Turntimber Symbiosis – Zendikar Rising MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

I like the integration and the consistency between the two sides of Zendikar Rising‘s land/spell cards. I’m not sure how I feel about Turntimber Symbiosis’ turning a small spell into a major threat; it seems like removing some of the natural variance you get with this style of spell could cause other problems down the line. The effect is obviously very strong and can be effective in the right type of deck; it’s the kind of thing you have to commit to early and hard, and ramp aggressively as such. It’s probably inspired by the original Zendikar‘s Summoning Trap, and is less universally applicable because it only has one possible casting cost, though it makes up for that somewhat with the ability to use it as a land if you need to.

As an aside, although Uro doesn’t benefit from the +1/+1 counters when you hit him, can you imagine hitting Uro with this card? Like that guy needs any more positive interactions in Standard!

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
Commander: 4/5

Turntimber Symbiosis is a free creature off of the top seven cards of your library, but it’ll still cost you a fair bit to get it…a seven mana sorcery means that you’re going to use this as a means to try and end the game shortly, and this is a discount on very few creatures. That said, being able to play this as a land means it’s rarely completely dead, and it might not be bad for a green deck to throw one of these in as your choice of a land or massive curve topper. The effect is powerful enough and can make even small creatures (like Tarmogoyfs) massive threats, and seven cards is usually enough to ensure at least one hit, but I feel like you’re more playing this for being a land with the threat to end the game as a topdeck.

Constructed: 3 (I need to see this actually pop off; it has promise, but I’m unsure of how much it has)
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 3.75