Ixalan was definitely weird with its combination of themes. I mean, the first deck from Rivals of Ixalan was featuring Angrath, a Minotaur leading a Pirate force which sounds pretty silly if you ask me. Well, today’s deck wants to top that by giving you a crusade of Vampires that is lead by a Gorgon. The only thing missing is that they ride Dinosaurs into battle; which would not be impossible seeing as Ixalan also features those prehistoric monsters. But all jokes aside, Planeswalker Deck “Vraska, Scheming Gorgon” builds on a tried-and-tested formula: The White-Black Vampire tribal. Now, whether the deck manages to deliver anything playable remains to be seen; and in fact, if you want to see the results you just have to scrolls down a bit for the rest of the article.

We have seen Dinosaurs being featured a few days ago, so the next logical step is … Pirates. Yeah, I do not get Ixalan either, being a weird combination of tropes featuring Dinosaurs, Vampires, and Pirates all being in the same place for reasons. But what do I care about the background of Magic the Gathering sets when WotC clearly has given up making sense by introducing Marvel Superheroes or the Ninja Turtles to their in-game universe? So, let us talk about a Black-Red Pirate tribal deck which is, of course, led by a Minotaur out of all things. I have hopes for this one, seeing how Black-Red can be deadly and destructive; but with two of three parts to make it the Grixis color combination, there is certainly room for failure because I have yet to see WotC make that one work. But enough of that, onto the deck.

Yesterday, we had a look at the Dinosaur forces that Huatli brings into battle; which was, surprisingly, a rather weak showing despite the fact that there prehistoric lizards everywhere. Part two for Ixalan Planeswalker Decks features a familiar face with Jace, the token Blue planeswalker, this time being paired with a force of Merfolks that bring some Green to the mix. Just like with the Dinosaurs, you would think that it is rather hard to screw up a Merfolk tribal deck, right? Well, WotC wants to have a word with you, because instead of going Blue-Green Control with powerful Merfolks milling, countering, and overall making the opponent’s life miserable, we have a deck with +1/+1 counters and evasion abilities as its main focus. Oh boy, let’s see where this is going.

Planeswalker Decks often seem to pick up some mechanic or theme from the set in question and run with it, with the more successful examples including decks like the Planeswalker Deck “Elspeth, Undaunted Hero” which was all about Devotion to White. This makes the deck I am about to review a little strange since the Planeswalker Deck for “Huatli, Dinosaur Knight” seems to use … well, Dinosaurs as the main theme; and in my opinion fails to do so successfully. But before I go over what bothers me with this deck, let’s just take a look at what is on offer, shall we?

Last time, we looked at the three-colored menace that is Planeswalker Deck “Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver”, a pretty competent showing as far as Preconstructed Decks go. But as usual, we need an opponent to pitch against the Blue-Black-Red Aggro force of evil; and while a White deck would have been a perfect fit from a color standpoint, WotC instead decided to go with the lore and give Nissa a chance to fight the Elder Dragon. Her choice of colors is not simply Green though, but instead Blue-Green for a touch more card draw at the cost of pretty much everything else it seems. But I do not want to be negative from the get-go. There will be plenty of time for potential negativity over the course of the paragraphs below, but let us see what “Nissa, Genesis Mage” can bring to the table with a color combination that is famous for resource generation.