Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast (WotC), check out the new face of Golgari planeswalkers from Zendikar Rising — Nissa of Shadowed Boughs!
Long gone are the days of Garruk and Vraska as the Golgari planeswalker representatives, and Nissa’s debut in her new role is definitely impressive.
Landfall – Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, put a loyalty counter on Nissa of Shadowed Boughs.
While Nissa enters the battlefield naturally with four loyalty counters, casting her and then making your land drop for the turn neatly bumps her up to five loyalty counters, allowing her to activate her -5 right away.
+1: Untap target land you control. You may have it become a 3/3 Elemental creature with haste and menace until the end of turn.
Like many before her, Nissa of Shadowed Boughs’ +1 not only generates mana, but also turns a land into a 3/3 creature, which is great for both pressuring opponents as well as defending herself. Activating her +1 as a followup to a land drop also bumps Nissa up to six loyalty counters, which allows her to survive using her -5 on the following turn.
-5: You may put a creature card with converted mana cost less than or equal to the number of lands you control onto the battlefield from your hand or graveyard with two +1/+1 counters on it.
Is it really an ultimate ability if you can technically activate it the turn she enters the battlefield? Either way, this ability is very strong and generates a ton of value. The additional two +1/+1 counters shouldn’t be taken lightly either, as they help the creature dodge one of Standard’s premium spot removal spells in Heartless Act.
