The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI) Limited Review: Blue

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI) holds its prerelease events on November 10, 2023, with the official release a week later on November 17, 2023. Want to know more about how each card rates in Limited and some interesting possible combinations? Then check out this LCI Limited review series!

For the mechanics, see this article: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Mechanics Explained

Rating Scale

5.0: Unconditional first pick
4.0: Worth a first pick
3.5: Strong enough but not necessarily a first pick
3.0: Above average (you would very much like it in your final deck)
2.5: Average, maybe around the 6th or 7th pick in a draft
2.0 to 1.0: Below average (you would rather not play it than play it)
0.5 to 0.0: Unplayable (basically don’t play it; playing it will only help you lose)

Blue

Number of cards of each rarity in blue

C: 19
U: 14
R: 8
MR: 2

cephille: 3.5
A 1/5 body for three mana is very sturdy. At the beginning of each player’s end step, if an artifact entered the battlefield under your control that turn, you can cast a Nagging Thoughts effect. As long as you pair it with some artifacts with flash, or cards like Brackish Blunder and Ancestors’ Aid that can instantly make artifact tokens, you can steadily gain card advantage.

cephille: 2.5
Sift with a new name.

cephille: 2.5
Unsummon costing one more, which conditionally gives you a Map token. In a blue deck, that condition should have a good chance of happening.

cephille: 4.0
After it enters, you get three chances to remove a net counter from it, which can tap a nonland permanent, and while it stays tapped its activated abilities can’t be used. Although it isn’t like Icy Manipulator, which you can use over and over for great effect, it adds the ability to lock down activated abilities, and used well it should be able to disrupt the opponent’s plans and gain an advantage. In Limited, you should also get to see the amusing sight of planeswalkers or enchantments tapped down and unable to move.

And Craft costs very little, so after it transforms you can pair it with your artifacts for a big draw, and it also puts the card back as the third card from the top of your library so you can keep using it, tapping over and over for great effect!

Small reminder: cards with text like “for as long as…” only have their effect last until the condition stops being met. So once the nonland permanent locked down by this net untaps, the lock ends, and it will not stay locked just because the permanent becomes tapped again. You can refer to the text of cards like Quicksmith Spy (after Quicksmith Spy leaves the battlefield, the designated artifact no longer has the “tap: draw a card” ability) to help understand!

cephille: 3.0

A reprint of Chart a Course. An efficient card-draw spell, and I would very much like to have one or more in my deck.

cephille: 2.0
Basically the artifact version of Zulaport Duelist, but with a 1/2 body. Artifacts entering the battlefield have some synergies in this set, and the ETB ability that weakens a creature, used well, might serve as a small piece of removal. Other than that, though, this is still a rather weak card.

cephille: 3.5
Very flexible, basically an upgrade of Supreme Will from HOU. For three mana it can be an Impulse that can trigger descend, and when necessary it can also be a Convolute. Use it whenever you need one side or the other! You will be very glad to have it in your deck!

cephille: 3.5
Speaking of HOU just now, the Spirit version of our old friend Angler Drake has arrived too. Although the body is the same, the return-to-hand effect on entering needs descend 4 to be satisfied and so is a bit less reliable, but the upside is that when it triggers it can return a nonland permanent. Basically, a six-mana 4/4 flier is worth trying one of in a midrange Limited deck, and as long as you have a suitable build and setup before it comes down, the chance of triggering the descend 4 effect is still not small.

cephille: 4.0
As long as your deck can have 7 or more Merfolk cards, this is a big bomb; in a draft it is also worth first-picking and building around the Merfolk theme. I docked it slightly because it needs a special deck build to fully show its power, but the strengths outweigh the flaws.

cephille: 2.0
A five-mana 3/2 that draws a card on entering, but it’s only really worth using if you can trigger descend 4 so that it can fly. The fact that its creature types get no theme bonus may be what finally made me decide not to play it.

cephille: 2.5
As a flash soft removal, it turns the opponent’s big guy, annoying flier, or hard-to-remove god into a vanilla 1/1 with no abilities, which makes it a lifesaver for decks without bombs. It also has the small advantage that it can trigger descend when it dies. Taken together, these two points make me fairly optimistic about this card’s performance in Limited.

cephille: 3.0
This set has quite a lot of artifacts (counting Treasure and Map tokens too) and other permanents with activated abilities. As a one-drop it can’t be used the turn it enters, but afterward it makes your activated abilities quite smooth, and it can perhaps be seen as a weaker or nearly equivalent Training Grounds. As for Craft, it needs nine mana plus four nonland cards with activated abilities, which at first glance may seem unlikely to achieve, but if your deck is good at making Treasure and Map tokens, transforming it may not be that hard. After it transforms, besides being able to use the activated abilities of the cards exiled to pay for Craft, it also lets you copy each of your activated abilities that isn’t a mana ability once. Just sacrificing a Map to explore twice is already a great deal. Of course, if you have no abilities worth using, simply treating it as a small Training Grounds without transforming is also fine.

Of course, don’t forget that it can produce mana first and then use that mana to pay for its own Craft ability! So in practice it only takes seven mana to activate.

cephille: 3.0
I would treat it as a Divination that triggers artifacts entering and speeds up descend. Descend 8 is somewhat hard to reach, but it’s not impossible. If you can reach it and transform it, besides getting an extra land, if you spend the mana it produces on casting a permanent spell, another of your permanents can become a copy of it until end of turn. Basically, it’s likely that you cast a creature and make a land to attack with. In short, it is a Divination with a very high ceiling, and Divination should do well in more midrange-leaning environments, so I believe it can perform quite well in LCI too.

cephille: 2.0
A 2/5 body for four mana should be very sturdy, and descend 4 making it a 4/5 is even better, but if I have other options I would still rather put another creature in my four-drop slot.

cephille: 2.0
Just after looking at a 2/5 for four, now comes a 1/4 for two. It looks like blue in Limited is basically built toward midrange. Use these creatures to hold the ground early, and in the mid-to-late game they can sneak in a few punches or trade with a 4/4. In red-blue, white-blue artifacts, or blue-black descend 8 decks that need blockers, using it should be fine; in blue-green there are probably better options, so you wouldn’t use it.

cephille: 2.0
Basically there should be plenty of creature and artifact targets for counterspells in this set, and if you counter a mid-to-late-game threat and then discover 4 or more, being able to pull it off would be very nice. But note that it is relatively tempo-costly. If in actual testing it gets stuck in your hand more often than it earns you value, then don’t play it. Blue-black may suit it better in terms of speed: kill or bounce things early, then counter something in the midgame for a payoff.

cephille: 2.5
For two mana it enters, mills one, and draws one without losing cards, and at six mana it can Craft into a 6/6 that taps/untaps a target artifact or creature when attacking. Basically, in an artifact theme you can play it for card flow plus a mid-to-late-game threat, and two-in-one cards are generally not bad to use.

cephille: 3.5
A three-mana 2/3 flier with ward (1). When it enters, for each player you can choose an artifact or creature they control and turn it into a Treasure that loses all abilities. Basically it turns the opponent’s threat into a Treasure, effectively a soft removal on entering; and if you are stuck on lands or colors yourself, you can also choose another of your own creatures or artifacts to fix your mana.

cephille: 3.0
It enters with flash and stuns an artifact or creature for two turns, and its Craft cost is also low at just three mana. After transforming it lets your creatures keep exploring. It feels like it will do well in blue-green and red-blue decks that may play a more tempo-oriented game.

cephille: 4.0
A 2/1 flash flier is a great tempo gain, and looting while it attacks is just too strong. Doing it four times lets you cast the discarded cards for free, which should be hard to achieve unless your opponent just lets it keep looting. Otherwise, if you have an answer, you should prioritize removing it.

cephille: 2.0
Basically over ninety percent of the time it’s just for finding lands, so unless you are really short on finishers or have mana to spare in the late game, only then consider hard-casting it!

cephille: 3.0
This set should have quite a few sources of explore, and each explore gives it +1/+0 and makes it unblockable, which is a pretty good payoff. Note that it grows whenever you explore, so if you need it to block and kill a 3/3, you can block and then explore to trigger the growth.

cephille: 1.5
A two-mana 1/2 vigilance flier doesn’t make me want to play it, but it can serve as a mana dork for the activated abilities of artifacts or artifact sources, which makes me hesitate over whether to give it a higher score. It should be fine for activating Craft, and I feel its pick order may be slightly higher in white-blue.

cephille: 5.0
Every god is a bomb, end of story. A four-mana 4/3 flier is a very good body, and basically can’t die in Limited. When it transforms it becomes a land that enters tapped that turn, so note it can’t produce mana right away. After removing three counters you can also pay three mana to transform it back, and the opponent will probably cry at having to face it again. I’m mentioning last that it rebounds when cast from hand because that is probably the least critical ability in Limited. Considering that this set is an artifact environment and descend cares about permanent cards in our graveyard, we will probably be more willing to include permanent-based removal when building decks, which in turn leaves you with fewer nonpermanent cards and greatly lowers the chance that the blue god’s rebound ability happens.

cephille: 1.5
You again! Nagging Thoughts! Don’t think I won’t recognize you just because you split yourself into two stages and added the artifact type! Although this is an artifact environment, I probably still don’t really want to play this card, though of course if I need fodder for Craft, perhaps it’s a decent choice.

cephille: 2.0
This set’s version of Cancel costs one more, but has a chance to become a two-blue-mana Essence Scatter, so it’s quite flexible to use. Basically, if you play it, treat it as an Essence Scatter, and when needed you can add two mana to counter spells other than creatures.

cephille: 3.0
There’s one Equipment in each of the five colors, and besides giving +1/+1 when attached, it lets you loot whenever it attacks! It’s worth playing even if you’re not putting it on a Pirate, and it’s very strong.

cephille: 2.0
Infect… no, forget I said anything. This may be a nice sneaky trick, letting your own artifact suddenly become a 4/3 to block and kill the opponent’s small creature or trade with an opposing creature with four toughness.

cephille: 2.0
Play it if your deck needs sources of explore; otherwise it’s just a very ordinary two-mana filler. Of course, it may get a bit of the Merfolk theme bonus.

cephille: 2.5
Blue descend decks should need it a lot. Look at three, keep one on top of the library and put the others into the graveyard, which speeds up your descend 4/8/fathomless and also lets you trigger descend effects on purpose. A three-mana 3/2 is also an acceptable body.

cephille: 1.5
Six mana to copy one, four mana to Flashback and do it again. It sounds lovely, but it still feels too slow. Still, if you happily mill it away when you see it early on, that should make it somewhat better, but since it isn’t a permanent I probably still wouldn’t want to play it.

cephille: 1.0
A two-mana 3/3 defender that can attack once an artifact enters. In red-blue or white-blue it probably wouldn’t be too hard to trigger, but do I really need it to attack? If not that badly, why not honestly play a bear that can attack?

cephille: 2.5 (Cave-theme decks only)
The plesiosaur makes its appearance too, woohoo! A six-mana 4/4 is an ordinary body plus a Cave-theme payoff card. As long as you have two or more Caves between the battlefield and graveyard, you are guaranteed to draw two cards. Basically, don’t play it without Caves, but if your deck has 4 or more Caves you can consider including it.

cephille: 1.5
It feels like a rather bad removal spell. Even if your graveyard reaches descend 8 and gives the target creature or Vehicle -8/-0, it’s still just a soft removal. Looking at the similarly positioned Deathcap Marionette, which I would only give 2.0 myself, giving this card 1.5 shouldn’t be unfair.

cephille: 2.0
I’m not sure how fast this set is, but from a first look it should lean midrange, like BRO Limited. So a one-mana card that makes a 1/1 flier plus a Map token to explore with probably still won’t get a very high score.

cephille: 3.0
A very strong bear. Looking at four and taking an artifact or Pirate to hand on entering will be a big gain in the right build. It’s the main two-drop I take when I’m playing these two themes.

cephille: 3.5
After Kaladesh, is the age of big Vehicles coming again? A two-mana 3/4 Vehicle with crew 1 that, when it attacks, makes the creature that crewed it explore. With it around, the pick order of the Spyglass Siren from before goes up. Turn one play the 1/1, turn two play the Vehicle, turn three crew and explore on the 1/1 flier, then after combat sacrifice the Map and explore once more, and next turn you may have a flier with a ceiling of 3/3 that can attack on its own or keep crewing to explore… Looks like it can be played in Constructed too? Of course, being able to achieve that tempo in Limited would be fantastic!

cephille: 3.5
A three-mana 3/2 with flash already has decent value. On entering, it first counters an activated or triggered ability, and then if the countered target is an artifact, creature, or planeswalker, it keeps losing all abilities as long as it is on the battlefield. This is a great tempo card. If your opponent has Quintorius Kand, you can flash in the Merfolk to cancel the planeswalker’s loyalty ability while also paralyzing it. But remember that as soon as the Merfolk leaves the battlefield, the locked card’s abilities return to normal, so you still need to take the chance to remove the opponent’s bomb to eliminate the lingering threat.

Incidentally, Craft is also an activated ability. Exiling itself and the other designated materials is the cost, and transforming is the effect. If you use this Merfolk to counter a Craft ability, besides countering the transform effect, the cards exiled as the activation cost are also gone forever.

cephille: 2.0
For four mana, the opponent puts their target artifact or creature on the top or bottom of its owner’s library. I’m not sure whether it will be too slow in this set, so I’ll give it a base score. But if the opponent has an effect that searches or shuffles the library, then before it resolves you can shuffle the opponent’s threat back along with it and hope not to see it again.

cephille: 1.5
This card is used early to advance descend, and late, after descend 8, you Craft an Island into a 4/4 unblockable Vehicle. It feels like it does a lot of impressive things, but still feels a bit too slow, and self-milling early is rather weak. To advance descend I would rather pick a card like Sage of Days.

cephille: 2.5
Uh… you’re just a Spyglass Siren who has eaten a bit more, right? I recognize you… What! You’re a Merfolk!

cephille: 2.0
A Hill Giant that, if you control an artifact, stuns an opponent’s artifact or creature for one turn on entering. If you lack a four-mana Pirate you can still use it. After all, a Pirate or artifact deck shouldn’t be short on artifacts, so the ETB ability should usually earn value.

cephille: 3.0
This Aura turns your artifact into a 5/4 artifact creature, and when it goes from the battlefield to the graveyard you can discover 3. When you have artifacts like Treasures on the battlefield that aren’t of any use yet, you can spend three mana to cast it and make a big guy to join combat, and you also have a chance to discover 3 when it hits the graveyard and immediately gain resources. A comparison that comes to mind is Mightstone’s Animation from BRO. In LCI, also an artifact environment, I think this three-mana Aura will perform better, and discover 3 usually brings a board advantage more directly than drawing a card.