[ There's some hate for this set, not sure why; seems decent enough to me. Oh, that's right, I play a lot of Timmy fatties; of course I like this! ]
Here are my top ten cards from Battle for Zendikar. I am evaluating this set only for casual (non-competitive) Commander/EDH. These are just my first impressions; I haven't played with these cards yet.
A free 5/5 whenever I put a land out? Seems kinda insane. I just hope the decks that use this as a General don't get too degenerate.
Hey, another Eternal Witness! I think I'll prefer this over Eternal Witness, because it can smash face as well as being a utility card. Of course, some decks will run both.
Another 7 mana colorless Vindicate. It's very expensive, I know. But it's a way for certain color combinations to remove problematic card types (e.g. Rakdos trying to destroy an Enchantment).
It exiles (anything!), and it's an instant, so it'll find a home in some of my decks.
I'm thinking of this as a Phyrexian Arena that has the option of killing a creature. But it costs two mana more. I'll probably run both in a lot of my mono-black decks, and maybe in some 2 color (e.g. Orzhov).
Nickname pending, but "Tango Lands" seems most popular, so that's what I'm going with for now. (Sorry if you hate that nickname and want to rip your eyeballs out whenever you see it.)
I'm in a weird place on these, so let me try to explain, and begin by saying that my reasoning may very well not apply to your deckbuilding style. I've been waiting a long time for new duals with basic land types, and now that they're here, I'm wondering how often I'm actually going to use them.
I personally don't run fetches (and tutors) all that much; I hate searching and shuffling my deck. (Something about my personal vision of what EDH should be or something; it's not really important.) So these having basic land subtypes actually don't matter all that much to me, other than effects like Cabal Coffers, Skyshroud Claim, and for M10/Innistrad check lands to ETB untapped.
In my 5 color decks, there's not enough basics, so Tango lands are out, unless there is a real reason to need the land types. (e.g. my Incarnation deck.)
In my 3 color decks, after ABUR duals, shock lands, Shadowmoor/Eventide filter lands, check lands, the (Shards/Khans) tri-land, Command Tower, Reflecting Pool (all of these I'm mentioning I consider better than Tango lands), a few utility lands, and a dozen or so basics, I'm simply out of room. Unless I want to cut more basics, which make Tango Lands weaker to include in the first place. Now of course, if you're not running ABUR duals and filters (since they are very expensive), Tango lands are perfectly fine in their place, perhaps with a couple fetches to grab them. But that's not where I'm at myself.
In my 2 color decks, Tango lands seem great, and I will run them. This is the main reasoning behind my #6 ranking for them; they are very good duals here.
I'll likely include Worn Powerstone and Thran Dynamo before Hedron Archive, so there might not be room. But in general, Hedron Archive is very good mana ramp, and I'll put it in decks that are a bit short on card draw.
Sac outlets that generate card advantage and can be used at instant speed are incredible. Infernal Tribute doesn't work on token creatures (what I usually want to sac); this does.
This is a lot of card draw, especially if someone is playing green mana ramp. (Someone wouldn't be silly enough to play Boundless Realms while Sire is out, would they?). His 6 mana cost means people will have probably played most of the lands out of their opening hands before this hits the table, so you can't rely on it triggering, but it's still absurd.
I'll predict that (in general) Sire is better than Mind's Eye (since you don't have to pay mana), but worse than Consecrated Sphinx. Which is a very powerful place to be.
Wow, this card actually makes me want to play fetches, for fast effect trickery. "Nonland permanent" is awkward wording; I wonder how many times people are going to try to bring back an Instant/Sorcery to their hand by mistake.
Exiling two permanents when you cast it (in colorless, even if countered) and Indestructible (survives Wraths) is what I'm here for. The milling is nice but I'm not depending on it as a win condition or anything. Even just as a reanimated Indestructible 10/10 from the graveyard is very good.
Battle for Zendikar is better than an average set for Commander/EDH. It has a decent number of playable rares and uncommons, full art basics, and a very rare chance of an Expedition land.
There are trash rares, of course, some of which do not "feel" rare, and some have a bunch of lame restrictions (Gruesome Slaughter). But every set has trash rares, and I don't think this is much worse than usual.
There are things I wanted to see that aren't here, such as Kozilek, Emrakul, Level Up stuff, and a reprint of fetches. I was thinking a couple 4 color legends (U/G/R/W Legendary Ally and B/U/G/R Legendary Eldrazi) would've been cool. But from what is actually here in the set, it's pretty good for Commander/EDH.
Here are another ten cards (in no particular order) that I thought are pretty good, but didn't make my list. In addition, there are some good common/uncommon lands.
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