The Best Lost Caverns of Ixalan Cards, According to Popularity

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is leaving quite an impression on various MTG Arena formats at the moment. But as we focus on Standard, we once again check the trend over what cards were chosen to be played on the first week of its release. And it is here, that we get into some minor trouble.

You see, it would seem that dinosaur cards (and decks) are vastly popular at the moment, that it simply skewed the results of this list. Previously, I did not remove the faerie-related entries, because they didn't really take up much space, even if there was a considerably number of entries included.

This time, however, we will be writing two separate lists. One, where we didn't exclude the popular dinosaur cards, and as such 80% of the list is filled with them. And another, which removes every single dinosaur or dinosaur-related card from the list, and therefore showing what other themes and decks were favored.

(DISCLAIMER: The list is NOT based on any statistical data. Instead, the entries are collected from personal matches, online discussions, and trending multimedia content. Some of the entries will might also be affected by how often they pop up in Aetherhub decklists as well.)

Popular Cards Overview (List A)

^{(where dinosaur cards went rampant across the list, main LCI set only)}

Description List (List A)

1. Cavern of Souls

The huge uptick in available tribal decks makes Cavern of Souls an absolute must-pick in many currently viable Standard decks. Mana-fixing plus anti-counterspell for creatures? Like, what are you even waiting for? Needless to say, it also became an instant inclusion in the few tribal decks that were already meta-viable prior to the release of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. So yeah, everyone pretty much already expected this card to be the most popular one for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan since it was first spoiled.

2. Bonehoard Dracosaur

An obligatory addition to the current dinosaur deck not just for the typing, but because of the immense value it can offer per turn. Not only does it let you play two exiled cards, you get even more based on what the exiled cards were. And that is per upkeep, which can snowball hard for your opponent if not dealt with immediately. The advantage gets even better since it benefits from all synergies offered by its tribal identity.

3. Pugnacious Hammerskull

Three-mana for 6/6. Like, what else are you hoping for? But seriously, its supposed "drawback" is even easier to overcome than Sleep-Cursed Faerie that you can essentially just ignore it in a dinosaur deck. Especially when paired with a certain other red dino that shares similar-worded flowery descriptions.

4. Trumpeting Carnosaur

One of the dinosaurs with an (updated) Etali-like flair, only that it is restricted to your side of the field and up to five-mana-value cards only. It also has the benefit of having an alternative activation cost, which extends its use outside of main dinosaur decks. As a bonus, it is also one of the most popular dinosaurs to be paired up with Throne of the Grim Captain // The Grim Captain during the first few days, before it was eventually superseded (statistically) with Ghalta and Mavren.

5. Ixalli's Lorekeeper

Birds of Paradise-level ramp/mana dork for the most popular deck at a few days ago. 'Nuff said.

6. Intrepid Paleontologist

Another card that stacked up its usage rate due to being a support card for a popular deck. Only this one is way more powerful in terms of potential utility, bringing access to all of your dinos, even in the graveyard, and having a generic capability to remove recycling/reanimation threats.

7. Triumphant Chomp

Obligatory addition to most dinosaur builds. Everyone loves cheap and easy removal.

8. Belligerent Yearling

The annoying little prick that curves at the same perfect timing as Pugnacious Hammerskull, creating a somewhat nice combo that threatens big swings during turns three and four (or at least forces early trades). Of course, this trampling twat gets even scarier if it survives long enough for the arrival of bigger behemoths later.

9. Hulking Raptor

Another ramping unit to speed up the tempo of dinosaur decks even further, though understandably less popular to use than the smaller mana dorks. The addition of Ward 2 is also a very welcome annoying bonus.

10. Get Lost

Finally, we get to the only other card that survived the dinosaur stampede of List A. Kind of self-explanatory why this rose in popularity, actually. It is basically Fateful Absence, but it also hits enchantments, and removes threats without giving your opponent an outright replacement, even if the spent mana is similar. Might be a bit painful to use against explore-centric opponents. But for the most part, consider this the new Fateful Absence moving forward.

 

Popular Cards Overview (List B)

^{(all dinosaur-related cards removed, main LCI set only)}

Description List (List B)

1. Cavern of Souls

The huge uptick in available tribal decks makes Cavern of Souls an absolute must-pick in many currently viable Standard decks. Mana-fixing plus anti-counterspell for creatures? Like, what are you even waiting for? Needless to say, it also became an instant inclusion in the few tribal decks that were already meta-viable prior to the release of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. So yeah, everyone pretty much already expected this card to be the most popular one for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan since it was first spoiled.

2. Get Lost

Finally, we get to the only other card that survived the dinosaur stampede of List A. Kind of self-explanatory why this rose in popularity, actually. It is basically Fateful Absence, but it also hits enchantments, and removes threats without giving your opponent an outright replacement, even if the spent mana is similar. Might be a bit painful to use against explore-centric opponents. But for the most part, consider this the new Fateful Absence moving forward.

3. Resplendent Angel

The triumphant return of this card was met with many players eager to relive once again the glory days of more complete life gain Angels in Standard. Though never really as potent as the current Explorer counterpart, this card once again provides a lot of weight to the current iterations. Component-wise there weren't any complex applications to the addition of Resplendent Angel to current Standard Angel decks, but cast priority does seem to be changed somewhat, due to the card's efficient stats.

4. Amalia Benavides Aguirre

An interesting card that explores whenever you gain life. If the deck is properly built around this card, it can significantly help in fixing your draws, given that you can cast her as early as turn two, and she synergizes with a lot of recycle cards, allowing her to stay on board more than the opponent would like annoyingly. This actually makes its Ward cost cumulatively painful as well, especially if drain is the higher priority of the deck's build, rather than just gaining life.

That being said, I believe that the quirky nature of her stats and abilities contributed more to her use popularity than the actual power of the decks she was used in.

5. The Skullspore Nexus

A card with a very tantalizing cost reduction requirement that happens to align perfectly with many early-access brews, including the very popular dinosaur decks. But while this more than anything contributed to its popularity, it has its simpler advantages as a practical card. For instance, once successfully cast cheaply using cards like The Ancient One and Pugnacious Hammerskull, it proceeds to create replacement bodies, and always threatens a very huge swing with its last ability.

6. Subterranean Schooner

An easy addition to any deck with easy synergy for artifacts, and controls a lot of weenies. Of course, being a popular component of pirate decks, it already gained a considerable amount of usage rating. But it advanced way more forward than any pirate that crewed it simply because it can be added to any viable deck with blue mana. Also because feels so nice to swing with a 3/4 on turn three with a bonus explore effect (if the crewed weenie didn't die).

7. Restless Vents

With ally-color Restless lands now available, the Rakdos version was of course, the very first one that became popularly used. That's really the only reason meta-wise. I guess it also helped that a lot of the trending jank decks during early access also involved black and red combinations that benefited from its occasional hand-fixing creature status.

8. Restless Anchorage

This one is a bit of a mystery to me. Its appearance on the list just came as an amalgamation of many different disjointed decks that just happened to add this Azorious-themed Restless card within its package. I suppose having an explore effect also helped, since most decks of this color combination also had similar objectives, or at least bonus effects for those that were featured within the last week.

9. Spyglass Siren

A must-have component for any pirate build (whether Izzet or Azorius), works well with explore-themed decks, and is just a nice, all-around one-drop flyer from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Makes sense that out of all pirates, this will be the one to come out on top usage wise.

10. Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal

This card usually comes as a surprise strategy trump card for many different builds, coming as either a singleton, or just two copies. It is not necessarily a meta card, nor is it part of a powerful archetype build per se. But it just happens to be applicable to many different themes and objectives for other The Lost Caverns of Ixalan cards. That being said, it still came dead last because the actual scope isn't really as wide as... let's say The Skullspore Nexus, which almost transcended color limitations as far as popularity is concerned.

 

Honorable Mentions

^{(next four runner-ups outside the first ten that are NOT dinosaur-related cards)}

Restless Reef - the next color combination for the meta-acceptable Restless lands. Attack effect is not as universal, so it kind of dropped off from being potentially included in the main list.

Bloodletter of Aclazotz - occasional addition to drain decks or special ping decks involving Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power. Actually more difficult to setup than it looks.

Breeches, Eager Pillager - The main player of any Izzet pirate deck. Builds so many technical advantages over the course of many turns its not even funny.

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel - One of the pirates with a special ability to freely cast spells. Has a wider application potential due to its unique effect, but then again the decks that can get to this card's full potential are very limited. (though it was considerable enough to reach a runner-up status)