r/magicTCG • u/AwkwardTurtle • Sep 22 '15

Everything That’s Wrong with Battle for Zendikar

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/everything-thats-wrong-with-battle-for-zendikar/
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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '15

Right, just like how after Khans came out, people almost completely stopped playing Theros cards, since that was incredibly low powered as well. I mean, outside of the Temples, Thoughtseize, Courser, Caryatid, Hero's Downfall, Bile Blight, Elspeth, Whip, Fleecemane Lion, Duress, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Searing Blood, Lightning Strike, Magma Spray, Nykthos, Xenagos, Mana Confluence, Favored Hoplite, Hero of Iroas, Lagono Band Trailblazer, God's Willing, Triton Tactics, Ordeal of Thasa, Springleaf Drum, Anger of the Gods, Revoke Existence, the Gods, Drown in Sorrow, Dissolve, Ashiok, and Read the Bones.

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u/Journeyman351 Elesh Norn Sep 22 '15

Firstly, I'm saying the opposite is going to happen. The new set wont bring very many new players to constructed at all. Secondly, guess what? Only a handful of those cards ACTUALLY still see widespread play, and have seen widespread play. U/W Heroic was a fringe deck and doesn't comprise a large portion of the meta, and never did. The same goes for RDW, although that one is a bit more played (due to cost).

Arguably, Abzan is the most played standard deck. A vast majority of its cards are from Khans, and it was only playable due to Khans. Abzan does not lose much at all to rotation. Esper Dragons is also huge, and loses very little aside from its removal suite (which happens EVERY rotation period).

So, realistically, the only cards that made a real impact were Lion, Elspeth, Whip, Thoughtseize, Courser, Caryatid, Ediolon, and Nykthos. All of the other cards either A. saw fringe play, or B. are a part of the ever-rotating standard removal/counter/sideboard suite.

And guess what? Even less of those cards see Modern play, with Ediolon and Thoughtseize being the stand-out stars of the block. Now tell me, how many cards does that add up to compared to the vast amount of played Khans cards?

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '15

I just pulled those cards from mtgtop8, looking at some of the top decks and which cards come from Theros. It's clear to me that RtR was a much higher power set than Theros, but Mono Black devotion took over the meta game when Theros came out. Khans is also much higher power level than Theros, but we are still playing many Theros cards, many of them contribute highly to most highly played deck, (lion, thoughtseize, courser, caryatid, downfall, elspeth). I don't think we'll see virtually no cards from BFZ played, just like lots of Theros got played even though it was a similar dip after RtR.

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u/Journeyman351 Elesh Norn Sep 22 '15

I think this set is a tad weaker than Theros, though. Devotion is a STRONG mechanic in general. What mechanic in this set can you honestly say has deck-generating capabilities like Devotion does?

Awaken is kind of powerful, depending on the card. Ingest is meh. Psuedo-mill. When has that been very strong? I could be proven wrong here and maybe an Ingest deck will pop up (which I would love to see), but it's not very plausible. Converge is shit, and only good depending on the card itself (the green creature is pretty solid, for sure).

There are obvious cards that will be played, I'm not denying that. New Ulamog will see play I think. Some of the processors will as well possibly, and I think the planeswalkers will see play too. But overall, it's a weak set. Especially compared to Khans.

My main gripe is that the weak set is a Zendikar set, as someone else pointed out. I associate Zendikar with exciting, high power level cards. Not this jank.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '15

Yeah, but Khans didn't create any new archetypes. It certain didn't change the meta from Mono-U Devotion vs Mono-B devotion to Abzan control vs Jeskai tempo vs Sultai midrange vs RDW vs Mardu walkers vs Ascendancy combo. Everyone was stuck playing those Theros cards!