CardName – Lost Caverns of Ixalan
Date Reviewed: December 6, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 4.13
Limited: 2.75
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 3.50
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
“The Enigma Jewel” sounds a lot like something Indiana Jones would be going after if the franchise was still continuing. That is, of course, intentional, and the card’s name is kind of fitting in gameplay too. There are some contexts where Locus of Enlightenment will have different abilities each time you craft it. It’s equally possible to make a deck where it always has the same abilities, and those abilities are some kind of incredibly annoying combination that invalidates entire strategies. It’s easier than it looks to craft it, as its own mana ability can be used to pay for it, and even if you don’t there are things to spend it on which go right over the top – if you’re going old-school, it helps you untap Grim Monolith in an unusual way!
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
The Enigma Jewel is fascinating. It’s a sort of Sol Ring for activated abilities, but with a particularly interesting endgame effect to make some kind of ultra-mega-giga-bauble with rude effects. You can only usually tap this once per turn, even when crafted into the Locus of Enlightenment, but you get it twice, so that’s particularly fun. Less fun is that it costs nine mana, but you can use this to pay for itself, so there is that.
That said, I don’t really think the craft ability here is more than a curiosity, so Locus of Enlightenment is more of a sideshow. The Enigma Jewel is a bit of a weakened Sol Ring…but Sol Ring is Sol Ring, and being able to accelerate abilities coming online is a pretty solid boon. Notably, there are no type-related limitations to abilities, so you could do something fun like using this to pay for Trumpeting Carnosaur’s burnination effect. I think this is definitely format-dependent on if it’s any good, and there are definitely formats where this will shine. With The Brothers’ War still in Standard, that may well be tis format for it.
Constructed: 3 (full disclosure: I have no idea, but this may well be broken in the right shell)
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
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