We got our first real look at The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Friday at MagicCon Las Vegas. Senior Art Director Ovidio Cartagena and Game Designer Miguel Lopez lead a panel focused on Magic’s next set and revealed a ton of new cards!
Let’s get to it!
Don’t miss our coverage of the new Jurassic Park cards included in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, new Ravnica Remastered previews, the Secret Lair Spookdrop 2023, as well as details on The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth holiday release!
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Story
We already know key elements of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan’s story, but today’s panel gave us some more juicy tidbits.
First, we now know that the set takes place a year after the events of March of the Machine and that the new faction living in The Core of Ixalan is called the Oltec. The Oltec are descendants of the Sun Empire and worship the Chimil, the Inner Sun,, which is at the center of the Core and is the source of cosmium, a new magical resource.
It turns out that Chimil “was a star that was torn apart by a mysterious, earlier invasion,” Cartagena revealed.
The web fiction for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan be available on October 20, 2023.
Huatli, Poet of Unity // Roar of the Fifth People
When we first met Huatli, she was the Warrior Poet tasked by the Sun Empire to find Orazca. As we return to Ixalan, we find that Huatli is now the Poet of Unity. On the front side of her new card, lines of cosmium are visible running through her skin as Huatli leads the Sun Empire into battle at the Core.
Huatli can then transform into a new Saga, Roar of the Fifth People. The Saga represents the poem Huatli wrote about the battle at the Core and depicts a huipil, a traditional Mesoamerican garment. The garment is traditionally “embroider[ed with] whole stories, glyphs, motifs, their villages, their daily life—a whole high art story woven and embroidered into clothing,” Cartegena said. “I wanted to bring that aspect of real, living culture to Ixalan.”
Quintorius Kand
Quitorius Kand, the loremaster of Lorehold, the Red/White house at Strixhaven, is now a Planeswalker spark—and he is the only Planeswalker in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. He is visiting Ixalan on a mission: “to track down what he believes is evidence of a plane-spanning civilization that predates omenpaths,” Lopez said.
Saheeli, the Sun’s Brilliance
Saheeli lost her spark at the conclusion of March of the Machine and traveled to Ixalan to rebuild the Sun Empire alongside her partner, Huatli.
New Special Card Treatments
Core Full Art Basic Lands
No Magic set is complete these days without a new take on full-art lands, and The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is no different. Check out the Core full-art lands, which show the Core of Paradise at the heart of Ixalan.
Borderless Oltec Frame
Befitting a Mesoamerican-inspired plane, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan will have its own Mesoamerican-inspired frame: the Oltec showcase frame. This frame will feature art inspired by traditional Mesoamerican art styles, as seen on The Skullspore Nexus.
Gods of Ixalan Frame
We already knew that Ixalan had a set of gods and met two of them earlier this year: Ojer Axonil and Ojer Kaslem. Today’s panel gave us our first look at what an Ixalan god would look like on a card: a powerful creature on the front that transforms into a powerful land (similar to Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin) when it dies.
Each of the gods will also get their own unique card style: the Ixalan god frame. The frame features medallions depicting each god, made of materials specific to that god and the culture that worshiped it. In the case of Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, the medallion is made out of obsidian.
Legends of Ixalan Frame
Everyone’s favorite pirate, Breeches, returns as Breeches, Eager Pillager with the Legends of Ixalan showcase frame.
Borderless
No Ixalan set is complete without dinosaurs. Check out Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant!
Cosmium Neon Ink
The “neon ink” style debuted with Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty with Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos and was expanded upon with a Secret Lair drop.
It returns in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan with a cosmium twist. Cavern of Souls will receive six neon ink variants, as well as a standard and Oltec frame.
Special Guests
Set and Collector Boosters of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan will feature a new card slot: Special Guests. These cards will be “powerful Masters release–level reprints featuring art in the aesthetic of the set” and a handful will appear in every set going forward.
Special Guest cards will have their own set code, SPG, and will not change the legality of the card. So in this case, neither Lord of Atlantis or Mana Crypt will suddenly become Standard-legal.
Mana Crypt will also get a set of Cosmium Neon Ink variants that will appear in Collector Boosters.
Wizards says that The List—their other main “reprint outside of the structure of a set” strategy will continue…but for how long?
Treasure Trove Box Toppers
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan will also be getting special Box Toppers called “Treasure Troves.” Draft, Set, and Collector Booster boxes will come with a special artifact—check out Coercive Portal!
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander Decks
As usual, there will be Commander decks accompanying The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. While the main set may not focus on the original factions of Ixalan, the four Commander decks do!
The Brazen Coalition deck will be called “Ahoy Mateys” and ask you to put Pirates in the graveyard so that you can bring them back bigger and badder. The Dusk Legion deck will be “Blood Rites” and focus on making Vampire tokens that can be sacrificed to flying demons. The River Heralds will get “Explorers of the Deep,” which will be built around +1/+1 counters and lands, while the Sun Empire deck will be “Veloci-Ramp-Tor,” which will play extra lands and play big dinosaurs.
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Key Dates
- Story: October 20
- Previews Begin: October 24
- Prerelease: November 10
- MTG Arena Release: November 14
- Release: November 17