Welcome back to Ixalan! It’s the same bustling Mesoamerican world you remember, full of Dinosaurs and Pirates, contested by Merfolk and Vampires, with shining golden cities and undiscovered planes to explore.
This time you’ll be delving below the surface, into the very depths of Ixalan’s core.Magic: The Gathering’sThe Lost Caverns of Ixalan is all about downward exploration, and its Limited format commits to that trope.
Exploration is core to LCI, withthe returning explore mechanic, as well as Map tokens, Caves, the Discover mechanic, and much more. It all ties together in what appears to be a fairly complex Limited environment, one with an emphasis on the graveyard and different knobs and pieces all seemingly woven together.
10The Main Creature Types Aren’t A Priority
But We Still Love ‘em
Those who drafted the original Ixalan sets probably remember a heavy emphasis on the four main typal factions. While those are all still present in LCI, they’re not a significant element of the Limited format. For example, there’s only a single card in the set that synergizes with Merfolk creatures.
Each faction still has a few payoffs that are worth building around. If you first-pick Breeches, Eager Pillager or Queen’s Bay Paladin you should 100 percent bias your draft picks towards those respective factions, but you should have an incentive first before prioritizing a certain creature type.
9Understand The Different Types Of Descend
“Descend” And “Descended” Are Different Terms
The word descend is being used in a few different ways here. The term generally references permanent cards in your graveyard, but there’s a huge difference between just descend, and ‘descended’.
You, the player, descend when a permanentcard(tokens don’t count) goes to your graveyard from anywhere. Don’t worry about tracking this, just pay attention for cards that ask if or how many times you’ve descended in a turn.
Meanwhile, Descend 4, Descend 8, and fathomless descent are abilities that rely on a certain threshold of permanent cards in your graveyard – this time, instead of tracking how many permanent cards go to your graveyard in a turn, you simply count them all in your graveyard.
8Mill Is An Advantage
The Mill Monster Can’t Hurt You Here
We all know someone wholoathesthe idea of mill, but you should embrace it in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Your graveyard is incredibly important here, and you want to keep it stocked with cards. Mill is your friend, and there aren’t many ways to weaponize mill against your opponent either.
The presence of cards with Descend or Craft in your deck is a clear indication that mill benefits your strategy, and some Cave payoffs count the Caves in your graveyard. Milling a permanent also counts as descending, which is critical for maximizing cards like Deep Goblin Skulltaker or Zoyowa, Lava-Tongue.
Many mill effects in this set are optional, so you can always pull back if you’re in range of decking.
7Watch Out For Deckbuilding Non-bos
(That’s An Anti-Combo)
The Lost Caverns Of Ixalan has a decent amount of complexity, which means opportunities to run into anti-synergies if you’re not careful. You want to identify your deck’s goal, and make sure you’re committed to a theme or strategy.
If you’re committed to filling up your graveyard, avoid running too many cards that exile or pull cards from your graveyard, thereby turning off your descend payoffs. Similarly, a high discover count might mean you want to minimize the number of fiddly one-mana spells in your deck so you increase the chances of high-rolling a more expensive spell with Discover.
6Map Out Your Turns
Get It?MapOut?
Map tokens condense the explore mechanic into atrinkety artifactthat can target any creature you control. Explore is fundamentally good, making Maps good enough by extension. However, when and where you use a Map depends on the gamestate.
Default to using Maps if you’re searching for lands, otherwise just because you control a Map doesn’t mean you have to use it. There are effects that tap artifacts for value, as well as craft cards that can use Maps as materials, so consider their secondary uses before freely sacrificing them.
Remember youmustcontrol a creature to activate a Map, and you’ll miss out on the explore effect if your creature is removed in response.
5Caves Will Be Contested (Eventually)
We’ve All Seen This Before
Cave is anew land typewith multiple support pieces throughout the set, similar to Deserts in Amonkhet block or Gates in previous Ravnica sets. The payoffs areexcellentif you get enough Caves to support them, but people might not catch on to that right away.
Players will probably assemble really strong Cave decks in the early weeks of the format, but if they prove to be powerful, others will adjust and Caves will become contested over time. It’s not really meant to be a five-color deck, but that won’t stop some players from trying.
4Craft From Your Graveyard When Possible
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Craft lets you exile an artifact along with a set of ‘materials’ in order totransformand create a new, more powerful card. The materials are different from card to card, but they can come from your side of the battlefield or the graveyard.
Given the choice, you shouldusuallycraft using cards from your graveyard first. Unless you have a use for them there, it’s better to convert cards in your graveyard into resources than it is to eat up tangible resources you have on board. Don’t deplete your graveyard too much if you’re also running descend cards.
For example, it’s much better to exile an Island from your graveyard to transform Watterlogged Hulk than it is to give up land on board.
3Graveyard Hate Is Premium
Keep Your Opponents From Descending Too Far
When a Limited set leans heavily on a specific theme or element, it’s a good idea to maindeck cards that counteract that theme. Artifact set? Maindeck artifact removal.Dragonsof Tarkir? You want effects that destroy flyers. Lost Caverns of Ixalan is very much a graveyard set, so graveyard hate is at a premium.
Between descend, Caves, craft and other recursive effects, there’s plenty to do with one’s graveyard. A well-timed Pit of Offerings or Digsite Conservator can counter your opponent’s entire gameplan. you’re able to even ‘turn off’ opposing descend effects by removing enough cards from their graveyard.
2The Cycling Dinos Are More Useful Than They Look
A New Cycle Of Cyclers
The batch oflandcyclersfrom Lost Caverns of Ixalan closely resembles those from March of the Machine, which proved to be below the bar. However, these new ones actually play into the set mechanics well.
The Dino-cyclers in Lost Caverns of Ixalan look like clunky spells to cast and two-mana landcycling is a tad slow in modern Magic, but there are Dinosaurs-matter cards, descend, descended, and Craft, which all care about permanent cards entering your graveyard. Plus, there are a fair number ofreanimation effectsto bring them back ahead of schedule once they’re there.
1Prioritize Permanents Over Other Spells
Which Should Be Fairly Easy To Do
If you can’t decide between two possible draft picks, it’s best to pick up a permanent over a non-permanent. All else being equal, permanents have more use in this format than an instant or sorcery, whether you’re using them to fuel descend or feeding them to craft in the late-game.
Wizards is keenly aware of this and made your life a little easier in this regard. Many effects you’d usually see on an instant or sorcery have been re-purposed as permanents in this set, Fungal Fortitude and Idol of the Deep King being two such examples.
Next:Magic: The Gathering – The Best Multicolored Cards In The Lost Caverns Of Ixalan
