The Core (Caverns of Ixalan art card) | art by Piotr Dura

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Ixalan is looking Ixalan-t so far...

And we're going to be taking a look at some amazing artifacts and lands from the upcoming set, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Forgive my pun and let's dive right in!

Mythics

Chimil, the Inner Sun

Seems alright.

All jokes aside, this is quite the powerful artifact here. Being able to ensure our stuff never gets countered is excellent and perfect if you have a ton of giant spells up your sleeve! There are plenty of ways to protect our artifacts, too, so I think this is going to be a card we see a lot of, especially in artifact focused decks.

However, I actually want to focus on its second ability. In the new set, we have a new mechanic which is similar in vibe to cascade called discover. This mechanic allows us to flip cards off the top of our library until we snag something that's mana value is equal to or less than the corresponding number, then cast it for free OR put it into our hand!

In this case, we'll be flipping five cards off our library every single one of our end steps. The shenanigans are obvious and many so I won't get into all of that...

However, making copies of this with Mirror Box out seems disgusting.

The Millennium Calendar

Now this.....this is my kind of card right here. I love being able to have cheeky ways of winning the game outside of traditional combat (think Strixhaven Stadium and the like).

I don't know exactly how popular this will be, because activating this is absolutely a pipe dream. HOWEVER, it can be done easier than you think!

If we include some untap synergies, like Kelpie Guide, we can be doubling the counters on this multiple times a turn. Additionally, thanks to counter-doublers, such as Vorel of the Hull Clade and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, we can speed up the process even more and hopefully be able to activate this at least once in our lives!

Eye of Ojer Taq

Craft is another mechanic that's new in this set, and the creativity it enables is amazing. We pay 6, then exile two permanents that share a type, then all of a sudden we can start casting stuff for free from that activated ability on the backside.

This is great in basically every deck that runs permanents en masse: Artifacts, Enchantments, Creatures, Planeswalkers, etc

So yeah, free stuff in Commander is pretty good I hear. Onto the next card!

Paleontologist's Pick-Axe

We've got some looting here which is always great but again we have something that's VERY cool once we use the Craft ability and flip it over!

Say you can't get some creatures that just died on your side of the board back on to the field, no recursion in sight. I love the idea of being able to recycle those creatures from your graveyard, by exiling them, using this card.

And every time we attach it something new, if we exiled multiple cards with the Pick-Axe, we can choose to make the equipped creature a copy of a different card. Versatile and fun, exactly what I'm looking for in a Magic card!

Rares

Echoing Deeps

I love cards like this that can provide versatility based on the state of the game. If other players have been milling or had a land destroyed, this can come in and snag you some value! I mean, snagging a Gaea's Cradle straight out of someone's graveyard seems really fun to me.

Also, it taps for land itself, which means it's never a dud. Much like one of my favorite cards of all time: Tyrite Sanctum.

I personally think that this card is going to be popular in builds that care about land destruction (boo). However, I also believe that this can just be a great addition to the collection of awesome colorless utility lands that we have at our disposal!

Matzalantli, the Great Door

This allows us to loot for cards (very flavorful, considering the setting), especially if we can tap and untap this card multiple times, which shouldn't be hard to do.

Then once we transform it, we get a land that can net us a TON of mana depending on the number of permanents we have in our yard. I'm personally thinking about using it as a way to loot for more stuff in my Kamiz, Obscura Oculus build. I think this will be popular in decks that care about looting and the graveyard, no doubt.

However, I think it can also be helpful post-boardwipe by being able to tap one land for a ton of mana and rebuild the board (hopefully) faster than your opponents.

Restless Anchorage

The first in a series of five lands you can animate from this set! Each one of these lands animates into a creature that does stuff.

The creature this one turns into has some evasion stapled on, which is nice. This allows us to collect Map tokens every time we swing with it. Map tokens, when sacrificed, make a creature Explore, which is a mechanic we haven't seen much of since the original Ixalan set, I believe.

These explore triggers can be used to buff up our land creature or other creatures we have. It can also snag us some lands into our hand which is hardly ever a bad thing.

I don't see the vast majority of players running this land since it enters tapped and most players prefer to do something else with 3 mana than animate a land, but...

I run a channel called the EDH Jank Center, so I'm a fan!

Restless Prairie

I'm sorry but....it becomes a LLAMA. No need to dive further in, however...

It does provide us with a cheeky little anthem effect which synergizes quite well with one of the new commanders from the set:

I can see this being a fun include in budget token builds as well since it is both a land and an anthem effect. Cards that do double duty tend to be quite popular when you're building on a budget, after all.

And again, gotta emphasize that it becomes a LLAMA.

A+ in my book.

Restless Reef

On attacks we're milling someone, whether that be ourselves or one of our opponents. A little underwhelming, considering we have to animate it in order to get to that ability.

The vast majority of players will find better ways to mill opponents or themselves. I, however, think there's a home for it somewhere...

I think in a pinch this can be used at instant speed to become a deathtouch blocker. Not many people will anticipate that happening I imagine! Maybe Muldrotha, the Gravetide might like this for playing it our of our graveyard if it dies in combat?

Now, that's not ideal, but cards like these have a soft spot in my heart. Personally, I'd much rather have a land that does multiple things than a land that just sits there and does nothing.

Restless Ridgeline

This one's probably my favorite of the cycle! That attack ability is great for aggressive strategies that want a blocker up after combat. Voltron decks come to mind for this.

I don't know that this will shake up the format, but I definitely think this is the best and most useful ability among the animate lands from this set!

Additionally, the creature it turns into is a Dinosaur, which has a ton of synergy with cards like Gishath, Sun's Avatar!

And who wouldn't want to pump up Gishath even more?

Restless Vents

We get a Rakdos-aligned Insect creature, which I think is quite cool. However, like I've been saying with a few of these animate lands, I don't see players being super stoked and running this in a ton of builds.

However, I think the fact that it lets us rummage for cards gives it some upside if we need it in a pinch. It also has menace already stapled on, which makes it much harder to block and therefore much easier to be able to rummage for cards multiple times with this thing.

I like it, but I don't see this being used in a lot of decks since there are just generally better, more efficient options.

I think I would put it into my future build of Xira, the Golden Sting Insect kindred deck though because it becomes a cheeky lil Insect!

Roaming Throne

Kindred decks are drooling right now. There are countless awesome builds this can slot right into and do work in.

Humans, Merfolk, Dinosaurs, Insects...

Imagine being able to double up on egg counters in one swing with the aforementioned Xira, the Golden Sting or having any of creatures of the Ally type double their triggers?

The list goes on and on. and the ward ability is just icing on the cake. I think this is going to be a proper staple for kindred builds going forward!

Sunken Citadel

Hey! Here we go! Something that makes the "Restless" cycle of lands we just reviewed a bit cheaper to activate.

I like this card solely for the fact that it taps for one mana of any color and thereby becomes yet another card we can include into our land bases for multi-color builds.

Also, this can also help to discount cards like Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion and Gavony Township.

For the decks that this will be included in, it'll definitely do some work.

Tarrian's Soulcleaver

Yo, whoever Tarrian is they have a really cool soulcleaver.

This has got to be my favorite Equipment from the set, not only granting vigilance which is always underrated, but also steadily buffing the creature it's equipped to over time.

I think this would be fun to use in a Kibo, Uktabi Prince build, capitalizing off of those Banana tokens being put into graveyards! Broadly speaking, this is a cheap Equipment to play and equip so I think this will find a home in a lot of builds that want to sacrifice creatures or artifacts.

So stellar and a welcome addition to the pantheon of dope Equipment!

Threefold Thunderhulk

We have a CHONKY gnome. It spams the board with tokens whenever it enters the battlefield or attacks.

And it can buff itself to create even more tokens!

This is definitely up there as one of my favorite cards in the set; I love making tokens so this is right up my alley.

I believe blinking this would be the way to go, and one could choose from whatever blink commander suits their fancy since this card is colorless and can go anywhere!

Throne of the Grim Captain

Yet another amazing, weird, fun card from this set! Melding together a Merfolk, Dinosaur, Vampire, and Pirate is just the kind of thing Commander is all about in my opinion.

Since it's a legendary creature on the backside, this card can be your commander and you can run all kinds of fun Merfolk, Dinosaurs, Vampires, and Pirates.

I think people are going to have a ton of fun building this and we'll hopefully be seeing all kinds of wild combinations and concoctions of those four different creatures.

Progenitor's Icon

Yet another dope card for kindred decks everywhere! A mana rock, yes, but more importantly a flash-enabler stapled on to a permanent.

I don't know about you but being able to Flash in a Bronzebeak Foragers seems pretty good to me. And this lil rock can go into any deck due to it's colorless nature.

I can foresee a lot of players putting this versatile card to good use! I know I'm definitely snagging it for some of my stuff...

Arm-Mounted Anchor

I love this card equipped to double striking creatures for obvious reasons. Especially if you have ways to snag the stuff you discard out of your graveyard.

This can also slot in very easily to Pirate Kindred builds and allows them to get in for some tasty damage triggers by giving them menace. Additionally, running Pirates with this means you only have to discard one card instead of two.

Oh and it's free to equip if you're top decking. I approve!

Uncommons & Commons

Contested Game Ball

I just love a cheeky mini-game inside of the game. A race against time to see who gets to snag the one treasure token? That's my kind of fun.

Will this see like... a TON of play? I don't necessarily think so.

But for the people it's for (me), I think they will absolutely love it (I do).

Also, this will be added to the pantheon of sports-themed Magic cards, of which there aren't many. Someday soon I will be building a sports deck, though. Mark my words!

Careening Mine Cart

Cheeky little Vehicles like this are great; this one reminds me a lot of Raiders' Karve in that it just allows us to accrue value every turn.

It's cheap to crew and there are plenty of ways to give this evasion so that we can ensure it attacks safely and nets us those tasty treasures! I also think making copies of it and netting multiple treasures a turn could be a fun angle to take this. Or buffing it up with Katsumasa, the Animator!

Again, I'd say this won't be found in every deck. Vehicle decks and budget decks will make use of this card the most I imagine.

I have to say, going through this set got me hype in a way that I haven't been for a Magic set in a very long time. SO many creative and fun cards that I cannot wait to get my hands on!

Did you see anything that caught your eye? Any decks of yours that need these cards? Let me know in the comment section below. Let's have a chat about it!

Jordan Iacovella

Jordan is an actor, music producer, and gigantic nerd who runs the EDH Jank Center on Youtube! Through various tier lists, janky deck techs, and budget-friendly guides, the Jank Center hopes to show people that you don't need to be rich to have fun playing this wonderful game. Think outside the box, baby!