Ikoria: Lair Of Behemoths Set Review: Green

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this week is set review week! We’ve already covered white, blue, black, and red, so today, it’s time to break down the green cards of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.

Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate

Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate is a really exciting new planeswalker with three different card advantage abilities that somehow all come together. Her passive is a Vizier of the Menagerie. Her +1 is that of Garruk, Primal Hunter (but with the added power and flexibility of giving each token your choice of three keywords). Finally, she doesn’t even have a proper ultimate, but rather a -2 ability that gives you powerful selection on top of the extra card and mana saved from not needing to actually cast it. It’s not exactly Wild Pair, but there are some similarities.

Strengths: Vivien is a fantastic source of card advantage. It’s almost as if she gets to use two abilities a turn, since every time you see a creature on top, it’s like she “drew a card” if you decide to cast it. What’s more, you can shuffle stuff you don’t want away, whether by Fabled Passage or even her own -2 ability.

Weaknesses: With only three loyalty, she’s quite fragile (especially for a planeswalker that expensive). Costing five means steep competition, as Nissa, Who Shakes the World is also a green five-cost planeswalker still legal, to say nothing of Cavalier of Thorns. She also really needs you to be playing a lot of creatures to turn her into the all-star she’s capable of being. Finally, she doesn’t have a true ultimate, unlike most planeswalkers.

Opportunity: Use of Vivien in decks with situational creatures can really make her -2 ability that much stronger. Playing lots of creatures, as well as some extra shuffle effects will help build on her incredible passive. Finally, if you can take advantage of knowing the top card of your deck, you might be able to get a lot of extra value out of her.

Risen Reef can let you cast Vivien ahead of schedule, and it’s frequently rolling with a lot of creatures that really make Vivien’s card draw abilities very strong. Plus, on top of everything else, it’s pretty easy to time things with Risen Reef and Vivien. If you play an Elemental deck, your top card is generally going to be either a creature or a land, at least most of the time. When it’s a creature, you can just cast it. When it’s a land, that makes it the perfect time to cast Risen Reef (or an Elemental, after you’ve already got one). We get an extra land drop out of it, plus we’ve got a fresh look at the top, which could now be a creature to follow up our Risen Reef.

Genesis Ultimatum seems super-sweet. The bar is pretty high for expensive cards, as each of those Ultimatums could be a Hydroid Krasis or an Agent of Treachery. Still, getting to make several big plays that affect the battlefield while also drawing five cards? Super into it.

I do think the first Agent of Treachery goes a long way, though. It might sound silly, but it’s not going to be that rare to -2 Vivien and then play a Hydroid Krasis for eight mana. Agent of Treachery is a pretty good card, anyway, and having that extra option for Vivien is pretty appealing (plus, of course, just how much card draw we have gives us a lot of looks for it and just how fantastic of a play it is during the resolution of Genesis Ultimatum).

Threats: With a shortage of interaction, such an approach might be just trying to goldfish race a little too often for such a medium-slow deck. I think this list also does a great job of showcasing just how glutted on fives you can get with green decks. Any deck with this kind of a problem is going to have an above-average amount of vulnerability to flash decks.

Vivien can also just be used as part of a more “normal” gameplan, as long as there are a lot of creatures involved. For instance:

Another really interesting way to reset the top of your library is to use her in conjunction with Fiend Artisan.

Fiend Artisan looks great to me. Even without the activated ability, we’re still talking about a +1/+1 bonus over Boneyard Wurm. Once you add in the Birthing Pod action, now we’re really getting somewhere.

Like Murderous Rider, Fiend Artisan and Vivien aren’t especially good at playing Gemrazer, but I think it’s still a great card and it looks quite good in the format.

Gemrazer

While a 4/4 reach, trample four-drop isn’t the worst floor ever, we’re obviously all about the mutate ability here. Yeah, it’s three mana and sorcery speed, but you’re also getting a +3/+3 or +4/+2 stat boost to your Whisper Squad or Gilded Goose, and with “haste.”

Strengths: Gemrazer is cost-efficient, aggressive, and lines up well in a format so heavily populated by Fires of Invention, Witch’s Oven, and various white enchantments, like Banishing Light.

Aside from having lots of excellent targets right now, we’re still talking about a “backup” option that’s frequently better than spending two mana to draw a card.

Just to be clear, Wilt is a fine role-player. Naturalize has seen plenty of spotlight and this version is clearly an improvement. I don’t think this is an upgrade that suddenly revolutionizes the game or anything, but I think Wilt will see play in every format.

Likewise, Barrier Breach is also a reasonable option. I think the lack of flexibility and higher cost will lead to it seeing far less play, but in the right spots, for the right opponents, it’s a fantastic option (particularly for exiling Gods).

Weaknesses: Gemrazer is quite mediocre if we’re not fairly reliably going to have a passable target to mutate it with. Yeah, you can mutate it with the Obosh or Jegantha out of your sideboard if you want, but mutating it with big creatures like that doesn’t give us nearly as many extra stat points.

Opportunity: It can just be used straight-up, as above, but it can also be pushed a bit, on account of just being an undercosted mutate creature. If we combine it with one- or two-cost creatures that get one or more +1/+1 counters, we might be able to really pressure people early.

There isn’t exactly Winding Constrictor / Hardened Scales levels of support, but there could be something to a green monsters deck with a light +1/+1 counter sub-theme.

While I would play Vivien in here, I think Umori looks great and don’t want to pass it up without an extremely good reason (aka another companion).

Migratory Greathorn doesn’t look quite as strong as Gemrazer, particularly if we’re already mono-green and not really getting that much out of the potential fixing it could offer.

Still, it’s a solid threat and it can be combined with Gemrazer for extra artifact and enchantment destruction. Plus, it’s nice having multiple three-cost mutate cards anyway when we’re building with Syr Faren, the Hengehammer.

I’m not sure what the floor is on the minimum number of mutate cards for Essence Symbiote to reliably be “worth it,” but I’d guess it’s more than eight.

The first time you mutate with the Symbiote, it’s good, but I don’t think it’s good enough to pay for all the times you haven’t mutated yet. When we mutate onto it a second time, I think we’re well into profitable territory, but eight mutate cards won’t make that happen often enough to count on.

Auspicious Starrix and Glowstone Recluse make appearances tomorrow, in the epic gold portion of the set review. Which is actually better between Auspicious Starrix and Illuna, Apex of Wishes? For now, here’s a list where Auspicious Starrix gets the nod on account of being able to target Stonecoil Serpent.

Threats: The more dedicated to mutate we are, the more predictable and on-rails our strategy becomes. Threats include sweepers like Shatter the Sky, aggro fast enough to get us on the back foot (as this deck doesn’t look all that great at playing from behind), and any strategy that can soft-lock creatures (Dirge Bat against this deck could be a real problem).

Mythos of Brokkos

Mythos of Brokkos is kind of a Once and Future, but a little easier to cast straight-up, no exile clause, and only hitting permanents. Once you add the blue and black mana bonus into the mix, we’re talking about a very different type of card. It’s not just that Entomb is a powerful effect.

In the context of immediately preceding a double Regrowth, we’re effectively able to go get any permanent we want out of our deck and put it into our hand, while also getting a permanent out of our graveyard.

Strengths: It’s card advantage, it’s selection, and it helps us find the perfect tool for any given opponent and use that tool more often. It resets the top of our deck for Vivien. It even can be used to find something we’re not getting back with it. If we’ve already got two cards in our graveyard we want, we can just use the library ability to get something saucy, like an Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath.

Weaknesses: Mythos of Brokkos is a little slow and unimpactful to the battlefield. It requires setup in the form of good permanents to get back (and of course is limited to permanents, at least in terms of getting back). Finally, it really does cut off a lot of options for companions.

Opportunity: Sultai Ramp seems like an easy possible home, just straight up. I’m interested in experimenting with some one-ofs to see how much the toolbox angle matters, but that’s not meant to imply this is the only way to do it.

Threats: The addition of Mythos of Brokkos doesn’t really change Sultai’s core strengths or weaknesses. We’re still at risk of getting run over, and we’re still vulnerable to Fires of Invention tempo-ing us out.

It’s just so much worse than Find // Finality, as far two-cost versions go.

Colossification

That we’re getting +20/+20 in stats, but on a tapped creature, kind of means Colossification is a combo card. Most any creature will do, but the combo is a way to untap it (or whatever) and win immediately.

Strengths: +20/+20 is a lot more stats than you’d normally get for seven, heh. With the right synergy cards, we might be able to build a combo deck that hits out of nowhere faster than people are expecting in this format.

Weaknesses: You gotta put a lot of eggs in one basket with this one. A single removal spell could undo everything, and that’s assuming you’ve even got a way to untap your creature (or all kinds of time). As if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also got to actually get the creature through, as Colossification doesn’t get trample or everything.

Opportunity: With how expensive Colossification is already, we’re really gonna want to prioritize ways to win with it that don’t cost much more than a turn.

Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner is a great way to untap a Colossified creature. Untapping doesn’t have to just be some permanent on the battlefield, though. Claim the Firstborn can actually target our own creature, untapping it and giving it haste. Even when we don’t have our +20/+20, we can still make use of Claim with something like Fling to never have to give the creature back.

Fling is especially appealing in this context, as it can also be combined with Colossification for a one-shot kill.

I do wish this deck could actually draw some cards from Kiora, but you can’t have everything, I suppose.

Threats: Instant-speed hard kill, especially black removal, is a real problem. Permission is also potentially not great for us either. Even Aether Gust is a real pain. We’re going to need a better plan for fighting through interaction.

While people have been a little slow to adopt Charge of the Forever-Beast, it’s kind of a green Hero’s Downfall, right?

Yeah, it’s harder to use and all that, but this isn’t a bad option to keep in mind for decks without access to black’s hard kill or white’s exiling.

Ram Through

It’s hard to want Ram Through enough to actually build to it; however, if we were already in the neighborhood, it could be serviceable in the right spots. For instance:

I wouldn’t make it the focus, but I wouldn’t completely rule it out.

Way less interesting than Yidaro, but if Titanoth Rex shows up, there’s a decent chance it’s in a Yidaro deck (maybe with Unpredictable Cyclone?). The other possibility is really valuing the surprise permanent trample, but I just don’t need it yet.

Humble Naturalist

A fine two-drop accelerator, among many. This one is especially good for three-color decks that appreciate the whole “any color” part, yet also feature no planeswalkers. Given how many amazing planeswalkers cost three or five, even decks are my first thought on where to start.

Here, once you cast Gyruda, you frequently just keep going, getting more and more Gyruda triggers whether by casting more copies, copying it, blinking it, whatever. Whenever you find a Spark Double, you actually get way ahead, sidestepping the legend rule. 

If you’ve got a Luminous Broodmoth on the battlefield, one Gyruda might hit another, making another trigger and legend-ruling one. The one that one legend ruled comes back with flying, making another trigger and legend-ruling the other. That one comes back with flying and makes another trigger.

I don’t know if I can handle Migration Path and Humble Naturalist in the same deck. I’m in for trying it, but I’m pretty skeptical. Either one could be good, though. More generally, I think Migration Path is a solid ramp card for decks that want to get to seven. Using it alongside whichever Ultimatum is your jam sounds sweet, and there’s not much green support for dedicated cycling, but if you can make green mana, it’s a great option.

That does it for today, but we’ll be back tomorrow, yes tomorrow, for a Super Saturday Special review of the gold cards of Ikoria. See you then!