Zenith Cycle

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Today, we are looking at the Zenith Cycle of cards from Magic the Gathering's last set, Mirrodin Besieged to determine which rocks your game and which gives you sad panda were you to rip a booster pack to find it in the last slot. We have had almost two months of playing with these so we know you have by now formed an opinion.

Anywhoos, for those of you not that familiar with the Zenith Cycle, there are a cycle of rare spells with X in their costs and named after the five the coloured suns of Mirrodin. The card, after played (and resolves successfully), shuffle themselves back into your library to be used yet again. The Zenith Cycle is rather similar to the cycle of Beacons from Fifth Dawn (Beacon of Immortality, Beacon of Destruction, Beacon of Creation, Beacon of Tomorrows, and Beacon of Unrest) in that they shuffle back in your library again.

Let's take a moment to review the cards before we get to voting :

White Sun’s Zenith, X
Instant, Rare
Put X 2/2 white Cat creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Shuffle White Sun’s Zenith into its
owner’s library.

The white zenith art is set in Taj-Nar, the capital of leonin culture and home to LOLCats. We love the ability to be able to drop a truck load 'o' kitteh at instant speed. If you just spent one mana as 'X', then times must be tough and we're guessing your game is going straight into the crapper, however, if you perhaps had some green mana ramp or just dropped this late game, then we expect you've just unleashed furry heck upon your opponent and we salute you.

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Blue Sun’s Zenith, X
Instant, Rare
Target player draws X cards. Shuffle Blue Sun’s
Zenith into its owner’s library.

The blue zenith art is set in Lumengrid, the city in the Quicksilver Sea occupied by vedalken and Neurok humans. This is rather similar to Stroke of Genius which to our knowledge only received a mildly welcome response from players. We realise that being able to draw cards is good and often critical for control decks and that with enough mana, one may be able to use this as a quasi-mill effect to have the opponent draw a large number of cards only to discard most of them BUT dang! - this one really does not look at all promising.

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Black Sun’s Zenith, X
Sorcery, Rare
Put X -1/-1 counters on each creature.
Shuffle Black Sun’s Zenith into its owner’s library.

The black zenith art is set in Ish-Sah, hub of the Mephidross and stronghold of Geth, originally depicted on Vault of Whispers. With a good number of cards in standard today having regeneration or indestructibilty, this card is most welcome. With the exception of Melira's Keeper, this card provides a great answer to a variety of critters, whether it be tokens or fatties - just ensure you strategically scale your mana and drop on target.

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Red Sun’s Zenith, X
Sorcery, Rare
Red Sun’s Zenith deals X damage to target creature or player. If a creature dealt damage this way would be put into a graveyard this turn, exile it instead.
Shuffle Red Sun’s Zenith into its owner’s library.

The red zenith art is set in Kuldotha, a forgelike city sacred to Mirran goblins. The red zenith is essentially a Disintegrate (Time Spiral and other sets). The complaint we have heard from some players is that although they love the unlimited mana they could sink into this, they would have have had this card go further so it cannot be countered or have the damage prevented along the lines of Banefire or Demonfire.

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Green Sun’s Zenith, X
Sorcery, Rare
Search your library for a green creature card with converted mana cost X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Shuffle Green Sun’s Zenith into its owner’s library.

The green zentih art is set in Tel-Jilad, that legendary massive copper "tree" in the Tangle that is inscribed with Mirrodin's history. Most players agree that this card is simply bombtastic. There is not much of a downside with being able to dig into your deck for a Thrun, the Last Troll, or perhaps a Progentius. A card like this allows for a green creature tool not too unlike Fauna Shaman and frees up space in your 60 by providing the possibility of singletons.
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Time to VOTE !

Check back to see results.
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