Welcome back, Lore Seekers! I'm a little behind schedule, but I wanted to dive into the Flavor Gems of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan today! The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is a tough one for flavor gems, as it has so much new worldbuilding, it is effectively a new plane! The Planeswalker's Guide to Lost Caverns of Ixalan is 20,000 words! I'm not going to cover everything new here, but I will start with a general overview of the new lore for LCI.

What's New in the Lost Caverns

LCI Key Art by Anna Podedworna

The central premise of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is that after the Phyrexian Invasion the various factions discovered pathways that led deeper inside Ixalan than anyone thought possible. A whole world exists under the surface, full of danger and riches, and if you progress far enough you may come across the core, an entire world-within-a-world at the center of the plane. While there are still dinosaurs in the caverns and core, they're now a new featherless variety.

The Core is home to the Oltec, a civilization that has resided there for millennia and from whom the Sun Empire branched off centuries ago when they made the journey to the surface. The Oltec make liberal use of gnomes, small mechanical creatures who fill many roles in society. Also residing within the core are the Deep Gods, a previous unknown pantheon whose eldest god, Chimil, the Inner Sun is the origin of the Sun Empire's Threefold Sun.

Chimil is the source of Cosmium, the precious resource each faction is after within the caverns. Its powerful magic created the angels of Ixalan, in the Guardian of the Great Door. We also meet Echoes, a type of spirit bound to an artifact.

In the caverns between the surface and the core, more civilizations lurk. The Malament are a small empire of jaguar-esque leonin who are the dominant military force in the caverns. They reside (literally) over the Deep Goblins, a new divergent group of goblins that have adapted to the low light of the caverns. The existential threat here are the Mycoids, a hive-mind fungal infestation that the Malament take great care to burn out and who are also the reason the entrances to the caverns were sealed at the surface and the core.

As for the four original factions, each is gripped by change. The Sun Empire is undergoing a power struggle to control the new emperor and the fate of the empire, be it expansionist and warmongering or otherwise. The River Heralds, after losing their sacred Deeproot Tree, have ventured into the rivers and oceans in the caverns to rediscover a lost heritage. The Dusk Legion is beset by a schism in the church, between adherents to the vampire progenitor Aclazotz or to Elenda, the church's core saint. Finally, the Brazen Coalition is undergoing the process of becoming a nation of its own, not just a band of pirate crews.

Genre Tropes

[Helping Hand] by Aldo Dominguez

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is full of common pulp adventure 'adventure and exploration' tropes. A Bat Colony all flying out of cave at once when explorers move to enter is an incredibly common trope, as is giving a Helping Hand when someone inevitably falls near a chasm and holds on for dear life. Pair that with Over the Edge, the trope of people never seeming to be able to hold on to their belongings near the all-too-common chasms, although Quicksand Whirpool doesn't work like it does in the film tropes, it's still an important one to capture here. Spring-Loaded Sawblades // Bladewheel Chariot are straight out of Indiana Jones, traps set in forbidden temples, as is the Unstable Glyphbridge // Sandswirl Wanderglyph, a rickety trapped bridge.

Of course, we have to have a Confounding Riddle to progress on the adventure, and if you fall in a river you may be Eaten by Piranhas. The Orazca Puzzle-Door also feels straight out of Indiana Jones and pulp adventure stories, as how common is solving a puzzle to open a door in those series? Also an adventure trope: big leaps mid air like in Out of Air.

Fanatical Offering gets into the 'ritual sacrifice' trope space of pulp adventure, but with the twist that it's the Christian analogues, not the indigenous peoples. Twists and Turns is the inevitable maze in the ruins. Buried Treasure should be obvious to folks, while Careening Mine Cart is another straight out of Indiana Jones, although the monkey-goblin indicates some Donkey Kong Country lineage there, too. And who can forget the iconic Runaway Boulder of Raiders of the Lost Ark? And of course, Indy's trusted Swashbuckler's Whip.

The Millennium Calendar seems to be a reference to the idea that Central and South American cultures were somehow able to predict the future, instead of just being really good at math and astronomy. It's likely a reference to the misunderstanding that the Mayan calendar ending in 2012 was a forecast of doom.

Throne of the Grim Captain // The Grim Captain and The Grim Captain's Locker are all references to Davy Jones, a folklore figure made well known by Pirate media. A Treasure Map and Treasure Cove are very common adventure tropes, as is the pirate's parrot, like Francisco, Fowl Marauder. Skeleton Crew is just an incredibly cute name.

Magic Lore

Poetic Ingenuity by Kieran Yanner

There aren't a ton of deep cuts since so much of this set focuses on new worldbuilding, with a smattering of older characters, but here's a few fun things I wanted to talk about. It's nice to see Saheeli and Huatli's relationship on cards more, with Poetic Ingenuity and Saheeli's Lattice // Mastercraft Raptor being fun ones. I also love the mechanics splitting the difference between the two characters and being potentials for inclusion in either deck.

Tarrian's Journal // The Tomb of Aclazotz and Tarrian's Soulcleaver reference Legion's Judgment, building on the lore of who Venerable Tarrian was, an apostle-like figure for the Dusk Legion. And of course, we finally get an Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal card, something Ixalan fans have wanted and speculated about since his name was first mentioned in the original Ixalan. The Belligerent is of course Vraska's ship from the original Ixalan story, finally getting a card of its own.

Master's Guide-Mural // Master's Manufactory helps introduce the Fomori/Coin Empire history on the plane, and repositions the relatively minor Fomori as major players in Magic's past. I assume we'll learn more about that one day! Inti, Seneschal of the Sun and Wayta, Trainer Prodigy were existing characters from the original Ixalan's stories. Finally, Scion of Calamity is a Zacama Jr. and I love it so much.

Cultural References

I am by no means an expert on central american history or culture, so I'm going to share a great video on it here instead:

I do want to call out a few things I enjoyed. Braided Net // Briaded Quipu was a nice nod to the Oltec's habit of reusing and recycling. Basking Capybara was adorable and folks have been asking for a capybara forever. Visage of Dread // Dread Osseosaur is a neat reference to a crystal skull, artifacts of dubious provenance. The Dusk Rose Reliquary is a nice nod to the various catholic reliquaries (pieces of bone said to be from saints, things like that). Finally, it was also cool to see Contested Game Ball reference the Aztec ball sport.

Minecraft References

Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood by Campbell White

Let's finish out with a few obvious Minecraft references in this set. I probably missed a few, but the big ones are Diamond Pick-Axe and Mineshaft Spider. And while not specifically a Minecraft thing, it's unlikely we'd have Frilled Cave-Wurm or Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood without Minecraft creating such popularity around Axolotls as an animal.