All week long during each week of September, the WotC R&D team brings us new spoilers from the long anticipated Battle for Zendikar. Today was no exception and delivered us new additions to the actual spoiler with all the promos available from the release of the new set.
Scythe Leopard is clearly a nerf from the past referencing to Plated Geopede and Steppe Lynx as the Landfall ability used to be +2/+2 until end of turn. This card will be played in limited and draft as a fill in but I don’t think it will be standard at all even with fetches.
Then, as Hero’s Downfall was there to help us manage creatures and plainswalkers, Ruinous Path say “No, we will manage them and even more!!!” given the possibility of making a 4/4 creature out of a land and it has haste. I think control gained quite a great removal just by the fact of having a 4/4 threat late game. Even if the spell is in sorcery, it will still be a format defining card in standard.
With the comeback to Zendikar, they clearly had to create new Eldrazi in this set. They made no mistake by creating Blight Herder here. This creature as alot of upside being a 4/5 colorless creature that as the possibility of putting 3 1/1’s for a total of 7 power. Although, the condition of having 2 exiled cards of your opponent to put into their graveyard creates a necessity to using the other Eldrazi in the set which have the ability to exile the top card of their library. I think this card will be limited bomb if you get the cheap eldrazi as well in your pool/draft.
Since Wizards let it all out with the big guys, they had to create cards that can manage them. After Ruinous Path, they made us a Journey to Nowhere with Flash. This is definitely a 2 to 4-of depending if it’s a control/midrange deck in Standard. I think Esper control decks will make a comeback in the top tier with those 2 removals. A card I look forward playing with!
Since Anger of the Gods is rotating, the R/x deck was going to suffer from that. Well, not anymore! Radiant Flames will fix the problem because, even as Anger of the gods was exiling the creatures, it was an irrelevant ability as not alot of creatures had graveyard abilities. Also, the fact it only costs one red is really good. I see it as a 2 or 3-of as early mass removal to support Crux of Fate or Languish here.
Battle for Zendikar Game Day
As the previous gamedays, this nice dark horde playmat will be given to the 1st place of the gameday event.
Overall, way to go wizards! R&D really rocked it and it is probably the best set since Return to Ravnica. I wish all of you will enjoy a lot of drafts and capture these great promos ’cause you know…gotta catch’em all! 😉
By Samuel Carrier
@infiwill on Twitter
The third installment to the Tarkir block is right around the corner. Prereleases, launches and Game Days at Local gaming stores (LGS) all around the world will be packing up with followers of different broods of Dragons. Tons of Dragons of Tarkir promos will be given away at LGS everywhere. We’ve seen some of the Dragonlords and Regents the new dragon cycles in Dragons of Tarkir spoiler gallery. Now let’s take a look at all the promos.
[still waiting on alternate art]
(link to Fate Reforged full spoiler list)
Sandsteppe Mastodon is not the most exciting promo card. Especially being such a high casting cost Green creature. It`s an elephant that stops fliers though, that`s quite a feat.
Mardu Shadowspear is a much cooler promo reminding me of a very cool vampire Pulse Tracker. It was an auto include in almost all the Vampire decks. Cheap casting cost and guranteed 1 point of damage after each attack. The new Dash ability is very interesting as well, there could be some Enter the Battlefield shenanigans possibly with this new ability. Yep this is one of the Fate Reforged promos I’m looking forward too.
Supplant Form one more of the cooler Fate Reforged promos. This instant comes with two nifty abilities, bounce a creature and clone it for 6 mana though. It maybe too expensive for other formats other than EDH/Commander. It still a cool promo that may see some play.
The exclusive playmat for the Game Day champion with a fantastic picture of Ugin. It’s a beautiful playmat with an awesome Dragon & Planeswalker, best of both worlds for some.
I’m not too excited with Shamanic Revelation as a buy-a-box promo, another Green card that may see more fringe play then constructed. It’s draw for Green though so I should not be too quick to judge, let time tell. It’s better than Life’s Legacy. I guess for now it works for EDH/Commander decks where Green is definitely a popular color.
Fate Reforged prerelease will introduce special promo ‘Time Shifted Cards’. During the event you get to pick your Tarkir Clan and will also receive a special ‘Ugin’s Fate’ booster pack which contains a Token, a Land card and certain amount of ‘Time Shifted Cards’ from a pool of 40 holo foil stamped cards with alternate art which demonstrates how the plane of Tarkir has changed. The PAX Australia panel showcased three of these cards.
All the Khans of Tarkir promo have been announced. The buy-a-box promo Rattleclaw Mystic looks very nice and so does the Game day top 8 promo Utter end. I wouldn’t mind picking up one of each of these promos for my collections. Game Day promos will be available at the event, each participant gets a Heir of the Wilds. Game day top 8 also receive a Utter End while the Champion also gets the Playmat. Rattleclaw mystic you should get with a box depending how the local gaming store (LGS) distributes them, like some only give one per case (6 boxes). The final promo is the Dragon Throne of Tarkir which you can get at Launch on the 26 sept at any participating LGS.
Good luck at your events! May you never have to mulligan and all your packs give you mythic rares.
M15 promo for each color. Prerelease packs are returning again for this event. Each Prerelease Pack will include the following:
Prerelease Promos and Hero Cards:
Forged in Glory
Forged in Intellect
Forged in Tyrrany
Forged in War
Forged in Pursuit
Launch Weekend Promo
Journey into Nyx Game Day – May 24-25, 2014
Top 8
1st-place winner of Journey into Nyx Game Day
Buy a Box Promo
