Magic Untapped takes a look back at Battle For Zendikar, the first half of the two-set BFZ block.
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Video Transcript:
It’s the second of October, 2015, and the 28th expansion for Magic: The Gathering, called Battle for Zendikar, has released. It’s the first set in the game’s new two-set block structure – something that was experimented a few years prior in the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor mega-block.
The set, which consists of 274 cards (including 17 reprints), features a set symbol resembling a broken hedron and continues the story that was left on a bit of a cliffhanger from Rise of the Eldrazi, the final set in the original Zendikar block from 2009.
You can check out that story by viewing our videos for the sets Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise of the Eldrazi in our Retrospectives playlist.
As for Battle for Zendikar, here is a story summary for you…
The Eldrazi, immense nightmarish entities that seem to consume everything around them, are rampaging on the plane of Zendikar, having been released from their eternity-long prison by planeswalker Nissa Revane.
Targeting not just the land, but also various locations where the native Zendikari have taken refuge from these titans and their respective broods, things looked grim for the future of the plane.
It’s at about this point in time – mere months after the Eldrazi’s release – that planeswalker Gideon Jura appears on the plane, having been following the trail of yet another planeswalker, Chandra Nalaar.
Chandra, however, was nowhere to be found and Gideon finds himself embroiled in the disastrous events occurring on the plane as he strives to protect the plane’s innocents from the rampaging Eldrazi menace. It wasn’t until finally coming face-to-face with one of the Eldrazi titans that he realized that defending Zendikar from the Eldrazi wasn’t something he would be able to do on his own.
Vowing to return and finish the job, he left Zendikar in search of aid and allies.
He first travels to the plane of Regatha where he finally catches up with Chandra. Unfortunately, he was unable to convince the pyromancer to join the effort. Disappointed, but not disheartened, Gideon next travels to Ravnica.
There, he meets with Jace Beleren. The mind mage, though, was knee-deep in his responsibilities at the Living Guildpact – literally the living embodiment of magical law that kept each of Ravnica’s guilds in check with one another. Reluctantly, Jace agrees to assist once Gideon explained just how serious a threat they were facing back on Zendikar.
Another planeswalker was also there on Ravnica along with Jace. Liliana Vess, the necromancer, was visiting the mind mage at the same time Gideon approached. She refused to help and, in fact, took it as an affront that Jace would rather travel off to assist Gideon than spend time with her.
Gideon and Jace then travel back to Zendikar. They arrive just after the city of Sea Gate – one of the last bastions of hope for the plane’s populace – had fallen to the Eldrazi, taking with it many of the plane’s scholars. Making matters more complicated, they weren’t sure which of the Eldrazi titans were even still on the plane. Was it just the one they were certain about – the one called Ulamog? What about the other two, Kozilek and Emrakul? Had they moved on to other worlds, or were they still somewhere on Zendikar wreaking havoc?
Regardless, Gideon and his allies needed to be ready.
Along with refugees from Sea Gate, they set up a survivor’s camp in the ruins. They also meet up with Nissa, whom had become distraught as her connection to Zendikar, which fuels her magic, has been severed. She is on a mission to find a way to connect with the plane once more while Gideon continues to seek out other allies and Jace begins studying the plane’s leylines and network of hedrons.
The three planeswalkers agree to meet back up at the ruins of Sea Gate once they’ve completed their respective tasks.
<GIDEON>
Gideon travels across Zendikar in search of new allies to assist in defending the plane against Ulamog and (if necessary) any other Eldrazi whom might still be on the plane.
He finds help in the form of some of the plane’s vampires, led by Drana. Many of the surviving denizens of Sea Gate also sign on to assist, as well as a merfork elementalist known as Noyan Dar. He also successfully enlists the aid of Kiora, a merfolk planeswalker, and her followers, along with a number of Zendikar’s elves, kor, goblins, and (with the help of Nissa) elementals.
He musters his new allies at the ruins at Sea Gate.
<JACE>
Deep underground on the continent of Akoum, Jace enters the Eye of Ugin. It’s a place he’s been to before as, a few years ago, he and Chandra had a violent encounter with Sarkhan Vol that resulted in them inadvertently weakening the lock there that held the Eldrazi imprisoned.
He’s hoping to discover some clues there that would help him better understand the plane and how the Eldrazi were able to become imprisoned in the first place. Once in the chamber, he finds something better: The spirit dragon, Ugin, himself.
Ugin, whom was trying to figure out how to reseal the Eldrazi as well (though this time without the help of fellow planeswalkers and original Eldrazi-sealers Sorin Markov and the lithomancer, Nahiri). He explains to Jace as to how, a thousand years or so before, they were able to utilize Zendikar’s hedrons to bind the Eldrazi.
Jace deduces that a similar method could be used to immobilize Ulamog and his brood, allowing them the chance to slay the titan rather than re-imprisoning him. Ugin, though, cautions against this tactic as slaying the titans could have dire consequences down the road. Jace, though, ignores the spirit dragon’s warning and returns to Sea Gate to begin work on his plan.
<NISSA>
Nissa is well on her way to locate the Nhalni Heart, a hidden growth on the plane that acts as a stand-in for the soul of Zendikar. She believes that she can use the Heart as a means to reattune herself to the plane and, thus, regain her full magical abilities.
Guided by visions, she is able to locate the Heart. Unfortunately, she wasn’t alone as an ancient entity was also in search of the heart.
Many, many years into the past when Nahiri was still the one guarding Zendikar, a human planeswalker known as Ob Nixilis (whom specializes in demonic magics) had arrived on the plane intent on conquering it and claiming the world for himself.
Nahiri was having none of it and, when Nixilis was in his demonic form, jammed hedrons into his back, trapping him in the form of a demon while also sapping away his planeswalker spark, trapping him on Zendikar for (seemingly) all time thereafter.
Fast forward a millennium, and the demonic former planeswalker found himself at the Nhalni Heart at the same time as Nissa as he believes its power could reignite his spark and allow him to finally leave the plane.
The two, each wanting the power of the Heart for their own purpose, clash. Nissa, though, is able to attune with the heart and her abilities return to her. She bests Nixilis in combat and collapses a large pile of rock and earth atop him, trapping him underground.
Satisfied, Nissa then returns to Sea Gate.
<Sea Gate>
Two of the planeswalkers – Gideon and Nissa – reconvene at the ruins at Sea Gate along with the admittedly impressive number of allies that Gideon was able to muster. There, they met with the various Eldrazi from Ulamog’s brood, successfully repelling them from the area and reclaiming Sea Gate for the Zendikari.
The victory, however, was short lived as, soon after, the Sea Gate scholar, Jori En, returns from a scouting mission with bad news. Ulamog is on his way to Sea Gate.
Gideon and his allied forces decide to stand their ground and defend what’s left of the city just as Jace returns from his mission. The mind mage lays out a plan to trap Ulamog by using the various hedrons that had been scattered about the area.
He and Nissa work together to align the hedrons just so as the other allies continue to fend off Ulamog and his spawn. Once the trap was set and ready, Gideon and his forces lured Ulamog to the center of the hedron alignment. The plan was an overwhelming success and Ulamog found himself to suddenly be trapped and nigh-powerless.
Unfortunately, Ob Nixilis, whom had clawed his way out from the pile of earth and stone that Nissa had buried him with, appeared on the scene. Seeing the power of the hedrons in action, he decides it’s exactly what he needs to regain his spark.
The demon knocks one of the hedrons out of alignment and funnels the power of the hedron ring into himself rather than against the trapped titan. The burst of energy was enough to reignite his spark.
A moment later, Chandra Nalaar appears at Sea Gate, having had a change of heart and deciding, in the end, that helping Gideon against the Eldrazi was probably the right thing to do. Her arrival, however, was much to late to stop Nixilis from destroying the hedron network surrounding Ulamog.
Bent on revenge on Zendikar for a thousand years imprisoned on the plane and out of spite towards Nissa for her taking the Nhalni Heart away from him, he provides the defenders of Sea Gate with a parting gift as he finally departs from the plane by beckoning a second Eldrazi titan, the one known as Kozilek, to rise from the underground where he had been slumbering.
Gideon and those keeping watch over Sea Gate now have two titans and two broods to worry about. To say the least, things aren’t looking to rosy on Zendikar.
And that’s where we’ll leave the story of Battle for Zendikar. Of course, there’s much more to tell in terms of the set itself.
With design led by Mark Rosewater, development led by Erik Lauer, and art direction by Jeremy Jarvis, the set, mechanically, was a spin on factions. Rather than each faction being a color or a combination of colors, it was a battle between colored cards and colorless cards.
This was achieved by a new named mechanic known as devoid, which was one of five new named mechanics that debuted in the set.
<<DTW 20:55–22:05, 25:07-26:02 “So the one quality…becoming devoid.” “So, one of…that does nothing.”>>
Battle for Zendikar’s other new named mechanics include:
- Awaken, an alternate casting cost for spells that let its caster turn one of their lands into a 0/0 elemental creature with haste and a specific number of +1/+1 counters upon it;
- Converge, an ability word that gives an effect for each color of mana used to cast the spell;
- Injest, a creature mechanic that says whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player exiles the top card of their library, and;
- Rally, an ability word that provides an effect whenever an ally enters the battlefield. It’s a tweak of the unnamed ally mechanic from the original Zendikar block.
Landfall, a mechanic that debuted in the original Zendikar set from 2009, makes its return in Battle for Zendikar as well.
In fact, there are three cycles in the set that feature landfall:
- Retreats, which are mono-colored enchantments with a modal landfall triggered effect;
- Color-specific landfall creatures, which are mono-colored rare creatures with landfall that have an effect when a land of their respective basic type enter the battlefield, and;
- Pump landfall creatures, which is a cycle of common mono-colored creatures that have a landfall ability that gives them each a temporary +2/+2 boon.
Other cycles of note amongst the seven in the set include:
- Blighted lands, which are uncommon lands that tap for a colorless mana and can be sacrificed for an ability at a mono-colored cost, and;
- Allied color battle lands, which is a cycle of rare dual lands with land types that enter the battlefield tapped unless the controller controls two or more basic lands.
Of course, there are also a handful of single cards worth a mention in Battle for Zendikar, such as:
- Bring to Light, a spell with converge that lets you search your library for any creature, instant, or sorcery card up to the number of colors used in casting the spell, allowing its caster to then cast that card for free;
- Endless One, a simple 0/0 creature that enters with X +1/+1 counters upon it;
- Painful Truths, a strong card advantage spell that has seen use in Standard, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage;
- Radiant Flames, a flexible quasi-board wipe with converge that saw play in sideboards in Standard and Pioneer;
- Retreat to Coralheim has been used as a part of a number of combos, most famously with the card Knight of the Reliquary in Modern Bant decks;
- Sanctum of Ugin, a nonbasic land that lets you search your library for a colorless spell when you cast a colorless spell of mana cost seven or greater and put that card into your hand, sacrificing the Sanctum in the process. The card would become a degenerate part of Modern Eldrazi decks – especially when paired with Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin;
- Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, one of the three Eldrazi titans and (arguably) the strongest of these second versions of the titans thanks to its spot removal ability upon cast, it “eating” (so to say) 20 cards of a defending player’s deck via exiling those cards, and being a 10/10 indestructible creature for ten colorless mana;
- Void Winnower, an Eldrazi that prohibits your opponent from casting spells with, and blocking with creatures having, even-numbered casting costs;
- Wasteland Strangler, an Eldrazi card that has seen play in numerous Modern decks and makes use of exiled cards owned by your opponent, and;
- Zulaport Cutthroat, a very effective, low-costed creature that’s often used in aristocrats-style playstyles.
The set also introduced (in a very small percentage of booster packs) “Expedition” cards, which were a limited-run bonus sheet showcasing various land cards from Magic’s past in a unique frame.
In total, there are 25 Expedition cards, including the set’s five new dual lands, 10 shock lands, and 10 fetch lands.
As far as promotional cards go, Battle for Zendikar features Blight Herder as its launch promo, Ruinous Path and its buy-a-box promo, a full-art Stasis Snare as its game day participation promo with top-eight finishers also being given a foil, full-art Radiant Flames. Prerelease promos were randomized, date-stamped rare or mythic rare cards found in the set – a practice still done today.
And, speaking of the Battle for Zendikar prerelease, it’s the first time in common organized play that the then-new “Vancouver” mulligan rule was put into effect. Named after the pro tour stop where the rule was introduced, the Vancouver mulligan has a player wanting to re-draw their opening hand shuffling that hand back into their library, then drawing that many cards minus one for each mulligan. Then, any player with six or fewer cards in their opening hand can Scry 1.
The Vancouver mulligan rule has since been replaced by the London mulligan rule, which took effect with the release of Core Set 2020 and remains the game’s current mulligan rule still today.
But, in getting back to Battle for Zendikar in specific, how does Magic: The Gathering Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, see the set in hindsight?
<<DTW 0:38-0:40, 2:22-4:01 -- “In retrospect…for Zendikar.” “And so what…so Eldrazi-focused.”>>
So, what do you think of Battle for Zendikar? Let us know your thoughts in the comment sections.
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