Inside Magic: The Gathering’s Lost Caverns of Ixalan, a set driven by a love of Latin America

polygon.com:

Long before Wizards of the Coast senior art director Ovidio Cartagena and his team of artists conjured up cavernous depths populated with jade merfolk and fungal tyrants, he would ride the bus back and forth to school each day in his hometown in Guatemala. In his day-to-day life, Cartagena saw Mayan pyramids and statues of warriors who fought the conquistadors. Fast forward several years, and he’s now living in the United States, but those experiences live on through the art of Magic: The Gathering in the Lost Caverns of Ixalan set.

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is Magic’s 98th expansion. Set for global release on Nov. 17, this new expansion will bring players back to the plane of Ixalan, a land inspired by Latin America filled with explorers looking for a lost city of gold. This time around, rather than explore the jungles on the surface, the set explores a vast underground world filled with gods and thriving cultures. In anticipation of the release of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Cartagena sat down with Polygon via video chat to talk about the creation of the set and reveal the art for eight never-before-seen cards. In our conversation, he talked about building a colorful, vibrant world that served as a love letter to Latin America.

For Cartagena, the idea for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan set has been in the making “for years.” He played the first Ixalan set when it was released in 2017, which inspired him to work as a Magic artist. He eventually applied for a job at Wizards of the Coast. When he interviewed for the position, he pitched a set that followed the concept of going underground based on the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya K’iche’ people. Though it was just a pitch for an interview, a few years later, he