The Zendikar spoiler mill has heated up and is beginning to churn out goodies eagerly consumed by the MTG fanboy. New cards always carry with them an air of excitement because frankly, they are new. A few cards spoiled here, and few more previewed there and soon forums are buzzing with the sounds of duelists cheering, or often jeering. Because of this trickling flow we as an MTG playing public make snap judgments based on each card individually. Of course we have to, the set is less than 10% revealed so there is no way to contextualize everything. However there conclusions to be drawn regarding not only Zendikar itself, but the general direction Wizards is taking Magic. Below, each card below will be briefly reviewed followed by a summary of what that card means to Zendikar/MTG in a larger sense.
finally, a playable white card . . .
Day of Judgment – As far as non-Planeswalkers this is the cat’s meow of spoiled Zendikar cards. As detailed at the bottom of this article effective sweep is back in Standard and White continues an almost ludicrous domination of valued cards. The difference between a four-mana cost Judgment and a five-mana cost Hallowed Burial is life and death. Many competitive standard decks are built to kill on or before turn five, well before that fifth land drop. No this isn’t the exact return of Wrath of God, there is a change in the rules text that seems insignificant at first. Creatures can regenerate their way out of trouble. Noticeable because cards like Doom Blade and Planar Cleansing also allow regeneration. Basically WotC has taken an ability that was nearly worthless before, and made it relevant. There are few creatures in either Alara of M10 with even the capability, so look for some serious regenerating in the Zendikar block. After all, only Terminate separates indestructible from it’s formerly downtrodden step-brothr of an ability.
mythic?
Rampaging Baloths – At the risk of beating a quite-dead horse, what is happening with Mythic rares? This is a very good card (the going rate for rare 6/6 tramplers is clearly six mana these days) with a pretty dangerous ability. However Mirror-Sigil Sergeant is still a better option. Producing one or two creatures each turn loses luster when you can produce a geometrically greater number each turn with the Sergeant. The card is good, but my confusion over mythic rarity hasn’t been cleared. Landfall seems to be the new super-ability of this set, although it remains to be seen if it will have the impact of Cascade. That question may not be answered until the mana-ramping cards are released. Only then will the power of cards like Plated Geopede, Bloodghast, and Rampaging Baloths be fully known. And so too the true value of the next card.
Lavaball Trap – Could be a devastating reactionary spell that slams the opponents mana, and clears the board. In many scenarios this is a win condition card, especially with cards like Ball Lightning in the mix. At the end of your opponents turn destroy any untapped lands and pesky blockers, then rush in for six or maybe twelve! The puzzle remains, will enough cards be printed allowing multiple land drops in a single turn to make Lavaball playable? It seems likely given the prevalence of Landfall thus far in our Zendikar spoilers. But that answer raises another question. If Landfall is popular (26 mentions using the Orb of Insight) with every color then how will green maintain its choke-hold on land acceleration? It probably won’t. There is a good chance that at least two other colors horn in on green’s territory to make sure Landfall isn’t dead on certain cards. And with so much mana-ramping the game could be altered in a much larger way.
don't look for dual lands in Zendikar
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and its little brother Teetering Peaks – Both appear to be only the red slice of five-color cycles. That would mean ten non-basic land in Zendikar already, and probably means not a single dual-land or equivalent in Zendikar. Meaning the October 2nd will be even bigger than first anticipated as nearly every dual land that enters play untapped will leave the Standard rotation. Five color control will cease to be viable, and shard decks like Jund-aggro will struggle to keep pace. It would seem in WotC best interest to appease those players who just lost multiple builds. The solution is simple: the diverse mana of Lorwyn/Shadowmoor can be replaced by more mana in Zendikar. Landfall may well herald an era when five or six mana available on turn four isn’t uncommon, and more importantly for more than just greenish builds. Playing cards like Sorin Markov and Chandra Ablaze won’t be as unreasonable as first assumed because getting to six mana won’t be much harder for red and black than it currently is for green.
Quest for the Gravelord – There really is no chance of taking an objective look at a card like this for me. I love it, and won’t pretend to be fair in its judgment. Why so fond? Allow a two-pronged explanation. First, I like any card you can play on your first turn ( a turn many players waste) then pays dividends three of four turns later. Suspend cards like Greater Gargadon and Ancestral Vision were competitive staples for this very reason. Second, it gives the black wizard a mission. The mission of any black wizard is to kill creatures sure, but now you are rewarded with more than just pride. Its stated right in the title, this is a ‘quest’. Get something done, get a prize. It may not have the feel of a 70-person raid in WoW, but there is still flavor here waiting to be savored.
oooooh, pretty. . .
Finally I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the new full art lands available in every booster pack or fat-pack. On a marketing level perhaps the smartest thing WotC has done since planeswalkers. Time was many an average duelist bought card singles, shrewdly ignoring boosters, fat-packs and other WotC products. Existing entirely in the secondary market. That time has most certainly come to an end. Collectors have bought boxes of unplayable cards to get text-less lands before (no, the Un-sets aren’t playable). Considering basic lands have been lacking actual text inside their text-box since Portals the change seems long overdue.
As with any new set, changes are coming to MTG along with new cards. The key is to identify these and steel yourself for disappointment, or ready yourself for celebration.
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Stay tuned to the Zendikar Spoiler Page and the Gathering Magic Twitter for all the latest spoilers as we get them. And with the release in less than one month, it might be wise to pre-order Zendikar booster boxes. We here at Gathering Magic have ordered from Troll and Toad before, and have never been disappointed.
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Sorry for the confusion and thank you for all of the emails pointing out the problem! I’m glad you’re all so eager to participate!
Reinhart
Landfall looks to be the next bomb mechanic. Getting something just for playing lands? Nice. a 6/6 trampler for 6 mana is fine enough, but getting even one beasty for free makes it super efficient.
I’m already scheming a casual deck involving Rampaging Baloths and other landfall stuff to come. With spells like Scapeshift, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Search for Tomorrow, etc … it’ll be quite easy to get lands into play and a whole army of free beasts.
As for Valakut, these are easy auto-includes into 1 or 2 colour decks. If you need red mana, why not put these in your decks.
How come I never hear anyone talking about Terramorphic Expanse with Landfall?
I totally agree, I think we’ll be seeing a lot of cards along those lines. Probably an extension of landcycling similar to Yavimaya Elder.
I’m also thinking lands like Onslaught’s fetchlands will play a role but maybe no until the expansion or the next “big” set.
Oh, and for all the talk about REGENERATION (Regenerate) being pushed, there are only 2 instances of that word in the Orb of Insight. So much for that… I wish they would have just kept the original WoG that has been iconic for so long… *sigh*
Of course, I’ll want a playset+ of the Day of Judgment
i noticed this yesterday on the orb of insight as well, but theres always the possibility that sebsequent expansions will use the ability more heavily. it seems like more of a long term decision to make the ability relevant rather than to make it a feature of a single set.
I think part of the removal of Wrath of God is to get away from “real-world” terminology. Similar to the removal of the pentagram in 4th edition. I mean, in Magic God doesn’t exist. There’s Gaea as an anomaly, but the rest have been proven to be walkers or just powerful individuals and constructs.
Making regeneration better is a good thing, because the ability usually doesn’t matter. It’s occasionally a neat combat trick but too often it was just “kill this creature with spells instead of other creatures.” Plus the rise of wither didn’t help the situation either. Hell, there are only 23 cards that regenerate currently in standard but there are 49 cards with first strike and 64 mentioning trample.
It’s clearly underused design space that needs to be made powerful to work.
I still don’t feel they made regeneration relevant. To be able to protect against Day of Judgement you have to leave mana open. Meaning, you can’t play spells as soon as you would like. There needs to be more 0 cost regeneration effects, or even better, they could start letting regenerating creatures deal combat damage like most players instictually think they would.
I don’t understand your comment about regeneration and combat damage. Your statement makes it sound like you think that if you activate your Cudgel Troll’s ability, he won’t deal his 4 damage or something. If that’s what you mean, you’re mistaken (unless a 3-power first striker is blocking him). The effects of regeneration (tap, remove damage, remove from combat) don’t happen when the ability resolves; the ability sets up a replacement effect to be used the next time that turn that the creature would be destroyed. So I could activate the Troll’s ability in your upkeep, then block your Canyon Minotaur, and your guy would die while mine wouldn’t.
If that’s not what you meant, then please clarify.
Quest for the Gravelord fits my Red/Black/Green cascade deck beautifully.
Imagine:
Turn one = Quest for the Gravelord
Turn two = Hellspark Elemental
Turn three = Hell’s Thunder
Turn four = Bloodbraid Elf cascaded into a Terminate or Lightning Bolt killing one of their creatures = 10 damage total and a 5/5 for turn 5.
Even drawing it late wouldn’t be bad with Jund Charms and enough Terminates, Bolts, and Slave of Bolas.
I’m most excited about this card if you couldn’t already tell.
Wow, I hadn’t even thought of using self-sacrificing elementals with the Quest. Nice! Along a similar vein, how about Fleshbag Marauder?
Not only can you use the effects of Day of Judgement to get crazy zombies out, you can also use some of the more simple mass-kill effects to do the same. What I mean by this is that, using your jund color deck as an example. you can use some devour to get not only a huge guy via actually devouring the small stuff (most likely tokens), but you can also get more big guys via the quest. Add to that a card like cemetary reaper, and victory is practically yours.
Lavaball trap would be a good adittion for the Quewt as well, because it not only may clear the field, but then you can have major field control (providing enough creatures were on the field when the trap went off) give them haste with that single-red card from M10 (who’s name eludes me at the moment) and you may just have victory right there. ALSO, even if you don’t, they’re still down two lands.
I just reread the text of the Quest. I didn’t realize you had to sacrafice it. If that is the case, i’d keep a playset of Nature’s Spiral in mainboard as well. lol
I like how this set is turning out so far, Landfall looks like a cool mechanic. Can’t wait for the other 212 cards.
Leaf, you make some interesting claims/predictions about landfall and mana acceleration. You talk about loosening Green’s “chokehold” on mana acceleration; that makes it sound like Green’s dominance there is a bad thing, like other colors should have it too. Do you feel similarly about Blue and countermagic?
How does the prominence of the landfall mechanic in Zendikar mean that other colors will be getting land acceleration? A lack of acceleration doesn’t make a landfall card “dead” as you put it; you can still just play a land to trigger it.
I do give you props for noticing that with two red-only nonbasics (coupled with WotC’s penchant for complete cycles) it looks like there might not be any duals in Zendikar. Good eye, Leaf. Yes, that would kill 5CC decks. However, I disagree with you on a couple of your following points. For one, I don’t think those decks should have existed in the first place (Aaron Forsythe even admitted both on camera and in writing that color-fixing lands had gotten too strong), so losing the ability to consistently pay 1UUU, 2GGGG, and UUBBBRR in the same deck is not, in my or Forsythe’s opinion, a loss that needs to be compensated. Shard-colored decks (like Jund, to use your example), however, still have a very viable manabase using only Shards and M10 for fixing. My Jund deck is using M10 duals, Savage Lands, Terramorphic Expanse, and some basics, and functions with beautiful consistency. It is not by any means struggling to keep pace, as you put it.
I agree with the green comment. The color pie is getting way too blurry, especially toward white. I hope Zendikar, which I believe to be a land based set (type land on Orb of Insight to see what I mean) will make green the powerhouse color.
Two quick points.
1. I meant chokehold in the sense of ‘complete monopoly’. And I think it is a great thing. Viva la Color Wheel!
2. Saying 5CC shouldn’t exist is certainly not disagreeing with me. In fact quite the opposite. I am simply pointing out that a popular build will soon be impossible in standard.
Um, did I say no dual-land equivalents. Well I never said I wasn’t an idiot!