The 50 Best Cards in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Ranked

Last updated on March 19, 2024

The Millennium Calendar | Illustration by Zoltan Boros

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is the most powerful set to hit Standard since Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. This makes sense, since both sets were the first time back on planes which had pretty underpowered sets the first time around, so perhaps we’re righting the historical balance at WotC? There are a lot of good cards in this set, so I likely missed a few. And given how complex the set is, as always, there’ll be some kind of deck of synergy we can’t quite see yet. And that’s the beauty of this game!

It’s difficult to do one list considering 60-card formats and Commander, as a cheap removal spell is premium in some of those and relatively unimportant in the other. But I’ve tried to build a narrative around these cards and what the set is doing well, while highlighting the cards I think will matter in Standard, the fewer that will work in Pioneer and Modern, and the pile that we’ll all be sleeving up for Commander soon.

#50. Glimpse the Core

Remember when Dominaria put Llanowar Elves back in Standard? How about Rampant Growth 2.0 in Glimpse the Core? This is going to change things.

#49. Staunch Crewmate

A nerfed Ingenious Smith still gets those artifacts when you need them with selection. A clear accelerator in pirates, it’s not quite accurate to think of Staunch Crewmate as half a Knight-Errant of Eos because it’s a lot weaker and its search is more limited, but this is a breakable level of effect. Someone is going to try Izzet pirates in Pioneer. They’ll lose, but they’ll be closer than they thought they’d be and get salty about it. Appropriate.

#48. Echoing Deeps

I can’t tell if the Caves deck is going to be good in Standard, but if so, this seems like a trap for that deck. Blossoming Tortoise can get back what it wants, not this. Who wants a tap land that can Vesuva a graveyard in older formats? Amulet Titan, maybe, for at least one slot to get back a destroyed Slayers' Stronghold or Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion effect? Where do we put one card for one slot in a Modern deck that requires a PhD to pilot? #48, I’d say.

#47. Deeproot Pilgrimage

Deeproot Pilgrimage seems just what merfolk decks want?

#46. Spyglass Siren

We’re almost finished with the cycle here of a 1-drop in each color that makes the set mechanic artifact token (although you could squint and count Spiteful Hexmage if you want to). And each of those previous cards has proven powerful and seen play across formats: Thraben Inspector, Gilded Goose, Voldaren Epicure, and now Spyglass Siren. As the Lords of Limited say, rectangles, baby. But at this rate, we’re talking play outside of Limited.

Okay, so with the Crewmate, Izzet Map and Treasure pirates in Standard? Who’s with me, me hearties? Victory is for losers!

#45. Helping Hand

Helping Hand isn’t literally Reanimate, but we keep getting closer, don’t we?

#44. Tarrian’s Soulcleaver

A usually better Blade of the Bloodchief, Tarrian's Soulcleaver will see wide play across a range of the kinds of aristocrats decks helmed by commanders like Elenda, the Dusk Rose, but this also seems like another payoff for treasure decks.

#43. Geological Appraiser

Another good piece of value for a Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival, or as a part of the Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald Commander deck. How good? Well, if you hit a Wrenn's Resolve off Geological Appraiser, are you happy? If the answer is yes, this is a decent card. I still don’t know, though.

#42. The Everflowing Well

The Everflowing Well isn’t exactly as easy to use in your Yorion, Sky Nomad piles as Omen of the Sea, but if Divination at instant speed with Quick Study is almost playable, what about a Divination that mills and drops an artifact that can pretty easily be turned into a land later? Still seems a bit slow and needs the right deck, but okay.

This seems amazing for Commander artifacts decks, though. I can get my card draw on a copyable artifact body? Great!

#41. Jadelight Spelunker

Is a Jadelight Ranger that you can customize still worth it? I like the flexibility on Jadelight Spelunker, and this’ll be a good piece of any playable merfolk deck in Standard. I don’t see explore mattering too much in other formats.

#40. Chupacabra Echo

Arguably better than Ravenous Chupacabra. I played too much Nekrataal back in the day to be fully objective about Chupacabra Echo. Talk amongst yourselves.

#39. The Enigma Jewel

This is super niche, but what if we just made Omen Hawker a lot better and harder to destroy? This, plus Training Grounds. This still isn’t likely enough to make the Food Fight deck work in Standard, but I’ll absolutely try! And all of that is assumes you never flip it! Also of note, equip costs are activated abilities.

In Commander, there has to be an activated abilities deck that works with the graveyard. Perhaps The Scarab God? Note that The Enigma Jewel can tap to help flip itself, but that’s still 7 mana, so yikes. But if you flip it, that’s kind of awesome.

#38. Bedrock Tortoise

I don’t see butts happening in Standard, but Bedrock Tortoise is going to (slowly) march on over to join your Arcades, the Strategist desk.

#37. Thousand Moons Smithy / Barracks of the Thousand

In an artifact deck, there are a lot better 4-drops. But given that Thousand Moons Smithy comes down and makes a Karn-struct that’s reasonably large right away in an affinity deck and then also likely flips the next turn, this seems like a nice artifacts top end, especially because Barracks of the Thousand is an artifact land! There’s a lot that untaps that! And you’re packing all those cards in your Shorikai, Genesis Engine EDH deck already!

#36. Fabrication Foundry

Fabrication Foundry is a 2-mana rock in an artifacts deck that runs white, so, like, a lot of them! There are plenty of colorless rocks, so why run this over some kind of Mind Stone variant? That last ability lets you pull a 0-cost artifact like Mox Amber from the graveyard by saccing an artifact token. And there’s plenty of other uses, especially in Commander.

#35. Dauntless Dismantler

Is this why they haven’t banned Dockside Extortionist in Commander? Doing an appropriately color-shifted Gorilla Shaman on Treasures is pretty sick (even if that’s still not good enough to compete with Dockside!). Note that Dauntless Dismantler really dismantles artifact aggro with that tap clause, in case that’s ever a thing. This feels like it’ll worm its way into sideboards across formats.

#34. Quintorius Kand

Worst case, Quintorius Kand comes down and discovers for 4 while draining and gaining 2 and leaving a planeswalker behind. That’s a decent value, but it’s a 5-drop. I think this works in Up the Beanstalk decks in Standard, maybe Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival decks, but probably in no other context in 60-card formats. In Commander, your opponents have to answer this if you’re running more cascade and exile draw spells. You could win the turn after it drops with enough mana out and that static ability. How often will that happen?

#33. Tarrian’s Journal / The Tomb of Aclazotz

A really bad Deadly Dispute effect is reasonable in a pinch. But we’re here to One with Nothing our hand in a self-mill meta to flip Tarrian's Journal into The Tomb of Aclazotz for super-efficient reanimation!

#32. Abuelo, Ancestral Echo

Abuelo, Ancestral Echo’s ability is below rate for blink decks in Commander, where everything blinks something on ETB, it seems. I imagine it’ll have a similar home as Emiel the Blessed, but without the hybrid green pip.

Having a repeatable blink effect like this that can work at instant speed in Standard is another story. Folks are flipping Phyrexian Fleshgorger and other prototype creatures with channeled Touch the Spirit Realm, so this seems way better! Also, that ward 2 isn’t nothing.

Where Abuelo really shines is the ability to blink an artifact, which we haven’t seen since Teleportation Circle. Experimental Synthesizer might be a reach, but the idea of the ghost rocking out hard is so fun I’ll absolutely try it. Idol of the Deep King? The Everflowing Well?

#31. Scytheclaw Raptor

Why is this a thing? Scytheclaw Raptor grips my cold Azorius heart with fear and loathing. Second thought, this card sucks. Don’t play this card. Nope. Just look away. Nothing to see here.

#30. Kutzil’s Flanker

Bloodcrazed Paladin may not have blown the bloody doors off back in the day, but Kutzil's Flanker is a really decent answer to Sunfall. It’s not a bad card to drop in front of something red, either. And it actually might make Errant and Giada work, if anything can. Obviously great in a cats EDH deck, as well.

#29. Akal Pakal, First Among Equals

When this drops, there’ll be 13 artifacts with flash in Standard, just under 50 in the whole game, and loads of ways to blink and/or make artifact tokens. Akal Pakal, First Among Equals, when you build around it, is a Chart a Course every turn for free. In Standard, even stuff as simple as Cogwork Wrestler and Lodestone Needle push us toward some kind of new archetype – flash artifacts tempo? But this card gets my Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Tameshi, Reality Architect imagination flowing. Maybe?

#28. Kellan, Daring Traveler

Kellan, Daring Traveler seems good enough, following the Regal Bunnicorn here into Wonderland, and I think this has to be an immediately powerful card in the Selesnya humans deck in Standard WotC keeps wanting us to finally figure out how to build.

As a Selesnya humans commander, Kellan is pretty low key, but it’s also not a durdly 5-drop. It’s doing some (maybe) ramp and card draw out of the gate, which could be what the deck needs in a Farewell meta.

#27. Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon

First, this card has the phrase “non-gnome creatures” on it, which makes it a winner for me. There are a few decks on the cusp this might be a good part of in Standard. I’ve seen folks experimenting with Boros humans using Ash, Party Crasher and Baird, Argivian Recruiter. Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon gives you a lot of tokens without the deckbuilding constraints of Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival or the mana constraints of Song of Totentanz, so perhaps this is the ticket to Jetmir, Nexus of Revels? This does seem like a fine addition to Agatha's Soul Cauldron decks. You need to get counters on Anim, and if you do, the gnome-storm attack and Voldaren Thrillseeker sac seems like enough to win. Maybe a Mardu deck with later entry Bartolomé del Presidio?

#26. Trumpeting Carnosaur

A nice hit for Etali, Primal Conqueror, but that’s sort of win more at that point. Note that you can blink this, unlike Geological Appraiser, if you’ve been slowly developing a Boros blink deck for some format. I just love that you can channel this bad boy for a bit of damage. I can really see this alongside a card like Saheeli's Lattice / Mastercraft Raptor, which you can then flip by crafting the Carnosaur out of the graveyard.

#25. The Mycotyrant

Finally a fungus commander that’s better than Slimefoot, the Stowaway! This card allows your Urborg Lhurgoyf decks to go wide in Standard. Like really wide. Like they better have a board wipe now or The Mycotyrant wins the game. But of course, they have a board wipe! That’s just your luck! I like that this is one of the few cards in the self-mill deck that doesn’t die to The Witch's Vanity, though, and it doesn’t care if you empty my graveyard on your turn. Is that good enough? I don’t think quite yet, but this is as close as that deck has gotten so far.

So EDH then!

#24. Brass's Tunnel-Grinder / Tecutlan, the Searing Rift

If you can get all three counters on this thing in one turn so that you can flip Brass's Tunnel-Grinder into Tecutlan, the Searing Rift immediately, that’s busted, especially for a burn finish. Proliferate is tempting but the synergies and colors are at odds.

So we wait and think about the graveyard. Milling is fine, but reanimator decks tend to like this kind of rummage effect better, hence chapter two of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Would 1 mana more for Cathartic Reunion (if you ditch two cards) that leaves an artifact with a scary countdown be worth it? Would Into the Night be playable if it cost 1 less mana (and left a rectangle)?

The Grinder is between Fable and Valakut Awakening in terms of power, and it’s closer to Fable than you’re going to think. You’ll see.

#23. Bonehoard Dracosaur

Giant 5 mana dragons come and go, but usually they need haste to make it in Standard. That said, Bonehoard Dracosaur is insane value if you can keep it alive, so at the very least you know this goes in one of your EDH decks. Sure, Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival likes this card, and it may be the best 5-drop for that deck, assuming you ever want a 5-drop in there.

#22. Sovereign Okinec Ahau

Sovereign Okinec Ahau is of course great for your cards EDH deck, maybe even as commander, but this is absolutely crazy as a +1/+1 counters accelerator. It’s a 4-drop, but it has ward and I can see things really getting crazy. It’s a combat trigger, but you kind of only need one turn doing this.

#21. Resplendent Angel

This is the card in those angels deck on the Arena ladder that really shut the door on your aggro deck when it comes down. Is Resplendent Angel good enough to make angels work in Standard? Unlikely, but if you’re an angels player you already have one for your Commander deck or needed a reprint to make one more affordable. Here you go!

#20. Get Lost

A few removal spells next. Obviously premium in Standard but more meh in Commander, it’s hard to rank these. Get Lost is premium white removal in the Fateful Absence vein. Hitting enchantments also is gas. Giving two Map tokens is a worry, so much so that it might be worth pointing this at your own creature to fizzle, say, an adventure removal spell in an artifactfall deck?

#19. Dusk Rose Reliquary

This is probably too hot a take for this card, which is likely not great in Commander. But in Standard, it doesn’t take much for this to pretty cleanly answer Sheoldred, the Apocalypse for a mana and a token, out of reach of Virtue of Persistence. And opponents don’t have much of an answer for it in mono-black. As long as you have one of like 20 different kinds of artifact tokens lying around, here ya go. Also, it can nab a Portal to Phyrexia if you need it to.

#18. Molten Collapse

A strictly better Dreadbore? Molten Collapse, let’s go!

#17. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant

For 8 mana, you gotta win the game. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant does that with the right combination of ETBs in hand, although I can’t quite put my finger on the right combo. Clearly Tron players will find it for us. In green or Gruul stompy, does it? If you’ve got some of that haste lying around, great. Otherwise, eating a board wipe the next turn feels super bad. I’m more curious about this in some kind of blink shell (think Roon of the Hidden Realm decks in EDH), although I’m not sure you want an 8-drop there. I want to like this card more.

#16. The Land Flip Gods

I’m dealing with these all together because for each one, outside of Commander, I’m not sure the front side is quite good enough for the rate. But when “dies to Doom Blade” gets the addendum “and flips into a land”, they get a lot better. Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth might be a missing piece for green stompy in Standard and might take those weird planeswalker flex slots in Pioneer mono-green devotion. Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch is intriguing and likely finds its best home in Izzet and Simic ramps decks. Also, it uses time counters for the Timey-Wimey deck. Imagine even humble bounce spells from this.

Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal and Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation both seem like win more cards in their archetypes, and thus will show up in EDH decks on those themes (they give me heavy Erebos, Bleak-Hearted vibes). Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might looks the coolest, and it’s fight Imodane, the Pyrohammer for which mono-red burn deck might actually work in Commander.

#15. Inti, Seneschal of the Sun

There are a lot of discard effects out there to use with this card. Crack a Blood token and get a card and an exile draw. That sounds good. Also, as long as you’re attacking, Inti, Seneschal of the Sun rummages to an impulse draw, puts a counter on a creature for combat and gives it (checks notes) trample! Assuming you’re attacking with something every turn, that’s way better than Luminarch Aspirant! Since you are a red deck, of course you’re doing that!

I know red mages like the word haste. And usually they’re right about that, but even in red sometimes value wins.

I’m really feeling Boros or multicolor humans with these cards!

As a Commander, this is tough because you’ll eventually need real card draw to replenish your hand for Inti, but this is a fine value piece, especially for Isshin, Two Heavens as One.

#14. Squirming Emergence

Think of the hoops we've gone through over the years with Unburial Rites, or, more recently, with Sheoldred's Restoration and Cruelty of Gix. How about 3 mana instead? The catch to Squirming Emergence is that you need to be filling your graveyard. Let’s see, in Golgari. Hmm. If only you were a reanimator deck doing the things you need to… wait a minute!

#13. Bartolomé del Presidio

It’s been a while since we’ve had a free, repeatable sac outlet in Standard. And we haven’t had one that does quite this ability before. Bartolomé del Presidio should fit into an Agatha's Soul Cauldron deck, maybe with vampire buddies like Dusk Legion Duelist and graveyard finisher Voldaren Thrillseeker, if you can also manage to go wide, this can lead to a quick finish.

I’m not sure this hits in other formats, but I’ll bet you will be seeing a lot of this on the ladder.

Oh, it also sacs artifacts for value and can do all of this at instant speed. Yeesh.

#12. Terror Tide

Terror Tide drops as a top five all time black board wipe. It usually kills more than Drag to the Bottom, in Standard, for example, while being easier to play. And the graveyard stuff is just part of being a black deck. Instant speed graveyard hate is reasonably brutal to this spell, so maybe Languish is safer for Commander? Ah, who are you kidding. You’re playing them all!

#11. Growing Rites of Itlimoc / Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun

Anyone interested in flipping this over to a Gaea's Cradle in Standard again? I am! Could soldiers add green? Will merfolk be a thing? How about humans and the long slumbering Katilda, Dawnhart Prime?

Of course, you know who wants this the most, and that’s the Selesnya enchantments deck, an archetype we didn’t have in Standard the last go-round. They run enough creatures so that the front side is closer to a Spirited Companion than you’d think, and the backside is just great.

You already have this for your EDH deck if it fits, most likely.

#10. The Restless Lands

A great cycle to finish. This set of lands across Wilds of Eldraine and LCI are quite impressive, as their power level seems higher than previous dual colored creature land cycles. Restless Anchorage is beautiful and synergizes with control and artifacts matters. Restless Reef, lurking back there with deathtouch is pretty dank, but attacking to mill someone is also on point. Restless Vents with the rummage! Restless Ridgeline giving the pseudo vigilance is sweet. Restless Prairie is a llama. It does other things too, but llama!

#9. Cavern of Souls

It has been a minute since we’ve seen this in Standard, but it filled quite a number of big decks when it debuted in Avacyn Restored with blue-green spirits, green-white humans, even Naya  Huntmaster of the Fells decks that used humans, wolves, and angels! In fact, most the good decks were creature typal except for Alexander Hayne’s out of the blue(white) miracles deck which won Pro Tour Barcelona in 2012.

Adding this to Secluded Courtyard in Standard seems like it really starts to look good for creature typal decks again.

#8. Zoyowa’s Justice

My hottest take? A cheaper but a bit less good Chaos Warp? In Standard for three years?!? Zoyowa's Justice is a card you always want in your hand. Won’t you often use this to tuck a Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and hope they discover something weak? Won’t you use this to fizzle their removal for value to “protect” your own creature? Won’t you use this against a beating down Voltron commander?

#7. Tishana’s Tidebinder

First off, there’s only so many Stifles in the game. Fewer that come with a creature. Most of those, like Ertai Resurrected, have some sort of likely downside. Tishana's Tidebinder has only upside, blanking the abilities of a planeswalker or shutting down a Sheoldred, the Apocalypse for a while.

Flash decks, which are getting better but aren’t quite there yet, merfolk, and wizards all have extra synergies with this card, as well. Looks beautiful and annoying!

#6. Roaming Throne

Of course, this makes Sheoldred, the Apocalypse better, as well as the hundreds of cards across formats with triggered abilities. You can find something awesome to do with Roaming Throne in Commander, I’m positive, even if it’s just trying to make mill happen. I predict an artifact ramp deck I don’t understand yet in older formats and maybe one that makes Karn, Legacy Reforged go off in Standard.

But I see this and immediately think of Hulking Raptor. With both out, I get 4 green mana at the start of my first main from two creatures with ward 2? Is that better than Topiary Stomper into Invasion of Zendikar? Maybe not, but Roaming Throne triggers the Stomper, as well!

#5. Hulking Raptor

Even without the Roaming Throne, Hulking Raptor seems messed up. Not messed up enough to go into Pioneer green devotion, as that deck is already stuffed with messed up nonsense. This card puts ramp and beatdown into one package that’s hard to kill before turn 4, when an opponent has to tap out in order to kill it if they aren’t playing board wipes. This is how green gets good again in Standard, I think.

#4. Bloodletter of Aclazotz

Speaking of Sheoldred….

Bloodletter of Aclazotz does a lot for your life drain shenanigans in any format. This isn't totally new territory, but the templating here is clearer and more deadly than the language left over from Wound Reflection in Shadowmoor, which was replicated on Warlock Class and Astarion, the Decadent.

#3. Matzalantli, the Great Door / The Core

This feels better than the often underrated Growing Rites of Itlimoc, and it’s colorless. The Core backside of Matzalantli, the Great Door seems more reliably powerful than the Gaea's Cradle backside that is Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun unless you are in elfball, but it’s harder to flip and the front side doesn’t do quite enough.

Or does it? The Celestus sees play partly because of the recurring looting, and hard as it is to believe, Matzalantli, the Great Door is the only free, repeatable colorless looter in the game besides Deal Broker! Looting is always better than you think it’ll be, especially with graveyard matters cards about.

And don’t you want to flip this after they mill half your library?

#2. Chimil, the Inner Sun

This is the most complete ability in the “can’t be countered” space, and the only colorless card that makes things uncounterable besides Cavern of Souls and Boseiju, Who Shelters All. At the very least this has got to compete for slots in the Karn, the Great Creator boards. Even for just the discover 5 every turn, this kinda rocks. The closest equivalent is Maelstrom Nexus, which is 5 colors and still requires you to cast things. This is either better or worse than a half a Storm the Festival every turn depending on how you build your deck, and that’s decent territory.

#1. The Millennium Calendar

The Millennium Calendar now feels like the premier control finisher across Constructed formats. Too much? I dunno. In regular Magic, it’s pretty easy to insert playing this into the hyphen in draw-go. Easily tutorable and recurable, (as is The Ozolith if you wanna get cute), and in Standard alone there’s two cards that protect it, Surge of Salvation and Tamiyo's Safekeeping. In Commander, there’s so much mass artifact hate, this likely won’t work.

Wrap Up

Restless Anchorage | Illustration by Leon Tukker

I’m super excited about this set. It looks complicated and strange and powerful! I think I’ve got the gist of the best stuff here, but of course we’ll see in the next few months what archetypes succeed and which ones fail in 60-card formats. In Commander, I am much more certain. There are some serious toys here, especially for artifacts decks.

Did I miss something you are fancying? What’s the card that has your deckbulding brain buzzing? Let us know in the comments or on Discord.

Happy crafting!