Battle For Zendikar Preview - Day 3!

Hibernum_JC

Hi folks!

Today we’ll be discussing 3 new items: another Planeswalker, a new mechanic and a new card!

Let’s start off with the new Planeswalker: Gideon, Ally of Zendikar!


Gideon is back in this set, with a whole new set of abilities! He also has a brand new loadout, and makes for a very different playstyle than the Gideon we currently have in-game.

First, his loadout is Spell-oriented. There are some very good cards in this set that are more spell-oriented, and his abilities complement the fact.

His three abilities are:

Echo of Gideon - Summons a token on the battlefield with haste. It dies at the end of your turn. This is incredibly useful to push through a defender or deal a bit of extra damage. At rank 4, the token dies at the beginning of your next turn instead and has Vigilance, so you can use it defensively as well. This ability is rather cheap, so you can use it pretty often! Conscription - Summon Kor Ally tokens on the battlefield. Any creature with Ally has great synergy with the Rally keyword, which we will discuss later this week in more detail. Ranks 1 to 4 summon 1 to 4 of these tokens. Rally the Troops - grants +2/+2 to +5/+5 to each Ally you control White, in this set, has a lot of creatures with Ally, so this ability will give them loads of permanent buffs. It’s a very strong ability with the drawback that you need to play with Allies (thankfully your 2nd ability generates them!)

We wanted to make sure this iteration of Gideon felt and played differently than the one in Origins. His abilities are a lot more focused, and he can make great, great use of a few specific White Mythics that make him incredibly strong.

Next up, we’ll talk about Landfall.

Landfall is a keyword that is present on some cards. It is triggered by matching 4 or more colored gems. Being a trigger, what it will do is perform it’s attached ability whenever you match said gems. For example, a card might read “Landfall: Deal 2 damage to your opponent”. When this card is in play, every time you match 4 or more colored Gems, that card will deal 2 damage to your opponent. There are many, many cards with Landfall, each with their own abilities. Landfall in general is great because it is repeatable - if you match 5 Gems, then 4, you’ll trigger it twice in a single turn!

Some cards will also have “Landfall <color>”, then “Landfall” later on the card text. For example, a card could have “Landfall Red: Deal 2 damage to your opponent. Landfall: Deal 1 damage to your opponent”. In this case, if you match 4 or more Red gems, you’ll deal 2 damage to your opponent (but the 2nd Landfall won’t trigger as it is excludes the previous color). Any other color Landfall would deal 1 damage to your opponent.

That’s it about Landfall! It’s overall a pretty simple mechanic that benefits a lot from board manipulation and gem conversion.

Last but not least, it’s time for the Mythic reveal of the day: Emeria Shepherd!


As you can see, this is another card in the line of Mythics that don’t cost too much to cast, but still have pretty good stats. 4/4 a Flying for 11 is nothing to sneeze at on it’s own, and we purposefully didn’t raise it’s stats higher to ensure it’s cheaper cost.

She has 2 Landfall abilities as well - whenever she’s on the battlefield and you match 4 or more White gems, the last non-Spell (this means any Creature or Support) you controlled that was destroyed is returned to the battlefield. This incredible ability brings back Creatures or Supports for free, which is incredibly strong in itself! Her regular Landfall returns them to your hand, which is still very strong.

Overall, once she’s on the battlefield, she becomes a massive resurrecter that is harder to get rid of due to her Flying.

That’s it for today! Tomorrow we’ll look into 2 new mechanics as well as a new Green Mythic!