Rivals of Ixalan

Rivals of Ixalan is the 77th Magic expansion, and the second in the Ixalan block. It was released on January 19, 2018, and is a small expansion.

Set details
Rivals of Ixalan is the last regular small expansion to be released. The set contains 196 cards (5 basic lands, 70 common, 60 uncommon, 48 rare, and 13 mythic rare) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. Some of the rares are Double-faced cards which were printed on a separate print sheet. Nine additional cards are found in the set's planeswalker decks (2 mythic planeswalkers, 2 rares, 2 uncommons, 2 commons, and 1 common dual land). These are numbered #197/196 to #205/196. With the exception of the Elder Dinosaur cycle, all the tribes are staying in their same colors from Ixalan.

As the design of this set fell between the abandonment of the Two-Block Paradigm, but before the introduction Three-and-One Model, Rivals of Ixalan had a combined Vision/Set Design team instead of separate Design and Development teams. Notably, head designer Mark Rosewater wasn't part of the team.

Storyline
Stake your claim. Dominate the opposition. Rule the city.

The legendary city of Orazca has been found, but it is not claimed without a fight. The winner will wield the greatest power of the plane. An unexpected rival takes the prize for his master.

The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in Ixalan are: Flood of Recollection, Induced Amnesia, and Mastermind's Acquisition. This is the first set to only have three spotlight cards. These feature a Planeswalker symbol icon as a watermark in their text boxes. The icon has no effect on game play.

Magic Story
An additional article was published presenting alternate endings (now non-canon) that depicted each faction gaining control of Orazca.

Marketing
Rivals of Ixalan is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card), two planeswalker decks and the Rivals of Ixalan bundle. The boosters feature artwork from Sun Sentinel, Angrath, the Flame-Chained, Riverwise Augur, Frilled Deathspitter, and Moment of Craving. The set doesn't feature a Masterpiece Series.

As part of the preview season, Wizards of the Coast again distributed trackable game pieces to stores, fans, volunteers, and some well-known community folk. As game pieces travelled from from geochache to geocache, the distances they travelled influenced the release of preview cards. By tracking Dinosaurs, Merfolk, Vampires, and Pirates individually, accompanied by votes on social media, it was decided who controlled the golden city at the end of the Rivals of Ixalan story.

Events

 * Prerelease Events took place on January 13, 2018.
 * Magic Online Launch: January 15, 2018.

Promotional cards

 * Magic Open House: Full-art foil Silvergill Adept</c>
 * Prerelease: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare from the set.
 * Draft Weekend Launch promo: Brass's Bounty</c>
 * Standard Showdown: foil land with art by Rebecca Guay
 * Magic League: foil Evolving Wilds</c>
 * Store Championship: full-art foil Ghalta, Primal Hunger</c>
 * Buy-a-Box: Captain's Hook</c>
 * FNM promo double-faced tokens:
 * 1/1 Merfolk creature with hexproof / Treasure artifact (River Heralds flavored)
 * City's Blessing</c> marker / 0/1 Elemental creature with "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this creature and return target card named Rekindling Phoenix from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste until end of turn"
 * 2/2 Illusion creature with "When this creature becomes target of a spell, sacrifice it." / 1/1 Saproling creature

Tokens, emblems and markers
Ixalan features six tokens and markers.


 * 1)  0/1 Elemental creature with "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this creature and return target card named Rekindling Phoenix from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste until end of turn." for Rekindling Phoenix</c>
 * 2)  1/1 Elemental creature, for Tilonalli's Summoner</c>
 * 3)  1/1 Saproling creature, for Overgrown Armasaur</c> and Tendershoot Dryad</c>
 * 4)  4/4 Golem artifact creature, for Gold-Forge Garrison</c>
 * 5) City's Blessing</c> marker
 * 1) City's Blessing</c> marker

The following tokens printed in Ixalan are also used for cards in Rivals of Ixalan:


 * 1/1 Vampire creature with lifelink, for Elenda, the Dusk Rose</c>, Martyr of Dusk</c> and Squire's Devotion</c>
 * 1/1 Merfolk creature with hexproof, for <c>Aquatic Incursion</c>, <c>Deeproot Waters</c> and <c>Jungleborn Pioneer</c>
 * 3/3 Dinosaur creature with trample, for <c>Baffling End</c> and <c>Crested Herdcaller</c>
 * Treasure artifact, for <c>Hornswoggle</c>, <c>Sailor of Means</c>, <c>Pitiless Plunderer</c>, <c>Brass's Bounty</c>, <c>Brazen Freebooter</c>, <c>Pirate's Pillage</c>, <c>Storm the Vault</c>, and <c>Gleaming Barrier</c>

Themes and mechanics
Transform and double-faced cards are carried over from Ixalan. The front side of some of them is multicolored. The backside is still a legendary land.

Enrage, explore and raid also return and the tribal component was expanded upon.

There is only one new named mechanic:
 * Ascend If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game.
 * If you have the city's blessing, you gain a significant advantage depending on the spell you played.
 * A special marker may be used to indicate the city's blessing on the battlefield. This is not a token or emblem, merely a representation of a game state.
 * Both permanents and spells can have ascend. If a spell has ascend, you get the city's blessing as part of the spell's resolution if you control ten or more permanents. If a permanent has ascend, you get the city's blessing immediately once you control ten or more permanents: this is a special action that doesn't use the stack and cannot be responded to.

Card types

 * Return of the Elder subtype with the Elder Dinosaurs, the first Elders that aren't Dragons.

Cycles
Rivals of Ixalan has seven cycles, including one double cycle. Two of these cycles are partial due to uneven color distribution among tribes.

Pairs
Rivals of Ixalan has four mirrored pairs.

Reprinted cards
As a first, this small set features four common reprints that were also printed in the large set. This was done because R&D had realized that they didn't want to make "second best" versions of those cards. They all have the same art as in the first set.
 * <c>Colossal Dreadmaw</c> (new flavor text)
 * <c>Legion Conquistador</c> (identical)
 * <c>Raptor Companion</c> (new flavor text)
 * <c>Sailor of Means</c> (new flavor text)

Other reprints

 * <c>Aggressive Urge</c>, first printed in Invasion, last seen in 10th Edition.
 * <c>Divine Verdict</c>, first printed in Magic 2010, last seen in Welcome Deck 2017.
 * <c>Evolving Wilds</c>, first printed in Rise of the Eldrazi, last seen in Iconic Masters.
 * <c>Hunt the Weak</c>, first printed in Magic 2014, last seen in Iconic Masters.
 * <c>Naturalize</c>, first printed in Onslaught, last seen in Dragons of Tarkir.
 * <c>Negate</c>, first printed in Morningtide, last seen in Aether Revolt.
 * <c>Plummet</c>, first printed in Archenemy, last seen in Conspiracy: Take the Crown.
 * <c>Recover</c>, first printed in Invasion, last seen in Modern Masters 2017.
 * <c>Shatter</c>, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Khans of Tarkir.
 * <c>Silvergill Adept</c>, first printed in Lorwyn.
 * <c>Strider Harness</c>, first printed in Scars of Mirrodin, last seen in Oath of the Gatewatch.
 * <c>Traveler's Amulet</c>, first printed in Innistrad, last seen in Hour of Devastation.
 * The five enemy colored dual taplands, first printed in Shadows over Innistrad, last seen in Commander 2017.
 * <c>Forsaken Sanctuary</c>
 * <c>Highland Lake</c>
 * <c>Foul Orchard</c>
 * <c>Stone Quarry</c>
 * <c>Woodland Stream</c>

Functional reprints

 * <c>Exultant Skymarcher</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Chapel Geist</c> (Innistrad), save for creature subtype.
 * <c>Goblin Trailblazer</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Deranged Whelp</c> (Eldritch Moon), save for creature type.
 * <c>Mist-Cloaked Herald</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Triton Shorestalker</c> (Journey into Nyx), save for creature type.
 * <c>Orazca Frillback</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Alpine Grizzly</c> (Khans of Tarkir), save for creature type.
 * <c>Orazca Raptor</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Highland Giant</c> (Portal), save for creature type.
 * <c>Sun Sentinel</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Huatli's Snubhorn</c> (Ixalan), save for creature type.
 * <c>Sworn Guardian</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Maritime Guard</c> (Magic 2011), save for creature type.
 * <c>Vampire Revenant</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Carrion Screecher</c> (Hour of Devastation), save for creature type.
 * <c>Waterknot</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Claustrophobia</c> (Innistrad).
 * <c>Raptor Companion</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Devilthorn Fox</c> (Shadows over Innistrad), save for creature type.

Preconstructed decks
Rivals of Ixalan features two planeswalker decks:

Notable cards

 * <c>Azor, the Lawbringer</c> is following the format of the Guildleaders of Ravnica with the double of each colored mana in the mana cost.
 * <c>Huatli, Radiant Champion</c> is the third planeswalker card for Huatli in this block, having changed from to.
 * <c>Blood Sun</c> was inspired by <c>Blood Moon</c>.
 * <c>Form of the Dinosaur</c> was inspired by <c>Form of the Dragon</c>.
 * <c>The Immortal Sun</c> mirrors the storyline by neutralizing planeswalkers.

Trivia
A product survey preceding the announcement of the name "Rivals of Ixalan" referred to the set as Conquest of Power.