Rivals of Ixalan Thoughts

The full spoiler is here!

Thoughts:

The Ascend mechanic is...weird. It wants players to overextend and then what? Are those rewards really worth it? I'm not sure. It isn't bad, mind you. I'm just not very confident that it matters. The more I think about it, the more it seems like "win more" and those mechanics rarely splash.

White-
Did we really need a more expensive Pacifism? (Luminous Bonds)

Otherwise, I'm not seeing a lot of interesting stuff. Bishop of Binding is probably the most interesting turn on what White does but not much else really stands out.

Best worst card is probably Blazing Hope-because Death's Shadow decks needed removal? It's weird at least, and I do like that.

Favorite dinosaur: Trapjaw Tyrant. I really like the Enrage mechanic and this one is badass.

Blue-
Crafty Cutpurse is going to be a cool thing for Commander decks.

Induced Amnesia is a neat twist on discard and fits in Blue well. I fear what that spell will do in Eternal formats, where it's possible to remove someone's opening hand on turn one or two.

Similarly, Warkite Marauder creates interesting gamestates and Timestream Navigator is a cool twist on the 'extra turn' mechanic.

Release to the Wind is a fascinating turn on the "Flicker" mechanic, especially since it would count as a played spell.

Favorite dinosaur (by default): Nezahal, Primal Tide. Another Commander awesomesauce, but I can see it as a finisher in some blue control decks.

Black-
It's kinda a flavor fail for Dinosaur Hunter to die to pretty much every dinosaur he may deal damage to, especially given his flavor text. More a "taking you with me" thing than hunting.

Dead Man's Chest is really cool!

Also, I see there is more support for the black aggro pirate deck. Dire Fleet Poisoner is an excellent card and with an aggro deck, maybe it's not unreasonable to see Golden Demise work in Standard. Not sure it would be OK in any other format, though-as a pirate aggro sweeper. Golden Demise is fine otherwise!

Twilight Prophet is a card I want: This is a card that makes Ascend worth shooting for.

Favorite dinosaur (again by default): Tetzimoc, Primal Death. This is a neat twist on what the Chancellors do, I think-and better than the Forecast mechanic from (3rd block in Ravnica)

Red-
Yes, OK: Blood Sun is bonkers and I love it.

Actually, Red seems to be picking up some neat goodies here. Solid dinos, interesting pirates, good cards overall.

Dire Fleet Daredevil might not be as awesome as Snapcaster Mage but it's still pretty cool. Form of the Dinosaur could combo with some neat big green mana effects, especially if you can get out Sandwurm Convergence.

Mutiny is a great card-flavor win, solid effect for the cost. Yeah, I dig it.

As soon as I saw Rekindling Phoenix I wanted to put it in my phoenix deck, though I'm not sure it fits.

The goblins in this set still look like monkeys, though.

Favorite dinosaur: as much as I love Etali, Primal Storm, I think Charging Tuskodon takes the nod.

Green-
I can't say there's a lot to thrill me here. It's solid, but isn't making me gasp.

I wish I had more to say, actually. This is one of the less inspired green sets I've seen in awhile. Wayward Swordtooth might make my garbage cube though.

Favorite dinosaur: Polyraptor. I mean. C'mon.

Multicolored-
Huh. So Azor is the big security blanket of Ixalan. Neat!

Not a lot going on there though, either. Favorite dinosaur is obviously going to be Zacama, Primal Calamity. Untapping lands? Nothing went wrong with that last time...

The double faced cards are...I still hate this mechanic but I recognize that it's a way to print fixed versions of broken cards. We'll see.

Artifacts-
The Immortal Sun is crazy good. Too bad it will only see play in Commander: I'd love it if I could get the first ability and any one of the other three for 3 mana.

Land-
Arch of Orazca is meh. Whatever.

I am a bit more reserved in my enthusiasm of Rivals than I was about Ixalan. The new mechanic isn't very thrilling, merfolk don't do anything interesting-although the impact might be felt more in Modern-, vampires and pirates get some neat boosts so maybe they'll be able to make an impact and I think the dinosaur tribe got some cool boosts in their mechanic.

But it doesn't really seem to play nice against Kaladesh or develop themes in Amonkhet so...

We shall see.