In this experiment, we retreat and use our amulet and the sun to fertilize Kazandu.

Battle for Zendikar is coming, and more and more previews are starting to arise. However, for today, I want to featuring another of the BFZ cards we have access to by way of Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. Eldrazi.

At first glance, this card gives us some cute upsides for doing what we already want to do: playing lands. The question, of course, is whether it’s worth the expenditure of 3 mana and a card to gain access to those abilities from that point forward. On turn three, it might not be so bad—it’s even not awful on turn four if we follow up with a land, immediately putting a +1/+1 counter on our 1-, 2-, or 3-drop creature and setting ourselves up to repeat that trigger many more times over the course of the rest of the game.

Making our creatures beefier is always nice, but we won’t always have a land, and +1/+1 isn’t always that big. The option of 2 life is nice, but it’s almost certainly weaker than a +1/+1 counter, even if it is essentially a doubled Lifegift (that only counters our own lands).

As a combo-oriented thinker, however, I had to wonder: If I can turn a land into a +1/+1 counter, can I turn a +1/+1 counter into a land? If so, maybe we can repeat the process a bunch of times and find a way to benefit from that.

Fortunately for us, we can turn +1/+1 counters into lands:

Naturally, there are a couple roadblocks. In order to turn our counter into a land, we’ll have to pay 2 mana. Now, our land will make us mana—that’s what lands do—but Fertilid puts it onto the battlefield, so we’ll have to untap it. Amulet of Vigor can do that. But that’s only 1 mana, and we need 2. Caged Sun can fix that, and it also has the upside of giving Fertilid +1/+1, meaning we can remove its last counter to start our combo. (Otherwise, it would die as a 0/0 before the land it fetched hit the battlefield for Retreat to Kazandu to put the counter back.)

There are a lot more options here, but the ones I mentioned are the ones you’ll see in the decklist below. Gauntlet of Might, Extraplanar Lens, and others could do the mana-doubling work. Lotus Cobra could also work great here as an alternative to doubling our mana. With a Cobra, we could just use the free mana and the land’s own mana (after untapping it with Amulet of Vigor). With two Cobras, we don’t even need the Amulet. So if you have a bigger budget and want a more combo-oriented build, try those.

In addition to Caged Sun, we’ll be using a couple copies of Vernal Bloom just so our combo isn’t relegated to the late game. A nice sequence might be a turn-one Amulet of Vigor, a turn-three Fertilid, a turn-four Retreat to Kazandu, pumping Fertilid, and a turn-five Vernal Bloom, with us putting the rest of our lands onto the battlefield thereafter.

Then again, we may want to wait on pulling the trigger.

Landfalling

Vinelasher Kudzu — This is an adorable little 1/1 for 2, but it can quickly grow out of control. It lets our deck be a little more solid when we don’t assemble a combo, and it can also kill an opponent when we do. With all the cards we have revolving around fetching lands, the Kudzu should be able to grow reasonably large. And when our combo goes off, the Kudzu can be a game-ending threat all set up and ready. Oh, and since our combo can be performed at instant speed, it might be fun to go off after our unsuspecting opponent has decided to let the Kudzu go unblocked.

Rampaging Baloths — A 6/6 for 6 is nice, and if this is on the battlefield when we put all the rest of our lands onto the battlefield, we’ll have a heck of a lot of 4/4s. Unfortunately, they’ll have summoning sickness.

Oran-Rief Hydra — This previewed Battle for Zendikar card gets -1/-1 compared to the Baloths above, but it can become mighty-large with Forest landfall. And the trample means, on the turn we go off, if this was in play already, we should be able to defeat an opponent. Thirty or so +1/+1 counters is a lot.

Baru, Fist of Krosa — And here’s our hidden-gem all-star! One of Future Sight’s grandeur legends, Baru hasn’t had a lot of spotlight time due to the fact that the most popular casual format, Commander, doesn’t highlight his unique skills. Sure, you could pump your creatures with your Forests, but you’re probably not running that many lands with the particular subtype. And activating grandeur requires all kinds of hoop-jumping that, frankly, isn’t worth it. Here, though, both abilities are great. If Baru’s in play when we go off, we should be able to kill an opponent for each creature we have (with our odds increased in duels), and if we draw an extra copy later, we can take advantage of all the lands we’ve played by making 22/22 Wurms.

Support and Plan B

Plan B is not assembling the combo, which is pretty likely when it requires four cards. Fortunately, all the cards, sans Amulet of Vigor, are reasonably solid. And the Amulet isn’t even that bad when we’re using other effects to put lands onto the battlefield tapped—or at least we might be able to find ways to make use of the little bits of extra mana.

Khalni Heart Expedition — In addition to being a kind of incestuous Explosive Vegetation, with Retreat to Kazandu around, this works as an instant-speed bolster 2.

Sakura-Tribe Elder — Everyone already knows the power of the Elder. He’s a chump-blocking Rampant Growth, and he’ll help us accelerate to Vernal Bloom or Caged Sun.

Ondu Giant — With Sakura-Tribe Elder as our 2-drop accelerator, he can lead right into a 4-mana accelerator, so Ondu Giant fits the bill. As a bonus, he makes for a reasonable blocker and is on-theme with some of this Zendikar flavor.

Kazandilid ? Casual | Andrew Wilson

• Creatures (23)
• 2 Oran-Rief Hydra
• 2 Rampaging Baloths
• 3 Ondu Giant
• 4 Fertilid
• 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 4 Vinelasher Kudzu
• 4 Baru, Fist of Krosa

• Spells (15)
• 2 Khalni Heart Expedition
• 2 Vernal Bloom
• 4 Retreat to Kazandu
• 3 Amulet of Vigor
• 4 Caged Sun

• Lands (22)
• 22 Forest

Buy This Deck

Before we go, let’s make sure to cover how to actually perform the combo. Let’s assume the earlier example: “A nice sequence might be a turn-one Amulet of Vigor, a turn-three Fertilid, a turn-four Retreat to Kazandu, pumping Fertilid, and a turn-five Vernal Bloom, with us putting the rest of our lands onto the battlefield thereafter.” We’ll throw in a Vinelasher Kudzu for good measure.

Turn two: Forest, Vinelasher Kudzu (no counters, 1/1)

Turn three: Forest, trigger Vinelasher Kudzu (one counter, 2/2), Fertilid (two counters, 2/2)

Turn four: Retreat to Kazandu, Forest, trigger Retreat targeting Fertilid (three counters, 3/3), trigger Vinelasher Kudzu (two counters, 3/3)

Turn five: Forest, trigger Retreat targeting Fertilid (four counters, 4/4), trigger Vinelasher Kudzu (three counters, 4/4), Vernal Bloom. Tap Forest to activate Fertilid (three counters, 3/3), putting a Forest from our library onto the battlefield, triggering Retreat targeting Fertilid (four counters, 4/4) and Vinelasher Kudzu (four counters, 5/5) and Amulet of Vigor, untapping the Forest. Repeat the previous sentence and this one with the newly untapped Forest until there are no Forests remaining to fetch.

In this circumstance, we’re kind of all-in on the Kudzu, but we could hedge our bets and only put a few lands into play—maybe just enough to hit for 10. That way, if our opponent has a removal spell we don’t expect, we won’t render our other landfall cards useless. And if our opponent has a blocker, the Kudzu only needs to be 1/1 bigger. If it goes unblocked, we can activate the Fertilid more.

So if you love landfall, if you need a non-Modern use for your Amulets, or if you just missed Baru, give this deck a try.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com