Archetype Strategy
Zendikar Rising
On average, ZNR is a slower, grinder format, but aggressive decks are still viable and tempo plays an important role in many games. Since ZNR is all about synergy, how each color plays is extremely dependent on the color it's paired with.
Colors
Decks
White
Control / Aggressive
White is generally more controlling in ZNR, enabling synergies for Party and Clerics, but also supports aggressive Warriors and Landfall.
Power Level
Power Level
Average
Shepherd of Heroes is a very solid threat that can swing any game, enabling both great Cleric and Party synergies.
Kor Celebrant is an excellent blocker and an important piece of synergy.
Nahiri's Binding made the list as a removal spell, but can be underwhelming due to free enchantment removal, bounce, and doing nothing to stop triggered abilities or Party synergies. While this does not make the card bad, it is less ideal as a removal spell.
Felidar Retreat is extremely robust and incredibly difficult to beat, as is Luminarch Aspirant and Maul of the Skyclaves — while Emeria's Call takes a free land slot in your deck.
Angel of Destiny is a near-impossible card to evaluate, but gets blown out by several enchantment based removal spells and actively works against your plan outside of lifegain decks.
Kitesail Cleric is awkwardly placed as Clerics are not particularly aggressive, but can slot into an aggressive White-Red Party archetype.
Blue
Tempo
The power level of Blue's commons is extremely high, making it the most solid color on its own. It also enables a ton of excellent synergy.
Power Level
Power Level
Above Average
Bubble snare is all-around excellent — removal for one mana on one side, removal for a blocker on another, all while enabling Kicker synergies.
Into the Roil is just as powerful, enabling tempo at no card disadvantage and protection from removal, as well as Kicker synergies. Likewise, Tazeem Roilmage can be played as early interaction or for big upside late.
Many of the remaining blue commons are simply better than top commons in other colors.
Strangely, Blue does not have any A-level cards, but because the color is so synergy-driven, it is still incredible.
Roost of Drakes is insanely powerful with tons of kicker support from blue at common, and Lullmage's Domination is well placed in a format with kicker creatures, mill enablers, and Tazeem Roilmage to enable multiple castings.
Underwhelming Cards
This is highly controversial, but in general, Ruin Crab does not do enough to warrant a high pick. It must be played extremely early or it is very underwhelming. It is, however, a viable card when you have many other mill synergies.
Similar to how Blue lacks individual bombs, there are also few unplayable Blue cards.
Black
Mid-Range / Tempo
Black has powerful synergy-driven cards and an excellent removal suite.
Power Level
Power Level
Above Average
Black's removal is phenomenal, with additional mention to Feed the Swarm. It can also power synergy-driven decks.
Black does not have a ton of dangerous threats, but complements other colors well with efficient removal and synergy.
Black has some solid bombs, which complement the color very strongly.
Red
Aggressive
The power level for red is low at common, but it can often drive strong aggressive synergies.
Power Level
Power Level
Below Average
Roil Eruption is far and away the best Red common, and one of the top commons of the set. The other top Red commons, however, are relatively lackluster.
Red has several game-ending bombs... but all at mythic. Red's best non-mythic cards are Uncommons that drive synergies.
Green
Mid-Range
Green has relatively lower power level cards, but it can provide good support for synergies in other colors.
Power Level
Power Level
Average
The power level of green is relatively low at common, but can provide good support for synergy-driven decks.
Green has several amazing bombs and some of the best MDFCs in the format.
White-Blue: Full Party
Midrange / Tempo — Party synergies for a full Party.
Power Level
Power Level
Average
Key Commons
Powerful Additions
Underwhelming Cards
Blue-White has powerful cards at common, but is lacking in synergy. The idea is to assemble a full Party, or as many party members as you can for mana discounts.
Simply put: assembling a full Party is extremely difficult, chances are your opponent will have removal and it requires four creatures on your board.
All that being said, the payoffs are still there in mana reductions and powerful commons, so it is still a viable archetype.
White-Black: Cleric Lifegain
Midrange / Control — Cleric lifegain trigger synergies.
Power Level
Power Level
Extremely High
Key Commons
Powerful Additions
Underwhelming Cards
Clerics, when assembled, is likely the most powerful synergy in the set. It is nearly impossible to race with tons of lifegain and value triggers, and can drain opponents out without needing to attack.
Being dependent on key uncommons, White-Black can be difficult to build, and being the known best archetype other drafters will often fight over it.
White-Red: Warrior Equip
Aggressive, synergy-driven Warrior & equipment theme.
Power Level
Power Level
Below Average
Key Commons
Powerful Additions
Underwhelming Cards
While there are several payoffs for Warriors, ZNR lends itself to more powerful synergies and hyper-aggro is often left behind.
That being said, aggressive strategies tend to be under-drafted and multiple synergies can run over opponents who play decks that are too slow.
Scavenged Blade is a fairly underpowered card but can end games quickly when combined with equipment and evasion strategies.
White-Green: Landfall
Midrange — Mild synergy for Landfall, with additional Party synergy.
Power Level
Power Level
Average
Key Commons
Powerful Additions
Underwhelming Cards
In a format with tons of synergy, White-Green is quite lacking in synergistic payoffs, especially at common. While the intent was clearly Landfall, both White and Green have enough incidental Party payoffs that either strategy is viable, making the color pair potentially unfocused.
Murasa Rootgrazer is a Landfall-enabling engine on its own, but beyond that the payoffs for enabling Landfall are not as powerful as payoffs in other color pairs.
Since green has most of the color fixing in the format, you may frequently end up playing other colors outside of White, and may capitalize on more MDFCs. Green and White have some of the best MDFCs as well.
Given the divided nature of the color pair, you may end up with both Party and Landfall cards. Provided that both colors are open, you can still build a powerful midrange deck.
Blue-Black: Rogue Mill
Tempo — 8-card mill and tempo payoffs.
Power Level
Power Level
Above Average
Key Commons
Powerful Additions
Underwhelming Cards
Blue-Black mill rogues is one of the more powerful synergies, because so many of the commons and uncommons work well together- even if they are not powerful on their own.
The key strategy is to get eight cards in your opponent's graveyard, which is easy with value cards such as Nimana Skydancer, Glacial Grasp and Zulaport Duelist, and more powerful uncommons like Soaring Thought-Thief and Relic Golem.
While fully milling opponents is a viable win condition for this deck, it is more likely to get the 8-card mill payoffs and win on tempo with small utility creatures. As such, focusing on traditional mill is not usually advisable without a lot of support.
Blue-Red: Wizard Spells
Tempo — Payoffs for both wizards and spells.
Power Level
Power Level
Above Average
Key Commons
Powerful Additions
Underwhelming Cards
The combination of tempo, card advantage and explosive turns make Blue-Red an extremely formidable archetype.
Unlike many other formats, the enablers for Blue-Red payoffs are not just spells but also include Wizards — opening the possibility of playing a normal amount of creatures, rather than playing more spells. This makes the frequently-seen Spells Matter archetype far more reliable than normal.
Strangely, there is no Prowess in ZNR! But Umara Mystic does a better Prowess impersonation, and cards like Relic Amulet and Rockslide Sorcerer can gain massive advantage very quickly.
Kaza, Roil Chaser does not usually justify a slot as it is mostly just ramp, but can still be played with a ton of Wizard/Spell payoffs.
Blue-Green: Kicker
Tempo / Control — Massive kicker payoffs.
Power Level
Power Level
Above Average
Key Commons
Powerful Additions
Underwhelming Cards
Blue-Green kicker may be the second most powerful archetype after White-Black Cleric Lifegain, due to its incredible value and versatility.
The nature of Kicker means that you can slot many top-end cards in your deck without sacrificing an acceptable curve.
Blue-Green is all about the massive upside of signpost uncommons — namely Roost of Drakes. Kicker cards that pay off other kicker cards can lead to some truly broken decks.
With enough Kicker payoffs, Shell Shield can be played, but is often underpowered. Likewise, Might of Murasa is an acceptable combat trick, but the value obtained from Kicker payoffs usually loses Might a slot.
Black-Red: Party
Aggro — Diverse Party payoffs.
Power Level
Power Level
Average
Key Commons
Powerful Additions
Underwhelming Cards
Black-Red is lacking in strong synergy, but does have access to all four Party member types, enabling some aggressive mana reductions and value plays.
Black-Red payoffs provide powerful two-for-one potenial, which can be helpful during aggressive curve-outs. But Ravager's Mace is relatively expensive and can be underpowered, although quite aggressive with enough Party members.
Base Camp is fine, but you would only want to play it in a 3+ color deck, which is not advisable in aggressive strategies.
Black-Green: +1/+1 Counters
Midrange / Control — +1/+1 counter synergy.
Power Level
Power Level
Below Average
Key Commons
Powerful Additions
Underwhelming Cards
Black-Green has a clear strategy, but is lacking in execution. The commons do not have strong payoffs, so the color pair is very reliant on Uncommons and good draws.
Although Moss-Pit Skeleton appears to be the signpost uncommon, it does not generate card advantage and is simply a solid, versatile creature. The true signpost uncommon is Skyclave Shadowcat, which is a very powerful engine.
Oblivion's Hunger can be powerful with enough +1/+1 counters, but simply underperforms due to a lack of counter enablers. Adding counters at any cost is not advisable, making Strength of Solidarity still quite bad.
Red-Green: Landfall
Aggressive — Landfall payoffs for aggressive large creatures.
Power Level
Power Level
Average
Key Commons
Powerful Additions
Underwhelming Cards
Landfall synergies in Red-Green are fairly supported with highly aggressive creatures and possible multiple Landfall triggers. It is also an excellent archetype to play many powerful MDFCs, as two commons can return lands to your hand and emulate drawing a spell.
There are some long-game Landfall payoffs in Red-Green, but mostly the triggers temporarily make your creatures large and possibly evasive so they can attack. This deck is susceptible to being out-valued, but can beat down relatively quickly.
Akoum Hellhound does not really get much better with Landfall enablers, nor does Pick-Axe, although both could potentially still be played.