The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI) Limited Overview — Red

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, and releases officially a week later on November 17, 2023. Want to learn more about how individual cards rate in Limited and some possibly fun synergies? Then check out this LCI Limited overview series!

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

Grading Scale

5.0: Must-pick, unconditionally
4.0: First-pick quality
3.5: Strong enough, but not necessarily a first pick
3.0: Above average (you’ll really want it in your final deck)
2.5: Average, maybe around the 6th or 7th pick in a draft
2.0～1.0: Below average (you’d rather not play it than play it)
0.5～0.0: Unplayable (basically don’t play it, it will only help you lose)

Red

Number of red cards by rarity

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

Jru: 3.5

Instant-speed, two mana for 3 damage. As cheap removal there’s nothing to complain about, and since LCI has an extremely high density of artifacts, to the point you could say it rivals a real artifact environment, the ability to remove artifacts is worth more here than in a regular set.

By the way, Abrade seems to be on its way to becoming a standard evergreen common like Negate and Duress.

Jru: 1.5

Just a very ordinary combat trick. Because of the Discover mechanic, combat tricks, which depend heavily on timing, may become even harder to use. Also worth mentioning: a number of Craft cards in this set use exiling artifacts as the cost, and besides producing mana as usual, Treasure tokens can also be used as Craft material.

Jru: 3.0

As a two-drop, this body plus trample is quite acceptable, and Dinosaurs are a common tribe on Ixalan, so there are plenty of chances to trigger its power-boosting ability.

Jru: 5.0

An unquestionable bomb. A five-mana 5/5 flying first striker already has terrifying combat power, and the triggered ability earns absurd value: just one Reckless Impulse per turn already snowballs into a terrifying resource gap, and exiling cards creates extra resources; it doesn’t even require you to play the card to get the token. Basically it’s a bomb that wins half the game if it survives one turn.

Jru: 5.0

This set’s all-purpose glue card. It enters with discard N, draw N+1, letting you loot without losing cards while also supporting Descend. The transform condition is descending three times before the end step of your own turn, and this card already provides one Descend when it enters, so reaching three isn’t hard. After transforming it’s a super resource-expansion engine that can easily overpower the game with a huge amount of resources.

Jru & Kappa: 2.0

On offense it can potentially act as a three-mana 4/4. Two artifacts aren’t hard to gather in this set, but many of them are slower cards or Equipment that need an equip cost, so it’s hard to turn it into a 4/4 while your teammates also provide enough early pressure.

Mono-red artifacts aren’t enough to make it a playable card, but mixed with white’s pile of cheap artifacts or artifact creatures, it can become an effective 4-power attacker, and it’s no great loss if it gets removed. A three-mana 2/3 vanilla isn’t terrible either, but that still can’t hide the problem that it only works in specific color pairs. If the ability were a static one that works whenever the condition is met, instead of only when attacking, it could go up another 0.5 to 1 point; as things stand, with no support, it is always a below-the-line card.

Jru: 4.0

Excellent as a standalone card. A three-mana 3/3 first striker puts a lot of pressure on in Limited creature combat, and the three-mode attack trigger is also very useful. Just note that LCI has far fewer Pirates this time: the entire set, including this rare, has only 14 Pirates, some of which are weak, so don’t expect too much from a Pirate tribal build.

Jru & Kappa: 2.5

When attacking or blocking it can become a two-mana 3/3. Dinosaur teammates aren’t hard to find in this set (commons and uncommons already have 18 of them, 14 of which are in the red-green pair), but there is a limit after all. However, we can also view its ability as a stronger Bushido 1; in a deck with many Dinosaurs it can often trade with a 3-toughness creature or put more attacking pressure on the opponent, making it an excellent common in red-green.

Jru: 0.5 (sealed) / 1.5 (draft)

In sealed you probably won’t have many Caves to build with, and factoring in how often you actually draw it in games, it is most likely a dead card.
Draft is a bit better, but this set’s Cave theme doesn’t have as complete a systemic payoff as KHM’s snow or DMU’s domain, so don’t expect to pick Cave cards highly.

Kappa: 1.5

You can look forward to the Cave archetype becoming a five-color Cave deck in draft, like the domain strategy in the DMU era. This card is essentially an AOE, and very powerful in a Cave deck; imagine Gates Ablaze in a Maze’s End deck to understand it better. In draft, Caves currently show up in 2 out of every 3 packs; the rating isn’t high yet, but the future looks promising.
In sealed it’s probably completely dead.

Jru: 2.5

Descending once is acceptable, and from the second Descend on it starts to pay off. Since this set has a fairly high proportion of big-bodied creatures, it takes extra effort to pump it up enough to hold an advantage in creature combat.

Jru: 2.0 (sealed) / 2.5 (draft)

Its strength depends entirely on the density of Discover cards. Copying into a Discover the first time only breaks even on the cost of the card; the second time onward is the real profit. To play this guy, first make sure your deck has a high enough chance of getting two Discovers after it enters, otherwise don’t play it. In sealed it’s also hard to put together a full Discover theme; in draft you can take some Discover cards highly for better consistency, but remember not to overpick weak Discover cards just for this card.

Jru: 2.0

Its use is close to making all the opponent’s creatures unable to block, and it can easily be the last straw that breaks the opponent. The benchmark cost for this kind of card has historically been four mana; this one costs five, but it comes with a Discover 4, and judged on its own, paying one extra mana for Discover 4 is quite a gain. However, this card is very timing-dependent: you usually use it to deliver the final blow to an opponent already on the deadline, so your basis for deciding whether to cast it should be the state of the board, not the random follow-up value of Discover 4. Even whatever the Discover 4 flips will most likely not change that turn’s attack, so it ends up as an inefficient card that costs one more than the benchmark card and can’t completely strip the opponent’s ability to block.

Jru: 2.5

A plain and unremarkable Equipment with a fairly flexible equip cost. Equipment that adds power and toughness is solid in Limited, and this set has many cards that make use of artifacts; besides producing mana, Treasures have plenty of other neat uses.

Jru & Kappa: 2.5

A very benchmark common curve creature, plus it’s an artifact, a Dinosaur, and a Gnome, covering half of this set’s tribal support at once. Saheeli will love it. (A double meaning, from the card’s flavor text and the mythic Saheeli.)

Jru: 4.0

Looking at the ratio of cost to ability, it is among the more efficient Equipment. After transforming, as long as you can supply artifact fodder, it keeps snowballing and suppressing the board, and even with only one or two pieces of fodder to use as ammo, that’s usually enough to remove the opponent’s most important thing.

Jru: 2.0

The front side yields little. The back side can turn small creatures into a firepower source the opponent has a hard time ignoring, but it grants no toughness and no trample, so things that should trade still get traded off, unless you can keep supplying creatures to make the free-ride pressure plan work better. The transform condition is controlling four artifacts, which isn’t too hard in this set but is still a somewhat demanding restriction.

Jru: 3.0

A very rare combat trick that breaks past 2.5. Generally combat tricks risk a 2-for-1 if they’re answered by removal, so scores rarely climb, but this card has an especially high ceiling: one mana for +2/+2 and trample is already usable on its own, and the bundled artifact removal is especially important in this set; used well, it’s a removal spell that can get a 2-for-1.

Jru: 2.0

One source of fodder for artifact strategies, but it also needs you to descend, which is still asking a bit much.

Jru: 2.5

It can be treated as pseudo-looting. The Aura itself is worth about one mana, but adding Discover 3, it isn’t hard to get the value of a card equivalent to three mana. Note that this Aura also risks a 2-for-1 if it’s responded to after targeting.

Jru: 4.0

Close to a Bloodbraid Elf without haste. Since the body itself can already trade with the opponent’s creatures, whatever you flip is basically profit.

Jru: 1.0

Only an extreme aggro plan can make use of it, but many artifacts are incompatible with that plan, and for a more midrange game plan a conditional one-mana Grizzly Bears isn’t very appealing.

Jru: 2.5

One of the outlets for artifact strategies, turning your artifacts into attacking pressure. Note, however, that the ability can only be activated at sorcery speed, it grants neither first strike nor extra toughness, and you can’t squander your own attackers too happily.

Jru: 0.5

Discover 10 is basically flipping cards from the top of the library until the next nonland card, and you very likely spent seven mana to do the work of a two- or three-mana play. Usually if you can reach seven mana you’re not short on mana, and the Treasures are mostly there to keep artifact strategies running, but I trust you don’t want to spend a seven-mana play just to squeeze out a few Treasures…

Jru: 2.5 (sealed) / 3.0 (draft)

It counts as one of the artifact creatures best suited to an aggro plan, but charging out alone makes it easy to get traded off, and this set’s mechanics overall lean toward long resource wars, so in sealed an aggro plan probably won’t go very happily. Its bigger value may be that it easily serves as Craft material from the graveyard. In draft, you can actively pursue red-white aggro, which better shows off the haste value of three power for three mana.

Jru: 2.5

The front is a three-mana Shock, the back is a Scavenged Blade; neither side is efficient, but once combined into one card it’s still usable. Also, an artifact like this that just sits in place after its enter ability triggers is well suited to be Craft material for other cards or a starting point for artifact strategies.

Jru: 4.0

Much like a pseudo-Raffine, Scheming Seer attack trigger, and also an active Descend engine. In an even or winning game it easily creates plenty of advantage, but when behind it can’t do anything.

Jru: 4.0

Precious long-range removal for red, with a 5/5 crew 2 body for good value, and a chance to provide extra Treasures for various uses.

Jru: 4.0

Although a god that has a chance to come back from death looks impressive, neither side of this red god has enough supporting cards in this set, and even in draft you may not collect them all, so in practice it’s likely just a 4/4 trampler that gives you a red land when it dies. If you pick up two longer-range burn spells, you can look forward to it coming back once.

Kappa & Jru: 3.5

A five-mana 4/5 with reach can block the vast majority of attackers, and every turn it can burn the opponent for 2 out of nowhere. Stabilize the board and you can win; it’s basically a simplified Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. This also proves how important 5 toughness with reach is; Onakke Javelineer should take note. If you see it around pick 3 to 4 in draft, it’s very welcome, a solid five-mana common choice for red.

Jru: 3.0

A plain, unremarkable curve-filling creature with decent trading ability, and the free Treasure is quite useful.

Jru & Kappa: 5.0

A super-rewarding card for artifact strategies. As long as you get two Dinosaur tokens, it has paid for itself, and from the third on it’s pure profit. This set has quite a few Dinosaur creatures, and you can also expect to get a few Treasures along the way. On the flip side, when you don’t draw these specified types of cards it’s completely useless, so its floor and ceiling depend heavily on the distribution of your card pool.

Its real value is that the first artifact each turn comes with a creature that can both attack and block. Among this set’s commons and uncommons there are 50 artifacts in total: red has 9, colorless has 14, so it’s hard to completely miss out, and mixing with other colors gives even more: white has 10, blue has 9. Dinosaurs are mainly in red-green; the Treasures produced by this card’s Dinosaur attacks help with color fixing, and casting artifacts makes Dinosaurs, so once this card gets going it is hard to stop unless the Enchantment is destroyed. In summary, it’s a big bomb worth building a deck around, and you can specifically build red-green-white or red-green-blue; considering it can make Dinosaurs on its own, you might not even need to splash green, as red’s own Dinosaurs or the ones it makes itself can sustain the first effect.
Note that because casting an artifact spell immediately produces a Dinosaur, even if you know the opponent can respond at instant speed to destroy the Enchantment, you can slam this Enchantment for four mana and then immediately slam a one-mana artifact, and the opponent still can’t stop the first Dinosaur from being produced; either way you can force a 1-for-0 against the opponent.
Side note: this card’s art enlightened me. (I’m just reading the flavor text aloud, okay?)

cephille:
I’m not giving a rating, but a three-mana Enchantment into a four-mana Dinotomaton, then on turn five attacking with two Dinosaurs to make two Treasures and jump to seven mana, is really too explosive! Saheeli will indeed love it! (And the expressions on these two characters are so dramatic XD)

Jru: 3.0

A super menace guy, the right type, and a fairly reasonable high-end choice among non-rare creatures.

Jru: 3.0

A bit clunky, but also precious long-range removal for red.

Jru: 3.5

Discard 1, draw 2 on entering is decent looting and a Descend trigger source, and it can also fill the graveyard with Craft material. This set has a high density of Dinosaurs, so finding Craft material from the graveyard isn’t hard, and it easily transforms into a creature with enough combat power to create value a second time.

Jru: 3.0

In Constructed it can be a control killer, but in Limited the proportion of instant-speed plays is naturally not that high, and for many plays the opponent choosing to do it on their own turn doesn’t change much, so most of the time it’s probably a three-mana 4/3. Still, judged by body alone it’s above average, and the ability to deal 4 damage, even if it can be played around, is a considerable pressure and restriction on the opponent.

cephille: Note that taking 4 for casting a spell during an opponent’s turn applies to you too. When it’s on the battlefield and your life total is behind, remember to cast your removal on your own turn first.

Jru: 3.0

A reasonable body when cast normally, and it can convert surplus lands into new resources. In Limited, the late game often finds everyone with a pile of lands but no cards in hand, so this resource-conversion ability is quite terrifying in the mid to late game, and early on you can use Mountaincycling to stabilize your mana base.

Jru: 1.5

Although it’s also a pseudo-Shock, it requires you to slam the Equipment and then manually pick it up before it works, and the timing of sacrificing the Equipment is when attackers are declared, so by the time combat damage is dealt, even the originally negligible +1/+0 is gone.

Jru: 2.0

As the winning outlet for artifact strategies, the ability itself is decent, but sorcery speed limits its room to shine somewhat, and the body is weak, so in terms of trading efficiency it may not even beat a simple punch-for-punch trade.

Jru: 0.5

This set doesn’t emphasize going wide with token creatures, and this is even a sorcery; if you really face an opponent it suits, consider it in sideboarding games…

Jru: 3.0

This set’s Dinosaur density is high enough that one mana for 5 damage isn’t hard, and even if you happen to have no Dinosaur at the moment, there’s still the one-mana 2-damage floor, so you can still remove some cheap creatures and it won’t become a completely dead card.

Jru: 5.0

The body alone has the combat power of a six-drop, and Discover 5 is profit no matter what, with a very high ceiling on that profit. When you’re short on removal it can also help: the pseudo-channel three mana for 3 isn’t efficient, but at least it has acceptable range, and it’s a free extra flexible option.

Jru: 2.0

The body isn’t strong, but it works as some strategy lubricant. A 2/2 charging out easily doesn’t come back, and when used to crew Vehicles it’s an excellent driver.

Jru: 2.0

A card with a wildly floating floor and ceiling. If you use it to remove the opponent’s card, in theory what you flip won’t be stronger than what you shuffle back, but either way you’re still down a card, and what the opponent flips may not be much worse or may even be the same card; as for using it to save yourself, the randomness likewise makes the outcome hard to predict. Overall it’s not a card you’ll want to actively use, but as long-range removal it still has its place: if the opponent has some big bomb and you lack other suitable removal, this card at least gives a glimmer of hope, and whether the result is good or bad is left to fate.