Drafting Ixalan, is it too late? Part 1 by TheAvid27
Greetings fellow Planeswalkers!
We're here to talk about what value drafting an Ixalan box brings!
"BREAKING IT DOWN"
First off! Each Ixalan Box comes with two things, a promotional Buy-A-Box Burning Sun's Avatar, and an Ixalan Treasure Chest Buy-A-Box Promo Pack.
Ixalan Booster Box(with 36 booster packs), PHP5750.
Here are some of the sweet, sweet alternate art flip lands that you can get!
Legion's Landing // Adanto, The First Fort
Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, The Sunken Ruin
Ixalan Treasure Chest Buy-A-Box Promo Pack, PHP1500-PHP2000 each on Ebay.
Burning Sun's Avatar PHP18-PHP30.
Ixalan Booster Box PHP5750
Ixalan Treasure Pack PHP2000
Burning Sun's Avatar PHP30
Remaining Value PHP3720
So it's like you bought the box for just PHP3720 with all the value you're getting!
We'll be posting the loots on our second article once we finish the Draft part.
But let's get to it. This is about the draft, not the value of the box(although it's a bonus if you get more out of your box value wise).
The player with the most wins after this roundrobin tournament will get the prestigious honor of opening the prized Ixalan Treasure Buy-A-Box Promo!
For my first pack, I picked Shining Aerosaur.
People might argue, "Why would you get a card like that?". Because subconsciously, I was going for a Boros Aggro deck. Mardu colors are almost always the colors I will play in Magic. Rarely do I stray from those(Monowhite Heroic - Pauper, Alesha Reanimator Toolbox - EDH, Monowhite Midrange - Standard)
And, for this reason:
Huatli, Warrior Poet
I managed to pull this one on my second pack. Overall, the deck looked like this:
Here is a link to the decklist
It's an aggro deck that curves out well and has plenty of creatures that can shed blood to get those vitals hits in.
We played, "Best of One", since we were strapped for time(already had a prior engagement with friends for a Dungeons & Dragons session)
Went up against Dave's Selesnya Dino Explorers
Here is a link to the decklist
We had our match, had creatures out like Nest Robber and Tilonalli's Knight, but I couldn't deal with his Looming Altisaur and Belligerent Brontodon.
.
He swung in for the kill after I chumped block to prevent myself from taking damage. I couldn't answer his humungous creatures and lucked out with my aggro approach since I needed more lands and enough colors of those said lands to make my deck work.
Here is what Tristan and Jim drafted for their decks:
Naya Dino Aggro Burn by Tristan
Here is a link to the decklist
Tristan managed to draft a lot of burn spells he can use to melt off someone's face. Three Unfriendly Fire? That's 12 damage right there! Lightning Strike? Another 3 damage! Repeating Barrage? Going for 3 again that you can get back to keep hitting face!
His deck was more focused on targeting opponents directly and swinging with his two trusty flying Sky Terrors.
Jund Dino Vampire Merfolk Control Counters By Jim
Here is a link to the decklist
Jim thought about it and went for his favorite color combination of Black and Green. A true-to-heart Golgari fan, even his Oathbreaker deck is that of Vraska, Golgari Queen. Probably needing a few more cards in his deck, he adds Red in the mix to get cards like Demolish and Thrash of Raptors to bring more hurt to his opponents.
. 
Tristan vs Jim
Game starts off with Jim playing Duress in his main deck and proceeds to remove Tristan's Unfriendly Fire. Tristan then just lets that slide since he knows he still has two more of those left. They go on a back-and-forth of trading creatures for damage until Tristan emerges victorious by hitting Jim with his Repeating Barrage for the win!
Standings(Part 1):
David vs Dave, Dave 1-0
Tristan vs Jim, Tristan 1-0
Next pairing:
Dave vs Tristan
David vs Jim
Keep tuned in to get updates on this next week! We'll be going over the loots for this particular box and see if we've gotten more than we paid for. Although, we've already gotten more than monetary value out of this box, and that is crushing your friend in spectacular fashion in a blaze of glory!