Zacama, Primal Calamity
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Zacama, Primal Calamity

Legendary Creature — Dinosaur

Vigilance, reach, trample

When Zacama, Primal Calamity enters the battlefield, if you cast it, untap all lands you control.

: Zacama deals 3 damage to target creature.

: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.

: You gain 3 life.

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DemonDragonJ on How Can I Put Ziatora, …

5 days ago

Caerwyn, that makes sense, so I am very glad that I asked you, for your advice, before purchased a copy of that card; and I agree that the artwork is nice, as well.

Gidgetimer, most of the other players with whom I play seem to avoid very expensive cards, but those players who do choose to sue expensive cards definitely know how to use them effectively; one player had an EDH deck with Zacama, Primal Calamity as the general, and, once he summoned Zacama, he dominated that game, so he clearly knew what he was doing, when he built that deck.

plakjekaas on question about dino commander

3 weeks ago

If it's a dedicated dinosaur deck, Gishath, Sun's Avatar is probably the better choice.

Yes, Zacama, Primal Calamity is bigger, but apart from untapping your lands to cast more dinosaurs, it doesn't actually do much for your dino plan. Building that commander, it's usually better to lean into the "untap your lands"-aspect, using cards like Mana Reflection to actually make more mana by untapping than you spent casting Zacama.

Gishath is straightforward, swingy and very fun. Not complicated to build, you mostly want lots of dinosaurs and ways for Gishath to actually deal combat damage (by making it unblockable, for example) and the deck will snowball out of control pretty fast.

Good luck brewing!

wallisface on Why is Squad a Cast …

1 month ago

DemonDragonJ to reply:

  • I used Carnage Tyrant as a example of when a card is too hard to interact with and turns the game into a "who ramps first" format. If you had seen this in Standard at the time, it was a menace. To my knowledge Zacama, Primal Calamity never made any dent in Standard. And, while Zacama, Primal Calamity might be strong in commander, it is a bad example for this conversation because it both dies to countermagic and to most other forms of board-interaction - so doesn't apply to what we're actually discussing here - which is that interaction needs to remain relevant/powerful to maintain game balance.

  • Your comment on "I feel that no singular card should ever be so powerful as to win a game on its own" - firstly, games of magic have to end, and this card has a ton of ways to get disrupted, so is by no means a silver-bullet. Secondly, the rules changes you're advocating above would certainly turn a bunch of Squad cards into "singular cards that win games on their own". So I think you need to pick a side of the fence here.

wallisface on Why is Squad a Cast …

1 month ago

DemonDragonJ firstly it should be noted that some cards provide exceptions to the rules -but that doesn’t mean that they’re setting a precedence. Secondly, Zacama, Primal Calamity is not a very good example for this, as you still lose all your mana to the opponent using a Counterspell. A better example would be Carnage Tyrant, which at the time of printing caused all-manor of havoc to standard when it was printed - and made numerous archetypes unplayable… it was an issue design-wise (there’s a reason we haven’t seen anything printed this egregious since), and not something that Wotc would want to print en-masse (they’d especially want to avoid stapling such a game warping effect to an ability)

legendofa on Why is Squad a Cast …

1 month ago

DemonDragonJ As a mythic rare legendary creature that costs nine mana across three colors, Zacama, Primal Calamity is allowed a certain amount of freedom that a common or uncommon four-drop mono-color creature won't have. In this case, Zacama's restriction is there to avoid getting ridiculous amounts of land utility from reanimator, Sneak Attack, and other ways to bypass big mana costs. If you don't get Zacama in a "fair" way, you don't get the full benefit. Zacama can still be countered or discarded, and has no inherent self-protection, so it can still end up being a net zero mana investment, or worse.

To step in a little bit for Caerwyn, the intent is to invest that into a card that finishes the game that turn or the next turn. Zacama can be used as a power ramp card, but I'm pretty sure the design intention is to use it as an end game card. The land untapping effect is used here to give you a better chance of activating it's abilities, with a side benefit of protecting you from total mana loss for the turn.

DemonDragonJ on Why is Squad a Cast …

1 month ago

Caerwyn, yes, that makes sense, but, in that case, how do you explain the fact that Zacama, Primal Calamity untaps all lands when it enters the battlefield (yes, I understand that Zacama needs to actually be cast as a spell, but that is not a difficult restriction)?

griffstick on which do you perfer

11 months ago

I've played against both quite a few times. They are both very strong decks. Zacama, Primal Calamity is way more powerful because of its control factor. It can still be Dino tribal like Gishath, Sun's Avatar would be and you can still run Gishath, Sun's Avatar I think hat deck if you want to go in that direction

ET_ASH1228 on which do you perfer

11 months ago

so im making a tri colored dino deck and ive already decided my commander but i wanted to see what others would pick between Gishath, Sun's Avatar and Zacama, Primal Calamity

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