Alchemy: Ixalan Draft Guide and Limited Set Review

Hey everyone! We’ve rounded the bend past the LCI Arena open and it’s not quite time for Khans of Tarkir to hit the virtual shelves. That means its time to find something new to stoke those fires in the relationship with LCI. That’s right, we’re about to hit the Alchemy portion of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Technically it’s called Alchemy: Ixalan, but you know what I’m talking about. Per usual I’ll be grading and reviewing all of the cards for limited purposes.

Alchemy: Ixalan – Card Spoilers, Set Information, Release Date, and More

I am legally required to mention that these cards were designed for constructed purposes. That means that they will usually be really good or potentially unplayable in limited.

Here’s the usual grading scale:

• 5.0: Disgustingly powerful and basically unbeatable. Either answer it the turn it comes down or just pack up your cards. (Gruff Triplets, Virtue of Persistence, The Eternal Wanderer)
• 4.5: Incredible bomb that still gives your opponent a slim chance. (Virtue of Loyalty, Imodane's Recruiter, Realm-Scorcher Hellkite)
• 4.0: Great rare or the absolute best uncommons and removal. (Faunsbane Troll, Gumdrop Poisoner, Talion's Messenger)
• 3.5: Great role filler or removal that you never cut. (Candy Grapple, Hearth Elemental, Torch the Tower)
• 3.0: Good playable that I’m basically never cutting. (Shrouded Shepherd, Spellscorn Coven, Sharae of Numbing Depths)
• 2.5: Decent playable and the bar I hope nearly every card in my deck to reach. (Evolving Wilds, Archon's Glory, Flick a Coin)
• 2.0: Mediocre filler that normally is your 20-23rd card(s). (Mintstrosity, Ice Out, Grabby Giant)
• 1.5: Replaceable, overall bad filler. Could also be decent sideboard cards. (Titanic Growth, Scarecrow Guide, Territorial Witchstalker)
• 1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Dark Tutelage, Kindled Heroism, Impact Tremors)
• 0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. Cards that “could” be situationally decent, but bad in most situations. (Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Mana Flare)
• 0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. They rarely print cards this bad these days. (Hew the Entwood, One with Nothing)

---

White

Cogwork Progenitor

Rating: 4.0/5

This can get really crazy depending on your enablers and what you can fetch with it. It is one of those innocent looking cheap cards that can completely take over a game without your opponent realizing that it is why they lost.

You want to have plenty of non-creature artifacts that have a comes into play ability such as Tinker's Tote which also conveniently provides you with more fodder for this. At the end of the day, it is a bear with a very large upside and you can’t go wrong with that.

Legion’s Chant

Rating: 2.0/5

Unless you have other intensity cards, this could be pretty underwhelming. I’m sure you’re picturing getting back a Miner's Guidewing and a two drop, but you need your graveyard to lineup properly to make that happen. Later in the game, it would usually be better to just cast Another Chance.

Radiant Smite

Rating: 2.5/5

Spells that only kill large creatures usually remain in the sideboard unless they have a second mode worth playing. This does have some huge upside when it pops off a creature that your opponent just committed six mana to, but you never want to just be staring at it when they are slamming in with waves of dorks.

Luckily you don’t have to worry about getting stuck with a dead card since this one conveniently cycles away for only one mana.

Valiant Batrider

Rating: 3.5/5

I’m down to play a 3/3 Flyer for three even if it does get wrecked by an Abrade. The taxing of noncreature spells can add up if they don’t have a way to answer this. Perfectly solid card that has some potential to be more.

Blue

Herald’s Reveille

Rating: 1.5/5

If descend counted instants and sorceries then one mana to draw a card would have a bit more value. There really aren’t many spell payoffs in the set so seeking a merfolk if you explored is fine as long as you have some good ones to get. Still not really worth playing what is otherwise empty air in your deck.

Hymn to the Ages

Rating: 1.5/5

I don’t think you are going to be packing a ton of Chorus cards in your deck and paying five mana to draw three cards is not what this set is about. Now if you have a couple of other cheap choruses and this turns into a draw four or five, then we are talking about something I want to be doing.

Landlore Navigator

Rating: 4.5/5

This might seem a little high, but I would like to remind you how easy it is for two artifacts to enter the battlefield in this format.

Step one: play this

Step two: play Tinker's Tote

Step three: profit

Getting a free Thieving Magpie directly into play on turn three on top of just making normal plays is insane. Even if you don’t have that, it’s really not that difficult to trigger, just attack with this for the map token and play Waterwind Scout.

It’s not even limited to once, it’s every turn you can do the thing. There are a ton of ways to fill your aviary and this pretty much demands an immediate answer or it buries your opponent in card advantage.

Plunderer’s Prize

Rating: 3.5/5

Obviously, you need to have some artifacts worth grabbing with this to make it worth it. As you can imagine, grabbing an Unstable Glyphbridge is pretty sick.

The gist of how this works is that you pay x+1 and you get this right back in your hand to keep plundering away. The next one you need to pay x+2 to get this back. As long as you have ways to get to that point in the game, this can ensure that you never run out of gas.

Black

Chitinous Crawler

Rating: 4.0/5

The big thing to point out here is that this is not a once per turn ability. As long as you have descend eight, you can do this as many times as you want per turn. Until that point in the game, it’s not doing much (other than being a 4/4) so you’ll want to be running this in decks geared towards letting it do it’s thing.

Dusk’s Landing

Rating: 1.5/5

Apparently, we have a theme of one mana draw a card spells in one of the few formats where it doesn’t really matter. The upside of getting two cards off of this one is pretty nice, but you do need to have two vampires in your deck to take advantage of it. If you manage to play a cheap lifelinker such as Deep-Cavern Bat or Ruin-Lurker Bat then this can be pretty nice. Later in the game, you start running the risk of not having enough vampires to get.

Basically, a build around that is not really worth building around. If your deck incidentally both triggers this and has enough vampires to want it, you should be able to pick it up.  If you have two of the busted rare vampires and a couple of Echo of Dusk than this goes up drastically.

Legion Reconsecrator

Rating: 3.5/5

While I’m always down on the old 3/2 for three creatures, this one replaces itself when it dies as long as you managed to get a trigger off of it or just happened to have something with one power or toughness in your graveyard. That puts it in the group of three mana value cards that this set is so well known for.

Mycelic Ballad

Rating: 2.5/5

A Barter in Blood that gains two life can be a very solid card especially in a late game deck that doesn’t mind durdling the first few turns casting spells like Inverted Iceberg.

The problem of course is that Tinker's Tote exists (seriously that seemingly innocuous common changes a lot of things in this format). It’s the same deal as Tithing Blade, this can be game breaking against some decks and terrible against some others.

Phantasmal Extraction

Rating: 1.0/5

One for one discard usually needs something else going for it to be playable in limited. This doesn’t even have the option to bring it in against their bomb because it can’t hit anything that costs more than four and this event is premier draft only.

Red

Caldera Breaker

Rating: 4.0/5

As long as you are heavy red this is a 6 mana 6/6 that can kill a decent size critter when it ETBs. I say decent size because let’s say you are playing nine mountains and have three in play to play this without drawing any others. That lets you deal six damage which kills most, but not all creatures in the format. That is the normal optimal outcome (Excluding mana accelerators, being mono red, etc. We’re talking an average deck situation here.) and the later the game goes, the smaller it will be.

I have to mention that you’re more likely to keep drawing gas since you thinned every last mountain out of your deck.

When it dies you get to drop all those mountains into play while adding four Volcanic Geyser to your deck. At that point, you should be able to kill anything with those Geysers or just casually light your opponent’s face up for lethal.

Kamachal, Ship’s Mascot

Rating: 4.0/5

Kamachal clearly hangs out with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer all the time and they put on a variety show on the pirate ship. That’s my head cannon and no one can change my mind.

The downside is that this adorable little critter dies to a whole lot of things, but he can deal some serious damage by stealing cards out of their deck. The value of a free card and a treasure token is a pretty massive swing especially when it can happen every turn. Menace makes it even harder to deal with because they have to hold back three creatures to makes sure you don’t just Dead Weight or Abrade one out of the way.

It’s not even terrible if you just attack in and pump up the jams to trade for two creatures.

Pirate’s Landing

Rating: 1.5/5

The theme of one mana to draw a card continues. You’ll probably be able to trigger this pretty easily, but you should probably just be playing another pirate instead of it.

Ribald Shanty

Rating: 2.5/5

Two damage for two mana is right in that realm of playability and this has some decent upside if you get multiples. Maybe you’ll have another chorus card or two to bump it up a bit more.

Green

Colossal Chorus

Rating: 2.5/5

This is a hard one to grade because it is heavily dependent on if you have other chorus cards in your deck. You also need to have a deck that can cast an eight-mana card that doesn’t win the game on the spot. Getting two Colossal Dreadmaws is alright for eight mana, but might not be able to get you across the finish line. They could just Petrify one and trade for the other. That’s good, but not amazing.

Getting three is a huge difference. One way to consider it is getting eighteen mana instead of twelve worth of creatures. It’s much harder for them to have a way to cleanly deal with all three without a sweeper.

Mythweaver Poq

Rating: 4.0/5

When you play a land, this puts a copy of it into play. Yeah, that sounds pretty busted with caves. More like Mythweaver Poggers.

Obviously if you play Cosmium Confluence for six lands that is going to be a screenshot worthy swing in the game.

I haven’t even mentioned that it is also a creature that rapidly grows out of control as your land count rises.

Propagator Primordium

Rating: 3.5/5

Two mana 3/3 that puts two cards in your graveyard for descend purposes sounds pretty spicy already. A few turns later it can bring one of them back or hit one of the many other fungus creatures running around Ixalan.

Scalespeaker Shepherd

Rating: 3.0/5

The spellbook includes:

• Ancient Imperiosaur
• Burning Sun's Avatar
• Carnage Tyrant
• Charging Monstrosaur
• Etali, Primal Conqueror
• Ghalta, Primal Hunger
• Gishath, Sun's Avatar
• Quartzwood Crasher
• Regisaur Alpha
• Ripjaw Raptor
• Shifting Ceratops
• Territorial Allosaurus
• Tranquil Frillback
• Verdant Sun's Avatar
• Zacama, Primal Calamity

You can look at this as a 2/1 for three that draws a card and acts as a mana dork. Sometimes reducing costs is going to be significantly better than tapping for a mana because you can double dip when double spelling while still having an attacker.  

There are some serious platinum hits available off of this, but you might want to look at this as a Gruul card because you could possibly get an option where you can’t cast anything otherwise.

Wingbane Vantasaur

Rating: 4.0/5

While a 4/5 reach for four isn’t even a Colossadactyl, this one draws a card when it comes into play. I would trade trample for that all day. The option of a Savage Stomp or a Naturalize means that you’re basically guaranteed to be getting a removal spell with it.

Multicolor

Brazen Boarding

Rating: 4.0/5

The spell book includes:

• Admiral Beckett Brass
• Corsair Captain
• Spyglass Siren
• Staunch Crewmate

I don’t think you are going to be conjuring Admiral Beckett Brass with this in limited, but you’ll still be able to pop off a creature and get something good from the spellbook. Killing a three-toughness creature and getting a Spyglass Siren on the battlefield is amazing value. Since the spellbook only has one creature at each mana value, you know exactly which card you will be getting which makes your decision even easier.

High Marshal Arguel

Rating: 4.0/5

Getting to the point you can cash this in for two 4/3 creatures sounds like a giant reach in limited. You would have to have this die three times without letting it get a finality counter or otherwise exiled. Not impossible, but not really something you want to count on happening.

Still, it is a creature that dies into a land that lets you sacrifice creatures for life or a card advantage engine in Arguel's Blood Fast. Either one can be a pretty good outcome depending on the game state.

Merfolk Tunnel-Guide

Rating: 3.5/5

An explore added to your next three merfolk can be pretty huge as long as you have enough of them to actually collect that value. Since it is a boon, you don’t even care about this sticking around so you can trade it off early.  I feel like this into Waterwind Scout is going be a rough start to beat for a lot of decks.

Mycoid Resurrection

Rating: 3.5/5

There is a big difference between a five mana and a six-mana reanimation spell. This one makes up for that by turning what you bring back into a massive threat that is possibly out of range of most of the removal spells in the format. It also makes your Another Chance much better by having the rest of your graveyard suddenly gigantic as well.

Reflection Net

Rating: 4.0/5

Instant Speed Oblivion Ring (for only creatures) that lets you turn one of your Gnome tokens (or any other creature) into a copy of what you grabbed with it. That sounds like a huge swing in the game that will have many people cursing its name.

Scalesoul Gnome

Rating: 4.0/5

Haste on this is huge because not many decks are going to have the defenses set up to stop this from getting through. Getting to both discover and conjure a duplicate of it into hand (as long as you play it) is a ridiculous turn of events. It even lets you do that off of your other discover cards so it still has a huge effect on the game even if it is being blanked on the field.

This plays very well with combat tricks providing both a means to keep this alive and getting to basically replace themselves with the trample damage.

Stalwart Speartail

Rating: 4.0/5

A dinosaur that is overstatted to begin with that grows the rest of your dinosaurs when he is dealt damage is a bargain. Being able to pay three to ping everything to both trigger himself and clear all those annoying 1/1 tokens out of the way is just gravy. If you’re in Gruul dinosaurs, you should windmill slam this as hard as you can.

Tan Jolom, the Worldwalker

Rating: 4.5/5

The only problem with this is that it takes three colors of mana to play it. Outside of that it is an absolutely ridiculous bomb that can just bury your opponent. Adding double team means that even if you are running something in to die, you’ll probably still profit.

It’s easy to think of all the artifacts that have an ETB effect that would be great to cast again. Tinker's Tote and Spring-Loaded Sawblades come to mind. Even Orazca Puzzle-Door gives you some nice value out of it.

Getting an extra cave after attacking with one is also a nice swing. Even if you just have basic lands late, this is still providing you with a way to keep attacking while getting to “draw” an extra card every time.

---

Wrap Up

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in a few days with my coverage of Khans of Tarkir limited. Until then, stay classy people!

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.

You can also find me at:

• Discord
• Twitch
• Twitter