Rare Picking or Rarely Picking?

We all know that commons are the linchpins of your Draft decks, and we are often told that you shouldn't put too much thought into the rares of the set as they are just that; rare.

However, with Zendikar Rising, we have a unique situation when it comes to card distribution. The rare and mythic double-faced cards have taken the place of some commons, and in total there are a whopping sixteen more rares and mythics in Zendikar Rising compared to a normal set. While I always think rares and mythics warrant more discussion than they usually get, I believe that for this set it's worth focusing on them even more just on the merit of their sheer abundance.

More often than not, the rare will be the strongest card in a pack, sometimes by a wide margin, sometimes by a hair. Other times, the rare will be an unplayable card meant for Constructed sideboards with perhaps strong but incredibly narrow effects that aren't applicable in Limited. Knowing which ones are better than the best uncommons and commons, and relative power levels are important distinctions to be able to make the most informed decision for each pick in your Draft.

It is important to acknowledge that "flashy" does not always equal good. The little glittery symbol at the bottom of your rare is sometimes deceiving. It's easy to overestimate the strength of a rare compared to a common. The common might be the stronger card in the context of the set, or perhaps the rare cards' impact in Constructed formats skews your evaluation of it for Limited. For example, the in Zendikar Rising is excellent in Standard, offering untapped, painless mana fixing. However, in Booster Draft I have these rated at C−, slightly below the level of last seen in M21.

I will be ordering all cards alphabetically in their respective tiers, as I think nitpicking exact rankings of these cards is somewhat redundant. Many of these are synergy-dependent cards and will vary in strength depending on the composition of your deck by up to a full gradation. My grades here are mostly based on their respective potential as pick one in pack one pick one.

Tier 1: Best of the Best

Rating: A

is land in the front, party in the back! (Though, in a literal sense, the land is on the back side.) This card offers insane amounts of value. By the time you can cast this for x equals four or more, you will more often than not have more than enough targets. Getting back a two-, three-, and four-drop for seven mana should be more than enough to grind your opponent out of contention.

Rating: A

is perhaps the most game warping card in the set. Once this resolves, it is all about this card. A great defensive body that gives your team pseudo-lifelink on your turn and an alternate win condition that is far from impossible to meet. A note about this card is that the life gain is a trigger and not "instantaneous" like lifelink. Lethal damage dealt to an opponent will cause them to die before the life gain happens, so don't forget that sometimes you will still have to block when facing down this card!

Rating: A

comes down as a five-mana 6/6 at least, but will likely be even bigger, and makes your nontoken creatures both trigger landfall and immune to "nonland permanent" effects like . Ashaya never fails to have a huge impact on the board. A tough card to deal with, but bonus points if you hit it with !

Rating: A

is back and is as busted as ever. You do have to untap with this creature, so be careful with when you play it, but if it attacks even once you have got your money's worth.

Rating: A

Seven mana for two 4/4 fliers is just a good deal. Potentially enabling some good attacks and/or blocks for your non-Angels is gravy. As long as you aren't super far behind when you cast , you will seldom lose after doing so.

Rating: A+

is my choice for the best card in the set, being excellent at any point in the game and turning both lands and spells into good topdecks. You might even want to keep drawing lands in some situations! It's also splashable, and I think it's wrong to not do so in all but the most focused of blue-red Wizard or black-red party decks.

Rating: A−

Leyline Tyrant is a very interesting card. Letting you save all your red mana turn through turn can lead to some explosive multi-spelling turns. Alternatively, you make this into an essentially unkillable threat as you save up mana and whittle down the opponent's life total with a 4/4 flier.

Rating: A−

Not all Inscriptions are scribbled down equally. As with all of them, each individual mode on this is slightly underwhelming, but combined it becomes a very strong effect. So why is so much better than the other two? It's two things, really. One is that it is an instant, giving it much more flexibility than its siblings. Secondly, it's much cheaper to kick at a total cost of only five mana. You're going to get full value from this one more often than from the others.

Rating: A

While not being quite as strong as , Phylath does make a very good impression of it. You will likely create at least five tokens with if you play it on curve, and just a single land drop after that can be game over. It gets even more silly if you can get multiple land drops on the same turn of course, and I would definitely give a second look if I had Phylath in my pile.

Rating: A

Perhaps the best uncommon we've seen in a while, save , and I don't think it would be crazy to pick over some rares in this tier. There is so much kicker in this set, and it slots into any blue deck. Take it highly, and then move it up a notch more in your pick order. It truly is a silly card.

Rating: A−

Speaking of silly cards, this one just scoots into the top tier. Like Phylath, multiple land drops in a single turn is this buggy's best friend, but just hitting your lands as normal is enough. I would advise not to run out until turn six, however, to immediately make a copy and get the true value train rolling as soon as possible.

Rating: A−

While you will never play it on turn two, will often be a two-mana 7/7 or greater in the later game, allowing for strong double-spelling turns. The kicker is largely irrelevant but can allow for some surprise lethals, and in a race this only grows bigger as both players' life totals deplete.

Rating: A−

Similarly to the other mythic MDFCs, it can be a land in the early game and a powerful spell in the late game. Creatures are quite small in this format so x equals three or four will often be enough to pick off two creatures, which is quite the deal for the mana!

Rating: A−

Coming in as the second best kicker payoff in the set, can allow for some crazy turn sequences. Always being an X-mana X/X is also awesome, making it a relevant play throughout the game.

Moving on to the next tiers, I won't discuss every card super closely, just mention some interesting pointers for some that you might want to have in mind for your upcoming Drafts.

Tier 2: Over any Uncommon Except Roost of Drakes

• : B

Due to quirky rules interactions, while MDFCs aren't considered lands in your graveyard, Ancient Greenwarden still allows you to play the land side of them from the graveyard, getting you the best of both worlds!

• : B+
• : B−
• : B+
• : B
• : B−
• : B+
• : B
• : B
• : B−
• : B
• : B
• : B+

Compared to past effects like this, Moraug's ability is slightly unintuitive. You get the extra combat step after the current main phase, so keep in mind that if you play your land in your pre-combat main phase you will get your extra combat step — and the untap! — before your regular combat step. This means that while you will still get two combats, your creatures will not untap for your second combat, as that is your "normal" combat step. However, if you play your land(s) after normal combat, you will get the results you desire.

• : B−
• : B+
• : B+

Don't be afraid to play this out on turn two as a 2/1 menace lifelink threat. This is hard to block early and can chip in for more damage than you might expect.

• : B
• : B

Don't kill an opposing Apparition in response to its enter-the-battlefield trigger — but do bounce your own with ! Unlike most , this ghost is a . If Skyclave Apparition leaves the battlefield before the trigger resolves, the ability still exiles the targeted permanent, but no token will be created, as there is nothing exiled with it when it leaves the battlefield.

• : B+
• : B
• : B
• : B
• : B+
• : B

Tier 3: Better Than Most Uncommons*

* These are comparable to the best uncommon MDFCs and signpost uncommons. The pick order of these and the top uncommons is highly contextual and depends on your deck. For pack one pick one, I'd skew toward taking the rares and mythics, but in the third booster I will take over if I am drafting White-Black Clerics.

• : B−
• : B−

Watch out for the wombo-combo of Charix plus .

• : B
• : B−
• : B−

There has been some interesting discussion about what you do if you get two of these Angels. Do you play both in your deck or do you put one in the sideboard? I do think that the correct move is to have one in the sideboard. A 4/3 flier for four mana is good, but not a bomb. A 4/3 flier for four that draws another 4/3 flier? Now that's an A+ tier card.

• : B−

Whatever you do, don't copy legendary permanents with this. The legend rule still applies to tokens.

• : B−

If you can target this a second time before the sacrifice trigger resolves, you will get double the tokens, as the creation of the tokens is not tied to whether you sacrifice it or not.

• : B
• : B−
• : B−
• : B−

You don't necessarily have to kick the Charger to make it stay on the battlefield. If you have other ways to put counters on it the turn you play it, such as , it will stick around as well.

• : B−
• : B−
• : B−
• : B−

Tier 4: Worse Than the Top Commons

For reference, the two best commons are (B) and (B−).

• : C
• : C+
• : C
• : C+
• : C

This also discounts kicker costs. For example, by itself Kaza makes cost one blue to kick rather than cost two mana.

• : C+
• : C
• : C−
• : C
• : C−
• : C+
• : C+

Kicker costs do not change the converted mana cost of a card. For six mana, you can play Sea Gate Stormcaller and copy a kicked Into the Roil.

• : C−
• : C
• : C+
• : C+
• : C
• : C

Tier 5: Unplayable

• : F
• : D+

This is sometimes playable in Black-Red Party if you have a bomb like or and can regularly cast it for three mana or less, but generally I shy away from these kind of tutor effects in non-Cube Limited formats.

• : F
• : D+
• : D
• : F
• : D−
• : D−

I hope these rankings were helpful and will give you a better idea what to do when you're faced with challenging picks. If you rate any cards differently, please leave a comment below!

Happy drafting!

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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.