Be prepared to hop a dinosaur, battle through pirates for treasure, and ward off merfolk and vampires in the new Magic: The Gathering release, Ixalan!
Wizards of the Coast is hyping things up once more in the card game scene with their newest expansion. Ixalan transports players to a world worth exploring, which includes, jungles, waterways, treasures galore, and even the fabled Orazca, the lost city of gold. With 279 cards, the new expansion provides a lot of great content, artwork, and new ways to up your Magic: The Gathering game.
For centuries, the untamed jungles of Ixalan have hidden a coveted secret: Orazca, the city of gold. But no secret can remain undiscovered, and no treasure can be taken uncontested. Unfurl your sails, saddle up a dinosaur, and battle your rivals as you embark on a journey to claim the plane’s greatest fortune for yourself!
Dinosaurs, Pirates, Merfolk, and Vampires are some of the new companions to join your decks, with their own unique abilities and threat levels. Dinosaurs have “enrage”, in which something occurs when they take damage. Pirates have the “raid” mechanic, allowing the pirate to attack every chance they can and can show up either when entering the battlefield or upon completing combat while after attacking creatures. After all, pirates want to defeat enemies as fast as possible to get to their amazing Treasures (artifacts you can cash in for mana).
The great ship shown on Conqueror’s Galleon has landed, and the Vampires aboard have transformed the ship into a colony. The huge cathedral-like structures from the ship’s deck now stand on the ground, magically transplanted from the ship to shore. A wooden palisade made from the same dark wood that once formed the hull surrounds the colony. Other elements of the ship’s construction and decoration might also be visible in the colony.
The Merfolk and Vampires do not yet have released key words, but you can bet they will make battle difficult by either offering buffs or regenerating life. The last new keyword to see is “Explore”, which helps you strengthen your forces either by enhancing your hand or buffing the creatures you send into the wilds. There are many other keywords to look into plus new double-faced cards and abilities for vehicles.
Ixalan previews new Legendary Planeswalker cards, including Jace, the Cunning Castaway, and updates the rules of planeswalkers to remove the “planeswalker uniqueness rule”. Instead, the new supertype is “Legendary”, and the cards have some amazing new abilities associated with them (draw a card, anyone?).
Starting with this set, all planeswalkers past, present, and future will have the supertype legendary. They will also be subject to the “legend rule.” The “planeswalker uniqueness rule” is going away. What does this mean? In short, everything that’s true about legendary permanents will now be true about legendary planeswalkers. Also note that this does not mean legendary planeswalkers can be your Commander unless an ability says so.
Under the new rules, if a player controls more than one legendary planeswalker with the same name, that player chooses one and puts the other into their owner’s graveyard. This means that if you control Jace, Unraveler of Secrets and cast Jace, Cunning Castaway, both Jaces can exist under your control.
With exciting new cards, keywords, lands, and Legends, Ixalan aims to please and excite every Planeswalker currently amassing creatures and spells to their command. Ixalan will available for all Planeswalkers on September 29, with prerelease September 23-24. For more information, updates, and card previews, check out Magic: The Gathering online!
