Look out for these new commanders from Lost Caverns of Ixalan

The preview season for Lost Caverns of Ixalan is finally over and there are many new and powerful cards to be found in the set. The brand new mechanics bring a lot of flavor to the set and there is are a ton of new commanders to try out. In this article I will go over the most interesting ones in my opinion. Meaby you will feel inspired and try to build one!...

Captain Storm, Cosmium Raider

Captain Storm is quite a basic card but with the right cards it can become quite the threat. This commander could meaby try to make izzet artifacts work. The deck would probably be similar to Sai, Master Thopterist decklists as you need to play a ton of artifacts to make the most of your commander. 

Since you are in izzet you now have access to powerful spells and artifacts that Sai can't play. You can now play burn and other izzet spells like Expressive Iteration on top of strong red artifacts. I personaly think that it isn't enough to make artifact decks good in the format again , but meaby I will be surprised by this new pirate.

Abuelo, Ancestral Echo

Abuelo is a brand new tempo commander that offers you protection and is difficult to take out himself. He offers a solid body with flying and ward meaning that he can chip for damage easily but is not easy to kill. He also has a really good ability which allows you to protect your other creatures from removal spells or attackers. This makes him overall a pretty solid card for tempo decks that can play him and there are plenty of those in the format right now.

Raffine, Scheeming Seer is probably the most likely home for this card. The deck likes flying attackers and Abuelo even lets you protect or blink your powerful creatures like White Plume Adventurer, Vendilion Clique and many more to get even more value from them. I could also see this card being ran in Aragorn, King of Gondor decklists as those play a lot of the same creatures. Abuelo also has some additional synergy with the commander as he can get the monarch back quite easily but also makes sure you have the monarch at the start of your turn because you can blink your commander.

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun

Every time a new set comes out I always look at the new legendary creatures to find if any of them fit into Yoshimaru decks and this one seems pretty good. Inti, Seneschal of the Sun is a new cheap but mighty red legendary that buffs your attackers and gives them trample. He also helps you cycle through your deck if you have something to discard.

This makes him quite powerful with Yoshimaru as he buffs your commander even more but also makes sure that that he can't be easily blocked. The only downside is that you may not be able to play the card you exile, but a lot of the cards in the deck are cheap enough to be playable even on the earlier turns of the game. If Inti is not removed he can get quite a lot of value during the game, so I would definitely give him a shot if you play any Yoshimaru deck.

Bartolomé del Presidio

I wrote an article about this guy last week but I just simply have to mention him again. Bartolomé del Presidio is a brand new vampire aristocrats commander that brings a new twist to aristocrat decks in the format. Instead of being rakdos, he is orzhov which means you lose a lot of powerful cards. On the other hand, you get quite a lot of powerful white cards that can make a lot of tokens.

I see some potential in Bartolomé but as I said in the article rakdos seems like a better color combination for these types of decks in the format. You are missing a lot of the explosive potential that Juri, Master of the Revue has. However I would not give up on him yet since some people have already started to playtest him. 

Author: Tomas Solovic

Date: 6th November, 2023