What if dinosaurs were placed in the magic-laced lands of Magic: The Gathering? This question was answered before in the Ixalan set from years before. But what if they come back again? Fortunately, we have The Lost Caverns of Ixalan to answer that question. With years of updates and improvements, what could this set inspired by Mesoamerican civilization sprinkled with dinosaurs bring to the table? Let’s find out in this review of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan!
The theme of this set is mostly about exploration and getting to meet wonderful and terrific creatures that definitely won’t eat you at first glance. Given this thought, the mechanics of the The Lost Caverns of Ixalan mostly cater to card draw foreknowledge and putting stuff into the graveyard for a leaner deck while pumping certain creatures’ power and toughness.
Turn a relatively bad card into something better. “Craft” is a mechanic that allows you to exile a number of cards you control or from your graveyard to transform a card. Cards with Craft usually has a set effect that can be improved upon depending on the craft conditions. This could open new opportunities for combos or for possibly transforming trash artifacts or cards into something more cost-effective. As it also makes use of cards in your graveyard, you can increase the utility of your cards despite them being discarded or spent.
“Descended” just means that a permanent card went to your graveyard. Some cards in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan take advantage of this “wasteful” tactic to unlock and grow stronger in their effects. Certain cards also get boosted depending on the number of cards in your graveyard. Note that Descended only applies to PERMANENTS that were put into the your graveyard.
Following the “unknown lands” theme, we get to another new mechanic called “Discover”. Discover allows you to exile cards from the top of your deck until you reach a card with a mana cost equal or less than the Discover value. Once you get that card, you can either cast it for free or put it into your hand. Pretty useful but do note that you are exiling cards here, not placing them in your graveyard for some Descended combo.
“Explore” allows a creature to look at the top card of your deck to check if it’s a land card. If it’s a land, you can put it into your hand to thin out your deck and save you a draw. If it’s not a land, the creature gets +1/+1 and you can either put the card back on top of your deck or place it into your graveyard.
There are four Commander Decks that are available for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. For those unfamiliar with the Commander game mode: Commander is a type of play that pits multiple players each with 100-card decks to battle it out in a chaotic scramble. Each of these four decks have their own unique playstyle and may be used immediately out of the box. If you are serious in your endeavor in delving into the Commander game mode, you may also include some cards to bolster the unique qualities of each deck.
Below are a brief description of each deck and how you can play them.
We wanted to review each deck but unfortunately, our shipment did not reach us in time of this review. However, we may update this article once the decks arrive!
As the name itself implies, this deck is filled with Pirates. Just loads and loads of Pirates. Not just your typical Tribal deck, Ahoy Mateys is filled with Pirates that come back from the dead, increase mana, or just stomp your enemies down with raw damage. Basically, this deck is a direct damage dealer filled with a couple of tricks to continue trickling damage as the battle presses on.
Black and White vampire decks have always been pretty fun to play with. This deck showcases the typical “Your opponent loses life and you gain life” type of play. The roster of cards is in complete synergy with one another and it also includes staple B/W vampires from years back. This can be pretty much improved if you also include other big and popular B/W vampires if you have the dough.
The third tribal deck in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is the Explorers of the Deep, a deck filled with Merfolk. Instead of being powered solely by Blue, this deck also ramps up a lot with the help of Green spells. This deck lives on +1/+1 counters so prepare a lot of indicators for your creatures. Unlike the other two previously discussed decks, this deck may start a bit slow but if correctly played, can be a powerhouse in the a couple more turns.
The last deck of the four is the aptly named Veloci-Ramp-Tor. This deck features a lot of aggressive dinosaurs that rely heavily on brute force and strength. It’s default Commander, Pantlaza, Sun-Favored provides a steady stream of Dinosaurs into the battlefield. The secondary commander, Wayta, Trainer Prodigy makes use of the fight mechanic by allowing two creatures you control to fight each other. Sounds dangerous but some dinosaurs have ridiculous effects when they are damaged; so this effectively forces the activation of these effects without having to rely on your opponents reactions.
For the full deck list of all four Commander decks, you can visit the official list here.
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is a pretty interesting set. It has a good lineup of cards for Tribal decks and it also has a good mix of creatures with fun effects. Not only that but from a collector standpoint, the addition of Jurassic World cards make collecting this set a little more interesting.
One thing that’s very apparent in this edition is how it has a lot of lands. Dual tap lands are plentiful here and most have effects that could help you down the line. Another thing worth noting is the art of the basic lands. After seeing the basic lands of the recent sets, this one takes the cake in terms of simplicity and design. I like the design of the basic lands here and if I would make a Standard deck, the lands here would very likely populate it.
Jurassic World crossovers with MTG in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Like, both have dinosaurs so it’s appropriate for both franchises to have a bit of interaction. Jurassic World cards have interesting effects but are very limited in terms of quantity. To give you an idea, WOTC have been very transparent about the chances of getting one and it’s 1 out of every 12 Set Boosters and one in each Collector Booster. If you’re a fan of the Jurassic franchise, this may be enough to pull you into the world of MTG. If you are more of a collector of cards, then this limited collaboration run may convince you to get The Lost Caverns of Ixalan.
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is already out and can be found in most hobby and toy stores. If you are interested in trying out this set, best seek your local hobby store and ask around. Another good way to start in this set is to get a Commander deck and join your local MTG community for some good time.
For our review of the previous set, read our review of Wilds of Eldraine.
