General [ZNR] Zendikar Rising Spoilers

[Brad]

No one wants to talk about TIERED (nonblack) LANDFALL?

Or about how these are not really worth the hassle, but are a cool untapped design?

Or how this probably has some sweet combo potential somewhere?

Or that we got another Ninja? Sort of...

OK, probably actually no one wants to talk about how this is a smooth combination of Spells and Tribal:

But no one wants to talk about how fucking swingy these Party cards look?

Or about how this better be a full ten+ (5U/5R) card cycle where all of the backsides come in tapped for memory's sake?

Where's the posts, people!?

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

I think we're suffering a little bit from having a ton of spoilers, most of them a little unusual, at the same time. I do like that they're continuing to explore the double sided card design space, that we're getting a more explicit D&D adventuring theme explored that was just alluded to in the first Zendikar, and as usual just really top notch cards.

I particularly like windrider wizard! Would love more of those kind of bridge cards between tribal and "theme matters".

 

[Onderzeeboot]

For some reason I really dislike the party mechanic. On the other hand, that new twist on DFCs is super exciting!

 

[Brad]

They've gotten so much better at designing milder tribal cards. Winged Words was great as a baseline Divination and a little bit of a strong draw spell with the payoff. Not entirely tribal, but close enough. Wizard's Lightning and Wizard's Retort are similarly fine cards at baseline.

For some reason I really dislike the party mechanic. On the other hand, that new twist on DFCs is super exciting!

I dislike how it isn't, to me, at least, super explicit in the reminder text that each creature can only fulfill one role. Also, from a draft perspective, it's a lot of shit to gather and a lot of slots to dedicate to those types in the cube itself.

Not a fan of the Land/Land cards, as I'd rather just run a land with all the info on the front, but if all the Spell/Land cards have the back as "ETB tappped, T: Add X." I'll be happy to run them as draw smoothers. If some are tapped and some aren't or some produce two colors or whatever, it becomes more of a headache.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

At least I like the return of kicker. Now give me landfall or I quit.

On the plus side, ravnic gets his beloved and desired landfall meaning he doesn't have to quit!

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

On the plus side, ravnic gets his beloved and desired landfall meaning he doesn't have to quit!

Haha I was thinking the same thing when looking through the spoilers honestly.

 

[blacksmithy]

the more i think about the modal lands the more i wish they’d just made one faced lands that had a cycling spell ability. i just super hate the dynamic of having to unsleeve and resleeve cards in the middle of cube night.
the thing that they do is great though, physical logistics notwithstanding

 

[Onderzeeboot]

the more i think about the modal lands the more i wish they’d just made one faced lands that had a cycling spell ability. i just super hate the dynamic of having to unsleeve and resleeve cards in the middle of cube night.
the thing that they do is great though, physical logistics notwithstanding

I use proxies for my double faced cards, e.g. https://imgur.com/r/magictcg/psTuf. I have the real cards on deck for when the card gets played. Works like a charm!

 

[blacksmithy]

oh my those proxy lands are nice

 

[Chris Taylor]

The lines opened up by having a Flux as one of your lands and a bounce land in hand are super sweet

 

[ravnic]

Im not huge on party either. I like the flavor,but it doesn't seem to be worth it in cube. And I still have some oldies which don't have all their types written on them, and old frame is again worth more to me than a mediocre new mechanic. Also, I don't like this new way of using DFCs. It is just split cards going fancy, and it will be a hassle to unsleeve andexplain to newbies ... again, it is kinda cool for a draft in arena but doesn't excite me enough for cube.

What I LOVE is that landfall gets the showcase treatment and there will probably many more cards coming. I mean, they've only showed 8 so far. My biggest wish is a nice blue one, but if all I can get is a less flexible Hedron Crab, I'm taking it.

I also like the Lagac as off color archetype support in my occasionals and I'm thinking about the Felidar:

I hope Prowling Felidar is part of a common creature cycle of french vanillas with the landfall > +1/+1 counter ability. Vinelasher Kudzu is a boss, and I'd love something somewhat compareable in blue. Maybe a 1/3 flyer for 3?

 

[TrainmasterGT]

No one wants to talk about TIERED (nonblack) LANDFALL?


Or about how these are not really worth the hassle, but are a cool untapped design?

Or how this probably has some sweet combo potential somewhere?

Or that we got another Ninja? Sort of...

OK, probably actually no one wants to talk about how this is a smooth combination of Spells and Tribal:

But no one wants to talk about how fucking swingy these Party cards look?

Or about how this better be a full ten+ (5U/5R) card cycle where all of the backsides come in tapped for memory's sake?

Where's the posts, people!?

For me, at least, a lot of it has to do with how swingy or unplayable many of these cards are. I like cards that make a player work to enable, but only when it's a build around or the card's floor is good by itself. The vast majority of the cards in this set (from what we saw on day one, more on that in a second), are either too swingy to be worthwhile or was just draft chaff.

Also, I don't play Double-Faced cards in my cube since it's single sleeved and I don't want people removing cards from their sleeves to transform them. This set is kind of making me reconsider that, because the gameplay of Modal DFCs is actually pretty good, but I'm not quite ready to make that jump yet.


Seriously, though, read LandOfMordor's Reddit Post About MDFCs in cube design. These cards are very good if you can capitalize on them.

Anyhow, let's talk about some spoilers!

This card is nice because it scales throughout the game. It's pretty easy for a white deck to get a Warrior on turn two, and there are playable Wizards in mono-white. It will be hard for aggro decks (this card's natural home) to get a full party given white's almost non-existent rogue package, but it should do a decent Isamaru, hound of Konda impression reasonably often. I'm probably not playing it but some of you may want to.

Tarmogoyf Nighthawk, anyone? Sure, it only counts the opponent's graveyard, but it's still pretty good. It can easily be a 4/3 Flyer for 3, which is a great rate.

This seems like a decent Edict effect. This card makes me immediately think of Mythos of Nethroi, but I don't think the comparison is all that similar.

Also, this is totally the type of card I would have made an uncommon if I designed it as a custom. Just saying.

Interesting Demon Boy. I like this guy as an odd baneslayer, although I wish it had Midnight Reaper's text instead of this weird stuff about clerics. To be fair, that version of the card may have been a bit over powered, but still.

 

[Brad]

The lines opened up by having a Flux as one of your lands and a bounce land in hand are super sweet

I hadn't even considered how awesome it is to bounce a spell back to your hand. Damn it. Every set makes me want to go low powered!

 

[blacksmithy]

you can have a high power cube with a low power manabase

 

[Chris Taylor]

Here's the translated steppe lynx:

This is the best fiend hunter we've seen in a while!
Make sure you notice both "Nonland Permanent" and "Nontoken" on there, as they're both important for different reasons.

I noticed she'd also been lost in the deluge yesterday.
If you look at this card as just 3 mana 3/3 flying selfless spirit it's probably pretty solid, and it can also protect from -x/-x or exile effects where spirit can't.

This guy is probably subtly powerful. Also adorable.

If any of y'all are still running griffin guide I feel like this is a maybe

This has a lot of words I like on it, hopefully it's good

Being a tapland on situational spells is a solid place to be

 

[TrainmasterGT]

This card is going to be great for many of the same reasons that cards like Grafted Wargear are great: it's a big buff that sticks around after a board wipe. Do I think it's going to be as good as Gwargear? No, but I think it's a lot better than it may initially appear.

It's also a great thing to tutor with Stoneforge Mystic!

 

[Brad]

you can have a high power cube with a low power manabase

Mayyyybe. I'm so concerned about losing a turn to a tapped land when you're getting smashed by aggro. It also makes the front side a lot less useful relative to the environment.

The uncommon G and W Spell/Lands from today are pretty sweet. So is the R one.
"Spikefield Risks
R
Instant
Spikefield Risks deals 1 damage to any target. If a permanent that was dealt damage this way dies this turn, exile it instead.

Spikefield Cave
Land
Spikefield Cave enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add R."

I don't mind an overcosted fight, either

This is honestly serviceable as well. Kind of nice to see the land color have nice uncommons here.

I also like the way that this rewards mill or long games

I think Maul of the Skyclaves looks really good and was disappointed that the BR one involved Party.

 

[Brad]

Starts out pretty weak, but in my graveyard based format, seems likely to reach the second tier. What do you guys think on this one?

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

This card is going to be great for many of the same reasons that cards like Grafted Wargear are great: it's a big buff that sticks around after a board wipe. Do I think it's going to be as good as Gwargear? No, but I think it's a lot better than it may initially appear.

It's also a great thing to tutor with Stoneforge Mystic!

Yeah this gives us even less reason to try and sneak in old busted GRBS equipment for stoneforge mystic since we're pretty much at critical mass for modern fun sweet equipment. This looks really really good!

 

[Velrun]

I love this so much (The last one at the end, Relic Robber)

 

[blacksmithy]

Oh my gosh Relic Robber is awesome!
But risky if you push an artifact theme as you may be giving your opponent a lot of value

 

[Chris Taylor]

Someone on reddit pointed out this was either half of birth of meletis and it made me chuckle

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Anyone in the market for a 3rd Harrow effect?

 

[Chris Taylor]

It's better vs countermagic fwiw

 

[blacksmithy]

Harrow effects are honestly really nice because of how much more they interact with themes than the standard ramp effect does. i’ll take 1-2 more tbh