This weekend sees the release of Battle for Zendikar (BFZ), the new Magic: The Gathering expansion—and this time the collectible card game tries its hand at fantasy-meets-Lovecraftian horror. It’s the follow-up to the Zendikar and Rise of the Eldrazi expansions, both released five years ago, continuing their themes with a brand new set of 250+ cards that return us to the plane of Zendikar, a place of hidden treasures that turns out to have a dark secret bubbling below the surface.
To begin with, a quick note: this review is aimed primarily at new and returning Magic players. Intermediate-to-expert players might like to skip ahead, to where we’ll discuss how BFZ might impact the competitive scene or figure into higher-level deckbuilding strategy. With that out of the way... bring on the tentacles!
Ulamog, chief of the tentacular, cthulian race known as the Eldrazi. (credit: Wizards of the Coast / Michael Komarck)
With the advent of Hearthstone and other digital TCGs, Magic’s core concepts might already be familiar to you: customisable decks of cards that battle against each other with both minions and spells, with the aim of killing the other player whilst defending your own life points. Unlike Hearthstone, Magic also includes land cards, which produce mana—the fuel that powers your spells—and also allows players to act during their opponent’s turn, sometimes ending up with both players flinging spells back-and-forth to try and make—or counter—a key play.
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