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The Battle For Battle For Zendikar

Is Battle for Zendikar a disappointment? Some seem to think so. Danny West isn’t one of them. Read about why he thinks the set is extraordinary and why you should be stoked to sleeve it up for #SCGIndy this weekend!

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Let’s get this out of the way first: I don’t hype.

In fact, I’m proud to say that most of us don’t. Writers, that is. Cedric Phillips is especially adamant about being truthful above all else. Media
integrity is pretty much dead in this era, and it’s great to work with and for someone who would rather have credibility with an audience than try to do
nothing but sell them with lies.

In other words, the content of this article is 100% my viewpoint. I’m just expressing how I feel, and I’m not selling you on anything but my perspective.

Now then, prepare to be vilified!

A lot of the Magic community seems lukewarm on Battle for Zendikar.

Though this sentiment is common among all levels of players, here I’ve chosen quotes from players who are highly skilled, highly intelligent, and highly
accomplished; their opinions and viewpoints are worthy of respect. With that said, I disagree with them vehemently.

Power Level: Seriously, Who Cares?

First, some basic terminology. The power level of a Magic card is basically defined by the extent to which it impacts a game of Magic when it is used,
cast, put in a deck, whatever. In general, one of the complaints about Battle for Zendikar is that its power level appears to be lower than the
acceptable threshold of a current Magic set.

For the sake of argument, let’s say that’s true. So, there you have it. The set has a low power level.

My next question is, in 2015, why does that matter at all?

If you strictly play non-rotating formats, I can understand a little bit of animosity if you perceive that a set won’t do anything to encourage you to play
or try new cards in Modern, Legacy, Vintage, whatever. However, this feels like an arbitrary complaint due to the relatively low impact any given Magic set
will have on a format with such a robust card pool. In fact, it’s apparent Khans of Tarkir had a larger impact on Modern and Legacy than any other
set in recent memory, and the power level of those cards was demonstrably too high. With a ton of different viable archetypes and a card pool so
increasingly vast that innovation is constantly happening, why does it matter at all if two or three cards from a new set see play as opposed to none? The
impact on these formats is always going to be minimal.

That brings us to Standard. Standard is overwhelmingly the most played Magic format. The majority of tournaments are Standard, the most populated Open
Series events are Standard, more people watch Standard than other formats on SCGLive-you could say Standard is kind of a big deal.

Let’s go back to Todd, Sam, and the rest of the competitive Magic world.

From a marketing perspective, I understand that it’s important for Magic sets to sell. Lorwyn wasn’t a home run seller when it came out because it
was a little too “cute” for the target Magic demographic (Aaron Forsythe once explained this by stating that the typical Magic player wants “badass,” not
cute and cuddly). Other more severe Magic set duds (Prophecy, Homelands) were very weak on power level, but they also had inherent design
issues, which was way more of a problem for their sales and longevity than anything pertaining to their Standard impact.

Where I’m going with this:

The relative power level of Battle for Zendikar, and any other set that will ever come out from this point forward for that matter, is so
irrelevant from a Standard perspective that it blows my mind that successful tournament players gripe about it. Whether the best card in a format is Black Lotus or Ironroot Treefolk, you’re still going to have to beat the same room of 700-1200 players when you show up to a tournament. You’re still going to
have to metagame, to not make mistakes, and to cast spells and track life totals. So who cares if the card you’re using is Lightning Bolt or Lightning Blast?

“This card sucks compared to Card X.”

“This is a bad Card X.”

“This is strictly worse than Card X.”

Well guess what? If Card X isn’t Standard legal, this means positively nothing. Standard cards play with other Standard cards. So why do we talk about
power level like it makes any difference whatsoever to the majority of competitive Magic events that will take place while the set is legal? If one set is
so overwhelmingly better than another that Standard effectively turns into Block, that’s one thing, but I hardly think that’s the case with Battle for Zendikar.

Another paradox when it comes to the community’s treatment of power level is that everyone is really excited about it during spoiler season. Then after a
few months, things change.

Take, for instance, this fellow:

When this card was first spoiled, people went crazy. It was insane. It was so sweet. Holy cow, give me a playset of those.

Now people are sick of playing against it. It’s at best an annoying card. At worst, it’s a development failure and everyone at R&D should be fired
forever.

Hey, speaking of Zendikar and power level, remember when these cards were Standard legal? Oh man, high power level is so great for healthy
formats. I can’t think of a time I had more fun than when this duo was running about.

Either that or Standard was an attendance-freefalling trainwreck. I forget which.

In other words, power level and fun level aren’t the same thing. In fact, many times, they’re quite inverse of one another.

The Death of Draft

Drafting is awesome, and that is positively undeniable. But for a slew of reasons, the Open Series is now much more about Constructed formats than it used
to be. For the first years, StarCityGames had Draft Opens on Sundays. Now, the big Sunday events are some combination of more popular and better attended
Constructed events. It was the correct change, no doubt about it.

However, that also led to a decreased emphasis in a huge part of the Magic culture on Limited. We went from having multiple large Limited events at every
Open Series weekend (over forty per year) to zero. Obviously Draft is still popular at Grand Prix events and at local stores all over the world, but
because StarCityGames necessarily publishes strategic content that needs to be reflective of our tournament culture, the Constructed content heavily
outweighs the Limited content. Thus, an increasing number of players evaluate sets from a strictly Constructed perspective.

This is, of course, nonsense. We’re living in a period where more players than ever are looking at cards that are blatantly designed with Limited in mind
and saying, “terrible” without giving it any further thought. Every single Magic set for nearly twenty years has been designed with Limited Magic in mind,
and I think it’s important for newer players to realize that. Keep in mind, this includes rares.

One of the most controversial cards from the spoiler is this little number:

Excluding the applicable previous statements about power level, people seem to be looking at this and thinking “two mana 1/1 at rare? Please.” Is this
Baleful Strix? No, but it doesn’t have to be to be a reasonable Standard card, and it surely doesn’t have to be to be a fun Limited card. If my opponent
has this in their Draft deck and they beat me, I’m going to feel like I lost the game fair and square to a reasonable rare that wasn’t too busted or bomby.
You can’t really say the same when you lose to something like…

Battle for
Zendikar
Limited looks like it is going to be an incredibly interesting and intricate format. As successful as I was during the first Zendikar Limited format, it
was undeniably aggressive. If you weren’t good at that sort of Magic or you didn’t enjoy maximizing your curve and deciding not to block, that format was
insufferable. This set looks like it’ll be a far cry from that, and I can’t wait to play it.

That brings us to…

Mechanics

From a design perspective, it’s important for Magic sets to be thematic. A lot of players will never notice the genius that goes into a lot of Magic
design, but if you pay attention, trust me, it’s there. In creative endeavors, when applicable, it’s best to ascribe to the philosophy of formalism. The definition varies depending on the medium you’re talking about (books, films, whatever), but the short of it is that the structure
and style of whatever you’re producing should be reflective of its content and vice versa.

What does that mean in plain English?

I’ll show you.

Innistrad (and Magic Origins) demonstrated the transform mechanic. The idea behind the mechanic is that the character, creature, entity, whatever underwent a
physical transformation and became something else. The design and development teams created an actual moment where this happens within the game. Whenever a
transform trigger happens and you physically pick up a card, take it out of its sleeve, then put it back in on the other side, your brain-whether
consciously or subconsciously-recognizes that a process has taken place whereby this thing became something else. The mechanic reflects the flavor of
what’s happening within the game. It creates a nice satisfying feeling for the player, even if they don’t even know why.

When your video game controller vibrates as you use a chainsaw on an enemy, that’s formalism. When the killer appears out of nowhere and everyone in the
audience jumps as the screaming girl is dragged into the basement, that’s formalism. When Mark Z. Danielewski writes anything, that’s formalism gone
horribly wrong. (English major, boom.)

So, what then, is Battle for Zendikar about? What form should it adhere to?

The Eldrazi are bizarre, incomprehensible creatures–alien in nature, inexplicable in behavior. In other words, it makes complete mechanical sense that
these horrors do strange things that we can’t quite comprehend at the base level. They should have abilities we haven’t seen or played with before. They
are supposed to be weird.

Notice not only that they’re mechanically unusual but also that they have strange and asymmetrical power and toughness. This isn’t the work of people
rolling dice and assigning random stats and abilities; this is the intentional work of a team of very experienced and intelligent card designers.

Unfortunately, a large section of the player base is apparently so befuddled by the strange mechanics of the Eldrazi that they’re downright dismissive of
them altogether. The tendency of humans to look away in discomfort and to dismiss anything they don’t immediately connect with on first blush is a tragedy.
Embrace the weirdness! This is stuff we haven’t seen before, including with previous iterations of the Eldrazi. Celebrate the fact that this game is
decades old now and there’s still enough design space and interesting room to explore. So much, in fact, that people who have been playing it for years
aren’t even sure how to process (giggle) some of these new abilities.

Don’t fear the unknown. Shuffle it up and go with it.

Now, will any of these from exile or colorless abilities make a world of difference in Constructed? I don’t know, but I don’t think that matters either.
Outlast hasn’t set the world on fire anywhere near a Constructed tournament table, and Abzan has still been the clan to beat for most of the last year. And Khans block got a lot of rave reviews regardless of how irrelevant some of the keywords have been for Constructed Magic. So why the double
standard?

The Power of Nostalgia

A lot of folks form emotional attachments to sets from before. When that happens, sometimes expectations are out of control and no amount of quality
delivered will live up to the idealistic self-made hype. I don’t know how much of that happened with Battle for Zendikar, but it certainly seems
to be a factor on some level. Personally, I thought Zendikar was fine, but it didn’t excite me like a lot of other sets did. An extreme Indiana
Jones spelunking with dangerous caves and pits and treasure lurking within? Meh. It had to be done eventually, but it couldn’t get me like The Weatherlight
Saga or Shards of Alara did.

So by having little to no expectations for what the set would be or look like, perhaps it’s just easier for me to be excited by how different this set is
than its predecessor. Keep in mind that Scars of Mirrodin had a much lower power level than its original set, but it’s universally accepted that
the first Mirrodin Standard was an unmitigated disaster. Sometimes, it’s better to move on.

The Danger of Frontloaded Hype

Because of Battle for Zendikar‘s announcement at PAX, it became pretty important to lead with the best foot. The Expeditions and a number of powerful and
exciting cards were shown off at the event. All three planeswalkers were shown to the public shortly thereafter. By the time we got to mid-spoiler season,
a number of power cards had already been displayed (the lands, Gideon) and players were already drooling for more. There was nothing left to satisfy them
except crazy mythics they didn’t understand and rares they dismissed as unplayable or underpowered.

If PAX would’ve only announced the Expeditions and a few minor rares, then over the coming weeks, we got a few Commander injections, then we rolled out
Gideon, Kiora, and Ob Nixilis on different weeks, followed by powerhouses like Drana days after that, I’m pretty sure this set would be perceived as much
more powerful. But because the spoilers were so power frontloaded, there wasn’t much left to show players later on, which made them feel like Christmas was
cancelled because perception is everything when it comes to an audience.

The Golden Age of Whining

As most of you know by now, I recently underwent a lifechanging medical crisis. Though it’s impossible for such an event to occur without changing one’s
perspective on life, I made it a personal point very early on that I wouldn’t hold others to the same standard of optimism and joy that I now experience.
It’s ridiculous to expect someone who hasn’t gone through cancer treatment, whose life wasn’t turned violently upside down, to share the same outlook on
life as I do these days. If people want to whine about their jobs, their girlfriends or boyfriends, their roommates, their lack of parking options, then
power to you. Misery is relative, and it’s a human constant to reshape negativity to your own current place in life. Someone is always suffering more
somewhere, but that’s no reason you should have to adjust your feelings about how annoying it is that your lunch was overcooked or that traffic has been
positively terrible lately.

So, I’m not on a high horse here. If you want to whine and roll your eyes about your in-laws, your stubbed toe, your sports team? Power to you my friend.

With that said…

We as a community have reached such a point of kneejerk whining sometimes that it actually destroys our credibility and makes us harder to serve as
consumers. We are so buried in the mindset of reactionary negativity that it isn’t even enough to have our cake and eat it too; we also need to pick out
the frosting only we want, the silverware only we want, and if the cake needs to change at all in order to accommodate anyone else, well screw that,
because what the hell, Wizards?

Here are a few recent hits:

– Recently, it was announced that Grand Prix tournaments going forward will have a dramatically increased prize payout. Later the same day, we discovered a
handful of Grand Prix tournaments would take place near the advertised marquee city of the GP, but that several would not necessarily take place in the
exact same city. For instance, Grand Prix New York will occur in a nearby New Jersey location. The outrage at having to accommodate one’s travel
arrangements to an area that by all accounts will have cheaper lodging, amenities, and a number of other advantages was insufferable. Having a huge
tournament near New York City is a hell of a lot cheaper than having a tournament in the middle of New York City. Remember how that prize money was
increased by thousands? How about we not forget that just because the tournament you haven’t booked any arrangements for yet happens to be thirty minutes
from where you thought it was yesterday?

– The Legacy Cube online incorporated a tribal Vampires theme. This was met with almost universal disdain and if it weren’t for everyone’s busy schedules,
I’m sure a number of memes would’ve come about. While the actual venomous vitriol in this case was relatively low, it did become sort of an elitist joke
among some of the Cube’s loudest critics. A few things come to mind here. Firstly, the Mono-Black Aggro deck is frequently called a crappy trap deck, so
I’m not sure why changing it up into a different look to try to give it something new is that bad or offensive. Secondly, Battle for Zendikar is
coming out, and Vampires was one of the central tribes of the original set. Giving players a look at some of the old Vampires they may have forgotten about is a
great way to not only build a little speculation about the new set, but it also gives players a reminder about some synergies between new cards and some of
the old stuff they may have forgotten about. No, no. I’m sure they’re only on there due to complete incompetence and to annoy you, the persecuted player.

– There’s a lot of envious disdain for the low print run of the Zendikar Expeditions. It blows my mind that if I’m driving down the road with a friend and
we see a classic car or some polished ride that cost six digits that we’ll smile and talk about how sweet it is. But when we talk about a new set of
promotional and limited edition lands, suddenly the world is an unfair pit of privilege and it is a total load of crap and a cash grab that they aren’t
being given away in large quantities. Why are Magic cards so different in this regard? Low supply is what makes certain things so valuable. If everyone had
judge promos and Japanese foils, their value would be infinitely lower. Yeah, it sucks we can’t all have everything we want all the time, but without these
Zendikar Expeditions, none of us would have a chance to ever own or see any of these sweet cards. It’s a complete freeroll. Before, nobody had them, and
now, some people do. Is it really worth taking away just because you don’t have access to them currently? Get a second job. Sell some stuff you already own
if you want them. Stop coveting Magic cards beyond what you covet in day to day life. It’s ridiculous. Change your situation to your satisfaction or accept
where you are. Whining is the most unproductive of options and is the one tragically most often taken.

Everyone deserves to be heard. I’d never try to censor someone from expressing what they believe, and our community has done some amazing things with our
collective voice. But in between these great moments of triumph are a thousand self-important declarations condemning the smallest and most insignificant
of things as if they’re a personal affront. Maybe not every card printed is specifically for you. There are a lot of formats, and a lot of people enjoy this
game differently. Sometimes, just sometimes, maybe you should think about the friends and experiences this game has given you or (where applicable) the
fact that you’ve made an actual lucrative living playing this game and that having to drive an extra 30 or 40 minutes to the tournament is a small price to
pay for having a dramatic payout increase. Like, smile once in a while. Get a massage. Take a bath. Anything. Just chill out.

The Prerelease

Hopefully, playing with some of the new stuff this past weekend has shown you how much fun this set can be. I’m looking the most forward to trying to find
combos with Smothering Abomination (Savra, Queen of the Golgari comes to mind immediately, as does Grave Pact), trying to make an aggressive Drana deck
work (I adore Drana 1.0 in Commander as a generally effective murderer), and of course, trying to solve the mystery of the unsolvable manabases that this
format is going to bury us in. Oh also, I find the design elegance of Ob Nixilis Reignited to be irresistible. The card says so little, but he does so
much!

Every week, Grand Prix Atlanta gets closer and closer, and I am brewing up Commander decks like crazy in preparation. I wouldn’t want you fine people to
have to play against the same Tolsimir Wolfblood deck over and over, would I? Which commanders do you want to play against? Tell me soon, for the time to
brew is now!