Time for a shakeup. Standard has done a good job keeping things interesting, but as usual, exciting new cards are never a bad thing.
Battle for Zendikar
already has plenty of unique cards. Cards that are difficult to evaluate. Standard after the rotation is going to be especially difficult to predict since
there was no Block format to lead the way.
Today I’ll share my thoughts on some the more interesting cards spoiled so far from Battle for Zendikar, along with some broader ideas
about the strategies and shapes the format might take.
Hallowed Fountain asks Glacial Fortress out for a night of dinner and dancing.
They eat and tango the night away and have a wonderful time. Just as the night is winding down, Hallowed Fountain invites Glacial Fortress to watch some
Netflix and chill.
One thing leads to another and they both end up going from Mint Condition to Slightly Played.
Nine months later, the gift of Prairie Stream comes to us in a neat little booster of joy.
And that’s how Magic cards are made.
Prairie Stream is exactly what you’d expect Hallowed Fountains and Glacial Fortress’s child to look like.
Whatever you want to call them, Battle lands are good. What pushes them over the edge of mere playability into “yowza” territory is the fact that you can
search for them with fetchlands.
In any allied two-color deck you get to freely run a lot of ways to search up the Battle lands. For example, if you were building a U/B deck, you get to
run Bloodstained Mire, Flooded Strand, and Polluted Delta, all of which search up Sunken Hollow.
As for three-colored decks, the best three color manabases are ones where you’ll get to use two Battle lands that overlap in one color and an on color
creature-land.
Esper – Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow, Shambling Vent
Bant – Canopy Vista, Prairie Stream, Lumbering Falls
Jund – Smoldering Marsh, Cinder Glade, B/G Creature-land
Naya – Cinder Glade, Canopy Vista, W/R Creature-land
Grixis – Sunken Hollow, Smoldering Marsh, U/R Creature-land
The problem with these decks is the lack of access to most of the best Khans of Tarkir goodies, like Siege Rhino and Mantis Rider, so it could be
a potentially interesting see-saw between power and an excellent manabase. Of course, if you want to play Khans colors, you have access to the
tri-lands – Sandsteppe Citadel, Mystic Monastery, Opulent Palace, Nomad Outpost, and Frontier Bivouac. The problem with them is that having a critical mass
of basic lands is important with Battle lands, and you want to be running creature-lands, probably multiple since you’ll have access to two if you’re
playing clan colors as your enters the battlefield tapped land. But the mana should still be fairly decent, just not quite as smooth.
That isn’t even getting into the four- and five-color manabases, which are going to be doable, but an absolute headache. Building manabases is going to be
tricky to say the least.
Playing with the Battle lands will also lead to interesting decisions in ordering and fetching your lands.
Once you hit two basics you’re golden, and you’ll probably want to fetch Battle lands afterwards. But getting two basics is important. Do you fetch and
play them early to make future Battle lands better at the risk of not have the right colors? Or do you fetch and play your Battle lands early at the risk
of having future Battle lands enter the battlefield tapped?
The Battle lands are great if you’re running a lot of basics in your deck and have very few drawbacks. On your first turn, their drawback is barely
noticeable in most decks and on your third turn and beyond, after playing two basic lands, they’ll be amazing.
My first read through of Lumbering Falls left me wanting more, but I was just thinking about it in the completely wrong way. My first thoughts about
creature-lands is that they are used near the end of the game, once resources and removal on each side have been expended, which would make hexproof a less
useful ability.
Lumbering Falls might be more similar to Nephalia Drownyard in control decks.
I wouldn’t use the word powerful to describe hexproof, I would say it’s more unfair, which is also how I would describe Nephalia Drownyard. And by unfair,
I mean awesome for everyone involved in a game of Magic except your opponent.
Imagine a Sultai Control deck with Lumbering Falls as its win condition. Removal, counters, card draw. Seven activations later from the Lumbering Falls and
it’s Tiiiiiimber. One axed opponent. Delicious.
And what about against control decks? This card is really hard to deal with. Foul-Tounge Invocation and Celestial Flare are ways, but there aren’t many
removal spells for it.
Hexproof is also great on defense, making sure your mana investment won’t go to waste.
Do not underestimate this land.
I’m really excited for Shambling Vent. Obviously all the creature-lands are going to be great, but lifegain is an excellent ability for slower control
decks to have access to once they’ve stabilized and are desperately looking for a way not to die to a topdecked Exquisite Firecraft.
Awaken is especially nice on Shambling Vent if you want to put some +1/+1 counters on your 2/3 lifelink, but remember you still have to activate it to get
the lifelink bonus, and it would put all your eggs in one vent. Awaken is also nice on Lumbering Falls in theory, but you really have to have a lot of mana
to activate its hexproof.
I imagine all the lands will be staple four-of’s in every deck that can support them, as they’re just too powerful too pass up. It gets trickier when you
can support more than one Battle land, but I imagine some three-color decks will want eight Battle lands.
How good is Evolving Wilds now? Well, for starters, fewer lands always enter the battlefield tapped now with the Temples rotating, and having basic lands
is important for Battle lands, all of which raises its stock. You probably won’t see it as a full four-of outside of something like Five-Color Control, but
I’d imagine it’s going to start cropping up as a one- or two-of.
Awaken the Split Cards!
This is the set of incidental win conditions for control decks.
It wasn’t that long ago that U/B Control was running Pearl Lake Ancient as its win condition. I have always been a big fan of not having to dedicate slots
on expensive win conditions. I hate having to put a card in my decks that only functions for me to play it and say “Behold! My glorious win condition! I
have now won the game!” Ideally I want my cards to be able to show me its moves in the earlygame, and then I can slowly peel my opponent apart piece by
piece at my leisure in the lategame.
Celestial Colonnade and Lighting Bolt are great examples of cards that serve a useful function in the earlygame and become a win conditions after you’ve
drawn ten cards with Sphinx’s Revelation. I think Awaken cards will function similarly.
Awaken cards actually have three modes. For three mana, Roil Spout is Time Ebb–unexciting but passable. For six mana, it’s a 4/4 that enters the
battlefield tapped and Time Ebbs. For seven mana, it’s a 4/4 haste that Time Ebb’s. Add all that together and you have a reasonably powerful and versatile
card…
If you want to cast Time Ebb.
Ruinous Path and Planar Outburst are the obvious superstars here. You know they’re good because they’re slightly worse versions of Hero’s
Downfall and End Hostilities without Awaken, but have massive upside in the lategame.
Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy is a card that should benefit from having a bunch of Awaken cards around, since it will give you a bunch of powerful cards to -3 on in
Awaken mode in the lategame.
Trading a little bit of earlygame power for lategame power seems like a great deal, except those in matchups where you don’t get a chance to Awaken
anything and the difference between unable to cast your sorcery speed Hero’s Downfall on a dashed creature matters a great deal.
The Rise of the… Aggro Decks?
Are aggro decks getting too good? Mono-Red in particular?
It did win the last two Pro Tours. This has been something on my mind, especially since they confirmed the rollout of the mulligan scry rule. Aggro decks
are often punished for running a lower land count and being less resilient when they mulligan, which the scry rule helps mitigate.
Answers are weaker now than they’ve ever been. Instead of Damnation or Wrath of God, we have Languish and Planar Outburst.
This should be self-correcting though. If aggro decks are too good, then Siege Rhino Midrange rises up to slap it back down. It’s harder to beat aggro now
than it was before, even when that’s what you’re specifically trying to do. Perhaps it’s just the lack of pure control that I’m noticing and it’s just the
cyclical nature of the game, as different archetypes will be on top at different times.
Either way, I think aggro has been often been a good spot to be in, and that trend will continue in the near future.
A fine looking card. It also fits the theme of being a pseudo-split card by being ramp in the midgame and Divination in the lategame.
Hedron Archive is interesting because I can imagine it being a linchpin in ramp decks, appearing in small numbers in control decks–or just not finding a
home at all.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is an obvious card to pair it with, or Dragonlord Atarka, since it ramps you up to seven mana. I have a feeling it might be a bit
too slow and unfocused as a ramp card to see much play though.
Cloudgoat Ranger, but instead of cuddly goa… wait a minute, I’m just now realizing Cloudgoat Ranger didn’t even summon goats! I want a refund!
Instead of summoning cuddly Kithkin, Blight Herder summons cuddly Eldrazi Scions.
This is a pretty powerful rate if you’re getting the full seven power and eight defense split among four creatures with the option to gain three mana
later, but it will depend on exile enablers.
This guy is busted. He has card draw, removal, and a win condition. All his abilities are relatively straightforward and powerful. Sounds like a winning
combination. I could see Ob Nixilis Reignited as a four-of in control decks or Abzan Midrange. His only real drawback is that he’s a little slow, but his
power level makes up for it.
Just when you thought it was safe to pick up your hand…
Transgress the Mind is an exile enabler and the drawback is very minor since most cards you’ll want to take will be on the more expensive side. You don’t
even lose two life! I expect this to show up in most black decks, and I’m thinking it’s more likely to be starting in the maindeck than sideboards.
It’s rare you see a Control Magic variant so it’s worth taking a very close look.
The main draw to Exert Influence is that it isn’t an enchantment, so it’s not vulnerable to something like Dromoka’s Command. Its drawback is real even
when you’re playing five colors since you may not have all your colors or you might be facing a creature with six or more power. Still, Control Magic is a
very powerful effect that might be good enough despite its limitations.
The main question is how pushed is Five-Color Control? If it is shows up, this will surely be a four of.
The Allies
In the past, this is the type of strategy that has dipped just below the power curve and shows up from time to time when mass removal isn’t a big part of
the metagame. Allies being able to effect all types of creatures really means they can pop up anywhere though, and it’s possible they’ll be pushed hard
enough to a viable strategy.
Speaking of pushed, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar fits that description exactly. He will pretty much go in every single white deck by not only being powerful
but by being very synergistic with numerous strategies.
It Begins
That just scratches the surface of Battle for Zendikar. Next week I’ll dig even deeper, focusing more on the individual cards I’m most interested
in and my ideas for some starting gauntlet decklists. I know I’ll have my eyes on the spoiler and be dreaming of sweet decklists full of tentacles until
then.