Magic: The Gathering
Zendikar Rising: New Planeswalkers Revealed!
Much earlier than expected, we’ve got a fresh look at 2 brand new planeswalkers from the upcoming Magic: The Gathering expansion, Zendikar Rising. Let’s check them out…
Jace, Mirror Mage is a really cool and innovative design. You can play him either at 3 mana or 5 mana with the Kicker ability. That makes this one of the few planeswalker cards in Magic’s history that scales as the game progresses. If you’re the player casting Jace, it will be interesting figuring out if you want to commit him to the board early on turn 3, or wait until later on.
The nice thing is that his token copies aren’t legendary. If you’ve played Jace with Kicker and your main Jace dies for whatever reason (like using his 0 ability), leaving the token copy behind, you can cast a new Jace with Kicker and have 2 token copies. The token copy can Scry 2 to increase loyalty and manipulate the top of your library. Then your main Jace can draw the exact card you need, with a high likelihood of survival.
In the simplest terms, our new Jace really only has two abilities: Scry 2 & Draw. It doesn’t protect itself on its own and I think many will underestimate this card. We’ve seen that happen in the past with other Jaces (for example, Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy).
But, I think the token copy aspect is going to catch people off guard. The amount of library manipulation and card draw you’ll be able to do every turn is going to be a lot for most opposing decks to deal with. Many times, the card you’ll draw with Jace is going to be a way to protect itself. Other similar planeswalkers can Scry or draw cards but very few can do both in the same turn. No matter what point in the game you draw Jace, he’s going to help you find what you need.
Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients is actually kind of scary, mainly because it already has a very obvious home to slot into. Winota, Joiner of Forces is destined to be Nahiri’s BFF, and has already been an all-star in Standard — at least when we don’t have other broken cards dominating the format. With rotation happening as Zendikar Rising releases, I expect Winota decks to reside at the top of the metagame. Nahiri helps us find both Winota, who just so happens to be a Warrior, and Embercleave, which is the best equipment in Standard. The Kor Warrior tokens she produces can auto equip an Embercleave if necessary. But more importantly, they are non-human Warriors, which means that they’ll trigger Winota’s ability when they attack. Finally, Nahiri’s -3 ability can pick off small creatures and planeswalkers if removal is needed.
I expect Nahiri to be a highlight of the set. I think it’s safe to assume that we may even see a few more equipment cards that she’ll be fond of. I’m a huge fan of Nahiri’s design and it seems like she’s going to be very strong. I just hope some other new cards will be printed alongside Nahiri to keep her in check. Standard has been particularly rough over the past year, and I’d love to see a bit more diversity than just Uro ramp decks vs. Winota/Nahiri decks.
Alternate Art
As with all recent Magic expansions since Collector Boosters entered the scene with Throne of Eldraine, we’ve got some alternate art versions of these new planeswalkers. I must say they look a lot cooler than the normal versions.
In the past, these borderless planeswalker cards have been thematically tied to the set in their visual aesthetic and style. I’m not exactly sure what the theming of these are (other than they look really sweet), so I’m excited to get some more insight on that. In the meantime, below are the full art pieces of both of these cards for you to enjoy.
I hope you’re as excited for Zendikar Rising as I am. Thanks for checking out this article. If you’d like to see more from me in the future, please consider giving me a follow. This is my second article on Medium, and I’m really enjoying this writing process so far. I’ll be publishing more as the rest of this set gets released, so keep your eyes out!
