So I once again proved my inability to play limited Pro Tours with another disappointing performance at Geneva (which you can read about in more detail here). I also was unable to steal the anti-matter bomb that is allegedly hidden within CERN. Apparently that is a work of fiction and this, I quote, “will not change no matter how many fingers you feed to that freaky amphibian thing.”
Oh well, at least Mortimer got to eat well.
Where were we?
Ah, I was going through the new Planar Chaos cards and throwing out some skeletons of potential deck ideas for when I actually get a chance to play with these in real Magic (i.e. one that requires you to have at least 60 cards in your deck.)
This week it’s the turn of the Green cards.
But before I go on I suppose I should correct a mistake pointed out in last week’s article by Dave X from the Czech Republic. And this wasn’t the shoddy, oh my god I’ve got to get the article finished before the PT starts, decklists. You’ll get them again this week because most deck ideas start out that way before proper testing evolves them into something that’s vaguely playable. When talking about the entomology of Pyrohemia I obviously meant the etymology. I basically spelt it eytomology and I guess Word corrected it to entomology when Craig edited it. Congrats to Dave X, a special envelope filled with carnivorous fingernail mites is winging its way towards you right this moment.
But anyway.
Ah, Green. Symbol of nature in all its resplendent glory. Complex, majestic, beautiful, wondrous.
Well, I suppose it should be. In reality, Green generally gets the equivalent of “Hulk Smash!” when it comes to Constructed. And looking at the current Green decks we can see why:
Mono-Green Aggro
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Llanowar Elves
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Dryad Sophisticate
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Blanchwood Armor
4 Moldervine Cloak
4 Stonewood Invocation
4 Spectral Force
1 Llanowar Wastes
4 Overgrown Tomb
14 Forest
Sideboard
1 Yavimaya Dryad
3 Gather Courage
2 Shadow of Doubt
2 Krosan Grip
3 Spike Feeder
4 Persecute
Scryb and Force
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Call of the Herd
7 Forest
4 Island
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Mystic Snake
1 Pendelhaven
4 Psionic Blast
4 Remand
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Breeding Pool
4 Ohran Viper
3 Plaxmanta
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Spectral Force
2 Stonewood Invocation
Sideboard
3 Moldervine Cloak
4 Repeal
3 Serrated Arrows
3 Shadow of Doubt
2 Krosan Grip
Ghazi-Glare
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Brushland
2 Call of the Herd
3 Forest
3 Glare of Subdual
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Pendelhaven
3 Selesnya Guildmage
3 Selesnya Sanctuary
4 Temple Garden
4 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
4 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Ohran Viper
2 Saffi Eriksdotter
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Spectral Force
2 Stonewood Invocation
4 Yavimaya Dryad
Sideboard
2 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Faith’s Fetters
2 Giant Solifuge
3 Naturalize
2 Worship
3 Condemn
Make fast mana, make big guys, hit opponent with big guys, repeat. What happened to the subtlety of nature? I suppose this has always been one of the complaints when it comes to Green. It gets big guys, but you can usually see them coming a mile off. No guile, no élan, no smug satisfaction at ever-so-cleverly outplaying your opponent. To be honest, I was never that bothered about the tricksy stuff anyway. An opponent with a face smashed in is still an opponent with a face smashed in.
But we are, of course, looking at the color-shifting trickery of Planar Chaos, and (like Red) it does seem that Green gets some new toys to play with (as well as plenty of face-smashing goodness). So let’s take a look at the list:
Rare
Fungal Behemoth
Gaea’s Anthem
Groundbreaker
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
Life and Limb
Magus of the Library
Timbermare
Wild Pair
Uncommon
Ana Battlemage
Deadwood Treefolk
Harmonize
Hedge Troll
Hunting Wilds
Kavu Predator
Keen Sense
Pouncing Wurm
Psychotrope Thallid
Sophic Centaur
Common
Citanul Woodreaders
Essence Warden
Evolution Charm
Fa’adiyah Seer
Giant Dustwasp
Healing Leaves
Mire Boa
Reflex Sliver
Seal of Primordium
Uktabi Drake
Utopia Vow
Vitaspore Thallid
Green was a bit of a dog in Time Spiral draft. Slow, clumsy and not much in the way of evasion to speak of. So it’s nice to see Planar Chaos fill in some of those holes. I also think out of all the colors Green got plenty of interesting cards to play with. Besides the obvious Damnation-toting Black decks, I think Green is the next color I want to investigate more thoroughly. I imagine a lot of the deck ideas won’t pan out as is nearly always the case, but it will fun to try them out. The interesting thing is we’ll get to do things in decks that weren’t previously possible. I mean, take Concentrate in a fast aggro deck to refill. Is it good, or detracting from the good ol’ fashioned face-smashing? Whatever the answers, it’s certainly going to be fun finding out.
First off, we may was well start off with the pure and simple.
Hulk smash!
Two of the most hyped rares are Groundbreaker and Timbermare. For the mana they hit hard and fast, although they may not necessarily being staying around for long.
Groundbreaker is the Planeshifted version of Ball Lightning. I’m going to take a risk and stick my neck out on this and call over-hype. This is a risk, as anyone who’s played Red decks will remember just how good Ball Lightning is. The usual thing to say at this point in set reviews is that x is no Ball Lightning, but as Groundbreaker is exactly a Ball Lightning (apart from the whole triple G casting cost thing) that would be rather foolish. Instead I’m going to say the important thing, which is that Green is most definitely not Red. You see, Red’s spells tended to go straight to face without that whole inconvenience of having to run through a red zone first. However…
Creatures (30)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Dryad Sophisticate
- 4 Giant Solifuge
- 4 Scryb Ranger
- 4 Spectral Force
- 4 Groundbreaker
- 4 Timbermare
Lands (20)
- 1 Pendelhaven
- 19 Forest
Spells (10)
An alternate listing can be found in yesterday’s Benjamin Peebles-Mundy article. Uktabi Drake also kind of fits the burn feeling, but that echo cost sends shivers down my spine every time I see it. Still, enough people are telling me that it’s not that bad I should probably pay attention.
As with all the current Standard decks, the whole Timeshifting goodness of Time Spiral and the extra set of Cold Snap means there are so many options for each of the archetypes.
In this listing I’ve put the Scryb Ranger / Spectral Force (and to some extent Timbermare) combo. It could just as easily take Ledgewalker and some boosting enchantments. Or it could actually splash Red and include real burn (or even Blue, perversely). Red is interesting as it also gives you my favorite Time Spiral card: Greater Gargadon. Groundbreaker going away? Don’t want to pay the echo on Timbermare? Why not feed them to big Gargs!
Greater Gargadon also has a nice interaction with Timbermare. Summon Timbermare, sac everything else to bring in a hasty Gargadon. Who needs trample? And how are you doing, Mr Damnation boy? That will be fourteen points of damage on the table. With haste.
I’d also quite like to see what Harmonize does to decklists like this.
With creatures that aren’t hanging around, very long we may as well continue the sac them when they’ve done their job theme and throw in Greater Good.
Creatures (32)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Giant Solifuge
- 4 Greater Gargadon
- 4 Groundbreaker
- 4 Magus of the Library
- 4 Timbermare
- 4 Volcano Hellion
Lands (20)
Spells (8)
I threw in the Hellion mainly because I might have undervalued it last week. Red Akroma and Radha might also like a spot on this team. Again, we aren’t tuned. There clearly aren’t the right number of lands, but you sort of get the picture.
Ball Lightning was a star player, but then it fell out of the public eye and was last seen rummaging through garbage pails with his good buddy Ernham Djinn. This might have been around the time competent players realised Icing a Ball Lightning was so much more demoralizing than Firing it.
Groundbreaker also suffers the same problem, in that it can easily be dealt with before it ever connects. Blue can even do it with one Island open, through Piracy Charm. The real power in Solifuge was that you always used it to follow Wrath, at which point they had to have a second Wrath or they died. In that role I think Solifuge still wins out over both Groundbreaker and Timbermare, but throw all of them together and there may be a critical mass of hasty beats.
Green is actually packed full of interesting rares. I randomly threw Magus of the Library in the list above because I want to talk about him, but I’m not sure where he goes yet. It’s a bit like Harmonize. I’m fairly sure they’ll spawn new archetypes, but I haven’t figured out what yet. The Magus has a very powerful ability, but only in the right deck. I also think it’s interesting that he taps for mana, I’m guessing that’s an in-joke at the power level of the Arabian Night’s cards (you mean it does that and taps for mana?). He’s definitely going to show up with Harmonize… the interesting thing will be what the deck does with the cards. Green normally likes to throw everything out fast and overwhelm an opponent with fast beats, and while the Magus does accelerate mana, there is an interesting tension with his card-drawing ability where you want cards in hand. While Harmonize is the obvious combo, Dark Confidant also makes a good partner, and I can also see Scryb Ranger doing some highly degenerate things with the Magus (it both feeds the hand by returning Forests and untaps the Magus for more cards)
Next, a rare I initially didn’t look twice at until Sideboard reporter Tim Willoughby told me about a deck Pierre Canali had drafted featuring Wild Pair. I’m still not quite sure how the cards works with respect to things like Muscle Sliver, but Mike Flores has already mentioned the naughtiness of fetching things like Triskelavus and Draining Whelk with lowly mana elves. The big downside is getting the thing into play in the first place.
I’ll probably come back to Wild Pair later when I look at the White cards because I suspect the rescue creatures may be very sick with this enchantment. Probably too expensive in Dralnu / Dragonstorm Standard, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes a splash at Yokohama.
Creatures (22)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Wood Elves
- 4 Coiling Oracle
- 2 Draining Whelk
- 1 Harmonic Sliver
- 3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
- 2 Triskelavus
- 2 Magus of the Library
Lands (20)
And the goodness just keeps coming.
Glorious Anthem for Green! Glorious Anthem fell by the wayside in the end, mainly because White Weenie players got sick of having all their guys nuked by Wrath and being left with a useless enchantment in play. They decided throwing Chars at their opponent’s head was far more satisfying. Now while Recycle was better off in its original color before Black swiped it as Null Profusion, I think Gaea’s Anthem may actually be going into color that can really use it. You see, Green has all these mana guys for the early game that are pretty useless later on. However, with Gaea’s Anthem even those lowly Birds get to at least peck for one damage.
I’ve put up a silly Empty the Warrens list that still probably suffers from the “don’t draw Warrens, have a naff deck” syndrome.
Creatures (16)
Lands (16)
Spells (28)
The Essence Warden is in there for comedy value, and mainly because my brief is to try and get as many Planar Chaos cards into new decks as possible. The big problem with Warrens decks is that anything that combos with Warrens is generally bad, as you if you cast turn 2 Warrens for ten goblins, you probably don’t need a lot else.
The more sensible deck plan is to update Ghazi-Glare with Gaea’s Anthem, although it may be that the card doesn’t fit in with the deck’s plan. If you have that many creatures on the board, you’re probably winning anyway. It could dominate Green mirrors though. Maybe in a more balls-out aggro version:
Creatures (28)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Loxodon Hierarch
- 4 Selesnya Guildmage
- 4 Watchwolf
- 4 Scryb Ranger
- 4 Spectral Force
Lands (22)
Spells (10)
An interesting thing to notice is that while Hedge Troll looks like a really good card, I’m not sure he has a home at the moment. That three mana Green slot has so much competition in Call of the Herd, Ohran Viper, and Yavimaya Druid. It’s hard to see where he’d make the cut.
So many interesting rares.
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava at least gives us a pause. Limited bomb, no home in Constructed, moving right along.
Fungal Behemoth is another one of that rare suspend cycle I really need to play with, because I can’t figure out whether they have uses or are just hamster cage filler. On the surface not very exciting, but then we had the Simic stuff only a few sets ago in Dissension. They seemed to like +1/+1 counters if I remember. Throw in Vinelasher Kudzus, Cytoplast Rootkins, Plaxcaster Froglings and so on, and we might have a bit of fun with this guy (until they cast Damnation).
I wouldn’t have minded saying more about Life and Limb, but I’m running over as it is. It’s a specialist. That means it’ll probably sit in folders doing nothing, but does have the potential for Johnny abuse. I was thinking Intruder Alarm, but that went out with Eighth Edition. I might come back and have a play around with it later.
So now we drop into the Uncommons and Commons.
In case you haven’t noticed, I may have mentioned Harmonize a few times. I’m really hoping it turns up in interesting decks rather than just being another draw spell in a Green-x control deck.
Hedge Troll is solid but faces strong competition.
Kavu Predator is a really nice card. It’s a pity that the first Lightning Helix or Faith’s Fetters will be aimed at him, but full marks to R&D for the card. He, of course, combos quite jankily with Healing Leaves (in Limited), and possibly quite dangerously with Fiery Justice. In older formats you might want to play him with Skyshroud Cutter for the novelty value. (Hey I get a 2/2 for free and you get to get smashed in the face with a 7/7!)
Sophic Centaur… no just joking, this is probably the worst card in the set.
Keen Sense does interest me. Curiosity was always a nice little creature enchantment (or aura), and Green actually isn’t doing too badly on the evasiveness stakes. I can see it possibly making the cut in a Scryb and Force type deck, where it interacts really well with Ledgewalker.
Creatures (22)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Silhana Ledgewalker
- 3 Plaxmanta
- 2 Looter il-Kor
- 4 Scryb Ranger
- 3 Spectral Force
Lands (19)
Spells (19)
Another possibility is to go more control-oriented and sit back on hard counterspells like Cancel, with Teferi at the top end.
A card that I haven’t talked about much but feels like I probably should is Mire Boa. He’s a really good two-drop, and will probably get the nod over Dryad Sophisticate. I haven’t stuck him in any lists because basically we already know there are so many options for decks nowadays. Unfortunately, he still dies to things like Funeral Charm and Plagued Rusalka, but so do most other things of his size, and the regenerate ability will probably be really annoying in some matchups.
Rounding out the commons, Fa’adiyah Seer is a kind of an uncontrollable madness enabler, Utopia Vow might actually be a serious annoyance from the sideboard for dragon or Akroma.decs, and Seal of Primordium is another Naturalize effect, but probably behind Krosan Grip.
Overall, the Green cards show a lot of promise in Planar Chaos.
Now, if Jamie Wakefield will forgive me for borrowing his byline… go smash their face.
Until next week,
Prof