Limited Draft Guide

Alchemy: Ixalan (YLCI)

Crush your next MTG draft with our Alchemy: Ixalan draft guide, including a color tier list, card ratings, set mechanics, and more.

Last updated: 17 minutes agoTotal matches: 38,000

Get better with Draftsmith

Improve at Draft and Sealed with Draftsmith, Untapped.gg’s draft and deck builder assistant.

Table of Contents

Set Overview
Top Colors & Commons
Signpost Uncommons
Popular Combat Tricks
Set Mechanics

Set OverviewStats based on: Premier Draft

Avg. Game Turns

8.7

Fast

Slow

Avg. Game Duration

9.0 min

Short

Long

Best Performing Colors

BestWorst

Draftable Cards

MTGA Release Date

2023

December 5

Top Colors Combinations

Tier

Colors

6+ Wins

Popularity

Tier

Azorius

14.7%

Tier

Gruul

14.7%

Izzet

13.0%

Boros

9.5%

Golgari

9.0%

Selesnya

4.6%

Jund

1.3%

Tier

Simic

5.5%

Rakdos

4.3%

Tier

Orzhov

6.4%

Dimir

5.1%

Bant

2.6%

Jeskai

2.3%

Naya

1.4%

Low Match Volume

Tier

Mono Black

0.9%

Sultai

0.8%

Temur

0.6%

Grixis

0.5%

Abzan

0.4%

Mono Green

0.3%

Mono White

0.3%

Top Commons by Color

Archetypes & Signpost Uncommons

Azorius

Artifact Control

Buy time with blockers, removal, and life gain while you assemble an array of amazing artifacts to dominate the late game.View Azorius decks

Dimir

Descend Control

Build up your blockers while you fill your graveyard, then drag your opponent into the deep end with high-cost creatures, card draw, and recursive threats.View Dimir decks

Rakdos

Descending Beatdown

Continually grow your creatures by filling your graveyard. Attack viciously, force blocks, or even throw permanents into the graveyard yourself, while keeping foes down with creature removal.View Rakdos decks

Gruul

Dinosaur Stompy

Summon gigantic Dinosaurs to crush the opposition, using methods of mana generation to bring them into play and then breaking through blockers.View Gruul decks

Selesnya

Buffs Aggro

Keep the pressure on with lots of low-cost creatures. When your opponent tries to set up a defense, it's time to pounce by powering up your own forces in response.View decks

Orzhov

Sacrifice

Sacrifice smaller creatures and artifacts for the glory of Aclazotz (and additional resources). Once your opponent's defense is down, seal their fate with a few larger creatures.View Orzhov decks

Izzet

Artifact Aggro

Set sail with a rowdy crew and their haul of Equipment and Treasures. When pesky landlubbers try to stop you, fly over them or throw your opponent's blockers overboard.View Izzet decks

Golgari

Descend Grindy

Muck up the battlefield with resilient creatures while you fill your graveyard. Once you've descended enough to power your side up, grind your way through the opposing blockers.View Golgari decks

Boros

Tapping Midrange

Launch your military campaign with lots of small creatures and artifacts, then tactically tap those resources to activate your forces and rout the invaders.View decks

Simic

Explore Midrange

Go exploring to stock your side with lands and powerful creatures, then sink your extra mana into activated abilities and card draw to drown the opposition in value.View decks

Popular Combat Tricks

View All Combat Tricks

Set Mechanics

Craft

There are plenty of treasures (not to be confused with Treasures) in Ixalan's network of underground caves, but just like Ixalan itself, many of these treasures are more than they seem on the surface. With the right materials, innocuous discoveries can be turned into powerful artifacts.

View all 19 Craft cards

View All 19 Craft Cards

Discover

Discovery is an exciting pursuit. You never know what you'll find! Well, you might know, actually, because the discover keyword action allows you to dig into your library and cast something for free.

View all 24 Discover cards

View All 24 Discover Cards

Descended

The deeper you go into the caves under Ixalan's surface, the more exciting the finds will be. Of course, the further you descend, the more dangerous things become. Descend is a new rules term that refers to times that a permanent card is put into your graveyard from anywhere.

View all 12 Descended cards

View All 12 Descended Cards

Explore

If a creature you control explores, you reveal the top card of your library. If the revealed card is a land, representing your creature finding some new territory you can check out, put that card into your hand. If it's not a land card, your creature comes back empty-handed (or empty-winged, empty-taloned, empty-pawed, etc.) but still benefits from the attempt. Specifically, you put a +1/+1 counter on it. Then, you decide whether the nonland card goes back on top of your library or into your graveyard.

View all 0 Explore cards

View All 0 Explore Cards

Map Tokens

Need help venturing into the unknown? What if I told you the unknown could be a little more … well, known? Maybe you'd like a map?

View all 10 Map Tokens cards