Ikoria art review

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths is Magic’ newest set. Due to COVID-19 it’s experiencing a staggered rather than simultaneous global release. Asia is receiving the set as originally scheduled, while the rest of the world is currently delayed for one month. Online formats have already received the set.

art by Chris Rahn

Ikoria is a new world and one based around the five colour trios that were last seen in the Khans of Tarkir set. Khans of Tarkir showed humans and similar races in the ascendancy against the large creatures of the plane. In Tarkir, large dragons were just a memory as the beasts had long since been wiped out.

art by Jason Chan

Ikoria turns this idea on its head. Here, humanity is besieged and barely holding on, while other races have since disappeared into the jaws of the plane’s monsters. Like Throne of Eldraine, the division in Ikoria is between human and non-human creatures.

In my Throne of Eldraine art review most the featured cards were from the human side. In Ikoria this is flipped and you’ll see mostly monsters below:

Kaheera the Orphanguard by Ryan Pancoast

The monsters of Ikoria can be quite cooperative. Here, the offspring of monsters killed by humans are raised together by a guardian.

Titanoth Rex by Svetlin Velinov

A classic great big green creature, this card serves as a great emblem of Ikoria itself.

Ghidorah, King of the Cosmos by Nicholas Gregory

Yes that is a dragon against fighter planes. Not exactly Magic: the Gathering. In Ikoria there’s a series of cards based around the various Godzilla movies. These cards don’t appear in regular boosters but can be found in the collector boosters of the set.

Illuna, Apex of Wishes by Chris Rahn

Each of the featured colour trios has a mythic creature that exemplified what that trio wants to do in the game. Illuna has both flying and trample, and can put other cards from your deck directly onto the battlefield.

Yidaro, Wandering Monster by Jesper Ejsing

You’ll see the artists tactic of ‘birds for scale’ used on a lot of cards in this set. I just really like the colours used in this piece.

These are five of my top picks, what are some of yours?

You can see the full Ikoria set on Scryfall.