It’s time to chart a course and set sail, for the next main release for Magic: The Gathering, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, is almost here! The much anticipated return to the plane, Ixalan includes a large selection of powerful new cards, including powerful dinosaurs, ruthless vampire conquistadors, and the discovery of ancient secrets deep underground.
In order to help our sellers gain the most of the Treasure Troves available with this release, we’ve generated a list of the top five cards currently best-selling on TCGplayer for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan:
Spelunking is a mono-green card that when cast allows the player to draw a card and play a land card from their hand onto the battlefield; more than that, if the land card played is a cave, it grants the player 4 life.
For its cost, Spelunking is a strong enchantment that allows players to easily generate mana resources by playing any land, easily providing players with multiple possibilities for casting in a multicolor deck. With the added ability of gaining life from playing cave lands, Spelunking promises players many possibilities for strategic combos during gameplay.
Perhaps one of the most widely discussed cards for this release, Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation is a powerful white mana legendary creature and land all in one, with the ability to allow players to triple the amount of tokens on their battlefield when under their control.
Additionally, when the creature-side of Ojer Taq is destroyed, it transforms into Temple of Civilization and comes back onto the battlefield tapped: when transformed, players have the option to pay a mana cost to transform it back into Ojer Taq as a sorcery, essentially making it incredibly difficult for an opponent to remove from the battlefield (granted, they must first attack with three or more creatures during that turn). Ojer Taq’s abilities are a powerful addition to any deck that focuses on summoning creature tokens, and will likely become incredibly popular among Magic players as a result.
Ixalan is a plane best known for its dinosaurs, and Belligerent Yearling is a great example of the potential power this creature type can exude. A mono-red creature, Belligerent Yearling is able to copy the base power of another Dinosaur creature when that creature enters the battlefield under the player’s control. In a full dinosaur deck, Belligerent Yearling can easily copy a 7 or 8 base power from other dinos such as Carnage Tyrant or Ghalta, Primal Hunger.
While it cannot copy all of the abilities as well (it cannot become Hexproof, for example) or toughness, it provides players with double the damage ability for a very low casting cost, essentially making it a must-have card on any dinosaur-focused deck.
A legendary creature card, Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel is a strong contender for any blue mana deck as it allows players to essentially play enchantments without paying any mana cost. Any time that Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel does damage on an opponent, a chorus counter is placed on it, and the player discards a card while drawing a card (this plays similarly to other “looter” blue mana cards such as Baral, Chief of Compliance or Jace, Vryn's Prodigy). After Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel has four chorus counters on it, the player can cast the last car they discarded without paying its cost.
While a player will have to wait until Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel has four counters on it before casting their discarded card, as a legendary blue creature with both Flash and Flying, Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel can efficiently deal damage and maintain momentum until it generates enough counters. Additionally, its cheap mana cost means that it may be easy for players to cast early in a game. Overall, Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel can easily become a staple legendary in a standard blue mana deck.
Zoyowa's Justice is a notably strong red mana card that bears many similarities with Chaos Warp in that it allows players to play a permanent card onto the battlefield without paying its mana cost as long as they shuffle another permanent with a matching mana cost into their library. However, unlike Chaos Warp, Zoyowa's Justice specifies that players may only use this card with nonland permanent cards, limiting its use to only creatures and artifacts.
The caveat with Zoyowa's Justice is that while it is slightly more limited in what players are able to use it for in the battlefield, the mana cost for using Zoyowa's Justice is cheaper, therefore making it more accessible in standard gameplay, and it also allows the player to keep the card in their hand instead of forcing them to cast. Overall, Zoyowa's Justice is a solid red mana card that allows for quick changes on the battlefield.
To finish off our list, we want to give an honorable mention to all the basic land cards in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. The land cards are a vital component to any Magic deck, and The Lost Caverns of Ixalan has some incredibly unique designs showcasing the subterranean setting at the core of Ixalan.
A few notable artists credited for the land art include Carlos Palma Cruchaga, Nestor Ossandon Leal, Logan Feliciano, and Adam Paquette.
All cards from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan are now available to list on the TCGplayer Marketplace before the set releases on November 17, 2023.
For more information on what to expect regarding The Lost Caverns of Ixalan and its Variants, check out Navigating The Lost Caverns of Ixalan and its Variants.
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