It’s All About the Dinosaurs!
Regisaur Alpha is one of the premier Ixalan dinosaurs
What is up with this card anyway? Regisaur Alpha offers seven power over two bodies — three of which have haste — all for five mana!
How fast can we sign up?
Regisaur Alpha looks great! One of the few poor things about the dinosaur is that it makes Huatli, Warrior Poet look so bad.
Huatli, Warrior Poet spits out Dinosaurs
Regisaur Alpha and Huatli cost the same [total] amount of mana. Assume you’re spitting out a 3/3 the first turn you control Huatli. Now, which would you rather have?
- A 4/4 dinosaur lord who is making all of your other dinosaurs faster, or
- A 3 loyalty Planeswalker who could easily die
Regisaur Alpha’s 3/3 token is better than Huatli’s 3/3 token, too… Just on basis of haste.
That said, Huatli, Warrior Poet is probably meant to be one of the centerpiece cards of the set. Not only is he a Planeswalker (and therefore theoretically automatically cool), they made not only another Planeswalker version of him, but a badass dinosaur tutor that can go find it.
Huatli might be meant for play in a dedicated Planeswalker deck. Think:
- Three: Gideon of the Trials
- Four: Chandra, Torch of Defiance
- Five: Huatli, Warrior Poet
All three Planeswalkers protect themselves well. All three will contribute to expanding control of the battlefield itself. Gideon can both attack and defend. Chandra kills creatues outright. Huatli can make blocker after blocker or gain life turn after turn.
Gishath, Sun’s Avatar is one busty dinosaur
Instead of looking at Gishath as a clunky eight mana creature, why not look at it as an eight mana Fireball?
Huh?
That’s right! How much would you pay for a Fireball where x=7? You’d pay eight mana, right? Well Gishath costs eight, and does seven damage with haste… He’s kind of an eight mana Fireball, therefore.
Everything else is gravy. The vigilence is going to be awesome… But it’s awesome gravy. Next turn’s attack? Gravy. This is not to say you should actually pay to get Gishath onto the battlefield… Just if you had to, it wouldn’t be that bad of a deal.
There are even more dinosaurs discussed in this week’s episode, which takes Ixalan from one green mana to the aforementioned eight drop… and more!
