MTG Salvation

Growing Rites of Itlimoc

Legendary Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield, look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a creature from among them to and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in any order.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control four or more creatures, transform ~

Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun
Legendary Land
: add to your mana pool
: add to your mana pool for each creature you control

This card seems a bit format defining. The ability to transform at the end of turn lets it dodge a lot of removal. The back of the card is a better Gaea's Cradle. It can even draw you a creature!

Here's hoping there's land destruction. Maybe a Ghost Quarter reprint. What does this card do in standard? Are 7 mana dinosaurs suddenly playable? Discuss.

I'm going to break this card! I see it slotting into a ramp deck (Naya Dinosaurs, GR Ramp, etc) or, dare I say it, Abzan vampires (a deck I'm constructing even as I write this post). I'll be making a thread for my Vampire list and will provide a link in the thread once it's been posted.

EDIT: As promised, the link to my Abzan Vampires build: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/standard-new-card-discussion/782597-abzan-vampires

So can we agree the community name should be Ixalan's Cradle?

There are many possibilities for this card... some of them that jump right out to me:
1. GW Cats (Pride Sovereign and Regal Caracal both produce tokens in decent number)
2. Servo/Thopter tokens
3. Oketra's Monument

In all cases, you can plan to cast a huge Walking Ballista the turn after it flips. A servo/thopter theme can go heavy on artifacts and also play Metalwork Colossus. Anything with green should be ramping up to big dinosaurs.

There might be some kind of blue variant that tries to play a big Pull From Tomorrow during the opponent's turn after it flips. I'm not sure how viable that will be.

I was thinking of Pride Sovereign also. I am considering Steward of Solidarity. In R, there is Pia Nalaar. The Aether Chaser cycle can provide multiple bodies per card. Whirler Virtuoso seems like a stretch in terms of colors.

This card is a durdle though. I think we want to hit on the front side, which I randomly estimate at 18-20+ creature cards (Frank Karsten will do the math on Channelfireball eventually). Creatures that spawn tokens are ideal. Weaponcraft Enthusiast anyone?

Animation Module looks interesting, since green can splash lots of +1/+1 counters, and Module with Itlimoc can grow together each turn.

Sram's Expertise is one of the most obvious, since you can use the second part to cast Itlimoc.

Quote from procobrito »

Animation Module looks interesting, since green can splash lots of +1/+1 counters, and Module with Itlimoc can grow together each turn.

Sram's Expertise is one of the most obvious, since you can use the second part to cast Itlimoc.

I am also thinking about using Sram's Expertise to ensure a quick and easy flip. I am wondering which card(s) could best abuse the flow of mana? I am thinking about instants or permanents with an activated ability to ensure the mana could be used right away.

Otherwise, I made a search for creatures which could truly optimize the deck, other than token generators, but so far nothing really stands out as obvious.

Any ideas or deck links?

So how do we design around the fact that this card is legendary?

If I understand correctly you can flip to land, and then pay another, but if/when it flips, won't they both be destroyed by the legendar rule?

It doesn't seem good or quick enough to be a 1-of and try to wait or tutor for it.

Quote from DavidRatchford »

So how do we design around the fact that this card is legendary?

If I understand correctly you can flip to land, and then pay another, but if/when it flips, won't they both be destroyed by the legendar rule?

It doesn't seem good or quick enough to be a 1-of and try to wait or tutor for it.

The Legend rules allows you to choose which permanent to keep / sacrifice. This way, you could tap for the mana, then flip the enchantment, then choose the tapped land to be sacrificed. You then have another untapped legendary land ready to use! The same applies if both enchantments are in play at same time... you can still benefit from the trigger of the latest cast copy. Thus, having 4 copies in a deck is not a problem, in my opinion.

I just know there's a UGx deck that wants to abuse this card, namely a "toolbox" deck of sorts:

Walking Ballista
Growing Rites of Itlimoc/Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun
Merchant's Dockhand
Throne of the God-Pharaoh

Walking Ballista: We use Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun to make it bigger faster.
Merchant's Dockhand: On the surface, this card's activated ability is WAY to expensive manawise for what it does. HOWEVER, Itlimoc makes it cheaper to activate. Pair this with Servos tapping to dig X + Throne of the God-Pharaoh dealing damage to our opponent for said tapped Servos... We may have ourselves a deck!

I made a deck, and so far it plays quite nicely (multiplayer games). I can churn out creatures each turn and quickly have enough to trigger the Rites. A key card is Mirror Entity. What do you think?

Elvish consistency

Hi guys,

I have been playing the deck for a few weeks now and I need some suggestions to make it even better. The only issue I have so far is by playing Bloodbraid Elf, which then reveals either Druid's Deliverance (thus preventing my attack) or Sundering Growth (which sometimes only has Growing Rites of Itlimoc or Beastmaster Ascension as a valid target). Are there any cards you could advise which would fit better, with CMC 3 or less?

Thanks for the help.