Following a year of arguably disastrous set releases, Wizards hoped to get a little more back to basics with a return to the fan favorite plane of Zendikar. Zendikar Rising arguably did well in this regard outside of the one supercharged card that was quickly taken care of. While the core mechanic of the set in party was somewhat of a dud, modal dual faced cards (MDFCs for short) made a massive impact. With tons of mythics this time around, there's plenty to talk about. Let's get to ranking them!

• 20. Tazri, Beacon of Unity
• 19. Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients
• 18. Nissa of Shadowed Boughs
• 17. Drana, the Last Bloodchief
• 16. Sea Gate Stormcaller
• 15. Angel of Destiny
• 14. Jace, Mirror Mage
• 13. Turntimber Symbiosis // Turntimber, Serpentine Wood
• 12. Leyline Tyrant
• 11. Moraug, Fury of Akoum

Number Ten

The eldrazi may be gone, but Zendikar still remembers. Forsaken Monument provides a somber nod to the former menace to the plane while simultaneously giving one heck of a build-around. Players used the card to build off the wall brews in Constructed, particularly in Historic on MTG Arena at the time of the set's launch. Now the card is mostly relegated to Commander and the rare off-the-wall Modern or Legacy deck, but it provided a really cool tool for Colorless decks to build around all the same.

Number Nine

In practice, Ashaya isn't doing anything too particularly memorable. Making all your creatures into Forests just to pump out an essentially vanilla creature isn't that exciting. What is exciting, however, is the fact that you can now use those Forests in a myriad of ways. This might just be simple ramp effects, but it can also entail utilizing cards that care about how many Forests you control, such as Staff of Titania. This, coupled with the character's connection to Nissa, have made Ashaya, Soul of the World a beloved card for casual players everywhere.

Number Eight

Ignore the third effect entirely and what you have is still a card that players would immediately fall in love with. Crucible of Worlds effects have always been a popular option in Commander, so it's hardly surprising that players would gravitate to it on a massive creature. The fact that it doubles up on triggered abilities is just gravy, as unless you build a very specific deck around it with landfall effects, it's unlikely to do much. In those dedicated landfall decks, though, it's almost certainly one of the best things you can be doing.

Number Seven

Players sure love doubling things. Doubling Season and Panharmonicon remain among the top Commander staples of all time and Yarok, the Desecrated continues to rank in the EDHREC.com top 100 Commanders list. It's no surprise, then, that Lithoform Engine became an immediate Commander staple. Now you could choose what you wanted to copy and - provided you had the mana to do so - it could copy just about anything your heart desired. That makes for just about as good of a casual-oriented card as it gets.

Number Six

Players love Death's Shadow, so much so that it's even being referenced today (see The Last Ride in Aetherdrift). Scourge of the Skyclaves represented a fun nod to that classic design, with both coming from the plane of Zendikar. While Scourge's potency waned somewhat quickly, Death's Shadow lists in Modern were playing this alongside the deck's namesake for a little while, proving that even a weaker version of that same kind of card can still be powerful.

Number Five

Here we come to our first MDFC mythic that I can actually talk about! Turntimber Symbiosis // Turntimber, Serpentine Wood saw some play, but surprisingly wasn't that big in its time nor does it have a major Commander showing either, leading to a lower playing. Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate Reborn, by comparison, saw play quite heavily in both from the outset. Not only that, but it's also seen a good amount of play in Mono-Blue Belcher lists in Modern since it rotated out of Standard. A great option that's only continuing to get better.

Number Four

The next card provided yet another awesome MDFC option, usually being played as a land in most cases. However, if your game would go long enough and you already saw a ton of your lands, you could instead cast it to make two angels and make your creatures indestructible for a turn. This turned out to be a huge deal showing up in tons of Standard decks and Commander decks alike for years to come.

Number Three

It may not have had the longest length of playability compared to most of the other MDFC mythics, but this one certainly showed up the most in Standard at the time. Generally you just played it as the land, but there were frequently times where you'd use it to pick off opponents' creatures. This made it a staple of the Standard format at the time and - excluding Omnath's dominance - was the most played mythic from this set in its era.

Number Two

These MDFC mythics are hard to place because they all had wide appeal and are easy to include in a variety of decks. This led to me waffling pretty hard over whether to give Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt the second or third place slot. In the end, I opted to give it the higher placing, thanks to the heavy amount of play it saw immediately in Commander as well as its general utility in Standard. While I feel that Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass had a better run in Standard, it's clear that this card was no slouch either and has continued to be a massive hit in casual formats since.

Number One

It's amazing how even a year on from Throne of Eldraine, we were still getting outlandishly broken cards that dominated Standard. Omnath, Locus of Creation broke the format entirely, thanks to ramp effects like Lotus Cobra and Escape to the Wilds. This allowed the deck to generate absurd amounts of mana quickly before casting a Genesis Ultimatum that allowed you to dump your hand fast. The deck was so egregious that Omnath was banned barely a month after its release. Even now, Omnath remains a powerful player in Pioneer and Modern, cementing it as the best mythic in the set by a mile.

Paige Smith

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