Ixalan

Ixalan
Set Information
Set symbol
Themes and mechanics	Tribal, Double-faced cards, Vehicles, Treasure tokens, +1/+1 counters, life as a resource
Keywords/​ability words	Explore, Enrage, Raid, Crew, Transform
Set size	279 + 10
Expansion code	XLN
Development codename	Ham

Ixalan [ˈɪk.sə.lɑːn] (rhymes with "fix a con") is the 76^th Magic expansion, and the first in the Ixalan block. It was released on September 29, 2017, and is a large expansion.

Set details

Ixalan contains 279 cards (20 basic land, 101 common, 80 uncommon, 63 rare, and 15 mythic rare) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. Ten additional cards are found in the set's planeswalker decks (2 mythic planeswalkers, 2 rares, 2 uncommons, 2 commons, and 2 common dual lands). These are numbered #280/279 to #289/279. Ten of the rares are Double-faced cards which were printed on a seperate print sheet. These appear in the rare/mythic slot of booster packs, which changes the mythic rare to rare ratio from 15:106 to 15:126. A checklist card replaces the basic land in some boosters. Five of the basic lands depict a lost Jace Beleren. The boosters feature artwork from Slash of Talons, Vicious Conquistador, Hijack, Fire Shrine Keeper and Vraska, Relic Seeker.

A complete Ixalan rare foil print sheet was leaked three months before prerelease, which caused Wizards of the Coast to re-evaluate their preview plan.

Misprints

A number of non-foil, double-sided Ixalan cards were mistakenly printed on incorrect card stock.

Rules change

Starting with this set, all planeswalkers past, present, and future have the supertype legendary. They will also be subject to the "legend rule" instead of the "planeswalker uniqueness rule", which is being removed from the game.

Storyline

“

Brave the Unknown

”

This is a story about desire. It is desire for power, desire for companionship, desire for approval, desire for discovery, and everyone is racing to get what they want first. For centuries, the untamed jungles of Ixalan have hidden a coveted secret: Orazca, the city of gold, which houses a mysterious artifact, the Immortal Sun. But no secret can remain undiscovered, and no treasure can be taken uncontested. The dinosaur riding warriors of the Sun Empire and the merfolk shamans of the rival River Heralds are met by the vampire conquistadores of the Legion of Dusk and the pirates of the Brazen Coalition.

Vraska poses as a pirate on the high seas, while Jace Beleren is stranded on the plane with loss of all his memories.

The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in Ixalan are: Ixalan's Binding, Vraska's Contempt, River's Rebuke, Thaumatic Compass // Spires of Orazca, and Perilous Voyage.

Marketing

Ixalan is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card), two planeswalker decks, the Ixalan bundle and a Deck Builder's Toolkit.

There is no Masterpiece Series accompanying Ixalan.

As part of the preview season, Wizards of the Coast distributed trackable game pieces to stores, fans, volunteers, and some well-known community folk. As game pieces travelled from from geochache to geocache, the distances they travelled influenced the release of preview cards.

Events

• Prerelease Events took place on September 23, 2017.
• Magic Online Launch: September 25, 2017
• Dino-Sized Weekend: The weekend of October 28–29, stores around the world host six-pack Sealed events, three-pack Draft events, and very special dino-sized Draft events using four packs of Ixalan instead of three.
• Mid-Season League: Running November 6 through December 3, stores can run Ixalan Mid-Season Leagues.

Promotional Cards

• Magic Open House: Full-art foil Walk the Plank
• Prerelease: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare from the set.
• Draft Weekend Launch promo: Bishop of Rebirth
• Standard Showdown: foil basic land with art by Rebecca Guay.
• Magic League: foil Unclaimed Territory
• Store Championship: full-art foil Ghalta, Primal Hunger, showcasing the upcoming Rivals of Ixalan set (Top 8 receives a deck box).
• Buy-a-Box: Burning Sun's Avatar
  • As a first, there is also a "Dino sized" 9-card Buy-a-Box booster. This contains an extra Buy-a-Box promo card and the equivalent contents of two Standard Showdown prize boosters. The booster contents will only be available in English and Japanese.
• FNM promos:
  • 1/1 White Vampire token with Lifelink / Treasure (Legion of Dusk flavored)
  • 3/3 Green Dinosaur token with Trample / Treasure token (Sun Empire flavored)
  • 2/2 Black Pirate token with Menace / Treasure token (Brazen Coalition flavored)

Tokens

Ixalan features 10 tokens.

1. 1/1 Vampire with Lifelink for Legion's Landing, Adanto, the First Fort, Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle, Paladin of the Bloodstained, Queen's Commission and Call to the Feast
2. 2/2 Illusion with "When this creature becomes the target of a spell, sacrifice it." for Jace, Cunning Castaway
3. 1/1 Merfolk with Hexproof for Deeproot Waters
4. 2/2 Pirate with Menace for Fathom Fleet Captain and Vraska, Relic Seeker
5. 3/3 Dinosaur with Trample for Raptor Hatchling, Thundering Spineback, Huatli, Warrior Poet and Regisaur Alpha
6. 0/2 Plant with Defender for Dowsing Dagger
7. Treasure Artifact (Sun Empire flavored) with ", Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool." for Pirate's Prize, Prosperous Pirates, Sailor of Means, Spell Swindle, Contract Killing, Dire Fleet Hoarder, Heartless Pillage, Revel in Riches, Ruthless Knave, Wanted Scoundrels, Captain Lannery Storm, Trove of Tempation, Wily Goblin, Deadeye Plunderers, Vraska, Relic Seeker, Prying Blade and Treasure Map.
8. Treasure Artifact (Legion of Dusk flavored)
9. Treasure Artifact (River Heralds flavored)
10. Treasure Artifact (Brazen Coalition flavored)

Themes and mechanics

Ixalan is a tribal set, with Pirates (), Dinosaurs (), Merfolk () and Vampires (). This is the first time Magic has an uneven color distribution of factions within a set. Though the tribes are asymmetrical, the colors are not. Each color has two tribes. The fact that Pirates and Dinosaurs both need more cards to become tribes properly (as compared to merfolk and vampires, who are already pretty established) was a factor in them becoming the two 3 color factions. The two colour pairs that are not represented in this scheme - and - do not have multicoloured signpost uncommons, but have explore and fliers as a theme respectively.

Raid returns from Khans of Tarkir (now connected to Pirates), Crew from Kaladesh (connected to the ships from Torrezon), and Transform from Innistrad (the double-faced cards now highlighting the tales and tools of discovery). The DFC's all have a Land on the "back" face cards, which features a map-inspired card frame. The front face is recognized by the icon of a compass rose and the the back face is marked by the land icon last seen in Future Sight .

There are two new named mechanics:

• Explore — Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature, then put the card back on top or into your graveyard.
• Enrage — Whenever a creature with this ability word is dealt damage, it has some consequences. This is the signature mechanic of the Dinosaurs.

The Merfolk make use strategy revolves around being very difficult to block and growing via +1/+1 counters, while Vampires use life as a resource.

Card types

Treasure

Ixalan introduces the treasure artifact subtype and the return of the dinosaur creature type. The trilobite creature type is new.

Vehicles are back from the Kaladesh block in the form of ships.

Cycles

Ixalan has seven cycles, one of which is reprinted. Notably, three of these cycles are partial, due to the uneven distribution of colors among the set's tribes.

• Legendary transforming enchantments: Five rare legendary enchantments that transform into legendary lands when a condition is met; these lands tap for colored mana and have another powerful activated ability — Legion's Landing // Adanto, the First Fort (), Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, The Sunken Ruin (), Arguel's Blood Fast // Temple of Aclazotz (), Vance's Blasting Cannons // Spitfire Bastion (), and Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun ().
• Keepers: Five common creatures with an activated ability that each costs and one colored mana, tapping and sacrificing the creature. They function as late-game mana sinks, similar to the Invokers from Legions and Rise of the Eldrazi — Encampment Keeper (), Shore Keeper (), Blight Keeper (), Fire Shrine Keeper (), and Ixalli's Keeper ().
• Allied color check lands: Each of these five rare dual lands comes into play tapped unless you control a land of one of the appropriate types. This cycle was first printed in Magic 2010 — Glacial Fortress (), Drowned Catacomb (), Dragonskull Summit (), Rootbound Crag (), and Sunpetal Grove ().
• Two-colored draft archetypes: Eight uncommon cards which each represent a two-colored draft archetype — Deadeye Plunderers ( treasure), Dire Fleet Captain ( pirate aggro), Raging Swordtooth ( enrage), Belligerent Brontodon ( dinosaur ramp), Call to the Feast ( vampires), Shapers of Nature ( merfolk), Marauding Looter ( raid), and Sky Terror ( dinosaur aggro).
  • Unusually, this cycle is missing and cards. This is due to no tribes on Ixalan consisting of those color combinations. (flying) and (explore) are still viable draft archetypes, albeit ones designed for "more advanced drafters."
• Explorer Commons: Each of these five common creatures explores when they enter the battlefield. The cycle has a rising converted mana cost in reverse enemy color order — Ixalli's Diviner (), Siren Lookout (), Brazen Buccaneers (), Sunrise Seeker (), Queen's Agent ().
  • The other two explorers at common are black (Dire Fleet Interloper ) and green (Tishana's Wayfinder ) to help the draft archetype.
• Legendary creatures: Four mythic rare legendary creatures, each of which is of one of the four tribes and has a color identity of all colors for that tribe — Admiral Beckett Brass ( pirates), Gishath, Sun's Avatar ( dinosaurs), Tishana, Voice of Thunder ( merfolk), and Vona, Butcher of Magan ( vampires).
• Avatars of the sun: Three rare or mythic dinosaurs, each tied flavor-wise to a different aspect of the Threefold Sun and with related flavor texts — Wakening Sun's Avatar (), Burning Sun's Avatar (), Verdant Sun's Avatar ().

Mirrored pairs

Ixalan has two mirrored pairs,

• Rare gold creatures: A pair of rare multicolor creatures with powerful enters the battlefield abilities, each of which is in one of the tribes introduced in Ixalan — Hostage Taker ( Pirates) and Regisaur Alpha ( Dinosaurs).
• Uncommon Scouts: A pair of uncommon Scout creatures with a mana cost of M that explore when they enter the battlefield. They have a mirrored power and toughness and help the draft archetype — Seekers' Squire (, 1/2) and Merfolk Branchwalker (, 2/1).

Reprinted cards

• Air Elemental, first printed in Alpha (last seen in Welcome Deck 2017).
• Cancel, first printed in Time Spiral (last seen in Amonkhet).
• Cobbled Wings, first printed in Innistrad.
• Demolish, first printed in Odyssey (last seen in Kaladesh).
• Demystify, first printed in Onslaught (last seen in Magic 2012).
• Dual Shot, first printed in Shadows over Innistrad.
• Duress, first printed in Urza's Saga (last seen in Eternal Masters).
• Favorable Winds, first printed in Avacyn Restored (last seen in Conspiracy).
• Hijack, first printed in Kaladesh.
• Opt, first printed in Invasion.
• Mark of the Vampire, first printed in Magic 2013 (last seen in Magic 2014).
• Rummaging Goblin, first printed in Magic 2013 (last seen in Magic 2015).
• Slice in Twain, first printed in Scars of Mirrodin (last seen in Commander 2013).
• Spell Pierce, first printed in Zendikar (last seen in Amonkhet Invocations).
• Sure Strike, first printed in Battle for Zendikar.
• Unknown Shores, first printed in Theros (last seen in Oath of the Gatewatch).

Common to Uncommon

• Lightning Strike, first printed in Theros (last seen in Magic 2015).

Functional Reprints

• Castaway's Despair is a functional reprint of Sleep Paralysis from Shadows over Innistrad.
• Crash the Ramparts is a functional reprint of Awaken the Bear from Khans of Tarkir.
• Grazing Whiptail is a functional reprint of Cloudcrown Oak from Lorwyn, except for creature types.
• Looming Altisaur is a functional reprint of Kami Of Old Stone from Champions of Kamigawa, except for creature types.
• One with the Wind is a functional reprint of Spectral Flight from Innistrad.
• Queen's Bay Soldier is a functional reprint of Walking Corpse from Innistrad, except for creature types.
• Raptor Companion is a functional reprint of Blade of the Sixth Pride from Future Sight, except for creature types.
• Shining Aerosaur is a functional reprint of Skyswirl Harrier from Kaladesh, except for creature types.
• Skyblade of the Legion is a functional reprint of Concordia Pegasus from Return to Ravnica, except for creature types.
• Slash of Talons is a functional reprint of Righteous Blow from Avacyn Restored.
• Swashbuckling is a functional reprint of Goblin War Paint from Zendikar.
• Storm Sculptor is a functional reprint of Keymaster Rogue from Return to Ravnica, except for creature types.
• Wind Strider is a functional reprint of Faerie Invaders from Magic 2013, except for creature types.
• Watertrap Weaver is a functional reprint of Frost Lynx from Magic 2015, except for creature types.

Preconstructed decks

Ixalan will have two planeswalker decks:

Planeswalker deck name	Colors Included					Planeswalker
Jace		U			G	Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage
Huatli	W			R		Huatli, Dinosaur Knight

Notable cards

• Revel in Riches is an alternate-win card.
• Hostage Taker received errata before it was released, because as worded it could create an infinite loop.