We return to the Meso-American inspired plane of Ixalan in the upcoming The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, and there’s a lot going on in this set that we already know about. That said, without any official story released yet and scant few cards previewed, a lot is still up in the air. So, let’s make some predictions about what’s in store for us on the plane!
These predictions are pure speculation on my part, but with that said, I guarantee they will prove 100% accurate and any deviation from that mark is the result of a faulty multiversal reality rather than any hitch in my super-scientific and totally foolproof process. Anyway, without any further ado, let’s get into it!
We Will Learn the Fate of Vraska and/or Jace
The last we saw of Jace and Vraska in the official Magic Story was on Ravnica, as a completed Vraska helped lead the Phyrexian forces who were attempting to conquer the plane. This did not end well for her thanks to the general failure of the Phyrexian Invasion of the multiverse and some kind of special device deployed by Ral Zarek and the Izzet.
We did see that some vestige of Vraska still remained intact in her mind, and that some version of Jace was able to visit her there — although the specifics of Jace’s deal remained mysterious. Vraska was defeated, but no trace of her was found.
We don’t actually know for certain what Jace was up to during the invasion, and while we have seen several other completed folks be restored to their proper selves, we have no evidence that anything of the sort happened to either Jace or Vraska.
Maybe Jace found some way, or maybe his mental magic allowed him to retain or regain his right mind but left his (and Vraska’s) physical form still corrupted. Or perhaps something else entirely transpired. The point is, we don’t know, and it’s one of the most prominent threads still hanging from the whole New Phyrexian saga.
But Ixalan is where the story of Jace and Vraska’s relationship truly started. Both had been present in the story prior to then, and had met. But on Ixalan, with an amnesiac Jace and a Vraska feeling truly free and respected for the first time in her life, the two found each other in an unexpected way. It would be only fitting for the next chapter (or perhaps an epilogue, if things did not go well for the pair) to occur on the plane that brought them together.
If they do show up, I don’t expect them to be a prominent part of the storyline — or even be directly depicted on a card or two. At most, we might get a side story and an instant or sorcery showcasing the two, but more likely I expect some oblique hints and maybe a clue or two hidden away in some seemingly innocuous card art.
But I do think it’s time for some clue to show up, and The Lost Caverns of Ixalan seems like the place for it.
There Will Start to Be More Omenpath Slippage
We already know Saheeli managed to find her way through the Omenpaths to her paramour, Huatli, on Ixalan, and we’re obviously following Kellen through the Omenpaths on his journey. But the Omenpaths are open to all who can find them, and with the apparent time jump since they opened at the end of the Phyrexian Invasion (Lost Caverns of Ixalan takes place roughly a year after the end of that war), I think we’re bound to start seeing a bit more planar crossover.
Certainly, there will be nothing on the level of March of the Machine, with all the planes jumbled together in one set. But the longer the Omenpaths remain open, the more I’ll expect to see a card or two in each set that seem plucked from somewhere else entirely.
This could be done to line up with the real-world release schedule — perhaps a trinket from Eldraine is found on Ixalan, or we find a key to a door to Karlov Mansion lost in the jungle — providing some thematic and mechanical linkage between the sets, adding to the flow of the story.
This would especially make sense the longer we follow Kellen through the Omenpaths, as it would point out where the local Omenpaths lead. But there’s also no reason why we couldn’t get real random with it, with an Uldrothan hunting cat thriving in the Ixalan jungles, or some poor Segovian gladiator being absolutely overwhelmed at the size of the dinosaur they inexplicably found themself riding.
But the Omenpath Saga probably isn’t going to last forever, and the lines can’t get too blurred between the planes too often, or else the distinct flavor of each could start to get diluted too much. So if that sort of thing is going to happen, it’s going to need to get started sooner rather than later, if it has any chance of happening at all.
At Least One of the Flip Lands Will Make Waves in Eternal Formats
The last time we visited Ixalan, we got a cycle of extremely powerful double-faced cards that flipped into legendary lands. While a lot of those cards saw play in various formats, Search for Azcanta in particular became a staple of control decks in Legacy and to some extent Vintage (as well as Modern for a while).
Now in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, we don’t yet know for sure that legendary double faced lands will be returning. But we do know, thanks to Ojer Axonil, that DFC lands will be showing up, and on high-rarity cards — specifically, the old gods. I’m willing to bet at least one of those gods ends up being Eternal-playable, and even becoming a staple of an archetype.
Gods, when they show up in Magic, tend to be on the high-powered side. Not all of them end up being overly pushed, but when they are, they make very big waves. I don’t expect that every old god in the set will be great, or even good, but all it takes is one of them being just the right amount of pushed for them to push through into Eternal formats.
Even if all the gods follow Ojer’s example and the land side of them simply acts as a way to recur the creature side of the card, if that creature side is powerful enough and not prohibitive to cast, I could easily see them breaking through.
Cards like that sometimes have a way of never really finding a home in their Standard rotation, largely because the way archetypes differ between newer and older formats means that the same effect, no matter how efficient, will play very differently in those formats.
End Step
Will any of these predictions prove accurate? We’ll be able to find out soon, as story and card previews for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan ramp up shortly. As those card previews come out, follow along at cardkingdom.com — our presale is already live, and we’ll be adding cards as they get officially previewed.
We’ll see how I did with these predictions, and in the meantime, may you find the treasures you seek!
Chris is the Marketing Communications Coordinator (and editor of the blog) at Card Kingdom. He would like to apologize to his son for not holding onto more cards from when he first started playing, as that likely would have paid for college. He enjoys pretty much all formats of Magic, but usually ends up playing decks that make other people dislike playing those formats with him.