Zendikar Rising Limited Overview

Introduction/Personal Aside

Outlined below is a detailed introduction to Zendikar Rising limited. I will be covering the set’s mechanics, archetypes, how/what/when to splash, rules of thumb for land counts, and example builds. I’m Bryan “Veveil” Hohns btw, a competitive Magic player who has been playing this game consistently for about 7 years now. I consider myself a strong Limited player (judge for yourself here), and hope that this write-up is helpful for anyone looking to improve their Limited game/do well in this new set.

Mechanics

If you’d like to double check the rules/basics of each mechanic, the official introduction is here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/zendikar-rising-mechanics-2020-09-01.

More detailed information is available as well on this page: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/zendikar-rising-release-notes-2020-09-10.

Double-Faced Spell/Land Cards

Zendikar Rising introduces spell/land front/back cards for the first time in Magic history. Although generally underpowered on either individual side (the spell sides are generally overcosted, the land sides are mono-colored and enter tapped), these double-faced cards are awesome for their flexibility. Most Limited decks would be happy to include a few tapland/spell hybrids to increase their relative land/spell count. Including many spell/land cards in your deck will vastly decrease the chances of encountering mana screw/flood. These cards also play well with the landfall/kicker mechanics, as both appreciate high land counts.

They appear completely evenly split between each color, with 4 uncommons/1 rare/1 mythic each (1 of the uncommons for each is a creature/land as well). The mythic rares of the cycle are unique compared to the others as they have the option to enter untapped for 3 life. Final point worth noting on these cards is that, like all double-faced cards before them, their card type is whatever is on the front side of the card. They cannot be tutored for or returned from the graveyard as lands, and you can be forced to discard them via “choose a nonland card” style effects. Full list of double-faced cards here.

Any creature/lands that hit the graveyard can be returned to your hand as creatures.

Turn a land into a 4/4 with reach/haste, then redraw it as a spell when the land dies in combat.

Tazeem Raptor and other cards like it can pick up extra gas in the late game by returning lands for immediate use as spells.

Party

Party is the only new mechanic in Zendikar Rising. Party provides increasing rewards for assembling as much of a “party” (having one Warrior, one Rogue, one Wizard and one Cleric in play) as you can. There are a variety of payoffs for achieving party in this set, with 20/32 of them appearing on creatures (all of which have at least one party relevant tribe). Some of the payoffs are aggressive temporary pumps/anthems, while others generate life, +1/+1 counters, card advantage, ping creatures for X damage, or even create tokens.

Party is an interesting puzzle in that each color has different shares of Warriors, Rogues, Wizards and Clerics. Most of the cards in this set that play well with non-party mechanics (landfall, kicker) do not have any of the required tribes to form a party. There is also a tension in the set between party and various cards that instead ask you to focus on a specific tribe. The party mechanic tends to discourage trading and increases the power of cheap spot removal. It also subtly weakens cards like Bubble Snare and Nahiri’s Binding a bit, as both “kill” creatures but leave them in play to complete parties.

WU and RB are the two color pairs that seem built around assembling parties in this set, with WU being a midrange party archetype and RB being an aggressive one. At a glance, here is how each color contributes to forming parties. Full list of cards featuring the party mechanic here.

White

White has the most clerics, the second most Warriors, and has one Wizard at common. White does not have access to Rogues. White has a host of payoffs for achieving party, most of which are aggressively slanted.

Emeria Captain counts herself as the party’s Warrior, so this is a 3W 2/2 Flying/Vigilance at worst.

One of white’s best commons, and one of its most control friendly cards as well. Even alone this is a pretty decent rate.

A Hill Giant with an aggressive trigger that gets better the more well rounded your party is.

Blue

Blue has the most Wizards, the second most Rogues, and has one Cleric at common. There are no Warriors in Blue. Blue has some payoffs for completing parties, but none of them reward you greatly for doing so.

A bomb for focused party decks, and a solid two-drop for Rogue tribal decks. Nimble Trapfinder is solid rare to P1P1.

Adding party members gives this an incredible degree of card selection, although 4U Sorcery draw 3 isn’t a terrible rate regardless.

As with other party cards, Seafloor Stalker counts itself, so this ability will never actually cost more than 3U.

Black

Black has the most Rogues, the second most Clerics, and has one Warrior at common. Wizards do not appear in black. WB and WU decks will struggle to fill parties due to the way types are distributed. Having Drana’s Silencer, Deadly Alliance, and Malakir Blood-Priest at common makes achieving party in black very rewarding.

Note that this says “battlefield”, not “hand”. This is a superb uncommon (double Rise from the Grave!) that only gets better with party sizing.

A great common that helps assemble parties early and rewards you for doing so if you draw it later in the game.

The best black common, 4 mana Murder is generally good in Limited and this can easily be cheaper than that.

Red

Red has the most Warriors, the second most Wizards, and a few Rogues as well (including one at common). RU decks will struggle to complete parties due to only having one Cleric available. Red’s payoffs for assembling a party are reasonable, but are a bit lackluster compared to white or black.

This is a very all or nothing party card, and won’t be of much use in Wizard tribal decks.

The party reward is cute, but this is mostly Wizard curve filler.

A poor blocker that at least attacks well, assuming you can support it.

Green

Green is the true wildcard color for parties. It is the only color to be capable of fully fielding a party on its own, with 2 Warriors, 2 Rogues, 1 Cleric and 1 Wizard at common. It also has Veteran Adventurer and Tajuru Paragon, both of which count for all 4 tribes. However, green has almost no payoffs for completing parties on its own, and must rely on other colors to provide incentives to do so.

Green’s only common Wizard is a good value creature in any deck. BG decks may want to take this card highly, as Black does not have access to Wizards.

This is a solid rate with just a single party member, and helps power up party dependent cards from other colors.

Sorcery speed means that Strength of Solidarity is basically an aura that gives +1/+1 to +4/+4 for G. It’s potentially powerful in a BG party deck, but risky.

Landfall

Landfall is a classic Zendikar mechanic, returning for its third time in Zendikar Rising. Permanents with landfall generate some kind of value whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control. Most of the landfall cards in this set are creatures (21/25), with a few noncreature exceptions at higher rarities. Landfall is generally an aggressive mechanic, as most landfall triggers give +2/+2 to a creature until end of turn, permanent +1/+1 counters, pump the team, tap blockers, etc. The timing of landfall (generally your main phase before combat) also favors attacking, though Kazandu Nectarpot is an exception to this rule.

Every single color has cards with landfall, although blue and blacks common landfall cards are mostly just curve filler. White, red and green, on the other hand, have a solid amount of support for building around the mechanic. White landfall consists of 2 commons, 2 uncommons, and a (busted) rare. Red has 2 commons, 1 uncommon, 1 rare and 1 mythic with landfall. Green has the most landfall cards, with 3 commons, 1 uncommon, and 3 rares.

Landfall has multicolor support in the form of a handful of powerful rares and two signpost uncommons, Brushfire Elemental and Murasa Rootgrazer. Rootgrazer does not have landfall itself, but has obvious synergy with the mechanic. As such landfall appears to be the build around mechanic for most RG or GW draft decks, which will be discussed in greater detail below. Lastly, keep in mind that cards such as Roiling Regrowth and Vastwood Surge have synergy with landfall as well. Roiling Regrowth in particular is interesting, in that it is the only way in the entire set to get landfall triggers on your opponent’s turn (example line: block with a +2/+2 landfall creature, then cast Roiling Regrowth for +4/+4 until end of turn). Full list of landfall cards here.

Valakut Exploration rewards you for hitting your land drops with a constant clip of either spells or 1 damage pings end of turn. I’m not yet sure whether this is a bomb rare or merely a good card.

Canyon Jerboa is pathetically small, so you’ll generally want to slow roll it until you can at least play a land the turn you play it. Very threatening Mouse though!

Solid landfall beater at common, frequently attacks as a 6/5 for 4 which is huge. Defensively this is a bit underpowered though.

Kicker

Kicker is a classic Magic mechanic that let’s you get more out of certain spells, if are willing to pay extra mana to do so. Every color in the set has cards with kicker; white is by far the least kicker friendly color with only 2 cards total (1 common/1 uncommon), both of which are rather aggressive. Blue is the best supported kicker color, with a whopping 6(!) commons featuring the mechanic. Black, red and green have a 2-3 commons with kicker each as well as varying numbers of cards at higher rarities. There are also colorless cards with kicker as well, although Skyclave Sentinel is the only non-rare one.

When evaluating kicker cards, treat them as split cards with option 1 (the base rate) and option 2 (the kicked rate). Kicker is the key focus of UG in this set, as headlined by Lullmage’s Familiar, a very solid mana dork, blocker, and source of lifegain rolled into one adorable package. There are two cards that care about kicker specifically in blue (Roost of Drakes and Coralhelm Chronicler) and two in green (Vine Gecko and Murasa Sproutling). BG is the second most kicker friendly color pair in the set, and makes a good secondary home for the two green uncommons mentioned. For most decks though, kicker will be a nice bonus on certain cards, but not something specifically built around. Full list of kicker cards here.

Kitestali Cleric is one of the more bizarre cards with kicker. I can’t imagine playing this in any deck that didn’t already want a 1/1 Flying Cleric for W, though the kicker is better than nothing.

Explosive Vegetation with an 8 mana mode to put +2/+2 counters on your entire team. It’s a nice late game option, but 8 mana is too expensive to play this in any deck not interested in the first mode.

1R Sorcery 3 damage to any target is a great Limited card on its own, and this comes with free late game upside. Red’s best common and an easy first pick.

Archetypes

RW Warriors

Red and white have the most Warriors and have various payoffs for focusing on Warriors, rather than building a balanced party. RW Warriors is easily one of the most aggressive archetypes in the set. There are 5 uncommon payoffs for this archetype and 2 common payoffs in the form of Expedition Champion and Resolute Strike. Many cards in this archetype also reward you for playing equipment, such as Kor Blademaster and Akiri, Fearless Voyager. As such, RW Warriors is the best home for various pieces of common equipment (Utility Knife, Cliffhaven Kitesail, Scavenged Blade) that other decks may not even want. RW party is a viable fallback plan, assuming you are stuck in RW yet cannot assemble critical mass of Warriors/payoffs. Expected land count: 16-17.

The signpost uncommon for RW is a simple but effective 3/3 for 3 lord. Play Warriors, play Warleader, and attack!

1W 1/1 Double Strike is a bit weak on its own, but Kor Blademaster is a top notch card with combat tricks and equipment.

The best common payoff for a Warrior aggro deck, helps fill out the 3 slot nicely.

UB Rogues

Blue and black is another tribal archetype, this time focusing on Rogues. Rogues in this set are interesting in that many of them care about filling your opponent’s graveyard to 8 cards or more for various bonuses. This can be accomplished with mill, removal spells, combat, and discard spells. UB Rogues can be built as a tempo deck, a control deck, or a mill deck. It is also the best home for powerful mill cards such as Relic Golem, Ruin Crab, and Maddening Cacophony, although these cards may not make every Rogue build. UB is also the obvious best home for cards like Anticognition and Mind Carver, which are underpowered without mill. Expected land count: 16-19.

Soaring Thought-Thief is a great signpost uncommon, acceptable on its own and excellent with other Rogues. Of particular importance here is the mill trigger.

Zareth San is one of the bombiest cards in the set, and dramatically increases the value of small, evasive Rogues.

Common filler for the Rogues deck. Not super exciting even when active, but a bear is a bear.

BG Counters/Kicker

BG is likely the most flexible of the two color pairs in this set. It’s signpost uncommon is in my opinion the weakest of the cycle, though not a weak card in a vacuum. It also has features a nice pairing between the best party payoffs (black) and the best party assembling (green). Thus, BG can be built as a +1/+1 counter focused deck with a kicker subtheme, or as a midrange deck focused on green party members and black party rewards. The BG counters archetype is best entered via the uncommon/rare payoffs, with BG party being a nice alternative for when such cards are not available. BG counters is the best home for various cards like Hagra Constrictor, Oblivion’s Hunger, and Gruul Draz Mucklord. Expected landcount: 17-20.

Moss-Pit Skeleton would be A+ if it returned to hand, but returning to top of the library limits the power level here. Still a decent split card with inevitability.

In comparison to Iridescent Hornbeetle, Skyclave Shadowcat has a higher floor yet lower ceiling. This is a solid Hill Giant with good upside in this archetype.

One of the best payoffs for BG Counters, 5 mana 3/4 is weak but this can quickly spiral out of control in the right deck.

RG Landfall

RG landfall is an aggressive/midrange deck that focuses on, you guessed it, landfall triggers. Most landfall triggers in RG are very aggressive, as exemplified by the RG signpost uncommon, which hits hard and fast for 2 mana but is useless on defense. Double-faced cards are particularly excellent in RG for keeping land counts high without giving up spell counts. This is the best home for hyper aggressive cards like Akoum Hellhound. Bigger, more midrangey versions of RG landfall are possible as well. Finding what pace/card composition suits your card pool will be the key to this archetype. Don’t forget that cards such as Scale the Heights and Roiling Regrowth play great with Landfall! Expected land count: 18-21.

Brushfire Elemental shows what RG is all about in this set. Combine with other +2/+2 landfallers for terrifying attack steps!

Skyclave Geopede is a very good uncommon that excels in RG Landfall. 5/3 Trample for 3 is not hard, and this can be bigger than that as well.

This is an extremely aggressive Magic card! Only play this if you are serious about aggression/hitting land drops, as it is useless otherwise.

WB Clerics

WB Clerics is a midrange tribal deck built around amassing Clerics and various lifegain synergies. There is also a sacrifice subtheme in WB Clerics, though only on a pair of uncommons (Demon’s Disciple/Relic Vial). Relic Vial in particular is interesting here, as it is an all but useless card anywhere else. Much of the lifegain here will simply come up incidentally, through various Clerics you would want to play anyways. This is one of the better homes for Blood Beckoning, Blood Price, and similar grindy effects. BW Clerics is also the single best archetype for Feed the Swarm, as the drawback can be offset with BW’s quality life gain. Expected land count: 16-18.

Cleric of Life’s Bond clearly shows off the dual lifegain/Clerics matters theme here. It’s an Ajani’s Pridemate of sorts that can power itself, so long as you play Clerics.

Scion of the Swarm is at its best here, although it does have good synergy with a few green commons as well.

Kor Celebrant is a top common for this archetype, as several uncommons in WB Clerics reward you for gaining life. The 1/4 body helps stall the ground as well.

GU Kicker

GU Kicker probably has the best natural endgame of any archetype, as you’ll have the most big mana payoffs relative to other two color combinations. GU kicker is not a particularly aggressive deck, and will usually fall somewhere between midrange/control. This is the best home for the “kicker matters” uncommons, 2 of which appear in blue and green. UG’s strategy will generally to draw games out and win with card advantage/big effects. Bubble Snare, Into the Roil, and Field Research are some of its best commons, although having good blockers seems important as well. Expected land count: 17-20.

This adorable little guy is equal parts mana dork, life gain engine, and well costed blocker. It won’t win you the game on its own, but provides top tier support.

If you can draw the game out and kick multiple spells, this is a very efficient source of fliers. The kicker here helps boost other kicker matters cards too.

UG Kicker is basically the only archetype I’d want to play Risen Riptide in. It blocks ground creatures respectably well early and crunches for 5 damage a turn later.

GW Landfall

When compared to RG Landfall, GW Landfall seems to be the less aggressive deck of the two. You won’t have enough card advantage here to be truly durdly, but you’ll be more towards the midrange end of the spectrum than the average RG deck. GW decks that succeed in pulling off the landfall theme will not be concerned with assembling parties. As with other archetypes, focusing more on party synergies (white payoffs, green assembles) is a good backup plan/way to fill slots if the landfall plan dries up. Even the best GW landfall decks will likely have some party creatures regardless. Expected land count: 17-20.

Murasa Rootgrazer shows off that GW landfall is more interested in playing a value game than RG. Rootgrazer can accelerate you to expensive cards and return lands to hand for landfall triggers.

Fearless Fledgling isn’t really a “landfall card”, because the rate here is so good that this should be in every white deck. It’s even better with synergies though!

This is the kind of card that I’d call “archetype filler”. It’s not efficient enough to be a high pick, even in GW landfall, but it is better here than anywhere else.

BR Party

BR is the more aggressive party focused deck, although it has plenty of decent cards for longer games as well. Black and red complement each other well in terms of creature types (black rogues/clerics, red warriors/wizards) though you may want to take wizards here a bit higher than normal. Blood Beckoning is an appealing card in BR, as it can let you pick up multiple fallen party members. Many creatures in this archetype also tend to trade easily as well. If you are in BR, you should definitely be pursuing party synergies; there doesn’t seem to be anything else the color pair does particularly well together. Expected land count: 17-19.

Ravager’s Mace shows off what BR is after nicely. Assemble diverse parties and crush your enemies, or don’t and certainly don’t bother playing this card!

Zagras is a massive bomb that barely needs any help (I’d play this at 6 mana with no cost reduction option). The rate here with party is just unreal though.

Shatterskull Minotaur is no Zagras, but the rate here is fine with even just one other member.

WU Party

WU is the more value oriented party deck, which Spoils of Adventure does a great job in showing off. Despite this, most WU decks should expect to be outvalued by an archetype like UG kicker in a very long game. White and blue complement each other well for assembling parties, although you should take Rogues a bit higher than other creature types if possible. Assembling a nice mix of party creatures/types, interaction, card advantage, and party payoffs is essential for building strong WU decks. As with BR, try to focus on the party mechanic when you are in this color pair. Expected land count: 17-19.

I’d play this with no cost reduction, honestly. Every single point of mana you take off the cost here just makes this even better. Pick this very highly!

Linvala is not quite Zagras level, but still an awesome card. The rate here is good with no help and amazing with parties.

WU is the best home for this scrappy looking removal spell. This card won’t do much on its own, but it can be very efficient in a well built deck.

UR Wizards

UR Wizards is the final tribal archetype. Wizard payoff cards are unique in that they reward you not just for playing other Wizards, but for playing instant and sorceries as well. As such, most UR Wizard decks will want to run a comfortable mix of Wizards and spells. UR Wizards usually will play out like a controlling tempo deck, and is easily the most controlling color pair for red in this set. If Wizards doesn’t seem open at all, you can try to build a generic control deck or exit into a different color pair. The fact that UR payoffs care about instant/sorceries as well makes staying in this archetype a bit easier than others. This is the best home for Tormenting Voice, Deliberate, and other mediocre cantrips/spells. Expected land count: 16-18.

The signpost uncommon for UR is a Wee Dragonauts style flier that cares about Wizards as well. Keep casting relevant spells and this will take huge chucks out of your opponent’s life total.

The body here isn’t good enough for this card to make every UR deck. If you want to play Kaza, pair her with her other Wizards and powerful instants/sorceries with expensive kicker costs.

Snapping Drake is a playable rate, and this rewards you for being Wizard focused with a cantrip on death. It’s hard to imagine cutting this in any UR deck.

Deckbuilding Considerations

Number of Lands to Play

Thanks to spell/land cards, just about every deck should be playing more lands than normal, so long as you are counting said cards as lands. 16 minimum for aggro decks, with landfall decks potentially playing 20+ lands if enough of them are double faced. Ironically, it is more than possible for aggressive decks in this format to have very high land counts, thanks to landfall. The golden rule for Limited mana is to have at least 8 sources of each of your primary colors.

Splashing Bombs

Fixing

Stonework Packbeast, Base Camp, Cleansing Wildfire, Lithomancer’s Blight and the six rare dual-lands are all of the available non-green fixing. Stonework Packbeast is an upgrade to Prismite, but is too fragile and underpowered to splash rares with. Base Camp can help splash party bombs (generally Zagras, Tazri, or Zareth San) if needed, but entering tapped makes it rather unimpressive, given how narrow it is. Cleansing Wildfire/Lithomancer’s Blight are cantrips that also double as janky, awkward fixing, though neither card is particularly amazing at the role. All of the duals are exceptional in any deck with both colors, but should not be picked super highly in draft. They can certainly be picked over late pack filler though.

Green has fixing in the form of Reclaim the Wastes, Vastwood Surge, Roiling Growth, and Lotus Cobra (at rare). If you aren’t playing Green, you should almost never be splashing in this set. The only possible exception would be if you can achieve a high enough land count through DFCs to justify splashing (say, a UB Sealed deck with 19 lands splashing Zagras off of 3 Mountains, with mandatory 8 Swamps/Islands minimum for color requirements).

Great source of landfall triggers and color fixing, though without any synergy 3 mana Rampant Growth is not actually all that impressive.

Card was mentioned above, but it’s much more exciting in a deck looking to splash/do powerful late game things.

Lay of the Land + upside is nice, though not entirely necessary if you aren’t splashing. Having natural green sources (ideally at least 8, though 10+ is better) is important when playing cards like this.

Cards Worth Splashing (not exhaustive)

When to Splash?

You should splash when you are in green/have enough fixing, when you have a powerful card, and when it is convenient to do so. As always, a rule of thumb for splashing is to have 3+ sources for 1-2 cards. Count cards like Reclaim the Wastes as a colored source. Splashes will slow down your deck but increase its power level; boarding out of a splash when against a very aggressive opponent is always an option. Splashing is also generally more common/effective in Sealed, where it is harder to assemble archetype synergies and individual card power matters more.

A Word on Omnath, Locus of Creation

Omnath looks daunting to splash, but it is possible. The easiest way to do so is to use Roiling Regrowth, Vastwood Surge, or kicked Reclaim the Wastes to go and grab 2 offcolor basics. You will need to be base UG, GW, or GR to consider splashing it; don’t bother in GB. Your mana base should include at least 8 or so of each of your base colors, plus one basic of each of your offcolors for Omnath. Having 3+ effects that tutor 2 basics will give you a realistic shot at casting Omnath on time. Prioritize them highly once you have Omnath!

Removal Spells

White

Like Deadly Alliance, this starts as acceptable with one member and continues to get better and better with each member added. A top notch uncommon for any white deck.

Start 0-1 copies (if you have lots of card selection/need more answers to fatties), and board into more copies if it looks good. Best against red/green, weakest against blue. I would expect this to be a bit better in Sealed than in Draft as well.

White’s best common removal spell. The WW cost is annoying, and it doesn’t remove the creature for party purposes, but Nahiri’s Binding is efficient enough that most white decks will be interested.

Blue

The rider text here (costs 3 less if eight or more cards) is a bit awkward, but this is a powerful card for a base blue control deck either way. Make sure you have enough blue sources to support UUU.

This card really pushes the bubble (heh) on Capture Snare variants, as having the option to answer a tapped creature permanently for U is quite impressive. A high pick, especially in UG kicker.

Into the Roil isn’t technically removal, in any permanent sense, but it’s a great temporary problem solver that can cantrip as well. Every blue deck is happy to play a couple of these.

Black

2BB kill a creature is a fine rate for Limited, and this even has added flexibility for taking out cheap creatures for a single B.

Most decks will be happy to start a copy, but Feed the Swarm has diminishing returns due to the high cost of life. Don’t forget that this kills enchantments, including busted rares like Felidar Retreat.

Vanish the Weak is an acceptable rate, and is functionally better in this set than it would be in most others, due to the party mechanic. Not broken, but worth playing and picking early in draft.

Red

Premium uncommon removal, 4 damage for 2 mana is just a fantastic rate. Easy P1P1, auto-include in any red deck.

3 mana for 2 damage is a weak rate, though the flexibility of blowing up equipment/artifact creatures somewhat makes up for this.

Most red decks will be happy to play 1-2 of these, but it’s expensive enough not to want to take over more efficient cards.

Green

Having a tapped Forest on the backside of this more than makes up for Khalni Ambush’s inefficiency. This is a deceptively strong card that should be picked highly.

Broken Wings is a removal spell, albeit one that isn’t ideal in the average maindeck. It’s a great, versatile sideboard card, and I wouldn’t even fault you for starting a copy in Sealed.

Green’s only real common removal spell requires you to jump through some hoops, but at least this is a “bite spell” rather than a fight spell. Most green decks would like to play a copy or two of Rapid Bite.

Example Decks (using Draftsim)

BW Clerics (18 lands, 3 DFC)

UR Wizards (17 lands, 3 DFC)

UW Party (17 lands, 2 DFC)

Conclusion

Thank you for reading! Hopefully you enjoyed this article/found it helpful. If you did please leave a comment and/or follow me on Twitter here. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about the set. I have a YouTube channel as well; hopefully I’ll be uploading some draft videos soon after the set goes live. And lastly here is my Twitch, though I have few plans to stream consistently at the moment.