Zendikar is full of delicious, decadent, and delightful goodies for casual players and tournament players alike. In particular, it has some phenomenal and diverse land cards that are sure to propagate themselves naturally into all of my casual decks. For instance, cards like Valakut and Emeria can fit very nicely into pre-existing decks without a lot of thought, much like Kor Haven, Volrath’s Stronghold and Yavimaya Hollow do. One-of lands that provide variety to your deck but that fit into your mana base are awesome in my book.

Despite there only being a handful of artifact cards in Zendikar, there are still some unique cards worth talking about. Two such cards are Eternity Vessel and Eldrazi Monument. We are also receiving some diverse equipment cards of which the best, in my opinion, is an uncommon! Curious? I strongly encourage you to keep reading!

Unlike my other Zendikar First Impressions article, I have attended a prerelease event for Zendikar prior to writing this. And a release event. So I have had a chance to play with the cards in Zendikar. However, I think my impressions of the cards are the same for artifacts and lands now as they were when I could actually call them a first impression. That said, let’s dive right into artifacts first. Land cards will follow.

Adventuring Gear 1
Artifact - Equipment
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, equipped creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
Equip {1} ({1}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)

Grade: C…+
Adventuring Gear has the potential to get crazy with cards like Harrow and Frontier Guide, and is enabled by cards like Living Tsunami and Khalni Gem that can guarantee landfall triggers for future turns. However, in a casual table and especially in the tournament scenes, I don’t see this card making the cut. I’d much rather have a consistent +2/+1 from a Trusty Machete than a maybe +2/+2 from the Gear. Don’t forget you’re almost never going to drop a land during your opponent’s turn.

I will give this card a C+ just for the flavor of the card. The artwork is nice and reminds me of the old TSR Advanced Dungeons&Dragons cards from the early 1990’s that featured art, relics, and characters from the various worlds of AD&D like Greyhawk, Spelljammer, DragonLance, and Ravenloft. I’ve got the 1992 and 1993 box sets.

Blade of the Bloodchief 1
Artifact - Equipment
Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on equipped creature. If equipped creature is a Vampire, put two +1/+1 counters on it instead.
Equip {1}

Grade: A
Oooh! We now have the equipment version of Sadistic Glee, with double the impact when a Vampire equips it. I like it. I like it even more on my Triskelion. Now I can have Sadistic Glee without adding Black to the deck. Thank you, Wizards! Another card to nurture and cradle my love for Triskelion.

Note: This card also makes Deathbringer Thoctar twice as powerful. Actually, I’d probably put it on a Triskelavus, Pentavus, Etched Oracle, Spike Weaver or even a Stingmoggie. Forbidden Orchard is naughty if you’re using Triskelavus, Triskelion or Thoctar. Notice I’m not really caring about the Vampire part of the card.

Blazing Torch 1
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature can't be blocked by Vampires or Zombies.
Equipped creature has "{T}, Sacrifice Blazing Torch: Blazing Torch deals 2 damage to target creature or player."
Equip {1}

Grade: B
Aeolipile costs three mana to deal two damage to a target. Moonglove costs three mana to do the same thing. Blazing Torch only costs 2 mana overall and a tap of your creature. It also is another means for White and Blue to get some direct damage in. The "can't be blocked by Vampires or Zombies" is just icing on the cake. Overall, I like this card. Is it better than Aeolipile or Moonglove Extract? Maybe a little, but each have their use and appropriate place in the mana curve of a deck.

Carnage Altar 2
Artifact
{3}, Sacrifice a creature: Draw a card.

Grade: C
This is a combo centerpiece card that is mediocre at best. Phyrexian Vault is a card similar to this, except it costs three mana to cast and its ability costs two mana, a tap, a creature sacrifice, and then you get to draw a card. Being able to use the Altar over and over again in a turn is a definite plus, but for an extra mana? It’s hard to say which is better.

I do know this: I would much rather use Ashnod's Altar or Altar of Dementia over this. They don’t draw you cards, but they have much better effects for the cost. In fact, just for fun…

I present to you my top nine Altar cards of Magic:

Eldrazi Monument 5
Artifact
Creatures you control get +1/+1, have flying, and are indestructible.
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature. If you can't, sacrifice Eldrazi Monument.

Grade: A+
Don’t doubt the power of the Eldrazi. Giving all of your creatures +1/+1 and flying is nice, but making them indestructible too is well worth sacrificing a creature a turn… especially if you combo this with a token generator. Perhaps I mean to make a visual spoiler for creatures that generate creature tokens? Anyone want to compile the list for me? If you do it, I will post it. *grin* You could always go the recursion route too! Or what about Chronozoa??!!

Eternity Vessel 6
Artifact
Eternity Vessel enters the battlefield with X charge counters on it, where X is your life total.
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may have your life total become the number of charge counters on Eternity Vessel.

Grade: B
I like this card and hate it all at the same time. I hate it because you may be casting it just to set your life total to 10, because your opponent got you down that far before you were able to cast or draw this card. Still, being able to consistently reset your life total, even to ten, is a nice ability. I’m thinking of combining this card with Phyrexian Processor or Yawgmoth’s Agenda. I’m sure you can come up with better cards than that! This is a fun Johnny card and reasonably worth its Mythic Rarity.

Expedition Map 1
Artifact
{2}, {T}, Sacrifice Expedition Map: Search your library for a land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

Grade: C+
The best part of this card is that it searches for ANY land card, not just basics. Still, it’s expensive, damaging to your mana curve, and only good for fixing mana in draft.  It is because this card can search for ANY land card that it gets the '+'.

Explorer's Scope 1
Artifact - Equipment
Whenever equipped creature attacks, look at the top card of your library. If it's a land card, you may put it onto the battlefield tapped.
Equip {1} ({1}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)

Grade: B
Being able to drop an extra land each turn and enable a potential second landfall effect by dropping a land from your library thanks to the Scope is amazingly powerful. Ramping up your mana quickly and efficiently just for two mana and turning a creature sideways… I know this card's real purpose is in draft to make things more interesting, but I think I might try it out in a few casual decks to see if it’s really worth the B my first impressions gave it.

Grappling Hook 4
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has double strike.
Whenever equipped creature attacks, you may have target creature block it this turn if able.
Equip {4}

Grade: D+
This card is not replacing my Fireshriekers any time soon. It costs too much. Apparently, adding the provoke-esque ability (that isn’t even as good as provoke) adds one mana to play the card and two more mana to equip it. I’ll give this card a + mark simply because it is a powerhouse in Draft and can pretty much take down any creature your opponent has untapped, thanks to double strike. But from a casual perspective, I’ll take the cheaper card choice for my decks.

Hedron Scrabbler 2
Artifact Creature - Construct
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, Hedron Scrabbler gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
1/1

Grade: F
Thank you for giving us a two mana Construct, but no thanks all at the same time. This card is filler and jank. The artwork is nice, but that’s about it.

Khalni Gem 4
Artifact
When Khalni Gem enters the battlefield, return two lands you control to their owner's hand.
{T}: Add two mana of any one color to your mana pool.

Grade: B+
Every time I look at this I can’t help but think of Thran Dynamo, a card from Urza’s Destiny that costs four and tap for three colorless mana. And what’s even weirder is that I think Khalni Gem is better. Why?

First, it taps for colored mana, and any color mana at that. That, in most cases, is a lot better than colorless mana. Second, it enables landfall, allows you to reuse comes into play abilities on lands, or lets you reset the depletion counters or mine counters from certain other lands from Magic’s past.

Spidersilk Net 0
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +0/+2 and has reach. (It can block creatures with flying.)
Equip {2} ({2}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)

Grade: D
Remember Web from Alpha? It was a rare in Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, Fourth Edition and then finally was reprinted in Ninth Edition as an uncommon. Now we get the equipment version of the exact same ability and it’s common and costs zero mana to play! I can appreciate it costing zero as the ability is extremely narrow and never should have been a rare back in the day. The two mana equip cost seems appropriate, since now any color has access to it Still, the card isn’t that good. Its best attribute is that it costs zero mana to cast, which gives it some combo potential or affinity potential. I will thus continue to keep playing Spidersilk Armor over this and its ilk.

Stonework Puma 3
Artifact Creature - Cat Ally
2/2

Grade: C
Enabler for Allies. Filler for the set. Let’s move along.

Trailblazer's Boots 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has nonbasic landwalk. (It's unblockable as long as defending player controls a nonbasic land.)
Equip {2}

Grade: B-
Yeah for nonbasic landwalk! It’s a bit expensive if you compare it to Whispersilk Cloak and also considering it doesn’t grant any toughness bonus. Still, with all of the nonbasic lands floating around all formats of Magic: the Gathering, this is pretty useful. I’d still play Whispersilk Cloak over this though. Shroud is king and the Cloak’s landwalk doesn’t care about lands.

Trusty Machete 1
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+1.
Equip {2}

Grade: B+
This is consistent and something I’d much rather have than Adventurer’s Gear. It’s a toss up if this is better than Bonesplitter or not, since that equip cost of two can be cumbersome in the beginning of the game. Still, of all of the equipment in Zendikar, this is the best for drafting and the best non-rare equipment card for a newer Magic player.

Since there are several well defined cycles in the land portion of Zendikar, I figured I would talk about some of them altogether. First up is the comes into play, life gaining, ally dual lands… the Refuges!

Akoum Refuge
Land
Akoum Refuge enters the battlefield tapped.
When Akoum Refuge enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
{T}: Add {B} or {R} to your mana pool.

Graypelt Refuge
Land
Graypelt Refuge enters the battlefield tapped.
When Graypelt Refuge enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
{T}: Add {G} or {W} to your mana pool.

Jwar Isle Refuge
Land
Jwar Isle Refuge enters the battlefield tapped.
When Jwar Isle Refuge enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
{T}: Add {U} or {B} to your mana pool.

Kazandu Refuge
Land
Kazandu Refuge enters the battlefield tapped.
When Kazandu Refuge enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.

{T}: Add {R} or {G} to your mana pool.

Sejiri Refuge
Land
Sejiri Refuge enters the battlefield tapped.
When Sejiri Refuge enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
{T}: Add {W} or {U} to your mana pool.

Grades: B+ (for those that can’t afford rare dual lands).
I may be repeating myself here, but one of the things I really love about Zendikar is the flavor that just oozes from each of the cards. Wizards of the Coast did an amazing job making flavor and mechanic come together. For instance, in a world where you are adventuring from place to place, worn out and running out of food, you happen upon a refuge in the middle of the Kazandu region. Here you are able to buy wares and magic from Red and Green Magic while also able to rest up to regain your strength and get some food.

This translates into a tapped land and a life gained.

Ingenious.

It’s also becoming more and more apparent how important life gain is. EVERY LIFE POINT MATTERS. That one point of life you gained at the expense of a tapped land on turn three could be that one point that keeps you alive through the thirteenth turn when you finally triumph over your opponent.

These lands hurt your momentum, and there is no doubt about that. However, getting a point of life in exchange is a nice trade off. These lands make the Invasion uncommon ally dual lands worthless now. Of course, Shard’s uncommon tri-color lands already did that… so who am I kidding.

Best art from this bunch goes to Jwar Isle Refuge by Cyril Van Der Haegen. I love the perspective, the face obelisks floating in the water and the general misty/foggy feel of the piece. It definitely gives off a Blue-Black vibe. The other arts don’t really compare.

Arid Mesa
Land
{T}, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Arid Mesa: Search your library for a Mountain or Plains card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

Marsh Flats
Land
{T}, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Marsh Flats: Search your library for a Plains or Swamp card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

Misty Rainforest
Land
{T}, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Misty Rainforest: Search your library for a Forest or Island card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

Scalding Tarn
Land
{T}, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Scalding Tarn: Search your library for an Island or Mountain card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

Verdant Catacombs
Land
{T}, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Verdant Catacombs: Search your library for a Swamp or Forest card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

Grade: A+
The original ally color Onslaught fetch lands were amazing and deserved an A+. These are no different. I’m just surprised it took Wizards of the Coast this long to print the enemy color fetch lands until now.

This version of fetch lands, not to be confused with fetch lands from Mirage or Shards of Alara, ensure you an even and balanced mana base as early as turn one, all for the cost of one life point. Since you can search out any land card that has the one of the specified types, - for example, Marsh Flats searches out Plains or Swamp – your possibilities for lands to search for are much bigger than you think. It applies to the original dual lands from Alpha, the Ravnica dual lands, basic lands, snow-covered lands, and even several unique lands from Shadowmoor. Using Marsh Flats again as an example, below are the specific lands you can currently search for:

Badlands (Swamp Mountain)
Bayou (Swamp Forest)
Blood Crypt (Swamp Mountain)
Godless Shrine (Plains Swamp)
Hallowed Fountain (Plains Island)
Leechridden Swamp (Swamp)
Mistveil Plains (Plains)
Overgrown Tomb (Swamp Forest)
Plains (Plains)
Plateau (Mountain Plains)
Sacred Foundry (Mountain Plains)
Savannah (Forest Plains)
Scrubland (Plains Swamp)
Snow-Covered Plains (Plains)
Snow-Covered Swamp (Swamp)
Swamp (Swamp)
Temple Garden (Forest Plains)
Tundra (Plains Island)
Underground Sea (Island Swamp)
Watery Grave (Island Swamp)

Notice that you have access to all five colors in that list, if you are pulling dual lands with your fetch land. It’s completely legal and completely encouraged. If you’ve ever been frustrated with getting mana screwed or just not getting the right color at the right time, these fetch lands will open up a whole world of possibilities for you. And even if you don’t have the dual lands, pulling a Swamp or a Plains out of your deck is just as powerful. When you need just one more White mana source, it’s nice to have that option.

Best art? Arid Mesa FOR SURE! Perspective, color, detail… it’s all there and absolutely beautiful. Misty Rainforest comes close to Arid Mesa as being one of my favorites, but you have to see a larger version of the art. I think you’ll agree with me that Arid Mesa is by far one of the best arts in the set.

If you don't agree, tell me why in the forums!

Crypt of Agadeem
Land
Crypt of Agadeem enters the battlefield tapped.
{T}: Add {B} to your mana pool.
{2}, {T}: Add {B} to your mana pool for each Black creature card in your graveyard.

Grade: B+
This in a Black suicide deck could get ridonkulous if you are playing with creatures that sacrifice themselves for mana or other effects (think Thrulls) and has the capability to get "Cabal Coffers crazy" after turn five or six. While Cabal Coffers doesn’t come into play tapped, Cabal Coffers doesn’t have the option to tap for a Black mana. Also, I think you can fill up your graveyard with Black creature cards faster than you can put Swamps on the board, especially if you are Morality Shifting and Burying the Alive…

Emeria, the Sky Ruin
Land
Emeria, the Sky Ruin enters the battlefield tapped.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control seven or more Plains, you may return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
{T}: Add {W} to your mana pool.

Grade: A
Tithe, Land Tax, Gift of Estates, Weathered Wayfarer, Noble Templar, Endless Horizons… there are an endless number of ways to ramp up your Plains mana base in White. With that said, this card can cause your opponent some serious troubles if they can’t kill you before one of these are dropped. Note that this isn’t legendary either. You could have several of these out, recurring several creatures a turn. Think comes into play abilities or cards that can sacrifice themselves for an ability. Spore Frog anyone?

Magosi, the Waterveil
Land
Magosi, the Waterveil enters the battlefield tapped.
{T}: Add {U} to your mana pool.
{U}, {T}: Put an eon counter on Magosi, the Waterveil. Skip your next turn.
{T}, Remove an eon counter from Magosi, the Waterveil and return it to its owner's hand: Take an extra turn after this one.

Grade: B-
I’m not sure why I’m lacking excitement over this card. Maybe I just like playing with my Magistrate’s Scepter and Power Conduit over the Waterveil. Still, this is a fun inclusion for any Blue deck that just wants a few options in the deck to make game play more varied, challenging and fun.

Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
Land
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood enters the battlefield tapped.
{T}: Add {G} to your mana pool.
{T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on each Green creature that entered the battlefield this turn.

Grade: A+
It’s a shame this card only affect Green creatures, but that doesn’t make it any less good. Putting a +1/+1 counter on a Birds of Paradise that just came into play, or a horde of Wolf or Bear tokens that just came into play is great. And you don’t have to invest any mana into the ability. It only costs a tap! Again, this is a fun card that would go great in a quantity of one or two in any mono-Green casual deck. With me having an affinity for Green, I like this a little more than the other should-be Legendary lands from Zendikar.

That’s right, I think Oran-Rief, Magosi, Emeria, Valakut, and the Crypt should have all been Legendary. I’m not complaining.

Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Land
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a Mountain enters the battlefield under your control, if you control at least five other Mountains, you may have Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle deal 3 damage to target creature or player.
{T}: Add {R} to your mana pool.

Grade: A+
Now this makes some great use out of drawing a Mountain late game when you could have used a Lightning Bolt or Incinerate. Turning each Mountain into a Lightning Bolt makes Red Deck Wins or mono-Red burn decks just a little better in general.

The problem is, Red is probably the worst color at getting more Mountains in play. It’s going to need Green or White’s help to pull more Mountains out of the deck and onto the battlefield. And the more you colors you add to the deck, the less chance you have of having five or more Mountains when you need them. Unless you get around that problem with Prismatic Omen.

In any event, this is a great card and definitely worth splashing one or two into your mono-Red casual deck.

Kabira Crossroads
Land
Kabira Crossroads enters the battlefield tapped.
When Kabira Crossroads enters the battlefield, you gain 2 life.
{T}: Add {W} to your mana pool.

Grade: C-
Life is good, as mentioned earlier. However, I think the White version in this cycle is the least exciting. Some of these lands with comes into play abilities can grant abilities that matter in combat.

Piranha Marsh
Land
Piranha Marsh enters the battlefield tapped.
When Piranha Marsh enters the battlefield, target player loses 1 life.
{T}: Add {B} to your mana pool.

Grade: A-
One of the few lands in Zendikar that can single handedly win you the game, just by coming into play. That’s assuming you are in a stalemate and your opponent is at one life. You play this… you win! Love it.

Soaring Seacliff
Land
Soaring Seacliff enters the battlefield tapped.
When Soaring Seacliff enters the battlefield, target creature gains flying until end of turn.
{T}: Add {U} to your mana pool.

Grade: B-
What I like about this card is that it creates some interesting choices. Should I play my Seacliff now to ramp up my mana base, or should I wait until I have a beatstick that I can grant flying to and win the game? I’d much rather put a Magosi in my Blue deck than this, but in draft, cards like this sure make the games interesting.

Teetering Peaks
Land
Teetering Peaks enters the battlefield tapped.
When Teetering Peaks enters the battlefield, target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
{T}: Add {R} to your mana pool.

Grade: C+
Granting flying is better than +2/+0, but it still could give you the upper hand for a turn. What’s best is you putting this into play when attacking with a creature that has the Scope equipped. Suddenly your attack became a little better thanks to the Peaks.

Turntimber Grove
Land
Turntimber Grove enters the battlefield tapped.
When Turntimber Grove enters the battlefield, target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
{T}: Add {G} to your mana pool.

Grade: C
Not bad, but not terribly good either. It could save a creature from death or give you an edge in combat. However, this just isn’t as splashable into an existing decklist as some of the other lands.

So how do you feel about Zendikar’s lands and artifact cards? Did you find some delicious cards? Let me know what they are in the forum! Also let me know what you thought of my opinion of some of the lands. Do you agree with me that some of the lands are splashable into your existing decks? Here’s my top six of lands I can splash (from Zendikar):

6. Pirahna Marsh
5. Crypt of Agadeem
4. Magosi, the Waterveil
3. Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
2. Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1. Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

Thanks for walking through the Artifacts and Lands from Zenidkar with me. I enjoyed reviewing them and offering my opinion on them for you. Keep coming back to Magic Deck Vortex for more articles, contests, features and more!

John Streetz
www.magicdeckvortex.com, 7 years old

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