Magic The Gathering's Lost Caverns of Ixalan set is a dino-filled dungeon crawler

Magic The Gathering's Lost Caverns of Ixalan set is a dino-filled dungeon crawler
Wizards of the Coast

Written by 

Lloyd Coombes

Published 

24th Oct 2023 18:00

As a relatively recent convert to Magic The Gathering's planeswalking escapades, I've already come to love the buzz around new sets. From the fairytale theme of Wilds of Eldraine, to the Brother's War and March of the Machine, I'm starting to look forward to every reinvention of the decades-old card game.

Lost Caverns of Ixalan, while originally sold as "Magic The Gathering with Dinosaurs", has piqued my interest more than most, though. I love a big ol' reptile as much as the next MTG player, but by reaching into Mesoamerican culture and a love of roguish fantasy, Wizards of the Coast has crafted a set that's equal parts exciting and enticing.

Spelunk the funk

Magic The Gathering Lost Caverns of Ixalan Vito Fanatic of Aclazotz
Click to enlarge

With the Phyrexian invasion arc in the rearview, it's time for a rebuilding effort for the Sun Empire, one of Ixalan's factions, while another, the Brazen Coalition, are hunting treasure. Another, the Legion of Dusk, are vampires desperate to reach a god that calls out to them, while the River Heralds, merfolk that retreated after the invasion, are seeking a new home.

What all of these and the Malamet and Oltec factions have in common is that they're all scrambling beneath the surface of Ixalan for something. Whether it's knowledge, power, or just good, old-fashioned treasure, the theme of plunder is strong - as is the danger within the titular caverns.

This has given Wizards of the Coast a chance to work in some Mesoamerican character and architecture designs that give Ixalan a life of its own, conjuring themes from the Age of Exploration - and having more than a little fun with the mechanics, too.

The Descent

Magic The Gathering Lost Caverns of Ixalan Mycotyrant
Click to enlarge

Lurking beneath Ixalan is a race of hive-minded fungus monsters called the Mycoids, led by the terrifying Mycotyrant (seen above).

Thankfully, you'll have some new mechanics to help tackle beasts like these, and the most prominent one will be Descend.

Descend triggers as players put more and more permanent non-land cards into their graveyard, and can allow for the summoning of powerful beasts, or adding new abilities to others - like the Didact Echo which gains Flying once you Descend 4.

Magic The Gathering Lost Caverns of Ixalan Didact Echo
Click to enlarge

It's a fun way to add to the peril of venturing deeper underground, and should allow for some fun risk-reward strategies for those of us Black deck users who love to mill cards to power up.

Adding to the exploration theme is the new Discover mechanic, too, which will let players exile cards until they find a card with a predetermined mana value and then choose to cast it for free or add it to their hand. It remains to be seen just how viable it'll be to construct a deck around, but between that and Descend, I can see cards being exiled and buried all over the place.

It makes sense for the Explore mechanic to return here, but with an added wrinkle. Cards with Explore will allow players to check the top card of their deck, and draw it if it's a land. If it's not, you can add a +1/+1 token to the creature Exploring. If you've ever had one of those matches where you're desperate to find fresh land to tap, it's likely to be a godsend - I played Commander recently and a couple of players definitely could've done with Explore.

Explore returns alongside a new artefact - Map Tokens. These can allow for other creatures to explore when sacrificed, and are colourless.

Magic The Gathering Lost Caverns of Ixalan Enigma Jewel
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Finally, what's treasure hunting without, well treasure? The new Craft mechanic, shown in the Enigma Jewel card above, will let players exile crafting materials from the graveyard or their side of the field to upgrade cards. These are double-faced cards, so you won't need to collect two halves.

Life finds a way (to add another crossover)

Magic The Gathering Lost Caverns of Ixalan Jurassic World cards
Click to enlarge

Adding to the fun are new Jurassic World cards, which will cover key characters and moments from the movie franchise.

I'm not entirely sure where I stand on these, and while they will get their own Secret Lair setup in the future, Magic The Gathering certainly feels like it's becoming a bit of a Fortnite kind of game where the appeal for more casual players will be the crossovers, not the universe Wizards has created.

It's no bad thing to give new players a familiar framework of touchstones to anchor their first foray into the game, but coming fresh off the Doctor Who collab and the reveal of a "multi-year, multi-set" Marvel deal, it's not hard to see why some are worried that Wizards is moving away from its more traditional sets.

Chimil, the Inner Sun Magic The Gathering Lost Caverns of Ixalan
Click to enlarge

I'd also be a huge hypocrite to say I'm wary about the Jurassic World cards and in the same breath mention I'm ridiculously excited for the Marvel ones, but I guess that's the point of the crossovers at this point - some will be for you, some won't, and there's nothing wrong with that so long as you're able to snag the ones you want.

Final Thoughts

Since getting acquainted with Magic The Gathering, I'm not sure there's been a set that speaks to me more than the Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Between its plundering mechanics that look as chaotic as scrambling through caverns should be and a myriad of varied factions, this might be the first time I collect more than one Commander deck per set.

It's perhaps somewhat ironic that the set positioned as an underground excursion into terrifying caverns may just produce one of Magic The Gathering's brightest sets yet. Come for the dinosaurs, stay for the descent, I say.

Lloyd Coombes
About the author
Lloyd Coombes
Lloyd is GGRecon's Editor-in-Chief, having previously worked at Dexerto and Gfinity, and occasionally appears in The Daily Star newspaper. A big fan of loot-based games including Destiny 2 and Diablo 4, when he's not working you'll find him at the gym or trying to play Magic The Gathering.
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