Creatures at instant speed are good. They mess
with combat math, they turn a bad block into a
good double-block, and they come it at end of
turn so your opponent suddenly needs more
blockers than he left open.
Casting this for X=1 is kind of bad, but a
justifiable decision, especially if you're on
the ropes. You expect a lot better than a 2/2
with flash for 1WWW. Paying 2WWW and getting a
pair of 2/2's is okay, since that's four power
for five mana, but still lackluster. At X=3, the
power-to-mana ratio evens out, equaling that of
the M11 Titans or Wurmcoil Engine, with the
advantage that it can't all be blocked by one
creature. Still not quite as good as a Sun
Titan, but good. So it's at seven or more mana
that this card really starts to look good. Did
your opponent really attack into you seeing you
leave 4WWW up? Did he just think that your hand
is full of lands? So if you're getting full
value out of White Sun, you're probably not
using it as a combat trick, but as a steady
source of tokens. Which is a fine use for it as
well. Hopefully by the time all your Cats have
died, you'll draw the White Sun again and make
more. White isn't good at drawing cards, so
finding this card again might be unlikely, but
the potential for seemingly endless waves of
Cats can be a demoralizing prospect for
opponents. Especially if this is the card you
cast the turn after a Phyrexian Rebirth or Day
of Judgment.
Five days, five suns, five ways to end a game in
spectacular fashion. The White Sun demands that
you commit to its alignment, but when it
delivers an army of emergency blockers or an "untap,
Ajani Goldmane, I win" play, I think it's well
worth it. It should be great against the
ubiquitous control decks in Standard and their
billion counterspells, and almost as great in
those same control decks as something like a
white Grave Titan, and if you play that format,
you'll probably need a plan against this card.
Today's card of the day is White Sun's Zenith
which is a three White and X spell that puts X
2/2 cat creature tokens into play at instant
speed.
The best thing about this spell is the instant
speed as the cats are not soldiers, knights, or
another heavily supported type. Even
without the support enough mana can produce a
large number of tokens at the end of an opposing
turn to be followed up with a major attack.
A deck running this would need to be
predominantly White and possibly use some form
of artifact mana acceleration to try for the
three or more tokens required to best make use
of this Zenith. With that in mind it seems
unlikely to make a major impact in serious play,
but time will tell as the format adapts to the
new cards available.
For Limited the triple White in the cost slows
it down to the later stages of the game, but
even getting two or three tokens is an advantage
in the format from a single card. Try to
save it for as long as possible and it is likely
to win the game which should make it worth the
first pick in Booster draft. In Sealed it
does depend on your pool of White cards, but if
kept until the later stages it is fairly safe to
use in a multicolor deck if White makes up half
of your mana sources.
Good morning all, I hope you
all managed to attend a prerelease for Mirrodin
Besieged this weekend and had some fun! Today’s
Card of the Day is White Sun’s Zenith from
Mirrodin Besieged. Each cololr has a Zenith, and
personally, the white one is one of my
favorites. For three white mana and x, put x 2/2
white cat tokens into play, then shuffle White
Sun’s Zenith back into your library.
In standard and limited formats now, this card is very useful. The
Battle Cry ability means that all of these
tokens could easily become a huge attack force
that an opponent can’t hope to defend against.
In vintage and casual formats, this card can be ridiculous. One old
card from the original Mirrodin set could simply
turn the little 2/2’s into an army of
devastation. The card is Raksha Golden Cub. Once
Raksha is equipped, each of these 2/2’s become
4/4 double striking paladins on a quest to
obliterate your opponents. And better still,
since the Zenith is shuffled in, you can make
army after righteous army.
So in any format type, this card could quickly turn the tide.
