Where modal double-faced cards started
Zendikar Rising's lasting contribution is the modal double-faced card. One face is a spell, the other is a land, and you choose which as you play it. That is not a transform card and it never flips: the two faces are two things the card can be, decided once.
The consequence is bigger than the set. A deck that plays these is playing cards that count as lands when it needs lands and spells when it doesn't, which quietly changed how many actual lands a deck has to run. Every set since has had to think about whether to print them.
Party is the other new one and is the more Zendikar-flavoured of the two. It counts up to four creatures you control, one each of Cleric, Rogue, Warrior and Wizard, which is a deckbuilding constraint rather than a board-state one and rewards spreading across types instead of stacking one.
Themes
Modal double-faced cards
A spell on the front and a land on the back, and you pick one as you play it. It never transforms, so the choice is permanent. A hand of these is a hand that can be a mana base or a game plan depending on what you draw next.
Party
Counts your Clerics, Rogues, Warriors and Wizards, up to one of each, for a maximum of four. It rewards a spread of creature types rather than a pile of one, which is unusual for a typal mechanic and is why party decks look nothing like tribal decks.
Landfall
Triggers whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control. It is Zendikar's signature and it pairs directly with the double-faced cards, since a card you chose to play as a land still sets it off.
Kicker
Pay an extra cost as you cast the spell for an extra effect. It is here as the set's flexibility mechanic, doing at the level of a single spell what the double-faced cards do at the level of a hand.
Where You Can Play It
Zendikar Rising shipped two codes with different legality, which is normal for a set with Commander decks beside it. The main set has left Standard; the Commander decks were never in it.
Not Standard-legal. Standard only ever holds the last few years of sets, so everything this old has long since left it. These cards are still playable in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander. Commons from any set are Pauper-legal; that isn't listed per set here.
Limited
A full ten-pair format, and one where the double-faced cards change how you count your deck: a card that can be a land is not quite a spell and not quite a land, and drafting well means knowing how many of them you already have.
All ten two-color pairs
Full ten-pair format
Party sits in the white, blue, black and red end, where the four relevant creature types live. Landfall anchors green and red, and kicker turns up everywhere as a way to spend late-game mana.
Commander
Both on Zendikar themes rather than generic ones, which is not always true of a set's Commander decks.
Land's Wrath
Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor
Naya landfall, and the deck that turns your lands into the creatures.
Sneak Attack
Anowon, the Ruin Thief
Dimir Rogues, milling opponents as a means to an end rather than as the win condition.
Building one of these into something of your own? The precon buying guide covers how to judge a deck, and the Commander deck template is the shape to build toward.
FAQ
No. Standard only holds the last few years of sets, so a 2020 release left it long ago. ZNR cards are still legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander.
A card with a spell on one face and a land on the other, where you choose which one you are playing as you play it. It never transforms, so the choice is made once and is permanent. Zendikar Rising is where they started.
Not exactly, and that is the point. They count toward your land total when you need lands and toward your spells when you do not, which is why decks that play them can run fewer actual lands than they otherwise would.
Party counts the Clerics, Rogues, Warriors and Wizards you control, up to one of each, for a maximum of four. It rewards a spread of creature types rather than a pile of one, which is the opposite of how a typal deck usually builds.
A trigger that goes off whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control. It is Zendikar's signature mechanic, and it pairs directly with the double-faced cards, since one played as a land still sets it off.
Two: Land's Wrath, led by Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor, and Sneak Attack, led by Anowon, the Ruin Thief.
All card names, art, and mechanics belong to Wizards of the Coast. Zendikar Rising released on Sep 25, 2020; details reflect the set as published. Sources: Wizards of the Coast set pages and release notes, Draftsim, Untapped.gg.
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