As Mark Rosewater announced "we return to a Zendikar without Eldrazi and revisit the adventure world players fell in love with."[7] It is a "land set" in the sense of the sets of the first Zendikar block, and all about adventure, exploration and reward.
Zendikar Rising contains 280 regular cards (101 commons, 80 uncommons, 64 rares, 20 mythic rares, 15 basic lands) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. Cards with alternate card frames have another card number than the original version. Like all previous Zendikar sets, Zendikar Rising features full-artbasic lands (#266-280).[8]Borderless planeswalkers are numbered #281-283, borderless pathways are #284-289, showcase cards are numbered #290-313, extended artwork cards are numbered #314-379, and regular frame lands are numbered #380-384. The (non-exclusive)[9]Buy-a-Box is #385, and the Bundle promo is numbered #386. Finally there are the FNM-treatment cards from the Universal promo pack numbered #387-391. Both regular and foil versions of the cards above #280 may be found in the Collector Boosters.
The Showcase cards are connected to Landfall mechanic.[10] The card frame is themed around Zendikar’s hedrons, and the art style is intended to imitate bright-colored Travel Posters. The set features no new planeswalkers. The returning planeswalkers are Jace, Nissa, and Nahiri.[8] Starting with Zendikar Rising, the mythic rares are changing their rate of drop. In the past, 1 in every 8 rares was a mythic rare. That is changed so that 1 in every 7.4 rares will be a mythic rare.[11] Equivalently, this is an increased chance, from 37 in 296 packs previously, to 40 in 296 packs now. Draft boosters have a dedicated MDFC slot.
Storyline
Zendikar is a dangerous world of lethal risks where brave adventurers delve into ancient ruins in search of priceless rewards.[12] The storyline features no Eldrazi but we see the ruin they have caused. From the perspective of its inhabitants, it is a hostile place that seems to be actively trying to kill the creatures that have the audacity to live there. The danger is unrelenting: precarious terrain, cunning predators, natural disasters on a massive scale, and the still continuing Roil — the unpredictable ripples of change that wash through the land — all present a constant challenge to survival. Nahiri has returned to Zendikar, and is willing to do anything to get rid of the Roil. Nissa has also returned home, but for reasons of her own.
The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in Zendikar Rising are:
Zendikar Rising introduced Set Boosters.[11] These are targeted to players that are not interested in Draft or Limited, and sell for a slightly higher price than Draft Boosters. Each pack comes with fourteen objects, twelve of which are Magic cards.
In 25% of the Set Boosters, cards of "The List" can be found instead of a marketing card.[11] The List is a changing catalogue of 300 cards from older sets. These are not Standard legal. In addition, in 5% of the Set Boosters, the marketing card is replaced by a minigame card.[14]
Similar to the original ZendikarPriceless Treasures and Zendikar Expeditions of the second block, Zendikar Rising has its own version of bonus cards from outside the set. There are 30 Expeditions in total, all of which are lands. These include all 10 fetch lands. Unlike those earlier cards, these do not randomly appear in booster packs. Instead, they are only available as Box toppers (non-foil with a high-gloss treatment) and in Collector Boosters (foil).
The sixteenth card in the Draft Boosters is either a token with advertisements on the backside, or a helper card with a standard card back. The Collector Boosters contain a foildouble-sided token. In total, Zendikar Rising comes with twelve tokens.[18]
0/1 Goblin Construct artifact creature with "This creature can't block" and "At the beginning of your upkeep, this creature deals 1 damage to you," for Relic Robber.
A new mechanic in Zendikar Rising takes a popular theme that players like and twists it in a new way: party, a batchingmechanic which resembles the ally typal strategy of previous Zendikar visits.[8] (Allies themselves do not appear in the set.) A party looks for one of each of Clerics, Rogues, Warriors and Wizards among creatures you control, then scales an effect on the size of the party.[19][20]
The second new mechanic is modal double-faced cards (MDFCs). Like previous double-faced cards, modal double-faced cards have two faces, one on each side. However, when you play a modal double-faced card, you choose the face you're playing: they don't transform. Each draft booster contains a modal double-faced card. The set also introduces helper cards: similar to the checklist cards of past sets, they can be used to replace an unsleeved card. In lieu of the abandoned block model, R&D has found a new way to tie together the three non-core premier sets in a single Magic "year" (aka the fall, winter, and spring sets—using northern hemisphere seasons): they share a common mechanic. For Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim, and Strixhaven: School of Mages, that is MDFCs.[21] The MDFC's of Zendikar Rising all feature lands on their back side.
There are two returning mechanics, both of which have appeared in a Zendikar set before.[21] The first of these is kicker, a keyword ability that allows you to pay an extra cost for a bonus effect. Kicker was first featured in the Invasion block, later appeared in the original Zendikar set, and was last seen in the Dominaria expansion. This set also marks the first time a card with kicker having a multicolored cost (Moss-Pit Skeleton) is printed since Kangee, Aerie Keeper from Invasion. The second returning mechanic is landfall, an ability word for abilities that trigger on lands entering the battlefield under your control. All cards with landfall in the set receive an alternate showcase treatment.
The set also sees the return of "two-brid mana", first featured in Shadowmoor, on Tazri, Beacon of Unity. Similar to regular hybrid mana, two-brid mana symbols can be paid with two mana of any color or one mana of a specific color.
Zendikar Rising has a creature classtypal theme, centered on Clerics, Rogues, Warriors, and Wizards. Each class has an associated mechanic for Limited.[22] Each color in the set showcases the four classes in varying proportions: with any two-color combination, you can have a full party with cards from only Zendikar Rising.[23] That said, only three creatures are available in the tertiary colors in total, two in green and one in the other, not counting the "any role" vertical cycle.
It's noted that Green is present in all four classes as their tertiary colors, but in none as their primary or secondary colors. There are ten Green creatures that fill party roles; six commons, three uncommons and a rare.
Caring about eight or more cards in an opponent's graveyard[24]
Canyon Jerboa is the first non-token creature to feature the Mouse creature type. Tazri, Beacon of Unity is the only card to reference the Zendikar-specific Ally creature class.
Limited archetypes
Zendikar Rising features the following limited archetypes:
Four uncommonartifacts, one for each of the party class types, that either reference their respective class or (for Relic Golem) synergizes with the draft subtheme of that class (i.e. mill).
Four rare creatures, one for each of the party class types, are the only cards that trigger an ability while controlling a "full party" (the only other reference is a sorcery, Coveted Prize). Notably contained with the color pair.
Four common creatures, one for each of the party class types, are the only representative of their class at common, and for the non-red creatures, the only representative playable in monocolor.
Eight green creatures (two of which are uncommon), two for each of the party class types. The four common creatures above have a locational naming theme while also being a closer archetypal fit than the uncommons and commons below.
Eight uncommon creatures, two for each of the party class types. Each pair develops a distinct play style: life gain for Clerics, spellcasting for Wizards, saboteur abilities for Rogues, and equipped creatures for Warriors.
Five uncommon modal double-faced creatures, each with a tapland on the back side. The nongreen creatures have the type and name of the primary party class in their color.
Six rare modal double-faced lands, each side of which enters untapped and taps for a single color of mana. The other four are flagged for Kaldheim.[25][21][26]
Two common creatures, each of which enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters and gives creatures you control with +1/+1 counters a keyword ability.
Two common creatures, each has a landfall ability that gives it a +2/+2 for the turn; unlike previous Zendikar sets, only two creatures have this as opposed to a full cycle.
Zendikar Rising is the first draft set since Scars of Mirrodin where no Auras were designed to be placed on one's own creatures due to the prevalence of "snap-on" Equipment.
The modal double-faced cards enabled in Pioneer and improved in Modern and Legacy strategies based around having no cards counting as lands in your library and winning through different means. Eventually this led to the February 2021 banning of Balustrade Spy and Undercity Informer in Pioneer, two cards that allowed you to mill your entire library and win with a critical amount of creatures that put themselves from your graveyard onto the battlefield for free.
Banned and restricted cards
Omnath, Locus of Creation was the fourth in the series of the ever-expanding Omnath legendary creatures, adding White mana to the Temur combination. Despite the four-color mana cost it became trivially easy to cast, and the base rate of a 4/4 that draws a card and gains 4 life every turn turned aggro from a traditionally bad matchup to a laughably easy one. Decks quickly built to exploit Omnath to its full potential, with Lotus Cobra managing the color requirements and Escape to the Wilds or Genesis Ultimatum being ways to continuously hit four or five land drops a turn, playing almost as a Storm deck. The deck was weakened with the Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath banning, but that merely took away one avenue of long-game inevitability, and controlling a deck with so much mana was nearly impossible. A second build hybridized Omnath with the Adventures deck, making a ramp strategy with enough interaction that only the pure Omnath ramp decks would overpower. After a 70% metagame domination at the 2020 Grand Finals, Omnath was banned in Standard alongside Lucky Clover (part of the Omnath Adventures shell) and Escape to the Wilds. The card was simultaneously suspended in Historic, and later banned in February 2021, but with the creation of Alchemy it was rebalanced into A-Omnath, Locus of Creation and unbanned.
), Field Research (
), Blackbloom Rogue (
), Teeterpeak Ambusher (
), and Murasa Brute (
). The Collector Boosters feature art of Omnath, Locus of Creation. The Set Boosters feature art from Needleverge Pathway.
*/* Hydra creature, for Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager.
1/1 Construct artifact creature for Myriad Construct.
5/5 Elemental creature, for Omnath, Locus of Rage
1/1 Faerie Rogue creature with flying, which aren't provided with the deck.
