s Journey
While Ixalan seems a lot like someone’s ultimate fantasy showdown (“Pirates vs Vampires vs Dinosaurs…also Merfolk!”), the story’s characters and plot have been thoughtfully grounded in reality. While the larger story is centered around the tribes’ search to find and claim Orazca, the Golden City, the main characters of Ixalan have each gone through a process of personal discovery, change …
A Deeper Blue: Jace, Vulnerability, and Masculinity
Since his first appearance, Jace Beleren has become the nearest thing to a mascot for Magic: The Gathering, meant to represent the average player in all his geeky, cerebral glory. With his signature hooded blue cloak and mental magic, Jace has shown himself to be a character driven by curiosity and the need for knowledge, both traits that have led …
Let’s Brew: Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle
Somewhere in Ixalan’s never-ending, Neverland-esque Pirate-Dinosaur skirmish, our imagination, childhood, and hearts were smitten with the possibilities of some of the most refreshing designs to date. And boy, they didn’t disappoint! While most have been taken with the overabundance of new creature types, the biggest win for me is a long-standing theory I’ve held about creatures and the color pie: …
Constructing Constructed: Ixalan
My goodness, this preview season has been a doozy! And with the first rotation in what feels like years pushing the Battle for Zendikar and Shadows over Innistrad blocks out of Standard, it looks like there’s a wide open metagame just waiting for dinosaurs and pirates to invade. Between new cards and reprints, there’s definitely more than a few cards …
Red Mage’s Quarterly: Ixalan
To call Hour of Devastation Standard a success for the Red Deck would be quite the understatement. Over the past three months, loyal red mages got to see their deck vault into the top tier, culminating in Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s convincing win (amidst a Top 8 with six other red aggressive decks). The additions of Earthshaker Khenra, Abrade, …
Ixalan Prerelease Primer
We’re just one week away from the release of Ixalan, and you know what that means… it’s prerelease time! Prerelease is an exciting time regardless of how much experience you have playing Magic, and we’ve created this primer to help players of all levels prepare and have as much fun as possible this weekend. The Basics If this is your …
Pirates vs. Dinosaurs
We’re pretty excited for the release of Ixalan here at Card Kingdom. So excited, in fact, that we took it upon ourselves to answer an age-old question: Who would win in a battle between pirates and dinosaurs? Watch the epic showdown in our latest video, and preorder Ixalan from us today! Credits: Pirates: Stefan Marmion, Grace Nua, Kris Ferderer Dinosaurs: …