MTG Salvation

With the prerelease just around the corner and the full spoiler up, it's time for the final spoiler digest for Battle for Zendikar. Join us as we explore the final rares and mythics in the set, and look at some of the top picks for various formats.


The final Eldrazi mythic rare has been revealed. Sire of Stagnation provides a large body at a reasonable cost, coupled with an extremely powerful punisher ability. Sire seems particularly powerful in control vs control matchups and in Commander, where "just don't play your lands" is ineffective advice. Every time they drop a land, Sire lashes out by exiling the top two cards of that player's library and drawing you two cards.


Fully colorless Eldrazi continue to come out in force.
Endless One is the most efficient X-cost creature ever printed, providing X +1/+1 counters for only X mana with no drawbacks. While there are certainly more efficient creatures at every cost for it, the fact that it can at least be a Bear or Elephant on curve when needed, while still being able to play as a huge beater for 10, 12, or even more mana makes him a great role-player.
Gruesome Slaughter is the final colorless rare, and it allows all of your giant Eldrazi the capability to engage in one-sided fights, clearing the opposing board. This is a welcome addition to colorless Commander decks, which often lack for strong removal options.
Bane of Bala Ged throws back to the annihilator mechanic, which is otherwise absent from Battle for Zendikar Eldrazi. Each time it attacks, it forces the defending player to exile two permanents, similar to annihilator 2. The fact that this card is uncommon and at only 7 mana means that he's sure to be the cornerstone of a Limited archetype.
Ruin Processor and Ulamog's Despoiler are two other cards that will strongly support the "Eldrazi Ramp" Limited archetype. Both want you to play with at least a little ingest or other exiling effects, but provide powerful benefits if you do, with Ruin Processor being a 7/8 for 7 that also gains 5 life, and Despoiler is a 6-cost 9/9 if you fulfill his condition. Combined with other known common and uncommon Eldrazi like Deathless Behemoth and Eldrazi Devastator, these colorless horrors will be swinging many Limited games.


There are plenty of ingest cards running around at common and uncommon to feed processors like Ruin Processor and Ulamog's Despoiler. Some of these, like Vile Aggregate and Ruination Guide, provide uncommon incentives to build around an Eldrazi archetype, rewarding you for playing lots of colorless creatures. Others simply provide common ways to build up this core and chew through your opponent's library.


Ingest is not the only way to exile cards for an Eldrazi deck, however. Many devoid spells contain an exile clause, allowing you to feed processors by doing things like discarding, countering spells, burning creatures, and even fighting.
Crumble to Dust provides a more splashable Sowing Salt that can also gain benefits from not being red, like dodging Flashfreeze and Hydroblast.
Scour from Existence is a fully colorless, instant-speed, exiling Vindicate, which is a powerful tool available to colorless decks and some Commander decks like mono-green and mono-black that can generate a lot of mana but are short on answer cards.
Touch of the Void has potential Modern applications, as it can hit cards like Kor Firewalker and Etched Champion, and it can also exile cards like Kitchen Finks and Voice of Resurgence.


Scion-generating effects are also present across rarities and colors. Eldrazi Scions support multiple archetypes. They provide colorless bodies to power out Vile Aggregate and Ruination Guide in aggressive Eldrazi decks, they provide ramp and chump blockers for slower Eldrazi ramp decks, and they can even help Zendikari decks achieve their higher awaken costs.
From Beyond is a Scion version of Awakening Zone, a powerful recurring token generator. Though it costs one more mana, it produces 1/1 tokens instead of 0/1s, and it has a built-in tutoring effect that can be used to find your huge Eldrazi when enough Scions have been mustered to summon them.
Void Attendant is another particularly interesting one. It's a processor, so it utilizes opposing exiled cards. However, unlike most of the previously-seen processors, it does so as part of an activated ability instead of only once. There are several other processors who do this for various effects as well, such as Cryptic Cruiser taps creatures and Oracle of Dust loots, but Void Attendant's ability is possibly the strongest, as it allows you to bank mana to ramp. These effects can be particularly powerful in Commander, for several reasons:

• You can choose cards that have been exiled by effects like Oblivion Ring or Tidehollow Sculler, ensuring that the exiled cards do not return when the cards causing the exile effect are removed. This interaction is potentially powerful enough to warrant attention in other formats. A turn two Sculler into a turn three Wasteland Strangler is a powerful start in Modern, for example.
• You can choose cards that have been exiled by "until end of turn" effects like Roon of the Hidden Realm, Astral Slide, or Mistmeadow Witch to ensure that those cards never return.
• You can return cards that have been exiled by The Mimeoplasm, Wrexial, the Risen Deep, Diluvian Primordial, or similar in order to take advantage of them again.
• You can return cards for your effects like Scavenging Ooze and Night Soil to exile again.
• You can utilize effects like Rest in Peace, Anafenza, the Foremost, Leyline of the Void, or Planar Void to repeatedly activate cards like Void Attendant
• You can return cards that an opponent has exiled to give them access to those cards again for political reasons.

The other four remaining mythic rares belong to the Zendikar faction.
Drana, Liberator of Malakir is a powerful three-drop vampire that can be used to boost your entire army on every swing. Her cost and base stats are reminiscent of Vampire Nighthawk, but rather than lifelink and deathtouch, she has first strike and the ability to put a +1/+1 counter on each attacking creature. Note that due to the way the combat step works, this means that all of your non-First Strike creatures will get a counter before they deal their combat damage, so they will deal increased damage. She's a powerful option for Standard aggressive decks, or for Commander decks with a Tokens or Tribal theme.
Quarantine Field is a strong scalable Oblivion Ring effect. While it costs more than the Ring to exile a single permanent, the cost of exiling two permanents is the same as casting two Oblivion Rings, and the cost of exiling three is cheaper than three Rings. This is a powerful tool for removing opposing threats, and can be combined with Eldrazi Processors to make sure that those threats stay removed.
Part the Waterveil is a Time Warp effect, for six mana and with an exile clause. The exile clause is common on Time Warps in modern design to prevent infinite combos, and the cost is reasonable when compared to recent Warps like Temporal Trespass and Temporal Mastery. The icing on the cake, however, is the awaken ability. For nine mana, it creates a 6/6 creature and then gives you the opportunity to attack with it right away on your extra turn. And for ten mana, you can target your untapped land, attack right away, and then untap and attack again, landing a whopping 12 damage out of nowhere.
Dragonmaster Outcast is the final mythic rare of the set, and it's a reprint, demonstrating the new reprint philosophy in the two-block paradigm. Due to his previously high cost for a casual card, Outcast becoming more available is a boon to casual players.

Awaken gets some goodies besides just the Time Warp. Scatter to the Winds is a Cancel with an awaken mode, and Clutch of Currents is a sorcery Unsummon with an awaken mode. Combined with existing powerful control cards with awaken like Hero's Downfall, a wrath, and a draw spell, it is very possible to make a control deck in Battle for Zendikar-era Standard that runs the usual slew of utility and removal spells that all turn into threats when the game goes long.
Halimar Tidecaller provides a decent supplement to awaken strategies, both Archaeomancering a used awaken card and bolstering any lands that have been awakened by granting them flying. While this is likely not strong enough for Standard, it is a definite strategy available in Limited.
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper does not himself have awaken, but he effectively staples awaken 3 onto every instant or sorcery you cast. This is a potentially very powerful tool in Commander, where three spell casts can turn Inkmoth Nexus into a one-shot threat, or counters can be dumped repeatedly onto the indestructible Darksteel Citadel.

Landfall has also gotten several exciting tools.
Emeria Shepherd is quite possibly the most exciting landfall card in the entire set. She's part of the cycle that Guardian of Tazeem started, along with the largely underwhelming Oran-Rief Hydra and Akoum Hellkite. Unlike those, however, the Shepherd is extremely exciting. Any land entering allows the controller to Nature's Spiral any nonland, and if the land played was a plains, instead it's an Obzedat's Aid. This has a lot of powerful implications, such as targeting a Sakura-Tribe Elder allows you to put every basic Plains in your deck into play. Targeting Solemn Simulacrum or Kor Cartographer with a sacrifice outlet allows this as well. Sun Titan plus a fetchland allows for multiple return triggers, which is an interaction that could feasibly see play in the Sun Titan/Emeria, the Sky Ruin UW control deck in Modern.
Guul Draz Overseer is the last card of that cycle, and while it isn't as exciting as the Angel, it's a powerful tool for Commander deck running tokens or swarms of creatures.
The other landfall cycle of interest is the Retreats.
Retreat to Coralhelm is the one with the most potential. When combined with Knight of the Reliquary, it allows you to repeatedly activate the Knight, sacrificing a Plains or Forest to tutor for any land, which then untaps the Knight. This can quickly assemble Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage, or simply power a ton of lands into the graveyard, ending on Kessig Wolf Run, Soaring Seacliff, and/or Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion to swing with a lethal Knight.
Retreat to Hagra seems most useful in a multiplayer environment like Commander, as every land played can drain the entire table. It also plays particularly well with fetchlands and other ways of triggering landfall at instant speed, where its +1/+0 and deathtouch mode can be used to ambush and kill a blocking or blocked creature.
Retreat to Valakut is interesting because the two modes are exactly the triggers on Teetering Peaks and Smoldering Spires. In a deck that can trigger landfall many multiple times in one turn, via Scapeshift, Boundless Realms, or similar, this can easily make for a lethal attacker with nobody allowed to block.


Rally gets a few final gems as well.
Munda, Ambush Leader provides a Goblin Ringleader-esque trigger each time an Ally enters. Though he does not put the card into hand, he provides great later-game filtering, making it so basically every draw is an Ally that will then set up the next one. If a Standard Allies deck functions, it will be with him at its helm.
Chasm Guide is a very strong card for Limited purposes. With many of the non-Eldrazi creatures having incidental Ally creature types, the Guide functions as a powerful haste enabler.
Grovetender Druids is another cornerstone Limited card. Their Rrally trigger generates Plant tokens. While this may not seem immediately exciting, do note that with rally generally affecting all creatures you control, these Plants will also benefit from the bonuses you dish out.


And that's Battle for Zendikar! Join us in our New Card Discussion subforum to discuss your favorite cards and prepare yourself for the prerelease this coming weekend!