ELI5: What's wrong with Ixalan Draft?

I enjoy Ixalan draft. The first time I drafted in Ixalan I did poorly because I wasn't used to drafting within the Ixalan tribal archetypes, and it is sometimes difficult to find good creature removal spells, but every subsequent time I have drafted it has been fun and I have had success.

I disagree that "colour fixing is bad" as some commenters have said in this thread. There is a common land called Unknown Shores and an uncommon land called Unclaimed Territory. Red, blue, and black all have cards that generate Treasure tokens which can be tapped for any kind of mana. Green has Drover of the Mighty, New Horizons, and Commune with Dinosaurs. There are lots of cards that use the "Explore" mechanic, which is designed to find you a land. There are artifacts that offer colour fixing too - Thaumatic Compass (rare), Pillar of Origins (uncommon), and Prying Blade (common). There are also rare dual lands that do not usually come into play tapped. Due to all these aforementioned ways to generate mana of various colours, I find the claim that "colour fixing is poor in Ixalan" isn't a fair assessment of the set.

There are 4 main tribes. Merfolk and Vampires are spread across 2 colours each - Blue and Green, and Black and White, respectively. Dinosaurs and Pirates are spread across 3 colours - Green, Red, and White, and Blue, Red, and Black respectively. If someone else is drafting the same tribe as you, if you're in a 3 colour tribe you can switch one of your colours to avoid competition for the good cards. Eg: You're in dinosaurs and the good green dinosaurs are being taken - then you can concentrate on drafting red and white. If you have already picked some good green cards that you would like to include, then perhaps pick up some red or artifact cards that generate treasure, or maybe you can find a multicolour land.

Sometimes you won't have enough cards from your particular tribe and you will have to pick cards from another tribe - this isn't a big problem at all in my opinion - only some of the cards in the set are "X tribe matters" cards, and usually they are useful to other creature types as well. Eg: Dinosaur Stamped gives all your attacking creatures +2/+2 - if they're dinosaurs they get trample as well, but if they're not dinosaurs this card is still playable.

You have to be flexible in the way you draft in order to make a competitive deck. I disagree that Ixalan draft is "bad", it's just challenging. There are a few cards that are "unplayable", but there are still enough good picks to make drafting worthwhile - it forces you to use your card evaluation skills (which is something that I enjoy about drafting).

/r/magicTCG Thread