Zendikar Rising Limited Set Review – Black

Drifter

I’ve been enthralled by Limited ever since I began playing in New Phyrexia. With a particular fondness for flashback and cube drafts, I’ve drafted more sets than I can count on every platform through wildly different eras. On Arena I draft infinitely, having profited 30k or so gems from it at this point, and have made top 100 mythic many times. Self-reflection and forming good habits are paramount to Limited improvement, and those themes feature in many of my articles and in each session of the Limited coaching service I provide; consider booking a session today if you’d like feedback tailored to you that you can really put into practice!

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Drifter: B-

The baseline of a creature which discards them is decent, and this can even thoughtseize them if you have enough party members. This gets a little extra value in this set because people will often hold their last land or two in case they draw their landfall cards, so it’ll be online for longer. I’ve also found that people have a tendency to undervalue their lands in general, when taking a land with this in the early game is very good for you!

Drifter: A+

This is a completely absurd ability to have on a land. It keeps scaling into the later game but even just returning 2-3 creatures on turn 6 or 7 is nuts. Being playable on a land actually matters less on spell-lands which are this good, because you have to be desperate to play this as a land in Limited, but it’s certainly nice upside as well, though definitely always use a spell slot for this.

Drifter: B

This is another of those spell-lands which are never bad – either you have a decent body that scales well into the late game even, or you get to make your land drops when you need to. It’s the most powerful of the uncommon spell-lands we’ve reviewed so far, so I’m happy to take it very highly.

For this one, it’s kind of interesting whether you count it as a spell or a land and I’d mostly look at how packed your 3 drop slot is and how easily your deck can make it a 5/3. If your 3 drop slot is packed, good reason to have it as a land, and if you can make it a 5/3 easily then good reason to have it as a spell. The rest of your deck matters too; if it’s pretty high curve then you can benefit from extra lands anyway so count it as a spell.

Drifter: C-

I think with this card, the flexibility of costing 1 mana is actually a pretty big deal – when you have good ways to use your mana or just have a good creature to return, this does so cheaply, and then in the late game it’s not too bad to have to pay 1 more for it, even if it does mean you won’t always be able to deploy the best thing you brought back that turn. I don’t think this card is exciting, but the flexibility means I don’t plan to cut it all the time either. Your opponents milling you is also a pretty great way to enable this!

Drifter: C-

With Kicker cards, I feel like you want to be on the board more in this sort of format in the early turns because you’ll have enough expensive stuff to play later on, which makes a card like this significantly less exciting. With Dark Bargain, your opponents had to play around countermagic and the potential for you to have removal spells, so you lose quite a large play dynamic in having to tap out for this at sorcery speed. This card also pales in comparison to Blue card draw, and I doubt you’ll want more than 1 copy in almost any deck.

Drifter: B+

4 mana hard removal with a powerful tempo option that you usually won’t want to use, but will be great when it comes up especially in removal-heavy hands, is a great place to be.

Drifter: D

Tutors aren’t good in Limited when they cost a lot of mana, and I think this will cost 3 or more too often for me to be really happy. It is cute that you can use it to finish off your Party for other cards, but I think that won’t come up as often as just getting the best card in your deck. It is nice in the late game when your deck is already well set-up for Party and it doesn’t cost that much mana, so I don’t think it’s totally unplayable. I think tutoring after you already have a full party is pretty winmore, so I’m not excited by that line of text either – I’d play this if I had a great bomb and I was well set-up for party, and not otherwise.

It is worth noting that this card gets a good deal better in Sealed, and I’d be a lot more likely to play it there, since that’s a slower bombier format.

Drifter: B+

This is a great removal spell and you’ll play it even if you don’t have many of the Party types somehow, since it’ll usually cost either 3 or 4, and be great either way. Still, I think there are enough draws where it’ll be more awkward than Murder – say when you draw a bunch of Clerics and not your Warriors – that I don’t want to give it higher than B+.

Drifter: C-

Edict effects don’t tend to be great in Limited, and the fact that there are almost no token producers is a double-edged sword – you don’t get to sacrifice your own but your opponents are less likely to have them. Still, there are plenty of 1 drops people will play to enable party types, so I think if you have enough of those, this is a decent card, but the failcase of having to use it as a 3 mana edict and sacrifice itself is really bad, since you’ll mostly just be trading down there. The Cleric type in Black is reasonably valuable, as there are only 2 commons, but having to sacrifice other members of your party could be quite painful too!

Drifter: A+

Drana is a 4/4 flier for 5, which is a great statline, but then she gives you often game-winning value if she gets to attack! That’s a fantastic rate, so I doubt I’ll ever be passing this card.

Drifter: C

If this card is giving something -2/-2, it’s a decent rate and you only need one other non-Rogue party member for that! Blight-Breath Catoblepas was one of the best commons in that format, and this doesn’t scale quite as well but it’s still good enough, and the threat of giving -3/-3 or -4/-4 later on is very real. Still, this is a kicker format so 6 drops are weaker, and you do need to draw a good mix of types for it to be really good, so I’m not going to pick it too highly but I don’t think it’s a bad card by any means.

Drifter: C+

This is a great line of text if you’re attacking, and I’m pretty excited about this card – being a 5/4 makes it a really fast clock and very hard for them to block. Green has some ways to put lands in at instant speed, and that can set up some tricksy moments and even enable its ability on the defence.

Drifter: C-

There are four common Rogues, all of which are fine, and deathtouch means that this is a 2 drop that scales decently into the late game. It’s not all that exciting a card and not worth running unless you have plenty of other Rogues/are looking to enable the payoffs, so take it as filler if you’re not there yet.

Drifter: B-

The more you want to kill something, the worse this is on average. It’s such an efficient rate that you’re usually happy anyway, but I think you’re going to want to use this on small creatures a lot, and it will play worse than it looks. 5 damage for a decent flying threat is just not an amount you can afford to take in a lot of matchups. Hitting Enchantments is really nice so I do expect this card to be good, but it also gets a good deal worse in multiples – you probably don’t want to draw two in the early turns of any given game.

Drifter: C

Not having a relevant creature type really hurts this card. It’s reasonably versatile, but both options are weak, and I think other kicker cards will outscale this by a lot – in other sets, you might’ve been able to rely on it shutting down aggro decks, but when they’re still spending 6 or 7 mana for things, I doubt this will be enough to really shut them down. It ascends from okay filler to a card you’re reasonably happy to have in lifegain synergy decks and those that buff it with counters or equipment, so I think it is a good enough enabler to make it to C, but you really need the synergies.

Drifter: C-

Crocodiles don’t like parties. This is a good amount of value on a 3 drop and Black does have some +1/+1 counter synergies to exploit at common, the main ones being Hagra Constrictor and Oblivion's Hunger. I feel like you do want to be exploiting those synergies to be happy to have this card, since that’s really the nature of the format, and it doesn’t help your Party, which means it’s very good in Black Green, where you get some uncommons like Iridescent Hornbeetle and Moss-Pit Skeleton, but it’s really unexciting outside of there. Having a 2/3 die isn’t as easy as most statlines, so you might not be able to get the synergy when you want either – this would be much better if it was a 3/2.

Drifter: C-

3 mana 2/2 Menace is a pretty mediocre statline; it’s very easy to race and doesn’t actually get there in the late game at all. Where this card becomes interesting is with specific uncommons like Iridescent Hornbeetle, Moss-Pit Skeleton, and Skyclave Shadowcat, but I don’t think that’s enough for me to be really excited.

Drifter: A-

This will never cost less than 4 in Limited, but 4 mana remove anything is already a B+, and I think the land upside is nice enough to reach A-. This is a card you’ll always count as a spell, since it’s powerful enough that playing it as a land is a failcase.

Drifter: D+

Do you really need a Warrior? If so, you can play this, but it’s not very exciting…

Drifter: B+

This is a decent selection of modes if a little situation, and unlike the Blue one, the kicker is much more reachable at 7 mana rather than 8 and will be backbreaking. In a format with Kicker, Mind Rot effects get a bit better since spells will naturally cost more and people will be holding them more often. This middle ability is kind of weak, but kicker helps that too since some of your 2 drops will have kicker and be more impactful in the late game. This is something you ideally want to treat as a 7 drop and only use as Reave Soul or Mind Rot if there’s a particularly good situation for it or you need to, but the flexibility and potential power are incredible.

Drifter: D+

This is a card you never really want to play, but sometimes the fixing will be good enough, say if you’re splashing and didn’t get many other sources.

Drifter: C+

This isn’t that exciting as a 2 drop, but I think it is deceptively powerful in the late game – if you can burn them for 3 or 4, you’re getting a fantastic rate, and there are some lifegain synergies to enable as well. Being a Cleric is good too and makes running this out on 2 still reasonable.

Drifter: B-

This would ordinarily be a situational and weak ability, but again it’s really nice to get it for free on your land. If you have a bunch of lands in hand already, this doesn’t need to do much to be better than that; it recurs your death and ETB triggers for some value and isn’t too hard to hold up against removal. This isn’t powerful enough that I would count it as a spell though, it’s just another great value to eke some value out of your land slots.

Drifter: C+

Lifegain synergy is well-supported in this set, especially in Orzhov, and with commons like Kor Celebrant.

Drifter: C+

Mind Carver is a powerful payoff for being in Dimir and having a bunch of Rogues, as +3/+1 is a crazy rate that will force them to always trade with your creatures or lose to a flier in just a couple of swings. Even if you can’t enable it right away, there are some Red cards where equipment matters and it’s not that terrible on a random flier in the mean time – it is terrible if you can’t enable it at all, but I think most decks will eventually be able to since eight cards is a thing that will happen naturally and a lot of the Black cards mill incidentally. I’m happy to take this card highly, since I see it being reasonable in enough decks even if it’s only truly busted in Dimir.

Drifter: C-

With kicker, I think people are likely to have cards stuck in their hand for longer in the game, so this kind of effect has more longevity. Adding mill and lifegain to a Mind Rot in a format where both synergies matter is enough that I’m reasonably excited to have this in some decks. So far, I don’t think the format is going to be all that fast, but this is a card that will certainly be hurt a lot if it is, so do watch out for the tier list updates later on!

Drifter: A

This is a completely nuts card that will just run away with the game in short order, especially in a format where mill is heavily supported. It’s a much better Vampire Nighthawk, a card which dominated its draft format back in its heyday, although I do believe this one is much better equipped to deal with it. At the point where it’s a 3/3 or 4/3, which won’t be hard to enable at all with all the self-mill and through your opponents naturally playing cards, it’s just running away with the game every hit and they’ll never be able to race it. All that being said, it lines up poorly into some of the 3/x flying commons like Expedition Diviner and Shepherd of Heroes, so I expect it to merely be fantastic rather than an unbeatable bomb.

Drifter: C-

This is a medium blocker that retains some late game presence; a filler card overall but a fine way to enable your Rogue synergies, especially if you’re not Dimir and therefore have less options in that regard.

Drifter: C+

Here’s another card that’s really good in Dimir, but not too bad outside it – being able to hold up other instants with it makes the Flash ability much stronger, but also just using it to ambush a card like Expedition Diviner before they can get a Wizard out will come up, and the mill helps it a lot. It is hurt a bit because a lot of the Rogue cards have had evasion and smaller statlines, which increases the need for good blockers to avoid being raced and this only compounds that weakness, but still a solid enough card to make low C+ I think.

Drifter: A-

Nullpriest is a good 2 drop, but unless you’re enabling lifegain synergies or have plenty of late game in hand, you mostly want to wait to deploy it until turn 6, where you’re getting an easy 2-for-1 and a fantastic rate. Still, it does require you to have a good creature die already and the body itself won’t be that impactful on turn 6, so I think it’s a pretty low A-.

Drifter: D+

There are enough counters that I’m happy to include this card in some decks, but it’s a lot of work to do to draw a card, and it’ll rot in your hand for several turns to set that up. If you don’t get to draw a card, it’s pretty bad, so it’s probably fine in Golgari or if you have plenty of the cards with counters in Black, and weak elsewhere.

Drifter: C+

Another solid spell-land, this is a land when you need it to be and trades for a card when you don’t. Sometimes it will miss, especially in a kicker format where people are likely to be holding 2 drops more often and have cheaper CMC cards overall, but it’s still free value that I’m always happy to swap out a Swamp for and this has a high ceiling, with the potential to take a really impactful card out of their hand.

Drifter: B

There’s enough incidental lifegain in Black’s commons between Malakir Blood-Priest, Mind Drain, and Ghastly Gloom-Hunter that I’m happy to take this card really highly, and the failcase really isn’t that bad even if you only have a couple of sources. In Orzhov, with cards like Kor Celebrant and Shepherd of Heroes, it has the potential to grow at a terrifying rate.

Drifter: B

This is not a 2 drop (you often won’t even be able to play it on t2!) and it’s not that great a 7 drop, but it’ll probably be good somewhere in between. You know you have it and your opponents don’t, so you’ll be pretty happy to take a little damage even as the aggressor to drop a 2 mana 3/3 or 4/4 on turn 4 that keeps growing and dissuades their attacks. Sometimes this kicker will be nice for finishing them off or growing this enough to get through blockers, but it’s not super exciting in general – this is just a really beefy creature that threatens to become even beefier.

Drifter: C

I’m not super excited by this card, because deathtouch doesn’t actually enable its attacks that well as long as they have 4 power back since they can just double block it and you can only pick one to kill. Still, it’s really good against small creatures, and it’s a fine blocker even if you don’t always have another Rogue. Having to keep a Rogue untapped to enable this is pretty annoying, but threat of activation means you might not have to actually tap it. If it does get through then it enables your mill synergies really well. Overall, I think it’s fine in the Rogue decks, but it’s not that exciting even if you can enable it, and really bad when you can’t. Additionally, Party will lead people to wanting to be on the aggressive side, so having it as your party Rogue isn’t that exciting, especially as you probably won’t be able to give it deathtouch.

Drifter: C

This is a really weird sweeper, and probably the card I had the most difficulty rating in Black. Mostly, being 5 mana means that it’s kind of hard to wait for and plan around as much as other sweepers, because your opponents can just begin to play 4 drops (which obviously you can as well, but it’s certainly an added layer of awkwardness) and unlike other sweepers, where you construct your deck to make best use of them, you’re going to be forced to have creatures that cost 3 or less in every deck, and plenty of them.

This is an awkward format for it because if you start passing the turn, your opponents may not be over-committing to the board anyway – they’ll have Kicker cards and spel-lands, and those will help them recover from playing into this, or they’ll choose to hold those Kicker cards since they’ll be more valuable than random bodies so they won’t be playing into your sweeper that way either. I think a lot of the value from this sort of card is the potential for your opponent to be low on resources and unable to recover, but that won’t happen as much this format.

All that being said, there’s still the angle of this is a sweeper and your opponents won’t know you have it, so I think it’s still a decent card but not something I’m really looking to take highly. This gains some value if the format does end up on the faster side, but so far I don’t really believe that.

Drifter: B+

This is an absurdly powerful card, starting off as a 2 mana 3/1 which is a fine rate, enticing them to block it or take a lot of damage, and then just coming back over and over and being annoying for them at other points in the game. The fact that it scales up to 5/3 means it’s great even in the late game and this is one of the most powerful Landfall cards out there. It can’t block, which hurts it a bit, since you do want to be beating down to make good use of it, but this is a huge reward for doing so. Additionally, people will be milling you a lot, so you might even get the additional value of just being able to pluck it out of your graveyard when you need it!

Drifter: C+

I’m fond of Shadowcat – it has great synergy with the Black commons with +1/+1 counters, which aren’t too exciting themselves but are great if you have some of these, and then it’s absurd in Golgari. Still, it has some weaknesses – this will be the first card they target with removal, you won’t be able to draw off it unless you’ve already sacrificed something, there are next to no tokens at common or uncommon in the set, and the body is a bit weak to start with, but this is a high reward card if you get to untap with it. Cat Horror sadly isn’t a Party type, and I think this will be pretty bad in Party decks, but the ceiling is high enough for me to leave it at C+.

Drifter: A-

Usually the creature you want them to sacrifice will be the one with the highest converted mana cost anyway, so this card is just premium removal. It won’t hit what you want 100% of the time, and some of the Kicker cards do get around it while being huge threats, but for 3 mana at instant speed and splashable, you really can’t do better.

Drifter: C+

This is a great card – it’s a solid trick, kills their x/1s, buffs one of your creatures permanently, and it even has the potential to 2 for 1. It can be a bit narrow at times, but I’m going to take it highly and be happy to even have multiples. You don’t need to be a combat trick deck to play this – it’s just good in almost every deck, and if you do have +1/+1 counter synergies then all the better.

Drifter: A

Taborax is a crazy card – creatures dying happens all the time in Limited, so they are going to need a removal spell for this sooner or later. If you do have Clerics, then they’ll need to kill it even sooner but it’s great even without those. If you do manage to enable this absurd lifelink mode, then it’ll bring you back into games in which you’re behind or losing and threaten to just kill them, and there are some Green cards that can stack +1/+1 counters on it and get there faster.

Drifter: B+

Reanimating two things is absolutely absurd, and you don’t even need to get two good things to be happy with this rate. In a format where your opponents will be milling you a lot, and a lot of the Blue/Black cards just have that tacked on, this strikes me as even better, because in other formats the Party discount wouldn’t matter very much but I could easily foresee them milling two good cards and you wanting to reanimate on turn 4 with this. I don’t think it really matters whether you’re a good Party deck here at all – this card is good in every deck, and if you can eke some absurd tempo out of double-spelling with it too, that’s some nice gravy on top. It’s a bit slow and this is a kicker format where 6 drops get a little worse, but this has such immediate great impact that I’m happy to first pick it.

Drifter: C+

I think this isn’t as good in this format as most, because trading 1 for 1 isn’t as good into Kicker spells, this can be awkward versus equipment, and people won’t be running those out as much early if you’re both playing a slower game, but this is always a decent rate nonetheless. This is a high C+, but I don’t think it quite makes B- in this set.

Drifter: C+

This effect isn’t traditionally good in Limited, but once again all you need to do is staple it to a land! This is a free way to kill your opponents in the late game and provides free reach for any deck; it’s better if you’re beating down but at any point where you’re not making good use of your lands, you’ll be happy to have this card. I think it’s weaker than some of the other spell-lands and on the lower end of C+, but I’m very happy to replace a Swamp with it in any deck where I don’t already have loads of taplands nonetheless.

Drifter

Black is an interesting mix of things this set, and it strikes me as a colour that lives and dies on synergy, more so than the other colours. It has some powerful removal as usual, but many of its cards aren’t that exciting unless you’re building around lifegain in Orzhov, counters in Golgari, or Mill/Rogues in Dimir. Red appears to be following its own self-contained beatdown plan this set, and Black’s creatures strike me as a bit too weak to support that fantastically, but I could certainly see Red decks simply wanting access to its plethora of decent removal options.

I expect Black to be a solid support colour overall this format, but not one of the stronger colours and more one you prioritise when you already have a lane you’re going into and are seeing the right Black cards to support that strategy – if you have a bunch of lifegain cards and can lean on Black to provide payoffs, great, but a lot of Black’s commons are only contextually powerful so they won’t be as high picks as those in the other colours. Still, if you just get a bunch of good removal or some of Black’s great uncommons, you’ll be well set for a solid draft!