Part 1 of this set review can be found here: White
Part 2 of this set review can be found here: Blue
Part 3 of this set review can be found here: Black
Part 4 of this set review can be found here: Red
As with the previous four chapters, we are going to analyze Green according to the following rating system:
Constructed Unplayable
This card should not be played in Constructed under any normal circumstances and will never generally be found in a competitive Constructed deck. Example: Fiddlehead Kami, Hundroog
Playable – Role Player
This card is either unspectacular and competing with cards that do the same thing more efficiently or useful in only a limited number of decks. For whatever reason (redundancy, lack of better alternatives), the card is good enough to fill a role in a reasonable Constructed deck. Example: Elvish Champion, Zodiac Monkey
Playable – Staple
This card is played in whatever decks and strategies where it would be appropriate, almost without question. When the card is absent, that is when we start asking questions. Example: Llanowar Elves, Ravenous Baloth
Playable – Flagship
This card has a powerful or unique effect, so much so that we build decks around it rather than fitting it into decks. Quite often the presence of this card allows for new archetypes to be explored. In some cases, those archetypes are not very good (but without their flagships, we would never even ask the question). Example: Tooth and Nail, Wild Mongrel
Birds of Paradise
This is quite simply one of the five or so best creatures of all time, still probably the best one-mana creature in Magic. Birds of Paradise has been a constant in tournament winning Green decks since Alpha, and will be all the more valuable in the Ravnica-enabled multicolored metagame we will see in the coming months.
This card needs no real introduction, so I’ll leave it at that.
Playable – Staple
Bramble Elemental
This card reminds me a lot of Briarknit Kami. Like Briarknit Kami, there is nothing wrong with this card. It has a relevant ability, it doesn’t cost too much mana for what you get, none of it. The problem is that I don’t think it would ever go into an actual deck, and if it did, that deck would not be able to hang with the actual Constructed decks in the metagame. Like I’m sure a dedicated enchantment deck like the Auratouched deck will have better things to do than play vanilla Durkwood Boars in exchange for a 1/1 creature or two. Possibly this card can create a viable overrun strategy against a removal-poor opponent from the sideboard, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Constructed Unplayable
Carven Caryatid
It’s not quite Wall of Blossoms, but Carven Caryatid is still quite nice. It might get some Extended love due to being out of Flametongue Kavu range, and it is also a superb Opposition enabler. In Standard Carven Caryatid is probably an easy turn 2 cast for any deck with sufficient Green mana; I certainly wouldn’t want to be facing off against defender 2005 with any kind of a Bears strategy.
Playable – Staple
Chord of Calling
The only problem with this card is that every setup I imagine starts with things like “turn 1 Birds of Paradise” or the equivalent, so the speed on the Convoke doesn’t seem to generate that pronounced of an advantage. That said, this card is easily the same power level of Godo, Bandit Warlord, and Godo was a defining card in his Block. For argument’s sake, let’s just think about Chord of Calling as a sweeper recovery card only (it is clearly much more). What is a reasonable amount of mana for a Green player to have the turn an opponent plays Wrath of God? Six? Five? At least four mana certainly… If you resolve Chord of Calling for even one or two in the X category at the end of turn, it can be essentially game over for a control deck. Jushi Apprentice? Ghost-Lit Stalker much? Obviously you can use Chord of Calling the way it was “intended” to be played, to exploit Convoke and get cards like Gleancrawler – summoning up all the tricks that go with those cards – but it is silly to think that’s all you can do. This card is just one of many that makes Green the strongest straight color in Ravnica.
Convoke is gravy, but the true strength of Chord of Calling is that it is instant, it searches, and that it can get a game-breaker when the opponent’s pants are down.
Playable – Flagship
Civic Wayfinder
This card is not quite Wood Elves, but it is definitely going to be good enough for Block and probably good enough for Standard. Compare Civic Wayfinder to Kodama’s Reach: what would you rather have for 1G, a tapped land in play (Rampant Growth) or a vanilla 2/2 body (Grizzly Bears)? This card is identical to Kodama’s Reach when looked at from that perspective; despite the fact that it lacks the Reach’s core mana acceleration, Civic Wayfinder might just get played alongside Reach and Tribe Elder as the ninth-through-twelfth shuffle effects in a polychromatic Green Sensei’s Divining Top deck. Like many other random low drop creatures, this guy is probably a fine swordsman, and would be happy to carry Umezawa’s Jitte after he does his business.
Playable – Staple
Doubling Season
This seems like a fun Johnny card. Unfortunately, it probably isn’t very good outside of a very specific kind of deck. In that kind of deck, though, Doubling Season probably gets things going pretty outrageously… I just don’t know if that means that such is actually a good goal, and the fact that it probably starts actually doubling tokens and counters on turn 6 isn’t exactly a vote for viability.
Playable – Role Player
Dowsing Shaman
Dowsing Shaman’s ability is nice, and there are many clever ways to exploit it, but his cost is simply too great for serious consideration. Possibly he will win the long game in Block? Certainly he breaks Miren and Threads of Disloyalty (or the equivalent) but success on that level presupposes a prohibitive count of mana.
Constructed Unplayable (possibly Playable – Role Player if the format is glacially slow enough)
Dryad’s Caress
If Congregate wasn’t good enough for Constructed, it’s unlikely that Dryad’s Caress will be. I realize that Ravnica has several cards based around tapping, but even so, I doubt that Call to Glory will be good enough, and it costs 2GG less than Dryad’s Caress would for purposes of untapping a lot of creatures. Maybe you’ll catch someone with his pants down at the Prerelease, but I wouldn’t put my eggs in any Constructed baskets woven from these particular Dryad fronds.
Constructed Unplayable
Elves of Deep Shadow
I haven’t seen the new cards but I doubt that they used the classic, gorgeous, Jesper Myrfors painting. Anyway, Elves of Deep Shadow is actually better than her pain-free Llanowar contemporary in many decks. Second turn Hypnotic Specter anyone?
Playable – Staple
Elvish Skysweeper
Anything with a one mana cost, 1/1 in the bottom corner, and non-drawback text is worth a second look. I can definitely see Elvish Skysweeper making the cut in an aggressive Elves deck, as those decks typically hate cards like, I don’t know, Meloku the Clouded Mirror. Interestingly, Elvish Skysweeper doesn’t have to himself die, and he can leverage the innumerable Snakes and Saprolings that seem available to today’s Green mages to shoot Legendary Moonfolk or even Dragons out of the sky.
Playable – Role Player
Farseek
This card is actually better than Kodama’s Reach in some decks. Kodama’s Reach was too slow at Champs last year, but was good enough for Kamigawa Block; Farseek is technically worse than Rampant Growth and Sakura-Tribe Elder but can get lands like Watery Grave or Temple Garden; ironically, the only relevant land it misses is basic Forest. Regardless, hitting four mana on turn 3 is one of the main things Green likes to do, and this card accomplishes that task with nice redundancy alongside the most common creature in Standard and Kamigawa Block.
Playable – Staple
Fists of Ironwood
If you put this on Bramble Elemental, it’s almost like you have a whole Deranged Hermit. Kind of.
I’m sure this will be great in some Limited decks. Now try beating Gifts Ungiven.
Constructed Unplayable
Gather Courage
The Convoke on this card is fairly superfluous. One mana in a Green deck is not much in any case. Whether this gets played or not hinges purely on whether Giant Growths are good in general… Though I do think it would be cool for a summoning sick Birds of Paradise to block a Hypnotic Specter and then Convoke out the Gather Courage. That would be great.
Playable – Role Player
Golgari Brownscale
This card isn’t quite Spike Feeder, but the extra toughness is quite relevant now that the Red high water mark is two. Can you imagine a Red mage trying to get through even one Golgari Brownscale with any kind of a conventional offense (Hearth Kami and so on)? He might just switch into decking for his kill condition given that the Brownscale’s Dredge is two. His front side is too small for main-deck consideration unless the format is all RDW and Boros, but this guy should be a very solid anti-beatdown sideboard card at the very least.
Playable – Role Player
Golgari Grave-Troll
He costs one more than Lurghoyf for a creature on the order of Revenant. Interestingly his Dredge actually makes Golgari Grave-Troll even bigger the second time around. Given a combination of attrition and Dredge, I would not be surprised to see this creature as base 3/3 or 4/4 on turn 5, but he is also going to be a blank on turn 5 in some games (which might not be that bad, actually, if you are banking on a big Dredge for round two). Definitely playable, this card has a superb long game and would be absolutely unreal after an extended campaign with the help of trample.
Another thing to consider is that Golgari Grave-Troll only costs a single color and has the biggest Dredge in Ravnica. He is more-or-less automatic Threshold if that ever becomes an issue.
Playable – Role Player
Goliath Spider
*RING* *RING* *RING*
“Good afternoon?”
“Hi, is this Jonathan Becker?”
“Yes. Who may I ask is calling?”
“I’ve got a Goliath… Goliath spider it says here.”
“Spider you say? I’m intrigued. What can I do for you?”
“It’s not me, Mister. It’s this Spider. He has nowhere to go, and a Mr. David-Marshall suggested that you could find a home for, let me get this right, ‘any uncastable Venerable Kumo or Unearthly Blizzard’ in what he termed as ‘a forty-two card deck.’ Do you know what he was talking about Mr. Becker? Because honestly, I’m flabbergasted.”
“Yes, yes… Is there a ‘mana cost’ associated with the Goliath Spider in question?”
“Six-Gee-Gee if that means anything to you…”
“6GG? Oh my! Does it perhaps block flying?”
“Why yes.”
“Fantastic! What about it’s power and toughness?”
“Oh, this is the best part. Apparently it’s a seven/six, which is…”
“Seven/six? Seven!?! Good day, sir!”
“Mr. Becker? Mr. Becker, are you still there… ?”
Constructed Unplayable
Greater Mossdog
This card isn’t much better than a Hill Giant.
Constructed Unplayable
Hunted Troll
Four mana, eight power? After Hunted Dragon this is probably the best of the Hunted cards. See also the upcoming Cycles article.
Playable – Role Player (could be Playable – Staple)
Ivy Dancer
This card is actually nowhere near as bad as it looks. Hunted Troll + Ivy Dancer = three-turn clock. I’d scoff, but considering the fact that someone is going to die to this card at Champs, I will refrain from doing so. Clearly a sideboard weapon only, Ivy Dancer has no mana cost to its forestwalk ability, which is the main reason I am considering it.
Playable – Role Player
Life from the Loam
Ancestral Recall for one more mana? What? Of course it’s good.
One of the issues with Dredge in general is that if you are drawing the same card over and over again, you will inevitably miss land drops because, as you are not drawing any “new” cards, none of them will be lands. At the same time, filling your library with ~40% lands, you should be able to profitably set up Life from the Loam. All of that together makes this card a perfect source of card advantage, deceptively powerful on top of everything else.
One thing to remember is that Life from the Loam doesn’t discriminate for or against basic lands. It’s quite possible Quicksand becomes a staple in Green decks, piggybacking the core acceleration to make up for lost land drops in the mid-game. In that case Life from the Loam starts looking really good; it is also a strong way to break Okina parity (or any other Legendary land). This card is going to be insane as a sideboard card against land destruction, even when it only gets one land, because mid-game Dredge can turn it into a card advantage avalanche. Expect to see Life from the Loam both in main decks and in sideboards at Champs. I like this card a lot.
Playable – Staple
Moldervine Cloak
Sue me, I actually see at least some possibility for this card. It’s clearly much worse than Elephant Guide, but the mighty Elephant Guide actually got less play than it probably should have, but the Dredge on the Moldervine Cloak gives it a nice boost in mid-game strength. I don’t think this Aura will actually get played very often, but it is one of those cards that can end up filling a small but vital role in a good deck down the line.
Playable – Role Player
Nullmage Shepherd
This guy is going to be superb. What? You doubt? The PTQ format a few months from now is going to be Standard Unified Constructed (teams). One of the main considerations in that format is going to be the allocation of only four Umezawa’s Jittes between three players. A team is going to want a minimum of eight copies of Umezawa’s Jitte but will probably have to split 4/0/0 or 3/1/0, yet every team member is going to have to beat a Umezawa’s Jitte. Nullmage Shepherd, dorky as he may look at first blush, passes the Brian Kibler “Moat” test. He is a four mana… Moat. Bears won’t attack into him, and he contains Hill Giants. Now the question is, how easy is it for this creature to set up a dead Umezawa’s Jitte? I’m sure that it can be reliably done by turn 4. Because I am a jerk, I would probably wait until the opponent spent lots of time equipping and such before accomplishing my Jitte slaying, personally, but others probably have other tactics in mind.
The design constraints around Nullmage Shepherd are these: 1) You have to play a lot of creatures (or at least token generation), 2) You have to enjoy killing enchantments and artifacts. Likely this is a sideboard card in some sort of Green mid-range deck.
Playable – Role Player
Overwhelm
Here is our Overrun for the set. Convoke actually sucks here because we want to be sending with every creature we possibly can. Nevertheless, Overrun is Overrun, or in this case, Overwhelm is Overrun, and you can’t really argue with that. The downside is no trample, which will make this card even more narrow than the additional mana cost, but I trust that some Saproling or Snake deck will be happy to give Overwhelm a home regardless.
Playable – Role Player
Perilous Forays
The effect printed on this card is quite simply outrageous for its cost. Once Perilous Forays is in play, it changes the mathematics of the game, gives free shuffles for Sensei’s Divining Top, and turns off the opponent’s Umezawa’s Jitte as long as you have fodder. Going extremely long, it can set up multiple, active, copies of Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree, whose tokens will themselves set up more and more Perilous Forays action (you will have to draw the Vitu-Ghazi lands yourself, of course).
The problem is that I don’t know if this card actually goes into a good deck. That is, which deck can afford to essentially give up its fourth or fifth turn as an investment in long-game mana acceleration? Remember that any deck that really takes strong advantage of this card is going to have to play both a lot of creatures or tokens and a critical number of lands in order to get the full effect of the enchantment’s advantage. Moreover, the card itself is expensive, so five mana must be set aside to start; finally, sacrificing creatures in the abstract is nothing special… You’ve got to be blocking or tapping or some such in order to get anything more than a random cycle. Due to all these design constraints, I think that what would otherwise be an unreal card will have difficulty making the Constricted cut at all.
Playable – Role Player (could be Constructed Unplayable)
Primordial Sage
This card gives me that icky combo feeling. It is highly reminiscent of Wirewood Savage, one of my favorite draft cards, which was subverted by the dark gods of Aluren for their mysterious “sideboards” as a “target for Living Wish.” In a regular old deck, Primordial Sage is likely too slow. Six mana? What kind of matchup is going to give you the seven turns you need to beat the break even point, let alone get a serious advantage? At five mana this card would probably turn some heads, but at six, Primordial Sage will have problems competing with Kumano, Master Yamabushi, Godo, and Dragons.
Playable – Role Player
Recollect
It’s worse than Eternal Witness in the abstract, but better, likely in combo decks. For example it is probably an interesting engine card to have under Eye of the Storm. As for what it gets, Recollect won’t be gathering any Plow Unders any time soon, and on its face, cards like this one are only as good as their targets. If nothing else, this card is better than Revive in combo or strong manipulation decks where a single colorless mana is not generally relevant.
Playable – Role Player
Rolling Spoil
This card is a dual-edged sword. Like Green is going to have to fight the UrzaTron, Green is often going to be paired with Black, but it certainly isn’t going to want to kill its crack team of Wood Elves and Birds of Paradise. I’m guessing that outside of block, Rolling Spoil is going to take a back seat to Creeping Mold, but in Block this will probably be necessary. In a sense it is probably a nice card for the jealous G/B to have to nuke their G/W rivals… Rolling Spoil sure spoils Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree and all its spawn in one swoop.
Playable – Role Player
Root-Kin Ally
I am trying to construct in my mind some sort of combo deck that ramps out creatures, feeds itself, Convokes out Root-Kin Ally, untaps all its creatures, taps them again to pump up Root-Kin Ally, untaps them again, pumps up Root-Kin Ally, over and again, several times, somehow gives Root-Kin Ally haste and trample, comes across the Red Zone, crosses its fingers that there is no Ethereal Haze in hand, no Kami of False Hope in play, then connects for the lethal twenty. Can you imagine it with me? Because if we squeeze our eyes shut together, grip our fingers into the palms of our hands until the nails cut bloody crescents into the meat of our hand-heels, concentrate together, then maybe, just maybe, we can change the world in a profound and new way, giving path to our thoughts, form to our ideas, making Root-Kin Ally a Constructed quality card.
Because ain’t no other way he’s making it from 40 to 60 card decks.
Constructed Unplayable
Scatter the Seeds
This card compares favorably to Deranged Hermit, and Deranged Hermit was a Constructed staple. Now today we don’t have Opposition to break the token generation on its face (okay, maybe we do but I’ll be covering that later in the week), and Scatter the Seeds gives us three tokens rather than four, but Scatter the Seeds is an Instant with Convoke, which makes it a hundred times more attractive than a five-mana creature that can be played only on your own turn. This card can pick a fight during the opponent’s end step, create a messy block, or set up long game mana acceleration with the assistance of other Convoke mechanic cards.
Constructed – Staple
Scion of the Wild
In an odd way Scion of the Wild is worse than Keldon Warlord. Why? Because if you play it say one turn earlier, you will have fewer creatures than a four-mana Keldon Warlord would command. Stupid reason, right? This card is going to be very mediocre, but I suppose with a million Saprolings, the Scion himself will be big. Marginally playable, but likely not in a good deck.
Playable – Role Player
Siege Wurm
Siege Wurm is pretty big, and he’s got trample. You can Convoke him down for a little less mana, but not enough less, I think that he will make the cut over some other options.
Constructed Unplayable
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Here’s a little free advice: if your opponent summons Stone-Seeder Hierophant, kill it immediately. In the strictest sense, this card compares favorably to Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro, essentially producing two mana on any “normal” turn that you make a land drop. Combined with an accelerator like Sakura-Tribe Elder or Kodama’s Reach, Stone-Seeder Hierophant can make more than two mana per turn. It can untap lands that produce more than one mana, and unwary players will doubtlessly be tricked by his interaction with man lands. I am certain there is some sort of infinite mana combo in which he can participate. Like I said, kill Stone-Seeder Hierophant if you can. He’s just a 1/1 for four mana.
Playable – Role Player
Sundering Vitae
Sundering Vitae is unlikely to see play outside of Block unless design constraints stretch Naturalize across more than two decks in Team Unified.
Playable – Role Player
Transluminant
I’m not sure when you would play Transluminant over other Bears in a G/W deck. But if you did, it would be fine. Not Watchwolf or anything, probably not Kami of Ancient Law or even Selesnya Guildmage, but fine. Against Red Decks, this guy probably makes a nice pair of weenie traders.
Playable – Role Player
Trophy Hunter
Three mana for a 2/3 is quite reasonable, and this creature’s array of powers is not unimpressive. He can go toe-to-toe with Meloku under any normal circumstances, which is a huge accomplishment all by itself. I wouldn’t start him in Standard unless the format looked very strange, and he is competing for space in some decks with Arashi, but that doesn’t mean that Trophy Hunter won’t get to shine at some point.
Playable – Role Player
Ursapine
I am actually not sure how to rate this creature. Five mana creatures with combined power and toughness of six are consistently better than they look at first glance. Sometimes they are completely unreal, such as Morphling or Meloku. Ursapine’s ability is arguably better than at least some of Morphling’s abilities, and when Ursapine has got a team, for example some Scattered Seeds, he becomes essentially impossible to block.
That said, this card is remarkably mana intensive. I am going to tentatively give this Beast the rating of Staple because I’m sure he will make a large impact in Block, but I don’t know that he will see the spotlight in Standard given some of the other options. Ursapine could easily miss the boat entirely (though I doubt it), and just as easily prove Flagship material (though I am a tad skeptical).
Playable – Staple
Vinelasher Kudzu
My guess is that this card will not make a huge splash in Standard immediately, but that many deck designers will keep it locked away in the closets of their creative brains until the Vinelasher Kudzu comes out and surprises the metagame and the world some months down the line. He is insanely good in any game where Green has typical mana development, and can easily come across the Red Zone for three on turn 3 with the help of Wood Elves or Kodama’s Reach. Look for this card to, like the Hunted Cycle, prompt Blue mages to pack dat bounce.
Playable – Staple
Green is the undeniable king of the non-Gold / non-Guild mana set at this point. Its percentage of actual playable cards in Ravnica more than three-to-one over Constructed blanks… no other color in the set is close. Some threats jump out at you, like Vinelasher Kudzu, which would give Quirion Dryad a run for its money and seems like a great tag team partner to Watchwolf, especially in a color that is used to accelerating via Kodama’s Reach or teaming up with Meloku the Clouded Mirror. Dark Confidant is probably the best card in the set – the best creature, certainly – but that is only because we don’t count Birds of Paradise as a Ravnica card, not really. Birds of Paradise remains the strongest one-drop in the history of Magic, and we get it back for Standard, via Ravnica Green. Life From the Loam and Chord of Calling are both straight up insane sources of card advantage; one of them is literally the perfect compliment to the Dredge mechanic, and will set up a Golgari deck to run with control opponents on card economy while they present must-counter threats every turn. The other card simply wins the game if it resolves. I can’t stress how powerful Chord of Calling is… Even when you are just resolving it for four or five mana, with X=1 or X=2, the Chord will consistently put the opponent in a situation where his back is against the wall. This card is going to make Ghost-Lit Stalker and Jushi Apprentice automatic inclusions in otherwise base Green decks, and obviously cements the synergy between early game cards – specifically stuff like Loxodon Hierarch and Sakura-Tribe Elder – and late game Gleancrawler. Thanks Boseiju!
After looking at the first five colors of Ravnica, my prediction is that, like in Kamigawa Block, Green will be the strongest color. As many writers have already suggested, look for Green early games to set up Gifts Ungiven or Enduring Ideal late games, but don’t discount the possibility for other G/x decks. Golgari can touch Vitu-Ghazi for its late game… and so can Boros. Don’t forget that cards like the City-Tree can operate even while Epic is running, and build accordingly.
For more synergies – and a start to some of the really exciting cards that Ravnica has to offer – check out tomorrow’s entry: Gold Cards.