Zacama, Primal Calamity 6RGW
Legendary Creature - Elder Dinosaur
Vigilance, reach, trample
When Zacama, Primal Calamity enters the battlefield, if you cast it, untap all lands you control. 2R: Zacama deals 3 damage to target creature. 2G: Destroy target artifact or enchantment. 2W: You gain 3 life.
9/9
Well damn...those abilities are actually great. If your opponent can't counter or kill it, he's shutting games down. I expected trash. Was pleasantly surprised.
I am super disappointed. For 9 mana and 3 colors, this doesn’t do nearly enough imo. Useless im Standard, super expensive in limited, and even for EDH I feel there are far better options. Pretty bummed and underwhelmed ;/
Don't know how I feel about this...No protection, can be countered...then again, just getting it on the board lets you untap ALL lands, not just the nine you used to cast it.
If you can get it to stick around, those abilities are amazing, especially considering you should have tons of mana open the turn you cast it if it resolved.
Just because the Eldrazi had cast triggers doesn't mean this should. If this didn't have that stupid cast trigger, it would be tried in standard definitely.
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"The essence of every world, every spell and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
The template of "if you cast it" instead of "if you cast it from your hand" is rather neat. I seems rather odd to me that they just printed Wakening Sun's Avatar using the old template of "from your hand". A quick gatherer search showed me this template is new, so why do it mid-block?
This is pretty nice with effects like delay, hostage taker, dead man's chest, etc
So are these elder dinosaurs the "end of the world" thing that the Ixalan stories kept referencing?
Like, are these elder dinos gonna show up and wreck everyone?
The template of "if you cast it" instead of "if you cast it from your hand" is rather neat. I seems rather odd to me that they just printed Wakening Sun's Avatar using the old template of "from your hand". A quick gatherer search showed me this template is new, so why do it mid-block?
Commander. They wanted Zacama to untap lands even if he's cast from the command zone. That distinction would not be relevant on a nonlegendary creature like Wakening Sun's Avatar.
Just because the Eldrazi had cast triggers doesn't mean this should. If this didn't have that stupid cast trigger, it would be tried in standard definitely.
If it didn't have the cast trigger, and simply untapped all your lands every time it ETBed, then it would be the penultimate reanimation target, plus a million different infinite mana issues.
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Level 1 Judge
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
The template of "if you cast it" instead of "if you cast it from your hand" is rather neat. I seems rather odd to me that they just printed Wakening Sun's Avatar using the old template of "from your hand". A quick gatherer search showed me this template is new, so why do it mid-block?
Commander. They wanted Zacama to untap lands even if he's cast from the command zone. That distinction would not be relevant on a nonlegendary creature like Wakening Sun's Avatar.
Good point. But I like the spillover effect on the various cast from graveyard/exile effects, they should do it more often, although maybe their issue is that its less grokkable. Are there any corner case casting-from-bin that would be scary to development? I can't imagine any.
I guess the reason for bothering with an intervening 'if' clause instead of just making it an on-cast trigger like eldrazi here is that it gives opportunity for counters / instant removal which they didn't want going too nutty, since even without a counterspell to prevent the lands from untapping, you can still respond with any plain old vraska's contempt while the trigger is on the stack and kill the Triclopsosaurus before it can activate its abilities, whereas if it was on casting you'd have that mana open to hold priority and use them or respond to removal
Just because the Eldrazi had cast triggers doesn't mean this should. If this didn't have that stupid cast trigger, it would be tried in standard definitely.
Other than the fact that Wizards didn't want to enable degenerate reanimation combos, this isn't a cast trigger, rendering you comparison to Eldrazi moot. It's an ETB-if-cast trigger, WoTC's premiere method of balancing powerful ETB triggers on expensive creatures since Hypnox, though most famously featured on Reiver Demon.
I get why he has a Cast trigger, since it'd be easily infinite otherwise, but man does that make him bad in Gishath, Sun's Avatar since he's just a big dumb french vanilla. I mean, I guess you can still use his abilities but his abilities are pretty low impact in EDH.
I'll still play him in Gishath or as a different sort of dino commander, but he is underwhelming.
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Sufferer of EDHD
Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I get why he has a Cast trigger, since it'd be easily infinite otherwise, but man does that make him bad in Gishath, Sun's Avatar since he's just a big dumb french vanilla. I mean, I guess you can still use his abilities but his abilities are pretty low impact in EDH.
I'll still play him in Gishath or as a different sort of dino commander, but he is underwhelming.
I get why he has a Cast trigger, since it'd be easily infinite otherwise, but man does that make him bad in Gishath, Sun's Avatar since he's just a big dumb french vanilla. I mean, I guess you can still use his abilities but his abilities are pretty low impact in EDH.
I'll still play him in Gishath or as a different sort of dino commander, but he is underwhelming.
*jaw drops*
Did you even read the card?
He's just big. We get lots of big deadly creatures. Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Zetalpa, Primal Dawn already covered my excitement for massive bomb dinosaurs to WTF-pwn my opponents with.
The abilities feel low impact because in Gishath you're probably running Aura Shards which means you don't need his green ability. His white ability is near-useless. The red one will likely require 2-3 activation to kill any relevant threats, and while reasonably cool is overall a big investment to snipe one creature.
If you could get untaps with him off of Gishath, that'd be exciting, but as it stands he'll just be another fat monster.
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Sufferer of EDHD
Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Zacama, Primal Calamity 6RGW
Legendary Creature - Elder Dinosaur
Vigilance, reach, trample
When Zacama, Primal Calamity enters the battlefield, if you cast it, untap all lands you control.
2R: Zacama deals 3 damage to target creature.
2G: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
2W: You gain 3 life.
9/9
Vigilance, reach, trample
When ~ enters the battlefield, if you cast it, untap all lands you control.
2R: Zacama deals 3 damage to target creature
2G: Naturalize
2W: You gain 3 life
9/9 for 6RGW
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
UW Azorius Control
Modern
UW Azorius Control
If you can get it to stick around, those abilities are amazing, especially considering you should have tons of mana open the turn you cast it if it resolved.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Creature removal
Artifact or Enchantment removal
And even life gain
And untap your lands
Only thing bad is it needs protection and protection from counter spells
This is pretty nice with effects like delay, hostage taker, dead man's chest, etc
Like, are these elder dinos gonna show up and wreck everyone?
All fun aside, this is a great big beefy guy. Love it.
My Peasant Cube - CubeCobra
Commander. They wanted Zacama to untap lands even if he's cast from the command zone. That distinction would not be relevant on a nonlegendary creature like Wakening Sun's Avatar.
If it didn't have the cast trigger, and simply untapped all your lands every time it ETBed, then it would be the penultimate reanimation target, plus a million different infinite mana issues.
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
Good point. But I like the spillover effect on the various cast from graveyard/exile effects, they should do it more often, although maybe their issue is that its less grokkable. Are there any corner case casting-from-bin that would be scary to development? I can't imagine any.
I guess the reason for bothering with an intervening 'if' clause instead of just making it an on-cast trigger like eldrazi here is that it gives opportunity for counters / instant removal which they didn't want going too nutty, since even without a counterspell to prevent the lands from untapping, you can still respond with any plain old vraska's contempt while the trigger is on the stack and kill the Triclopsosaurus before it can activate its abilities, whereas if it was on casting you'd have that mana open to hold priority and use them or respond to removal
Other than the fact that Wizards didn't want to enable degenerate reanimation combos, this isn't a cast trigger, rendering you comparison to Eldrazi moot. It's an ETB-if-cast trigger, WoTC's premiere method of balancing powerful ETB triggers on expensive creatures since Hypnox, though most famously featured on Reiver Demon.
I'll still play him in Gishath or as a different sort of dino commander, but he is underwhelming.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
*jaw drops*
Did you even read the card?
He's just big. We get lots of big deadly creatures. Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Zetalpa, Primal Dawn already covered my excitement for massive bomb dinosaurs to WTF-pwn my opponents with.
The abilities feel low impact because in Gishath you're probably running Aura Shards which means you don't need his green ability. His white ability is near-useless. The red one will likely require 2-3 activation to kill any relevant threats, and while reasonably cool is overall a big investment to snipe one creature.
If you could get untaps with him off of Gishath, that'd be exciting, but as it stands he'll just be another fat monster.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
It feels like the white or red one get you more instead of 3 wee Swiss army knife abilities. Or hell just cast Gisath instead?
I think the best thing about it is the 9 mana to repeatedly do 3 to the board but... meh...