Exodus, SS&B: Green, the Forgotton Color

Exodus - Signed, Sealed & Broken Part 5 Green, The Forgotten Color

A green spell falls in the forest, but no one plays that color anyway, does the deck still have to be registered? Probably, people at WotC are sticklers for that sort of thing. But green has been surviving on the basis of Gaia's Blessing, Wall of Blossoms, Uktabi Orangatang, Querion Ranger and Birds of Paradise. Of those, three are in the Mirage block, which means they leave after Urza's Legacy. And Birds of Paradise is an overpowered creature that may not survive into 6th edition. Sylvan Library definitely won't. Many of these cards are actually out of green's character. The two decks are Survival of the Fittest and Jackelope Herd (well sort of, its really Pandemonium). Here's what Green got from Exodus:

Avenging Druid, 2G, 1/3, If it damages opponent, reveal cards from library for a land, play it and put the other cards into the graveyard. Strong This is an Ophidian for green. It's also out of character - sure, green gets extra land, but since when does it get saboteurs? Note that it doesn't say basic land, either. A counter deck could sit behind Avenging Druid even better then Ophidian, especially with Sylvan Library and Gaia's Blessing to help out. This will become one of staple cards that get people to splash green in their decks.

Bequeathal, G, Enchant Creature, When enchanted creature leaves play, draw 2 cards. Strong Creates a 'designated dyer,' and unlike earlier attempts like Casting of Bones there aren't any Swords messing up the effect, plus they finally got cheap enough to be reasonable. This goes on any sacable creature, like Mogg Fanatic, works great with Recurring Nightmare and Equilibrium, and enchants the creature. Winds of Rath and Rootwater Matriarch are becoming viable effects, possibly together. This card seems blue to me, and that's a good thing.

Cartographer, 2G, 2/2, Regrow a land when it comes into play. Strong Great when discarding lands, when losing lands and when sacrificing lands. A solid creature besides, too. With all the ways for green to put land into play, a W/G deck can use not only Armageddon but can use the new Pegasus Stampede and Reaping the Rewards, along with Constant Mists. A U/G deck can get to Whisper (or SuperWhisper, meaning Wall of Blossoms/Equilibrium) really fast. And there's always Quicksand and Wasteland to reclaim.

Crashing Boars, 3GG, 4/4, If Crashing Boars attacks, defending player chooses an untapped creature he or she controls. That creature blocks Crashing Boars if able. Weak These kinds of effects make drafts interesting (quick, tap that guy before he has to [gasp!] block), but that doesn't mean a 4/4 for 5 is playable, and it being green makes it even worse, because it should cost even less in green.

Elven Palisade, G, Enchantment, Sac a forest: Target attacking creature gets -3/-0 until end of turn. Weak But not worthless, which is what most people think. A green deck may get a chance to block, and normally ends up with lots of extra land. Still, Constant Mists is a lot better.

Elfish Berserker, G, 1/1, +1/+1 for each creature blocking it. Weak This is green we're talking about! Elves and Birds and Querion Rangers are all better than this.

Jackalope Herd, 3G, 4/5, If you cast a spell, return Jackalope to owner's hand. Strong Can you say Pandemonium? Together with Stampeding Wilderbeasts, these two keep the damage coming. The following is a Vineyard/Pandemonium creation:

The deck either gets Pandemonium and wins, or a Vineyard combo going and wins. Outside of Pandemonium, this card is an Ernam with a very serious drawback, but it can win by itself. Also can work well with opponent's combos, or with Equilibrium.

Keeper of the Beasts, GG, 1\2, GT: Put a 2/2 green creature token into play if opponent has more creatures. Average Meaning that your opponent has at least 2 of them. But a green deck behind on creatures is almost no green deck at all. If this card was an enchantment I'd like it, but being a creature itself weakens it greatly.

Manabond, G, Enchantment, During your discard phase, you can play all your lands but then have to discard your hand. Weak This card has almost no uses within green, unless you need to empty your hand quickly. One thing it is good for is with Necropotence and Necrologia. Even so, I never liked Fastbond that much: You have to draw land, something to do, and Fastbond early, or it's useless. Not a good bet.

Mirri, Cat Warrior, 1GG, 2/2 First Strike, Forestwalk, Doesn't Tap to Attack, Legend. Strong Three mana for a 2/2, but what a 2/2! First Strike, forestwalk and doesn't tap to attack. This is one of the best creatures in magic to enchant right now, Hero's Resolve being the most obvious choice but Briar Shield even looks good. And you thought the storyline was ruining the game!

Oath of Druids, 1G, Enchantment, During each player's upkeep if that player has less creatures, he can reveal from his library till he finds one, and put it in hand. Average Not a bad effect. It can be used normally, or to search for a deck's only creature and reshuffle every turn. If you have no creatures and a few blessings, this is nice. But if you do play creatures, this card is going to be tough to keep from backfiring.

Plated Rootwalla, 4G, 3/3, 1G: +3/+3 until EOT, once a turn. Weak A 5-mana creature, at most 6/6. 'Nuff said.

Predatory Hunger, G, Enchantment, Whenever opponent casts a creature spell, creature gets a +1/+1 counter. Weak Requires two creatures to be cast by opponent before this is worth it. Not that likely.

Pygmy Troll, 1G, 1/1, +1/+1 for each creature blocking it, G: Regenerate. Weak River Boa is better, and isn't used much lately.

Rabid Wolverines, 3GG, 4/4, Gets +1/+1 per blocker Weak Again, 5 mana for a creature that doesn't do that much.

Reclaim, G, Put target card from your graveyard on top of your library. Strong For only one mana, you get a weakened Regrowth as an instant. Good with any card economy card. (In Type I: Have you ancestraled lately?) Good with Time Warp recursion, with Wood Sage and similar effects. The pure ability to recurse any card cheaply makes this a card to watch carefully.

Resuscitate, 1G, Instant, All your creatures gain "1: Regenerate" until end of turn. Weak Three to save one creature, Four mana to save 2, doesn't stop Perish or a lot of problems. And can't be cast except in response to killing or during the attack phase, really. Close, though, at G I'd play it.

Rootwater Alligator, 3G, 3/2, Sacrifice a Forest: Regenerate. Weak A 4-mana creature that can't beat Knights isn't worth it. Yawn. This is what keeps green so lousy: so many large creatures that don't do enough interesting things.

Skyshroud Elite, G, 1/1, +1/+2 if opponent controls a nonbasic land. Average In the matches you need that 2/3 the most, you're facing Sligh or Suicide Black, and while it might be active it probably won't be. Oh, well. Really neat against control, though.

Skyshroud Warbeast, 1G, */* Trample, * = # of nonbasic lands your opponent controls Average Sometimes its worthless, and Armageddon kills it. I really miss the */*+1 structure of Llurgoyf and Gaia's Avenger. But when it works, it works. Problem is, a green deck that starts these types of cards will be demolished by monocolor decks.

Song of Serenity, 1G, Enchantment, Creatures with any enchantments on them cannot attack or block. Average Licid power! But seriously, you could combine this with the bouncable enchantments, and the cantrip ones. Frog Tongue your opponent's creature into oblivion! Draw a card for Verduan Enchantress, and laugh evilly. Put Shackles on another, draw and laugh again. Put Unstable Mutation on them and watch them die. Give them Conviction. Have lots of fun with those Licids, then rearrange for Winds of Rath during his discard phase, untap and devastate. These types of decks always seem to fizzle, and die against creatureless ones, but you can't win them all.

Spike Hatcher, 6G, 6 level spike, 1+Remove a spike: Regenerate. Weak A 7-mana 6/6 regenerator. Give it up, we've learned a lot since Unlimited.

Spike Rogue, 1GG, 2 level spike, can take them back. Weak This one's fun, I'll give them that. But compared to Spike Feeder, I'll pass.

Spike Weaver, 2GG, 3 level spike, 1+Remove: Fog. Strong This is a really good ability. Not only can you stall creatures for three turns, you can use Equilibrium to keep it up forever, or put other +1/+1 counters on it, or both. This card is a 4-mana 3/3 that can win a whole game by itself. Wow!

Survival of the Fittest, 1G, Enchantment, G+Discard a creature card: Search your library for a creature card, reveal that card to all players and put it in your hand. Shuffle your library afterwards. Amazing in Extended, because there happens to be a creature with the text 'if Krovikan Horror is directly below a creature, you can put it into your hand' each turn. The moment you get Survival, get and discard all four Horrors, then get whatever creatures you want for life. Abuse Ashen Ghoul. Abuse whatever creature you want. Then there's Oath of Ghouls in Type II, and Living Death. Imagine this with Living Death: For a green mana each, you can systematically place all your creatures into your graveyard. Suppose you play:

This is a Godzilla variant, where you use Survival of the Fittest to insure Survival of the Fattest. At any rate, it lets you use your creature cards effectively. With red you can abuse Shard Phoenix. Or you can just get Tradewind Rider and Wall of Blossoms.

Wood Elves, 2G, When it comes into play thaw for a forest. Average A good effect, giving you a 1/1 and a land for 3 mana, and a good Equilibrium creature. Isn't technology wonderful?

On that note, the colored section of Exodus draws to a close. Green did OK, actually, especially with Survival of the Fittest, Reclaim and Avenging Druid. Also, a lot of new strategies combine well with Wall of Blossoms, Gaia's Blessing and the other 'normal' green cards. Also, the new speed of Type II works in green's favor due to its fast mana. In the conclusion, I'll address Artifacts and the (very bad) land in Exodus.