The Lost Cavern of Ixalan Official Preview!
In November, we will finally land on the planes of Ixalan.
What adventures await us in Ixalan? Ixalan has been invaded by the Phyrexians. Are dinosaurs, vampires, pirates, and merfolk surviving?
From Wizards of the Coast, we have been given the opportunity to share this preview card to our readers! So, let’s check it out!
New Card Unveiled
《Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon》
Thousandth Moon?!?!
Not dinosaurs, not vampires, not pirates, but a Gnomes?!?!
Ixalan is the Sun Empire, which is a force gathered of humans and dinosaurs. The key to the story is a legendary artifact 《The Immortal Sun》. There are many other cards named “Sun” in 『Ixalan』and 『Rivals of Ixalan』.
By comparison, no card named “Moon” existed in the old Ixalan. This card, however, is named 「Thousandth Moon」.
“If we are to protect this world, we can no longer hide within it!”
『The Lost Cavern of Ixalan』 will depict an adventure into the underground caverns of the Sun Empire. The moon is a planet that hides from the glare of the sun during the day. Until now, has the moon been hiding in the 《The Immortal Sun》 or the 《Sanctum of the Sun》?
By the way, I am also interested in the fact that the creature generated by the ability is a “gnome”. Gnomes have existed in Magic for a long time, but there are very few of them, only eight, except in collaborative sets such as the Joke set and 『Adventures in the Forgotten Realms』.
If X’s ability to generate large numbers of gnomes…, then perhaps there is the multiverse’s finest “gnome factory” under Ixalan…
Playable in Standard?
Now, let’s continue with the abilities!
Whenever you attack with one or more non-Gnome creatures, put a +1/+1 counter on Anim Pakal, then create X 1/1 colorless Gnome artifact creature tokens that are tapped and attacking, where X is the number of +1/+1 counters on Anim Pakal.
Legendary creature that increases in size with each attack and produces an attacking token……
The ability is triggered even if Anim does not attack, so if you have a creature out by turn 2, you can trigger the ability as soon as it lands on the battle field. If you have 《Kumano Faces Kakkazan》 out on turn 1, you can flip the card and have it attacking! The second chapter’s ability also puts a +1/+1 counter on it, so it has great synergy.
In the current Standard, there is already a deck that quickly widens the board with creatures and makes very strong use of 《Regal Bunnicorn》and 《Knight-Errant of Eos》. The colors are also white-red!
I think a white-red beatdown deck widely spreading on the board could be built around this Anim!
Playable in Commander？
Anim is a legendary creature! 《Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin》, and 《Adeline, Resplendent Cathar》, are popular commanders, but Anim is white-red! We can use cards that go well with both white and red!
With white having many token synergy cards, you can draw every turn using Anim’s ability!
Attack generating the tokens and damage your opponents by ease, or play an additional combat card to increase your chances of triggering Anim! This strategy was not available in mono-white.
Pump up the creatures going wide at once to close your opponent’s life! I am also happy to see that the white 《Craterhoof Behemoth》 was introduced in “Wilds of Eldraine”!
I can sacrifice the born tokens with 《Phyrexian Altar》 and activate 《Aggravated Assault》 to get additional combat multiple times! (Putting more than 5 counters on Anim is needed……)
Outlook
「《Cavern of Souls》comes to the Standard and Pioneer format」
「《Mana Crypt》is available as a new art」
「『Jurassic World』universe beyond comes along!」
Just the information already released before the preview of 『The Lost Cavern of Ixalan』is exciting!
It was thought that there was no longer any unexplored place left in Ixalan, but there remained an unknown world beneath the ground. What is waiting for us there? We are also curious about the impact on the standard meta game!
At last but not least, we thank Wizards of the Coast for letting us reveal a preview card from『The Lost Cavern of Ixalan』! We have pre-release events running in all Hareruya stores across Japan so jump in to Ixalan at your local Hareruya!
Good bye everyone, let’s see you in the《Cavern of Souls》!
