Zendikar is the first set of the Zendikar block. It focuses on using land to trigger special abilities on creatures, enchantments, and basically everything else in the set. This list showcases the best twenty commons of the set. Of course, this is an expansion on my original Top 10 Commons From Zendikar, so if you want to just take a look at the cream of the crop feel free to look there instead (the comments on the top ten are the same in both articles). This article is just to showcase the other good commons of the set. Let’s take a look then, shall we? Here’s what I feel are the best commons of Zendikar.

#20 Soaring Seacliff

Out of all the common nobasic lands, this is the most useful. It can give a creature flying when it comes into play. The beauty of this card is that it works the same way a sorcery, except it can’t be countered. You can throw this card into any deck and it will give you a nice offensive boost. Plus, unlike a sorcery that would do the same thing, this card can be used for mana later. Oh, and don’t forget this card helps with landfall (since it’s a land… duh).

#19 Guul Draz Vampire

Several of the vampire cards from this set become more powerful/useful when your opponent has ten or less life. This is one of them. This card becomes a 3/2 with intimidate if your opponent has ten life or less. It’s a great one drop that can become more powerful later on in the game when it counts. I feel the reason that so many vampire related cards focus on an opponent having ten or less life is the card Blood Tribute that takes half an opponent’s life away.

#18 Khalni Heart Expedition

Here’s a great expedition card. This one allows you to trigger landfall twice in one turn (and three times if you play a land as well). This is just a great mana accelerator for green, and we all know that green is the one that really needs a lot of mana to put out their giant creatures.

#17 Umara Raptor

This card showcases the new creatury type “Ally”. Ally cards all boost each other when they come into play. There are others that get +1/+1 counters when they come into play, but this one is particularly powerful because it has flying. This makes it much more powerful offensively and therefore a good choice for an ally deck.

#16 Kor Hookmaster

Kor cards are very strong in this set, but this one is particularly useful. It holds down an opponent so you can build your forces. I saw a very effective strategy using a few of this card. Simply use this and other cards to stall an opponent and useLuminarch Ascensionso you can start pumping out an army of angels. It’s very effective and even outside of that particularl strategy this card is still powerful.

#15 Scythe Tiger

This is a great one drop. It starts off the game strong. However, it is a bit of a problem having to sacrifice a land. However, it can’t be taken out by spells or abilities because it has shroud, meaning it’s a powerful creature at the start of the game. It falls short near the end of a game though, and shroud can actually end up hurting you! So watch out with this one, but it can be a useful tool to victory.

#14 Disfigure

Enfeeblefor one mana? Sound great! Of course, Enfeeble is an enchant creature. However, this card will be usd much more as a kill spell than a card to shrink down a creature. It’s just a good way to minimize damage, kill a creature, or weaken a creature to the point where it will be destroyed by the damage about to be dealt to it.

#13 Mire Blight

This card will be great with first strike. It makes a creature vulnerable to any kind of damage. First strike works quite well with this card also. It’s a simple card, but it certainly gets the job done. Chump blockers rejoice! It’s just like having deathtouch!

#12 Sunspring Expedition

This card is great to lay out on the first turn. It gives you eight life after you’ve played three lands. This card provides a substantial boost in life that gives you an advantage. This card helped a lot of people win in the prerelease because they had the enough life to not need to worry about defending themselves and could concentrate on offense.

#11 Blood Seeker

This card makes any target player lose one life when a creature comes into play under an opponent’s control. This card is a nice chump blocker and also ebbs away at an opponent’s life over the course of a game. A good vampire to have out. If you can boost its toughness you’ll be able to use it much more effectively.

#10 Plated Geopede

This is a great two-drop and showcases the landfall ability quite well. If you lay a land this becomes a 3/3 with first strike! Of course, it isn’t always that powerful, but it is always at least a 1/1 with first strike, and you can never say that first strike isn’t helpful. Run this card with a few Mire Blight and you will have quite a the deadly bug! A couple of these at the beginning of a game can set you up early on for a powerful offense.

#9 Grazing Gladehart

This card may not appear too terribly amazing, though after seeing it played at the draft it’s actually quite useful. Having a few of them out really gets your life up. Not only that, but since this card is green, it works great with things like Harrowand the other land tutoring cards available to green. Green focuses on offense usually, and this card provides a nice life buffer so you dont’ have to worry about defense nearly as much as you normally would. If it were a 2/3 or even a 1/3 it would be much more powerful, but since it remains a 2/2 it comes in at number nine.

#8 Vampire’s Bite

Not quite a black Giant Growth, but still an incredibly powerful instant. This card gives a creature +3/+0 until the end of the turn, which is usually enough so that if you pump your creature you’ll kill whatever it’s blocking/blocked by. Also, you can pay the kicker to give the creature lifelink as well. This gives you at least three life, though probably more. Not to mention, many vampires have lifelink already. This means you may not even have to pay the kicker to get the full effect of this card! It’s a great card and takes the number eight slot on the list.

#7 Vines Of Vastwood

I feel this card is may be superior to Giant Growth. It can only give the +4/+4 if you pay the kicker cost (making the spell a still very affordable two green mana), but it gives shroud no matter what. Actually, it does something even better than shroud. This card can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control. This means you can still pump up the creature you target with this card . This card is perfect for offense or defense. I can see the scenario: I attack with a Rampagin Baloth (or other big green creature) and my opponent casts Hideous End. I cast Vines Of Vastwood and then not only prevent my creature’s death, but deal a good amount of extra damage. Awesome. Oh, and speaking of Hideous End…

#6 Hideous End

A nice black kill spell. It gets rid of a nonblack creature and also makes the creature’s controller lose two life. A strong black kill spell like this is just what this set needed. I can see this card being very annoying. The question is, will Doom Blade or this card be the prominent kill spell in monoblack? We’ll wait and see. It will come down to mana cost vs. effect.

#5 Harrow

This card may have ranked higher if it weren’t a reprint, but it also ranks this high because of the set its in. This card will be incredibly useful in Alara block decks as well as in Zendikar. I feel that it will be most useful in Zendikar because you get to trigger landfall twice with this card, as well as get extra land in play (untapped too I might add). This card has always been good, but in this set it reaches a new level of power.

#4 Journey To Nowhere

Not quite Oblivion Ring, but certainly a relative. This card removes a creature from play rather than a permanent, but it also costs one less mana. This card is the reason that almost every deck at the prerealease had white splashed in. It’s just too good to pass up! Much like Hideous End, this card will have competiton from Oblivion Ring and we’ll have to see which wins out. I feel it could be either one and have no comment as to which will prevail.

#3 Burst Lightning

Here’s a card that I was shocked to see. I shocked because this card makes a certain old favorite obsolete. That card is, in fact, Shock. Shockdeals two damage to a creature or player. However, it doesn’t have the option of dealing four damage, unlike this card. Of course, it isn’t the most economical mana cost for four damage, but drawing this card late in the game vs. drawing Shock late in the game should show you the superiority of this card. It’s great in the set and great in MTG as a whole. Of course, with Lightning Bolt in standard this card will be less celebrated than it should be, but being able to have four of this and four Lightning Bolt in the same deck should prove very interesting in standard. Especially with Pyromancer Ascension and Chandra Ablaze in this set.

#2 Adventuring Gear

Wow… This card is insane. I can see it being strongest in green, as green spells can bring out multiple land per turn. Even in a normal deck, this card is a quick +2/+2 whenever you play a land. It costs one mana to play and one mana to equip. It’s a ridiculously cost effective card. Because this card is colorless and it can fit in any deck it can therefore always be useful. It works especially well with the next card on the list…

#1 Explorer’s Scope

Here’s a common that will be useful long after this set has left standard. However, in Zendikar it is an invaluable tool. It allows you to trigger landfall during combat and of course it simply gives you more land to use the following turn. Even if you don’t get a land into play, you’ll know what the next card you’ll be drawing is. This allows you to plan for the future and to know if you should play certain instants or not. It’s a great card and I forsee it being included in most standard decks.

Thanks for reading!