Magic: The Gathering players are just one short week away from playing with Zendikar Rising cards and hype is at an all-time high for the collectible card game’s upcoming fall set. Now that every Zendikar Rising card has been revealed, professional and casual players are starting to evaluate the power level of the set and determine what sort of impact it will have on the metagame over the next week. As always, planeswalkers are an important part of that conversation.
Now that the fall 2020 Standard rotation is about to happen, there will be a serious power vacuum in many MtG decks for new planeswalkers and other rare and mythic rare cards to fill. Planeswalkers are particularly powerful cards thanks to their versatility, frequent ability to distract opponents, and potential for alternative win condition ultimates. That said, not every planeswalker is going to lead to a win when it hits the table and some aren’t event really considered playable in many formats. With that in mind, it’s important to carefully examine each new planeswalker that arrives in Magic: The Gathering and determine how important it will be to collect a playset early on.
This time around there are three new planeswalkers coming to the game. Each is a character we’ve seen before (Jace, Nahiri, and Nissa), but all three have brand new cards. That means we’re seeing a new side of their potential power. When it comes to Standard play, there are definitely some interesting tools that are being added to the table with these three unique walkers….
1UU
Legendary Planeswalker – Jace
Kicker 2
When Jace, Mirror Mage enters the battlefield, if Jace was kicked, create a token that’s a copy of Jace, Mirror Mage, except it’s not legendary and its starting loyalty is 1.
[+1]: Scry 2.
[0]: Draw a card and reveal it. Remove a number of loyalty counters equal to that card’s converted mana cost from Jace, Mirror Mage.
Of the three planeswalkers in Zendikar Rising, Jace seems to be the one that could most easily drop into any deck of the appropriate color (blue) and start gaining value without completely building a deck around its abilities. This version of Jace is all about card advantage, deck knowledge, and card draw. These are things that most blue decks thrive on and Jace is perfectly positioned to start delivering value right away. Expect to see this planeswalker showing up in tons of Standard decks right away when the rotation happens. The Kicker ability is pretty interesting as well and makes a bit of a better draw later in a game.
2RW
Legendary Planeswalker – Nahiri
[+1]: Create a 1/1 Kor Warrior creature token. You may attach an Equipment you control to it.
[-2]: Look at the top six cards of your library. You may reveal a Warrior or Equipment card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
[-3]: Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients deals damage to target creature or planeswalker equal to twice the number of Equipment you control.
Nahiri is a different beast altogether and really demands players to build a deck around it. The average Standard deck doesn’t really focus on equipment unless there is a particularly powerful piece in rotation (anybody else remember the Caw Blade era of Standard?). Because of that, players will really need to craft a toolbox of cards that can take advantage of this card’s equipment-themed abilities in order to see the most value from this planeswalker from game to game.
2BG
Legendary Planeswalker – Nissa
Landfall – Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, put a loyalty counter on Nissa of Shadowed Boughs.
[+1]: Untap target land you control. You may have it become a 3/3 Elemental creature with haste and menace until end of turn. It’s still a land.
[-5]: You may put a creature card with converted mana cost less than or equal to the number of lands you control onto the battlefield from your hand or graveyard with two +1/+1 counters on it.
Nissa is back and this time she’s aligning with some black mana as well as her usual green. That will limit the number of decks she can appear in, but regardless, this feels like a powerful planeswalker for the Golgari color pairing. Historically speaking, planesalkers that can temporarily turn land into additional creatures have been very strong in these types of decks. That ability combines with the option to play additional creatures out of their hand makes this seem like a pretty powerful tool for mid-range decks. If mana fixing is as strong as it seems like it will be, perhaps the Abzan mid-range decks will have a return to glory in this new Standard (though obviously they won’t be the same without Siege Rhino leading the way to victory).
With all that in mind, remember that the value of cards in Standard changes incredibly frequently and cards will rise and drop on the power scale as the metagame adjusts to each dominant deck. Each of these planewalkers definitely has their own strengths and in the hands of the right player they could take over a game. It will be very exciting to see the new Standard metagame develop on the coming weeks and months and see how much action each of these new cards receives. Interested players should keep an eye on tournament results from week to week if they want to know how the power rankings are playing out.
In the coming days, we should learn a ton more about Zendikar Rising spoilers, mechanics, and more. Start studying early so that you’ll be prepared for a new standard rotation and the upcoming draft format.
Magic: The Gathering Zendikar Rising releases September 25, 2020.
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