![]() That means we’re holding onto more ways to close out the game, as compared to our opponents. We can play them as lands if we keep drawing nonland cards, or keep them in reserve if we get flooded on mana. Theoretically, we could have an opening hand where our only lands are found in DFCs, and still keep it on clean conscience. If we run a few of these DFC’s in our deck, we’re upping our amount of haymakers that our deck can throw, with the fallback plan of using them as lands. The DFCs aren’t the knockout punch, but they can be the body blow that knocks our opponents off balance, setting us up for victory on the next turn. For instance, just think about every time you’ve seen a game turned on its head after resolving Living Death, Triumph of the Hordes, or an overloaded Vandalblast. While we all know the cards that effectively say “you win the game,” there’s something to be said for powerful spells that get you closer to winning. While they aren’t in the realm of Expropriate, Cyclonic Rift, or Torment of Hailfire, they still offer a chance to blow a game wide open. Agadeem’s Awakening and Shatterskull Smashing could be cast for less mana, but their design nudges the caster to put seven or more mana into them. Three of them cost seven mana, which is in the realm of game-winning effects, and the other two are huge X spells. On top of being able to hit play untapped on turn one, the spell sides of mythic rare DFCs are big and splashy. Commander is becoming less and less of a place for tapped lands, so untapped lands are at more of a premium than ever before. For that reason, they have a big leg up on the lower rarity DFCs, when it comes to odds of affecting the format. The mythic DFCs stand out because they can come into play untapped. Mana variance is as integral to the game as life totals and the combat step. While there has been discussion about bringing such a system to Magic, it hasn’t really taken off in a big way. This mechanic was meant to get around the “feels bad” moments of mana screw that can happen in Magic. Once per turn, players were allowed to play an unwanted card face down and use it as a resource instead. Spell-to-resource transformation has been used in the card game space before, most notably in the discontinued World of Warcraft TCG. You could think of them as either a land that has a payoff if you draw it late, or a spell that you can use as a resource in the early turns. They allow us to tinker with that fundamental balance of lands and spells, without doing much harm to either side. However, this new cycle of DFCs can bolster a deck in ways that utility lands can’t. They typically have a single ability that is small in scale, such as Desolate Lighthouse or Terrain Generator. Utility lands are the poster children for this blend between game pieces. Only occasionally do the lines blur between lands and spells. These five cards in particular don’t solve that balance, but they make our decisions just that much easier. There’s beauty in that, as it keeps us coming back for more. We read articles on the topic, delve through Discord servers, or debate our friends over Twitter but the problem is never truly solved. We go to great lengths to figure out this balance, as it’s one of the biggest aspects that sets Magic apart from other games. Unless we’re playing Manaless Dredge, the foundation of Magic rests on a balance of lands and nonland spells. Those five are none other than the cycle of mythics. While there are many to go over, we’re going to focus on the five that I feel have the best chance of impacting Commander. Above all else, though, the double-faced cards represent the biggest departure from conventional design as we know it. From a four-color Omnath to Panharmonicon for lands, Wizards of the Coast has pulled out the stops for this set. Zendikar Rising has flipped the script on card design.
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