Once again we have a new set: Zendikar! This set has a lot to offer and has generated a lot of excitement! Not to mention the priceless treasures inserted in some packs (I’ll explain those another day). Anyway, in this article I’ll be highlighting what I believe are the top five mythic rares from Zendikar. There are 15 altogher, but these are the best of the best. Let’s see what made the cut!

#5 Warren Instigator

This is some mythic! At first, I thought it was a little silly to have this be a mythic rare. Of course, then I realized that this card is Goblin Lackey on roids. It will be great to see a card that works like Goblin Lackey in standard again. It will certainly change the game as I remember many people who played during Urza’s Saga talking about how they needed to plan on ways to deal with Goblin Lackey. Now people will be planning on how to deal with Warren Instigator.

One of the reasons why this card is mythic and not just a normal rare is because of the double strike. This card allows you to put two goblins from your hand into play if you deal combat damage to an opponent. Not only that, but you aren’t restricted to only using this ability with combat damage. It’s just regular damage! Of course, this is the same as with Goblin Lackey, but it’s great that they didn’t change that. I wonder who people will use this card in the future… Either way, this is an amazing card and one that certainly will spark a lot of discussion in the MTG community. Good to have you back Goblin Lackey!

#4 Sorin Markov

Ah, it’s nice to see a new planeswalker. It’s pretty balanced and all the abilities have a good flavor to them (except for the second which could be used to make an opponent’s life increase, though why you’d do that I don’t know). This card will do some serious damage in tournaments but will most likely be the star of many EDH decks in the future. Sorin Markov becomes 30 unpreventable damage in EDH. This card will also be in many vampire decks, strengthening the flavor and power of such decks.

This is my favorite of the Zendikar planeswalkers and probably the most versatile (as Chandra Ablaze is locked into red and Nissa Revane is locked into elf decks). I can’t say much more about this one other than it’s probably the coolest planeswalker yet (not to be confused with the best). I mean, just look at it!

#3 Ob Nixils, The Fallen

Man, can this really be a card? It’s just so powerful! It takes the Zendikar ability “landfall” and takes it over the top. Not only does this card grow bigger and bigger the more land you play, but it also makes an opponent lose three life each time you play a land. Of course, you don’t have to make them lose three life, but who wouldn’t? This card has a very affordable cost of five mana and gives you nearly instant results. If you’re using this card you’ll likely be using the fetch-lands and Terramorphic Expanse so you can maximize your landfall. When this card’s played you better kill it or you’ll be dead in a matter of turns.

#2 Mindbreak Trap

Despite the excitement generated by this card, it didn’t make number one. Sorry vintage fans. Anyway, just because this card isn’t number one doesn’t mean it’s not completely crazy. This card can counter anything! Or rather, remove anything. You see, this card doesn’t counter spells, it removes them from the game. This means you can get rid of cards that say “[Name] can’t be countered”. Great Sable Stag and all those other fun cards are now not as powerful as they once were.

Of course, the real power of this card is its effectiveness against the ability “storm”. It used to be an unstoppable ability because even if you countered the spell that had storm, the copies would all still happen. However, this card can get rid of all the copies. Not only that, this card is free if an opponent played three or more spells! This means that this card can go in any sideboard as an effective measure against storm. It changes MTG forever and will likely be expensive for the rest of MTG’s life. A card of legend.

Anyway, it’s time for the number one mythic rare of zendikar…

#1 Lotus Cobra

An amazing two drop that becomes even more powerful in the Zendikar set. I can alreay smell the combos that will be made with this card. Also, I already smell the roughly $30 price tag this card’s sporting. This card is up there with Tarmogofy for best two drops in recent MTG history. Is this card that amazing or is it just the hype of the new set? Well, we’ll see. However, regardless of this card’s rank overall in MTG, it securely holds the rank of best mythic rare of Zendikar.

Thanks for reading everyone! I appreciate you taking a look and feel free to comment! Also, here’s a humorous picture I found on the internet somewhere.