It’s everyone’s favorite time of year: new set season! And as usual, I will be doing a Type 4
review/first impressions, this time for Battle for Zendikar. Original Zendikar was when I started playing
Type 4, so how does the sequel help out my favorite format? Let’s find out!
Bane of Bala Ged: A decent sized body with a very powerful
trigger on attacking, Bane is pretty good in lower power stacks where the focus
is on the big dudes. He’ll rarely be the
largest creature, but his ability helps balance that out, forcing them to have
multiple permanents to be able to block him.
Breaker of Armies: Forces dumb utility guys to block, so
that’s something. Also is really
big. Another good guy for lower power
stacks, and new stacks will love him at uncommon.
Conduit of Ruin: He searches, which is a no-no in my book,
has a small body, and can only get colorless dudes. Sure, you can find a Eldrazi Titan and go
nuts, but he’s still meh. Gets funnier
when you’re playing with shared library, but that just takes forever to search
anyway, so no go for me.
Desolation Twin: 20 power spread across 2 bodies lets you
threaten multiple players at once. Very
powerful, and will likely be pretty dang fun.
Eldrazi Devastator: A generic big dumb guy for beginning
stacks or lower power ones. If you run
8/8 vanilla he’s obviously better.
Endless One: An infinite/infinite when he enters the
battlefield is a pretty neat thing for the infinity stack (the variant of Type
4 where you can play with fireballs and firebreathers). Not for my stack, but someone will like this
guy.
Ruin Processor: A really big dumb guy, see above for my
thoughts on these.
Scour from Existence: Instant speed, colorless,
non-conditional removal that kills anything?
Pretty awesome. Auto-include in
most stacks.
Titan’s Presence: You need to have a high powered colorless
creature, and only then do you get a removal spell. Scour is just miles ahead of this.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: The big indestructible daddy
is back, and he’s possibly scarier this time.
Ok, not really, annihilator is insane, but exiling 2 permanents on cast
is no joke. His attack clause is also a
real threat in draft games with 40-odd card decks. He kills in 2 swings, block or not.
Void Winnower: I have
no idea how disruptive his abilities are, but his body is fine and preventing
casting some spells has to be good. Try
him out if you can get him.
Cliffside Lookout: Another card for infinity stacks, this
gal spreads wide and tall, buffing your team along with herself. Seems fine.
Emeria Shepherd: Obviously, landfall is real hard in Type
4. There are some, true, but not nearly
enough to regularly get off these abilities, and never any plains for the
second part. If you want to errata
landfall cards to get their abilities every turn, that’s fine, I just don’t
like additional complications.
Felidar Sovereign: It is real hard to win with this guy
given the density and size of large men walking around, but the threat is
real. Reprint, but at rare this time, so
he’ll be easier to get.
Planar Outburst: A wrath, and you can occasionally get extra
value from it. Once again, feel free to
errata the card so you always have a land for the awaken. Even without it the card is good.
Quarantine Field: A wrath for everything your opponents
control. Very, very powerful
effect. The fact that they can get their
stuff back is not the best, but still fine stuff.
Smite the Monstrous: reprint of common removal for big
guys. Not unplayable.
Stasis Snare: Worse than quarantine field, but you can’t
compare everything to god tier removal and this is fine for dealing with most
guys.
Horribly Awry: Conditional counterspell, but it exiles which
is nice. Never bad to have more
countermagic, especially for the big dumb stuff.
Part the Waterveil: Extra turn effect, with the possibility
of upside, and guaranteed if you errata it.
Much better than most effects like this, but still not the best.
Prism array: Only play this in the infinite stack, because
the repeatable scry 3 allows you stack your deck at instant speed. Plus the crystal counters tap firebreathers.
Scatter to the Winds: A counterspell with possible upside is
good enough for me. Playable is almost
every stack, though it might be expensive (because it’s rare and that is
stupid)
Ugin’s Insight: This draws 3 cards at minimum, and all you
need is something that costs 3 to get a pretty good value. Anything above that is just gravy and can
turn this into a sorcery speed dig through time with more cards.
Grip of Desolation: Kills stuff, and kills it dead. Deader than dead, to be precise. Generic removal that is slightly better than
average due to the exiling rather than destroy.
Hagra Sharpshooter: Been a while since we had a new one of
these guys. Kills anything that you
want, and does it in a way that dodges indestructible. Very good card, playable in many stacks.
Ob Nixilis Reignited: Interesting guy here, Planeswalkers
don’t have the longest life in Type 4 but all his abilities are pretty
good. Try him out if you’ve got one.
Barrage Tyrant: Very similar to Bosh, but bosh has a better
body, can sacrifice any artifact, and is a giant robot. Not a really good card, but not trash.
Dragonmaster Outcast: I’d play with errata for this guy,
because 5/5s every turn are pretty sweet.
Turn Against: This type of effect is always welcome at
instant. Act of Aggression is a good
card, and I expect nothing less from a version that dodges protection from red.
From Beyond: if you like searching your deck for large
dudes, this is the card for you. If not,
avoid this because making a 1/1 every turn isn’t worth it.
Greenwarden of Murasa: Double eternal witness is pretty
good, so play this and let it die and get exiled so you can replay your Dig
Through Time for the 3rd time.
Plated Crusher: A perfectly fine body for a newer stack,
trample and hexproof is really good with equipment.
Sylvan Scrying: Finds
you a card that you can immediately play, if you don’t mind searching yada
yada. There’s a lot of really busto
lands so this can be a good Demonic Tutor analogue.
Bring to Light: I don’t
know what you do with this card, but it’s probably busted. I’ll be avoiding, but it looks more
entertaining than most tutors.
Brutal Expulsion: A way to put a pause on uncounterable
spells, and some free damage that exiles their stupid utility dude (Read: Azorius
Guildmage). Not flashy but veterans of the format will recognize the power that
not-countering has.
Fathom Feeder: Now while you draw your deck, you exile everyone
else's! Infinity stack only.
Aligned Hedron Network: This is basically a wrath that
sticks around on the board that spares utility dudes. Probably playable, but I’m not a big fan, as
even if I keep my little guys all it takes is a naturalize for them to get
their large ones back.
Blighted Cataract: It’s free card draw. There is nothing not to like about this, it
not only replaces itself but gets you another card. Unless you need to keep your stack to a
certain number, slam this in all day.
Blighted Fen: See above: free stuff is best stuff. In this case it’s removal. Yet another card with nothing to not
love. Sure, you can’t target specific
creatures, but it dodges shroud and indestructible when they only have one guy.
And that wraps up this edition of Type 4 set review! Battle for Zendikar looks like it provides a
lot of 2 things: Good removal and things you want to remove. All in all, the best card might end up being
Blighted Cataract, as I’ve played Inspiration and this is just so much better. Hope you enjoyed!
