Spoiler Highlight: Cosmogrand Zenith on Standard & Pioneer

A few weeks ago, Cori-Steel Cutter was banned from Standard for making it too easy to multiply threats on the board in decks with low-cost spells, especially in Prowess lists, whose cantrips and other threats made it easy to create tokens every turn.

One of this card's advantages was its artifact type, effectively invalidating any spot removal and favoring cheap sweepers like Temporary Lockdown. While there were options like Abrade that dealt with both artifacts and creatures, most lists had to forgo most of their cheap interactions to deal with the new card, and now a new piece offers the same potential for putting pressure on the board with cheap spells.

Obviously, Cosmogrand Zenith is a very different card from Cori-Steel Cutter: besides the higher mana value in a color that doesn't benefit from Prowess, it is a creature, which changes the dynamics of the entire format regarding how to deal with the problem—Cutter invalidated Go for the Throat and Get Lost simply by existing, while Zenith is an easy target for Shoot the Sheriff and any other instant-speed removal that deals four or more damage or destroys a creature regardless of its body.

In this way, Zenith feels closer to Monastery Mentor than Cori-Steel Cutter: it will generate a ridiculous amount of snowball if you untap with it, but there are enough options available to prevent it from becoming a problem too quickly.

Despite its typing and the creation of Human tokens, it's difficult to imagine many decks going wide wanting this new creature because, currently, it seems unreliable for it to always be accompanied by one or two cards in Aggro lists before taking removal, and at that point, players would likely opt for Imodane's Recruiter before it to pressure the board.

Where it excels, however, are in lists where Monastery Mentor would also excel: Tempo, an alternative threat in Control decks, especially in games where the opponent removes traditional removals, and a complement to archetypes that use, for example, Helping Hand with Abhorrent Oculus to win games.

Cosmogrand Zenith has a few homes in Standard, and as expected, most of them probably don't involve creature-based decks. Zenith is a three-drop, and unlike Cori-Steel Cutter, it's much easier to interact with once it comes into play, so we want archetypes that can somehow extract value from it the same turn it comes into play—either by using other cheap spells or reducing the creature's cost.

One such case involves Helping Hand lists with Abhorrent Oculus. In the past, the Azorius version of the deck ran Monastery Mentor as a complementary threat alongside Haughty Djinn. This version was eventually replaced by the more creature-oriented Jeskai variant, and Cosmogrand Zenith is a great tool for that version as well.

With so many creatures, and most of them being cheap drops, it's not hard to imagine turns where we return Cosmogrand Zenith and cast another card to increase the power of the entire board, which is especially relevant with evasive threats and/or those we want to dodge Torch the Tower and the like. If not necessary, this same play puts two more creatures into play, expanding the archetype's go-wide plan.

Sometimes, the Metagame favors Azorius Control and other similar lists to include a low-cost creature for post-sideboard play, allowing it to dominate the game if it stays in play. Examples include Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Monastery Mentor in their respective seasons or even in other formats, and Cosmogrand Zenith has similar enough properties to do the same, especially with spells like Think Twice or Dreams of Laguna that allow you to cast two spells with one slot. Even without them, mixing a counterspell or removal followed by any cantrip is enough to put two or more power on the board every turn cycle.

Unfortunately, we don't have a clear answer on how non-red Aggro decks will fare next season yet. Their flagship deck, Boros Convoke, will lose key pieces after rotation and will be a dead archetype, as will any other variants. Those who could take its place might not want Cosmogrand Zenith because the three-drop slots are already too crowded and/or they don't sequence spells well enough to consistently trigger the new card.

The same problem exists in traditional Prowess decks: despite the similarities, Zenith is not Cori-Steel Cutter and requires significant effort to get into lists and even more to stay in play. Compared to Vivi Ornitier, its slot is almost non-existent for the archetype, but that doesn't mean these two cards will never interact.

One of Zenith's abilities is to add +1/+1 counters to all creatures, which interacts with the combination of Agatha's Soul Cauldron and Vivi Ornitier to generate an absurd amount of mana that can be used to chain more spells or, with enough creatures, end the game with a bomb.

The viability of this line will largely depend on what Edge of Eternities adds to 's splash in an Izzet list, especially with white cards that enable recurring discard and/or that function like Raffine's Informant as a decent body that helps filter the hand in a color that doesn't usually interact much with this mechanic.

Cosmogrand Zenith probably doesn't have a place in Humans, its most obvious home in Pioneer.

Its direct slot competitor is Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, a common finisher in games of this archetype because it scales with the number of creatures in play while interacting with Thalia's Lieutenant, and is also a better topdeck after a sweeper than the new card.

On the other hand, a turn of follow-ups between Hopeful Initiate, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben for Cosmogrand Zenith followed by another two-drop or one-drop, and Thalia's Lieutenant can create a nearly unbeatable board from turn four onward without a sweeper. The fact that Zenith avoids Temporary Lockdown and Brotherhood's End can be another element that favors it in these matchups, since an inherent weakness of Adeline is her low power without a relevant board, while two other cards in hand can be enough to replenish its controller's board position with Zenith.

This line can be better executed with Enduring Innocence to guarantee more gas, which also runs Kellan, Daring Traveler whose adventure ability and the card's own casting already guarantee the Zenith's trigger, increasing the power of all hatebears or providing more protection on the board.

However, Selesnya Company is a mana-hungry for Aggro and heavily reliant on Collected Company, which rarely leaves room for a second cast in the same turn. Furthermore, this strategy is, by nature, responsive and doesn't want to play its cards just to trigger other cards unnecessarily: Aven Interrupter is best played with a spell on the stack, just as Skyclave Apparition needs a target on the board to be a significant play.

There are, indeed, some cards worth sequencing to create more tokens or bolster your creatures, but in an ideal world, Selesnya Company's biggest draw is efficient trades while increasing the pressure on the board, which can be counterintuitive to the gameplan proposed by Cosmogrand Zenith.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!