Last updated on January 9, 2026
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar | Illustration by Eric Deschamps
Battle for Zendikar (BFZ) debuted in 2015, and it was the first Magic set in the “two sets per MTG block” era (or two-block paradigm), in a transition from the three-set block to the one-set block that we have today. This period in MTG’s history went from Battle for Zendikar until Ixalan.
Battle for Zendikar vastly expanded on playable Eldrazi creatures, making them cheaper and giving them colors (sort of) – a move that caused great unbalance in competitive MTG later on thanks to cards like Eye of Ugin.
Here’s all the information you need for this Magic set, from story and mechanics to the staples and expensive cards you can find in it. And if you like Eldrazi decks, mainly in Commander, definitely check out Battle for Zendikar. You’ll find a lot of goodies!
Battle for Zendikar Basic Information
Anticipate | Illustration by Tyler Jacobson
Set Details
| Set Symbol |  |
| Set Code | BFZ |
| Hashtag | #MTGBFZ |
| Number of Cards | 274 |
| Rarities | 101 Common, 80 Uncommon, 53 Rare, 15 Mythic Rare, 25 Basic Lands |
| Mechanics | Awaken, Converge, Devoid, Ingest, Landfall, Rally |
Important Dates
| Previews Start | September 07, 2015 |
| Full Gallery Available | September 26, 2015 |
| Release on Magic Online | October, 2015 |
| Prerelease Week | September 26, 2015 |
| Paper Release Date | October 2, 2015 |
| BFZ Pro Tour | October 16-18, 2015 |
About the Set: The Story
Battle for Zendikar follows the events of Rise of the Eldrazi on the plane of Zendikar, and the devastation caused by the titans Kozilek and Ulamog. The other titan, Emrakul, is nowhere to be seen. Gideon, Nissa, Chandra, and Jace are there to try to help the Zendikari, as well as to devise a plan to imprison the Eldrazi titans again. It’s time to unite Zendikari people, be they roil mages, vampires, human allies, merfolk, or even the land itself against the threat that’s consuming the plane and killing the living.
Meanwhile, the demon Ob Nixilis, a former planeswalker who lost his spark, tries to take advantage of this chaotic situation to regain it.
Battle for Zendikar Mechanics
Awaken
With awaken, the land itself helps you fight back the Eldrazi invaders. Awaken X is a kicker-like mechanic found on instants and sorceries. If you pay the awaken cost, you’ll put X +1/+1 counters on a land you control, and this land permanently becomes an elemental creature with haste. You’ll still be able to tap the land for mana, though.
An example from this set is Scatter to the Winds, a counterspell that can also give you a 3/3 creature if you pay 6 mana instead of 3.
Converge
Converge is a mechanic that cares about the different colors of mana used to cast a spell and incentivizes you to play as many colors of mana as possible. It’s similar to Mirrodin block’s sunburst mechanic.
Painful Truths is a good example of the mechanic, showing that you can draw up to three cards by paying, say, mana to cast the spell.
Devoid
Devoid is one of the main gimmicks of BFZ. This set shows a conflict between the Zendikari and the Eldrazi, and the Eldrazi are all colorless creatures. Cards that have devoid are colorless, even though you need colored mana to cast them.
For example, Herald of Kozilek costs , so it only goes in Izzet decks, but it’s considered a colorless card in all zones.
Ingest
Ingest is a mechanic found solely on Eldrazi creatures. When an ingest creature deals combat damage to a player, that player exiles the top card of their library. It’s one exiled card per instance of damage, so you don’t care about the power of the ingest creature.
A clean example of this mechanic is found on Benthic Infiltrator, which is unblockable, so it’s easy to ingest some cards.
Ingest paired up with a new “processor” creature type, found on 11 Eldrazi creatures in the set. Processors all have abilities that could take a card in an opponent's exile zone and place it back in the graveyard, triggering some sort of effect. For example, you could ingest a card into exile, then cast Murk Strider to bounce a creature using the ingested card.
Landfall
Landfall is a mechanic that started in original Zendikar and has been brought back on subsequent visits to the plane. It’s now a mechanic that can be used whenever WotC desires. Landfall triggers when any land enters on your side of the battlefield, and it’s especially powerful with fetch lands since you can trigger landfall twice with a single fetch.
Emeria Shepherd is a strong example of a landfall card, showing white’s recursion and reanimation aspects.
Rally
Rally is the mechanic tied to the ally creature type. Rally basically says that whenever an ally enters, you do X.
Lantern Scout is a good example of this mechanic in action, giving lifelink to your creatures (all creatures, not only allies) whenever an ally enters.
Battle for Zendikar Card Gallery
White
Blue
Black
Red
Green
Multicolor
Colorless
Lands
Zendikar Expeditions
Notable Cards
The Expeditions
Debuting in this Magic set, BFZ Expedition cards are beautiful alternate card frames that you could find in boosters. These are all reprints of famous lands, like the fetch lands, and the shock lands, and served a similar role as Special Guest cards today. BFZ features 25 Expeditions and Oath of the Gatewatch included another 20.
Following the Expeditions trend, other sets like Kaladesh had Inventions (artifacts), while Amonkhet had special Egyptian-style Invocation cards.
The Cycle of Retreats
These cards see play in landfall decks, and each has a niche deck. Retreat to Emeria is good in tokens deck, while Retreat to Hagra excels in lifegain and life loss decks and can be used even as a wincon in these decks.
The Cycle of Tango Lands
These lands had the name tango because well, it takes two to tango. At the time, it was a catchy way to refer to these new lands. They enter untapped if you have two or more basic lands on the battlefield, and they’re also fetchable, a fact that caused some problems back in Standard. These are nice budget dual lands to include in your decks, and they’re always being reprinted in EDH precons.
Expensive Cards and Constructed Staples
Void Winnower is excellent in EDH, as you get to lock your opponents out from casting even mana value cards, or block with even MV creatures. It’s also a big 11/9 for only 9 mana.
Desolation Twin is two giant 10/10’s in one card. A good ramp target, for sure.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger was the go-to big Eldrazi target to cheat it into play right from the beginning, be it with other cards like Aetherworks Marvel or in Magic formats with locus lands or Tron. Even if it’s countered, you get to exile two permanents, and that’s a huge blowout.
Conduit of Ruin shaves 2 mana off a creature spell you’d cast, making it a staple in Eldrazi EDH decks. Not only that, but you get more gas when you cast it.
With some luck and planning, Oblivion Sower allows you to ramp from 6 mana upwards while also putting a 5/8 in play. The card only gets better when players have more ways to exile cards from their graveyards, like red impulse draw and other effects.
Felidar Sovereign is a viable alternate win condition in EDH, especially because you already start with 40 life. This was originally a mythic rare in Zendikar and reprinted here as a normal rare.
Emeria Shepherd is a strong reanimate card, giving you the tools to get card advantage from your graveyard. It’s also a good reanimation target, especially if you can follow that with a plains land drop.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar dominated its Standard format. The combination of making 2/2 creatures or attacking as a 5/5 is very strong and it has some synergies with allies in a typal deck. There were many calls to ban this card in Standard at the time, though it remained legal during its tenure in Standard.
Part the Waterveil is a Time Warp variant, but you also get a 6/6 land if you pay a little extra.
Zulaport Cutthroat sees play alongside Blood Artist in aristocrat decks. In EDH, there’s a good argument that it’s better because it damages all players.
Smothering Abomination is a strong aristocrats card, offering you a good payoff for sacrificing your creatures.
Painful Truths has seen some play in Eternal formats like Legacy as an efficient draw-three for 3 mana.
Dragonmaster Outcast is a 1-drop that’s good late, seeing as you can make 5/5 dragons as long as you have six or more lands. This was another reprint, though it retained its mythic rarity from Worldwake.
Greenwarden of Murasa is a giant Eternal Witness, so if you’re into graveyard recursion, take a look at this card.
Sire of Stagnation shows how much more powerful this card is in EDH than in 1v1, as you get more opportunities to draw cards, and opponents won’t be too keen on firing a spot removal spell on your guy.
Herald of Kozilek works for every colorless card, so it’s played anywhere from Eldrazi decks to artifact ones.
Bring to Light is a way to put into play any card from your deck that costs 5 mana or less, and it’s been used to put cards like Niv-Mizzet Reborn into play.
Sanctum of Ugin offers you great utility in Eldrazi decks, allowing you to fetch a big monster when you don’t need it anymore.
Available Products
Battle for Zendikar Booster Pack
No products found.At that time, there was only one No products found., with one rare or mythic, 3 uncommons, 10 commons and a basic land. Roughly 1 of every 144 boosters has an Expedition, slightly above the rate of getting a foil mythic rare.
No products found.
Battle for Zendikar Booster Box
No products found.This is your typical No products found., containing 36 BFZ boosters.
No products found.
Battle for Zendikar Fat Pack
No products found.Fat Packs contain nine 15-card No products found. booster packs, as well as an extra few goodies, like a spindown life counter, a player guide, an 80-card basic land pack, and more.
No products found.
Battle for Zendikar Intro Deck
BFZ had five intro decks, highlighting the set’s main mechanics:
- Eldrazi Assault is a deck that takes advantage of the devoid mechanic and colorless aggro synergies.
- Zendikar’s Rage is a deck themed around the landfall mechanic.
- No products found. revolves around vampires and life gain/drain synergies.
- Rallying Cry is the allies deck. The mechanic rally incentivizes you to keep playing ally cards.
- No products found. is a ramp deck, with powerful Eldrazi creatures that make Eldrazi Scion tokens.
Battle for Zendikar Event Deck
No products found.No products found. is a deck meant to be a competitive Standard deck right out of the box, with powerful rares like Tasigur, the Golden Fang. Cards like Zulaport Cutthroat and Brood Butcher give this deck a sacrifice theme. The deck also has some Standard staples of the time like Hangarback Walker and Whisperwood Elemental.
No products found.
Battle for Zendikar Gift Box
No products found.No products found. contains 5 BFZ booster packs, as well as 20 basic land cards. The idea here is that the box itself is part of the product, so you can store cards inside it. Indeed, you can fit thousands of cards inside this box.
No products found.
Wrap Up
Prairie Stream | Illustration by Adam Paquette
It’s funny that Battle for Zendikar was perceived as a weak set at the time because it had some weird and expensive cards that weren't fit for 1v1 formats. Also, the Standard format was dominated by Khans of Tarkir cards and Kaladesh after that. Now that EDH is very popular, arguably the most popular format overall, cards from BFZ like Sire of Stagnation and Void Winnower are perfect for the format. As such, it’s as good time as any to revisit this fantastic set.
What are your favorite BFZ cards? Were you playing MTG back then? Let me know in the comments section below, or let’s discuss it over Draftsim Discord.
Stay safe, stay well folks, and thanks for reading.
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