Zendikar Rising Limited Set Review – Green

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: D

It does matter a decent amount that this card can’t miss, especially in decks which don’t have that high a creature count but have some especially good ones. You can also just choose not to put the card in your hand if the creature you would get is low impact, or if you’re mana screwed. All that being said, it’s still a really mediocre effect for 2 mana.

Drifter: B

This double landfall ability is very strong, and I do think it’ll be get some extra value in a deck dedicated to that strategy. That being said, a lot of Landfall effects aren’t at their best in the really late game, even if doubled, and this doesn’t have an effect until your 7th land drop. I see it as mostly a 6 mana 5/7 Reach with some minor upside, which is a solid card but it doesn’t approach bomb levels.

Drifter: A+

Ashaya is gigantic and gives you a bunch of extra mana, but one hidden aspect of it is that all of your other creatures will trigger Landfall when played! That’s just total nuts, and more than enough to cement this as a bomb in my eyes. The play pattern of Ashaya -> 3 drop on turn 5 is going to be devastating by itself, and they’ll often be behind even if they immediately have removal.

Drifter: B-

This is one phenomenal spell-land – it represents the best card in your graveyard for the given situation at any point. It’s slow and doesn’t impact the board but being able to play it as a land completely mitigates that weakness – you get to choose when you need it and don’t. I don’t quite have it at B because there will be times in the mid and late game where you don’t have the time to use it and also don’t want a land, but the upside here is literally to take over the late game so it’s certainly a high B-.

I would consider counting it as a spell if I had some other spell-lands/some kicker cards already, since it does take a lot of mana to eke immediate value out of the spell half.

Drifter: D

This is a fantastic sideboard card, but I actually think you can maindeck the first copy a reasonable amount in this format over other filler nonsense. There are a lot of high value artifacts and most White and Blue decks have high-value fliers, so I expect it to hit enough in a lot of games. If you have looting, that’s a good reason to increase the grade since that will diminish the amount it’s stuck dead in your hand too.

Drifter: B-

This attacks as a 6/5 for 4 mana, and if you do get to get two lands into play at any point then you’re going to absolutely destroy your opponent… instant speed landfall will be a nightmare to play against here. You do want to be beating down, but this card doesn’t block that badly either, and even slower decks will want it because it kills so rapidly. If you have a few landfall cards of this caliber, that’s a great reason to consider playing another land.

Drifter: C

I don’t think this card is all that great, mainly because ramping into something that can be double blocked or chumped so easily isn’t all that exciting. It’s not that much pressure to put on the board for 7 mana, and the kicker ability puts it into ludicrously expensive territory. At best, I see it as not much better than Spined Megalodon, and this is a format with kicker cards and a ton of ways to use your mana well in the late game.

Drifter: C

This is a solid roleplayer, since you have the option of putting the counter on whatever you want, and usually whatever enables the best attacks. Green and Black have plenty of counter synergies in this format, having the creature around can give you some nice sacrifice fodder, and it pairs well with evasive units (and especially Ghastly Gloomhunter). The ceiling on this card is never that high, but some decks will really want it.

Drifter: C+

This is another card that’s fantastic in its flexibility, and it’s the exact kind of 2 drop you want – one which scales well into the late game. It enables your kicker synergies and giving your other stuff Trample will certainly come up as well.

Drifter: A

Okay, this is by far the best of the cycle, because modes 1 and 3 are totally busted in Limited, and it’s cheap to kick and instant speed, unlike the other two. Two counters on something is a great trick that permanently makes that creature a threat, and you will often get to kill another creature in the process (often with a completely different creature not even in combat) and gain a bunch of free life, all on 5 mana. If you need to, you can use any of the 2 mana modes for some great tempo, since modes 1 and 3 are ridiculously efficient for that cost. This card combines great flexibility with an extremely high and easy to reach ceiling. I don’t foresee ever passing this card.

Drifter: C+

This is an incredible payoff for the counters archetype, and I think Green has enough enablers to make it potentially very good. When you mix Black or White’s counters in as well, I’m happy to take it early and try to make it work. It’s really bad if you don’t get there, so there’s some inherent risk involved, but the payoff is colossal and many decks will be able to make good use of it.

Drifter: B-

Oh good, a ridiculously easy 2 for 1, and it enables your party synergies. This statline is solid for both attacking and blocking, and Green’s 4 drops are nutty enough that I’ll be squeezing too much stuff into that point of the curve a lot this set. It’s a high B-, and could go up to B if this set is slow enough.

Drifter: A-

This card is totally absurd, as a fantastic 3 drop that would be a high B even if it wasn’t also a land. I would never count this as anything but a spell – it is a failcase to play it as a land, but a failcase you’ll be overjoyed to have when you’re mana screwed or don’t have enough green mana to cast it.

Drifter: C-

I quite like this in my durdly slow decks with plenty of removal and lifegain synergy decks, but it’s really bad in every other deck. Its body is pretty mediocre and it doesn’t actually block aggressive creatures all that well for the most part, since they’ll have buffs and other ways to get those through. This is a great way to repeatedly enable cards like Attended Healer and Marauding Blight-Priest, so I do think it’s better in this format than most. Not having a party type also shrinks the number of decks that can afford to have this.

Drifter: C-

This is a lot of value with spell-lands and in Landfall decks, on a very threatening body. Still, the existence of Kicker and spell-lands provides some natural competition for 6 drops; I think they are at their worst in this format, and many decks will already have the late game well-covered without having to devote rigid slots to it.

Drifter: B

This is a really strong effect to pair with a land, since it’s situational but very high impact, which means it’s fantastic when you want it and a land when you don’t. I suspect either this or Blackbloom Rogue will be the best of the common and uncommon spell-lands, and it’s close between them. If you have a lot of beefy creatures, consider counting it as a spell, but it should mostly still be a land.

Drifter: B-

This is fantastic fixing, can generate more than 1 mana per turn in rare scenarios, and ramps you to 4 without effort. One underrated aspect is that it doesn’t tap to do any of this – you can attack and block with it to your heart’s content, and it will provide meaningful pressure and double block bigger things in the late game. It’s a bit worse than a regular mana dork when you’re missing land drops, and you shouldn’t trim a land for this, but this is a format with a ton of good ways to use your mana late anyway.

Drifter: D+

This is a pretty decent trick, because +5/+5 can matter a lot in the late game and when you’re trying to push through lethal, and 2 mana for +3/+3 isn’t great but it’s not terrible either. As with all tricks, you really want to be beating down because tricks are way worse on the defence, when your opponent has all their mana up ready to respond.

Drifter: C-

Back in the old days, a 3 mana 3/3 used to be a premium rate in Limited, but those days are long gone. The power level has soared higher and higher in recent sets and having vanilla creatures has gotten worse and worse!. This is the worst colour for it too as Green tends to have the best creatures anyway – imagine playing against Joraga Visionary with this in the Green mirror! The Warrior tag is nice, but this is still a card I’ll be cutting a lot.

Drifter: B

3 mana 3/3 is a fine statline, and I think every deck will have access to some solid kicker cards since there are plenty of good ones in every colour; the best kicker card in your graveyard will often be significantly better than drawing a card. You mostly want to kick it, but when you keep a slow draw or have a lot of late game, you’ll be happy to run this out as a 3 drop.

Drifter: D+

I don’t like this card – it costs you a land drop since you’re down a mana every time it attacks or you leave it up to block, it can even mana screw you in some spots, and it can’t attack or block until you have 5 mana since the land doesn’t untap. Enchantment and bounce removal will still 2 for 1 you here. Spell-lands are great because of their flexibility – recurring them with this really isn’t that exciting since their spell halves often aren’t worth a full card. Better in heavy landfall decks or if you have some especially good spell-lands, but mediocre filler in most.

Drifter: B+

You often want to put the counter on itself, so that it attacks the best it can, because you get an absurd advantage every time it does. When you have synergy with this, which Green has plenty of in the set, it has the potential to produce obscene and game-winning value on the very first attack. It doesn’t scale quite as well into the late game, but even suicide attacking it while putting a counter on your flier will be great at that point.

Drifter: B-

Rabid Bite is a B- in basically every set, as its cheap efficient removal you can take early, and the creature not dealing damage back makes a colossal difference. Green decks will need it, conditionality and all.

Drifter: D+

This is mostly just a Traveler's Amulet type effect which fixes your mana, but at a much better rate and has some use late game. In a format with landfall and kicker cards, your lands have a lot more longevity, so I’m reasonably happy to play this card in plenty of decks, especially those with splashes. That being said, it’s not something you prioritise until you have the splashes, you do need to be running a lot of Green sources to ensure it can tutor for you in the early game, and spell-lands entering tapped on turn 1 does hurt your potential to cast it then a bit. I consider it a pretty high D+ though.

Drifter: C

This is okay fixing and ramp – while I’ll be a bit disappointed to merely use this card to get to 5 mana, it’s fine, if a bit expensive at 3 mana. The real use for it though is to be absolute nuts in any deck with impactful Landfall cards, as it gives you two triggers at instant speed. With Canopy Baloth, that’s a trick that gives +4/+4 and doesn’t cost you a card, and even with Makindi Ox, you get to tap down two creatures at instant speed!

This is a card where grades fall apart a bit, since it is really good when you’re the deck that wants it, but I’m not sold on it being a high pick. It’s not that great in decks without plenty of impactful Landfall triggers, so I won’t be taking it that highly until I know I’m there. For example, Green only has two commons where I would consider it worthwhile, in Territorial Scythecat and the Baloth, and I would want several before I considered it better than filler. Many of your decks would rather just be playing beatdown creatures or payoffs for their party synergies.

Drifter: C-

This is decent value to attach to your 3 mana Explore, and it fills a lot of roles – it enables your counters, lifegain, and landfall synergies all at once. That being said, it still strikes me as a pretty medium way to use your turn 3, and the party/synergy decks will often rather be playing creatures or payoffs. It also has some failcases, such as when you don’t have enough lands – if it doesn’t ramp you, you’re getting a pretty medium rate. There’s also the fact that they can remove the creature you put the counter on in response, if you do choose a creature, and the spell will be completely countered, so it can be pretty risky to choose to put a counter on things on some boards.

Ultimately, it does lot of things but none of them very well, and each effect is good at different times and on different boards. A single more focused card, tailored for your deck, will often be better.

Drifter: A-

This card is great on turn 4 and game-winning on turn 6 – every land you draw after it makes it more and more unbeatable, and even a couple of copies will absolutely run away with the game if given enough time. The ramp spells that give you double landfall are absolutely amazing with this. Still, I think it has a few weaknesses – a) it’s a really low tempo card, b) you need to keep having lands to feed it after turn 6, and several of them before it wins you the game, and c) it’s bad against fliers and evasive units. The card is amazing and you probably shouldn’t pass it very often nonetheless.

Drifter: D+

This is a strong card when you’re curving out, but it gets worse and worse as the game goes on, and at some point it’ll stop doing anything at all. I don’t like the idea of this card doing nothing at all if I’m not willing to continually pump 3 mana into it in the early turns, the only turns in which it does anything. The first equip being free is a big mitigating factor, but there’s enough efficient removal to really harm its strength. This can be a decent card in some Green aggressive decks, but even those would often rather just be playing creatures rather than skipping a turn against removal spells – Green creatures are over-statted anyway, so why play more into your weaknesses? I could see it in Gruul with some equipment matters cards, but I think it’ll be a bad card in most decks.

Adventuring Gear was a great card in Zendikar Limited, but it equipped for 1 mana (so you could play creatures alongside it) in a format full of evasive creatures – the two are night and day.

Drifter: D+

This baseline of vanilla 4/5 for 5 is a pretty mediocre one unless you have counter synergies or need more Clerics. While this gets a lot better if you are splashing, I don’t think it gets that much better or becomes a truly fantastic payoff even in those decks – Green has plenty of big creatures this set, and this one won’t be all that over-statted unless you’re going wild with 4 or 5 colours, which means you’re playing an inconsistent mana base with a bunch of medium ramp, and then this is your payoff.

I think most decks will be able to do better in a format full of great 5 drops, not even touching the kicker cards and spell-lands that can act as 5 drops while being much more flexible.

Drifter: D

This is a lot like an aura that usually gives +2/+2, since it’s not instant speed. At the point where you’re getting +3/+3, you’re getting a reasonable rate, especially if you can throw some counter synergies in there, but I think it’s a really bad playable in the average deck and would need to already be in that kind of strategy. Even then, getting 2 for 1ed against Black will often still be rough…

Drifter: B-

This has a lot of good synergy in the format, and it doesn’t take long to grow big enough to be a solid threat by itself. 1 mana isn’t that hard to fit into a lot of your turns, and the payoff of making removal worse against it and some of your other creatures is solid. Still, this is nowhere near a bomb, and it does harm your curve to make it a real threat.

Drifter: C

It’s really nice to have decent 1 drops in your party decks, because it lets you curve out faster and makes your payoffs that much better. There aren’t that many other Rogues in Green, this retains some value late, and it has some nice synergy with Rabid Bite to boot. I think this is a pretty high C.

Drifter: B

This is a great 2 drop that replaces itself in the late game. I think you often do want to run it out on turn 2 to make your good party draws better and deal a bunch of damage, but six cards is a lot to look at later in the game and means this is a good draw at any point.

Still, I don’t think it’s close to a bomb – it’s too low impact as a 2 drop, you still need other party creatures, and it doesn’t take over the game as a 5 drop.

Drifter: D+

This isn’t the kind of card I especially want to play unless I really need to fill my Rogue slot in my party decks. It’s just too weak and low impact when they aren’t a flying-heavy deck, and only Blue and White have very many. It’s still fine filler though.

Drifter: B-

As compared to the other spell-lands, this is a little weird in that it doesn’t prevent you from flooding out and it’s not a good draw at all late. Both sides do a very similar thing, and one just fits early curves a bit better. That being said, ramp on t2 is powerful, and being able to pick which option is best for the situation is still great – you still want to be making your land drops while you ramp up to get full value out of the mana advantage, so if you’re in danger of missing land drops then you can just run this out as one. It never hinders you in the way a regular mana dork would.

Drifter: B-

This is a huge kicker effect that will often win the game outright and break a stalled board in half – the idea is to either use it on a big creature to get the trades or kills you want while doing a bunch of damage, or to put it on your smallest creature and kill them outright, or enable a kill over two turns/with evasive creatures. That kind of power on a 3 mana 2/3, a statline which isn’t that bad, means I’m happy to take it highly.

Drifter: C+

I think this comes down early enough that I’m happy to have it in many decks, even if it takes a couple of turns to be worth the mana investment. Eventually, you’re going to get a good rate and your opponent will often be afraid enough of that to cut this poor cat’s life short before you do. It’s pretty weak in the late game, but so are most 3 drops. Don’t be afraid to take some damage to enable this, but equally don’t be afraid to trade it off if you don’t need it and you’re behind or getting a decent exchange!

Drifter: C

This is pretty good for a 5 drop since it’s solid when you’re behind and enables your lifegain synergies, while being a Cleric which Green doesn’t have too many of. There is some stiff competition this set and you’ll cut this if you have too many better 5 drops, but I think it’ll still mostly be good enough, even if it’s a pretty low C.

Drifter: B+

I think there are a lot of cards with abilities that become absolutely absurd when you put three +1/+1 counters on them – e.g. putting three counters on a 3-drop flier is probably better than your 6 or 7 drops in Draft. For that reason, while I think this is one of the weaker mythic lands, it’s still fantastic, since this is a gamewinning effect in the late game and a land when you need it to be.

I would count this as a spell a good deal of the time, especially in decks with some ramp, though expensive spell-lands like this are a good reason to play 18 land anyway.

Drifter: C+

This is a nice but situational trick, a small effect, but one that pairs really nicely with its land half. There are plenty of counter synergies in this set in Green and Black, and those are good gravy. Still, it’s not enough that I would often count this as a spell or take it more highly than some of the other spell-lands.

It’s worth noting though that, if you have enough spell-lands taking up land slots, it becomes much easier to justify playing an 18th land or counting one of them as a spell.

Drifter: B-

This card is a double landfall trigger, good fixing, and a ton of ramp to put into your kicker spells/to enable your spell lands, and that’s not even touching this absurd 8 mana mode which will often just win the game. It’s value, late game, and flexibility all in one incredible package. There’s a lot of lifegain to ramp into, and merely playing 7 mana worth of spells the turn after will often bring you right back into the game if you fall behind while casting this, especially with the set’s many cards that gain life. I think this, rather than Roiling Regrowth or Scale the Heights, is the premier ramp spell and one you should be happy to first pick. It even provides a payoff for your other ramp spells, though you do want a lot of creatures to make good use of the 8 mana mode.

Drifter: B

If you’re curving out, this is a 4 mana 5/5 Vigilance, which is an absurd rate and will attack through most boards while holding back the entire opposing army!

Drifter: B-

This card strikes me as a great buildaround – kicked spells costing 1 less matters a huge amount, and it rewards you for just playing the game, becoming a scarier and scarier creature. The idea of curving this out into a 4 mana Kicker spell is disgusting, and very doable. It’s at its best in Simic, but every colour has some Kicker, including Green itself with three commons. This is one of the best 2-drops you can get, straight up.

Drifter

My feeling about Green this format is that it’s very powerful, with a ton of creatures that fill flexible roles and come with a lot of value stapled on; its common quality is the highest in the entire format. Its kicker cards are good enough that it comes close to rivalling Blue in terms of late-game dominance, but it has an overwhelming midrangey beatdown plan Blue doesn’t get.

This all starts to look even juicier once you throw in Green’s nature as the jack-of-all-trades of the format – it has cards to enable all the different synergies, from lifegain to counters to aggro, party members of every single type so it can fill any gaps the other colours might have, and solid creatures for the purpose of filling any converted mana cost. While in drafting it, you might not always get the specific cards you need as a result, the baseline power I just mentioned is so high that I think you’ll do great even when you don’t get there – Green complements the other strategies’ strengths, while providing good enough card quality to cover any weaknesses.

Its major weakness is the one it always seems to have – it has almost no removal, but every other colour has plenty to help it out. Even White has some great options to complement it this set, since Green is great at turning on Practiced Tactics, and Blue has Bubble Snare and Into the Roil at common – that’s not that much, but I suspect Blue-Green’s ability to go way over the top and outvalue its opponents will carry it through, especially with all the kicker payoffs Blue has that Green provides it great cards for.

I expect Green to be one of the best colours both standalone and in a supporting role this format, and unlike Blue, its power is less dependent on the format being slow. Join us tomorrow for the final review and the release of our tier list!