Magic: The Gathering’sLost Caverns Of Ixalan set is a return to the Ixalan plane, home to many popular creature types such as Pirates, Vampires, and Dinosaurs. An extra set of cards was included in the set release - Special Guests.
Special Guests are reprints of various cards that are given brand new art to imagine what they would look like if they were on Ixalan. While these cards are in a Standard product, they are not Standard legal, and only available in Set and Collector Boosters. Lost Caverns Of Ixalan’s special guests has plenty of strong reprints, with some never reprinted until now.
10Lord Windgrace
Buff Your Land Advantage
Lord Wingrace is one of the small handful ofplaneswalkers that can be used as your commanderin the Commander format. It’s great in land-based strategies, especially when it comes to bringing them back from the graveyard after using them in the case of fetchlands or discarding them for value.
Prior to its Special Guest release, Lord Windgrace had only ever been printed in the Commander 2018 pre-constructed deck where it was the face commander. After five years, Lord Windgrace is back with another version with a lot more muscles than last time.
9Mephidross Vampire
+1/+1 Counters With Ease
Mephidross Vampire does a whole lot for six mana. It turns all your creatures into Vampires, which allows them to take advantage of the plethora of Vampire support that has been released. Notably, the damage that gives creatures a +1/+1 counter doesn’t have to be combat damage, allowing for a lot ofinfinite combos with cards like Triskelion and Walking Ballista.
Before its Special Guest printing, Mephidross hadn’t been printed since its original release in Fifth Dawn in 2004 - making it almost a decade since it saw a new printing.
8Carnage Tyrant
Old Sideboard Staple
Spells that can’t be countered are generally a major part of sideboards, as they become very strong against control matchups. Carnage Tyrant in particular is especially good at this as not only can it not be countered, but it is hexproof as well so that the only way to remove it was with a board wipe.
Carnage Tyrant is a reprint from the original Ixalan and still has a higher price tag of around $10. The card is still fantastic, thanks to having a decent cost and a great statline and keyword abilities.
7Rampaging Ferocidon
No Lifegain Here
Rampaging Ferocidon is another Special Guest that is a returning creature from the original Ixalan set. This Dinosaur plays a major role in burn strategies and still sees modern play in certain builds of Mono-Red Burn in Pioneer and Explorer.
Lifegain is a big counter to many red-based strategies, so Rampaging Ferocidon shutting that down is what makes it so strong. Not just that, but if your opponent is playing a creature deck flooding the battlefield becomes much more painful with all the burn damage it can do to punish that.
6Lord Of Atlantis
The Original Lord
A staple in any Merfolk deck, Lord Of Atlantisboosts up all your Merfolkand makes them potentially unblockable if your opponents have any Islands. Merfolk have ways to turn your opponents' lands into Islands to make this even easier.
Lord Of Atlantis is the reason why creatures that give a stat boost to creatures of the same type are commonly referred to as a “lord.” It was originally released in the very first set Alpha, and prior to its Special Guest printing hadn’t been seen since Time Spiral Timeshifted in 2006.
5Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist
An Old Classic
Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist was originally released in Commander 2017, seeing another release in Commander Masters before being given new non-Secret Lair art as a Special Guest. With cats being introduced onto Ixalan as a species that live there, Mirri fits right in as a Special Guest.
Mirri is a very strong card, allowing you to attack with a wide battlefield of creatures to take your opponents out of the game as it shuts down mass blocking and attacking so you don’t have to worry about the counter-attack. Mirri has first strike as well, so if you haveways to give it deathtouchyou can ensure that Mirri will not just survive combat, but take out whatever blocks it as well (if anything).
4Bridge From Below
Zombies Rise From The Grave
Bridge From Below is a fantastic enchantment that you never actually ever want on the battlefield as it doesn’t do anything there. Instead, its effect only triggers when it’s in the graveyard, so decks playing a lot of Self-Mill like Dredge can take full advantage of it.
Bridge From Below is so strong it had to get banned out of Modern, and still sees play in Legacy as a one-of in “Oops All Spells!,” a deck that mills out the entire deck as an alternate win condition if Thassa’s Oracle doesn’t pan out.
3Pitiless Plunderer
Death For Treasure
A standout star from the Rivals Of Ixalan set, Pitiless Plunderer was a giant boost in every sacrifice deck. In those decks, you generally want to sacrifice your creatures for value such as card draw, and Pitiless Plunderer gives you extra value by ramping you with Treasure tokens as well.
It is easy tocreate free sacrifice outlets, as well as create sacrifice fodder to be able to sacrifice a ton of creatures in one turn. This lets you create a ton of Treasure tokens and in some cases even win with those if you’re playing a card like Revel In Riches.
2Underworld Breach
Storm From The Grave
Underworld Breach is a star combo piece is plenty of strategies, and is so strong it was banned out of Pioneer/Explorer and Legacy and still sees play in Modern Prowess and Jeskai decks built around Underworld Breach.
Underworld Breach is a star combo enabler, especially with cards like Lion’s Eye Diamond as a way to loop it for infinite mana. When youare casting a ton of spells, it is easy to always have your graveyard loaded up with cards to use for the escape cost Underworld Breach gives them.
1Mana Crypt
Coin Flips And Mana
Mana Crypt is one of the best mana rocks ever printed. Although it can deal three damage to you, this is only a 50/50 and the trade-off of having access to two colorless mana for free is more than worth it.
Mana Crypt is banned in most formats it’s legal in except Commander and Vintage, and both are restricted to one copy per deck in those formats. This mana rock can be combined with other cheap and free ones to put you very far ahead on mana as early as turn one.
Next:Every Card Revealed For Magic: The Gathering’s The Lost Caverns Of Ixalan
