Magic: The Gathering’s next major expansion is less than a month away, which means we are heading into spoiler season. As the late September launch of Zendikar Rising prepares to take TCG players back to one of MtG’s most iconic planes for a third visit, the first few cards have already been revealed.
Spoiler season for Zendikar Rising will start rolling forward a lot more quickly after September 1, but players have already had a chance to get some clues about the upcoming set and get a look at the first two planeswalkers that will be available in the mythic rarity slot. Both planeswalkers are returning characters with a long history in Magic: The Gathering lore and it will be very interesting to find out what they are up to in Zendikar this time around.
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Although it will take some time before we learn more about the Zendikar Rising story, it’s never too early to start evaluating the strength of each individual card. Planeswalkers have a history of being incredibly powerful, so let’s see how the new Zendikar Rising versions of Jace and Nahiri hold up to the test…
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.
Over the years, Jace has become one of the most popular planeswalkers in the game and the character has had some incredibly powerful cards printed. This version doesn’t seem broken out of the gate, but it does represent an impressive amount of card advantage, which is a very dangerous thing in the hands of the right blue-themed deck. a Scry 2 that adds loyalty is very powerful for a deck that likely has lots of ways to draw cards anyway and the additional ability
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 another fan-favorite planeswalker, but this card is definitely a lot more narrow than Jace in comparison. Where Jace seems to loosely align with the goals of many blue-themed decks, Nahiri has a much more specific focus on decks that care about Warriors and Equipment. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all, it just means that Nahiri will be best when carefully paired with exactly the right suite of creatures and artifacts.
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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