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They Do Move in Herds…
WELCOME to… The green set review here on EDHREC. My name is Joshua, also known as Princeofbieltan on the internet. I’ll be walking you through the new green cards from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan!
There’s lots to talk about in this set. There are additions to beloved creature types, like Dinosaurs and Merfolk; there are new mechanics, like discover and Descend; there’s even a new… Colossal Dreadmaw?!
I’m going to be taking you through the mythics, rares, and some choice uncommon and commons to show you what you might want to run in your Commander decks.
All this and maw below, let’s dive in!
Mythics
Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant
Let’s kick things off with a returning favourite. Ghalta, Primal Hunger has seen lots of play in multiple formats since its printing. It’s a ginormous threat that came down sooner than you expected in formats like Standard or Pioneer with its built-in cost reduction. Ghalta has always been a popular commander for a mono-green power matters deck. The inbuilt cost reduction was often able to mitigate commander tax if Ghalta would be removed, and the mighty stat line of 12/12 meant you were able to threaten a two-turn kill with commander damage. Let’s see how Ghalta fairs in their latest iteration by comparison.
Ghalta returns in the form of Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant. Trample returns as well as that imposing 12/12 stat line, although the cost reduction is gone. This iteration of Ghalta simply has a mana value of eight, so a little cheaper. This has been replaced by an ability that reads ‘When Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant enters the battlefield, put any number of creature cards from your hand onto the battlefield’.
The lack of cost reduction means that we’re unlikely to see this card in the command zone as much as the previous Ghalta, although this enter-the-battlefield effect feels very exploitable. Cards like Elvish Piper, Dramatic Entrance, and Quicksilver Amulet offer multiple routes to get high-CMC creatures onto the battlefield. A straightforward plan would be to get Ghalta played ahead of schedule to empty your hand of creatures and start throwing your weight around.
New Ghalta might serve as a great reanimation target or fit right at home in a Gruul Sneak Attack deck. Strategies like these do put all your eggs in one basket, though, so do watch out for mass creature removal or your grand Dinosaur strategy could end up going extinct ahead of schedule.
Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth
This latest member of the God cycle is Ojer Kaslem, who cares all about dealing damage and growing your board state. Dealing damage to your opponents is the key to revealing creatures from the top of your library and putting a creature or land from them onto the battlefield. There’s not a bad option here. You either get another impactful attacker or blocker, or you get an untapped land to ramp you into casting more threats.
It’s worth noting that this effect relies on combat damage and is proportional to how much damage is dealt. If you’re able to increase Ojer Kaslem’s power or give it double strike then you’ll be able to increase the number of cards you can choose from and get something you want to stick.
As with each of the God cycle in this set, the reverse of the card is a land that the front face transforms into when it dies. You’re able to return the card to its front face for an investment of three mana so long as you control ten or more permanents; if you’ve cast Ojer Kaslem with only your lands, then if nothing else you’ll have six permanents in play including the Temple of Cultivation. You’ll likely have committed some permanents to the board during the game, so I don’t see this prerequisite as particularly hard to meet. If you managed to deal some combat damage to a player, you may even have put something into play using Ojer Kaslem’s ability. It’s a persistent threat that will continue to grow your board, and like many others in the God cycle, we’re very interested to see how these cards impact the format.
The Skullspore Nexus
The Skullspore Nexus does a pretty great Ghalta, Primal Hunger impression, doesn’t it? An eight-mana artifact that you’re able to cast earlier with its built-in cost reduction, depending on how much power you’ve committed to the battlefield.
The Skullspore Nexus offers you a green Fungus Dinosaur creature token whenever one of your nontoken creatures dies, so you don’t lose as much board presence when one of your more impactful creatures dies to removal. Interestingly, when a bunch of your creatures die at the same time, the Nexus combines them into one huge token with power and toughness equal to the total power of the creatures that died!
There’s some great utility packed into this card. For two generic mana, you can double the target creature’s power until the end of the turn, which you can use to deal a lot more damage at a moment’s notice, to threaten to trade with larger blockers after doubling the power of your smaller creatures, or even to eke out political advantage, too. After all, the card doesn’t specify it has to be a creature you control, and it’s never a bad thing to use your opponents to knock out each other.
The Skullspore Nexus is a card I’d look to include if you’re anticipating a lot of creature removal in your local meta, or if playing an aggressive deck that cares about power… Oh, and also in infect because well, infect.
Rares
Bedrock Tortoise
Bedrock Tortoise brings a lot of surprises along with it. I’m not sure many of us would have called that The Lost Caverns of Ixalan would bring us a card for toughness-matters-style decks. Bedrock Tortoise brings the fairly standard ability for your creatures to assign combat damage with their toughness cementing its place in walls decks for years to come.
This Turtle also gives your creatures hexproof, albeit only on your turn. You might find this is enough, however, as your opponents will hardly be looking to cast their instant-speed removal on their turns!
Cosmium Confluence
Confluence is one of those words with a lot of history, instantly drawing your mind back to cards like Mystic Confluence. Is Cosmium Confluence as playable? I’m not so sure.
Sorcery speed limits this card, the lands that you fetch coming in tapped limits it further. The power to animate up to three lands, so long as they are Caves, into 3/3s with haste is okay. The incidental effect of destroying target enchantment is something that green is particularly adept at, so it does just feel incidental here.
This Confluence feels a little too narrow for me, and I don’t know about you, but I think, as far as some of the old Confluences go, this one feels fairly tame compared.
Intrepid Paleontologist
Now this is a card I like: two mana with a 2/2 stat line, you’re getting a good amount of power and toughness for your mana investment. In addition, this creature can tap for one mana of any color, not just green, which is nice to see.
What I enjoy is that this card has incidental graveyard hate just tacked on at the end! It’s instant speed and it’s a generic mana cost, what’s more to love? In Commander, our decks are always hurting for more slots, and dual-use cards are always worth a look. The fact that you can get that little bit of extra graveyard hate into your deck on a card that can take up a mana ramp slot is very nice.
This card even has utility if you’re playing a Dinosaur-type deck. Sometimes in Magic, it’s not only the big splashy spells that can do work. If you’re able to utilise innocuous creatures like this, and never let your mana empty from your pool, then you’ll always impact the game.
Jadelight Spelunker
Jadelight Spelunker is a Merfolk Scout that scales with the game. Cast this card with as much mana as you have available and you’ll have plenty of explore triggers to resolve. This can help you get more lands into play, filter the top of your library, and fill your graveyard while leaving a body behind.
It’s a fairly simple card, and if you’re in a deck that cares about exploring this is a huge enabler. Outside of that? It’s still okay, but I would be looking for a little more synergy before I sought to include this in any one mono-green deck.
Hulking Raptor
Alright, so here we’ve got a Sisay’s Ring with ward 2 that’s in a relevant creature type and has some pretty nice stats for the mana investment.
Nice, the Dinosaur decks are going to love this, but honestly I think it’s not a terrible pick for a mono-green power matters deck either. You can’t choose when you use the mana, it’s got to be in your pre-combat main phase, so there is that limitation there. That being said, I think that there’s enough upside with the great power stat and the inbuilt protection that I might look to try this in the mana ramp slot of my mono-green decks.
Pugnacious Hammerskull
Three mana for a 6/6 is an absurd rate. I appreciate that this card can only attack every other turn while you don’t control another Dinosaur, but it can sure as hell block well.
There’s some additional utility for this power matters theme we’re discovering here in the set, committing six power to the board as early as turn three is going to be alarming for your opponents. There’s a lot of early chip damage in Commander that can add up to a lot throughout the game, but Pugnacious Hammerskull will ensure that those creatures aren’t swinging your way.
Sentinel of the Nameless City
Once again green proves that mana efficiency is something it does well. Three mana for a 3/4 with vigilance is a nice body that can attack and block well. For your investment, however, you’ll be getting a Map token when this creature enters the battlefield and with each subsequent attack. Maps are nice little mana sinks so long as you have a creature around to benefit from them and in green we’re going to be able to do that.
Being a Warrior, Scout, and a Merfolk means this card can slot nicely into several different kindred decks. It’s one of those cards that’s not immediately spectacular but could sit around a little and generate you some advantage if you let it.
Bygone Marvels
Bygone Marvels can be a double Regrowth in the right deck. This card should find a home in the myriad of Golgari decks, like Old Stickfingers.
However, depending on your land base, Descend 8 might not be that hard to hit. Fetch lands, like Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse, will go to the graveyard as you fix your colors.
Getting two permanent cards to hand for two mana is a really nice rate if you can make it work. Just be sure to run this in a deck that cares about the graveyard, otherwise, there’s always Regrowth!
Contest of Claws
Contest of Claws proves that might makes right after all with this removal spell. Use one of your larger creatures to remove a smaller creature and be rewarded with a discover trigger equal to the excess damage.
It’s a nice effect and will do wonders in power matters decks. We often shy away from sorcery speed removal in Commander, but I certainly think the upside here makes this worth running. Even a slight amount of excess damage could find your Sol Ring!
Curious Altisaur
Curious Altisaur provides a nice bit of card advantage for Dinosaur kindred decks. Dinosaurs often find themselves in the colours without the best options for card draw, so more is always welcome. This card could find a slot in a changeling deck due to its blanket kindred effect, and the shapeshifters love drawing cards as much as the next Dinosaur!
With both vigilance and reach it’s able to attack and block well, especially with a respectable five toughness to ensure that all but the largest flyers aren’t getting past this long-necked legend!
Deeproot Historian
Deeproot Historian is rather interesting. Merfolk don’t often have ways of recurring their creatures very easily, so retracing will allow you to turn those spare lands into opportunities.
As with the other cards in this set that benefit a certain creature type, you might want to watch this one if you play changelings: retrace is not to be underestimated.
Dinosaur Egg
Aside from having very wholesome art and tons of flavour (get it?), this Dinosaur Egg is going to cause a lot of trouble for your opponent.
Firstly, this card has evolve, so it’s likely to be getting a couple of counters increasing its power and toughness. Secondly, it doesn’t actually have defender! So you get to attack your opponents with an Egg! If that’s not worth an include I don’t know what is.
Finally, when this Egg gets cracked you’re able to discover X, where X is its toughness. The egg only cost us two mana to begin with, and it starts off with three toughness, so we’re already off to a great start. If we’re able to get some counters on this Egg, then that’s where the fun begins.
Scion of Calamity
This is getting out of hand, now there are two of them! Or, you know… Three of them! The Scion of Calamity is sure to push your opponents’ buttons with its ability to destroy an artifact or enchantment belonging to a creature it’s dealt damage to.
I feel like a lack of trample here is stopping this card from being too amazing, but a five-mana 5/5 isn’t worth turning our nose up at. Myriad means that this Dinosaur is going to be wearing down our opponents’ blockers turn after turn until it’s dealt with. This means that even if we don’t connect and get to take down a problematic artifact or enchantment, then our opponent is definitely going to lose some blockers to this thing.
Sunfrill Imitator
Sunfrill Imitator is a Dinosaur that just wants to fit in. It does this by becoming a copy of another target Dinosaur you control, though it keeps the name Sunfrill Imitator.
What’s notable here is that this effect doesn’t go away until the end of the turn; once your Imitator has copied your Dinosaur of choice you can keep it that way as long as you like.
Copy yourself a Gishath, Sun’s Avatar and enjoy the benefit of both of them sticking around on the battlefield. Sunfrill Imitator keeps its own name, so no need to worry about the legend rule.
Topography Tracker
Topography Tracker is a neat little merfolk that comes with a map token when it enters the battlefield. It also acts as an adept explore enabler! While this creature is around you’ll get to explore an additional time as you resolve your explore triggers.
It’s nothing to write home about on its own, but nestled within the right deck you’ll find that you’ll be easily hitting your land drops every turn and your creatures will slowly grow in power until you can overwhelm your opponents.
Tributary Instructor
Tributary Instructor wraps up the rares from the Commander set and provides you with a little rebate whenever your creatures with +1/+1 counters on them die.
The Instructor also has the mentor ability, and with a respectable power of 4, you will be able to get counters on your smaller creatures as you go through the combat step. Then if any of those creatures get blocked and die, you get a card out of them. Not bad.
You’ll be able to draw a card for each creature that died, meaning that if your board gets wiped you’ll be pretty fast to recover with a handful of new cards to begin that process of rebuilding.
Uncommons & Commons
Earthshaker Dreadmaw
The glow-up that no one really wanted, but we got anyway! Colossal Dreadmaw was perfect and we won’t hear anyone say a darn thing otherwise.
Earthshaker Dreadmaw comes in with the same stats and keywords but performs a bit of a Distant Melody impression. A great payoff for the Dinosaur and the changeling decks with a not-terrible body that stays behind. The card draw being an enter-the-battlefield effect could be nicely reused too, in the right deck!
Spelunking
Daaaaaaaaamn, this one’s good.
This card is everything we need to see in EDH right now. It’s uncommon, so it’s likely going to be cheap. It makes budget mana bases better by letting your tap lands come in untapped. Aside from all of this, it draws you a card and replaces itself in your hand. You’re then able to put a land onto the battlefield, and if that land was a Cave you gain four life.
I’m pretty blown away, this is a lot of card for three mana. Its closest analogue is Explore, a card that sees plenty of play. In this case, though, that one extra mana gives you such an upside.
I’m not only excited about what this card is, but what it represents and it represents more accessible gameplay in our format. Bravo.
Twists and Turns
We seem to have some very cost-efficient cards in this set, and Twists and Turns shows us just how much one mana can get you. You won’t want to leave home without this in the explore deck: Twists and Turns provides enhanced card selection and +1/+1 counters throughout the game. Then in the late game, it transforms into Mycoid Maze and you have a mana sink every turn to help you find threats to start thinking about closing out the game. Another well-designed uncommon, a touch more narrow but welcome nonetheless and encouraged alongside a lot of the new Merfolk.
What a Discovery!
Alright, and that’s a wrap on the green cards from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan! All in all a nice variety of cards! There’s a lot of sneaky utility on these cards, coupled with their inventive new mechanics, like discover and Descend, so you might find yourself clambering to include some of them in your Commander decks!
But we, as always, want to know which cards you’ve had your eye on. What are you excited about? Let us know in the comments. You can find me on social media to talk about Magic here, and I’ll see you in the next one!
Grow yourself a new Colossal Dreadmaw with the latest green cards from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Read More Articles, Bedrock Tortoise, Bygone Marvels, Contest of Claws, Cosmium Confluence, Curious Altisaur, Deeproot Historian, Dinosaur Egg, Earthshaker Dreadmaw, Ghalta Stampede Tyrant, Humongous Raptor, Intrepid Paleontologist, Jadelight Spelunker, Ojer Kaslem Deepest Growth, Pugnacious Hammerskull, Scion of Calamity, Sentinel of the Nameless City, Spelunking, Sunfrill Imitator, The Skullspore Nexus, Topography Tracker, Tributary Instructor, Twists and Turns EDHREC
