Magic Untapped takes a look back at Rivals of Ixalan, the second set on the new Ixalan plane and the last Magic set ever to appear in a formal block
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Video Transcript:
Continuing the swashbuckling story of the previous expansion, Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan released for Magic: The Gathering on January 19, 2018.
Not only did the set, which is the game’s 77th expansion, mark the conclusion of the Ixalan block, it also marked the end of blocks in Magic: The Gathering altogether – something that had technically been part of the structure of the game since the release of Ice Age in 1995.
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But before we get too much more into the nuts and bolts of the set, here is a story summary for you.
After being swept off of a cliff, down a waterfall, and into the river below, a bruised Vraska pulls both herself and Jace out of the water and onto the nearby riverbank. The trauma from the fall and landing, however, unlocked Jace’s suppressed memories from his self-imposed amnesia and they all came flooding back.
So strong was the torrent that the mind mage couldn’t keep them all contained and some of them flooded over to Vraska. The gorgon feared that Jace regaining his memories would mean that he would realize that, in the past, the two of them were enemies and she was concerned that the bond they now have would be lost.
Through this memory overflow, though Vraska was able to see glimpses of Jace’s past. At first, it was visions of her home plane of Ravnica and the race through the Dragon’s Maze that made Jace the plane’s Living Guildpact. After that, Zendikar and the wreckage at Sea Gate after the Eldrazi destroyed it. Then, she sees a younger version of Jace being tortured by the hand of Tezzeret, followed by another scene on Ravnica, a memory of he and Liliana (who treated him poorly the entire time), among others.
Throughout this ordeal, Vraska was in agonizing pain from the onslaught of memories, as was Jace. But reality came hard and fast as the pair hear the deafening roar of a nearby dinosaur. They needed to leave. Now.
Before they could, though, Jace let out a painful gasp and muttered a single word: Vryn.
Vryn is Jace’s home plane – a place of a longstanding civil war that he had long forgotten about. A place where his childhood tutor, a sphinx known as Alhammarret had not only tutored him, but used him and his telepathic talents for his own gain. A place where he had fought and defeated Alhammarret as a teenager before escaping to Ravnica with suppressed memories of his childhood. Memories that were suppressed no longer.
It was a lifetime of memories that, once the visions had faded, left Jace in a heap of misery on the riverbank. Vraska, having experienced it all alongside the mind mage, comforted him. While Jace didn’t remember everything (including how he came to be on Ixalan to begin with), he fondly remembered the last few months he’d spent by her side and told her he’s glad for her company.
He decided he needed to chose which Jace he needed to be: The old Jace from his unlocked memories or the new Jace that’s come to be over the past few months.
Vraska told him that this new Jace is one of the best people she had ever met. And together they made the ascent up the stories-high staircase to the golden city of Orazca – a city that had been awakened not too long before the pair’s arrival.
Kumena, one of those on the River Herald’s council, had gotten there first.
When he ascended the steps to the city, he heard in his head a voice beckoning him to the city’s central tower. Once there, he found within a relic embedded in the floor. It was the Immortal Sun.
The merfolk stepped upon it and felt a flood of immense power. His newfound power, though, wouldn’t be his for long as moments after the vampire conquistador Vona and clergyman Mavren Fein arrived shortly thereafter. The pair tackle him, knocking him off of the Sun and throw him out of a nearby window presumably to his death.
Vona then steps onto the Sun and claims its power for herself.
While this was all happening, planeswalkers Huatli and Angrath travel together to the now rediscovered Golden City, though it looks nothing like the city she had seen in her vision months before.
Angrath proved to be less than a fun travelling companion as, all the while, he was razzing the dinosaur knight and ridiculing Sun Empire society. The less-than-stellar conversation came to an abrupt halt once the pair come across an old, dilapidated building that bears no resemblance to Orazca. Adorned with a bat-like motif, they suppose it’s some sort of tomb or temple built separate from the Golden City.
Curious, Huatli cautiously approached the building’s entrance only to be surprised by another being emerging from within.
It was Elenda, Ixalan’s original vampire and the sainted head and progenitor of the Legion of Dusk.
Recognizing Elenda as an enemy of the Sun Empire, Huatli went into battle mode. This left Elenda confused as to why she would draw weapons against her, then further confused when Huatli referred to the vampire race as invaders. And, all the while, Angrath is trying to encourage Huatli to let it go so they can resume their venture to Orazca and locate the Immortal Sun.
As it turns out, while the Legion of Dusk does indeed worship Elenda, they have not exactly been true to her teachings nor her example. According to Elenda, she had taught her followers to use vampirism as a means for humility and the betterment of all. After learning what her flock had become after so many generations, Elenda said that she needs to go teach them the lesson all over again and promptly departs.
Elenda’s sudden departure only infuriates Huatli, who was ready for a fight, off even more. To make matters worse, Angrath was now at his wit’s end. The two get into a heated argument, which, in turn, finds the hot-headed Angrath aggressively barging past the dinosaur knight to locate Orazca on his own.
Huatli, ready to throw down with the minotaur, called forth a large dinosaur that stopped on Angrath, pinning him underneath. That’s when the merfolk Tishana showed back up along with a number of River Herald merfolk she had rallied, ready to work with Huatli once more. The pair depart for Orazca together, leaving Angrath pinned underneath the dinosaur’s large, heavy foot.
The duo arrive at the city just in time to witness Kumena’s ejection from tower above the central temple which, almost immediately after, began to radiate with dark energy.
As Kumena fell, Tishana called forth a strong gust of wind to slow his descent and save his life. While being tended to by healers that Tishana had brought along, Kumena, in a rather rude and dismissive tone, told his councilmate about the Legion of Dusk being in the temple. Tishana and Huatli considered their options and agreed that they could probably handle things within the temple just fine and were about to head over there when they heard the noisy pirate crew of the Belligerent approaching in the near distance.
Acting fast, they encroach the temple first, but find themselves quickly outmatched by Mavren Fain and the powered-up Vona. Before she could use her newfound powers to end either of her foes, though, she found herself entranced by a voice coming from outside the tower.
Malcolm, a siren that served as the Belligerent’s navigator, had flown up and was using his entrancing song to lure Vona, Mavren, and Tishana in his direction. Once she was far enough away from the Sun, she was grappled by surprise by another of the pirate crew.
That’s when Angrath stormed in, chains ablaze and tossing towards Huatli the decapitated head of the dinosaur that had pinned him down.
At this point, in short, it’s a battle royale as everyone begins fighting against everyone else.
During the brawl, Tishana, Huatli, Angrath, and Vona all simultaneously step on the Immortal Sun.
Huatli felt a surge of power and awareness fill her. She also felt something else courtesy of the Sun’s power – that the elder dinosaurs – those only spoken of in legend – had awoken. She beckons them to her.
Afterwards, she turns around and the four Sun-enhanced combatants prepare for a powered-up brawl. Malcolm and the other pirates, though, received a telepathic message from Jace and they escape just before the floor beneath everyone simply disappeared.
As the chaos inside of Orazca’s central tower was going on, Vraska and Jace were ascending the massive staircase up to the city. As they climbed, memories continued to come back to Jace, though in a much more controlled and peaceful manner than before. Seeing the golden city up close reminded Jace of another golden thing – the golden scales of Nicol Bolas.
He then recalled the disastrous battle that took place on Amonkhet and how he had tried to peer into the dragonic planeswalker’s mind. He recalled that he found something there – a piece of Bolas’ end game.
Those memories had brought forth another. Jace remembered Ugin, Bolas’ Spirit Dragon sibling. But that just left more questions for the mind mage.
But that wasn’t important right now. What was important is that they had made it to the top of the long staircase and were standing at a door with a puzzle lock. It’s a puzzle lock that Jace easily deciphers.
As he does, he noticed that the shape of the puzzle bares a strong resemblance to the symbol of Ravnica’s Azorious guild. Jace telepathically reaches beyond the door in an attempt to get a sense of what might be on the other side. What he senses is a sphinx.
After a brief pause, Jace opens the door and he and Vraska are met by Azor, the founder of Ravnica’s Azorius Senate. Not only that, but the millennia-old sphinx, who is now a former planeswalker having lost his spark, founded Ravnica’s entire ten guild system.
Azor, as it turns out, is old friends with Ugin and, along with the spirit dragon, looked to rid the multiverse of Nicol Bolas’ schemes. Seeing as the killing of a planeswalker was nearly impossible back in the days before the events of the Mending, the duo had hatched a plan to lure Bolas to Ixalan – a rather isolated plane – and trap him on there forever by use of a powerful artifact designed to prevent planewalkers from planeswalking away from the plane on which the it is housed. That relic is the Immortal Sun. And Azor sacrificed his spark to power it, ironically also trapping Azor on the plane for all time as well.
But, as the best-laid plans of mice and men (or, in this case, sphinxes and dragons) often go awry, things went wrong.
Ugin had meant to lure Bolas to Tarkir and subdue him, whereupon the spirit dragon would signal Azor to pull Bolas through the Blind Eternities – the realm between realms – and to Ixalan where he would be forever trapped. Ugin, however, lost his battle with Bolas and the trap was never sprung.
In the years after the failed attempt, Azor had given the Sun to the Legion of Dusk for safekeeping as he waited out his days on the plane, only to take it back and give it to the Sun Empire to watch over only to take it back once more and give it to the River Heralds as its keeper.
Now, Jace, the Living Guildpact of Ravnica, was standing before him. Azor was not pleased with this at all as, by his design, there shouldn’t be a living guildpact at all. Something had gone wrong. Despite this, Azor congratulated Jace for somehow managing to not completely destroy Ravnica’s guild system.
Azor then assumed that he and Vraska, whom he identified as planeswalkers, were there for the Immortal Sun. He presented it to them as it was imbedded in the ceiling above them.
Vraska then figured out that it was this item rather than some sort of arcane spell that was keeping her and the other planeswalkers from planeswalking away from the plane. And it troubled her that her employer, Nicol Bolas, wanted it.
Azor then became agitated and commanded to the duo that the Sun was not to leave Ixalan. The Sphinx then attacked them with his law magic, which Jace did his best to counter and shield he and Vraska from. Through the attacks, Vraska asked Azor why he didn’t just stay on Ravnica after creating the guilds.
Azor explained to her that the system on Ravnica was just one of many systems of law and order he had created throughout the multiverse and that, once it was set up and running, his work there was done. The gorgon retorted, telling the sphinx that, by leaving the guilds to their own devices, he had failed Ravnica. Azor replied that if there was failure, it was on the citizens of Ravnica and not on himself.
Finally, Vraska began to pry and prod about the Immortal Sun. Azor, proud of his greatest creation, began to explain all about it, its history, and how the enchantment upon it prevents planeswalkers from planeswalking away from whichever world it’s on, blasted his friend for failing to do his part and, thus, trapping Azor on Ixalan for the past thousand or more years.
Aggravated, Azor launched himself at the duo. Jace turned Vraska invisible and she was able to avoid the sphinx’s attack, counterattacking with her sword and taking a swipe at one of his legs. Jace then sent his own magical attack, partially incapacitating the ancient sphinx.
Vraska and Jace then decide that, rather than simply slaying Azor, the sphinx needed to be punished for his actions on the various planes on which he had meddled.
Jace pulled upon his powers as Ravnica’s Living Guildpact and directs his attention towards Azor, creator of the Guildpact and, thus, is subject to its law.
Azor tries to defend his actions – especially of those on Ixalan – and finally confesses to the pair of his intent on the plane and the plan to trap Bolas there. This shocked Vraska and more of the story finally made sense to Jace.
Though Azor’s intentions were good, the paths he took towards those ideals were flawed. As punishment, Jace commanded that the sphinx become the guardian and caretaker of the very same blasted island on which Jace had first appeared on Ixalan, and to never again meddle in the lives of sentient beings no matter the reason.
After Azor’s departure, Jace consulted with Vraska and filled her in on who her patron really is – a scheming, selfish, powerful, and plane-threatening planeswalker. Vraska, in turn, filled Jace in on her side of things, including that (once she had located the Sun), she was to summon someone to take care of it.
Jace then came to the realization that the person whom Vraska was to summon was likely Tezzeret, who now possessed the Planar Bridge and can spirit the Immortal Sun to Bolas. He then deduced that Bolas would then use the Sun to trap planeswalkers to be slaughtered by his lazotep-covered army of eternals, which would be sent to wherever that might be through that very same Planar Bridge device.
What Jace couldn’t figure out was why.
Jace thought hard and wracked his brain for an answer. That’s when he recalled the one piece of information he had spied while briefly in the dragonic planeswalker’s mind during their encounter on Amonkhet – “Ravnica.”
Exactly how, what, and why were still a mystery, but Jace now knew where.
This put Vraska in a tough spot. She could defy Bolas and remain trapped on Ixalan, or she could fulfill her duty to him and, in turn, put her home plane in peril. Either way, she figured she’d likely be dead – especially after he looked into her mind and learned about her interactions with Jace and all that she now knew about his plans.
Feeling short on options, the gorgon asked Jace to temporarily wipe her memories of him and their interactions on Ixalan. Jace, initially refused, but Vraska explained it was the only way to keep both of them safe from Bolas and that he can give her her memories back once the time was right and that, once her memories were returned to her, they would celebrate by going out for coffee together.
After a breath, Jace did as Vraska asked, then cloaked himself in invisibility as Vraska, complete with false replacement memories, summoned Tezzeret.
A moment later, the Planar Bridge opened, then closed again, taking the Immortal Sun with it.
Vraska’s mission complete, she planeswalked away.
With Vraska now gone, Jace (whom now had all of his memories returned to him) planeswalked to Dominaria as was the original plan after Amonkhet. He focused on Gideon’s bright essence, finding that it was moving across the plane at a surprisingly high rate of speed. Jace then willed himself to Gideon’s presence, surprisingly finding himself suddenly aboard an airship high in the sky.
As for the story’s other main players, Vona was angry that the Sun had slipped from her grasp. Elenda, the living saint of the Church of Dusk, arrived and shocked the high-ranking conquistador that she had found Orazca many, many years ago but chose to keep it secret from the Legion of Dusk as their duty was to defend the Immortal Sun rather than use it. With the help of the clergyman Mavren, Elenda commanded Vona to lead her back to the Legion’s capitol so that she may re-teach her lessons as her followers had obviously gone astray.
Huatli returned home, hoping to tell the story of what had happened and help her emperor barter peace with the merfolk of the River Heralds. The emperor, however, was not interested in this as peace gets in the way of expanding his empire. He instructed Huatli to never tell her tale and that, instead, he would tell his version of it for her. At the behest of her family, whom she told her story to in confidence, she set off across the multiverse in search of new stories to tell.
Her first stop was Avishkar whereupon she would soon meet another planeswalker, the artificer Saheeli – a woman with whom she would make a very happy, committed relationship.
As for Angrath, feeling the weight of the Sun lifted, also departed Ixalan. Just before leaving, he shouted to all nearby: “I hate this plane, I hate this city, and I wish you all a viscerally painful death!”
He appeared back at his home and, for the first time in 14 years, was able to see and hold his daughters once again.
And that does it for the story of Rivals of Ixalan, but there’s much more to say in terms of the set itself.
Design and development of Rivals of Ixalan was led by Ben Hayes with Cynthia Sheppard returning as art director.
The set consists of 205 cards (including the nine cards specific to the set’s two planeswalker decks) and was available in traditional booster packs, a bundle, and the two aforementioned planeswalker decks. This time around, those decks featured the planeswalker cards Vraska, Scheming Gorgon and Angrath, Minotaur Pirate as the face cards.
Almost all of the mechanics and themes from its predecessor return: Enrage, explore, and raid, as does transform and double-faced cards. Crew, which is specific to vehicles, does not return as there are no vehicle cards in the set.
Replacing crew is Ascend, a mechanic that makes it debut in the set. Ascend allows players to achieve what’s known as the “city’s blessing,” a status that remains with that player until the conclusion of the game, once they control ten or more permanents. Once a player has ascended, cards with ascend gain expanded capabilities. It should be noted that ascend is a special action and, thus, does not use the stack and cannot be responded to. It just simply happens.
The typal factions found in Ixalan – dinosaurs, vampires, pirates, and merfolk – also return with new cards to support them such as Thunderherd Migration for dinosaurs, Forerunner of the Legion for vampires, Storm Fleet Springer for pirates, and Merfolk Mistbinder for, well, merfolk.
As for cycles, Rivals of Ixalan features a total of nine – more than four times the quantity of its predecessor.
The cycles most worth mentioning include:
- Elder dinosaurs, one dinosaur at rare for each of the game’s colors even if that color isn’t part of the dinosaur faction;
- Allied colored draft signpost cards, which each represent the set’s two-colored draft archetypes: ramp, ascend, pirates, and enrage;
- Legendary allied-colored transform cards at rare that feature an enchantment on one side and a legendary land on the other, and;
- Enemy color taplands at uncommon, which are reprints of cards that debuted in the set Shadows over Innistrad a couple of years prior.
Looking beyond card cycles, Rivals of Ixalan featured a handful of single cards worth a mention, such as:
- Azor, the Lawbringer, an important character from the set’s story that not only has an enter-the-battlefield ability that basically detains your opponents for a turn, but also an attack trigger that mimics the card Sphinx’s Revelation;
- Blood Sun, a sideboard card that pulls inspiration from the classic non-basic land hoser, Blood Moon;
- Elenda, the Dusk Rose, a popular vampire typal commander;
- Ghalta, Primal Hunger, a huge 12/12 with trample for 12 that can be cast for as few as two green mana if you have enough total creature power in play;
- Huatli, Radiant Champion, the third planeswalker card for the recently-introduced Huatli character between the block’s two sets. Furthermore, this printing changed the character’s colors from white-red to white-green;
- Polyraptor, a dinosaur creature at mythic that can create copies of itself via its enrage ability, and;
- The Immortal Sun, Rivals of Ixalan’s story’s macguffin card. Thankfully, the card does see play here and there.
In terms of promotional cards, Rivals of Ixalan’s Buy-a-Box promo was Captain’s Hook, Draft Launch Weekend had a Brass’ Bounty, the Magic Open House promo was a full art, foil Silvergill Adept, the Magic League promo was a foil Evolving Wilds, the Store Championship promo was a full art, foil Ghalta, Primal Hunger, and (of course) prerelease participants were given a random foil, date-stamped rare or mythic rare from the set.
As for how the set was received as well as some thoughts on lessons learned from it, here again is Magic: The Gathering Head Designer Mark Rosewater:
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So, where does Rivals of Ixalan rank for you in terms of Magic: The Gathering expansions? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
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