Magic: The Gathering's Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander decks revealed: leaders, color identities, and more

Magic: The Gathering’s next expansion is coming in November 2023, and it’s titled Lost Caverns of Ixalan: this means more Commander decks. Taking players back to a land filled with Dinosaurs, it’s also going to be home to a crossover with the Jurassic Park franchise. This is a set that is surely going to excite many fans, as will these upcoming decks. We have information on what the main deck leader for each of the four decks is, as well as what type of gameplay each deck will feature.

The land of ancient gods and dinosaurs is back when Lost Caverns of Ixalan drops in Magic: The Gathering, and the spoiler season is already going strong. From teasers of Ian Malcom to powerful new gods, MTG’s 98th expansion promises not to disappoint.

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Magic: The Gathering’s Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander decks

1) Explorers of the Deep (Blue/Green Merfolk)

Hakbal of the Surging Soul in MTG. (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

Simic Merfolk might be the most insane pre-built Commander deck I’ve ever seen in Magic: The Gathering. The deck leader promises to be wildly powerful. This is a Blue/Green deck, and the main deck leader, Hakbal of the Surging Soul, is built around the powerful Explore mechanic.

The way Explore works is when it’s triggered, you reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a land, it goes into your hand. Otherwise, that creature gets a +1/+1 token. Typically, this triggers when a creature with Explore comes into play. That card either goes back on top, into your hand, or into your graveyard.

However, Hakbal of the Surging Soul triggers Explore on each Merfolk you control at the beginning of combat. In addition, he can put a land card from your hand into play whenever he attacks. If you don’t do that, you can draw a card instead.

This deck is going to have an absolutely overwhelming amount of card draw if you want; or, if you want this Lost Caverns of Ixalan deck to be reliable, you can choose to put the card back (or on top to make sure all your creatures gain +1/+1). This is a deck that’s going to spiral out of control fast in Magic: The Gathering.

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2) Veloci-Ramp-Tor (Red/Green/White, Dinosaurs)

Pantlaza, Sun-Favored in MTG. (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

Lost Caverns of Ixalan wouldn’t be complete without a Dinosaur-themed deck. Enter the deck with the best name out of this Magic: The Gathering expansion: Veloci-Ramp-Tor. A three-colored deck (Red/Green/White), it’s going to focus on getting tons of mana out so you can play powerful, expensive dinosaurs with reckless abandon.

The deck leader, Pantlaza, Sun-Favored, also uses a new mechanic that’s a spin on an old favorite. Discover is a new mechanic that is based on the older Cascade mechanic.

However, you can only do it once per turn, and since it reads “you may” trigger it, you can pick and choose based on the biggest creature you put into play. Whenever this creature, or another Dinosaur, enters the battlefield, you can Discover X, with X being that creature’s toughness.

Discover has players exile the top card of their library until they hit a nonland card with that mana value or less. You can then cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. I love this on Dinosaurs because it lets you easily play some titanic cards for free. Magic: The Gathering’s really turned up the heat on the Lost Caverns of Ixalan decks.

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3) Blood Rites (White/Black, Vampires)

Clavileño, First of the Blessed in MTG. (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

All four commander decks from Lost Caverns of Ixalan are deck types that I’d play in a competitive or casual setting, to be honest. That’s pretty rare for me, so I’m excited for all four Magic: The Gathering decks. Blood Rites is a very simple concept: Black and White Vampires. This is also known as Aristocrat decks.

It seems like this deck will also be synergizing with Demon creatures, thanks to the deckleader, Clavileño, First of the Blessed. A three-cost Vampire, whenever you attack, one of your Vampires that isn’t a Demon becomes a Demon in addition to its other types. That means it still retains “Vampire”, but also gains “Demon”. It also has the following ability:

“When this creature dies, draw a card and create a tapped 4/3 white and black Vampire Demon creature token with Flying.”

This is incredible, as it keeps you playing creatures, playing aggressively, and being rewarded, even if your creatures die. Since this is Aristocrats, they’ll probably have at least one amazing sacrifice engine, too, to turn weak vampires into powerful tokens. I’m a huge fan of this Magic: The Gathering deck for Lost Caverns of Ixalan.

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4) Ahoy Mateys (Blue/Black/Red)

Admiral Brass, Unsinkable in MTG. (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

What is there to say about Ahoy Mateys in Magic: The Gathering’s Lost Caverns of Ixalan expansion? It’s a commander deck about pirates, and it’s Grixis-flavored (Blue/Black/Red). It features mechanics that I’m personally fond of: Treasure tokens and Reanimation. I feel like this deck is going to be really fun and aggressive.

The deck leader is Admiral Brass, Unsinkable. When coming into play, you mill four cards for this 5-drop Pirate. Then, at the beginning of your combat phase, you can return a Pirate from your graveyard to the battlefield with a Finality Countery on it. It also now has a base power and toughness of 4. It has haste and will be exiled at the end of the turn, thanks to the Finality Counter.

You’ll likely be piling this deck with plenty of low-cost, low-power pirates to throw them away and bring them back as stronger creatures. I’m a fan of this deck, but I think might be the weakest of the four. We’ll have to see what else the deck comes with when Lost Caverns of Ixalan launches for Magic: The Gathering.

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Lost Caverns of Ixalan releases for Magic: The Gathering on November 17, 2023. If you are more of a fan of science fiction, you can instead pick up the Doctor Who Commander decks while those are still on shelves.