It's week four and I am still going strong.

As a quick recap of Planar Chaos so far:

Lands suck.

Multicolored is alright, spotlighted by Vindicate on clawed feet and a Closer that the Yankees would love to throw millions of dollars at.

Black is well underway to becoming the dominant single color that it used to be.

Blue could possibly be better than before with the addition of its own Phyrexian Arena, discard, and creature removal, and dare I say Mono-Blue Control?

Then we have Green.

Traditionally, I have had some pretty rough things to say about Green. Those of you who are familiar with my writings can testify to this.

However, Planar Chaos throws a monkey wrench into my work. See, I always felt that Green is terrible, and Wizards does it on purpose. It can not deal with creatures, it can’t replace used cards, it has mana acceleration, and by the time you are accelerated, you don’t have a hand to cast anything with your newly acquired mana!

Yes! I have Autumn Willow! I have Kavu Titan! I have Wild Mongrel! The problem is that all of these really good creatures are scarce and far between. Unlike the other colors who had their creature identities reprinted in the basic sets, Green had its ripped away for how many sets?

Face it, Thorn Elemental does not personify Green. Finally in 9th Edition, Green got its face back in Force of Nature. That is what Green is. Powerful creatures with trample that are cost efficient and easy to get out of your hand.

Which leads me back to why I hate Green.

Forest, Birds of Paradise. Go.
Forest, Rampant Growth (get Forest), Llanowar Elves. Go.
Forest, Force of Nature. Go.
Forest, attack with Force of Nature, Giant Growth it, Condemn it. (Crap, I have no cards in hand, no beatstick in play, can’t draw cards, can’t defend myself, might as well end my turn) Go.

Enter Planar Chaos, and the new quality of Green… and all it took was to steal an ability from Blue to make it all better: Drawing cards.

Citanul Woodreaders Common 1/4 Creature — Human Druid 2G
Kicker <2><G> (You may pay an additional <2><G> as you play this spell.)
When Citanul Woodreaders comes into play, if the kicker cost was paid, draw two cards.

A different card feel completely. Normal Green creatures are higher power than toughness. Green critters don’t like to stand by and block, yet we have a volunteer here. Add in the fact that come late game you can draw two cards off this guy, and you have a damn good Limited creature.

Grade: A Very good Limited card. Stop.

Deadwood Treefolk Uncommon 3/6 Creature — Treefolk 5G
Vanishing 3 (This permanent comes into play with three time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. When the last is removed, sacrifice it.)
When Deadwood Treefolk comes into play or leaves play, return another target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

Yes, the creature costs a ton to cast, however, remember that bringing useful cards from your grave to your hand is just as good, and sometimes better, than drawing a random card from your library. With this creature, when he enters play, you retrieve a lost creature, and when he finally departs, you get another one back.

As I have tried to instruct newer players in the past, always look at a card as if you're paying cash for something. You are being asked to pay $6.00 for a 3/6 creature and two variable cards from your graveyard. The creature could be Birds of Paradise, Tindermare, Groundbreaker, Ana Battlemage, etc. On top of this, a second Deadwood Treefolk begins what I love in Magic, card recursion, as when the second one enters play, you retrieve the first one, cast it, and get an extra card. The second one dies, and you get a new card from your grave. Finally, when the first one passes away again, you get the second Treefolk back and continue the madness.

Lastly, when grading this card, remember that it is an uncommon, and getting two of these in a Draft is very feasible. The 6 toughness makes it hard to kill, and can easily become a disgusting engine for your 40 card Limited deck.

Grade: A Way good Limited card.

Evolution Charm Common Instant 1G
Choose one - Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library, or return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand, or target creature gains flying until end of turn.

Yay! Another charm. I am beginning to love these things. This one has two good abilities for instant speed, and another that allows you to chump block an Akroma for a turn.

The first two have a common ability that replaces this charm with another, potentially more useful card. Kind of like Transmute, only better since it is an instant. This instant will either fetch a basic land from your library or a dead creature from your graveyard. This spell is destined to be played a ton in Limited, thus making people start saying, “At the end of your turn…” all over again.

Grade: A Yay for charms.

Fungal Behemoth Rare */* Creature — Fungus 3G
Fungal Behemoth’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on creatures you control.
Suspend X-<X><G><G>. X can’t be 0.
Whenever a time counter is removed from Fungal Behemoth while it’s removed from the game, you may put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.

The cycle of suspense creatures continues. This time around, the guy puts counters on your creatures. This could be a good thing, or it could be a wasted card. Unlike the previous two that we have looked at, this one requires help from friends. The problem with depending on friends is that they are vulnerable to board sweeping spells. When this guy finally resolves, it is possible that he is a 0/0 body, and we all know what happens to a 0/0 body.

Don’t get me wrong. Green enthusiasts everywhere live in a dream world where board sweepers don’t exist, so potentially, you could get three of these floating and start putting three counters a turn on something… say a Birds of Paradise, and that nasty lil’ Vulture of Paradise could start reaming me something fierce.

I’d be more than willing to wager though that those times are few and far between, and you will begin wishing you could draw a card when you remove a counter instead of just doing nothing and making a 0/0 creature.

Grade: C- Limited Potential.

Giant Dustwasp Common 3/3 Creature — Insect 3GG
Flying
Suspend 4-<1><G> (Rather than play this card from your hand, you may pay <1><G> and remove it from the game with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, play it without paying its mana cost. It has haste.)

Here is a classic example of a feisty Limited creature that will find its way into a cardboard box as soon as the tourney is complete.

My choices are that I can pay 2 and get a 3/3 flier at somepoint, or I can over-pay 5 and get that same mediocre flier now. This is why Green creatures should stay on the ground.

Grade: C Limited creature. Blocks Mirri once.

Hunting Wilds Uncommon Sorcery 3G
Kicker <3><G> (You may pay an additional <3><G> as you play this spell.)
Search your library for up to two Forest cards and put them into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
If the kicker cost was paid, untap all Forests put into play this way. They become 3/3 green creatures with haste that are still lands.

Another excellent card. This is what I am talking about. Why Wizards always feels that it must limit Green is beyond me. Notice that the card reads ‘Forest cards’. This means that I can tutor for two Green-X Rav duals and put them into play for 4 mana. Way brilliant. Next, when you have sufficient mana available, for an additional 4 mana, you can untap those two Duals and attack with them as 3/3 creatures for a surprise six damage. Note that the card does not read ‘Until end of turn’, therefore these lands remain 3/3 creatures, so you have to be careful not to get them Bolted into the graveyard.

Finally, as a slight hint, I’d love to see this deck come to life and become a pain in the butt. Remember that the card Coalition Victory was reprinted in Time Spiral. This spell allows for you to tutor for three basic land types, which means that you only need to somehow get your hands on two more. Farseek works well with this one, as by turn three you could possibly have all five land types in play. Now all you need to do is cast your Transguild Courier or Dragon Scion, and follow it up with the ‘V’ and you are all set!

Grade: A+

Jedit Ojanen of Efrava Rare 5/5 Legendary Creature — Cat Warrior 3GGG
Forestwalk
Whenever Jedit Ojanen of Efrava attacks or blocks, put a 2/2 green Cat Warrior creature token with forestwalk into play.

This is the best friend of the Yavimaya Dryad. The Dryad ensures that your opponent controls a Forest, and this guy goes to work beating heads, recruiting fellows along the way, and chewing bubble gum.

I love the sound of beatings in the morning.

Grade: A

Kavu Predator Uncommon 2/2 Creature — Kavu 1G
Trample
Whenever an opponent gains life, put that many +1/+1 counters on Kavu Predator.

POTENTIAL.

These days, people have figured out that gaining life is a good way to ensure your success in the game that you are playing. Decks that focus on the recursion of Martyr of Sands do not want to see this guy. Especially since Green now has access to creatures in its own graveyard now, and can get him back over and over. Each time your opponent sacrifices that Martyr, they may gain 21 life, but this critter gets 21 counters too, and remember that the lil’ 2/2 body has trample too.

This is a good sideboard card against said deck type.

Grade: B- Only because it is a situational card.

Life and Limb Rare Enchantment 3G
All Forests and all Saprolings are 1/1 green Saproling creatures and Forest lands in addition to their other types.

Uh… yea, ok. I will hold my tongue for a few moments. Keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming Thallid that makes me drool thinking about this.

Grade: A See a trend yet?

Magus of the Library Rare 1/1 Creature — Human Wizard GG
<T>: Add <1> to your mana pool.
<T> : Draw a card. Play this ability only if you have exactly seven cards in hand.

Let's see, I know it is supposed to be Library of Alexandria. I know that the Library is the tenth card of the Power Nine. I know this. But the Library was not able to be killed by a gust of air.

With such a frail body, I don’t know how good he will be. Not to mention that under normal situations, a Green deck with seven cards in hand is either beginning turn one, or is terribly mana plugged. In the latter case things are not going well. In the case where you intentionally hold back, it would lead me to believe that you are playing a control oriented deck, and Green traditionally shies away from that style deck.

I need to hold my breath on this one, as I am not sure what to make of it. My First Impression instinct tells me I’d like to see something better in that rare spot in my pack. However, that doesn’t mean it is bad either.

Grade: C+ To be safe. If it turns out to be really good, I’ll just claim to have typo-ed and it should have been a B+ instead.

Mire Boa Common 2/1 Creature — Snake 1G
Swampwalk
<G>: Regenerate Mire Boa.

River Boa owned in its time. Should we anticipate Black becoming so strong that everyone is playing a Swamp? If so, doesn’t Black give –X/-X counters or force a sacrifice anyways?

Although, in Limited play, a 2/1 regenerating creature for 2 is pretty good.

Grade: B

Pouncing Wurm Uncommon 3/3 Creature — Wurm 3G
Kicker <2><G> (You may pay an additional <2><G> as you play this spell.)
If the kicker cost was paid, Pouncing Wurm comes into play with three +1/+1 counters on it and with haste.

Another Big Wurm that will see Limited action and nothing more. Not very exciting, and 100% up Green’s alley. Exactly what Green is known for.

Grade: C …for ‘Eh’.

Psychotrope Thallid Uncommon 1/1 Creature — Fungus 2G
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Psychotrope Thallid.
Remove three spore counters from Psychotrope Thallid: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play.
<1>, Sacrifice a Saproling: Draw a card.

Remember that Life and Limb card above? Here is where it all gets gross. All of your Forests are now Saprolings, and your Saprolings are Forests. Cards like Summer Bloom can help you get numerous Forests into play, not for attacking, but for sacrificing to this fellow, in order to draw a card.

Pairing the Blue enchantment Paradox Haze (You gain an additional Upkeep Phase) or two makes your Thallids generate a saproling each turn, which in turn gets you a card for 1 each turn. Not a bad three card combo for a card drawing engine.

Grade: B+ Too bad there is so much creature hate in both Constructed and Limited.

Reflex Sliver Common 2/2 Creature — Sliver 3G
All Slivers have haste.

I am so glad that all Slivers have haste now. *snore*

Grade: C

Sophic Centaur Uncommon 1/1 Creature — Centaur Spellshaper 3G
<2><G><G>, <T>, Discard a card: You gain 2 life for each card in your hand.

Well, if you are pairing this card with Magus of the Library, you could be gaining 14 life a turn. That is not so bad, until your opponent plays a Kavu Predator, then you might begin to have some issues.

Gerrard’s Wisdom every turn makes most of the Black "sacrifice life to do stuff" more feasible. So perhaps Black Control decks can invite Green in and can use this card draw and life gain engine to their advantage.

Grade: B

Timbermare Rare 5/5 Creature — Elemental 3G
Haste
Echo <5><G> (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this came under your control since the beginning of your last upkeep, sacrifice it unless you pay its echo cost.)
When Timbermare comes into play, tap all other creatures.

There is my guy Thundermare… well not so much. Why did Thundermare need Echo? Ah, so he can go to the graveyard and you can re-cast him again.

Brilliant. This guy is more closely related to Ball Lightning then he is Thundermare in my opinion, as I can see him being flung at someone on turn four, and not being able to have the Echo paid for, so he dies.

Grade: B+ Turn three Groundbreaker, turn four Timbermare… bringing the love early. With a Bird or Elf first turn, this could be second and third turns. Yikes.

Uktabi Drake Common 2/1 Creature — Drake G
Flying, haste
Echo <1><G><G> (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this came under your control since the beginning of your last upkeep, sacrifice it unless you pay its echo cost.)

Yea, I don’t understand this guy. Great, so I can make a 2/1 flying haste creature on the first turn. Then he dies, since I can't afford his Echo. Is this supposed to be the Green Shock?

Someone get back to me on this one, as I can only possibly see it being a Limited card at best.

Grade: C- Gogo bad Green Fliers.

Utopia Vow Common Enchantment — Aura 1G
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can’t attack or block.
Enchanted creature has “<T>: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.”

Green creature removal at its finest. Akroma is a big fat Birds of Paradise now.

Enjoy.

Grade: C

Vitaspore Thallid Common 1/1 Creature — Fungus 1G
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Vitaspore Thallid.
Remove three spore counters from Vitaspore Thallid: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play.
Sacrifice a Saproling: Target creature gains haste until end of turn.

Umm.. So Green gets haste from Red this set. Does a Thallid really need haste?

Grade: D

Wild Pair Rare Enchantment 4GG
Whenever a creature comes into play, if you played it from your hand, you may search your library for a creature card with the same total power and toughness and put it into play. If you do, shuffle your library.

Someone out there is going to figure this one out and hurt someone else with it.

Think about it. Once I get this thing in play, I can cast a Timbermare, then search for a second Timbermare…. Err.

Ok, for real, someone can cast a Groundbreaker and then put another in play. Imagine if Pandemonium is sitting in play next to it. The guy takes 12 damage in the head, then gets two Balls sent his way for the kill shot.

Grade: A So I cast my Teferi, 3+4 = 7, so I tutor for a Groundbreaker and attack for six. I play my White Akroma, tutor for my Red Akroma… and the world explodes in a cataclysmic detonation that only Doc Brown could explain.

Essence Warden Common 1/1 Creature — Elf Shaman G
Whenever another creature comes into play, you gain 1 life.

Aww, how cute. Now I can have eight Soul Wardens in my deck. Hey, if I have Wild Pair in play, and I cast an Essence Warden, I can tutor for my Soul Warden, and then gain one life. Quick! Put this one down as a combo submitted by yours truly!

Grade: C

Fa'adiyah Seer Common 1/1 Creature — Human Shaman 1G
<T>: Draw a card and reveal it. If it isn’t a land card, discard it

I thought Sinbad sucked back in Arabian Nights. He was kinda funny in the cartoon, or was that his blue genie friend, what was his name? Mahamotti or something like that. Anyways, Fa’ad la la laa sucks too. Unless you'r playing a Life and Limb deck…hrm.

Grade: D

Gaea's Anthem Rare Enchantment 1GG
Creatures you control get +1/+1.

There it is, the third piece to my Life and Limb combo deck. Now, I’ll toss out Gaea’s Anthem and Earth Surge, and swing for the fences!

Grade: B+

Groundbreaker Rare 6/1 Creature — Elemental GGG
Trample, haste
At end of turn, sacrifice Groundbreaker.

Yea buddy! Yea buddy!

You can take my Ball Lightning, and you can take my Blistering Firecat, but I still have some left over hate for those who are careless and tap out…

Grade: A+

Harmonize Uncommon Sorcery 2GG
Draw three cards.

Do I have to say anything beyond… this is more efficient than Blue’s card drawing spells now? Concentrate… Green?

That’s it, I am offended.

Grade: A Do they get Compulsion too?

Healing Leaves Common Instant G
Choose one - Target player gains 3 life, or prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn.

Ah, they can have Healing Salve… White never wanted it anyways.

Grade: D

Ana Battlemage Uncommon 2/2 Creature — Human Wizard 2G
Kicker <2><U> and/or <1><B>
When Ana Battlemage comes into play, if the <2><U> kicker cost was paid, target player discards three cards.
When Ana Battlemage comes into play, if the <1><B> kicker cost was paid, tap target untapped creature and that creature deals damage equal to its power to its controller.

The Battlemages always were an interesting concept to me. However, I always found that there was never a reason to double kicker the cards, as only one of those abilities were ever useful.

Enter Ana Battlemage. A 2/2 body for 3 is not very efficient, and neither is a 2/2 body for 8, however for that eight mana, you get a 2/2 body, a three card discard, and force a creature to attack its controller. Don’t forget that that creature is now tapped and can’t block either. Being that the creature is Green, it can make both Akromas turn around and button hook their controller.

Grade: A  I like it.

Hedge Troll Uncommon 2/2 Creature — Troll Cleric 2G
Hedge Troll gets +1/+1 as long as you control a Plains.
<W>: Regenerate Hedge Troll.

This guy is going to terrorize someone.

I had a dream the other night. I went to bed after staying up late, maybe a little too late. I was working on a Green-White Aggro-Control deck, in which I wanted to play a Savannah Lion or so, and play a little up-tempo to begin. I wanted to lure them into over extending, and then follow it up with a Wrath or Magus of the Disk, and then drop a few Watchwolves and Loxodon Heirarchs and pillage them while they were exhausted. Good stuff.

In that dream I dreamed that my deck was Red and Black and I was using Sedge Troll and kicking some butt. While I am not trying to pat myself on the back too hard, I would like to thank Wizards personally for making my dreams come true.

Grade: A Helluva good creature, and only an uncommon.

Keen Sense Uncommon Enchantment — Aura G
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature deals damage to an opponent, you may draw a card.

What?! The Blue version costs 3! So you are saying that Flash is worth 2 mana? Sure it is.

At any rate, a good card to go in the ole’ Forestwalking Kitty deck I was talking about earlier…

Grade: B-

Seal of Primordium Common Enchantment 1G
Sacrifice Seal of Primordium: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.

Seals are really good for one reason. Stall. Who is going to play a bomb Artifact or Enchantment if there is a Seal just sitting there?

Grade: B

Alright fellas, time to take a look at the overall scores for Green. I have a feeling that Green will be ranking very high in this set. Let's take a look.

A’s – 11 B’s – 8
C’s – 8 D’s – 3
F’s – 0

Before I give you the final score for Green, I’d like to take this moment of time, and this form of medium I have to complain a bit about mathematics. How is it possible that Green has 11 A’s, and only 3 D’s, and yet it averages out to…

2.90… a freaking C+! How is that possible? Yea, yea. Math doesn’t lie.. I can look at my calculator and see plain as day that 11*4 = 44, and 8*3=24, and 8*2=16, and 3*1=3. Then I can see that 44+24+16+3=87. I can see all of that. Then I can see that there are 30 Green cards; thus 87/30=2.9. But it is not right.

I’m overruling my own dog gone system! For the first time, in my opinion, Green kicks total ass in a set, so I will reward it with a B+. No way three D’s out-weigh 11 A’s. Not in a system that I govern.

At any rate, I think Green finally got up off the mat and shook its head. It has a lot of horsepower in Timbermare, Groundbreaker, and Hedge Troll, and the card drawing ability makes a Green White Aggro deck a great option.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to an old man ramble on about his rival's cards. Tune in next time as we sit in with the Red team of cards and analyze what Red is splitting hairs about.

I know, cheap, but I will take it.

cpn

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
Find other articles by this author here.
Find other articles from this series here.

[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ] [ Next ]

Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.