Zektar Shrine Expedition MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Common
Type	Enchantment
Abilities	Landfall
Released	2009-10-02
Set symbol
Set name	Zendikar
Set code	ZEN
Number	155
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Justin Sweet

Key Takeaways

Zektar Shrine Expedition generates significant card advantage by creating a powerful token without depleting your hand.
It can accelerate your board presence, utilizing landfall to field a substantial creature token swiftly.
Instant Speed allows for unexpected combat moves, giving the generated token haste for immediate board impact.

Text of card

Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a quest counter on Zektar Shrine Expedition. Remove three quest counters from Zektar Shrine Expedition and sacrifice it: Put a 7/1 red Elemental creature token with trample and haste onto the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Zektar Shrine Expedition can be a boon for card advantage, as its culmination allows the summoning of a 7/1 creature token without having to expend an actual card from your hand. This essentially lets you deploy a substantial threat while preserving the resources in your hand to continue pressuring your opponent.

Resource Acceleration: By efficiently using landfall triggers, Zektar Shrine Expedition can escalate your board presence rapidly. Once its quest counters are fulfilled, you effectively accelerate your resource commitment to the board with a substantial creature token, ready to apply pressure or defend without tapping into additional mana reserves that turn.

Instant Speed: Though not an instant itself, the token generated by Zektar Shrine Expedition has haste, meaning it can impact the battlefield immediately. This can create surprise attack opportunities equivalent to the instantaneous nature of some spells, disrupting your opponent’s calculations and potentially turning the tide of the game in your favor at a critical moment.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: This card’s preliminary setup requires landfall triggers, which can be demanding if your hand lacks additional land cards or ways to play multiple lands per turn. Limited land draws could result in Zektar Shrine Expedition sitting dormant on the field without contributing to your game plan.

Specific Mana Cost: Zektar Shrine Expedition necessitates a precise blend of mana to cast: one red and one generic. This requirement could restrict deck-building options, as it must align with a red-inclusive mana base, potentially complicating multicolor strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While costing only two mana may appear modest, the true expense comes from needing to trigger the landfall ability three times to reap the benefits. In faster-paced games, this cost of time and resources to enable its effect can be inhibitive, especially compared to other cards that provide an immediate impact on the board state.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Zektar Shrine Expedition offers an edge in decks that thrive on landfall triggers, as it can be seamlessly integrated into various strategies ranging from aggressive to control archetypes.

Combo Potential: This enchantment holds the capability to act as a key piece in explosive combos, creating sudden bursts of power on the battlefield through its token generation.

Meta-Relevance: With a shifting MTG landscape, Zektar Shrine Expedition remains a relevant option against slower decks, allowing for a fast-paced play that can align well with the current pace of many game formats.

How to beat

Zektar Shrine Expedition can be a game-changing card in MTG, offering a powerful burst of damage once its landfall requirements have been met. For those facing off against this tricky expedition, it’s crucial to disrupt the landfall trigger. One effective strategy is by minimizing the number of lands your opponent plays. Cards like Leonin Arbiter or Aven Mindcensor can slow down an opponent’s land searches, making it tougher for them to get the necessary quest counters on Zektar Shrine Expedition.

Another approach is to target the enchantment directly before it meets its trigger conditions. Green offers naturalize effects like Krosan Grip or Return to Nature, which can dismantle Zektar Shrine Expedition without fear of counterspell interference. In blue, bounce spells or counter-magic can prevent the enchantment from sticking around or ever hitting the battlefield.

Overall, knowing when to interrupt the momentum of Zektar Shrine Expedition is key. Whether it’s preventing land plays or removing the enchantment before it can activate, a strategic approach to the encounter can help maintain control over the game and cripple your opponent’s strategy.

Cards like Zektar Shrine Expedition

Zektar Shrine Expedition holds a niche in the pantheon of landfall cards within Magic: The Gathering. When examined alongside similar cards, its unique ability to churn out a 7/1 Elemental creature token with haste becomes a worthy point of discussion. Take Khalni Heart Expedition, for instance. While it too harnesses the landfall mechanic, instead of creating creature tokens, it focuses on fetching additional lands directly onto the battlefield, potentially escalating your mana resources.

Conversely, cards like Adventuring Gear use landfall to bolster a creature’s power, making strategic creature attacks more potent for that turn. Although this approach differs from Zektar Shrine Expedition’s temporary creature creation, both capitalize on playing additional lands. Another comparison is with Roil Elemental, which leverages landfall for control by snatching opponents’ creatures. Despite not adding to your creature tally like Zektar Shrine Expedition, it disrupts opponents’ board presence.

Each of these cards, while sharing the landfall theme, displays divergent strategies. Zektar Shrine Expedition earns its place by offering an immediate and formidable threat that must be answered quickly by opponents, diversifying the landfall mechanic’s use within Magic: The Gathering’s vast array of strategies.

Khalni Heart Expedition - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Zektar Shrine Expedition by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Zektar Shrine Expedition MTG card by a specific set like Zendikar, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Zektar Shrine Expedition and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Zektar Shrine Expedition has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Zektar Shrine Expedition card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2009-10-01	The landfall ability triggers whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control for any reason. It triggers whenever you play a land, as well as whenever a spell or ability (such as Rampant Growth) causes you to put a land onto the battlefield under your control. It will even trigger when a spell or ability causes another player to put a land onto the battlefield under your control (as can happen with Yavimaya Dryad’s ability, for example).
2009-10-01	When a land enters the battlefield under your control, each landfall ability of the permanents you control will trigger. You can put them on the stack in any order. The last ability you put on the stack will be the first one that resolves.