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

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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Abrade

Rating: 3.5/5

Our old friend Abrade has once again returned to wreak havoc amongst the population of small creatures and artifacts. There sure are a lot more artifacts in this set than normal so this will still hit some pretty choice targets.

Ancestors’ Aid

Rating: 1.5/5

The first strike is going to catch some people with their pants down causing them to lose a much larger creature when they thought they had a clean block or at least trying to bait a two for one. Inheriting a treasure at the end is just a nice little bonus.

Belligerent Yearling

Rating: 3.0/5

Just like the screaming kid next to you at a restaurant, this little dino can really ramp it up to unexpected levels. While you’d be happy with a 3/2 trample, randomly cracking in for five or six is huge on a two drop. That’s not even mentioning living the dream with Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant.

Bonehoard Dracosaur

Rating: 5.0/5

I know I don’t give out a lot of fives especially on something that this can cleanly die to removal without giving you anything. There is a pretty short list of removal that cleanly answers this. If they double Abrade it, I’m not going to be thrilled, but they still used two of their best cards on one of yours.

They certainly can’t Petrify this because it just sits there drawing cards while making creatures and treasures. It’s a huge snowball effect that is pretty much impossible to play a fair game against.

Oh, I’ve yet to mention that it is a 5/5 flying, first strike. Good luck.

Brass’s Tunnel-Grinder

Rating: 2.0/5

We’ve played Tormenting Voice variants for three mana as long as it had something thrown in like a creature or a treasure. It’s a solid way to mitigate flood in the late game. This lets you pitch as many as you want while also being able to just replace it self if you are in a pinch.

I would still play it, but not be overly excited about it if that was all this was. It takes three turns of descending (which this almost guarantees will get the first one the turn you play it) to flip it. Once it turns into a land, you’re going to be ripping through your deck by giving everything you play with this Discover.  

Brazen Blademaster

Rating: 2.0/5

It’s not too brazen to say that it is pretty easy to have two artifacts in play. A 4/4 for three is a very nice early piece to get your beat down on. It goes without saying that it drops to unplayable if you can’t consistently trigger it.

Breeches, Eager Pillager

Rating: 4.0/5

I was a few sentences into “Breeches come from a can, they were put there by a man” before I realized that I have brunched a little too hard. Also, that I’m old and most people wouldn’t even know the song reference. I started transitioning it into the Bowser song of “Breeches, Breeches, Breeches” before my wife told me I need to hurry up with writing this article because she wants to go to Disney.

This is a great rate on a hard to block three drop that triggers off of itself. You can also send some other poor pirate lackey into the fray so you can trigger it the turn it comes down. This triggers off of every pirate that attacks so if you have a party of them, it’s a one way voyage to value town.

Burning Sun Cavalry

Rating: 2.0/5

I just assume this knight is Myles Garrett because he gets so hyped when you have a dinosaur. As long as you have some dinosaurs in your deck, then this bear can put in some work.

Calamitous Cave-In

Rating: 1.0/5

Hey look, it’s another card that assumes that we will have a bunch of caves. Seriously it feels like they were designing these for a non-existent block constructed format. If you already have a bunch of caves then feel free to grab this late because no one else at your table can use it.

Child of the Volcano

Rating: 1.5/5

Red isn’t as focused on descending as some of the other colors so this won’t be triggering as often as you’d think. It really needs that first counter because you don’t want to be dropping a Hill Giant.

Curator of Sun’s Creation

Rating: 1.5/5

You really need to be going deep on the discover to want to play this. One of the problems is that there is a large disparity in the quality of the discover cards. All of the good ones are going to get gobbled up early and the bad ones are still unplayable. If you already have a decent number of good ones, then pick this up on the wheel.

Daring Discovery

Rating: 1.5/5

When you’re in the position that you want to make three creatures not block, it’s usually because you’re swinging for the win. That means that adding a random creature isn’t going to do much.

I guess it’s a way to make it not a dead card when you’re sitting there, but the chance of ending up with spending five mana to draw a card is kind of sad if you don’t hit.

Diamond Pick-Axe

Rating: 3.0/5

While still more expensive to equip than Goldvein Pick, it gives your attacker the treasure regardless of whether or not they connect with the face. Combine this with an early evasive creature and you’ll end up so far ahead that your opponent won’t know what hit them.

Dinotomaton

Rating: 2.0/5

A Dinotomaton certainly sounds like a Dinobot to me. This is a generic background one and not one of the cool ones you’d know like Grimlock.

A 4/3 menace creature for four is technically playable, but usually getting cut. Giving something menace when it hits play is just enough to get this dino gnome in there.

Dire Flail

Rating: 4.0/5

At it’s base this is a Bonesplitter which is still efficient enough to be jamming these days. Once you flip it, it lets you pitch random artifacts to start picking things off. Drop a Tinker's Tote to get three pieces of fodder and have a great time while they head straight to the complaint department.

Dowsing Device

Rating: 1.5/5

The front side of this is closer to drowsing device because it puts me to sleep. It does let you give haste to any artifact creature you play without having to jump through other hoops.

It’s not difficult to get four artifacts if that is the theme you are running. The land can let a fresh creature RKO your opponent outta nowhere with a potentially huge pump.

Dreadmaw’s Ire

Rating: 3.5/5

This might seem like an insane grade on a combat trick, but this is very pushed. There are tons of artifacts floating around so they will almost always have something to kill. Winning a combat and trampling over to kill another card is insane for only one mana.

Enterprising Scallywag

Rating: 2.5/5

This little goblin provides some serious value as long as you don’t mind him robbing the corpses of his former compatriots.

Etali’s Favor

Rating: 2.0/5

This is highly dependent on what you hit. Giving a creature +1+1 and trample while drawing a card is pretty forgettable at three mana. Doing it and adding a three drop to the battlefield is really good. Do you really want to roll the dice on that early on?

One of the problems is that they can remove your target in response and then you get nothing.

Geological Appraiser

Rating: 3.5/5

We knew they were never going to run back Bloodbraid Elf, but how about if it didn’t have haste? My appraisal is that it is still an amazing limited card.

Goblin Tomb Raider

Rating: 2.5/5

I heard a lot of people comparing this to Goblin Guide at home. That’s not even close to my evaluation of it because I see it as an easier to activate Ghitu Lavarunner. One mana hastey 2/2s can put a ton of pressure on your opponent.

Goldfury Strider

Rating: 2.5/5

This can stride right over and trample all over your opponents face for a ton of damage. You just need a bunch of cards that leave behind an artifact to really maximize the beats.

Hit the Mother Lode

Rating: 1.0/5

I can’t wait for my opponent to hit a one drop and get nine treasure tokens that they can’t do anything with because they were already at seven mana. You really “Hit the Mother Lode” there buddy.

Hotfoot Gnome

Rating: 1.5/5

I prefer my “tap to give target creature haste” creatures to cost one mana or even two in a pinch. Three mana is pretty rough, but at least it can crack in for three damage if they leave an opening.

Idol of the Deep King

Rating: 2.5/5

A three mana Shock is almost always going to be trading down on mana and an expensive Bonesplitter isn’t anything to write home about either. Since you get both, this will be making the cut.

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun

Rating: 4.0/5

This triggers off any attacker so Inti can work from home over a zoom call. I guess we can call the ability a limited time rummage sale.

It’ll usually be correct to not play your land first if you plan on pitching that turn so that you don’t lose out on the new one if you hit a land. Consider what is in your deck first though because you don’t want to miss out on playing a key spell during combat.

Magmatic Galleon

Rating: 4.0/5

What is it with Magic and boats (I’m looking at you Skysovereign, Consul Flagship) killing things when they hit play? I know you thought this was a Seinfeld intro, sorry to disappoint you. I got nothing here.

Five damage is going to kill the majority of the creatures in the format and you get a big old boat to beat down with on top of that. You do need a crew, but any luxury liner you get these days needs one too.

Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might

Rating: 3.5/5

This one is going to be a lot harder to flip back because how often are you going to be dealing four noncombat damage and have three mana (and this land) to pay for the ability. You’ll need to do some extra investment into Rumbling Rockslide to make it work.

It’s also mostly just a 4/4 trample that could make your burn to the face deal more. Maybe use Staggering Size and send Idol of the Deep King upstairs for a seven spot.

Panicked Altisaur

Rating: 1.5/5

I would prefer to have better top end than this, but it’s not an extinction level event if you have to play this. It can sit back to shutdown flyers while poking away at their life total or just swing for four.

Plundering Pirate

Rating: 2.0/5

The dread pirate 3/2 for three arrives on the scene with a treasure in hand to convince you that it is indeed “cool” for him to have a tiny butt. Too bad it’s not a functional reprint of Plundering Barbarian instead. That would be sick in this set.

Poetic Ingenuity

Rating: 2.5/5

This will be much better in an artifact-based deck then a dinosaur based one. You’ll still end up getting those treasures from the endless stream of dinos this will pop out.

Rampaging Ceratops

Rating: 2.0/5

Can they call this ability Really Really Really Ridiculously Menacing? Having to block with three blockers is just asking to get blown out by a combat trick.

Rumbling Rockslide

Rating: 2.5/5

Some people look at this and think “what a bad removal spell”. This will almost always kill anything for four mana and there are plenty of times where five mana kill a creature has been playable.

People would be going crazy over that effect if it was instant speed. This is going to be just fine as it is.

Saheeli’s Lattice

Rating: 3.5/5

This is just Tormenting Voice with the huge upside of turning into a massive dinosaur later on. I don’t really see anyway you’re not happy with that.

Scytheclaw Raptor

Rating: 2.5/5

I’m guessing that this trigger isn’t going to come up as often as people think. Sure, it burns them on a counterspell, but there isn’t a great common one in the set. It also discourages them from using combat tricks while on the defense (that will actually encourage them to play better instead of playing a trick into open mana).

I’m also sure that a bunch of people aren’t going to realize that it hits them too. I look forward to the first week of clips of every content creator accidently lighting themselves up.

Seismic Monstrosaur

Rating: 2.5/5

This is another of the land cyclers that I actually want instead of settling for. It’s a fairly priced trampler that lets you bin some extra lands to draw some cards. Coming off of Grabby Giant, I’m sure most of you know that actually comes up fairly often.

Sunfire Torch

Rating: 2.5/5

Cheap equipment that can turn itself into a Shock.  Really good in an aggressive deck, not so much for anything that is trying to build up to bigger things.

Sunshot Militia

Rating: 2.5/5

The activate only as a sorcery is a pretty big downer as it would actually be pretty nuts if you could end step this. It’s a nice way to provide some reach in a go wide deck by just letting you ping away their last few precious life points. There are tons of extra artifacts strewn about the battlefield in this format that power this up. Equipment is another thing that is basically a “free” tap to ping away.

Tectonic Hazard

Rating: 1.0/5

It’s an End the Festivities that doesn’t hit Planeswalkers. Do you know what that means? Yeah, it stays in the sideboard.

Triumphant Chomp

Rating: 3.0/5

This can scale up nicely provided that you have some decent dinos running around. That’ll let you chomp down on some pretty big creatures for only one mana. Seems like a great deal to me.

Trumpeting Carnosaur

Rating: 4.5/5

While you usually don’t want to be discarding this to Lightning Bolt something, there are certainly some cases that you do. A great example is if you have Defossilize and you want to bring this right back into play.

Even without other shenanigans, it’s a massive trampler that can hit some pretty big things with discover 5.

Volatile Wanderglyph

Rating: 2.0/5

A bear that rummages when it attacks is pretty cool, but this can also trigger when you tap it for things like Sunshot Militia.

Zoyowa’s Justice

Rating: 1.0/5

No! Bad! Leave it! Seriously let the constructed people have their fun. This is not for you.

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Wrap Up

Red is doing a few different things this set between artifact synergies and big old dinosaurs. It is all held together by damage based removal to clear the way for your crazy horde of monsters. It even has some really nice bomb rares to draw you in such as Bonehoard Dracosaur.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back tomorrow for my limited review of the Green 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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