Jump to section ▾
The other half of Ixalan
What this set is
Rivals of Ixalan finishes what Ixalan started: four tribes, Vampires, Merfolk, Dinosaurs and Pirates, all converging on the same golden city. It is a small set drafted alongside its predecessor rather than on its own, so the tribes you can build were set three months earlier.
Ascend is the new one, and it is a threshold rather than a keyword you activate. Once you control ten or more permanents you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game, and you keep it even if the board is wiped afterwards. That permanence is the whole design: it rewards getting there once rather than staying there.
The rest is returning. Explore and enrage both came from Ixalan and do the work of tying the two sets together, which a small second set has to do rather than introducing a second vocabulary.
Themes
Every mechanic in Rivals of Ixalan
Ascend
If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game. It never goes away once you have it, so a board wipe afterwards costs you the permanents but not the blessing. On an instant or sorcery it checks as the spell resolves; on a permanent it checks continuously while it is on the battlefield.
The city's blessing
Not a keyword but a designation you either have or do not, tracked per player. Cards check for it rather than counting your permanents again, which is what lets a deck spend a turn going wide and then benefit from it for the rest of the game.
Explore
Reveal the top card of your library. If it is a land, put it in your hand; otherwise put a +1/+1 counter on the creature and choose whether to keep the card on top or bin it. Back from Ixalan, and it is the mechanic that makes the Merfolk half work.
Enrage
Triggers whenever the creature is dealt damage, not when it dies. Also from Ixalan, and it turns a Dinosaur into a card an opponent has to answer cleanly rather than chip away at.
Where You Can Play It
Format legality
Rivals of Ixalan shipped under a single code and has left Standard, which is the only format it left.
Not Standard-legal. Standard only ever holds the last few years of sets, so everything this old has long since left it. These cards are still playable in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander. Commons from any set are Pauper-legal; that isn't listed per set here.
Limited
Ten draft archetypes
Drafted with Ixalan rather than alone, so the format is really a tribal one: the four tribes cut across the colour pairs and picking a tribe usually picks your colours for you.
Four tribes across ten pairs
Tribal-first format
Vampires in white-black, Merfolk in green-blue, Dinosaurs in red-green and white, Pirates in blue-black and red. Ascend rewards the go-wide tribes most, which is why the Vampire and Pirate decks reach ten permanents first.
Boosters, precons and singles from Rivals of Ixalan are on TCGplayer.
FAQ
Common questions
Is Rivals of Ixalan still Standard legal?
No. Standard only holds the last few years of sets, so a 2018 release left it long ago. RIX cards are still legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander.
How does ascend work?
If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game. On an instant or sorcery it checks as the spell resolves; on a permanent it checks continuously while that permanent is on the battlefield.
Do you lose the city's blessing if your board is wiped?
No. Once you have the city's blessing you keep it for the rest of the game, no matter what happens to your permanents afterwards. That permanence is the whole design: it rewards getting to ten once rather than staying there.
Which tribes are in Rivals of Ixalan?
The same four as Ixalan: Vampires, Merfolk, Dinosaurs and Pirates. Rivals is a small second set drafted alongside Ixalan, so the tribes were set three months earlier.
What is the difference between explore and enrage?
Explore reveals the top card of your library and either puts a land in your hand or a +1/+1 counter on the creature with a choice about the revealed card. Enrage triggers whenever the creature is dealt damage, not when it dies. Both came from Ixalan rather than this set.
All card names, art, and mechanics belong to Wizards of the Coast. Rivals of Ixalan released on Jan 19, 2018; details reflect the set as published. Sources: Wizards of the Coast set pages and release notes, Draftsim, Untapped.gg.
Playing Rivals of Ixalan in Commander?
TurnZero HQ keeps deck records, MMR, and moments for every Commander night, so you can see which new cards are actually earning their slot.
Create Free Account