Having one or two packs of Worldwake in Zendikar draft will be a welcome change to a currently rather stale format. (Answer: Draft red or black aggressive decks.) Although to be honest with you, I have a lot of fun beating aggressive red/black decks with slightly slower blue/white decks these days, so I’m still having fun over here. But for the most part, ZZZ drafting has become more of a predictable routine than a thrilling adventure.

Worldwake is JUST the remedy we need to inject some new life into Zendikar Limited. In this week’s Walkthrough, I provide quick tips on how to evaluate cards for draft and take a deeper look at some spoiled cards.

SPOILER ALERT! This article contains Worldwake spoilers. Continue at your own risk.

When evaluating cards for draft, I always try to look at them from a few different perspectives.

1. Big picture: ask yourself where the card fits in with current draft archetypes, how good this card is likely to be relative to other cards available, and how the rarity of the card will affect the likelihood of picking up multiples
2. Card breakdown: have the card stand by itself and evaluate it on its own merits; this is where you look at mana cost, power/toughness, and abilities; you can’t evaluate it in a true vacuum since you have to consider its possible interactions with other cards, but you can try to get a feel for its base power level. In addition, think about the card in the context of the deck it’s going to be played in. Is it aggressive or controlling? Does this card need another card to reach its potential or can it stand alone?
3. How would a Pro evaluate this card? I’m half-joking on this one, but it’s always good to temper your own opinions by considering what better players will probably say about the card. If you know you’re being too optimistic or greedy with a card, you should learn to control your thought process and re-evaluate. When you doubt your own judgment, take a page from experienced drafters. I find looking at a card through someone else’s eyes actually provides a lot of new insight. Try it sometime!

I enjoy thinking about the new rares and mythics of a set. They tend to be a little more interesting than the commons and uncommons, but we have to realize that in draft, the commons and uncommons will make the bulk of the deck and thus are the most relevant cards to evaluate first and in depth. So that’s where this article will direct its focus.

Let’s jump in and look at the two Zendikons spoiled from Worldwake.

We have never really seen cards like this before. They’re vaguely reminiscent of the Genju cycle of Enchant Lands from Betrayers of Kamigawa.

Wind Zendikon

Card breakdown: It’s pretty remarkable how cheap this is, for what amounts to a 2/2 haste with flying. (It has haste as long as you enchant a land that has been in play since your last turn.) However, playing it in the early turns is much too risky and a loss of tempo. For one thing, in order to swing with it, you’d have to tap one of your mana producers. Even worse, if it gets Disfigured or shot down by Burst Lightning, you lose a land drop. But in the mid-to-late game, a 2/2 with evasion is still quite useful, especially 2 damage out of the blue. It’s also nice you can enchant any land, not just Islands. This added flexibility means you can return cards from your graveyard with extra utility, say Teetering Peaks or Kabira Crossroads, in addition to triggering landfall.

Big picture: Blue is all about fliers (and sometimes, about loss of tempo, like with Living Tsunami). So this fits right in to any aggressive blue deck. Two points of damage out of nowhere can make a huge chunk of difference, and if it has any equipment whatsoever it can hit for more or get value out of an Explorer’s Scope. I imagine this fitting best into a UW archetype with early, evasive drops and equipment like Adventuring Gear and Trusty Machete to make monsters out of mice. This isn’t on the same functionality as a true two-drop like Welkin Tern, but as the late game draws out, and all you need is a little reach, this guy will get in extra damage. It works well with the landfall cards like Steppe Lynx and Windrider Eel. This is also easily splashable, so can go into heavy black or red aggressive decks with a blue splash. It’s not as impressive in a controlling deck, however, since it is very vulnerable and doesn’t block well. But I would still play one if I picked one up, since having evasion does make a big difference.

Vastwood Zendikon

Card breakdown: At 5 mana it looks undercosted! Until you realize it’s effectively 6 if you want to swing with it, too. The haste here makes all the difference –Vastwood Gorger is certainly about as fat but not good enough to see much play. It works well with green accelerants like Greenweaver Druid and Harrow. It is going to be at the top of your curve, so if you have a lot of heavy-drops and not a lot of ways to accelerate mana, I wouldn’t pick up too many of these. If you have better late dropping bombs, this might also get left in the sideboard, as cards like Baloth Woodcrasher are a little more impressive.

Big picture: This card fits best into a heavy green deck that can maximize cards like Greenweaver Druid to quickly reach the top of your curve. It’s not too shabby in other deck archetypes, however, being easily splashable. I only have some apprehensions about it because ZZZ draft is incredibly fast – if ZZW is not much different, this card might be a bit late to most parties. I’ll have to remain on the fence about green to see how much it improves with Worldwake. At the moment, it is very hard to draft a good green deck since the best green cards require heavy amounts of Forests.

[easybox]Another handy card evaluation trick: When a new set comes out, it is always a good idea to do the easy thing and compare the new cards to old ones you’ve seen before. A lot of the Worldwake commons are quite similar to ones we’ve seen in Zendikar with slight tweaks. As a result, they’re probably around the same power level.[/easybox]

Ruthless Cullblade

Card breakdown: The trick with this card is answering the following: what percentage of the time will your opponent be bloodied versus non-bloodied (bloodied = under 11 life)? What does your deck have trouble with? Late game reach? Or with getting in early damage? The same questions can be asked about the card Guul Draz Vampire, which starts as a measly 1/1 but evolves into a fearsome 3/2 with Intimidate. Early game, Guul Draz is very underwhelming and won’t be impacting the game a whole lot. Ruthless Cullblade, on the other hand, is as good as his neighbor, Highland Berserker, who always makes it into aggressive red decks and races reasonably well. On the other hand, in the late game, Guul Draz is much more impressive because of its evasion, able to infiltrate for the final points of damage. Ruthless Cullblade is less of a threat, as it can be traded with any 2/2 easily.

However, if your deck has plenty of late-game but needs help getting an early aggressive start, Ruthless Cullblade will be more valuable than the Guul Draz Vampire. If the opposite is the case, Guul Draz will be better. In general, I prefer the Cullblade because I have no qualms running multiple 2/1 creatures in my decks, no matter what kind of deck I have. But running multiple Guul Draz Vampires requires that my deck be very aggressive indeed.

Big picture: Fits into just about any kind of black deck! It turns on Feast of Bloods and has use in both the early and late game. Preferably you want it in an aggressive build, but in a controlling build, it works as just “an early blocker.” Basically, this is just a solid filler that your deck will not mind having despite not being that exciting.

Skitter of Lizards

Card breakdown: Very elegantly designed, the Skitter scales up the more mana you pump into it. At each step, you can compare it to other cards: it begins as a lowly Raging Goblin, upgrading into an unkicked Goblin Ruinblaster, and then evolving into a Tuktuk Grunts. (Very reminiscent of Pokémon, how there are three evolutionary stages.) Unfortunately, this guy is a Lizard, so there’s no synergy with Goblin cards or even Allies like Tuktuk Grunts. But it’s versatility almost makes up for that. You very rarely want to play it as a 1/1, so you must think of it as a 2/2 or bigger. It’s reasonably costed at each step up, although a 7-mana 4/4 haste is less than efficient. You’ll still play it for that much if you have the extra mana. It’s never going to be dead in your hand if you don’t want it to be!

Big picture: Most definitely best in an aggressive red deck, preferably heavy red. After all, to play it as a 3/3 you have to have RRR, which is as demanding as Halo Hunter. He fits very well in any mono-red deck or heavy red with a splash, and having multiples is fine, too. However, I would try to avoid playing this in the slower red builds, such as UR or GR. If your opponent isn’t under any pressure, this doesn’t affect the board in a favorable way if what you need a good blocker. In a deck that cannot reliably provide RR or RRR, this is also less than ideal. But with an even number of two colors, this card will probably get cast most of the time, even if it’s a turn or two later.

With Worldwake, we finally get some cards that perform much-needed functions in Limited: tapping and pinging. I would have hugely appreciated seeing these cards in Zendikar (the blue guy looks like he could’ve been seriously helpful in building a tempo-based blue archetype, the kind I like to draft no less). But better late than never!

Tideforce Elemental

Card breakdown: There’s a lot going on with this card. Ignoring its abilities for now, it’s a 2/1 for 3-mana. Reminds me of Reckless Scholar, which also baffled people with its power/toughness. These utility creatures seem like they’d be better off with more toughness to make them less vulnerable. But there is nothing wrong with this guy’s stats. I think it leads to more interesting decisions, anyway – when do you decide to just swing with it? When is it better to hold it back? I ask myself this a lot when I control a Reckless Scholar. Ok, time to look at these abilities.

First, it taps creatures. This can be used both offensively and defensively. Thankfully, it can tap fliers unlike Merfolk Seastalkers. You get more value out of this card when you tap before they declare attackers on their turn. This way, their creature stays tapped longer and is kept from attacking or blocking. There’s also nothing wrong with tapping their utility creatures, like Greenweaver Druid at their upkeep or EOT (End Of Turn).

Second, it untaps creatures. This opens up a slew of possibilities. I imagine the sickest use would be to untap Sea Gate Loremaster to draw twice the number of cards. (Drool.) You can also accelerate into lots of mana with a Greenweaver Druid. But most of the time, it will be used to allow a creature to attack and then block (essentially giving it vigilance). If your opponent isn’t attentive, you can even wait until the last possible moment to untap your guy and catch your opponent off guard.

Third, it untaps when lands enter the battlefield under your control. This is a wonderful ability to tack on. It means the possibilities just doubled up for this creature. I don’t know if you recall creatures like Ballynock Trapper or Silkbind Faerie but being able to do tap down more than one dude is pretty sick in Limited.

The possibilities are really endless. But I’ll leave the rest for you to discover.

Big picture: This creature’s versatility really lends itself to either aggressive or controlling decks. But it’s slightly more important to have in a controlling deck because it nicely answers all kinds of creatures you don’t have removal for. On top of that, it let’s you A) Swing with a guy (like Sky Ruin Drake) B) Untap that guy to block C) Play a land D) Tap down one of your opponent’s threats on their turn. Which essentially allows you to at least start killing your opponent while controlling them. But no doubt I would gladly run this in any deck running blue.

Cunning Sparkmage

Card breakdown: Phew! Now that I have tackled that monster let’s look at this much simpler and more straightforward red card. It’s got some similar things about it: it costs 3 mana and has some crappy stats, being a 0/1. But if you remember Vithian Stinger, that card was nooo slouch in Limited; who cares about power/toughness? This card kills things and lives to do it again. Instead of Unearth, this card gets a fantastic ability in Haste. It’s always nice to ambush your opponent’s Welkin Terns, Ruthless Cullblades, and Scute Mobs. Just when they thought it was safe. Not only that, it makes combat all awkward by itself. Suddenly your 2/2’s trade for their 3/3’s and so forth. If it’s just hanging out, it pings your opponent for one at EOT. There’s always one of these guys in a block. It’s practically required. Get used to it.

Big picture: Clearly shines in controlling decks since you can get so much value out of it. Any card that has the potential to two-for-one is worth coveting. This creature, on top of that, can control the board by making it hard to swing favorably into your blockers. Or can even prevent your opponent from playing certain spells. If nothing else, it wittles down your opponent’s life total. It’s never useless! Until your opponent plays a Paralyzing Grasp on it or something. Anyway, if Sparkmage is so good in controlling decks, there’s no reason it can’t be awesome in aggressive decks also. It’s really great in either! Remove blockers, deal face damage, or prevent blocks by presenting unfavorable trades. This card has everything you need. It’s easily splashable in any deck running red, also, making red just that much more appealing in Zendikar Limited. Red has so much removal already that this added on is just added incentive to pick up red cards.

I feel Cunning Sparkmage will be particularly excellent in Zendikar Limited because there are so many playable one-toughness creatures. (A quick search through Zendikar alone reveals 31 total targets with 25 of them being common or uncommon and playable. Shards of Alara has more total one-toughness creatures, but many of these are not playable or are simply untargettable, so the number of common or uncommon targets comes out to less than 20. A lot of these are less impressive than Plated Geopede, that’s for sure.) Remember, allies like Umara Raptor experience a brief period of being a measly 1/1 before the counter goes on, meaning you can respond and kill it in response to its trigger. On top of that, landfall guys always start out small (Steppe Lynx, Plated Geopede) but grow when lands enter the field. So even if they hit you for 2 or 3, they can be dealt with quite easily with the Sparkmage at various other points in the game.

The fact that this creature invalidates these hyper-aggressive landfall cards makes me want to pick it quite highly! And it has haste, so that turn two Geopede might not actually get a chance to hit you at all!

Those are all the cards I’m going to review for now. Some of these evaluations may change a little depending on what’s in the rest of the set, but I have a fair amount of confidence most of this article will be valid and useful no matter what comes out. I had a lot of fun evaluating cards from Worldwake. Hopefully some of you are now better equipped to evaluate new cards for yourself.

Always remember in draft, to consider the following:

• Your mana curve
• Your mana base
• How aggressive versus controlling you are
• The strength of your early game
• The strength of your late game
• How many removal spells or “answers” you have
• Mana fixing
• Your overall strategy for winning
• What your deck seems to lack
• Potential synergies between your cards
• Does land matter, do Allies matter, does equipment matter, et cetera?

And practice makes perfect!