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Magic: The Gathering’s Lost Caverns of Ixalan is here, and with it comes a host of powerful new gods, dinosaurs, and artifacts. It’s a remarkable expansion with plenty of great cards to keep an eye out for. This is far from a comprehensive list, however. These are the cards that jumped out to me while looking at previews, spoilers, and other content around the internet. They have possibilities for an array of decks and could be real must-haves for particular deck archetypes.
These cards aren’t just options I’d personally play with. I wanted to look beyond that and see what else the Lost Caverns of Ixalan expansion has to offer Magic: The Gathering players. I think the answer is “a whole lot.”
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.
Powerful cards to consider in Magic: The Gathering’s Lost Caverns of Ixalan
1) Matzalantli, the Great Door / The Core
Sure, you need four or more permanent types in the graveyard, but that’s not going to be hard to do. With as many discard engines as Magic: The Gathering has, Lost Caverns of Ixalan players will be delighted with what this card can do. It’s all about getting four types of permanents in the grave fast: Creatures, Artifacts, Enchantments, Planeswalkers, and Lands. What makes it so valuable?
The Core is what makes it powerful. It has Fathomless Descent. When you tap this card for mana, you add X of any one color, where X is the number of permanent cards in your graveyard.
This could mean you can tap one land for somewhere in the range of 20 mana - making anything you want to cast easier than ever.
2) Echoing Deeps
I love cards that copy other cards. Magic: The Gathering’s Echoing Deeps might be the best land to drop in Lost Caverns of Ixalan. When it comes into play, you can make it copy any land in a graveyard, except it’s also a Cave.
Essentially, that means your graveyard, your opponent’s graveyard. Did your opponent, for some reason, have a Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale or a Dark Depths in their grave? Now you can have it too.
But on the more practical side of things, you can use it, most importantly, as a Fetch Land. If you, or someone else in the game, has used a fetch land, you can do it again using this Magic: The Gathering card.
3) Squirming Emergence
Does this Magic: The Gathering card have a repulsive name? It definitely does. It makes my skin crawl, but this Lost Caverns of Ixalan card is a beater. The powerful 3-drop Sorcery lets you return a nonland permanent from your graveyard and put it into play, based on Fathomless Descent.
The mana value of the returned card has to be less than or equal to the number of permanents in your graveyard. Given that this is Black/Green, you’re likely going to have a small mountain of cards to choose from - and the card you pick doesn’t have to be something in your color palette. You could sneak in a Trumpeting Carnosaur, for example.
4) Trumpeting Carnosaur
Speaking of big, beefy dinosaurs, I’ve seen a few people compare this Magic: The Gathering card to Etali, Primal Storm - a classic red dinosaur. I can absolutely see the comparison. When Trumpeting Carnosaur comes into play - as opposed to when attacking, like Etali - you can Discover 5.
That means you’re going to get a free card to activate on the back of this 7/6 trampling beast. You can also pay 3 mana to make it deal 3 damage to a creature or planeswalker, and it’s a 6-drop? What an amazing Lost Caverns of Ixalan card!
5) Bloodletter of Aclazotz
Here it is, my favorite creature in the entire set. This is based entirely on how I play Magic: The Gathering, though. Bloodletter of Aclazotz is a simple creature in the grand scheme of Lost Caverns of Ixalan. A four-drop 2/4 with Flying, it’s built to make your opponents lose as much life as humanly possible.
In a Black Commander deck, or even a casual deck, there are no doubt going to be ways to make your life loss win conditions go even faster. For instance, you could use Monumental Corruption and cut the required mana in half.
6) The Ancient One
The Ancient One is for people who just want to mill and have a ton of high-mana value cards. An 8/8 for 2 is already interesting. However, it can’t attack or block until you have eight or more permanents in the grave.
In Dimir (Blue/Black), that’s not going to be hard. Run this as the wincon for your Dimir decks, and it’s going to eventually see you to victory.
That or keep it out and simply keep using its ability to make people mill cards equal to the mana value of whatever you discard. That’s the great part - use it in a reanimator deck, and discard your value cards with The Ancient One in Magic: The Gathering.
It just happens to have a bonus effect of making a player mill. Whether it’s self-mill or opponents, this Lost Caverns of Ixalan card is going to steal the show.
7) Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth / Temple of Cultivation
I wanted to highlight one of the gods, and I think Ojer Kaslem is the best one to pick. I’m a sucker for free value, and this god gives it up on a 5-drop. Whenever this 6/5 trample deals combat damage to a player, reveal that many cards from the top of your library. Then, pick a land and/or a creature from among them and put it in play. That is incredible value for this Lost Caverns of Ixalan god card.
Its alternate form, Temple of Cultivation, triggers when it dies. You can transform it back into a god when you control 10 or more permanents - and only as a sorcerer. In a green Magic: The Gathering deck, that is not going to be a problem.
These are just some of my favorite cards to come with the Lost Caverns of Ixalan expansion in Magic: The Gathering. If you want to know what’s in the Commander decks, we’ve covered that as well.
