Magic: The Gathering commander players receive incredible game-ending artifact in Lost Caverns of Ixalan set

Magic: The Gathering’s Lost Caverns of Ixalan expansion is coming, and a new artifact has some commander players quite excited. Translated as either Doomsday Clock or The Millennium Calendar, it was shown with German text that has since been translated. This card will likely take some work to get going, but the ability to make all players lose 1,000 life is something that will make players in many game formats interested.

Naturally, people are already considering ways to break this card and make it trigger far quicker than normal. While it’s not an overpowered card, with the right backup, this Magic: The Gathering card could be one of the most powerful in Lost Caverns of Ixalan.

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Magic: The Gathering’s Lost Caverns of Ixalan reveals powerful new artifact for commander players

Doomsday Calendar/The Millennium Calendar in MTG (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

For the sake of argument, we’re going to go with the translated name of Doomsday Calendar for this Magic: The Gathering Lost Caverns of Ixalan artifact. It could also be translated as The Millennium Calendar, it appears. Either way, it’s a reference to the Mayan Calendar. People feared in 2012 that this calendar predicted the end of the world.

The upcoming expansion already seems like it’s going to be very powerful, and while I don’t think this is going to get banned, I can see some very powerful combos coming to life as a result. Here’s what the translated text of the card reads as:

Doomsday Calendar/The Millennium Calendar

• Mana Value: 1
• Card Type: Legendary Artifact
• Rarity: Mythic Rare
• First Ability: Whenever one or more permanents become untapped during your untap step, put that many time counters on “Doomsday Calendar”.
• Second Ability: Tap 2, Tap this: Double the amount of time counters on “Doomsday Calendar”.
• Third Ability: When there are 1,000 or more time counters on “Doomsday Calendar”, sacrifice it and each opponent loses 1,000 life.

1,000 time counters might seem like an awful lot, and we can’t blame you for thinking that. However, it’s not going to take much to turn this into a near-infinite combo. You need three cards, and this can essentially end games for you.

You need enough artifacts that generate mana to produce two mana (so Powerstone Shards or any other mana battery/engine of your choice) and Paradox Engine. Though Paradox Engine is a 5-drop card, it’s what makes this combo kick off.

You just need to keep triggering Paradox Effect’s engine by casting spells - they don’t have to be expensive spells. Whenever you cast a spell, it untapped all of your nonland permanents. That means you trigger Doomsday Calendar’s tap ability, cast a spell (such as a mana rock), untap everything, rinse, and repeat until you win the game.

With just one Time Counter, it will take you ten turns normally to trigger the final power and win games with this Lost Caverns of Ixalan card. However, I can see this being a replacement for Aetherflux Reservoir, or at the very least, being an addition to the deck as an alternate win condition. It can also be paired with All Will Be One to end Magic: The Gathering games in short order.

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This card hasn’t been officially revealed in English yet, but it is going to be one of the many interesting reveals in Magic: The Gathering’s Lost Caverns of Ixalan expansion. This set will become available on November 17, 2023.