Zendikar Rising Limited Set Review – Red

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+

This is a good card to play in an aggro deck on turn 1 or 2, but pretty bad in any other deck and at any other point. This hasn’t struck me as a particularly aggressive format so far, and White and Green have some solid tools to deal with aggression. Even in an aggro deck, this only gets a couple of turns to attack for 2 before it’s outclassed by blockers and other attackers. Steppe Lynx may have been a decent card in its format, but Zendikar was one of the most aggressive formats of all time and that was less to do with Steppe Lynx and more to do with the number of evasive 2 drops in the set. Also, there were fetchlands and more ways to double landfall…

Drifter: B-

This is another card I’m excited to have, because it’s good at any point in the game. I think the Blue and Black “creature spell-lands” were significantly better, but I’ll still be taking this one early and often, because it’s still such a fantastic upgrade to a Mountain.

Drifter: C

It’s as easy to imagine the nuts curve out where you don’t really need this, where you go 1 drop party creature 2 drop party creature into it, as it is to imagine it just being a 3/2 for 3. The latter is going to happen a lot more, but still this card costs 2 mana on turn 3 and often 1 mana on turn 4, which is pretty good, especially in a Kicker format where you’re going to have more ways to spend your mana, even in the late game.

Drifter: B-

This card is really bad in any deck where you have a lot of small creatures, so stay away in your aggro decks, but in midrangier or slower decks without too many small creatures and no x/1s of their own, it’s pretty good, especially at instant speed. It won’t be an uncommon case to have this kill a creature and let you trade up with another creature, or to use it to counter a trick; it’s just a very flexible card thanks to instant speed and having two modes that do different amounts of damage. However, Red feels quite aggressive to me this format, or at least it doesn’t really have many roles or options beyond that, and if your deck is heavy Red then it might not want this a lot of the time. Still, if Red is your support colour, then this will often be great, especially in Izzet and Gruul which have kicker synergy.

Drifter: D+

This card is a really interesting design, which does a few weird things – a) it’s a “free” landfall trigger in that it doesn’t cost you a card and b) it gets your splash source in a deck that wants fixing. I don’t think the thinning aspect is relevant at all, but the splashing is actually pretty exciting because there’s not a ton of fixing going around, nor a ton of ways to double landfall. Very rarely, you can also use it to mana screw your opponents’ splashes if they’re only playing one basic of that colour and ways to tutor for it! Still, I think this is a really mediocre rate if you’re not doing one of those first two things and I want to pick it up on the wheel in my heavy landfall/splashing decks, so I won’t give it a high grade.

Drifter: C+

I think this card will be Red’s bread and butter this format, because there are enough good Warriors that this will often attack for 4, and either trade up or do a lot of damage. There aren’t a lot of common 3/3s either, which would hurt it. It’s especially good in Boros, but many Red decks will be happy enough.

Drifter: C+

This is a card that’s really strong with tricks or Equipment, since it has a lot of potential to 2 for 1 or do a lot of face damage. Green has a lot of ways to put counters on things this set, and White has a lot of group buffs, so I think this card is likely to be good in a lot of decks, especially since it’s a 1 drop that enables Warrior synergy on top of that. It certainly won’t be good in every deck – it’s bad if you can’t buff it up, and you really do want to be beating down to make good use of it, but that’s most of what Red is doing this format anyway.

Drifter: C

This is a decent effect, and this is the only 2-drop common Wizard in Red, so plenty of decks are going to want it. In the late game, it retains some value by ditching other lands you hold, though that’s less relevant in a kicker/spell-land format.

Drifter: C+

This is a solid beatdowny 2-drop, making 1/xs look really bad because they can’t block this by itself! With other Warriors, which Red has plenty of at Common, this can make for some really threatening starts especially for getting creatures through that have attack/damage triggers, like Grotag Night-Runner, or when you buff it. Even if you only get one good attack in, it’s still doing much better than most other 2 drops. Usually other Warriors would have to attack with this, but this card lets you just control them, which means your Warriors have immediate impact on its ability.

Drifter: C-

This is a decent beatdown card, since it won’t be that hard to have it attack for 3 Trample if you’re curving out, and it retains some use in the late game. Still, it’s bad if you do end up needing to block or if you end up drawing too many Warriors or other creature types.

Drifter: C+

This ability is much worse than drawing a card, because if you expend mana to clear the way for this card then you’re likely going to be unable to cast spells you find off the top. Still, you can play lands and they’ll have to pretty much always leave a blocker back for it. Its saving grace is that it has 1 extra toughness over Thieving Otter, meaning that you can attack into 2 drops on the play and often get a free card., or that it forces double blocks more often. Overall, this is a fine card, but I have it at pretty low C+.

Drifter: D+

Red has a strong beatdown plan this format, and those appreciate having access to some tricks. This isn’t the best one, since +3/+2 will only win most combats and trading both this and a creature into something bigger is really not what you want to be doing, but scry 1 is a nice addition especially in the late game.

Drifter: B-

Being able to repeatedly make one of your opponent’s creatures unable to block is really strong, and this is a nice way to use up spare mana you have lying around. It makes all your other Warriors significantly better, and has the potential to hit really hard by itself. Still, sometimes you’ll be curving out and won’t want this as much, and paying 2 mana to get through for 4 damage is good but not exciting and won’t always work if they have multiple creatures. If you’re trying to enable Party, this is a little less exciting too. It’s a very flexible card on a fine body, but nothing gamebreaking.

Drifter: B-

Fling is an incredibly powerful but narrow effect so having it on a land is the nuts. Mid to late game, upgrading your outclassed creatures into removal or your big creatures into lethal damage is fantastic. This goes especially well in aggro decks, but any deck will be happy to have it. Sadly, there’s only one Threaten effect at uncommon to combo with it in Song-Mad Treachery, but that’ll come up every so often too!

Drifter: A+

A 4 mana 4/4 flier is great, and this has a fantastic removal-resistant ability if they don’t kill it immediately. I don’t expect the mana production to come up much beyond this ability, but it doesn’t need to.

Drifter: B

This is an activated ability that slots well into any deck – the ability to upgrade your lands into real cards in the late game is fantastic, even in aggro decks, especially in a format where they’ll probably be playing more to enable Landfall and because of spell-lands. I think in most decks, it’ll be hard to make this a 4/4 until the very late game, but it’s much easier when you’re looking at essentially three cards a turn. Decks like Izzet spells may well be able to enable it earlier on. Still, it’s not that exciting early on and takes a while to get going, so I don’t consider it close to bomb territory.

Drifter: C

This does cost a lot of mana, but there are a lot of high value Equipment and other artifacts in this set. Being instant means you can get some real blowouts against the Equipment, and I don’t think 3 mana 2 damage is a terrible failcase. That being said, I think this gets a lot worse in multiples and won’t be too hard to pick up, so I’m going to give it a high C rather than a C+.

Drifter: A

A 6 mana 6/6 that gives +1/+0 to all your attacking creatures is the baseline for this card, and that card is fantastic in Limited to begin with. Now, let’s add in this ability which means that if you have more creatures than your opponent or they’re not able to trade off with everything immediately, then they’ll often just die to the second attack where they all get +2/+0… yeah, okay. Moraug even has the potential to do this multiple times, which is hilarious but unnecessary. If you play this on turn 7, you get the additional combat phase immediately.

Drifter: D-

The joke with this card is that you get a bunch of landfall triggers, and it’s tempting in decks where you have some really busted rare landfall cards, but I think it’s garbage even there. It’s just a waste of mana and card disadvantage – you aren’t guaranteed to replace your lands, so sacrificing all of them with this can be really dangerous, and it’s really expensive to do so since you only get 2 landfall triggers for 4 mana. There is the dream of this + Skyclave Geopede, but even that is only dealing up to 8 trample damage on 6 mana. I don’t think this is a reasonable card in any deck.

Drifter: C

This is a sweet way to pick up spell lands and gives you some extra value for it on a fine body.

Drifter: C

It won’t always be easy to get this through in Limited, the tokens are horrible vs sacrifice outlets (of which there are only two at uncommon, that being said), and they usually won’t struggle to race one of these if they have reasonable pressure. Still, there are some enablers like Goma Fada Vanguard and Sneaking Guide which can get it through, and the dream is to be able to do that multiple times – even a card like Cliffhaven Kitesail starts to look impressive if you have this and a couple of other creatures with damage triggers.

Drifter: B-

Free pings for just playing the game? The potential to kill even x/2s if you can double spell? Sign me up! This isn’t a card you even have to build around – it will be good in every deck, and exceptionally so in some.

Drifter: B

A solid efficient rate that can burn players too, and then a strong kicker ability which can finish people off from a pretty high life total late. Sorcery speed isn’t great, but this card is.

Drifter: D-

This is only playable if you’re very aggressive, since if your opponents are likely to be able to race you then it’s really bad. Even in those decks, once you start losing, this will give you very few turns to recover – you won’t have time to sit there and topdeck a burn spell, for example, and it’s also an absolutely garbage topdeck itself. On turn 2, a creature will represent more damage and won’t hurt you in the process. Even against lifegain, paying 1 mana to shut it down isn’t what your aggro deck wants to be doing, but it is good if they have loads.

The only uses of this are as a sideboard card against focused Orzhov lifegain decks, or as a weak 23rd playable in aggressive decks.

Drifter: C

This is a reasonable filler equipment for your aggro deck, and there are a bunch of synergies with equipment in the format and especially in Boros. Still, everything beyond the first equip is really expensive so I’m not overjoyed unless you do have those synergies or a bunch of fliers/evasive units, of which this set has plenty.

Drifter: D+

I think a vanilla 4/3 for 4 is a D+ in most sets, and this card doesn’t strike me as much better. By turn 6, your opponent will probably be able to block it even with haste. Warrior synergy is nice to enable, but Red has tons of Warriors so I don’t think it’s worth all that here either.

Drifter: B-

Shatterskull Charger strikes me as pretty comparable to Shatterskull Minotaur, being a powerful 5 drop with the ability to be played earlier on. The ability to dash it out is pretty strong, representing a lot of pressure in the later game and dodging sorcery-speed removal, so I’m happy to take it quite highly though it’s not busted or anything. I consider this a high B-.

Drifter: B-

This is usually a 5 mana 5/4 Haste, which is solid, and sometimes it’ll cost 4 mana at which point it’ll be total nuts. This reminds me of Charging Monstrosaur, a card that defined its Limited format; losing that 5th point of toughness makes a colossal difference since it will much easier to trade with, but it’s an absurd amount of immediate pressure and devastating if they can’t immediately block or remove it. All this card requires of you is to have a lot of 2 and 3 drops with Party types, something that aggro decks want to do anyway, and it will be completely insane but it’s good in any deck that’s trying to enable Party synergy. I consider this a high B-.

Drifter: A

This is a fantastic and versatile card – the baseline will be dealing 4 damage divided as you choose for 6 mana, which is a great rate, and you’ll often be able to set that up to kill two things, but then it scales up as the game goes on and becomes better and better. Once you reach 8 mana, it almost always wins the game. It’s even relevant early, since against somebody with x/1s, you might be able to blow up two things on turn 4 or kill one and trade up, and this will devastate some boards even when it’s only 3 damage. Having it as a land if you’re mana screwed is solid upside, but you should always count this as a spell.

Drifter: D-

Don’t be deceived by this removal spell – it’s really bad. It does nothing in non-aggressive decks, and it doesn’t push damage in aggressive ones. It does a small enough amount of damage that you’ll often have to 2 for 1 yourself for it to do anything. Compare this to tricks – those are often bad because they’re so inflexible and have a tendency to rot in your hand, and they’re actually much more so than this.

If your opponent doesn’t block and plays around this card (and they will, especially later in the format, because I do think it will be overplayed), or you don’t have a threatening enough attacker that they even want to block, or you want to hold back and block yourself, then it’s just going to rot in your hand. I don’t think this belongs in any but the most aggressive decks, and even they should only run it if they really have nothing better to clear blockers.

Drifter: B-

Attacking as a 5/3 Trample is a crazy rate, and your opponent will be forced to block it almost immediately, at which point they’re in terrible shape against removal or tricks. Even if you do trade, you get to deal a bunch of damage for free. This is the exact kind of card an aggro deck wants, and it’s so good that a couple of these or other great Landfall triggers start to make me want Cleansing Wildfire in my deck…

Drifter: D

There are decks that may want to play this because it’s a 1 mana Rogue and if you have enough 2 power creatures then it has a relevant effect in the late game, but it still costs you a card to have next to no effect for most of the game. Perhaps you get some cards with good attack/damage triggers that make this look a bit better, but the most likely case is that you play this if you’re desperate to enable Party synergy, and are basically never happy about it.

Drifter: B-

Act of Treason is a pretty powerful situational effect – you don’t play it because it’s dead in your hand so much in Limited, but this also being a land means it’s never that! I think this is less versatile than Kazuul’s Fury, but still a huge upgrade to a Mountain and it serves a similar role in that it will often kill your opponent in the late game. It combines really well with Sacrifice effects, but there are only two of those in the format, both at uncommon. This is another one where you should always count it as a land – it’s not good enough an effect to be a spell.

Drifter: C+

There’s a good number of x/1 targets for this in the format, and you can also just set this card up the hard way by attacking and removing a threat – that’s not an exciting use, but certainly better than a land that was otherwise rotting in your hand in the late game! Again, just replace a land, it’s not good enough to take up a spell slot.

Drifter: C-

I think that in most sets, this would be a much better card, but there’s a lot of competition for 4 drops in this one, and a lot of decks want to enable party synergies. While this has a nice effect that stays relevant in the late game, it’s still only likely to add up to a few damage since it’s lands after you hit your fourth in a spell-land format, and it doesn’t attack all that well as a 3/4. If you’re a non-party deck, this card does stack really nicely in multiples!

Drifter: C

4 damage for 5 mana is okay but a bit inefficient – I’m quite surprised that this doesn’t deal 5, in which case it would be an easy C+, but now it misses a lot of Green creatures and other 5 drops. Still, the extra burn is really nice and, in dedicated party decks, this does make it to C+.

Drifter: D+

1/3 for 2 mana isn’t really what the aggro decks want to be doing, and this firebreathing ability is really expensive. This is a card you play if you want 2 mana Warriors to enable those synergies, but cut most of the time otherwise.

Drifter: B

Efficient and powerful removal, once again at sorcery speed sadly, but still great.

Drifter: B-

4 mana 2/2 that deals 2 to a creature on ETB is a solid rate, and I think this will usually be that, and then it scales up from there.

Drifter: D

I think this is a card you only really want to play in Izzet, if you have spell synergies – this strikes me as a particularly bad format for it otherwise, since Kicker wants you to have more lands in play, spell-lands mean more of your lands do something in the late game, and Landfall means sometimes you want to be playing your lands in the late game. If you’re just ditching spells to draw other spells, this isn’t a good use of a card.

Drifter: D-

This card is almost never good – aggro decks don’t want a useless 3-drop that deals no damage, and slower decks want better blockers than an 0/3 and can’t make good use of the haste. There’s only one deck that may want this card: a midrangey deck with lots of big 5 and 6 drops but I think those can almost always do better too, especially in a format where creature types matter. The other place for this is with creatures that have on attack effects, but there really aren’t very many in the format. It doesn’t even block fliers well, since most of them have 3 power this set.

Drifter: B

This is a fantastic card – when you don’t have enough lands, you just run it out as one, and the exact good case for this is your having too many lands, since it converts all your other dead land draws into new cards too. Remember that this is card parity, rather than card advantage, so I would still count it as a land rather than a spell, and still be overjoyed to have it.

Drifter: B

This is “Landfall – Draw a card” enough that I’m really excited, even if you can’t play extra lands off it. Sometimes you’ll have better things to do than whatever’s on top or you won’t be able to cast some expensive or colour-intensive cards right this minute, so it won’t be exactly drawing a card in that scenario, and that 1 damage will add up in that case.

Drifter: D-

This is essentially a 2/2 for R that can’t attack until the late game, and that you should probably trade off as quickly as you can… in the late game, it won’t get through to recur your spell lands anyway, so I think it’s pretty close to unplayable. Maybe there’ll be a deck which is really desperate for more cards that can block 2 drops that will play this once in a blue moon, but don’t let it lead you astray!

Drifter

Red’s commons strike me as quite weak this set, but I think the colour as a whole will be fine despite that. That’s because it has a solid focused beatdown plan; unlike the other colours, it’s not messing around with synergies as much and it instead just has a lot of good beatdown cards which all work towards the same goal. Aggression tends to overperform in formats where several of the colours are value-oriented; people won’t be prepared for the amount of damage Red can deal, and it has more burn here than in ordinary sets, and just that clarity of focus means that the aggro decks will have a lot of good playables and be spoilt for choice when it’s underdrafted. Other colours won’t want their cards, and most of the cards they see will fit what they’re trying to do. As we saw in M21, Red tends to be pretty nutty in burn-heavy sets. Still, White and Black have way more lifegain than usual, which does mitigate a lot of that, so I don’t expect it to be the best colour by any means, but certainly decent standalone.

As a support colour, Red has the potential to be decent also, but I think you need to get some specific good uncommons or some of the strong Warriors, or have a solid beatdown plan in your other colour, to really want to go into it. Izzet strikes me as a really powerful tempo-based combination, using Red removal and Blue spells-matters cards and evasion, while Gruul will be fantastic with all Green’s beefy creatures and buffs, and its ability to perform as a jack-of-all-trades to finish Red’s parties. Red-White should have a pretty good beatdown plan, with all White’s group buffs, and Red-Black is a strong party combination, with Black’s Clerics and Rogues complementing Red’s Warriors and Wizards.

Overall, I think Red will be underdrafted early on in the format and at its best then, since the durdly Blue and Black decks won’t be prepared for its aggression.

I really like formats where everything seems viable and nothing seems particularly over or underpowered, and that’s where I am at with colour rankings so far, but I’ll revisit right at the very end!