How many cards are in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan?

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan contains 291 regular cards: 108 commons, 92 uncommons, 64 rares, 22 mythic rares, and 5 basic lands. The full collector number range extends to 410f when you include all alternate-frame treatments, Special Guests, box toppers, promos, and Neon Ink variants.

What are Special Guests in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan?

Special Guests are 18 high-profile reprints that appear in Set Boosters and Collector Boosters. They have new art and flavor text designed to fit Ixalan's aesthetic. Notable Special Guests include Mana Crypt (in seven versions including six Neon Ink colors), Carnage Tyrant, Underworld Breach, Lord of Atlantis, and Polyraptor. They carry the set code SPG.

What Commander decks came with The Lost Caverns of Ixalan?

LCI ships with four Commander precons: Ahoy Mateys ({U}{B}{R}), led by Admiral Brass, Unsinkable; Blood Rites ({W}{B}), led by Clavileño, First of the Blessed; Explorers of the Deep ({U}{G}), led by Hakbal of the Surging Soul; and Veloci-Ramp-Tor ({W}{R}{G}), led by Pantlaza, Sun-Favored.

Is The Lost Caverns of Ixalan a direct sequel to the original Ixalan block?

Not exactly. R&D designed LCI as an 'underground world' set first and chose Ixalan as the best fit — not the other way around. That means it isn't a mechanical continuation of the original Ixalan block's tribal structure. Dinosaurs, Merfolk, Pirates, and Vampires are present, but the set is more of a standalone action-adventure story than a typal revival.

What is the Jurassic World Collection in LCI boosters?

The Jurassic World Collection is a booster insert set found in Set Boosters, Collector Boosters, and Bundles for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. These are original card designs — not reskinned Magic cards — themed around the Jurassic World film franchise, similar to the Transformers insert in The Brothers' War.

What is Cavern of Souls' history and why was the LCI reprint significant?

Cavern of Souls was first printed in Avacyn Restored (2012) and is a staple in Modern, Legacy, and Commander for tribal decks, making creatures of a chosen type uncounterable. Its reprint in LCI was the first wide-distribution printing in many years, significantly increasing availability of a card that had climbed to high prices on the secondary market. LCI also features six Neon Ink versions of the card as ultra-rare chase variants.

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI): Set Guide

Sometimes a set surprises you not because of what it is, but because of how it came together. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI) wasn't designed as a return to Ixalan - Wizards R&D was building an "underground world" set and decided Ixalan was the best plane to host it. That's a small distinction that matters a lot: this isn't a mechanical sequel to the original Ixalan block. It's an action-adventure story that happens to feature Dinosaurs, Merfolk, Pirates, and Vampires, and it's better for it.

Released in 2023, LCI is the second set in the Omenpath Arc. It contains 291 regular cards - 108 commons, 92 uncommons, 64 rares, 22 mythic rares, and 5 basic lands - plus a wide range of alternate-frame treatments, Special Guests, and a Jurassic World crossover insert.

What is The Lost Caverns of Ixalan?

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is Magic's take on the classic "hollow world" or "underground world" trope - think Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, but with Vampires on dinosaur-back. Set on the plane of Ixalan, the story picks up roughly a year after the events of March of the Machine, with multiple factions racing underground toward the plane's core in search of a new resource called cosmium.

What they find down there is genuinely interesting from a worldbuilding perspective: Ixalan is a hollow world, its interior lit by an inner sun called Chimil, home to an ancient civilization descended from the Sun Empire's ancestors. The set's tagline - "Treasure Bites Back!" - captures the tone well. This is a set about exploration, danger, and the uncomfortable truth that sometimes what you find at the bottom of a cave is something that very much does not want to be found.

The set is sold in regular 16-card Draft Boosters, Draft Packs, Collector Boosters, Set Boosters, a standard Bundle, a Gift Bundle, and four Commander preconstructed decks.

Themes and mechanics

Because LCI is built around an "underground world" concept rather than a straight faction revival, it isn't as strictly typal as the original Ixalan block. Yes, Dinosaurs, Merfolk, Pirates, and Vampires are all present - but the set doesn't force you into tribe-or-nothing deckbuilding the way Ixalan (2017) did. The four creature types show up in the set's Commander precons more than they drive Limited.

Thematically, the mechanical identity of LCI centers on discovery, danger, and descent - going deeper, finding resources, and paying costs to unlock power.

The hollow world and cosmium

Cosmium is the new resource at the heart of the set's story, and its magic shapes the plane's inner civilization. Cards that represent the story's key turning points are labeled as Story Spotlights, including Matzalantli, the Great Door, The Core, Bitter Triumph, and Huatli's Final Strike, among others.

Returning Ixalan flavour

Several key cards from the original Ixalan block return as reprints, including Cavern of Souls, Gishath, Sun's Avatar, Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun, Treasure Map // Treasure Cove, and Sorcerous Spyglass. These aren't just nostalgia - they signal what kinds of strategies the set is designed to support.

Special Guests and the Jurassic World collection

LCI introduces a new product concept: Special Guests. These are 18 highly desirable reprints given new art and flavor text matched to Ixalan's aesthetic. They carry the set code SPG and can appear in Set Boosters and Collector Boosters.

The Special Guests list includes some genuinely exciting names:

Lord of Atlantis and Thrasios, Triton Hero for Merfolk fans
Mana Crypt (seven versions, including six neon ink variants)
Carnage Tyrant, Polyraptor, and Ghalta, Primal Hunger for Dinosaur devotees
Underworld Breach and Bridge From Below for combo players
Rampaging Ferocidon, Pitiless Plunderer, Breeches, Brazen Plunderer, and Dargo, the Shipwrecker for Pirate-adjacent strategies
Lord Windgrace, Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist, and Kalamax, the Stormsire rounding things out

This is a strong Special Guests lineup. Mana Crypt alone makes Collector Boosters worth discussing at your local game store.

LCI also features a Jurassic World Collection booster insert - original card designs (not reskins) themed around the Jurassic World film franchise, found in Set Boosters, Collector Boosters, and Bundles. It functions similarly to the Transformers insert in The Brothers' War (2022).

Neon Ink returns

First introduced in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, the Neon Ink treatment comes back in LCI with six neon-colored versions of Cavern of Souls (numbered #410a-410f) and six neon versions of the Special Guest Mana Crypt. If you love the look or want the rarest possible version of either card, these are the ones to hunt.

Treasure Trove box toppers

The set also includes a "Treasure Trove" series of 20 box topper promos - 8 uncommons, 7 rares, and 5 mythic rares. Nineteen of the twenty are reprints from outside the Ixalan block; one is from LCI itself.

Commander preconstructed decks

LCI ships with four Commander precons, and honestly, they cover a nice range of playstyles:

| Deck name | Colours | Commander | |---|---|---| | Ahoy Mateys | {U}{B}{R} | Admiral Brass, Unsinkable | | Blood Rites | {W}{B} | Clavileño, First of the Blessed | | Explorers of the Deep | {U}{G} | Hakbal of the Surging Soul | | Veloci-Ramp-Tor | {W}{R}{G} | Pantlaza, Sun-Favored |

Veloci-Ramp-Tor is the one that drew the most attention at launch - Pantlaza as a Dinosaur commander in Naya colours is exactly the kind of thing Dinosaur fans had been waiting for since the original Ixalan block. Explorers of the Deep leans into Merfolk tribal in Simic, while Ahoy Mateys gives Pirates their Grixis home. Blood Rites brings Vampires into an Orzhov shell, which fits the Vampire faction's flavour on Ixalan neatly.

Lore and setting

The story of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is told across six episodes written by Valerie Valdes, plus a side story called "Pawns" by Miguel Lopez - all published on October 20, 2023.

The action begins about a year after March of the Machine, with Ixalan in flux following the disappearance of the Immortal Sun. Multiple factions - Dinosaur-riding Sun Empire warriors, Vampire conquistadors, Merfolk, and Pirates - push into Ixalan's underground cave systems in pursuit of cosmium, a powerful new material found in the planet's depths.

What they discover is a hollow world. Past the cave systems lies Ixalan's Core, a vast interior space illuminated by Chimil, an inner sun. An ancient civilization, the ancestors of the Sun Empire known as the Oltec, has been living there, drawing power from Chimil's light. And something else lurks in the dark: Aclazotz, a bat god of night and death who becomes the set's central antagonist.

The cast of characters is notably large and varied. Key figures include Quintorius Kand (a Loxodon Planeswalker making his second major appearance), Huatli (returning home to a changed Ixalan), Amalia Benavides Aguirre, Malcolm Lee, Breeches, and Kellan - who is threading his way through multiple sets in the Omenpath Arc. Pantlaza, the great feathered Dinosaur, features prominently throughout.

Lore aside: Aclazotz is one of the Gods of Ixalan, represented in the set's "Gods of Ixalan" special treatment cards (#314-319). The Oltec civilization and the god Chimil are newly introduced to Magic's story in this set.

Alternate frames and collector treatments

LCI has a lot going on visually. Here's a quick orientation:

Legends of Ixalan showcase cards (#292-313): Mural-style art treatment for legendary permanents
Gods of Ixalan treatment (#314-319): Special frame for Ixalan's divine beings
Borderless Dinosaurs (#320-332): Full-art borderless treatment for the set's biggest creatures
Borderless Oltec cards (#333-346): Themed around the ancient underground civilisation
Borderless Restless Lands (#347-351): The set's new dual lands in borderless form
Borderless Quintorius (#352) and extended art cards (#353-392)
Bundle basic lands (#393-402) and promo cards (#403-409)
Neon Ink Cavern of Souls (#410a-410f): Six colours, very rare

The core set's five basic lands (#287-291) are full-art versions depicting Ixalan's underground world - a lovely touch for anyone who's ever wanted a cave-themed basic Forest.

Set legacy

It's genuinely interesting to see a set succeed on its own terms rather than as a sequel. By treating Ixalan as a setting rather than a mechanic, LCI freed itself from having to one-up the original block's tribal structure - and as a result it has a distinct identity. The hollow world aesthetic, the Oltec civilisation, and Aclazotz as a villain all feel like real additions to the plane's mythology rather than retreads.

The Special Guests program, introduced here, has become a recurring product feature - a sign that LCI's approach to high-value reprints with plane-appropriate flavour landed well. The Mana Crypt reprint alone made waves in the Commander community.

The Cavern of Souls reprint (original printing: Avacyn Restored, 2012) was arguably the most impactful reprint in the main set, bringing a heavily-played Modern and Legacy staple into wider circulation for the first time in years.

In my opinion, LCI is one of those sets that's more enjoyable the more you engage with its premise - it rewards players who want to explore the world it's building rather than those looking for a straight callback to 2017. Whether that's enough to make it a lasting classic is, honestly, still being written.