Besides the themes of treasure and quests, Zendikar focuses largely on the idea that lands count for something more than just mana. Zendikar sports an impressive twenty nonbasic lands. Let’s take a look at each individually and see how they work.

Akoum Refuge

Most of the refuge lands I won’t comment on too extensively. They all do the same thing, just the mana is different. I may add a comment here or there if I feel there’s a need to.

Anyway, this type of land has been seen before. Two color producing land that comes into play tapped. Nothing too terribly exciting. Of course, the refuge lands also give you one life when they come into play. Now that’s a nice bonus! However, with the Alara nonbasic lands (the ones that produce three types of mana) being released so close to these, I doubt that these lands will be met with too much enthusiasm.

All in alll, the refuge lands are nice, but nothing priceless. There are just too many other sources for multiple mana types. I can’t see anyone using this over cards like Dragonskull Summit or Crumbling Necropolis.

Arid Mesa

The fetch-lands are another group of lands I won’t comment too extensively on. This type of land appeared many years ago, though the Zendikar fetch-lands grab enemy colors and those (we’ll call them) off-colors.

All the lands are useful, though some have particular interest. I won’t pretend to be a professional when it comes to what’s god in standard, so I can’t really say which is going to be the best fetch-land. However, I can tell you that all these lands work wonders in Zendikar.

The reason they’re so great is that they can trigger landfall abilities twice in a turn. Not only that, but you could save these and trigger landfall on an opponent’s turn if you needed to (for whatever reason). I feel that the value of these cards will certainly be around that of the old Onslaught fetch-lands, but will be particularly high while landfall is still a relevant ability.

Crypt Of Agadeem

Finally, we get to one of the more unique lands of Zendikar. Crypt Of Agadeem will certainly see some play in standard, but will really shine in vintage and casual play. Most likely it will be used in decks that use cards like Entomb and Buried Alive.

This card has a more limited use than (what I believe is its predecessor) Cabal Coffers. Though this card has the ability to work faster than Cabal Coffers, Cabal Cofferscan go in any monoblack deck and do well. For this card to do well in a monoblack deck that doesn’t focus on putting black creature cards into your graveyard you’ll have to lose creatures. It seems counter-productive outside of a deck that focuses on reanimation. However, as I said, I’m no professional so this card could be the next Tolarian Academy for all I know…

But probably not.

However, I would like to address something that all the rare lands (not including the fetch-lands) have a serious problem. They aren’t legendary! I don’t know why this is, because clearly the card refers to a specific landmark. Could there really be two Crypt(s) Of Agadeem? Well, that seems kind of possible. Since I don’t know the story of Zendikar, perhaps Agadeem is a place and not a person? And if Agadeem is a person, perhaps his remains have been scattered in multiple burial sites. However, I doubt that’s the case.

This is the only land that might be able to be nonlegendary. However, things like Emeria and Valakut are definetly specific places, so two shouldn’t be able to be in play at once. It’s like if there were two Tolarian Academy in play. Wouldn’t make any sense.

Of course, because these lands aren’t legendary they have a lot more power, but I’d rather they made sense. It ruins some of the flavor.

Emeria, The Sky Ruin

This card has some serious power for those white decks that just sit and wait. Defensive decks, you know? It also might be powerful in monowhite EDH decks. Essentially you get a creature back when you control seven or more plains. This means you’ll need eight lands in play (that’s including this one). If you aren’t running some kind of acceleration, this won’t happen until turn eight. That means this card’s ability won’t happen until turn nine. A slow card, but if it were much faster it would be too powerful. I like the flavor of it and it’s a good addition to white cards as a whole, not just within Zendikar.

Also, after going on that rant about these lands not being legendary, you can see that this one has a downside. As I mentioned, you’ll need seven plains before this card does anything. Having more than two of this card in a deck might keep you from drawing into the plains you need for it to work. Because running more of these is somewhat counter-productive it’s likely that you won’t see more than one in play. However, such is not the case with Crypt Of Agadeem or with another land I’ll mention later on.

Graypelt Refuge

Here’s a refuge card. I like this one because there are a few green and white cards that allow you to put out more lands or return permanents to your hand. This means you could play this card more than once, gaining slightly more life. Nothing too terribly special.

Jwar Isle Refuge

Another refuge, so not much to say. Living Tsunami works well with this card, as you can put it back in your hand and get the life again. Other than that, it’s just a nonbasic land that taps for two colors.

Kabira Crossroads

I’m a particular fan of this one. Some of the other common nonbasic lands do things to target creatures. Sometimes they do things that will be useless, or won’t do anything at all (because no creatures are in play!). Getting two life is always good. This card always does something for you and is a nice play at the start of the game. Also, if you have to bounce cards to your hand, this is a good choice.

Of course, all the nonbasic lands from this set (excluding the fetch-lands) come into play tapped, which does slow you down. It’s nothing that you can’t work with though. I feel that this land will work well with black and white decks that use Sanguine Bond. Just a little extra life gain thrown in is always nice.

Kazandu Refuge

Another refuge. You know what they do by now. Sorry this isn’t more in-depth, but there’s not a lot to say!

Magosi, The Waterveil

Here’s a card that I want to see used in vintage! How will this work with all those decks that focus on Stasis and cards like it? Very well, I would imagine. I feel that this card is most out of its element out of all the Zendikar lands. Blue is very weak in Zendikar (in my opinion) and there’s not a lot to combo with this card. It’s a great play at the beginning of the game, but really won’t help you much later. Skipping a turn early in the game when it won’t matter is usually the way to go with cards like this.

I don’t know how this card being nonlegendary will work, but I feel that this card will be stronger because its nonlegendary (unlike Emeria).

Marsh Flats

Here’s another fetch-land. You know what it does. Sorry.

Misty Rainforest

Argh! Another one? Nothing to write here folks. Keep moving.

Oran-Rief, The Vastwood

Ah, here’s one I wanted to talk about. This one is probably in most need of being legendary. This is an entire forest. A specific forest! How could there be two??? Stupid.

Anyway, this is a very strong land. It puts +1/+1 counters on each green creature that came into play the turn it’s ability is used. I see this card doing well with elf decks. I can also see four of this card being used. At once. Imaging each 1/1 elf (or whatever green creature you want to use) becoming a 5/5 right off the bat. That’s not good. Not good at all.

Besides this card’s obvious overflow of power, I really like it. I think it has great flavor and the only unfair thing about it is that it isn’t legendary. If it put a +1/+1 counter on each creature that came into play it would be too good. Luckily they restricted it to green only.

Piranha Marsh

This is another of the more useful common nonbasic lands. Just like Kabira Crossroads, this one focuses on life. It’s always good to take one life away from your opponent, so this card is always going to be fairly useful.

One life may not seem like a lot, but I can think of plenty of times where my opponent was using something like Worship and had them at one life. This card would’ve won me the game! Of course, that’s a pretty specific situation. However, this card certainly will have its uses.

Scalding Tarn

Fetch-land. Yeah.

Sejiri Refuge

And following the fetch-land we have a refuge…

Soaring Seacliff

Here we go. Another point of interest. I’m a big fan of this land. I feel that it has the most potential out of all the common lands. Think about this, you’re running a monogreen deck that uses things like Territorial Baloth and Baloth Woodcrasher. Your opponent’s life is low, but you’ve already used your last Overrun and they’ve got the smallest bit of life left. What do you do? You play this land and give a baloth flying and swing for the win!

This card is like all those instants that give a creature flying (except it’s really more like a sorcery), but this card stays around and gives you mana! It’s a nice thought and I wonder if it will be a strategy used by anyone.

Teetering Peaks

I’m not a fan of this land, or for that matter the next land. I’ll just talk about this one for now though. This land, like all the other common nonbasic lands, comes into play tapped. This means you won’t be able to tap it for mana right away. However, this land does give target creature +2/+0 until the end of the turn.

Here’s the trouble I have with this card. Red is the color for creatures with haste. I thought how cool this card would be when used with Ragin Goblin or other quick hasting creatures. The problem is that on the first turn you can’t drop Ragin Goblin and use this card. The second turn your opponent probably will have out a creature and boosting your Raging Goblin will result only in than it getting chump blocked and both creatures being destroyed.

My initial thought with this card was to save it and play it alongside a creature with haste on the third or fourth turn. The problem with that is you won’t have enough mana to play what you want to boost. If you need mana, you’re going to have to play this card and boost something else. This card essentially becomes useless.

I realize that I’m talking about this card strictly in a monored sense. It may have a lot more power in Naya, Grixis, and Jund decks (especially Naya though). Also, I realize that if this land came into play untapped and did what it does, it could not be a common by any means. However, I feel it falls short.

Turntimber Grove

This card works similarly to Teetering Peaks, but it gives +1/+1 instead of +2/+0. I feel that this card is the better of the two. A 2/2 kills a chump and lives, while a 3/1 kills a chump and dies too. This card, like the last, just isn’t as strong as some of the other common nonbasic lands. It’s not a failed card, just not a very good one.

Valakut, The Molten Pinnacle

I love this card. Monored burn decks rejoice. All your Mountains are now Lightning Bolt. Well, that’s only if you have five Mountains and this card in play. However, that’s a pretty easy thing to accomplish. There’s great flavor to this card and I really love how it works.

It isn’t legendary, but since it requires a particular number of Mountains in play to be worth anything I don’t think it gains much by being nonlegendary. It’s definetly stronger as a nonlegendary card than Emeria is as a nonlegendary card.

This land is truely amazing and I feel its one of the cards that will launch monored into the dominant deck type in standard. Also, call it Valakut, The Molten Pineapple. It’s more amusing that way.

Verdant Catacombs

Ugh. I hate to end on a fetch-land, but… this is a fetch-land. What a downer.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you learned a little more about the nonbasic lands of Zendikar!