Lost Caverns of Ixalan releases on Nov. 17, bringing dozens of new cards to the table with the potential to make a splash in Magic: The Gathering’s most popular format, Commander.
From new legendary creatures and powerful unique mechanics to solid reprints, the set will undoubtedly have a strong impact on the game. Here are the best Commander cards from the set.
Best Lost Caverns of Ixalan cards for Commander
LCI Gods
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. The five mono-colored gods that can transform into lands will, without a shadow of a doubt, see Commander play. The only drawback to the gods, if you can even call it that, is that each has a narrowly focused mechanic.
On the one hand, this makes them less versatile, but on the other, it makes them immensely powerful with the right strategy. The best example is Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation. This god triples, yes, triples, the amount of tokens that a player generates whenever they make a creature token. For more information, check out our deep dive into the Ixalan land gods.
Bloodletter of Aclazotz
- Mana Cost: 1BBB
- Type: Creature – Vampire Demon
- Rarity: Rare
- Ability: Flying. If an opponent would lose life during your turn, they lose twice that much life instead.
It’s hard to think of any Mono-Black or Rakdos strategy that would not want to include this gorgeous Vampire Demon in their deck. Cool creature type, by the way. This kind-hearted flyer even gives players a hint by letting them know that damage is, in fact, considered loss of life.
The triple black mana makes this misunderstood beauty a bit tricky to cast outside Mono-Black decks. Still, it’s definitely worth including in any strategy looking to maximize damage and life loss.
The Skullspore Nexus
- Mana Cost: 6GG
- Type: Legendary Artifact
- Rarity: Rare
- Ability: This spell costs X less to cast, where X is the greatest power among creatures you control. Whenever one or more nontoken creatures you control die, create a green Fungus Dinosaur creature token with base power and toughness each equal to the total power of those creatures. 2, TAP: Double target creature’s power until end of turn.
The Skullspore Nexus is a legendary artifact reminiscent of The Great Henge, a commander staple in most green decks. Even though its cost is officially six generic and two green mana, players will rarely, if ever, cast it for that much.
This card allows players to keep up the pressure on opponents even after a successful board wipe or after a target removal spell destroys their most powerful creature. The Skullspore Nexus is undoubtedly a great inclusion for green stompy decks.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
- Mana Cost: 2G
- Type: Legendary Enchantment
- Rarity: Rare
- Ability: When Growing Rites of Itlimoc enter the battlefield, look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a creature card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. At the beginning of your end step, if you control four or more creatures, transform Growing Rites of Itlimoc. TAP: Add G. or TAP: Add G for each creature you control.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc is possibly the best reprint of the set. The new art emphasizes on the caves of Ixalan instead of its vast open spaces. After jumping through a couple of hoops, players get what is essentially a copy of Gaea’s Cradle.
A myriad of decks can easily flip this enchantment over and start benefitting from copious amounts of green mana. It’s simply a fantastic card all around.
Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar
- Mana Cost: 1GW
- Type: Legendary Creature – Cat Warrior
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Ability: Your opponents can’t cast spells during your turn. Whenever one or more creatures you control each with power greater than its base power deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.
For those Death and Taxes players who’ve been waiting for a new version of Grand Abolisher, your unholy prayers have finally come to fruition. Kutzil, in addition to being a great tool in any stax deck, helps players draw more cards.
This proud cat warrior ensures that players can execute their plans without interference from opponents, thus making it a powerful tool to protect key pieces during game-winning turns.
Skytheclaw Raptor
- Mana Cost: 2R
- Type: Creature – Dinosaur
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Ability: Whenever a player casts a spell, if it’s not their turn, Scytheclaw Raptor deals 4 damage to them.
Don’t let its cute little smile and tiny little teeth fool you. This dinosaur can dish out more damage than most players expect. Hear me out—Scytheclaw Raptor severely punishes players for playing during other players’ turns. This ability doesn’t just activate only once per turn. It activates any time another player casts a spell during any other player’s turn.
The sheer mind games this card will play on opponents make it a worthy inclusion in red decks. The real fun begins when this “smart girl” is included in decks such as Neheb, The Eternal, Ruric, Thar The Unbowed, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, or Solphim, Mayhem Dominus.
Chimil, the Inner Sun
- Mana Cost: 6
- Type: Legendary Artifact
- Rarity: Rare
- Ability: Spells you control can’t be countered. At the beginning of your end step, discover 5.
Uncounterable, free spells? Sign me up, please! Chimil, the Inner Sun is a fantastic inclusion for any deck trying to push its own game plan forward without the risk of a pesky blue player interrupting all the fun. Sadly, this legendary artifact can itself be countered. But, once it’s on the battlefield, it will work miracles for any type of strategy.
In addition to a colorful and fun main set with powerful cards fit for Commander, Wizards of the Coast is also releasing four unique pre-constructed Commander decks. All four of them will be centered around the plane of Ixalan, and each deck showcases a different aspect of Ixalan’s rich lore, ranging from the Sun’s Empire and the cunning Pirates, to the Vampire conquistadores.
