Battle for Zendikar has been highly anticipated ever since it was first revealed earlier this year. Not only was the original Zendikar an incredibly popular set, its initial print run also included "hidden treasures" -- older, valuable cards randomly inserted into booster packs for players to discover when opening packs of Zendikar.  This was akin to Battle for Zendikar’s exciting Zendikar Expeditions: a set of 25 popular and powerful foil lands from Magic’s history, including fetch lands and shock lands, that could be randomly found in booster packs.  In relation to Battle for Zendikar, however, Zendikar Expeditions were considered a stand-alone set.

Zendikar Expeditions aside, Battle for Zendikar brought back several things that players have been extremely fond of in the past including creature lands (lands that can turn into creatures), dual lands (lands that have two basic land types), and the mighty cosmic entities known as the Eldrazi.  The set also introduced three new planeswalkers: Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Kiora, Master of the Depths, and Ob Nixilis Reignited.

During the presale period for Battle for Zendikar, which ran through September 25th, or right before the Prerelease, these cards and a number of others stood out as the chase cards in the set.

Top 10 'Battle for Zendikar' Cards (Before Prerelease)

by Dollar Volume

$ Vol.

Rank

Card Name

Average

Price

1

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

$23.80

2

Sunken Hollow

$8.65

3

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

$20.37

4

Prairie Stream

$8.25

5

Canopy Vista

$7.72

6

Ob Nixilis Reignited

$16.27

7

Cinder Glade

$7.27

8

Undergrowth Champion

$9.97

9

Kiora, Master of the Depths

$16.54

10

Ruinous Path

$4.77

At TCGplayer.com not only do we see all three planeswalkers from the set, with Gideon leading the charge, but also four of the five dual lands from the set in the initial Top 10 sales before the Prerelease.  The only dual land that didn’t make the list was the black/red Smoldering Marsh. The other three cards on the list are quite obvious: Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger was the set’s marquee Eldrazi, and boy was he a powerful one; Undergrowth Champion felt like one of the strongest green creatures in quite some time; and Ruinous Path replaced the powerful Theros staple card, Hero’s Downfall, in function but with a Zendikari flavor.

Top 20 'Battle for Zendikar' Cards (after Prerelease)

by Dollar Volume

$ Vol.

Rank

Card Name

Average

Price

1

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

$32.51

2

Drana, Liberator of Malakir

$13.64

3

Shambling Vent

$5.88

4

Canopy Vista

$9.10

5

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

$19.47

6

Cinder Glade

$7.72

7

Sunken Hollow

$10.14

8

Ruinous Path

$6.82

9

Prairie Stream

$9.11

10

Smoldering Marsh

$6.29

11

Undergrowth Champion

$16.05

12

Kiora, Master of the Depths

$14.12

13

Ob Nixilis Reignited

$16.52

14

Scatter to the Winds

$2.85

15

Woodland Wanderer

$3.38

16

Lumbering Falls

$4.90

17

Bring to Light

$6.31

18

Beastcaller Savant

$2.55

19

Fathom Feeder

$3.47

20

Zada, Hedron Grinder

$2.95

Zendikar sets are well known for their land themes and the post-rerelease sales data reinforces that.  It contains a whopping six lands!  This time all five of the new dual lands are present, as well as Shambling Vents which is one of the new creature lands from the set. Another chase mythic from the set, Drana, Liberator of Malakir, has jumped all the way up to the #2 spot after being completely absent from the first list.  The only mythics that held strong were Gideon, Ally of Zendikar who remained at #1 and Ulamog, the Ceaseless hunger that dropped from #3 to #5.  Meanwhile Undergrowth Champion, Kiora, Master of the Depths, and Ob Nixilis Reignited all dropped to #11, #12, and #13 respectively.

Overall Battle for Zendikar seems to be exceeding all expectations, and Prereleases were selling out across the board.  At TCGplayer.com we’ve also seen a lot of interest and excitement around this release in our marketplace. Magic’s premier format, Standard, got a huge boost with the set as the entire Theros block along with Magic 2015 rotated out concurrently.  Battle for Zendikar offers a ton of new and powerful toys for players of all kinds to utilize and, with Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar coming up in less than two weeks on October 16th, we’ll soon get a chance to see those cards in action by some of the greatest players in the game.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.