Next week marks the official start of Zendikar preview week over at Wizards official Magic website. Players everywhere are dying to find out the Zendikar story and start getting a taste of the new cards. The official Zendikar mini siteis up and running, complete with the orb of insight. Other sites too offer offical spoilers, as many renound Magic websites have been given a preview card.
If you can’t wait or want more info, check out the unofficial spoilers sites such as MTG Salvation, where new cards are already being leaked. Beware, however, while usually accurate, not all cards are as spoiled.
So far, What has been spoiled, both officially and unofficially, makes Zendikar seem like a very interesting and mysterious place.
Once of the things that make the new set so intriguing is several new card types. A specific type of instant; trap, has already been officially spoiled. Played like regular instants, traps have a alternate mana cost if certain conditions are met, such as an opponent playing two or more ceatures during a turn.
Ally creature-type cards have also been seen in the unofficial annals. These cards have an additional type, ally, aside from their creature type. By the looks of it, ally cards affect other ally cards, such as adding plus one plus one counters to other ally cards, or recieving them if another ally enters play. It will be interesting to see what else they might do.
Quests will be making an apperance too, in the form of enchanments, according to some spoilers. These enchantments gain a “quest” counter when a certian condition, such as a creature going to the graveyard, which can be removed once they reach a certian count to produce an effect (along with the sacrifice of the enchantment).
These new enchantments, along with traps, just might add quite a bit of second-guessing and long-term planning to the game, if the corresponding cards are worth playing competitively. Chump blocking 1/1 tokens is a no-brainer; but what if the opponent can make a 5/5 zombie if you kill three of thier creatures?
It seems some new keywords, both officially spoiled, will be making an appearance too. Kicker, allows players to pay an additional cost to get an additional or boosted effect when playing a spell. This has been seen previously in the Invasion block on both creature and non-creature cards, some of which were very popular (Kavu Titan and Orim’s Chant). In some cases it gives a card early and late game relevance.
The Landfall keyword means a permanant has an effect triggered whenever a land is played by its controller. For example; Rampaging Baloths, an officially spoiled card, creates a 4/4 beast token whenever its controller plays a land. This mechanic has the potential to be very popular, as it rewards you for doing something you would normally do anyway; play the lands in your hand. It might also make late game land draws much less of a hinderance.
Another keyword, intimidate, has been seen as well. Creatures with intimidate may only be blocked by artifact creatures or creatures sharing a color with the beastie.
Several “tribes” appearing in Zendikar have also been revealed. It seems vampires will finally be getting a prominant place in a card set. Goblins (they seem to making a functional goblin lackey!) have also been seen on various cards, along with Merfolk. The Kor will be returning as well, though it isn’t know whether they will retain their damage-shunting abilities.
Planeswalkers are back, as most of us know already. Two of them; Sorin Markov and Chandra, Ablaze have already been officially spoiled and can be found in various places. Nissa Revane is the only one remaning in secrecy, though many feel the mono-colored nature of her fellows betray her color as well.
As far as the storyline of the set is concerned, from what I can tell so far, Zendikar is a plane of high adventure. It seems from what has been revealed, exploration and relic hunting is the name of the game. Pictures of swarthy adventures covered in gear (lots and lots of grappling equipment; perfect for all of those flying island things) abound.
Zendikar looks to me like the most unique set to come out in awhile. Some may not like this idea, but I’m looking forward to new things in the realm of magic.
The Game I Hate 