#mtg lci

[beardwitchbrews]

So Finality Counters are a new space that R&D is introducing in Lost Caverns of Ixalan to give us more readily available & cheap reanimation. If you haven't seen them yet, here's an example:

(god this card is so goddam cool. Uncommon? That name?? THAT ART???)

Finality being a counter is super sweet, too, because all of a sudden cards that remove counters or move them around become so much more interesting. Here are some highlights:

To recap: I reanimate my Great Mistake, it gets a Finality Counter. I tap my Fain, The Broker, removing the counter & create a Treasure token. Seems pretty sweet!

If you blink a creature, it returns to battlefield, sans counters- another way to reset.

And, of course, we could just say you know what? No counters ever, please.

This is the kind of design work that just sings with past Magic cards. I'm a huge fan!

[jarfieid]

GET YO BIG ASS HAT OUT THE CARD TEXT, DAMN!

[kioraismyplaneswalker]

playing in my first in-person magic event since 2019 this weekend

I'll probably be the only person masked but fuck it I gotta get to play eventually

(and it's the first 2hg I'm either not running or my partner isn't working during so like, we gotta)

(the downside will be coming back to the shop the next morning to run another event but w/e)

(I'll live.)

[allhailklisz]

this is from the Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules as of the November 17, 2023 update, for Lost Caverns of Ixalan

note that Cave is not listed

in fact the letter sequence 'cave' only occurs in this document when preceded by 's' and followed by 'nge' (in the context of the ability "scavenge" from RTR, and some examples that refer to the card Midnight Scavengers)

dfidsjfisfs good job wotc

[turn-1-sol-ring]

Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander Review - Part One

Hello enjoys of multiplayer kerfuffle, welcome to a fairly simple Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander Recap! The goal: Rate all the new legendary creatures of this fine new set, and speculate a bit on ways to build them!

I will be talking over every eligible commanders, because I sincerely every legendary creature will be built by someone, even the weaker ones, as any card can have special value for anyone. I will also include the Jurassic Park legendary creatures, who can also be found within this set. With these caveats, let's begin!

Our first stop in our spelunking is Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation, and we begin with a banger. It's fairly easy to compare this to Mondrak, from Phyrexia: All Will Be One, but I like the additional explosiveness of Tripling over Doubling, and becoming a land when it dies, with the possibility of turning it back, can save a lot of mana in commander tax over the course of a game, and provide a bit of ramp for your trouble. Only working with creature token is a drawback, but for a more classic aggressive strategy of tokens + anthems, this works wonderfully well as a top-end.

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel is a new version of everyone's favorite blue pirate partner, and this one is impressive even without a buddy tagging along. Looting is often underrated in Commander, but turning your merfolk looting into a limited Omniscience is a pretty massive upgrade to it. Of course, 4 turns of attacking with impunity with a 2/1 is a lot to ask for, so don't hesitate to pack in a voltron suite that includes Whispersilk Cloak and Trailblazer's Boots, and also a bit of Proliferate action to accelerate this ticking clock, and more easily recovering counters after an untimely removal spell.

Akal Pakal, First Among Equals is a new arrival in the long and noble tradition of Mono-Blue artifact commanders. While long gone are the days of Arcuum Dagson terrorizing kitchen tables, his ilk carries on. This iteration is interested in providing us card advantage and filling up our graveyard for our plight of playing artifacts. That's an interesting proposal, especially with the capabilities we now have to create artifacts during our opponent's turns. It's less flashy than Muzzio, Visionary Architect, but a lot more reliable, and probably a lot less immediatly threatening. Sleeve up your Myr Turbine and Unwinding Cloak!

Ojet Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch is a very cool commander, though his metaphorical toes are stepped on by Taigam, Ojutai Master. What you get in exchange for an entire color and losing on sorcery is a more aggressive body, and ramp upon being destroyed. Ojer is still very powerful, and giving rebound to any instant will always lead to getting insane value out of your Consider and Brainstorms, as well as more substantial hits like Commence the Endgame and Dig Through Time. The land side is a bit worse than the other gods, since you will have to wait a pretty significant time to get it back, but by the time you do, you should have plenty of mana to take advantage of the cards you gathered waiting for Pakpatiq to come back online.

Francisco, Fowl Marauder is a lot of things. A great pun, an adorable bird, and also our first black Pirate partner. I will immediatly admit my bias towards Explore, a mechanic I loved a lot during original Ixalan and now still. If you have enough pirates, this little bird can become a significant problem very fast, or provide enough land cards for you never to worry about missing a land drop again. With the capacity to get up to three +1/+1 counters per turn, favor evasive and sneaky pirates over beefier, more expensive ones. And once you get at least one point of power on this bad boy, he'll be able to help the snowball by itself.

Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal is the long awaited debut of the Bat God, and it's a pretty good one at that. Aclazotz incentivizes aggressive play to go with your discard, unlike other offerings like Tinybones, who'd rather you durdle and sit back while everyone discards everything. Getting incidental value in the form of bodies when your opponents keep their good cards and throw away their lands is very nice, and you getting value despite your opponents being empty-ended, a problem I faced a lot when I thought the coolest thing I could do to my friends was kill them with Megrim and Liliana's Caress, is fantastic. The land is also very easy to transform back into our Bat, as you'll probably have plenty of ways to empty your own hand if your opponents aren't so inclined.

Breeches, Eager Pillar is our second returning pirate, and now he can stand on his own instead of hiding being Glinthorn Buccaneer. a three-mana 3/3 with first strike is already pretty pushed, and getting up to three pretty decent effects by combat is very powerful. Now, you are playing Mono-red Pirate, which might be a bit underwhelming, but that never stopped people from building Skeleton Typal and the likes before.

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun, is a very powerful aggressive card. Being a red Aggro commander that permanently power up your attackers, while turning your excess lands directly into damage and more card advantage, is a very powerful effect. Aggressive, combat-focused decks are gaining more and more popularity in today's commander landscape, which used to be almost exclusively dominated by creature-combo decks or UGx decks generating obscene value. This shift in metagame is mostly a good thing, and the printing of efficient, aggressive commanders is a catalyst for that.

Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might is kind of insane, honestly. I except it to by the most hated commander of this new set, with how fast it can kill the entire table with something as silly as impact tremors and cavalcade of calamity. Cheap, big, and tough to get rid of, I'll be interested to see how many Krenko and Purphoros pilot make the switch. I'm mostly just preparing mentally to endure the many times I'll die to it.

Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant is a very scary and explosive commander for a Ramp deck. The big challenge of this deck will be to keep a loaded hand while still ramping to 8 mana, so get your Toski and Beast Whisperer ready, and maybe go to , which can be a tough balance to achieve,. 8 mana for a 12/12 that throws on your hand on the board is still crazy to me, and it will put a large target on your head when you sit down at your table to play.

Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth feels a bit small with Ghalta right next to it, but make no mistake: Ojer Kaslem is a powerhouse. 6 power on its own is plenty to dig deep enough to get a good creature hit and a land to ramp on top of it, and nothing is stopping you from boosting that power to dig deeper! I'd value creatures with flashy enter-the-battlefield triggers, or near-instantaneous value like Tendershoot Dryad. The land is also pretty easy to flip over when your commander can put two permanents on the board per trigger, so I doubt you'll pay that commander tax too many times.

Abuelo, Ancestral Echo is a very simple and straightforward Blink commander. Pay Mana, get value is a sweet deal, even if it is not the most efficient option, but it's pretty handy to have an Eldrazi Displacer in the command zone. Of course, returning it at the end step has upsides and downsides, trading repeatability for the potential to protect your permanents from mass removal. In any case, enjoy your Cloudblazer and Stonehorn Dignitary! And, if you feel like upgrading the power level of your blink deck, take a look at Brago or Ranar.

Uchbenbak, the Great Mistake, beside its unfortunate epitaph, is a pretty unexciting, but certainly beefy commander. Self-Mill Voltron certainly an unusual strategy, and I doubt The Great Mistake will invite a lot of players to try. But still, how do we build this sucker? You can traumatize yourself, suit up with Bonehoard or Runechanter's Pike to attack for a lot of damage. The descend ability allows you to cheat on your commander tax half the time, but it's still not the greatest plan. Try at your own risk.

The Ancient One is our second Self-Mill Voltron commander in this set, and unlike our loveable Great Mistake, this one's got legs. A very cheap mana cost, and a very lethal body, are a very good mix, and there's no shortage of efficient mill in Magic. A single Glimpse the Unthinkable might be enough to turn The Ancient One into murder mode. You also don't need to give him a lot of additional power, just a bit of evasion will turn this into a real menace. The ability to self-mill by itself is nice, but there are better way.

Zoyowa Lava-Tongue is so cool. It's not great, but I love goblins, I love Rakdos goblins, I love incremental value, and I love punisher mechanics. The art is also phenomenal, but that's beside my analysis. Getting one permanent per turn in your graveyard, as Rakdos, is incredibly easy, and probably quite desirable. Squee, Goblin Nabob and Chainer, Nightmare Adept are slam-dunks in the deck, and you could also build it as a goblin Typal deck, though I'd wager Wort, Boggart Auntie is a better option in those colors. Tergrid would also be very happy to hang out in that deck. Overall, it seems like a fun, lower-power option for a slightly durdly discard/aristocrat deck, and I like that very much.

Itzqunith, Firstborn of Gishath is, that is true, very cute, but so lacklaster when it comes to Dino-Power. getting a 2-powered haste creature as a commander is not great, and you have to pay 2 more and have bigger dinosaurs already on the field for it to provide enough value, it has a hard time justifying itself in the command zone. My personal path would be to build a pretty standard Gruul Ramp deck, and favor dinosaurs over other creature that feel similar roles.

Kutzil, Malamet Examplar is a very straightforward commander, and the Grand Abolisher stapled on it is more than enough to play him in a fair, anthem-filled deck built around swinging lads into the red zone. Having a healthy mix of First Strike, Trample and other combat-relevant keywords on your dude will allow you to more easily gain access to your sweet value. Enjoy Selesnya Stompy, because GW can play creatures without them being tokens.

Kellan, Daring Traveler is a very sweet Selesnya weenie/Hatebear commander! Getting bigger bodies or enough land drops to play comfortably on the adventure side is a small, but appreciated boon, and Kellan himself is a very sweet card advantage engine for a deck that runs a bunch of cheap, disruptive creatures like Knight of Autumn, Gaddock Teeg or Qasali Pridemage.

Sovereign Okinec Ahau, on the other end, doesn't have to be fair. Ever wanted your Giant Growths to be permanent and compound turn after turn? Simply having a Honor of the Pure on the battlefield wield give you tremendous value, and you can go all out and toss in a little Cathar's Crusade too. Doubling the power granted by Overrun and similar effect is also fair game, and even going Voltron by stacking a bunch of equipments on Okinec to double-dip in the bonus power seems very powerful. A surprisingly open-handed commander, that can be built in a number of various ways, all with the end-point of smashing someone's face in.

Bartolomé del Presidio is an incredibly powerful option for an Orzhov Aristocrat deck, which is made more impressive by the fact that it's an uncommon 2-mana option. Orzhov's only other legendary free sacrifice outlets are Teysa, Orzhov Scion, for white creatures only, and Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter, which cost a whopping seven mana. For only 2 mana, you can also sacrifice food and clue tokens to pump Bartolomé to lethal heights, while still accruing aristocrat value.

Amalia Benavides Aguirre is another Orzhov lifegain commander, but this one explores, so i'll give her a pass due to my love of the Explore mechanic. Getting her to 20 power is not trivial, but also not that challenging either. You can use cards like Sunbound or Archangel of Thune to double up on +1/+1 counters and accelerate the clock, and you gain, for your trouble, a Day of Judgement that will help make way for a sing of your now-lethal commander. Did I mention that this card is only 2 mana? Overall, I likr her more than her most direct comparison, Karlov of the Ghost Council.

Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz is also an aristocrat commander, but this one looks to pair attrition and flyers to close out the game in an aggressive fashion, instead of winning through a massive Bastion of Remembrance/Zulaport Cutthroat turn. By staggering your sacrifices over the entire turn cycle, you can drain up to 8 life and create 12 power of flyers per turn, which will surely help closing out a game in a timely fashion. Vito also doesn't just care about creatures, but any permanent, so treasures, clues and foods (Or blood, for flavor) will provide a ton of value for you over the course of the game.

Clavileño, First of the Blessed is a very interesting Vampire typal commander, and the (underrated) face of the Orzhov commander tie-in deck. Clavileño seek to have cheap, aggressive vampire that can be upgraded to flying threats later down the road, either through sacrificing them yourself, or as a way to very quickly rebuild after an opponent wraths the board, all while providing card advantage, quickly coming out at 3 mana, and its ability being usable the turn it comes out. A solid option for Orzhov vampire.

Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher is the alternate commander of the vampire preconstructed deck, and the option that hyped players the most, with good reasons. Carmen is an incredibly powerful option, being able to reanimate any permanent if you get its power high enough, which is very easily done, as Mazirek showed us in the past. Having a supercharged flying Sun Titan in the command zone is no joke, but you will probably need a healthy dose of self-mill and discard synergy to get your really big stuff in the graveyard to get it out at a discount. Worst case, you can reanimate lands to ramp, something Orzhov always had a bit of a challenge to do. But, by all means, reanimate your Overwhelming Splendor and Ugin, The Spirit Dragon.

Captain Storm, Cosmium Raider wants to shower your pirates in treasure and swords before assaulting your enemies. With original Ixalan printing a lot of pirayes that also bring treasures, and Dockside Extortionist being born to be in that deck, treasure is a pretty obvious path to get big pirates. However, playing an Equipment deck to both empower your pirates on the way in and after being equipped is a perfectly valid strategy too.

[hikorzik]

Today I draft Ixalan! Sunday I draft my cube with friends! Magic the gathering is fun! Yay!

[cardboard-crack]

[googlyeyesonmagiccards]

*Indiana Jones theme.mp3*

[aroguelegionaire]

Gnomes!

What makes a gnome?

At least in Magic, I would argue it is three key features, being an artifact creature, having a round body, and having a pointy hat. Only one card in the main magic universe is a living gnome, who is neither so sorry Quarum Trench Gnome I don't consider you a real gnome, at least for the standard of magic design.

For me the most iconic gnome is the Mirrodin version of Bottle Gnomes (mainly fueled by childhood nostalgia, I loved that flavor text) This merry band has the bulbous body and integrated hat and head design that was first shown in the original Bottle Gnomes, and later became the standard for new gnomes, see the new art for Ticking Gnomes and Clockwork Gnomes

Now this brings us to the biggest influx of our favorite round lads, Ixalan has secretly been hiding hoards of them underground, arguably the natural environment of the gnome, this whole time. This new iteration brings a new design unique to the plane, similar to the way goblins got a new look but kept the most important traits these new Mesoamerican inspired gnomes have the key traits of a good gnome. The pointy hat and the rotund shape. Market Gnome even has refreshments!

There are two exceptions so far in the spoiler season, Dinomaton and Tetzin, Gnome Chamion.

Dinomaton is leaning more into it's dinosaur half for it's structure while it's composition certainly is the same materials as the other gnomes. Tetzin on the other hand does have the body type but is lacking the needed hat, but simply that is because Tetzin IS the hat!

Here's to more of my favorite misshapen robots

[reuniteddinobots]

SHE MADE IT TO IXALAN

THEY ARE TOGETHER

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT

[beardwitchbrews]

First 🏆 of the new format! Of course it’s in “the weakest color pair” lmao

The deck really packed some punch, especially with the Zoetic Glyphs. Animating a Careening Minecart is looking to be one of my favorite things in the format already 🛒💨

Other highlights:

- Subterranean Schooner is such a fantastic card, especially if you can back it up with Cogwork Wrestler.

- On the topic of Cogwork Wrestler- card seems like a incredible glue card. Helps you blow out opponents (at least early on in the format, I imagine people will start respecting untapped islands a bit more down the line), crew vehicles, is fantastic craft material.

- People are not taking Lodestone Needle high enough. In a removal light format, you have to find SOME ways of interacting with the other side of the table. It locks down a threat and then becomes a huge value engine down the line, making YOUR threats harder to deal with. Huge fan.

- Inverted Iceberg won me a bunch of games. People have said it’s a virtual two mana draw three, and while it wasn’t THAT good in this deck, it is really nice that your cantrip becomes your bomb in the late game.

- I didn’t actually see my gold cards all that much, but they put in a lot of work when they did show up. Deepfathom Echo getting free explores and turning into a flier won me a game, and I had an opponent scoop when I got three explores off (thanks map tokens, Schooner) with Nincanzil on the field.

- Finally, Malamet Veteran. Look, for the most part these guys are just keyword Large, but I’ve found they hit the curve just right, and trample has overperformed on packed board states. I only was able to get two counters out of them at most, but that was often because I’d won at that point.

The format so far seems sick. I’m worried about the state of removal, though- if you get on the wrong side of a bomb or a value snowball (looking at you, Captain Storm!), it can be an absolute beating. Keep your eyes open in the draft, folks. And as always, happy brewing!

[dominarianplowshare]

"Despite her anger, Saheeli found herself drawn to Elenda. Divinity, she deduced. Of course. Proximity to the divine—any divine—was difficult to resist. She understood that magnetism, some fundamental principal of the Multiverse that she, a mortal being, felt as something more. Saheeli pushed back against that desire to follow, turning it instead into an examination of the small details of Elenda's mortality that lingered: The wisp of gray in her long dark hair. The gentle spray of freckles across the bridge of her nose."

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan | Pawns

(Even though the plot of this set's story was fun, I thought the writing was pretty low-quality, so I was surprised when this episode was such a banger--until I saw it was written by Miguel Lopez and it all made sense)

[claristhegirl]

Alright, P1P1 Breeches, really good start!

Things aren't super great after Pack 1, but I do have a few other decent Red cards to go with Breeches. (Ignore the Maindeck/Sideboard split, that's an automatic 17Lands draft log thing)

[Pack 2 Pick 1]

...I haven't gotten to play a Throne of the Grim Captain deck, but Red doesn't really feel like the best place to try that... Despite how much I like doing nonsense, I'm just gonna stick to the decent Red card that I know will make my deck.

[Pack 2 Pick 2]

No Red cards I want, so let's take the good White card as Red/White seems like the most likely outcome here.

[Pack 2 Pick 4]

...Okay, there's no way I'm actually gonna be playing Bringer of the Last Gift, but there's no Red cards, and I don't care about either White card really, so... eh.

[Pack 2 Pick 5]

...Oh no. Oh no oh no. I don't care too much about the other cards in the pack, and there is a chance the first Throne could wheel, so... I guess I'll take it and see what happens...

[Pack 2 Pick 9]

Oh NO.

At this point I'm fully committed to this nonsense. I get a Vito's Inquisitor Pack 2 Pick 15, but ultimately don't have good luck in getting more of the needed creature types; two crappy green Merfolk Pack 3 Picks 4 and 5, and no other Vampires.

The final deck. It has:

5 Pirates (Breeches, 2 Plundering Pirates, Goblin Tomb Raider, Greedy Freebooter).

5 Dinosaurs (2 Belligerent Yearlings, Scytheclaw Raptor, Dinotomaton, Rampaging Spiketail).

2 Merfolk... 2 crappy green Merfolk in my Red/Black deck, splashed with a single Forest and various treasure makers, but I'd significantly rather mill them or discard them to Saheeli's Lattice.

2 Vampires. Which was weird, because I could only see one Vampire in the deck (Vito's Inquisitor), only to find out that Bringer is also a Vampire! I was likely cutting Bringer before that given it's 8 mana, but due to its type it got to stay.

So yeah, cool deck, but I can't see it actually performing well. I'm expecting nothing from Bringer. If I can flip a Throne just one time then I guess I'll be happy with the draft.

But

then

it

just

kept

on

winning.

What the hell. 4 games where I cast Bringer, 5 games where I flipped a Throne, and 2 games where I did neither and lost welp.

Anyway, best moment of the draft was Game 2, where I cast Bringer, then next turn after attacking I flipped Throne crafting with the still on-board Bringer LOL.

[majraan]

Ok, the Cats in this set are CRAZY, FR.

[beatsandskies]

My Love Language is Precons

This post follows a similar one I did about the various Blue Black Faeries decks that have been released on Arena since Wilds of Eldraine. It’s basically exactly the same thing, but about Red Green Dinosaur decks, of which there’s been a few of over the last year as well. The idea is have a bit of a look at what each of the decks is doing, what cards overlap and what is different. If you were…

[dude1818]

I really hate what Magic is doing these days. I thought Kellan was pretty milquetoast in the Eldraine story, but he fit the genre so whatever. Having him continue to be the main character for the rest of the year is so incredibly lame though! When everyone was complaining about too much Jace, at least he did something in the stories

Also, the story WotC is telling with him is indistinguishable from a story about a planeswalker, making the desparking completely irrelevant