1. Indiana Jones Vs Mesoamerica - While not every set has a “theme” per say, Zendikar will certainly be a plane with its own rules and natural order. Mark Rosewater hasn’t revealed much about what Zendikar is, but he has said quite a bit about what it is not: “I do feel the world we’ve created is a resonant one, but not one with pirates or dinosaurs. Or ninjas. Or robots. Or monkeys.” – MR. With so little information on the set 10 weeks out I am forced to extrapolate the set’s flavor from it’s logo and title. From these, I foresee an Indiana Jones meets Mesoamerica type of flavor. Don’t expect to see the words Aztec, Maya or “Skull of Doom” on any of these cards. The set will simply draw on the rich, often magical atmosphere of those realms. Think human sacrifices, poison, priceless, ancient treasures and jungle savagery. We’ve already seen a lot of this in Naya, granted but imagine that plane with a splash of the other missing colors as well. Whether that be through aristocratic vampires for black or sea faring people’s in blue. Think back to future sight with cards like Death Rattle, Skirk Ridge Exhumer, Nacatl War Pride, Graven Cairns and Muraganda Petroglyphs for the flavor I’m talking about.
Remember those tapping enchantments in Future Sight? They're baaaaaack.
2. Unique Mana Production – Zendikar will revolve around generating mana in unique and interesting ways. WotC has said for years that they’d like to add a “6th color” to the game. Not in the literal sense, but by forcing players to generate mana for particular purposes. Look for cards to read “use this mana only to play X spells”. Or look to generate bonus mana when certain conditions are met. Also look for lands that don’t produce mana and non-land cards that do produce mana such as “Manlands” or mana producing creatures. Look for cards like Imperiosaur with restrictions on the types of mana used to play it. There may even be an ability that lets you tap any card with that ability for one of the mana color used to cast it. For example: If the ability was on Glorious Anthem you could tap that enchantment for one white mana. This would reward you for casting more expensive enchantments that might not be worth the mana. Either way, I believe mana fixing will be a huge part of Zendikar if only because of this quote from “Purifying Fire”: (on Zendikar) “A mysterious plane- which may or may not exist- where mana works differently than any where else in the multiverse?“ Mana will work differently in Zendikar. The only question left is “how”?
3. Big, Shiny, Useful, Non-Creature Artifacts - The tagline for Zendikar is “Deadly Perils, Priceless Treasures.” While the perils will be obvious with things like poison back in the mix, the treasures are sure to be equally as interesting. Look for giant, useful artifacts that change the game when they hit the table. Remember Mirari from the Odyssey block? Large, golden artifacts that are particularly coveted. A quote from the new book referring to Zendikar: “And an artifact of such immense power that it will certainly be sought, coveted, and fought over by people far more ruthless then any keralian…” While we’re on the subject of treasure, check out the interesting treasure theory purposed by MikeyG.
Umm... yes?
4. Three Planeswalkers – Chandra, Nissa and Sorin - We know for a fact that Zendikar will feature exactly three planeswalkers. Nissa has been confirmed as one of those planeswalkers (though no details are known.) Chandra is an assumption on my part as she “walks” to Zen at the end of her recent novel. I expect her to be the same card we know and (don’t particularly) love as the book does not change her character enough to warrant shifting her color. If anything she’d still be red with different gametext but I expect the card to simply be reprinted however boring that might sound. Sorin was recently revealed as an Ultra Pro card sleeve. Nothing is known about him… he may not even be a planeswalker. But hey, these are wild speculations here! A boy can dream, can’t he? A badass blood-sucking, walker? Or a 2/1, first strike common? I predict (and pray for) the former.
5. White gets Nerfed, Blue gets Pumped – White cannot possibly contain any more bad-ass cards in the standard format. A handful of packs into opening my M10 booster box I thought to myself “What are the cards I’d really be excited about pulling?“ My list? (…and this is not an exaggeration…) Silence, Ajani Goldmane, Baneslayer Angel, Honor of the Pure, need I go on? A playset of each of those and you’ve got a formidable tournament deck right there! My point is that white cannot possibly be any more pumped than it already is. I expect white to get the same treatment blue did in M10, which is to say it’ll get the shaft. Blue, for what its worth, will receive one or two gems in Zendikar. Look for a good bounce, an Evacuation equivalent or a thoughtful counterspell.
Look for specialized lands with a focus on artifacts as well as revived modern mechanics.
6. Return of Modern Mechanics such as Hideaway and Delve – Hideaway is such a great ability. It adds an element of strategy and depth to the game without being overly complicated. And who doesn’t enjoy playing cards for free? Keeping with the Aztec/Mayan theme, temples and sacred lands just scream out for hideaway. If you take a look back at the future sight cards Death Rattle and Tombstalker you’ll find a couple of cards that fit right in with my purposed theme. The artwork for Death Rattle is particularly uncanny. I’d expect the revival of even more mechanics and certainly the inclusion of a few new ones for Zendikar.
7. Return of a Cheap(er) Sweep – And it won’t be white. White is the rush now more than ever. Honor of the Pure, Elspeth and Ajani all available in standard at the same time? White needs to be contained by the other colors, not the other way around. Now, I know Damnation has been predicted for reprint in each and every set since its release so I won’t go there. I’m thinking more along the lines of Mutilate, a, non-white Wrath of God with twist or even an Evacuation-esque offering. Look for cards that require a certain specialty to be effective. Mutilate only works if you’re playing with mostly swamps. Offering tragically effective cards only to decks with a certain focus is a great way to get these cards in the game without breaking standard.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I’m so accurate with these things I might have to start giving out spoiler warnings at the beginning. Do a quick search for my other predictions and you’ll have your breath taken from you, and your mind blown. Seriously though, keep an eye on our Zendikar Spoiler page for all of the latest “real” spoilers. Gathering Magic always has you covered.
Like this article? Try these:
Loading ...
Great prediction. It is really nice to see your thoughts and the treasure concept is very cool. I don’t know that I see WotC adding such a drastic element to some cards in the set, but then I didn’t expect the card redesign like we saw in Future Sight.
I most like you idea about non-mana producing lands and enchantments that produce mana.
I’m not to sure about the cheaper sweep… While this is more on the un-educated side when it comes to predictions, it seems to me that Wizards might want to slow down the sweepers all together. Perhaps focusing on combat more and not frustrating new players when the army that took them a couple turns to build up is now destroyed.
When it comes to the Planeswalkers, I’m hoping for a re-vamped Chandra. She’s just far to slow for any serious burn deck. Although I’m not getting my hopes up to high. Also, the vampire seems like a cool idea; I can see lot’s of potential for this kind of non-basic Planeswalker.
“A mysterious plane- which may or may not exist- where mana works differently than any where else in the multiverse?“
I realy Like this statement, though i havnt read the book. Honestly though from everything that ive managed to catch. and random mentions by various people. ive heard phasing mentioned(but NOT in direct relation to Zendikar) several times over the last 2 months. Mentioned in an article that it was getting a rules change overhaul. Brought up again by the Head of Stainless games saying that they didnt want to go with anything too complicated for introducing ablilities yet. In another article just randomly mentioned along side banding. Than again in the same article for Duels of the Planeswalkers on Xbox360 saying that the RFG zone(now Exiled) and the Phased out Zone(now non-existant as an actual zone) is partialy incoded into Duels of the Planeswalkers.
Looking at the statement again though, A world that doesnt exist? I think that since there was a rules overhaul for it as well, we might possibly see a prominant return of phasing.
New mana usage might be linked to your life, or taping/sacrificing creatures to generate mana.
Almost seems like a given that blue is in line for a blanket sweep card. possibly the return of upheaval or a new instant “phase out all nonland perminants”. I think that City of Brass might be back as well.
Either way. great article.
@Reynolds: If they bring back Phasing and Banding I’ll light myself on fire. Those are the two worst ‘abilities’ in MTG history. Hopefully they’re smarter than that.
The City of Brass prediction is interesting though. Hmmm. . .
@Reinhart: I would agree with Evesaakela on the sweeper argument. WotC has emphasized recently that MTG is a ‘creature-based game’ and most of the newer tweaks are to enhance that theme. I think we’ll see sweep nerfed the way mana-production was after the Urza block.
Phasing is realy easy to understand. back than it was supposed to be a way to get a few stronger things into play for cheaper, but youd only have it every second turn when it was phased in.
Banding is abit tricky for newer players to understand. but its not as complicated as it looks. the hard thing though is trying to explain to someone how you can block a flier with a ground creature that doesnt have reach, or block a landwalker when you have the type in play that it needs.
As far as city of brass goes though. With Zendikar rotating in and all of the old blocks duels dissapearing, its possible that we’ll see the 5 opposing duels see print. Wizards reason for rotating the painlands was that as a core set to introduce players, new players might not like the concept of lands hurting them. I dont think that their going to leave it at just the 5 allied duels, and since Zendikar isnt a core set it wouldnt follow the no pain theory.
Having to replace all of the rotated filter lands and other lands that saw play, the 5 allied duels are reasonable. I think that they would probly round it off by reprinting City of Brass either in the same set or the one after it.
looking back now though the game has completely shifted focus from spells to creatures in the powercreep. so i think that phasing can allow for more of a powercreep.
I would be very excited for a strong vampire theme in Zendikar. Good vampires are few and far between. I can prloy count the number of good vampires on my hands.
I don’t think they’d have the block without a PW from each color. If Nissa and Chandra are the first two, my guess is that the third would be W/U, since those are the two colors the first two don’t have, unless they make Chandra multicolored or something…
Solid list of predictions. I was thinking something very similar, like the trolls in Warcraft.
The mana base, if true, will be fascinating. Though I was thinking the new use would involve more spells that do X where X equals the mana in your mana pool. For those that have played Puzzle Quest, you’ll know what I mean.
@ixidorofice you must be forgetting all the changelings then.
@jessesl66 the walkers are much more different, especially now that gold casting costs are in the equation
@jesse I think you’ll find yourself mistaken there.
Black hasnt had a new planeswalker… ever..
No I dont count Nicol.
If I had one wish.. it would be a new Black PW.. even if it was dual color.. we need some evil walkers up in heeeeere!
@jestergoblin- I am not forgetting the changelings. Changelings are fillers for the most part. When I wanna make a tribal deck I dont think ” well I could use this changeling and this one too” I try to use actual tribal cards. A changeling isn’t just a vampire its also a angel, soldier, pink fuzzy bunny ect….. I want Zendikar to have vampire as a black tribal theme. Changlings dont really have vampire abilities, such as if they deal combat dammage to a creature and it goes to the graveyard this turn put a +1/+1 counter on said creature. Im not saying changelings aren’t practical, im just saying they are far less usefull than the real thing (for the most part. there are exceptions)
I would also like to make a prediction……
Slivers im calling it
Somehow my comment got on another page.
Mark Rosewater said that the theme has been hinted at but not done. Looking at recent sets, I think (Re:pray) that we’ll finally get a multiplayer set. That would bring down white (notice silence doesn’t seem so bad now) in the sense that most multiplayer cards (Breath of Malfegor, Bloodthirsty Tyrant) seem to be Black, Red based.
I agree (Re: hope) we’ll get the prehistoric/aztec set hinted at in Future Sight.
@Rinehart: I think the only reason they didn’t divide the Alara PWs by color was because it was more realistic to split them up by shards (I agree, they should have made one more black one, but too late now). In Zednikar there are no planes-within-planes (that we know of), so the only way to split the PWs will be by colors. Since we’re already getting a black one in Nissa, they’ve answered the lack of black PWs. That leaves two PWs and I can’t see any reason why they wouldn’t cover the other three colors on those two. If they didn’t, I’m sure everybody would be saying that the block is biased against W/B, just like everyone was saying Alara was biased against Grixis before Nicol Bolas was released. Tou could be right, but I just can’t see this block getting two Black PWs and no W/B.
I think that chandra will come back as a dual color planeswalker. I’m guessing either Black/Red. I think she’ll have a Terminate ability, and some other ones. I like the idea of the city of brass idea. But I’m thinking more like a glimmervoid kind of deal going on here.
I agree that there is probably going to be a boardsweeper somewhere in this next set. I think it’ll be either blue or Green. That way the boardsweeper could have some fun and make it multi-player friendly.
My last prediction is we won’t be having any new creature types. The roles are already set with M2010. Elves, Goblins, Soldier, Vampire, and Merfolk. Which is a shame. I was really hoping to finally build that rigger deck too…
I’d like to see the untap abilities from Shadowmoor/Eventide back again, but I’m not sure it’ll be here.
You can’t start by saying “this is not simply a wish-list” and then have those blurry Magic Lampoon-style photochops of cards you think could be printed but wouldn’t ever be made (especially Sorin – my God, his text would still be hard to read if cards were a foot wide). You make a liar out of yourself, so I don’t have to.
Its not a wish list. Its a prediction of what Zendikar cards might look similar to. You don’t see a difference?
Como on! what part of “Zendikar Prediction and conjetures” you don´t understood, it´s so ovbious that this is not a whis list it´s a “Prediction” “conjetures”
I seriously hope Chandra’s art on the revealed pack isn’t the same as on the card…
GREAT prediction! I would absolutely LOVE to see delve come around.
Also,what would be your predictions on “the cycle of cards that players have been begging us to print for years” teaser? Most people think it to be new sac lands..
For obvious reasons everybody should start stockpiling Terramorphic Expanse because that would go great with Landfall. Even if you dont plan on using Landfall (dont know why u wouldnt) you should still get them for very easy yet fairly wanted trade bait.
If you really look at the card, Tomb of Zendikar (above) is almost exactly like the quest cards. Nice call Reinhart, however unintentional.