Lelouch32
02-21-2011, 07:14 PM
Mirrodin Besieged: The Zenith Cycle
By: Corlando
Hello, hello and welcome once again to the lovely article series known as Cards n’Flux where we look at the awesome cards of Magic the Gathering and discuss the flavor, uses, and general coolness of this table top card game. In view of the recent drop in comments and general discussion on the column, I’ve decided to delay my final article on Mirrodin Besieged for a topic that I’m sure many have an opinion. Keep on reading and I’ll show you what I mean.
Thanks for continuing to read. Anyway, as expressed many times throughout magic’s history, with every expansion a phenomenon known as a cycle can occur. This is where some idea, card type, or sense of general flavor is carried through not just one or two cards, but five each one usually leaning towards either one of the five colors or their ideals. One of the strongest examples of this phenomenon is the five original planeswalkers: Ajani, Jace, Liliana, Chandra, and Garruk. A few more recent cycles are the Titan Cycle, Replica Cycle, and the Spellbomb Cycle. Today we will be looking at one of the more interesting cycles we’ve had recently, the Zenith Cycle. These five sorcery and instants each do their very best to bring something new to their respective colors and all desperately try to really impact the game with big effects. However, the main question with many cycles is, which is better? Well Let’s take a look at these five cards and find out.
Starting at the bottom, weakest Zenith, in my opinion, is the Red Zenith named Red Sun’s Zenith. So why does Red Sun’s Zenith get the weakest Zenith award? It is because it is essentially a Heat Ray that can also hit players. Pay :manar::manax: to deal X damage to target creature or player, and if this card kills a creature you exile it. The interesting thing about all the Zenith cards is that instead of putting them in your graveyard, you get to shuffle it back into your deck. Essentially it is a recyclable Heat Ray, which shows that the Green movement has wormed its way into everything these days. So what is so bad about Heay Ra… I mean Red Sun’s Zenith. Well if you’re going to kill something, you better have a lot of mana. Let us say you want to destroy that darn Rune Claw Bear your opponent just summoned. Just to kill this 2/2 pest, you would need three mana. You could waste your mana doing this, or play a Shock, a card that was long surpassed by Lightning Bolt, and in some cases Flame Slash. I would say that Red Sun’s Zenith is not going to be a break all card, there are just better cards out there for people to use. However, I do see this card making its way into casual and possibly EDH decks so players can hit heavy from nowhere and hopefully do it again.
Next up we definitely have a tie for the next two cards in the ranking system. The two Zeniths are the Blue and White Suns’ Zeniths. The Blue Zenith gives you X cards for paying :manax::manau::manau::manau:, while the White Zenith gives you X 2/2 cat warriors for paying :manax::manaw::manaw::manaw:. Of course these cards also have the ability to shuffle themselves back into their owner’s decks. However, even with that upside the major problem both these cards present is that you must use a lot of mana to get something out of them. For the Blue one you have to pay four total mana for a single card while the White one forces you to have at least four total mana to get a 2/2. You might be asking yourself then, why would anyone even consider playing these cards if they are so mediocre? The answer is because both of these cards are Instants. This means that if you have a good amount of mana, you have the potential to gain a serious advantage if you mange to resolve the spell during your opponent's turn. This is where people can split on which of these two cards is better. The Blue Sun's Zenith becomes quite enticing if you can draw a few cards at the end of your opponent's turn, especially as the game wears on. It is the same with White Sun’s Zenith. Gaining a few 2/2 cat warriors, who essentially have haste, right before your turn can do a lot to win games. However, the thing that seals it for me is the very real possibility that with the Blue Sun’s Zenith, you might not draw the cards you need. With the White Sun’s Zenith you have a definite and consistent result of always getting warriors to attack or chump blockers to stall. Plus you always have the fun possibility of playing White Sun’s Zenith for seven and then playing True Conviction to swing with four 2/2 with double strike and lifelink. It is because of this that, in my book, Blue Sun’s Zenith is fourth while White gets third.
Alright now it is getting exciting, where will the other Zeniths end up on the list? Well, coming in at second on my list is the Black Sun’s Zenith. Black sun’s Zenith is a sorcery for :manax::manab::manab: that gives all creatures on the battlefield X -1/-1 counters. This card gives Black the powerful board clearing effect that it really needed. Granted there were other cards such as Consume the Meek, Shrivel, and Marsh Casualties, but those cards were quickly forgotten due to their individual inadequacies ranging from too little for your buck, to literally hitting nothing at all. Black Sun’s Zenith gives you the ability to be amazingly varied in how much pain you decide to dish out. If you want to just kill off or weaken some of the creatures on the field, you can and still have enough mana to cast another spell. Plus you have the ability to use it over and over since the card is shuffled into your library instead of put in the graveyard. The greatest thing about this card is that it combos well with quite a few things. You can play Black Sun’s Zenith for three then use Contagion Clasp to proliferate the -1/-1 counters and any other counters you might want to make more of. You can use it in conjunction with Core Prowler to proliferate, then play a Plague Stinger or something else. My favorite combo is to weaken all my opponent’s forces with Black Sun’s Zenith on turn five. Then on turn six play Massacre Wurm, a 6/5 for :mana3::manab::manab::manab: that not only reduces your opponent’s creatures’ stats by -2/-2 when it enters the battlefield but for every creature that goes to your opponent’s graveyard your opponent loses two life, causing massive damage and serious demoralization. Black Sun’s Zenith is definitely a fun card and is going to have an impact on many levels of play.
Well it does not leave much in the guessing department about which Zenith I think is the best Zenith. Green Sun’s Zenith is a sorcery for :manax::manag: that allows you to search your library for a green creature with a converted mana cost of X and put it onto the battlefield. This is just flat out amazing in many ways. This card gives you the ability to play any green creature in your library for one extra mana. Essentially this can turn your entire library into your hand, especially when you have the ability to play it multiple times since Green Sun’s Zenith is put back into your library. The easiest combo I see is getting seven mana to search through your entire library to find a Primeval Titan, who nets you two more land. Then next turn, play something even bigger with the mana you summoned with Primeval Titan. Another fun idea is playing a few green creatures, then tap for very little mana to search through your entire library to find a Khalni Hydra. This card gives you the ability to really turn games as you go and get the one card you need for the present situation. Name any creature you want to summon to the field out of nowhere and this card gives you the capacity to do it. This card will definitely impact the game in many ways and will be a sought after rare for several months to come.
So once more here is my list. Coming in fifth we have Red Sun’s Zenith which just requires too much mana to really do anything. Landing in the fourth and third spots respectively are the Blue and White Suns’ Zeniths that both score points for being instants, but require too much mana to really be truly powerful. Second place goes to Black Sun’s Zenith whose many combos and power really give Black what it needed. However, Green Sun’s Zenith beats it out for essentially turning a Green player’s library into their hand for one extra :manag:. Overall this cycle was pretty cool and I look forward to the next expansion to see what the next cycle will be.
Well it is now time for everyone’s favorite section, the closing questions section:
1. What is your favorite Zenith and why? What is your favorite cycle?
2. Is an X instant ever really worth it, or are they more often than not, over-costed and too hard to play?
3. What do you hope will be the next cycle we see? What kind of abilities would you hope for?
Well everyone, that is all for this week. Next week we will have our last Mirrodin Besieged related article and from then on we will see what happens. Hope you all have a great week and feel free to suggest article ideas. Who knows I might just pick yours. Anyway, as always, “Etherium is limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.
By: Corlando
Hello, hello and welcome once again to the lovely article series known as Cards n’Flux where we look at the awesome cards of Magic the Gathering and discuss the flavor, uses, and general coolness of this table top card game. In view of the recent drop in comments and general discussion on the column, I’ve decided to delay my final article on Mirrodin Besieged for a topic that I’m sure many have an opinion. Keep on reading and I’ll show you what I mean.
Thanks for continuing to read. Anyway, as expressed many times throughout magic’s history, with every expansion a phenomenon known as a cycle can occur. This is where some idea, card type, or sense of general flavor is carried through not just one or two cards, but five each one usually leaning towards either one of the five colors or their ideals. One of the strongest examples of this phenomenon is the five original planeswalkers: Ajani, Jace, Liliana, Chandra, and Garruk. A few more recent cycles are the Titan Cycle, Replica Cycle, and the Spellbomb Cycle. Today we will be looking at one of the more interesting cycles we’ve had recently, the Zenith Cycle. These five sorcery and instants each do their very best to bring something new to their respective colors and all desperately try to really impact the game with big effects. However, the main question with many cycles is, which is better? Well Let’s take a look at these five cards and find out.
Starting at the bottom, weakest Zenith, in my opinion, is the Red Zenith named Red Sun’s Zenith. So why does Red Sun’s Zenith get the weakest Zenith award? It is because it is essentially a Heat Ray that can also hit players. Pay :manar::manax: to deal X damage to target creature or player, and if this card kills a creature you exile it. The interesting thing about all the Zenith cards is that instead of putting them in your graveyard, you get to shuffle it back into your deck. Essentially it is a recyclable Heat Ray, which shows that the Green movement has wormed its way into everything these days. So what is so bad about Heay Ra… I mean Red Sun’s Zenith. Well if you’re going to kill something, you better have a lot of mana. Let us say you want to destroy that darn Rune Claw Bear your opponent just summoned. Just to kill this 2/2 pest, you would need three mana. You could waste your mana doing this, or play a Shock, a card that was long surpassed by Lightning Bolt, and in some cases Flame Slash. I would say that Red Sun’s Zenith is not going to be a break all card, there are just better cards out there for people to use. However, I do see this card making its way into casual and possibly EDH decks so players can hit heavy from nowhere and hopefully do it again.
Next up we definitely have a tie for the next two cards in the ranking system. The two Zeniths are the Blue and White Suns’ Zeniths. The Blue Zenith gives you X cards for paying :manax::manau::manau::manau:, while the White Zenith gives you X 2/2 cat warriors for paying :manax::manaw::manaw::manaw:. Of course these cards also have the ability to shuffle themselves back into their owner’s decks. However, even with that upside the major problem both these cards present is that you must use a lot of mana to get something out of them. For the Blue one you have to pay four total mana for a single card while the White one forces you to have at least four total mana to get a 2/2. You might be asking yourself then, why would anyone even consider playing these cards if they are so mediocre? The answer is because both of these cards are Instants. This means that if you have a good amount of mana, you have the potential to gain a serious advantage if you mange to resolve the spell during your opponent's turn. This is where people can split on which of these two cards is better. The Blue Sun's Zenith becomes quite enticing if you can draw a few cards at the end of your opponent's turn, especially as the game wears on. It is the same with White Sun’s Zenith. Gaining a few 2/2 cat warriors, who essentially have haste, right before your turn can do a lot to win games. However, the thing that seals it for me is the very real possibility that with the Blue Sun’s Zenith, you might not draw the cards you need. With the White Sun’s Zenith you have a definite and consistent result of always getting warriors to attack or chump blockers to stall. Plus you always have the fun possibility of playing White Sun’s Zenith for seven and then playing True Conviction to swing with four 2/2 with double strike and lifelink. It is because of this that, in my book, Blue Sun’s Zenith is fourth while White gets third.
Alright now it is getting exciting, where will the other Zeniths end up on the list? Well, coming in at second on my list is the Black Sun’s Zenith. Black sun’s Zenith is a sorcery for :manax::manab::manab: that gives all creatures on the battlefield X -1/-1 counters. This card gives Black the powerful board clearing effect that it really needed. Granted there were other cards such as Consume the Meek, Shrivel, and Marsh Casualties, but those cards were quickly forgotten due to their individual inadequacies ranging from too little for your buck, to literally hitting nothing at all. Black Sun’s Zenith gives you the ability to be amazingly varied in how much pain you decide to dish out. If you want to just kill off or weaken some of the creatures on the field, you can and still have enough mana to cast another spell. Plus you have the ability to use it over and over since the card is shuffled into your library instead of put in the graveyard. The greatest thing about this card is that it combos well with quite a few things. You can play Black Sun’s Zenith for three then use Contagion Clasp to proliferate the -1/-1 counters and any other counters you might want to make more of. You can use it in conjunction with Core Prowler to proliferate, then play a Plague Stinger or something else. My favorite combo is to weaken all my opponent’s forces with Black Sun’s Zenith on turn five. Then on turn six play Massacre Wurm, a 6/5 for :mana3::manab::manab::manab: that not only reduces your opponent’s creatures’ stats by -2/-2 when it enters the battlefield but for every creature that goes to your opponent’s graveyard your opponent loses two life, causing massive damage and serious demoralization. Black Sun’s Zenith is definitely a fun card and is going to have an impact on many levels of play.
Well it does not leave much in the guessing department about which Zenith I think is the best Zenith. Green Sun’s Zenith is a sorcery for :manax::manag: that allows you to search your library for a green creature with a converted mana cost of X and put it onto the battlefield. This is just flat out amazing in many ways. This card gives you the ability to play any green creature in your library for one extra mana. Essentially this can turn your entire library into your hand, especially when you have the ability to play it multiple times since Green Sun’s Zenith is put back into your library. The easiest combo I see is getting seven mana to search through your entire library to find a Primeval Titan, who nets you two more land. Then next turn, play something even bigger with the mana you summoned with Primeval Titan. Another fun idea is playing a few green creatures, then tap for very little mana to search through your entire library to find a Khalni Hydra. This card gives you the ability to really turn games as you go and get the one card you need for the present situation. Name any creature you want to summon to the field out of nowhere and this card gives you the capacity to do it. This card will definitely impact the game in many ways and will be a sought after rare for several months to come.
So once more here is my list. Coming in fifth we have Red Sun’s Zenith which just requires too much mana to really do anything. Landing in the fourth and third spots respectively are the Blue and White Suns’ Zeniths that both score points for being instants, but require too much mana to really be truly powerful. Second place goes to Black Sun’s Zenith whose many combos and power really give Black what it needed. However, Green Sun’s Zenith beats it out for essentially turning a Green player’s library into their hand for one extra :manag:. Overall this cycle was pretty cool and I look forward to the next expansion to see what the next cycle will be.
Well it is now time for everyone’s favorite section, the closing questions section:
1. What is your favorite Zenith and why? What is your favorite cycle?
2. Is an X instant ever really worth it, or are they more often than not, over-costed and too hard to play?
3. What do you hope will be the next cycle we see? What kind of abilities would you hope for?
Well everyone, that is all for this week. Next week we will have our last Mirrodin Besieged related article and from then on we will see what happens. Hope you all have a great week and feel free to suggest article ideas. Who knows I might just pick yours. Anyway, as always, “Etherium is limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.