SO there's not much to go on for caves of Ixalan, but i do know that caves in mayan mythology have a symbolical connection to the underworld (Xibalba). Thus, i think it's plausible that the next Ixalan set will be centered around this.
Some possible themes would be life, death, and reincarnation. Because of this, it seems to me this set could have a graveyard theme.
Dominaria United has a few cards with, "return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. it gains "if this card would die, exile it instead"". so it seems to me that this in future sets could be used as a keyword mechanic, say, reincarnate.
I suspect that explore would be gone as Ixalan is more or less well known by then.
But i suspect we'll see merfolk, dinos, pirates and vampires as the other main themes, and how they interact with the underworld and its treasures.
Assuming you're right, I wonder if this would mean we'll see a shift in the color identities of the tribes. Like maybe the dinos become GW, the pirates become UR, so the underworld creatures (Zombies? Horrors? ...Phyrexians?) are BR or something.
Makin it: UR Pirates WG Dinos BR Underworld creatures WB Vampires UG Merfolk
It does makes a lot of sense since the mysticism of Ixalan was never really explored beyond "mostly a background thing" the first time around so there's lot of material to delve in, but I wonder how will this reflect flavor and mechanics-wise.
I don't think we'll have a major focus on death and the underworld, because this would undermine Ixalan's core flavor of "exploration" and would make too much of an overlap with Theros Beyond Death. Similarly, the mechanics would be compromised since Flip-Lands would be rather hard to do if the story focused too much in a single place and I feel Ixalan needs that hook since its other major mechanic (Treasures) became evergreen. I expect it to tend more towards pre-Eldrazi Zendikar (Quests, Traps and/or land matters) with just a slight mix of Theros Beyond Death rather than full "life, death and reincarnation".
It makes me wonder what this will do to the story post-Phyrexian arc after March of the Machine.
Ixalan is one of those newer planes where we virtually dick all except for some main location(s) and tribes. If I remember correctly there's another continent--if not more--outside of Ixalan (continent) like Torrezon and Luneau, so hopefully we'll get to see Ixalan on a grander scale in that regard. Maybe there's more land to explore to those land masses too.
My thoughts are that Explore and Treasures will be a thing again in addition to the tribe synergy listed above.
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
Rumour has it that Lost Caverns of Ixalan will have Venture into the Dungeon. I think its somekind of hollow earth story with ruins and other strange things to explore and I think these Caverns will connect all the continients.
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Some possible themes would be life, death, and reincarnation. Because of this, it seems to me this set could have a graveyard theme.
Dominaria United has a few cards with, "return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. it gains "if this card would die, exile it instead"". so it seems to me that this in future sets could be used as a keyword mechanic, say, reincarnate.
I suspect that explore would be gone as Ixalan is more or less well known by then.
But i suspect we'll see merfolk, dinos, pirates and vampires as the other main themes, and how they interact with the underworld and its treasures.
Makin it:
UR Pirates
WG Dinos
BR Underworld creatures
WB Vampires
UG Merfolk
I don't think we'll have a major focus on death and the underworld, because this would undermine Ixalan's core flavor of "exploration" and would make too much of an overlap with Theros Beyond Death. Similarly, the mechanics would be compromised since Flip-Lands would be rather hard to do if the story focused too much in a single place and I feel Ixalan needs that hook since its other major mechanic (Treasures) became evergreen. I expect it to tend more towards pre-Eldrazi Zendikar (Quests, Traps and/or land matters) with just a slight mix of Theros Beyond Death rather than full "life, death and reincarnation".
Ixalan is one of those newer planes where we virtually dick all except for some main location(s) and tribes. If I remember correctly there's another continent--if not more--outside of Ixalan (continent) like Torrezon and Luneau, so hopefully we'll get to see Ixalan on a grander scale in that regard. Maybe there's more land to explore to those land masses too.
My thoughts are that Explore and Treasures will be a thing again in addition to the tribe synergy listed above.
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.