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When Lost Caverns of Ixalan launches next month in Magic: The Gathering, there will, of course, be new mechanics to learn. There are also returning mechanics like Explore, but we’re not going to focus on those. We’re also not going to cover the typical transforming cards - only features that are new and interesting. There are four new types of mechanics coming to the game, with one that is less of a new mechanic and more of a new way to show that an old game feature is taking place.
Magic: The Gathering’s Lost Caverns of Ixalan is a return to the lands of gods and dinosaurs, with a wide variety of amazing new cards already hitting the internet in waves. However, today, we’ll only highlight a few of these as they underline these new mechanics for the hit card game.
New mechanics coming in Magic: The Gathering’s Lost Caverns of Ixalan set
1) Craft
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Craft is one of Magic: The Gathering’s many transforming cards, but they do some truly fantastic things. When you transform the card, you’ll have to sacrifice a certain number of permanents of a specific type. For example, The Enigma Jewel (an upcoming Lost Caverns of Ixalan card) requires you to craft four or more nonlands with activated abilities. They can be in play or in the graveyard, in any combination you see fit.
When you transform this Magic: The Gathering card in Lost Caverns of Ixalan, it goes from being okay to ridiculous. It’s important to note the “or more” part, too. When you transform it into the Locus of Enlightenment, it has each of the activated abilities you sacrificed to create it. You can use them each turn once, and if it’s a non-mana ability, copy it, and you can even pick new targets.
Craft is a genuinely interesting way to transform cards and requires the player to really consider when and how they activate these special transformations.
2) Descended (and variants)
Descended is a really interesting mechanic coming to Magic: The Gathering via the Lost Caverns of Ixalan expansion. It has a baseline version and a few variants that I’ll go over below. To “Descend” is to have a permanent in your graveyard. The Broodrage Mycoid, for example, requires you to have descended this turn to create more tokens.
However, some cards don’t require you to descend this turn, only that you have a certain number of permanents in your graveyard for this Magic: The Gathering mechanic. Lost Caverns of Ixalan players will see at least three variants, though more could be on the way:
- Descend 4: Four or more permanents in your graveyard.
- Descend 8: Eight or more permanents in your graveyard.
- Fathomless Descent: This ability triggers to give an effect based on X, where X is the number of permanents that are in your graveyard.
Decks that use the mill ability or sacrifice lots of cards are really going to see some value in Descended - at least, that’s where I stand right now on the ability coming with Lost Caverns of Ixalan.
3) Discover
There’s bound to be a lot of discussion about Discover in Magic: The Gathering circles. This new Lost Caverns of Ixalan ability is similar to Cascade, and in my estimation, it is much better. In many cases, it’s going to be a number that’s a point less than the casting cost, as shown in the card above.
When you trigger Discover, you exile the top card of your deck until you pull a nonland card with that mana value or less. You can then choose to cast it or put it into your hand. That’s what makes it better than cascade, as the latter will make you waste Instants/Sorceries. Conversely, you can choose to keep it.
You’ll also find cards that give you a different, and sometimes better Discover cost too. Another fun feature is how it interacts with Adventure spells. If you have an Adventure spell that meets the requirement cost, you can use that spell instead. If it’s too high, you have to either cast it as a creature or put it in your hand.
4) Finality Counters
A very old mechanic of Magic: The Gathering involves creatures that come into play for one turn. Then, they get exiled instead of going to the graveyard. That now has an official function known as Finality Counters. It’s not known if they’re going to change previous cards to give them Finality Counters, but going forward beyond Lost Caverns of Ixalan, you’ll see that on cards instead.
It’s a very simple mechanic. When these temporary creatures come into play, they gain haste and a Finality Counter. Then, at the end of the turn, they get exiled.
Lost Caverns of Ixalan is coming to life in Magic: The Gathering on November 17, 2023. As new and interesting cards come out for this upcoming expansion, we’ll keep you in the loop.
