Away From Keyboard – Magic: The Gathering - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
Feature
"Welcome to Jurassic Park"
We at Hooked Gamers were lucky enough to receive an invite to the Magic: The Gathering pre-release event held at Fortress Melbourne. The event which was for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan had Gavin Verhey – Magic's Principal Game Designer as the special guest. After a little introduction, players split into groups of four and tested out the set in the Commander format.
During our Commander match, it was essentially Pirates versus Dinosaurs, as two of us were armed with the 'Veloci-Ramp-Tor' Commander Deck (Green, Red, White) and two of our foursome had decided to shiver their timbers and selected the 'Ahoy Mateys' deck (Blue. Black, Red) focused on Pirates. There are two other Commander decks available in the set.
With a combination of early land collecting, both of the dinosaur competitors were able to bring out some big guys fairly early into the game and wreak havoc. One card in particular (I won’t spoil the fun by naming it) seemed to be somewhat overpowered during our game, as it had flying and several other abilities. The flying alone made it tough for those playing with the pirate decks, In the end the onslaught of flying dinosaurs overpowered the pirates, and it was left to the two dinosaur deck to fight amongst themselves.
It would have been interesting to see how the other two decks would have played out, but with time at a premium, we didn't get that opportunity on this occasion.
Set mechanics
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is not just a set based around pirates and Jurassic Park dinosaurs, it is a set themed around discovering and exploring lost worlds. Players will delve deeper within the Caverns and many of the mechanics will revolve around exploration.
Craft
Each card with Craft is a transforming double-faced card. Players cast the front face of the cards (the one with the Craft ability displayed). Craft is an activated ability that lets you take the mundane and make it magnificent. To activate a craft ability, you need to do three things: exile the permanent with craft, exile the specified materials (other permanents you control or cards from your graveyard), and pay some mana. The card with craft will return to the battlefield transformed.
Descend
Several cards in this set have abilities that trigger if you've descended this turn. You've descended if a permanent card has been put into your graveyard from anywhere.
Descend 4, Descend 8 and Fathomless Descent
Similar to the Descend mechanic above, the spells with this mechanic trigger if players have a certain number of permanent cards in their graveyard (e.g., Descend 4 triggers when players have 4 permanent cards in their graveyard). This will grant greater abilities to the spell.
Discover
This keyword lets you look into your library to search for a nonland card of a particular value. Players will exile cards from their library until they discover the required nonland card, at which point they can cast the card without paying its normal mana cost or add it to their hand. The exiled cards are placed back into the bottom of your library.
Explore and Map Tokens
If a creature you control explores, reveal the top card of your library. If the revealed card is a land card, signifying they found some new territory you can check out, put that card into your hand. If it's not a land card, your creature won't find any cards for you, but they will be fortified by the experience. You put a +1/+1 counter on that creature. Then you can put the nonland card into your graveyard or, if you like what you saw, leave it on top of your library.
Map Artifact Tokens can be used to activate the Explore ability when they are sacrificed.
The Cards
Planeswalkers
Quintorius Kand – Red and White
Lands
With the story centered around caves and discovering what lies within, it makes sense that many of the lands feature dark caverns. But Ixalan has a distinct native south American theme and many of the lands have gorgeous depictions of those ancient empires in their heyday or use the art style from that period.
Jurassic World – Universes Beyond
The next Universes Beyond collection arrives with Jurassic World, bringing the excitement and thrills of the blockbuster franchise. Featuring charismatic characters, clever dinosaurs, and fantastic locations, these cards will delight fans of Ixalan and Jurassic World alike. Hold a piece of the park with a total of 26 collaboration cards including Ellie and Alan, Ian Malcolm, the classic Tyrannosaurus.
Product types
• Commander decks
Veloci-Ramp-Tor (dinosaur theme) - Green, Red and White
Ahoy Mateys (pirate theme) - Blue. Black and Red
Blood Rites (vampire theme) – White and Black
Explorers of the Deep (merfolk theme) – Green and Blue
• Collector Boosters (15 cards)
• Set Boosters (12 cards)
• Draft Boosters (15 cards)
• Bundle (Standard and Gift Edition)
For more information on The Caverns of Ixalan, visit the official website. And, as always, follow us on Instagram for news updates, reviews, competitions and more.