Hello all and welcome to another edition of the Daily Dose of Battle for Zendikar!
Official preview season has begun and that has given us a lot to talk about for sure! The first week of previews has given a lot of fans of allied colors something to be grateful for, thanks to the new Tango lands. This week has given way to Enemy color cards. Today we will be looking at couple of the key cards from Battle of Zendikar which could lead way to some Simic and or Temur/Sultai decks seeing some play in the coming months.
Let’s take a look at a card that has a new ability which we haven’t talked about yet called Converge. Converge alters the way a particular spell or ability works based on the number of different colors of mana used to cast the spell. This will give advantages to players who would like to play 3 or more colored decks, since they will have a harder time with their mana base. We will talk about something that will help that mana base later, but now let’s talk about the Converge card of Bring to Light!
This is a spell that has the possibility to cause some very interesting interactions for sure. First off, Bring to Light allows you to search your library for 3 different types of cards. This is more in line with similar black cards such as Dark Petition, and not one type specific cards like Green Sun’s Zenith. There are definitely similarities and differences between them.
Dark Petition allows you to have 3 black mana to cast whatever card you would like to get from your library (as long as you have Spell Mastery). Bring to Light, limits you to get cards less than or equal to its Converge casting cost restriction, but no matter what color that card is, you are able to cast it for free.
Green Sun’s Zenith allows you to get any green creature only and place it directly onto the battlefield. Bring to Light allows you get any creature card of Converge cost or less and place it directly onto the battlefield.
On most occasions the Converge on Bring to Light will be 2-3 as most decks don’t play more than 3 colors. If you are able to squeeze this into a deck that has the ability to get 4-5 colors this will open up the possibilities on what you will be able to get. Imagine playing 5-color control and being able to get cards like Languish, Crux of Fate or End Hostilities. Another great use for Bring to Light is that it can allow you very easily to get any of the Magic Origins planeswalkers from your deck, directly into play.
Now let’s have a look at something that will help your mana base to be able to play those extra colors for Converge cards. Let’s take a look at the new “creature” land, Lumbering Falls!
Thank you Battle for Zendikar! “Creature” lands were some of the most popular cards to come from the Zendikar block and a lot of players were hoping that we would see Enemy “Creature” lands in this block. They have not disappointed us. As the other lands did, they come into the battlefield tapped with the ability to provide two opposite color colors of mana. Most of the original “creature” lands had a 3 to 5-mana activation to turn them into creatures for the turn. Lumbering Falls follows suit, and makes it a 3/3 with hexproof until end of turn.
Hexproof on a creature that is only in play during your turn, makes Lumbering Falls a very hard creature to kill. One of the only spells that I can think of that can deal with it, temporarily, is Aetherspouts. We will have to see if more spells become available that will allow you to have the ability to kill Lumbering Falls, but I can see this being a tough card to deal with.
Now with the “Creature” lands and the Tango lands from Battle for Zendikar, we have got a full cycle of 10 lands to replace the Scry lands that will be rotating out when Battle for Zendikar starts to see play. Most players were not expecting them to all come in one set, but here they are ready to go!
Well thanks again for reading another edition of the Daily Dose of Battle for Zendikar. We will back again tomorrow for some more amazing previews!
