Exclusive Card Reveal for Magic: The Gathering - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
Feature
"Welcome to Jurassic Park"
OK…The Lost Caverns of Ixalan isn’t all about the dinosaurs, but it is about discovering and exploring lost worlds. Thanks to our friends at Wizards of the Coast, we at Hooked Gamers have been given the opportunity to reveal an exclusive card for the new set – Guardian of the Great Door
Card – Guardian of the Great Door
Spell type: Creature – Angel (4/4)
Spell Cost: Two white lands
Spell: As an additional cost to cast this spell, tap four untapped artifacts, creatures, and/or lands you control. Flying
Spell narrative: The Core was sealed long ago by the Deep Gods, who set the angels to the eternal task of defending its golden gates.
Card Description
Despite initially looking like an inexpensive powerful creature to cast onto the battlefield, the additional cost related to casting Guardian of the Great Door means that it could actually cost six lands to cast. Either that, or reduce the number of artifacts or creatures that can be used to attack during your turn, or defend during an opponents attacking phase. However, once it is on the battlefield, it can do a lot of damage with its flying ability and 4/4 stats.
New and returning mechanics
Craft
Each card with Craft is a transforming double-faced card. Players cast the front face of the cards (the one with the Craft ability displayed). Craft is an activated ability that lets you take the mundane and make it magnificent. To activate a craft ability, you need to do three things: exile the permanent with craft, exile the specified materials (other permanents you control or cards from your graveyard), and pay some mana. The card with craft will return to the battlefield transformed.
Descend
Several cards in this set have abilities that trigger if you've descended this turn. You've descended if a permanent card has been put into your graveyard from anywhere.
Descend 4, Descend 8 and Fathomless Descent
Similar to the Descend mechanic above, the spells with this mechanic trigger if players have a certain number of permanent cards in their graveyard (e.g. Descend 4 triggers when players have 4 permanent cards in their graveyard). This will grant greater abilities to the spell.
Discover
This keyword lets you look into your library to search for a nonland card of a particular value. Players will exile cards from their library until they discover the required nonland card, at which point they can cast the card without paying its normal mana cost or add it to their hand. The exiled cards are placed back into the bottom of your library.
Explore and Map Tokens
If a creature you control explores, reveal the top card of your library. If the revealed card is a land card, signifying they found some new territory you can check out, put that card into your hand. If it's not a land card, your creature won't find any cards for you, but they will be fortified by the experience. You put a +1/+1 counter on that creature. Then you can put the nonland card into your graveyard or, if you like what you saw, leave it on top of your library.
Map Artifact Tokens can be used to activate the Explore ability when they are sacrificed
For those wishing to attend a pre-release event at their local WPN store to check out some of the new cards and the associated mechanics, visit your local WPN store. And for more information regarding the upcoming Lost Caverns of Ixalan set, head on over to the official site.
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