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.
If cardfall were a new mechanic, I'd be writing the same rant about blue in a new expansion.
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?
One of the best cards ever printed, period.
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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Very valid points. Landfall combined with green’s ability to ramp is going to make for some seriously big creatures to deal with. I was reading an article on Wizard’s site about the effects Oran Rief, the Vastwood will have on the game and it was pretty interesting. Turning Sprouting Thrinax’s 1/1 Saprolings into 2/2’s can be a game winner or even better making a 3/3 Great Sable Stag immune to the Lightning Bolt could create serious problems for some decks. Green is definitely getting some powerhouse cards and I’m excited to see how it will be dealt with even more than how effective it will be. I hope there are more land destruction cards than what we’ve seen. I miss Pillage and how badly it could screw an opponent. Anyone else foresee this being the most solid set as far as financial investment in a long time? Those fetch lands are going to be 20 bucks a pop on release and I can’t even think what cards like Lotus Cobra, Warren Instigator, Scute Mob, etc. will fetch.
While I agree that land fall will be triggered more often by green, I disagree that green will be the color that every should and will play or splash in their deck. I think all the colors have very useful and interesting landfall abilities.
I am most excited about playing a Vampire tribal deck. Using feast of bloods and sorin markov. Using lifelink and life gain cards to do damage through sanguine bond. Then toss in bloodghasts with blade of the bloodchief along, crypt of agadeem, soul stair expedition, or even carnage altar which will take advantage of the bloodghast’s death and return.
Then, with sanguine bond in play, cast bood tribute and kick it to end the game unless your opponent has some emergency cards.
I love black as I am sure you can tell
I really want to emphasise how excited I am that mono-black, white and green all look to be playable in Zendikar. That was something I’d asked for since we started this blog and it is true for the first time since then. Leaf and I have both gone on about how White got a huge boost from M10. But I think the power of Lotus Cobra makes all the difference here because it allows you to play ANY color with it. This more or less forces you to splash green (or at least give it serious consideration!) I think that really puts it over the edge for Zendikar… particularly if you’re looking at Zendikar in a vacuum. But like I said.. Im glad other colors (such as black) are feeling their own individual brand of love as well. Green is just on another level with Lotus cobra and mana accel at this point.
In opposition to your last lines, I have to confess, that green was the last color I thought of as attractive in MtG. It had a smell of “just big creatures and so little of my beloved control elements”. Of course, the Birds and other mana fixing cards caught my attention, but still, I only thought of splashing tricky cards like the M10-Hydra into my Highlander. It was only a few weeks ago in a draft, when green was definitely underdraftet, that I learned the value of green. (Ok, I started playing MtG aout six months ago, so I might not be representative.) But I agree: Green will be Zendikar’s color.
I think that there is still a lot more to come as far as mana acceleration is concerned. The blue 4/4 flying creature that you must sacrifice unless you return a land to your hand tells me that blue will have a way to play more then one land per turn. I can’t remember the name but I do recall a non-basic land that let you tap for an island or tap 2 islands and the non-basic land to put an island into play tapped. Maybe it is coming back? I also hope that green does not just turn into something that every deck needs to splash in order to keep up.
I honestly would love to see other colors get a bit of mana ramp as well. Considering they basically looked away from multi color and mark said that m10 and zendikar would get people back into making mono colored decks again, i cannot see making a deck in zendikar without it being mono green or at least green and somehting else.
In response to a mini Dark Ritual I believe they are going to bring back Cabal Ritual (1 of each word in the Orb).
@Jr, there’s no cabal and both instances of BBB are already in use.
@Reinhart. I want to mention two archetype-esque: Ux Mill, and Monored/aggro/control.
during the past standard season I faced a big number of blue mill decks, that as such were just below the level of competition, but not by much, (twinsanity at same point was pretty popular online). Some of this new “mill” cards could just push it over that line as a tier 2 deck. Archive trap + 4 instant speed trap tutor + twincast might mean you should be able to play at least three of ‘em, + a turn-1 landfall trimilling creature + other possible choices (jace, revenous trap, mind funeral) + the fact competitive decks will run fetchlands and fetching spells, all this can conjugate into mill being an archetype.
And as for MR/A/C, I don’t really have many arguments, but if you look closely into some of the cards in Zendikar, they do portray a different way for red to do damage, from chandra screaming combo, to Obsidian Fireheart*. IMO Valakut is the most powerful land of the cycle since it becomes relevant when red needs the most help, that is late game when is out of burn + the damage being colorless. Not to mention red already has access to lighting bolt and ball lightning. M2C
Green is my favorite simply for the flavour, i love nature and creatures of the forest, Elves in particular and i like being the “good guy” i like simple decks with good efficient creatures and a few good spells, blue and control is my least favorite colour as i don’t find it fun to play or to play against.
Black seems to be incredibly good in Zendikar, oh and for anyone who is wondering like S1lent at the top here, Lotus Cobra is going for $90!!! on Ebay right now for 4.:P
That’s interesting that Cabal is not on the orb ( I just double checked and to my surprise it is not) because about a week ago my brother and I were discussing the return of Dark Ritual and with no hit for Dark we tried Cabal and there was a hit for it then. Can the orb change?
land acceleration and mana acceleration are two very different things. this reminds me a lot of invasion block in some ways, with a necessity of many lands for the colors. but this set doesn’t care about getting domain, they just want to get as many lands into play as possible. there are plenty of sac lands between shards and the enemy sacs allowing other colors to play the “more than one land a turn” game.
yeah, lotus cobra is amazing but it’s just going to be the target of removal.
i could see blue getting some odd land stuff too, they are the second best at manipulating lands – dreamscape artist anyone?
The Panarama lands in Alara would be useful here for sure. And you can tap them for mana if you need it that turn.
Well I Hafta say Blue’s Only Route is to deck ppl and polymorph the decking or draw creatures into say Lorthos >_> its sad to think no blue creature with 3converted mana cost is going to be played but between the fact blue has no mana ramp in ANY set and that its big creatures cost 6/7+ its just not gunna happen they will never be played outside of a polymorph like reinhart said 8 mana on turn 8 is not gunna happen in a mono blue deck i have trouble get 5 by turn 5 alone
It may have come up after this article, but I would point out that there have been a few non-green land searches spoiled now, like a white 2/2 for 3W that searches for a Plains. Is that the kind of thing you were looking for, Reinhart?
Well.. I suppose it is technically. But it isn’t in the same universe as say: Orace of Mul Daya. I prefer more creative/useful/playable options such as Knight of the White Orchid. As long as those make it into the set I think I’ll be happy. But I don’t really see a 2/2 for 4 that grabs a plains as on the same level as the stuff we’ve seen for green. There are still 50 or so cards left unspoiled so you never know! I may be satisfied yet!
But didn’t you say before that you were NOT asking for effects on the same level as green?
Also, I would point out that R&D had a fine line to walk with non-green land search effects. Obviously they would have to be worth playing for the landfall triggers that they would enable, but if they were strong enough that they were playable WITHOUT landfall, there would be a serious problem, to the tune of any deck that had been using green for its land acceleration would drop green and just use what showed up in whatever other color they were using. So they had to keep non-green land searches and such at a power level below green’s.
They don’t have to be on the same level however.. they do need to be playable
4 CMC to put a plains into play is not playable in standard.. its also not doing much to help mana acceleration like it would in green on turn one or two.
Define “playable in Standard”. Do you mean playable in a landfall deck, or playable in its own right?
For reference, could you give an example of the level of playability you think would be appropriate? For instance, if you could remake that white creature, what would it be like? Cost? P/T? Effect?
I guess I’m just having trouble picturing a power level that’s stronger than what’s available but still a notch below green, to keep from stealing its pie (so to speak).
Green does have a clear advantage when it comes to Landfall, but there is that other new feature being introduced in Zendikar – Traps.
So, at least Blue will have some answers to all this Harrow, Lotus Cobra nonsense. Something like ‘Archive Trap’ would be devastating against those fetch land cards, and ‘Whiplash Trap’ would at least slow down the acceleration for a turn.
It is kind of interesting that WotC decided that since blue is the “tricky” color, it got the only common trap and also got a trap tutor and even snubbed black for a trap-related discard spell. So it could be argued that blue gets a little bit of an advantage there, yet I think that it’s flavorful/color-identity-focused enough that I like it.
Its always funny how everything becomes ‘blue vs green’.
I know! I was just thinking about that.
Thats the way I like it everything needs a lil ballance and what better then pitting the man ramping rusher against the supreme staller?
Regarding the claim that Magic can and should be completely balanced between the colors:
I agree that a “perfectly” (or close enough) balanced MtG game could exist. However, I believe that in order to exist, it would have to be a static game, or much closer to it. To continue your Starcraft example, how long was it in development and testing? It could be tested and tweaked until it was supremely balanced, and then released and left alone. And how long was it before SC2 showed up? Would you really want to wait that long between Magic expansions? If Magic keeps the kind of fluid form and steady release schedule that it currently has, then I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect mortals to be able to keep the game balanced with the release of every set. Personally, I’d rather have a fluid game that teeters and is occasionally flawed but usually balances over time, and in exchange grants an ever-changing gaming experience; static games, even spectacularly-made ones like Starcraft, tend not to give me the type of depth I seek, and I’m willing to submit to some swaying in order to get what Magic gives me.
So, is it that you’d rather Magic be a bit more static in order to preserve balance, or do you think it can have a Starcraft level of balance in its current form?
They do have a tough road to hoe with the game being in flux as it is. It wont be perfect.. but I think it should be higher on their priority list than its been lately. You cant just throw in the towel and say “well this game is too complicated to balance”. Its possible to make an effort each and every expansion.
Agreed, they should make an effort for balance each time. I guess where you and I differ is in our assessment of how hard they’re trying and how successful they’ve been of late. Despite the issues with Faeries and 5CC in the last couple of years, I think they’ve done an admirable job. That is, a couple of things were broken and showed up everywhere as far as top-level tournaments, but if you peel back that layer you see a healthy diversity of deck ideas that just couldn’t quite make it past FNMs due to the few broken things. So I guess I see both failure and success simultaneously in recent Magic, and I’m optimistic for the future. But that evaluation is not something I can push very far with logic, as it is necessarily based largely on opinion and intuition, so I’ll not put much more into this discussion. I’m glad we both want a healthy, balanced game.
To that point, I don’t think colors have needed to be balanced recently. The fantastic mana allowed for players to use any color at any time.
However, if WotC is goin to again limit our mana usage then color balance becomes that much more important.
The thing is there are two ways to look at color balance and they’re at odds with each other. Should you balance the game as a whole or should you balance sets/blocks? You can’t do both. If a block is color balanced, then it does nothing to change the existing status quo of the game long term. If you try to change the long term status quo, you’ll end up with an imbalanced expansion or block. If a set is balanced in standard, then it would have minimal impacts on other formats. The biggest question is who should sets be balanced for – the long term casual player? The new standard player? Professional legacy?
Look at how Odyssey-Torment-Judgment went, two of the sets were horribly imbalanced. Same happened with the Ravnica block, the colors were all over the place. Sets do not have to be balanced, but expansions as a whole do.
Explorer’s Scope 1
Artifact – Equipment Common
When equipped creature attacks, you may look at the top card of your library. If it is a land card, you may put it onto the battlefield tapped.
Equip 1
Well, that changes things a bit.
Definitely. I think a few more cards like this and we’ll have a bit of balance. Green will always be king, though and there would have to be some serious stuff revealed in the last 40 cards to really refute the thesis of this article.
Not sure I’d play this card because of the equipping/attacking that has to occur. Therefore you’re probably not doing this until turn 4+. But there could be some great combos with Soldier tokens that might work.
You could equip the plated geopede and have it be at least a 3/3 FS every time plus your normal land drop!
Great card for limited and it might even see some standard play!
Yeah, the landfall enablers are starting to show up, and I have to say I’m impressed by the way they do their thing without really being accelerants like green has. For instance:
Grim Discovery 1B
Sorcery Common
Choose one or both – Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand, and/or return target land card from your graveyard to your hand.
Not only does it perform at least a Raise Dead effect plus a landfall trigger, but which lands are likely to be in your graveyard in the first place? You guessed it: Fetches/Terramorphic. Which means, of course, that for 1B you get Raise Dead and TWO landfall triggers. That seems strong to me, and yet still doesn’t step on green’s toes. I give props to WotC for that one.
Well, there are other cards that help that are still standard legal.
Armillary Sphere, the Panoramas, landcycling spells, terramorphic expanse, Knight of the Reliquary and Knight of the White Orchid.
The extra stuff green has in standard include: Borderland Ranger, Farhaven Elf, Rampant Growth,
Yeah, blue doesn’t have much but this is green’s area. Complaining that other colors aren’t getting land acceleration would be like complaining that red isn’t getting rebels. Or blue isn’t getting enough direct damage.
Your last point it true. But WotC hasn’t ever made a direct damage-based expansion. They did make a rebel-based expansion and everyone played white for two years. It was really boring.
Why make a land-based expansion when green clearly controls all things ‘land’?
well… why not? It’s a theme that hasn’t been done. Much like how Legions was all creatures and Scourge was dragon focused – both sets that put blue at a disadvantage.
If they made a creature-less set would you complain that green is being screwed? I figure that you’re both blue mages, and understand that. I used to be one of those, but I now look at the game long term and blue shined for a very, very long time. Standard environments come and go, some are utter crap (I’m looking at you Combo Winter and Rishadan Port and Lin Sivvi. Thank god they changed the legend rules) while others allowed for some very creative deck designs.
Also, there’s still about a fifth of the actual set left to be revealed once you ignore basic lands.
This set is about as balanced as any set will ever get; considering they picked a theme that naturally favors green, they did a good job getting all of the other colors some god play. Sure, green has an advantage, but less of an advantage than one color had in almost any expansion. I don’t think this set is really unfairly balanced.
Yeah, I think it’s gotten pretty balanced now. Green is still on top with land *acceleration*, but that’s not what the set is built around. I think the other colors have very solid options for maximizing landfall triggers. For instance, blue has an undercosted flier with the “drawback” of having to bounce a land every turn, meaning you’ll get landfall triggers every turn for as long has you have that guy. I think you could build a Landfall Deck with any color, but only build a ramp deck with green. That seems appropriate to me.
Yeah… and that’s mostly the way it’s always been.
[...] get these Gathering Magic guys. First I hear white is far too powerful, then green is apparently too cool for school. Seemingly endless rantings of tiny and ultimately insignificant Magic the Gathering minds. I mean, [...]