The last pre-release of the year. It’s hard to believe that it’s been six years since we last visited Ixalan for a pre-release.

My card pool was good but not extraordinary. It clearly pushed me into Gruul with plenty of dinosaurs but neither colour featured good removal. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, was my sole Mythic and clearly a sign that I was meant to play Dinosaur Tribal. I considered splashing some white to give me some relief in the removal department (Cosmium Blast, Spring-loaded Sawblades) but decided instead to stick to two colours and adjust later should games not go my way.

My first game was a closely fought affair. I quickly won the first one as my opponent struggled getting his mana out. The tables turned in the second game and he quickly build his board state. Sovereign Okinec Ahau is a powerful card (once you decipher its terribly worded ability). With my opponent throwing +1/+1 counters everywhere, things rapidly got out of control for me.

The third game went to turns. On what was to be my last turn, I had my opponent down to 5 and could only inflict 4 points of damage. I ran through all the permutations I could think of but always came up short by 1. On his last turn, he ran into a similar situation, leaving me with 2 life. We settled for the draw. Definitely a good match to start with!

In the second match, errors dominated my game play. I mulliganed my first hand as it had two red lands and everything else was green. My next hand had one land but a good mix of other cards. I kept it and then proceeded to not see another land for 4 turns. Fortunately, I had Ixalli’s Lorekeeper and the Poison Dart Frog to keep me alive but it was only a matter of time.

In our second game, I had a good board state but struggled to inflict damage. My opponent was able to chump block enough to stymy enough damage to draw the game out. He then started to come back and inflict damage of his own. And then I made a fatal mistake, forgetting about an activated ability that reduced toughness on one of my key creatures on the board. There was no recovery at that point.

In the third game, I found myself playing the near-mirror (Gruul Dinosaurs). I won the first very quickly thanks to my opponent not being to get lands out quickly enough. I was ahead enough that I always had an answer to what he played. In the second game, he had the lands but kept drawing the smaller creatures while I was able to ramp quickly thanks to Lorekeeper and Poison Dart Frog.

I left relatively pleased to finish with a 1-1-1 record but it could have easily been 2-1 had I not thrown away the second match with simple mistakes.

My game store promo card was Path of Ancestry. I’ll definitely find a home for it in one of my Commander decks.

Impressions of the set: I love the Ixalan tribal theme (loved it six years ago and still do today). Dinosaurs, Vampires, Pirates and now Gnomes. What’s not to like? Oh yeah, the fact that so many cards are very wordy. There is so much packed into each card. The power creep is real as is the proliferation of counters (now including Finality counters, Bore counters, etc).

I was really happy to see Explore return. I loved it last time and enjoyed it just as much this time around. A straightforward mechanic that just works well and that I intend to revisit on Arena! Jadelight Ranger and Wildgrowth Walker, here I come!

Last but not least, the boys both went 2-1. I guess they will continue to remind me that they are better players!