The Battle for Zendikar is upon us!
During the first time we visited this plane full of rich story and powerful Magic cards, I was living in Wichita and playing lots of Magic. I was drafting
non-stop and grinding out packs for fetchlands and Jace, the Mind Sculptors.
I don’t think that we will be finding cards as powerful as Jace, the Mind Sculptor anytime soon, but with half the set spoiled, I do think that there are
some extremely powerful cards that are in Battle for Zendikar.
A lot of people are looking at what we are losing from Theros block, similar to a list like what Anthony Lowry had in his article this week, but I want to just dive into the new cards and
start my initial evaluations on just the cards on the surface. There will always end up being an intricate balance of new cards replacing or slotting into
traditional strategies and new strategies being developed with the synergy of the new cards, but let’s just get an idea of which cards are powerful role
players or just over-hyped.
To start, let’s just look at the headliners from the set: the three planeswalkers.
I want to start out with what I feel is arguably the most powerful card in the set on the surface. Now, I was wrong with Magic Origins when I
assessed that Nissa, Vastwood Seer was going to be the best card out of the set. I saw the potential of Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, and Hangarback Walker was one
of two cards that I preordered a playset of (the other being Harbinger of Tides), but I still felt that Nissa would end up being absurd. She’s good, but
not at the level that I was touting her.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is a little different. Having the converted cost of four-mana puts it right in that sweet spot for planeswalkers that I think are
playable in aggressive strategies and controlling strategies. At four mana, we can get it onto the battlefield against a fairly stable board and
use its abilities to pull ahead, or curve into it quite nicely and gain an additional angle of attack.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar has the +1 ability that we are familiar with, where he can become a creature and get into the red zone to do some damage. I feel
like this ability is generally going to be used so that we can use his -4 ability and still have a planeswalker sticking around. Much like the first
incarnation of Gideon (Jura), this version doesn’t really have an “ultimate.” This time around, Gideon can -4 to give you an emblem that gives all of your
creatures +1/+1. This is a very powerful ability, and one that I imagine is going to be used a lot. It gives us a lot of flexibility to run a full four
copies of Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in any deck that’s going to want to play him.
If I learned anything from my period of time playing the R/W Aggro deck in the THS/RTR Standard format, it was that anthem effects and creature-lands are
very powerful. With Shambling Vent being spoiled, I can definitely see a B/W aggressive deck with Shambling Vent and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar giving it
some game to go long if needed.
Lastly, we have Gideon’s -0 ability to just put a 2/2 White Knight Ally token onto the Battlefield. This is very powerful as it gives Gideon a way to
protect himself while also building our board. Planeswalkers that have the ability to create tokens have generally all been playable and done well in one
way or the other. Garruk, Elspeth, and Sorin all have versions that put tokens on to the battlefield, and they have all had quite a bit of success.
I really like how the -0 ability works well with the -4 ability too. I can imagine situations where we can -4 a current Gideon to get an emblem and kill it
off, only to play a new Gideon and start pumping out 3/3 tokens. Having an anthem is also pretty good with some of the existing cards that are seeing a lot
of play in Standard. Hangarback Walker and all its Thopters love +1/+1 effects in addition to Den Protector becoming even more of a challenge to block.
Where can we potentially use Gideon?
I think that Gideon can slot into a lot of different strategies. Control decks can easily curve into him with a few two and three-mana interactive spells.
Aggressive decks can curve into him with some nice aggressive attackers, however, sadly, Kytheon, Hero of Akros is still a Gideon on his flip side, so if
we attack with Kytheon, another creature, and an animated Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, it’s going to end up not being so good for us.
I do, however, like how Gideon, Ally of Zendikar plays with mana-acceleration creatures. Sadly, we are losing Elvish Mystic, but Rattleclaw Mystic is still
available. Getting to start churning out tokens quick and early is pretty nice, but just getting an emblem at some point can go a long way towards making
our acceleration creatures much more formidable in combat. I can see some sort of Naya or Bant ramp style of deck with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in the mix.
One thing I want to try and avoid for the entirety of playing Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in Standard with Dragons of Tarkir is to not get one taken
by Dragonlord Silumgar and then -4’d to make an emblem and kill of the Gideon. Just thinking about that gives me shivers.
Last we saw Kiora she was back on Theros trying to steal Thassa’s Bident so that she could get many big monsters to come fight the Eldrazi back on
Zendikar. That, and she was getting boarded in to put the kibosh on any Heroic antics that were seeing a lot of play for a period of time.
This new version of Kiora is a little tough to evaluate. Without a + ability that generates some sort of card advantage, a lot of people are going to look
at this planeswalker and scoff a bit, but I am much more interested in her -2 ability. I can imagine that her +1 is going to be useful at generating mana
and ramping into other sweet things like Dragonlords and whatnot, but her -2 is just a huge delve enabler while also having the potential of drawing some
cards.
I can see turns where we get to -2 Kiora to find something like Tasigur, the Golden Fang and a Polluted Delta, play and crack the Polluted Delta, and then
delve into the Tasigur. That seems real sweet!
My biggest hindrance on Kiora, Master of the Depths is that I can’t really ever see myself trying to get to the ultimate. Getting three giant 8/8 Octopi
and fighting off three of their creatures seems pretty sweet, but having to spend four turns using her mediocre +1 and then another turn to use the
ultimate just seems like a bit of a pipe dream.
Ultimately, I’m not sure if she is going to find a place in Standard, but I feel like if she is then it’s probably Gerard Fabiano or Ali Aintrazi figuring
it out.
I am much more excited about the new Ob Nixilis than most people that I have encountered. A planeswalker that can go up to six loyalty while drawing a card
the turn that it comes down is really sweet. Not only that, but you can even just destroy any creature you want the turn you put him on the battlefield if
you really want.
His first two abilities are so simple that I feel like they are being overlooked. This is exactly what I want from a planeswalker. Ways to protect itself,
and ways to generate card advantage while building towards an ultimate.
I’m not terribly excited by his ultimate, but it is something that will win the game for sure, eventually. Effectively dealing four each turn cycle will
kill anyone over time, but with it only being -8 to pop off, it’s not that farfetched to do it a handful of turns after you get him onto the battlefield.
There are a few things that I’m wary about with Ob Nixilis though. First, with Ruinous Path (the revamped Hero’s Downfall) being a Sorcery, we will be
relying on mostly edict effects to run the old “end of turn kill your guy, untap into Ob Nixilis Reignited” plan.
Secondly, I actually feel like the Sphinx’s Tutelage deck will be quite playable, which means that we will have to keep that in mind when we are building
something with Ob Nixilis. Most decks using this planeswalker will want to go long and will likely have few answers to enchantments outside of a second
color.
Lastly, I think that any deck that’s going to try and take advantage of Ob Nixilis is going to want to play their own Hangarback Walker and have clean
answers for opposing ones. I kind of like the idea of using Silumgar, the Drifting Death as a clean answer to Hangarback Walker (paired with removal).
Since Zendikar is a plane that is all about its land, it’s no surprise that there is a new dual land cycle.
Patrick Chapin has been killing it lately with manabase ideas in his articles about Battle for Zendikar cards, so I highly recommend checking those out. Being fetchable dual lands is pretty huge, and I don’t actually think that we’ve
ever had the ability to do so in a Standard format before – so this is definitely going to be an exciting time!
Once I actually have the full spoiler and start testing out decks I imagine that I will learn a lot more about how to build the manabases for these decks.
With KTK block coming into Standard and RTR block leaving, it was very difficult to play any of the Shards of Alara color combinations (Jund, Esper, Bant,
Grixs, Naya) since the lands that we had available were so focused on showcasing the power of the KTK clan wedge. Hopefully the mana we gain from Battle for Zendikar changes that.
Figuring out the balance between how many fetchlands and how many Battle lands we want to play is going to be key, but just at a glance I feel like
something like 6-8 fetches with between 2-6 Battle lands with a couple utility/painlands and a bunch of basics is going to be a winning formula.
The big thing is going to be just how many of these utility lands can we and do we want to play.
There was a recent cycle of “spell lands” that were spoiled, and I think they are very interesting and have some potential.
When I first saw these, I misread the green one (Fertile Thicket). With all of the text I just sped through it and thought that the basic land went into
your hand and not on top of your library. I don’t think that this is going to see much play in Standard, but it definitely feels playable in Limited. It is
important to note that since it says up to one (in addition to it being look at the top five and not reveal the top five), you are able to not choose a
card and just ship the top five to the bottom. You can also just choose to not use the ability when you play it too.
I think that they are all Limited playable, but the red one is the only one that seems like it’s going to see some Standard play. The blue one might, but
the red one seems real great. Letting us attack through some troublesome blocker with just a land drop is great. It’s not quite as good as Teetering Peaks,
but I think we saw just how powerful that card was when it was in Standard last time.
The creature-lands are both amazing, and I can’t wait to play with them. The general consensus is that Lumbering Falls might even see some play in Modern,
and I can see that. Having hexproof is great, and a 3/3 body can end the game pretty quickly. I don’t really expect to see any as aggressively costed on
the activation as Creeping Tar Pit, but I am really hoping that the G/B or the R/W one is also in the set.
All in all, I am very excited for Battle for Zendikar. With the Prerelease being next weekend, I’m hoping to start brewing up some decks when the
full spoiler gets released. A few cards that I have my eye on are Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and Wingmate Roc; I think those are two cards poised to have
their Standard sparks reignited!