Zendikar Rising/Trivia

Maro's Zendikar Rising Teaser
Mark Rosewater gave his traditional teaser with the following hints.

First up, here are some things you can expect:

 * A white creature that can make an opponent lose the game simply by attacking them no matter how much life they have Angel of Destiny
 * A multicolor creature that lets you repeatedly reanimate permanents out of your opponent’s graveyard for no mana Zareth San, the Trickster
 * Three creatures with five creature types Tajuru Paragon, Veteran Adventurer, and Stonework Packbeast
 * An artifact granting +2/+2 to a subset of creatures that first appeared in Alpha colorless creatures (Forsaken Monument)
 * X being used for a variable it's never been used for before party size (e.g. Cascade Seer)
 * A 6/6 artifact creature that costs 3 and a 7/5 artifact creature that can cost 3 Relic Golem and Sea-Gate Colossus</c>
 * The return of four mana symbols that have each only ever been used on two cards before two-brid mana (Tazri, Beacon of Unity</c>)
 * Lands that come with a choice you've never had before Pathway lands and in general all modal double-faced cards have on land side in Zendikar Rising
 * Targeted enchantment removal in black Feed the Swarm</c>
 * A red/white creature with a line of rules text that starts with "Whenever" and ends with "draw a card" Akiri, Fearless Voyager</c>
 * A card with three different activated abilities that all copy something Lithoform Engine</c>

Here are snippets of rules text, you’ll see:

 * "three plus" Skyclave Plunder</c>
 * "different converted mana cost X or less" Agadeem's Awakening</c>
 * "equal to 20 minus" Scourge of the Skyclaves</c>
 * "Cowards can't block Warriors" Kargan Intimidator</c>
 * "don't lose unspent red mana" Leyline Tyrant</c>
 * "twice the number of Equipment" Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients</c>
 * "If it's the third time" Omnath, Locus of Creation</c>

And finally, here are some creature type lines you’ll see:

 * Mouse Canyon Jerboa</c>
 * Leviathan Crab Charix, the Raging Isle</c>
 * Shapeshifter Rogue Glasspool Mimic</c>
 * Demon Cleric Taborax, Hope's Demise</c>
 * Wurm Horror <c>Dreadwurm</c>
 * Hydra Horror <c>Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager</c>
 * Cat Horror <c>Skyclave Shadowcat</c>
 * Angel Wizard <c>Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate</c>

Banned and Restricted cards

 * <c>Omnath, Locus of Creation</c> was the fourth in the series of the ever-expanding Omnath legendary creatures, adding White mana to the Temur combination. Despite the four-color mana cost it became trivially easy to cast, and the base rate of a 4/4 that draws a card and gains 4 life every turn turned aggro from a traditionally bad matchup to a laughably easy one. Decks quickly built to exploit Omnath to its full potential, with <c>Lotus Cobra</c> managing the color requirements and <c>Escape to the Wilds</c> or <c>Genesis Ultimatum</c> being ways to continuously hit four or five land drops a turn, playing almost as a Storm deck. The deck was weakened with the <c>Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath</c> banning, but that merely took away one avenue of long-game inevitability, and controlling a deck with so much mana was nearly impossible. A second build hybridized Omnath with the Adventures deck, making a ramp strategy with enough interaction that only the pure Omnath ramp decks would overpower. After a 70% metagame domination at the 2020 Grand Finals, Omnath was banned alongside <c>Lucky Clover</c> (part of the Omnath Adventures shell) and <c>Escape to the Wilds</c>.

Miscellaneous

 * <c>Charix, the Raging Isle</c> has the highest printed toughness of any black-bordered creature at 17.
 * Years seemingly have passed for the <c>Teeterpeak Ambusher</c>, improving his skills and equipment, but using the same method since he was a <c>Reckless Bushwhacker</c> in Rise of the Eldrazi and a just a young <c>Goblin Bushwhacker</c> in the Zendikar set.
 * Zendikar Rising is the first draft set since Scars of Mirrodin where no Auras were designed to be placed on one's own creatures due to the prevalence of "snap-on" Equipment.
 * <c>Skyclave Relic</c> is the first non-creature artifact with indestructible since <c>Darksteel Relic</c> from New Phyrexia, around nine years after the latter was printed.