The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI) Limited Set Review: Black

Hey everyone! It’s new set time and I know you are all excited to read about all the crazy shenanigans we’re about to get into in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. I’m ready to start spelunking down into this to figure out what my exploration uncovers.

Per usual, I’ll be grading the entire set for the purpose of limited as well as writing about a million other articles about it. With all that, you’ll be well prepared to crush some serious dreams.

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)

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Abyssal Gorestalker

Rating: 1.5/5

Unfortunately, this doesn’t say besides Abyssal Gorestalker or we would be having an entirely different conversation. As it is, I’ll be referring to it as Abysmal Gorestalker.

It’s a lot harder to walk your opponent into a Barter in Blood when it costs six mana. While you could make the argument that you just need to make some tokens to sacrifice, that also means that your opponent could do the same thing.

I envision this sitting in people’s hand in a ton of awkward situations.

Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal

Rating: 5.0/5

Na na na na na na na Bat God!

I highly doubt that I have to sell you on this one. It reads like a busted mythic and it’s going to play like one too. The only real thing to note is that to flip it back is if “a player” only has one or fewer cards in hand including you. That means that they can’t just hold cards to stop your God from coming back to destroy them.

Acolyte of Aclazotz

Rating: 1.5/5

An annoying blocker that lets you stack your graveyard for descend while draining your opponent in the process. Useful if you happen to be running Mephitic Draught or anything else you no longer have a use for. Still not a heavily impactful card and you should be able to pick them up later if you want them.

Another Chance

Rating: 2.0/5

An instant speed Soul Salvage that also mills a couple of cards gives you Another Chance at casting your best creatures. In a set where stuff is flying into the graveyard all willy nilly, I don’t mind having one of these to get my goodies back.

Bitter Triumph

Rating: 3.5/5

Two mana to destroy any creature (or poor Quintorius Kand if you’re some kind of elephant poaching monster) is a great deal even if you have to pay three life. It’s not even dead if you’re low on life as long as you have an extra land or something to pitch to it.

Bloodletter of Aclazotz

Rating: 3.0/5

The casting cost is admittedly a bit rough. It doesn’t do anything when it ETBs and it’s not great when you are on defense. The upside is that it can make a swingout lethal out of nowhere or crack in for four in the air.

The other problem is that it is face up. Your opponent knows whether or not they should be blocking (unless you have pump spells). It doesn’t do anything when they block creatures so they are encouraged to do so.  

It is potentially a very powerful card, but it needs things to line up right to maximize its effectiveness.   

Bloodthorn Flail

Rating: 1.5/5

There are going to be times that this can feel pretty insane such as on turn two after they played a Ruin-Lurker Bat and can pitch something random to start cracking in hard. That’s kind of an all-in approach and you don’t have infinite cards to discard to this.

Now if this set had madness, we’d be talking about how much potential this had. Instead it is just another clunky equipment.

Bringer of the Last Gift

Rating: 1.0/5

We just saw with Moonshaker Cavalry that eight mana is an awful lot even if it wins the game when you play it. This takes far more setup to “win the game” when you play it. You’re not always going to have the luxury of doing a bunch of chump blocking to prepare for this “gift”. You also can’t just play it as a 6/6 flyer when you’re ahead because your side gets shipped to the yard.

This is a card with a lot of flash to it, but not a lot of actual substance.   

Broodrage Mycoid

Rating: 1.5/5

I’m not very excited about this, but as long as I end up getting a couple triggers off of it, it’ll be fine. Filler plus.

Canonized in Blood

Rating: 1.0/5

What an odd card this is. If you didn’t descend or you don’t already have a creature out, then it does literal nothing. End step +1+1 counters are much worse than precombat ones and this is an unreliable and slow source of them.

Don’t worry though, at some point you do get to spend seven more mana to make a 4/3 flyer.

Chupacabra Echo

Rating: 4.0/5

While not quite in the same league as it’s ancestor Ravenous Chupacabra, this will still usually kill what you want. Obviously it’s at it’s best in a deck that can fill the yard, but I’ll be jamming this in any deck that I can.

Corpses of the Lost

Rating: 3.0/5

For clarity, the token dying does not trigger descend since that specifically states “permanent card”. Still a 3/2 haste that is fairly easy to bounce to your hand is some nice repeatable value.

There are some other skeletons running around that this can give the bonus to. Just flip Throne of the Grim Captain to enjoy your +1+0 and haste baby!

Dead Weight

Rating: 3.0/5

This is hardly Dead Weight as it clearly carries its fair share of the load. Not only does this kill something, but it also adds a permanent to your graveyard for descend. I’ve always loved one mana removal because it’s a way to catch back up when you lose the almighty coin flip.

Deathcap Marionette

Rating: 2.5/5

This is a solid enabler for all of your descend shenanigans. You start out with a mill and then they don’t want to attack with their better ground pounders because this is holding down the fort (while potentially ending up as another permanent in the yard).

This is exactly the type of card that helps hold the early game together while you are setting up to take over late.

Deep Goblin Skulltaker

Rating: 1.5/5

I normally hate these slow growing cards, but a two-power menace creature is on the lowest border of playability for this cost. Getting one trigger isn’t that hard and you’re suddenly above rate. It’s even an end step trigger so you can do a normal trade and drop this to get the party started.

Deep-Cavern Bat

Rating: 3.5/5

For years, I’ve heard complaints about this type of card in some form of “what if they have two removal spells then they get it right back”. Then they had to use a valuable removal spell on your two mana 1/1 so you should consider that a win.

This being a flying, lifelinker is a huge step up from the usual versions of this we get. I don’t need to get too much deeper into it.

Defossilize

Rating: 3.0/5

This is going to be one of the Floridamun cards of the set. He loves these type of effects and was really excited when I showed it to him.

Between all of the milling and the landcyclers, it’s going to be pretty easy to get something monstrous in your graveyard early. Tacking on a double explore is great for either speed running through lands or making your monster grow. When you’re done with this, the only thing left as a fossil is your opponent.

Echo of Dusk

Rating: 3.0/5

This is the kind of upside I’m looking for in a bear. Descend four is very easy to enable so this is going to be a 3/3 lifelink pretty quickly in the right deck. Good luck racing these in multiples.

Fanatical Offering

Rating: 2.5/5

I’m sure you all remember how good Deadly Dispute was and this feels like it’s about on the same power level. A map token and a treasure token are kind of a wash with it depending on what point in the game it is. Later in the game you’ll usually prefer the map token you get from this.

Feel free to sacrifice Mephitic Draught to this to draw all the cards.

Fungal Fortitude

Rating: 1.5/5

I prefer my “return this creature when it dies” cards to cost one mana. This does have the slight upside of being able to stick around on a flyer or something if you just need some extra power.

Gargantuan Leech

Rating: 1.5/5

Another instance where a card assumes we have access to a ton of caves. A 5/5 lifelink can be a big deal, but you need multiple caves to makes this cost even remotely palatable.

Grasping Shadows

Rating: 2.5/5

While deathtouch and lifelink can assure that your creatures can safely attack without being eaten (we don’t need to talk about first strike), this is going to be really awkward if you are on the defense. It’s not that bad though since the life can keep you in the game. Then you have a three-turn countdown before this can draw you some cards.

This is one of those cards that is going to outright win some games and just be a mere annoyance in some others. A lot of upside to it though.

Greedy Freebooter

Rating: 1.5/5

A one mana creature that dies into something can be pretty frustrating to play against because the trade feels bad. If they refuse, you might have to take matters into your own hands with Fanatical Offering.

It’s still just a treasure token that you end up with so you don’t want to be chump blocking with this early just to “cash it in”.

Join the Dead

Rating: 3.5/5

Early in the game this will kill pretty much anything out there, later in the game it will do the same thing because it only takes descend 4. Sounds like it’s pretty close to just being Murder that gets around indestructible.

Malicious Eclipse

Rating: 2.0/5

I won’t fault you for wanting to mainboard this. It feels like more of a sideboard card when you know your opponent is running a bunch of small creatures. The exile can be pretty relevant in a world full of descend.

Mephitic Draught

Rating: 1.5/5

If you have ways to sacrifice it, then this is worth running in your deck. If you don’t then a two-mana cycle that costs you a life is pretty bad. Don’t forget that Craft exiles so you won’t get to draw the card off of this when it leaves play.

Preacher of the Schism

Rating: 4.0/5

While this does require you to attack to get something out of it, deathtouch and four toughness ensure that it won’t be trading cheaply. If you are tied for the most life, you get to both draw a card and create a flying lifelinker.

Either effect is pretty good depending on the life total. Are you getting beatdown, well you can still attack with this because you get a chump blocker with lifelink. Are you ahead, then keep drawing cards to push your advantage.

Primordial Gnawer

Rating: 1.5/5

This is a much better defensive card than offensive. If I’m paying five mana, I don’t want my creature to die to a random two drop. I know you get to replace it when it dies, but there is better value available for five mana than to put a random two or three drop into play.

Queen’s Bay Paladin

Rating: 3.5/5

Putting a creature straight into play when you drop this is big game as long as you have a vampire in the graveyard. While there are a decent number of vampires in the set, there aren’t a ton of them at common. You have Glorifier of Suffering, Acolyte of Aclazotz, Echo of Dusk, and Vito's Inquisitor. Of course, you could also be reanimating one of the busted rares.

You do have to be careful about the life loss though. You can only Lightning Bolt yourself so many times.

Rampaging Spiketail

Rating: 2.0/5

Apparently, this is what happens when Spike gets tired of Cera’s crap. He goes off on a rampage and who knows what’s next. Maybe he’s going to rumble with Sharptooth. Welcome to Universes Beyond: The Land Before Time.

It is a low bar to clear for a land cycler to be playable and this one just barely clears it. Making a creature indestructible with some extra power can really screw up someone’s well planned out combat math.

Ray of Ruin

Rating: 2.5/5

Expensive removal, but gets the job done even on a God. It even lets you crush a vehicle without waiting for them to crew it.

While you would prefer to kill a manland if you’re using the land kill, you might get to hit up a land screwed opponent who played a cave. Who doesn’t want to live the five mana Stone Rain dream?

Basically it’s going to be a necessary evil when you don’t have enough good removal.

Screaming Phantom

Rating: 2.0/5

A Wind Drake that slowly fuels your graveyard synergies falls into that “just fine” category. I wonder if the “self-mill truthers” will be screaming about what a draw back this is. They have some truly horrendous takes, but here’s your reminder that self-mill is a bonus in this set.  

Skullcap Snail

Rating: 2.5/5

Poor Burglar Rat lost their job to a freaking snail. The exile means that you don’t have to worry about helping them hit descend while also preventing the “oops, guess I’ll reanimate that” problem.  

Soulcoil Viper

Rating: 3.0/5

This is dependent on what you have to get back since it takes a turn to setup. If you’re mostly just bringing back random dorks, then this drops off pretty fast.

Souls of the Lost

Rating: 2.5/5

This is an odd one because I’m really not a fan of having to two for one myself to cast a large vanilla creature. It can get really out of hand, but it can also just sit there with a Petrify on it.  

Stalactite Stalker

Rating: 3.0/5

This comes down cheap and slowly grows itself while menacing in for some damage. If necessary, it can even pop a creature off at instant speed.

Starving Revenant

Rating: 4.0/5

While three life is a lot to pay for a card, the ability to choose to dump them in your yard instead lets you be picky about it. If you’re also really ahead, then you don’t care about the life whatsoever.

The body is right in line with the rate and if you manage to hit descend 8, then those drains can add up fast with cards like Fanatical Offering running around.

Stinging Cave Crawler

Rating: 3.0/5

A three toughness creature with deathtouch can be extremely annoying because they can’t just offer up a random dork in exchange. It also stops the local bear population from invading your portion of the battlefield.

This works out great as long as you get to draw a card and trade for something decent. Just imagine how messed up it is if they double block and you Dreadmaw's Ire this to kill both their creatures and an artifact.

Synapse Necromage

Rating: 2.5/5

A creature that dies into two more creatures in a color that has some sacrifice synergies. Yeah, I’m down for that.

Tarrian’s Journal

Rating: 3.5/5

While the sacrifice ability is a nice way to recycle your junk into real cards, the true power of this comes when you run out of cards and flip it. Being able to cast a creature from your graveyard every turn will add up with a swiftness even if they exile themselves upon death.

Terror Tide

Rating: 3.0/5

This is an interesting take on a sweeper because you can just durdle around filling your graveyard while they are adding to the board before blasting their side. The problem is that if you don’t have any ways to stack your yard, this might not do much.

I think the stats aren’t going to tell the whole story with this because it doesn’t follow the same game play patterns other sweepers normally have.

Tithing Blade

Rating: 2.5/5

A sorcery speed Diabolic Edict is going to be heavily dependent on what your opponent is doing. If they have tokens, then that is almost unplayable. If they are playing large mamma jammas, then it can be amazing.

You do get to flip it into a knock off version of Ill-Gotten Inheritance, but that takes five mana. The two “Mehs” combine into one good card.

Visage of Dread

Rating: 2.5/5

You should almost always hit on this early on and then later it turns into a big old dinosaur with menace.

Vito’s Inquisitor

Rating: 1.5/5

A sacrifice outlet that can grow itself pretty quickly even if it does cost a mana each time you do so. This goes great with effects like Mephitic Draught to keep the cards and the beats coming.

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Wrap Up

Black looks like a great color with a good combination of removal spells and card advantage. It has a great range of creatures including some aggressive ones and some that make wonderful sacrifice fodder. Unfortunately, It does have some clunkers running around so you may have some trouble if it is too heavily contested.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back tomorrow for my limited review of the red cards of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Until then, stay classy people!

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

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