Between pre-releases, game days, grand prix and friday night magic events I’d have to say that pre releases are where I feel most at home.  The balance between the casual sealed format and competitive atmosphere almost perfectly correlates with my connection to the game.  Somewhere between net-decking faerie Spike-fest and casual schoolyard Timmys is where you’ll find me, and I think most players.  Couple that with the fact that you’re opening packs of a not-yet-released expansion of Magic the Gathrering and most should see the appeal of a pre-release tournament.

Standing in line with at least 200 other players eager to gain entrance to the main ballroom I spotted the face of magic himself: Mark Rosewater.  I apprehensively approached the godfather of modern magic and casually introduced myself.  I had twittered him just the day before about Valakut The Molten Pinnacle and it’s use of the term “other mountains” even though it isn’t a mountain.  I asked him about that.  His response was that originally, many of the non-basic lands in Zendikar had the subtype associated with the color of mana they produced.  Many in R&D liked that idea because it created more synergy within the block.  It also would have made those individual cards that much better.  In the end, the idea was nixed because it would have made those cards “too powerful” but the phrase “other mountains” remains on that card.  I asked for a picture with the man (right), thanked him for his time and returned to my table.

I won’t waste your time with all of the little details of my personal experience.  I’ve never found that interesting on other MTG blogs so I wont waste your time with it here.  For example,  I won’ t waste your time telling you about how I pulled a Sorin Markov in my very first pack of Zendikar ever opened.  I certainly wouldn’t bore you with the harrowing tale of  my 3-1, 2nd place finish.  And there’s no way I’m going to brag about pulling all three planeswalkers in only 13 packs of Zendikar.  Please- I would never stoop to such gross personal indulgence on this blog.

What you want and need to know about is the nature of limited Zendikar itself.  I can pretty much sum it up in two words: Green Landfall.  Of the top five players in my flight, roughly 100% (including me) played green as their main color.   Walking around to the other table’s and witnessing their  final matches didn’t change the aforementioned statistic.  The #1 player at my table (and subsequently my only loss for the day) commanded an army of landfalling bal0ths and beast token generating enchantments.  Couple those with Khalni Heart Expedition and some helpful, land-grabbing artifacts and it was more than possible to play mono-green with a splash of white or black.  It remains to be seen how this would work out in a draft format (as opposed to sealed) where players are all fighting over the common/uncommon green cards. But in sealed, with six packs of Zendikar all to yourself, you’d have to be extremely unlucky not to pull two or three game changing, landfall, 4/4, trample creatures or at least two Timbermaw Larvas.

The normal elements of sealed were still present – big bombs on turn six or seven, small creatures every turn, and removal is worth its weight in gold.  I think Zendikar hits all of those notes.  It actually does so in every color but with mana ramping and larger, more common landfall creatures available to green, there was really no contest when choosing colors.  Other than blue, I did see all of the other colors splashed into the staple green decks quite a bit.  When I’m playing with a forty card deck and thinning my library of lands every other turn I feel like I’m about the be decked at any given time staring at the 19 cards left in my library.  I was waiting for someone to bust out a couple of  Hedron Crabs and an Archive Trap or two but alas, it was not to be.

I really enjoyed playing with the concept of choosing when to play lands.  One of the most boring (and yet somehow still very convoluted) parts of magic the gathering is playing lands.  At this tournament I had a great time trying to decide when to play my land for the turn, hold the land until next turn, or trigger my sac artifacts to throw more lands into play.  Do I trigger my +2/+2 landfall ability x3 or do it once per turn?  Should I play this creature and then play a land?  We’re all used to the old “play a land then play spells” archetype but Zendikar really got me thinking about when I was dropping those lands.  Especially once you’ve got enough mana on the table but still had them in your hand.  Sometimes it paid to just hold onto them for later.  I really appreciated the “spicing up” of this normally mundane part of the game.

The other noteworthy aspect of sealed Zendikar is it’s speed.  My 50 minute rounds often were over in 15 minutes.  While there is some removal in Zendikar, if you’re not playing black or white alongside your green Baloths you’re probably going to see an 8/8 + trample creature coming your way on turn five or six which is quite fast in a sealed format.  Between searching for lands, putting lands into play from the top of your library and plain old mana acceleration, green at the helm of sealed Zendikar brings with it a speed that is faster than any other sealed format I’ve played in.  This isn’t to say that the other colors don’t possess the normal attributes necessary for limited play.  But I’m not sure I saw a blue card played the entire time I was at the pre-release.  The bounce was there, the counters were even there, heck I even pulled a rare sphinx!  But the bottom line for me (and everyone else it seemed) was that the combos you could pull off with equipment on common, giant, landfall, green creatures is just too much to pass up and it showed in the final rankings.

In the end I had a great time at the Washington State Convention Center that morning and would recommend this type of event to anyone.  Zendikar looks to be a great set.  Everyone was excited about Sorin, the pain-fetch lands and Day of Judgment.  There are plenty of “tournament level” cards to justify grabbing that booster box next week.  Also, I’d like to give a shout out to Robby from MTG Color Pie, whom I met up with at the event and taught me the ins and outs of Elder Dragon Highlander.  He also has a very nice blog that has inspired many of my articles.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to confirm, once and for all that the rumor about “Priceless Treasures” being found in packs of Zendikar is 100% true.  Someone at our event pulled a Tropical Island and I have seen the evidence first hand.  The judges also informed us prior to the match that there may be “non-Zendikar” cards in our packs and that we could keep, but not play, with those cards.  No one knows how rare these cards are, or how long they’ll be available but for now, its possible to get a Mox Sapphire in a pack of Zendikar.  I was very much a skeptic on the twitters when I first heard about this but this is one of those times I am so very happy to be wrong.

The Full Visual Zendikar Spoiler is now up and is also available in the Gatherer.  Be sure to check it out before your next limited event as it gives you quite the advantage to know what you’ll want to draft and what’ll be coming at you in Zendikar.

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As the final few Zendikar spoilers trickle into view and the preview dust settles we ready ourselves for the real action. Actually playing Magic with these 249 cards. Duelists have high hopes for the newest MTG expansion. And why wouldn’t they? Its jam packed with goodies from every color and card type. New planeswalkers have fans drooling as does the latest WotC invention: Landfall. And vampires are cool again, imagine that! All aspects of the game are seeing more-than-solid additions in these cards, but what are the cards we really care about? Each set brings with it a select few, the creamiest of the creme, that are so outstanding it insults them to be coupled with the chafe. These are the wheat, and we must honor them! How will we pay such honor? By numerically ranking the five best cards in all of Zendikar. The criteria are simple, these are the most desirable, the most popular and the most effective spells in the set.

Lotus Cobra – Unless you have been trapped in an ice cave for the past week chances are you’ve seen this card mentioned a few times. If you happen to peruse MTG forums and message boards then, well. . . you can probably name ten different turn four win combos involving this slithery mana ramper. In fact, not since the days of Fastbond has mana been ramped with so much zest as it will be when Lotus Cobra hits standard play. Of course, not only are you accelerating your mana but you’re fixing it as well. Lotus Cobra’s landfall allows any color mana, meaning crazy spells from every slice of the color-pie. Aside from it’s status as the best creature in Zendikar, LC brings with it two equally important aspects. First, this could herald the return of the competitive combo deck. Since Lorwyn landed in 2007 only Seismic Swans (later Cascade Swans) made any real tournament noise. Not any more. Turn three Violent Ultimatum decks will start sprouting up across the MTG landscape like mushrooms. Second, WotC made the bold choice of basically throwing the mana curve out the window. All of Magic is dependent on that curve and it has now been drastically altered. I am not judging here, merely stating fact.

Enemy Fetch Lands – One could argue that a complete set of five cards can’t simply take up one spot on this list. We wouldn’t. Instead we focus on the sheer synergy created when combining our number one choice with our number twos. Lotus Cobra gains so much of it’s steam from the ability of these lands to generate two or even three landfalls in a single turn. For many, these lands are hardly new as Onslaught contained the compete cycle of allied color fetch lands. And those lands have been popular for some time (anyone else feel like fetching a Ravnica dual land post-zendikar?), so there’s no reason to think the enemy versions won’t get equal face time. With so many instances of landfall in Zendikar, getting maximum output will be very important, even in limited events. Mana fixing, and landfall triggering not withstanding these lands serve a smaller service: thinning your deck of excess land cards exactly the same way Terramorphic Expanse does. It may not sound like much, but top-decking land in a crucial situation can cost you the game. And while not exactly ‘dual’ lands, this cycle will see play in every game environment from the super-casual to the Grand Prix.

Day of Judgment – Unlike the previous two cards Day of Judgment’s importance is almost exclusive to standard formats. That is not to say that this importance does not easily validate DoJ’s ranking at number three on our list. For three months standard has had no absolute sweep and creature heavy aggro decks have ruled tournaments everywhere. Merfolk and elf rush strategies became relevant and Alara-themed stomp decks crushed. Some of that had to do with the lords from M10 mixing so effectively with the Lorwyn uncommon lords, but most of it had to do with Wrath of God becoming out-dated. For players that fail to see any real difference from a card like Planar Cleansing allow a quick explanation. The two extra mana are not the problem here, it is the two (or more) extra turns you must take before being able to play it. Playing sweepers, even on turn five, is too late for almost any serious anti-rush strategy. In other words, if you don’t sweep by turn four you’re dead anyway. Sorry. One final silver lining, if you like extended formats you can cram that control deck with eight Wrath effects now! If you try not to stray into extended territory still take heart, at least your elf troubles are over. (Ed note: the ability of creatures to regenerate out of DoJ has been noted and since beaten into the ground. However, Zendikar doesn’t contain enough regeneration to make this a big issue in our minds.)

Mindbreak Trap – Recently Jay-Z released a song titled D.O.A. or Death of Auto-Tune (the musical device that makes T-Pain sound like a robot). Not long after, WotC released Mindbreak Trap the first mythic counterspell in Magic history. How are these events related you may be asking? Simple, when Wizards announced Mindbreak they might as well have called it D.O.S. or Death of Storm because that is what this card means. In fact MT reaches further back than that, to the days of Channel/Fireball on the first turn. The three-or-more-spells in one turn combo has been killed. And killed hard! It won’t matter if the spells can’t be countered (they’re exiled instead) and it won’t matter if you’re tapped out (you can always pay zero). And did we mention that unlike Pact of Negation, this zero cost can be played with any mana base. Because of these far-reaching effects if was difficult to judge Mindbreak. We decided that due to the lack of impact on Zendikar itself, MBT couldn’t rank any higher. However it still gets credit for seriously nerfing any cascade heavy deck and being at the very least a four cost Counterspell instead of a dead card. It’s also able to counter popular uncounterables such as Volcanic Fallout and Great Sable Stag.

Conqueror’ Pledge – Token generation in standard was about to take a giant hit with the rotation of Lorwyn. Duelists were concerned they might not need all four Ajani Goldmanes any more, and maybe Honor of the Pure was over-rated. Nope, not even close. While not a truly equal replacement of Spectral Procession, Pledge does come close enough to matter even without the kicker. And if you happen to have 11 mana, perhaps thanks to Lotus Cobra, then you just stocked your battlefield enough to win just about any game. Realistically, this card will rarely be played for more that it’s five mana cost. But six soldier tokens are more than enough to turn the tide in your favor. In concert with the buffers mentioned above Conqueror’s Pledge will be a foundation deck are built around for a long time. Together with a Day of Judgment you can play a Martial Coup effect well before you could even play the actual card.

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I’ve already expressed my unyielding love for Zendikar. In our recent poll, 90% of over 1000 respondents gave Zendikar an 8, 9 or 10 out of 10 based on what they’ve seen thus far. I know I’m not alone out there!  Much of the excitement around Zendikar revolves around it’s “hook”. Zendikar is a land-based expansion. And what greater gimmick than one that is always appealing to both casual and professional players alike? But with all this focus on land fetching and mana fixing, the set as a whole naturally favors one color over the others. That color, if you hadn’t guessed, is green.

This predicament has cropped up before and it will do so again. Most abilities and mechanics can theoretically be placed somewhere on the color wheel. In the Odyssey block we saw graveyard manipulation which is very much black’s territory. In Mirrodin, blue was at a theoretical advantage because artifacts fall under it’s sphere of influence. And now with Zendikar, we’re looking at a land based / mana-changing block that most undoubtedly favors green.

Take landfall for example. Of course wizards has put the ability in all of the other colors as well. Fetch lands are also available in every flavor. But which color is going to be able to trigger the most landfalls? Of course you could splash green to trigger another colored card’s landfall ability but that isn’t my point. If you’re going to use landfall and make the most out of Zendikar’s land based theme you’re going to have to at least splash some green.

Green has always been the king of mana fixing, land ramping and color changing. But in a set whose very theme is mana fixing, land ramping and color changing it would be hard to argue that green is not unilaterally advantaged by this turn of events. If there were an expansion based around drawing cards and bouncing permanents with abilities called “cardfall” I doubt anyone would hesitate to give blue the crown for the block. Sure everyone draws cards each turn and could benefit greatly from “cardfall” but honestly which color would you give leverage to in this hypothetical situation? The one that easily draws extra cards of course.

The idea here isn’t to say that the best individual cards in Zendikar are green. Though with Lotus Cobra now on the top of everyone’s Christmas list, I think green would be in the running. My point is that, even if the useful cards themselves were perfectly distributed throughout the colors, green would naturally dominate Zendikar. Harrow, Scute Mob, Oracle of Mul Daya.. these cards rule the plane as a matter of course. I really do appreciate the color balance in the individual rares and mythics we’ve seen thus far but the fact remains that each of these cards could be enhanced or at the very least- played earlier with the help of green.

Pro players have always loved to splash green. On the tournament scene, speed kills and no one does mana acceleration quite like green. It’s versatility with cards like Birds of Paradise and now Lotus Cobra is unmatched. In the world of Zendikar, all of Green’s strengths are exacerbated. Combine all of this with the unrelenting power and speed of elves and you’re bound to see green make it’s mark on the tour this season. In what other color, in what other set could you imagine playing an ultimatum on turn three?

With some of the huge bombs now floating around in standard, players are going to want to play them before turn eight or nine. One fallacy many newer players fall prey to is the ever persistent “9 CMC = Turn 9 Card”. Of course, most of us math gurus understand that you’d have to be playing a deck with over 50% land to even have a chance at nine land on turn nine. Without acceleration or substantial draw you’ll have seen 16 cards on turn nine and you’re telling me you’re expecting nine of those to be land? A highly unlikely and ultimately erroneous assumption. Only green can hope to get those Timmy-sized creatures or spells out in a timely fashion. As spells get bigger and nastier players will turn to green and it’s Lotus Cobra, Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise trifecta to help forge any colored bomb.

Sure white and blue can stall for time and mana, while red and black can just blast the cobra but the point is that green is the backbone of Zendikar. The quick, deadly, infinitely versatile monster that must be stopped at any cost. While the other colors are reduced to either simply “dealing” with green or playing / splashing green themselves. Often one color or another will take center stage for a few months in Magic the Gathering. That is the blessing and curse of the game we love. But I’ve harped on this before and I’m sure I’ll do it again: It is indeed possible for each color to shine in its own special way, all the time. You don’t look back at the Starcraft and say “well in Starcraft I the Zerg were the best.. in Starcraft II the Terran are the best..” There is a consistent balance that remains constant even as the game changes in big ways. Sure we all have preferences and opinions but any of the three races could be beaten by the other at any time. Surely magic can do the same. There is no need for “payback for the era of blue” or “green’s time to shine”. If you read everything I’ve ever written on Magic and take nothing else from me know this: balance is possible; and necessary; all the time.

What I’d like to see in the remaining unspoiled half of Zendikar is something to assure me that landfall and (yes, I’ll say it) mana acceleration are effective in colors other than green. With landfall you can certainly play the pain-fetches and Terramorphic Expanse to get a little extra landfall bump. But green has all of those cards in addition to it’s already impressive arsenal of land fetch and mana storm cards. How about a few color-centric cards that help lands hit the table? For example: red is no stranger to chaos or the destruction of lands. How about, “each player chooses three target lands, destroy those lands. Each player searches their library for three basic land cards and puts them onto the battlefield tapped”? Or a white sorcery that allows each player to search their library for a basic land and put it into play? I could go on but I think its clear that it is indeed possible to make landfall more effective in colors other than green.

For mana acceleration, how about a mini dark ritual? “Pay one black, sacrifice a creature and add two to your mana pool.” Surely not overpowered but it could really help get Sorin out a turn or two earlier and at a fair price to boot! My point is that green’s strangle hold of the horribly vague and all encompassing genre of “land and mana” is fine when we’re not in a set dedicated to “land and mana”.  As design space grows thinner, the lines between the colors continue to blur. Surely green could ease a bit of control over mana acceleration. If I were to force you today to choose a color for drafting at the Zendikar pre-release next week, would there be any question which color you’d choose? Even if you pulled a Sorin or Lorthos, you’re going to want to be able to put them out before you die, right? All things being equal, green is the default champion of Zendikar.

Perhaps it is naive to think that an expansion will ever be completely devoid of one color bias or another. Wither and Unearth certainly felt and played black, artifacts will always feel blue and land/mana manipulation in Zendikar are green’s realm. But with the examples I’ve given I hope I’ve been able to show that it is indeed possible to share the love with strategically designed, color honoring fillers. Zendikar is looking to be a great set and I definitely don’t want to poo poo on anyone’s enthusiasm about it. I voted in the aforementioned poll and I’ll have you know that I enthusiastically clicked the “9″ button shortly after the poll opened.  I’ve been counting down the days (and spoilers) until the pre-release this weekend.

I think everyone has a little bit of a soft spot for green because it’s the color most people enter the game learning how to play with. It has a wonderful flavor and is a great “splash option” in Zendikar or any other set. The aim of this article is to prepare you for the road ahead. I hope everyone is ready to play with, play against and splash a little green this season.

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