US:CD 8. (Are you there?)

Carpe Diem 8 In Defense of Green

I'm finding that the format where you talk about each and every card is getting tiresome for a standalone set, and that I don't have much to say about a lot of them, so I'll just do a general discussion format instead from this point in. And before I go any further, I want to tackle one of the game's grand illusions:

"Green has been devastated by the last 5 expansions. As of now, Green is just a support color."

Everyone seems to be saying it, too. And I disagree. Sure, green always seems to get a lot of overpriced drek, and utility spells costed for limited. But as anyone who's ever ripped open a box of Homelands to get Serrated Arrows (and Steve OMS made Neutral Ground do this the night before PT1, I think) knows that the bulk of a color's cards don't matter at all. It's the playable ones that do. If you look at what's out there, you'll see that Green is arguably the strongest of the five colors right now.

First, some history. Stupid Green was the deck to play at nationals, and wasn't the deck for worlds only because half the Europeans were running Draw-Go. Instead, Survival decks dominated Worlds (with Sligh, which it crushes). 5CG also had its days of dominance. Two of the four tier 1 Rath Cycle decks, Awakening and Living Death (Sligh and Counterpheonix being the other 2) play green, one of them has green as its main color. Green hasn't been historically weaker than the other colors. It was used in ProsperBloom in Mirage/Visions; only the banning of Squandered Resources took it out of the cycle.

Now, the fundamentals. Green is the best color because it has the best mana sources and the best cantrip creature (Wall of Blossoms), its mana sources count as creatures, and consistent mana is the key to Magic. Urza's Saga only reinforces this. None of the cards from the Mirage cycle that took advantage of cards being creatures saw play. Living Death and Tradewind Rider are still around. Wall of Roots and Querion Ranger may be gone, but green still has Earthcraft (which is suddenly very, very dangerous), Llanowar Elves, Wall of Blossoms, Birds of Paradise. It gained Fertile Ground, which will be a good card if Raze isn't used, Gaia's Cradle and Priest of Titania. People still don't understand the full power of Hermit Druid. Its mana can go nuts.

While green stayed about even for mana production, land took a big hit. The loss of Gemstone Mine and Undiscovered Paradise (and Tithe, which helped Mox Diamond) pulled the rug out from under 3+ color decks. Once again, you'll be forced to turn to green's five color sources. Sources that can attack. Sources that work well with Winter Orb and Armageddon, which will be keys to the new environment. Sources that work well with Tradewind Rider, the best creature in Type II, which is even better now because of Sunder.

Survival of the Fittest grants green huge flexibility, smoothing out the mana draws and making a deck much more consistent, insuring that the key creature almost always hits the table, in addition to graveyard stacking and shuffling. Sylvan Library is still a huge card, and combinations in a huge way with Abundance. Fecundity turns the card economy war in a green deck's favor. Green gets good beef: Argothian Wurm, Endless Wurm, Child of Gaia, Citanul Centaurs. Greater Good is dangerous: "in response to Living Death…" Greener Pastures, Wild Dogs.

Green isn't a support color; it's a color that others support! You think Blue isn't a support color in Tradewind decks? Black in Nightmare decks? White in ErnhamGeddon-like decks? All other colors in the only remaining 5-color mana base?

Green's new enchantment removal is, for the first time, maindeckable. Verdigris is much criticized as artifact removal, but green has had only one better card so far (Crumble), and Rath Cycle nightmare decks had to choose to either splash white for Disenchant or use Verdigris if they want to deal with Portcullis. Green isn't supposed to remove creatures; that's what support colors are for.

So everyone who's picking on green, and that includes all those at R&D who think green is a support color, is ordered to stop at once. If you don't, you'll have to answer to me. I'll tell you what's weak: Red. Red got hosed by Urza's Saga, big time, and for the most part is going to exist only in Counterpheonix and Sligh. Red is a support color, even if it's supporting Cursed Scroll, and has never been more hoseable.

Go green!

"Turbo"Zvi Mowshowitz Team Legion zvi@sprintmail.com