Farewell, Zendikar Rising

I cobbled together (horribly) a graphic showing standard rotation; original here

It's that time again. If you follow standard, you know that September is 'rotation month'- when the 4 oldest sets in standard rotate out of the format. The cards can still be used, of course, in other formats (modern, pioneer, commander, etc.) or casually. But since they're leaving standard, prices for single cards will drop (in most cases) as players seek to update their favorite decks for the format. This month, I'll look at each set that's leaving, lamenting the cards I'll miss or celebrating the ones I won't. First up: Zendikar Rising (ZNR).

Released in September 2020, Zendikar Rising was a return to the Zendikar plane, and featured many of the same mechanics that the original Zendikar block did (most notably, landfall). As we had already seen Zendikar before, I wasn't overly excited, and this new set was emphatically . . . uninteresting for me. It wasn't horrible; it just wasn't great. The party mechanic was okay, and I enjoyed some tribal additions to clerics and rogues. Ultimately, I made a gruul landfall deck, dimir rogue deck, orzhov cleric deck, and bant party deck out of this set, and enjoyed them well enough, but none blew me away.

Zendikar Rising was the first set to feature double-sided cards. These had either 1) a land on both sides, enabling you to choose when playing which you would put down (permanently for that game- you couldn't switch sides later), or 2) a land on one side and spell on the other, giving you options. I am of . . . perhaps appropriately . . . two minds on this concept. Yes, it is good- especially playing online. But in cardboard, it means you have to play with card sleeves to leverage these cards. Though almost everyone does these days, being forced to do so was (in my opinion) annoying.

Favorites
Luminarch Aspirant was a great addition to several deck types. Maddening Cacophony, Merfolk Windrobber, and Ruin Crab all featured heavily in my mill deck (and the Windrobber in my cleric deck as well). I did like the 'incription' cycle- five cards, one in each color- for their versatiliy. Brushfire Elemental was great in landfall, Cleric of Life's Bond in clerics, and the double-sided land cards (one example shown below, displaying both sides) were handy.

Good Riddance

Interestingly, there were no cards in this set that I despised. Of course, some of my favorites above were annoying when in the hands of an opponent, but that is always the case. 

Final Thoughts

Zendikar Rising wasn't horrible. But it didn't stick out to me, either. I'm ambivalent about its departure because I was ambivalent about its presence.