Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Dose of Battle for Zendikar! Players all over the world are counting down the days until the Battle for Zendikar prerelease weekend September 26-27. One thing to remember this time around is that you don’t need to choose a faction, guild, color, etc! Just come on down for some fun and have a chance to snag any rare or mythic as your promo foil. Opening up a nice new Gideon, Ally of Zendikar would be a nice addition to any collection.
First card we are going to look at today is one could say, a bit of an odd card. Let’s take a look at Void Winnower.
Once again we are in the presence of another towering Eldrazi. Void Winnower is evil and really hates even numbers. First off it is a 9-mana 11/9 creature. Even without any other abilities, this is a monstrous creature that can deal some serious damage. Now on to its odd abilities.
“Your opponents can’t cast spells with even converted mana costs.” First off it’s great that this ability doesn’t include your spells and only your opponents. Cutting off your opponent from casting half of their spells can be bone crushing and game ending. Do you have an even-casting removal spell in your hand? Sorry can’t cast it. Want to put out a Siege Rhino to block? Sorry 4-mana, can’t do that either.
“Your opponent can’t block with creatures with even converted mana costs.” Void Winnower is a very large creature, but it doesn’t have evasion, so the hope is to possibly chump block it until you can find an answer. Well thanks to its second ability, half of your creatures now don’t have the ability to block.
Look for Void Winnower to be a Limited monster, and hopefully you can be the one getting it in your prerelease pack.
Next we are going to take a look at a card with a lot of value, Greenwarden of Murasa!
If you look at the vanilla creature itself, you are getting a 5/4 green creature for 6-mana which isn’t that great. What if it then said, “When this creature enters the battlefield, draw two cards”. Now How about getting value to the point where you can get two cards of your choosing from your graveyard? Now we’re really talking! Den Protector has been seeing play over the past couple months thanks to the value you get for returning any target card from your graveyard for 5-mana (Morph + 2 Megamorph). That’s a 3/2 for 5-mana that gets you back one card from your graveyard. For one more mana with Greenwarden of Murasa you get two extra power and toughness and in most cases two cards from your graveyard.
We were all excited with the return of “creature” lands when we saw Lumbering Falls. Next we see the Orzhov land Shambling Vent.
Like Slumbering Falls, it allows you to pay some of your well-earned mana to activate it and turn it into a creature until end of turn. One of the upsides of Shambling Vent is that is only costs three mana to activate, which is fairly cheap when it comes to “creature” lands. A 2/3 isn’t a huge creature to have, but where it shines is in the fact that it has lifelink. Having lifelink on a creature that is hard to kill is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. A 4-point life swing can make a huge difference, and because of this I think Shambling Vent is a card that will be seeing some play. Cheap activation, big life swings, and being in Abzan colors, are all a huge plus for this card.
Thanks again for reading another edition of the Daily Dose of Battle for Zendikar and I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow where we will be previewing more cards from the exciting new return to Zendikar!
