The comeback tour continues!

In the last year or so we've returned to Innistrad, Kamigawa, Dominaria, New Phyreixa, and now we come back to the world of Dinosaurs, Vampires, Merfolk, and Pirates! However, this time of course there's a twist, as with Saheeli on the plane there's a bunch of artifact stuff going on alongside returning mechanics like explore.

The prior two Ixalan sets have a reputation for being fine but underwhelming, as a lot of the themes ended up not really working out and the overall power level was (thankfully) a power down from the Amonkhet and Kaladesh blocks, which both saw bannings in Standard. However, this time Wizards of the Coast is going all out - we're talking flip cards, gods, new mechanics, new versions of old mechanics, and more, all placed in a unique Mesoamerican theme.

So, will we just have Ixalan 2.0? Or will The Lost Caverns of Ixalan go the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty route and take a poorly performing world/set and turn it in to something magical?

As of writing this there are about 200 of 233 cards previewed, meaning we've got a pretty good look at the set as a whole, which means it's time for first impressions in the form of my love/hates! Note that these are not just static rankings. The point is to shed light on cards I think are being over or undervalued based on first impressions. The point of my Love/Hate article is not just to call cards good or bad, but to view cards based on the first impressions people have been having or are likely to have. The goal is to dispel undue hype or to draw attention to cards that are being overlooked.

So let's get started!

Love - The "Restless Creature" Lands

Hey wait... isn't this how the Loves/Hates for Wilds of Eldraine article started? Well yes, but that's just because we get to finish an exciting cycle of creature lands.

Restless Cottage has been a major player in Golgari decks in Standard, with Restless Fortress seeing play in Esper decks as well, and the other three restless lands are mostly just not seeing play because there aren't decks in those colors that want them, but there's no doubt it is a powerful cycle of dual and creature lands. And now we get the remaining five!

Like the other members of the cycle, all five of these look to be solidly playable lands, with Restless Prairie and the ability to pump your team perhaps the best of the bunch. Also important to note is that these are many of the most played color combinations in Standard, with Restless Anchorage and Restless Vents both immediately having multiple two color decks to slot in to.

Lands aren't always the flashiest thing in a new set, but they are perhaps one of the most important, and we've got a good cycle here.

Hate - Bloodletter of Aclazotz

Bloodletter of Aclazotz has just about every feature of an overhyped card.

It's a mythic. It says something about doubling. It's got three Black pips. It doesn't do anything if you play it and your opponent kills it. And perhaps most damning is that it does very little on an empty board.

This is the kind of card people love on first glance, as they think about attacking for a zillion damage after a perfect curve out, or maybe doubling up on a Gray Merchant of Asphodel trigger in Pioneer or Historic. But perhaps one of the most important factors with any card is assessing how high its floor is, that is how good it is when everything is going wrong, and Bloodletter of Aclazotz fails this test miserably.

Furthermore, it's a card you want to play to augment the cards you already have in play to deal more damage, but unlike a more traditional augmentation cards like a global pump effect, Bloodletter of Aclazotz doesn't make your creatures harder to kill or more difficult to block, rather it only really works if you're already successfully dealing damage. And that's to say nothing of needing to compete on curve with Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

Unfortunately, Bloodletter of Aclazotz is a big miss for Constructed play, although I'll probably still build a devotion deck with it in Historic.

Love - Sentinel of the Nameless City

I'm not sure where or what the Nameless City is, but if Sentinel of the Nameless City is any indication, it's a pretty nice place.

Sentinel of the Nameless City is already solid on rate. An easy to cast 3-drop 3/4 vigilance would have at one point in Magic's history been incredible, but even these days is still quite well sized. However, the draw here is not just the stats, but the stats in conjunction with the ability. Making map tokens and being able to explore over and over again is a very powerful thing to be doing, making this sort of like a Jadelight Ranger that keeps on giving.

But if there's one thing not to forget, it's that map tokens have other use as well.

Just like sacrificing a blood token to Oni-Cult Anvil or a clue token to Gleeful Demolition has shown us, just putting more stuff in play is a very good thing, and Sentinel of the Nameless City is really good at making more stuff. The fact that you always get some immediate value, even if it is removed right away is excellent, as is the ability to create a boundless number of tokens as the game goes on.

Sentinel of the Nameless City is a real nice one.

Hate - Helping Hand

Two things are true.

1. Magic players love Unearth.
2. Unearth is a mostly sketchy card except in specific circumstances.

Helping Hand is Unearth, but with two significant drawbacks. The first of which is not being able to cycle, which may not sound like much, but one of the biggest problems with Unearth is when you draw it early and haven't found a way to put a creature into your graveyard yet. In those awkward spots being able to cycle it is a nice out to have. The other big drawback is the creature entering the battlefield tapped, which makes Helping Hand much worse than Unearth whenever you are behind and need an immediate board presence.

That all being said, there may be some sort of a place in Standard for Helping Hand thanks to the large amount of incidental self-mill in the format as well as a large number of 3-drop creatures like Raffine, Scheming Seer, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, and so on that are able to immediately effect the board despite being tapped. However, it is likely still just to be a fringe player.

If you want a threat, just put more threats in your deck!

Love - Molten Collapse

It's funny, because I actually hate the design of Molten Collapse, but there's no doubt that it's an excellent card.

Much like revolt, getting descended in formats with fetchlands is trivial at best, meaning we're looking at Dreadbore with massive upside here in fetchland formats. Dreadbore is already a playable card, but adding the ability to pick off super valuable archetype cards like Aether Vial or Hardened Scales makes it even more difficult to try and play some sort of synergy deck in these fetchland formats, further making everything meld together into a midrange soup.

That being said, Molten Collapse is going to be a staple in smaller, non-fetchland formats as well, as Dreadbore is just an excellent card. Rakdos has been one of the best color pairs in Magic in the last few years, and Molten Collapse slides right in perfectly, replacing Dreadbore in formats where Dreadbore is legal, and standing in as one of the best removal spells available when it isn't.

The only real count against Molten Collapse in Standard is that there just aren't as many playable planeswalkers to kill these days, but this is still going to be a very solid one.

Hate - Guardian of the Great Door

When it comes to analyzing new cards, it is very difficult not to compare them to old ones, and when looking at Guardian of the Great Door the card that immediately comes to mind is Serra Avenger.

Like Serra Avenger, Guardian of the Great Door is trying to give you something for far less than you would normally pay for it, but at a drawback that impedes your ability to cast it. Also like Serra Avenger, yes you can use Aether Vial or some other way to cheat in a two-mana creature directly to the battlefield to play Guardian of the Great Door ahead of schedule.

And aside from cheating it in, you can also just cast it, as it basically has both convoke and improvise. However, if you're just casting it, Guardian of the Great Door doesn't compare favorably to convoke cards like Knight-Errant of Eos or Venerated Loxodon, which can be cast completely without mana if you have enough creatures providing you with a very high ceiling. With Guardian you're always spending at least two very specific mana and probably not getting your mana's worth.

And it doesn't even have vigilance! It's a great limited card, but just isn't there in Constructed.

Love - Confounding Riddle

Unsurprisingly, we're also comparing our last card of the day to an old card, but this time far more favorably. Oh boy did Supreme Will get a glow up!

Supreme Will was always an underwhelming but mildly playable card in Standard, giving you a bad Mana Leak or a bad Impulse for a clunky three mana. It mostly was effective in Approach the Second Sun decks as another way to dig out your second casting of Approach, but all in all was a decidedly mediocre card.

Confounding riddle turns the volume on Supreme Will up to 11.

It's hard to articulate how much better Convolute is than three-mana Mana Leak, as needing to play four is so much more than three. This means that Confounding Riddle is a far more reliable counterspell, especially later in the game. But that's not all! You also get to bin the cards you don't want from the Impulse effect, Forbidden Alchemy-style, which can be a major enabler for all sorts of graveyard things.

A big push on rate as well as some added synergy? Confounding Riddle is a winner.

A Whole Lot Going On

There's a lot of stuff going on in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, in a way that reminds me of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Neon Dynasty was a very wordy and somewhat confusing set, but also had a bunch of awesome cards and themes, as well as a phenomenal limited format. As such, I'm looking forward to The Lost Caverns of Ixalan!

And of course, if it's a new set, that means it's time for my usual new set cycle of my Complete Set Review, my Bronze to Mythic draft run, and of course my Ten New Brews!

As usual, I'll be building ten new Standard decks during the Early Access Streamer Event on MTG Arena next Thursday November 9th, streaming them live on Twitch.tv, putting them on my YouTube, as well as writing all about them in next week's article right here on CoolStuffInc.com!

I'll see you there!