Zendikar is indeed rising, and with the set almost fully spoiled, I wanted to go over some of my first impressions of the set. There are some cards that I think are fantastic, and there are some cards that I think are just horrendous, but that's pretty much par for the course for any Magic set. Every single spoiler season you have two people. The one dude who says a card is "utterly unplayable garbage," and another dude who says "this card is broken, what was WotC thinking?" And they're always talking about the same card.

So, this week I'd love to talk about a few stand out cards or cycles, and I would love to know what you guys think down in the comments below.

Wayward Guide-Beast

Let's all be clear about something: I'm not a Red mage. We should all be aware of this by now. I say this because it means that I may not be able to gauge Red cards as adequately or accurately as, say, someone like Patrick Sullivan. That being said, this card seems utterly terrible. I can only imagine that, as a 2/2 "Guide" with haste for one mana, this was trying to emulate or coexist with Goblin Guide, but boy does this card seem utterly unplayable.

I don't call a card unplayable lightly, but when exactly do you want to start attacking with this? If you attack with it on turn one, you're basically Strip Mining yourself, which is terrible. If you attack with it every turn, I don't even know how you'll cast any spell over one mana. Like, the series of events is as so:

Turn one: Attack, return your land. (0 lands in play)

Turn two: Attack, play your land for the turn. (1 land in play)

Turn three: Play a land, cast a 2-drop, attack OR cast a 1-drop, attack, play land, cast another 1-drop. (1 land in play)

The card just never lets you get ahead unless you decline attacking, and I can't even imagine drawing this card in multiples. Do you ever want to be attacking with two of these in the same turn? Or for multiple turns in a row.

All that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Red deck just aggressive enough to not care about this drawback, and I'm sure I will lose to it over and over if it exists.

(Keep in mind I'm referring exclusively to Standard here. When it comes to an archetype like Modern Burn, all bets are off.)

Cragplate Baloth

I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember playing against Green cards like Gaea's Revenge, but this feels a lot like an improved Gaea's Revenge, which is to say it could be very good. While it's only a 6/6 instead of an 8/5, this card is almost certainly going to join the pantheon of troublesome Green creatures like Questing Beast and Shifting Ceratops. While seven mana is a lot, hexproof is something that neither of the two 4-drops can offer, and Questing Beast can certainly be countered. The only thing this card is missing is trample, since when you kick it into a massive 10/10, the last thing you want is for it to get chump blocked all day.

Nevertheless, I see this card providing quite the headache for control decks that don't have chump blockers. They can't kill it or counter it outside of a sweeper, and by that point, the damage is already done. Compare this card to Carnage Tyrant, which did cost one less but didn't have haste (so a wash) and couldn't kick itself into a 10/10.

Emeria's Call, Turntimber Symbiosis, etc.

These comprise the mythic cycle of the double-faced land cards, which are, in my opinion, amazing. One of my biggest issues with Magic, perhaps my only real issue with the game, is with its resource system. I don't find a ton of value in the "mana screw/flood allows the newest player to beat the most experienced pro" line. I personally don't think there's any real value in a win like that, and I think that the amount of games that are lost to these resource factors are significantly more miserable for the loser than how enjoyable they are for the winner.

I think the entire cycle, all of the cycles, of the double-faced lands are brilliant, and I cannot wait to play with them. Obviously, some are going to be misses, and not as good as others, but the implication of these lands is huge. There's nothing worse in my opinion (as you can imagine) than drawing too few lands in your opening hand or too many lands in the late game. When your lands/spells have the potential to act as either, this risk has the potential to be mitigated tremendously.

I've heard a lot of people bemoaning how bad Emeria's Call is, which seems really weird, because it's virtually a free spell. Not in terms of mana cost, but in terms of deck-building cost. If you were going to run any number of Plains in your deck, it is a very easy consideration to be playing that number of Emeria's Call instead. While the three life to put the land into play untapped isn't nothing, I also want you to remember that the Ravnica shock lands are rotating out of Standard, and thus, will not be there to also cost us life loss. These lands will currently be the only lands in Standard to shock us, or in this case, bolt us. The shock lands leaving the format also frees us a tremendous amount of mana base space, so finding room for these shouldn't be an issue.

My main comparison for this card was something like Castle Ardenvale. It's a land that will sometimes come into play tapped and it's a card that produces threats in the late game. An activation of Castle Ardenvale has a cost of five lands, and you get a 1/1 out of it. For two more mana, this will give you two 4/4s and a turn partially free from board wipes or removal. I don't think it's some end-all, be-all broken bomb, but it also doesn't have to be. It is a card that you play within your mana base, that will occasionally win you the game, and that's good enough, I think.

Inscription of Insight, Inscription of Abundance, etc.

This is another cycle in the set - at least I think it is; it's hard to be sure since we only have six of the Pathway double-faced lands - and I like it a lot. Modal cards are some of my favorites in Magic (definitely looking at you, Cryptic Command and Mystic Confluence), and the fact that you can choose all the modes on these if you kick them is pretty sweet.

While I do wish they were all instants, I understand that might not be reasonable, especially given some of the modes. Thankfully, a lot of the modes are appropriately costed for their abilities, like Inscription of Ruin costing for "Mind Rot," or Inscription of Insight costing for "Inspiration." You've basically paying the same rate for these as whatever their counterpart would be, with the added bonus of getting to choose from three options, or kicking them and choosing all possible options.

At least some of these should definitely be format staples, depending on what the White and the Red ones do, but I think all three of the Sultai-based Inscriptions have a ton of potential and versatility.

Canyon Jerboa

This card isn't anything special, although it will be great in Limited. I just wanted to point out that it's Magic's first ever mouse creature type, and that's pretty cool (and cute).

Guys, that's it for now, but keep your eyes peeled for my Twitch/YouTube Set Review that I'll be doing with my buddy Rob. It should be coming up once all of the cards have been revealed. As I said earlier, I would love to hear what you guys think about the cards I mentioned, or any of the cards in Zendikar Rising. What are some of your favorites? How do you think double-faced lands will impact deck-building? Let me know with those comments down below. As always, I hope you guys are staying safe, I love you, use promo code FRANK5 for 5% off, and I'll catch you next week!

Frank Lepore

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