It’s that time again, where we take a critical eye at the new Magic set and see how it impacts the color Green. I have to admit, Wizards has really done some great things for Green in the past few years, but we can’t forget that Green spent a long time as the undisputed worst color in Magic and there’s still need to have strong advocates for the color. I think a lot of the reasons why the color suffered in power has been infused into what some designers still think is Green flavor and function. I imagine it’s a peculiar challenge to make a card feel Green and not just be inherently less powerful than it could be. My goal is to provide a critical eye and spark discussion in the forums that will hopefully prove useful to both those who play the cards and those who make them.
Before I get into my evaluation of what I’d like to see in Green cards from each set, let’s go over what Wizards R&D views as Green’s flavor and function, as articulated by Mark Rosewater way back in 2002.
From It’s Not Easy Being Green:
…Green’s ultimate goal is growth. Green would be happiest in a world where nature has been allowed to run rampant.
The growth theme runs rampant throughout Green. Green has the ability to temporarily enlarge its creatures… [and] can permanently enlarge creatures… In addition, Green’s growth is seen through its token generators… Green also has many creatures like Maro or Terravore that naturally grow over time. Green’s growth can also be seen in its ability to speed the amount land/mana available to the player… Mechanically, Green overwhelms the opponent by constantly producing more and more resources and thus more and more threats.
…Green is the “creature color.” This is reflected numerous ways in the game. First, Green has more creatures than any other color… Green also has proportionately larger creatures, especially at common. Most importantly, Green has the most efficient creatures from a mana standpoint.
The downside to Green’s way of life is that it relies completely on its instinct to gauge danger. Green is fundamentally trusting. With subtlety, its enemies can exploit this naivety to its own ends.
This plays into Green’s greatest weakness, its inability to deal with creatures. Green has no qualms with destroying artificial things. It will blow up artifacts or enchantments. It will even sever opponent’s ties to their mana by destroying their land. But it just cannot bring itself to destroy the opponent’s creatures. There are a few exceptions, but in general, Green does not kill other living things.
I’ve done this review for the previous two sets, and how did Green do overall?
Worldwake Green? Final Grade: B-
Rise of the Eldrazi Green? Final Grade: B+
Not bad, not bad…
Now let’s take a look at green in Magic 2011! The grades I hand out are entirely subjective, based on how I feel about Green’s strengths in each category relative to what I expect out of Green, or how it compares to other colors. It’s by no means a reflection of whether Magic 2011 is a good or bad set overall, just how it looks through the lens of a discerning green mage. I’m sure others will have their own opinions, and I definitely want to hear them in the forums.
Efficient Creatures? Grade: B
Green is generally thought to be the color of efficient creatures, but I think its standing there has certainly eroded recently with the power creep of creatures across all colors. When you have a discussion about what the most efficient creatures in Magic are right now, it’s hard to see many that can out-compete Baneslayer Angel. Green still tends to get some goods in this category, and M11 doesn’t totally disappoint.
Birds of Paradise remains one of the most efficient one-mana creatures of all time, and it’s good to see its return. Once Noble Hierarch (another candidate for most efficient one-mana creature of all time) rotates out my beloved Birds will shine once more.
It’s hard not to see Garruk’s Companion as another incredibly efficient creature with higher power than its converted mana cost of two, which just so happens to nicely complement its trample ability. Don’t forget the fantastic synergy trampling has now with Deathtouch, easily available for naturally trampling creatures from Basilisk Collar — and with Basilisk in its name, really, it should be equipped to a Green creature, right?
Once upon a time, a 4/4 for four mana was considered efficient, but that time is receding in Magic’s rearview mirror. A 4/4 for four needs more, and Obstinate Baloth gives us a bit more, though he’s not nearly as amazing as Loxodon Hierarch was back in its heyday. Ob-B’s value right now is as the uppercut follow-up to Vengevine’s face smash, turning Blightning from one of the defining cards in Standard into a big liability. Blightning is not going to be around much longer, and I suspect Ob-B’s value will take a hit when that happens. He does also help keep Red decks in check.
Card Advantage? Grade: C+
Since Magic is a battle of resources, players looking to win games will look long and hard at ways to achieve card advantage. Green is often lacking in this department, and M11 doesn’t change that much. Primeval Titan offers the best engine for card advantage, giving you a large body and two lands on the battlefield tapped when you pay your six mana, and then two more lands tapped each time you get to attack. Still, if your opponent has a Doom Blade ready, you’re just left with gaining two lands after you already had six mana available. Primeval Titan is awesome, but he’s not fantastic as a pure source of card advantage.
Green does get some ways to eek out incremental advantages, with Acidic Slime, Cultivate, and Sylvan Ranger. Garruk’s Packleader offers up some promise, but is too weak by itself to bank on. Mitotic Slime is a fun card that can certainly provide opportunities for card advantage against the right opponents who have the wrong form of removal.
Cleverness? Grade: C
I’ve long gone on about how Green needs more clever cards, ways to interact with your opponent outside of the main phase, so I won’t rehash the preamble here (you can check out my State of Green report for ROE if you’d like). With Green’s long history of being the creature color and having creature-boosting spells, it’s understandably tough to give the color clever instants that “feel” Green. M11 certainly doesn’t help the issue, with Fog back as a “surprise!” that’s not usually too surprising when you see it in a Constructed deck. I will give Wizards props for Autumn’s Veil, which does a fine job of replacing Mold Adder as a true weapon against Green’s enemy colors and should easily see sideboard action. One minor, minor gripe is that won’t stop Jace, the Mind Sculptor from bouncing your creature back to your hand.
Green Power in the Cycles? Grade: A
It’s often telling to look at the various cross-color cycles in a set to see where the colors rank within the cycle, and surprisingly Green really gets the goods here! While there seems to be some legitimate disagreement for the second-best mythic Titan between Black, Red, or White, consensus seems to be that Primeval Titan stands a bit taller than the rest, and in a shocking development, Blue’s the midget!
While we’ve seen them enough that no one really pays much attention to them, in the base Planeswalker cycle Garruk Wildspeaker certainly stands out as the best right now.
Let’s also make note that each color gets a tribal “lord,” and Green’s Elvish Archdruid is a proven powerhouse in the right deck, much more so than the lords in the other colors, especially after Black’s tribal lord took a massive downgrade.
No one is making the case that Leyline of Vitality is a contender for best Leyline, but hey – you can’t give Green the best in every cycle! Still, it is nice that Green’s Leyline is actually cumulative.
Tournament Impact? Grade: A
What many players wonder when looking at a new set, which cards are going to have an impact on Constructed tournament decks? Many of the cards I’ve mentioned above will have a big tournament impact, but there’s more! Fauna Shaman certainly has a lot of deckbuilders salivating and Googling up old Survival of the Fittest decks, though the Shaman has a lot of limitations that are going to end up disappointing some who try to draw too strict a comparison. Being a 2/2, having summoning sickness and being able to be used just once a turn put the brakes on a very potent and powerful ability. Fauna Shaman is going to best be used to boost the power level of a good deck as opposed to being a “build around me” card like Survival of the Fittest.
Back to Nature is a pleasant surprise – if you take Tranquility, shave off a mana and make it instant speed, you certainly have a solid tournament-caliber card. Given the popularity of Oblivion Ring, Spreading Seas, and even Mind Control and Path to Nowhere, I could see Back to Nature elbowing Naturalize out of sideboards.
Plummet is a fantastic tool to have available for any G/x deck that finds itself getting pummeled by a problematic flying creature (and yes, poor Baneslayer does have a really big target on her, don’t she?).
Fun Cards? Grade: B
Let’s not overlook the value of fun cards aimed at the more casual crowd! Gaea’s Revenge is the perfect embodiment of the rage all Green mages feel at having their creatures countered or killed before they get a chance to at least attack your opponent. While the seven mana cost might keep it out of tournament sideboards, I wouldn’t be surprised to see if make the cut on occasion. With all the exile effects in Standard, Mitotic Slime is probably going to have a hard time finding a home there, but over on the casual side, with a zillion ways to sacrifice for fun and profit, I suspect Mitotic Slime will see plenty of action. I’ve nicknamed Overwhelming Stampede “Underwhelming Stampede,” because it strikes me as a strict downgrade of Overrun. Still, many players will find it fun to see how outrageously huge they can make their army with this card. Finally a word about Primal Cocoon – remember, creatures don’t necessarily need to attack or block to be good; put on your thinking cap and think of ways you can use a free +1/+1 counter every turn. I’m thinking of stuff like Triskelion, Spike Weaver, and graft creatures just to start!
Stepping on Green’s Toes? Grade: A
One part of evaluating Green in a new set is whether or not other colors push into Green’s color pie territory, and there are a few offenders. Squadron Hawk is a direct slap in Green’s face for those who remember Howling Wolf, Nesting Wurm, and Skyshroud Sentinel. Those cards never really broke into competitive play, but they were certainly a very “Green” way of generating some card advantage. I’m hoping Squadron Hawk doesn’t necessarily mean that Green won’t get this sort of card again in the future. Elixir of Immortality harkens back to Gaea’s Blessing and other green “shuffle graveyard into your library” effects over the years, and offers that effect to any color. Red and Green have shared the “tracker” mechanic of forcing creatures to deal damage to each other over the years, so it stings just a little for us to lose Master of the Wild Hunt and gain Cyclops Gladiator. Manic Vandal is a perfectly fine card in Red, though it’s hard not to wistfully recall Viridian Shaman and the classic Uktabi Orangutan, especially in light of the upcoming Scars of Mirrodin set.
On the other hand, Green is getting some potent tools it normally doesn’t get in its color pie, starting with the surprising Hornet Sting. While Hornet Sting isn’t going to impact Constructed tournaments much at all (which is why I didn’t list it as a “clever” card), it’s a pleasant surprise to see nonetheless. On the twitter feed someone from Wizards mentioned that comparing Lightning Bolt and Hornet Sting is a great way of teaching the color pie to new players, and I heartily agree.
Then we have Brittle Effigy, Triskelion, and Mystifying Maze, which offer any colors some creature-control options. I can’t help but make these honorary Green cards, because each of the other colors have more efficient methods for handling creatures, while Green really has none once Master of the Wild Hunt rotates. Green is the color most likely to ramp up to big mana, making it easy to fit these sorts of cards into your deck. Now you don’t necessarily have to push your base Green deck into a color strictly in order to deal with creatures, and that’s pretty amazing.
Finally, we have Crystal Ball and Temple Bell, which offer blue card selection and card drawing to any color, and I can certainly see some Green deckbuilders enjoying having these options.
So What’s the State of M11 Green? Final Grade: B+
Averaging all the grades with nothing weighted, this is what I get. Considering this is a Core Set, and supposed to be an introduction to Magic, I can’t expect to find unusually good card-advantage or clever cards for Green, so this grade is about as good as we could get. I’m thrilled with the cards Green got from Magic 2011, and hope that many new players will get hooked on Green goodness in the coming year! So what do you think of Magic 2011 Green?
That’s it for this week! I’m looking forward to finally having the chance to go to Richmond Comix for Friday Night Magic, I’m not sure yet whether I’ll be taking up some wacky and weird Standard deck utilizing a few new M11 cards, or whether I’ll go for some M11 draft. What I do know, is that I’m looking forward to playing some EDH, and finally unveiling my brand new Tsabo Tavoc deck. If you’re in the area, hope to see you up there, and for the rest of you—I’ll catch you next week!
Take care…
Bennie
starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com
New to EDH? Be sure to check out my EDH Primer, part 1, part 2, and part 3.
My current EDH decks:
Phelddagrif (carrots & sticks)
Tsabo Tavoc (red & black nastiness)
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (more legends than you can shake a stick at)
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade (brain-eating zombies, Commander)