Treasure hunting in Zendikar
Psst - this was posted 2 years ago
Last night was our first real exposure to the set. Having hiked to Worlds Away on Dundas street to pick up the two fatpacks we’d preordered and the box we picked up (just in time for the foil Day of Judgement card), the expedition began to the vault where we’d crack open boosters, add tokens to the communal token pile, fold “rules” cards in half to make box dividers, and peer deep into our cardboard hoards to see what goodies we procure
FYI: that’s likely as storied as this article is going to become.
I had one fatpack and half of the box we bought. We opened all but four packs at the time, saving those for a “draft” game where decks were limited to the contents of those four packs. After the booster skins were cast aside I got all but one of the lands in the set.
Booster pulls included:
- 1 Sorin Markov (FOIL)
- 1x Ob Nixilis the Fallen
- Each of the rare fetch lands
- 2x Vampire Nighthawk
- 2x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
- 2x Hellkite Charger
- 2x Sadistic Sacramen
End of night trades netted:
- 1 Scute Mob
- 1 Nissa Revane
- 1 Lotus Cobra
- 2x Hedron Crab
Cards of the night:
Hedron Crab is absolutely amazing. A blocking Millstone. It’s cheap, makes a good blocker, and getting a few of them in play really helps you take care of the business. Landfall is a pretty cool mechanic, but it can be hard to remember all of the triggers going on. I’m sure judges will have a bit of a difficult time with players missing triggers until people get used to it. Having two Crabs out and dropping one land mills 6 cards into the graveyard. I am building a deck around it.
Kracken Hatchling was brilliant. I equipped it with an Explorer’s Scope and was blocking and looking for lands and doing the same with an offensive tap that hurt no one but got me lands.
I watched a Scute Mob grow from 1/1 all the way up to 9/9 in two turns. It gave my opponent such a wicked beating. Sadly, it wasn’t under my control. Luckily, that player got put out before the Scutes were aimed at me. I got one in my earlier packs, but none in my draft packs. I wasn’t leaving before trading for a second one for my Insect deck.
Explorer’s Scope equipped on anything was pretty sweet. I think it helped me five turns in a row weed out land. Because I was playing a three colour deck (blue, red, green), it was invaluable at the start of the game when I wasn’t pulling mana.
Relic Crush made a lot of people angry, especially those with Quests in play who were one away from setting them off. I’d hold onto the crush and pop them just before they could be used. Smoking any combo of two enchantments and/or artifacts was pretty great and super handy.
Stonework Puma, basically the beater of my deck. Playing it in three colour made it playable with any mana and putting a telescope on it didn’t hurt either. Being an Ally was cool as I had three other allies in the deck, but the other three didn’t materialize.
The trap mechanics worked pretty well too - for everyone but me. I was playing with an Inferno Trap that saw the light of day later in the game when there was nothing around I could kill. Too bad it wasn’t creature or player. Heck too bad it wasn’t creature AND player!
MVP of the game: Explorer’s Scope.
PS: The artwork for the lands in Zendikar is the best artwork in any Magic set. I am amazed by the vibrant look of some of the mountains and islands.
PPS: All Kor should be allies.
