The upcoming product Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. Eldrazi has yielded its first spoiler from Battle for Zendikar, and it’s not bad at all. Oblivion Sower can get you up to four lands from the top of your opponent’s deck (although I’m sure you’d rather have them draw land for four turns in a row).
Six mana is perfect in EDH, but this may be too slow for Standard unless Battle for Zendikar is like last Zendikar block: lots of mana ramp, cost reducers, and ways to slow the game down. While Oblivion Sower isn’t the kind of Eldrazi we’re used to with humongous stats, a gigantic mana cost, and annihilator triggering on attacks, it is interesting and gives us some clues into what Eldrazi may look like in the upcoming set.
If we’re not going to get annihilator, you can bet we’ll get some more abilities that trigger when the creatures are cast. We may see more reasonable mana costs like what we’re seeing with this card, accompanied by smaller bodies. Eldrazi won’t be the giant Eldritch monsters Emrakul and Kozilek are, but they will still be formidable. However, if you compare this to a card like Sun Titan or Wurmcoil Engine, it comes up short in my view. I’m hoping this is one of the lesser Eldrazi, included in a duel deck because it was deemed similar in size and castability to Avenger of Zendikar (which didn’t need another reprinting) and not indicative of what Eldrazi will be like in this block—or we’re all in for a disappointing time.
I don’t know what Oblivion Sower will sell for on presale, but the Duel Deck printing coupled with its effect that I’m having a hard time judging outside of the context of the rest of the set, I imagine its price will be too high to bother. It’s a cool card, but if all Eldrazi are like this one, I don’t expect Eldrazi to capture the imagination of casual players the way the last batch did, and that’s too bad.
