The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is a return to the plane of Ixalan inMagic: The Gathering. The plane is home to many popular creature types such as Dinosaurs, Vampires, and Pirates. With The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, a ton of new, powerful cards are entering into all formats.
The red cards available in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan are among the strongest. There are plenty of strong cards in the color, with many of the new ones supporting current strategies to give them boosts or in some cases make new strategies more competitively viable. From Dinosaurs to Gods, these are the strongest red cards in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan.
10Diamond Pick-Axe
Treasure Every Turn
Diamond Pick-Axe isan amazing Equipment for just one mana. It will enable constant Treasure token generation by simply attacking while it’s equipped to a creature. It’s a very resilient equipment as well as it can’t be removed by most traditional means thanks to its indestructible.
It does take a little bit of time for it to get going as it costs two mana to equip, but once you do, you can ensure you always have the mana to equip it again from all the Treasures it makes. The consistent ramp is what makes Diamond Pick-Axe a notable card.
9Poetic Ingenuity
Treasures And Dinosaurs Love This Synergy
Poetic Ingenuity is a fantastic way to slowly build value over the course of a game. It turns all of your Dinosaurs into ramp and, if you’re playing artifacts, that can create more Dinosaurs to feed into the first effect.
The benefit of Poetic Ingenuity is its versatility. Both effects are good, but do not rely on the other to function. If you’re playing a dedicated artifact deck, being able to make extra bodies is great, and if you’re playing a dedicated Dinosaur deck, you can get a ton of Treasure tokens to ramp into your high-mana Dinosaurs.
8Inti, Seneschal Of The Sun
Discard For Value
Inti, Seneschal Of The Sun gives you a ton of value for just two mana. It turns all of your discards into impulse draws by exiling the top card of your library and letting you cast it that turn. Notably, this triggers off of any discard, so cards like Faithless Looting and Cathartic Reunion become much stronger.
Inti’s effect to discard for a +1/+1 counter on an attacking creature triggers off of any attack, not just its own. This allows Inti to stay back in combat to ensure it stays out of harms way so you can keep taking advantage of its effect.
7Belligerent Yearling
Double Up On Dinos
A fantastic two-drop for all Dinosaur decks, Belligerent Yearling is incredible. There are no shortages of powerful Dinosaurs that you’re able to cheaply cast (such as Pugnacious Hamerskull, which is also in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan), which lead to Belligerent Yearling becoming a massive threat by turn three by copying their power and toughness.
Even without its effect,a 3/2 with trample is a solid body. Belligerent Yearling is incredibly strong in dedicated Dinosaur decks that want to deal as much damage as possible — and doubling up on powerful Dinosaurs is fantastic.
6Brass’s Tunnel-Grinder // Tecutlan, The Searing Rift
Wheel And Deal
Brass’s Tunnel-Grinder has a ton of value on one artifact.Wheeling yourself by discarding any number of cardsto then draw that many plus one enables you to see through almost your entire deck — especially if your deck is built around it. Bouncing and blinking Brass’s Tunnel-Grinder is great.
Not only that, but the backside that turns into a land is fantastic as well. It makes it so you discover whenever you cast a permanent spell with the mana used from it. This enables you to double-up your spells as it’ll bring an extra one down with it (or add it into your hand).
5Magmatic Galleon
Sailing For Treasure
Being able to take advantage of excess noncombat damage is excellent, especially in red decks where most removal is damage-based. Magmatic Galleon is a way to do just that. Its enter-the-battlefield effect to deal five damage to a creature directly feeds into the other effect relating to excess damage.
While it only triggers once per damage instance, Magmatic Galleon’s effect isn’t once per turn. This means if you use multiple burn spells, each instance will stillcreate a Treasure tokento use later on. It has an easy-to-use crew effect as well.
4Trumpeting Carnosaur
Damage Everything
Trumpeting Carnosaur is a great top-end for Dinosaur and aggressive strategies. For six mana, you get a creature with a great statline along with an extra card with a convert mana cost of five to get a two for one.
Once Trumpeting Carnosaur is on the battlefield, it becomes a constant source of removal for creatures and planeswalkers by dealing three damage to them. There is no shortage of creatures Trumpeting Carnosaur can kill with its effect, making it an excellent choice in many decks as a way to push your advantage on your battlefield.
3Zoyowa’s Justice
Gamble For The Better
Zoyowa’s Justice can be a big gamble,similar to Chaos Warp, as it will shuffle an artifact or creature and discover for a card of the same or lower mana value. While this can backfire if they wind up getting a better spell, it is also just as likely to hit something far weaker.
Generally, it is better to play the risk, especially with a card like Zoyowa’s Justice as it does not destroy, allowing it to get around indestructible. It’s better to remove a problem card even if a different problem card can show up because, odds are, it’ll hit something much weaker.
2Bonehoard Dracosaur
Free Tokens And Value
The best kind of card effects are the ones that don’t need any extra hoops to jump through to function. Bonehoard Dracosaur gives you a ton of value just by being on the battlefield. It’ll essentially give you two extra draws in your upkeep, and give you either 3/1 tokens orTreasures to take advantage of.
For just five mana, Bonehoard Draosaur is very easy to cast and becomes an immediate threat. It will never whiff as no matter what you exile you will get something out of it — be it a creature or a Treasure token to ramp with.
1Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might
Burn Baby Burn
Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might turns all of your burn spells into a minimum of four damage. It’s especially strong paired with cards like End The Festivities which, when combined with Ojer Axonil, deals four damage to each opponent, creature, and planeswalker for just one mana.
Even if it dies, it becomes a land to make it much harder to permanently get rid of. Since Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might will almost always be played in a burn deck, hitting the threshold to deal four or more noncombat damage is trivial to accomplish to get the front-side back.
