Welcome to another edition of the Daily Dose of Battle for Zendikar! Today we will be talking a little bit more about the power of Devoid spells and how Herald of Kozilek is the card that will bring them to power. Colorless spells are a huge focus of Battle for Zendikar as the Eldrazi have removed all of the life and color from everything around them.
Before we take a look at some of the colorless spells we will be seeing, let’s take a look the card that will be the catalyst to get this party started, Herald of Kozilek.
Herald of Kozilek to me is the Lord of colorless cards, just like Goblin Chieftain is to Goblins and Lord of the Undead is to Zombies. Although the latter two give bonuses just to creatures, Herald of Kozilek gives a bonus to all colorless spells by reducing their cost to cast them by 1. There are also similarities to Goblin Electromancer, which reduced to cost of all non-creature spells by 1. Once again though, Herald of Kozilek reduces the cost of all colorless spells and not just for creatures.
Herald of Kozilek is also a 2/4 body which after rotation will be much harder to kill. There won’t be any Stoke the Flames going around to kill this creature.
Now let’s look at some of the spells that will be just that much better when Herald of Kozilek is in play.
Horribly Awry is a nice counter spell by itself that resembles a cross between Essence Scatter and the opposite of Disdainful Stroke. It has the added bonus of exiling the card that you counter, which will help with both stopping reanimation attempts and fueling your Eldrazi Processor creatures. Now imagine being able to play this counter spell for one-mana. Having a one-mana counter spell for creatures is almost unheard of, as most one-mana counter spells are against non-creature spells.
The next card we will be looking at will be a removal card that we could be seeing as an early answer to your opponents threats. Here is Complete Disregard.
Black spellcasters have been searching for an instant removal spell now that Hero’s Downfall will be leaving rotation in Standard come October. We will still have Ultimate Price available, but with all of the multicolor and colorless creatures going around, it doesn’t leave many monocolored creatures to kill with Ultimate Price. Complete Disregard is a strong early removal spell that will be able to exile most of anything played by your opponent in the early game. With it being exiled as well it will help our friends the Eldrazi Processors.
Usually we are used to some good 2-mana black removal spells over time, and we can get that thanks to the power of Herald of Kozilek.
The last Devoid spell we will be looking at is one that will resemble a card we’ve seen in the past, Sowing Salt. Let’s take a look at Crumble to Dust.
Land destruction is something that Magic has shied away from recently, so it’s a nice surprise to see one in Battle for Zendikar. As we have seen so far, there will be a lot of powerful nonbasic lands going around in this set, so it’s nice to have a spell that can deal with them. With “creature” lands coming back in this set, it will be nice to be able to remove all of their threats at once. There will be a lot of nonbasic lands floating around and being able to exile them, will once again allow you to fuel your Eldrazi Processor cards.
4-mana has been the lowest cost recently for any land destruction spells, so being able to cast it for 3-mana thanks to Herald of Kozilek will mean that you can cast it for Stone Rain mana. Being able to take out your opponent’s mana base for so cheap will be quite nice.
There can only be more Devoid spells and creatures to come that will be able to take advantage of the power of Herald of Kozilek. Thanks again for reading another edition of the Daily Dose of Battle for Zendikar and I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow!
