Part 1: The Green Paradigm, Mana Acceleration, and the Elf Tribe

Green mages the world over, this is for you.

For those of you who aren't keen on summoning creatures with Green mana for ownage, you might be asking yourself: "What could I possibly learn about Green that I don't already know?"

Maybe you think Green is all about the beatdown. Maybe you think Green can't draw cards. Maybe you think Green isn't the best graveyard color. Maybe you think Green can't control the game. Maybe you think Green can't remove creatures.

Maybe you should read on. Maybe, indeed, you are mistaken.

Within this doctrine shall you find my four Green deck archetypes defined. Following this allegory are Green's five attribute categories. Renowned creatures with profound features capture attention; enrapture your mind, concluding each one with my knowledge enshrined.

The Green Paradigm
Typically for Green decks, there are four basic archetypes to follow: Beatdown, Extreme Beatdown, Combo, and Control. Each archetype is looking for up to five different things from its creatures: Mana Acceleration, Utility, Removal, Beatdown, and the optional Finisher. All of my Green decks follow these rough outlines when selecting creatures:

Green Beatdown
1-drop / 2-drop: Mana Acceleration
1-drop / 2-drop / 3-drop / 4-drop / 5-drop: Beatdown
1-drop / 2-drop / 3-drop: Utility
4-drop / 5-drop: Finisher

Examples: Fires, R/G Beats, U/G Madness

Green beatdown decks can employ Red to remove blockers or Blue for utility enablers. White can provide potent threat density while Black is notably absent.

Green Extreme Beatdown
0-drop / 1-drop: Mana Acceleration
1-drop / 2-drop: Beatdown
0-drop / 1-drop / 2-drop / 3-drop: Utility

Examples: 10-Land Stompy, Frog in a Blender

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/rb19
While it doesn't seem like R&D is very supportive of the Green extreme beatdown archetype, it can work with Blue because of Quirion Dryad and Red because of efficient burn. The flat mana curve Elf tribe shines here but Red decks, especially Goblins, do this best.

Green Combo
1-drop / 2-drop / 3-drop / 4-drop: Mana Acceleration
1-drop / 2-drop / 3-drop / 4-drop: Utility
6-drop+: Finisher

Examples: Enchantress, ElfBall, Tooth and Nail

Green combo decks strive to play an exorbitantly expensive spell or ridiculously large creature. In any case, there is always lots of mana expenditure.

Green Control
1-drop / 2-drop / 3-drop: Mana Acceleration
2-drop / 3-drop / 4-drop / 5-drop: Utility
1-drop / 2-drop / 3-drop / 4-drop / 5-drop / 6-drop: Removal
4-drop / 5-drop / 6-drop: Beatdown
5-drop+: Finisher

Examples: W/G Control, U/G Control, B/G Rock

Green control decks win through slow but steady mana-hungry spells and card advantage. Green control cards are better suited to stopping beatdown and control than combo.

Mana Acceleration
Creatures that provide additional mana score well in Mana Acceleration. Also, bonuses are awarded for color-fixing and preventing mana-screw.

Green is the best color for mana acceleration, the permanent and reusable kind. Short-term mana acceleration involves untapping lands or untapping mana creatures.

Beatdown
Beatdown is how well a creature can reduce your opponent's life total to zero, factoring in resiliency to removal, blockers, and speed. Small creatures like Llanowar Elves can score well here since they fit nicely into beatdown mana curves.

While Green would like to be the best beatdown color, Red sports the best beatdown arsenal because burn can both remove blockers and finish opponents. Ideally, white has the best weenies while Green enjoys the best fatties.

Removal
Removal is how well a creature can destroy or neutralize opposing threats. Most Green removal is aimed at artifacts and enchantments with some land destruction and flyer hate mixed in.

Green suffers from a lack of creature removal outside of creature-oriented mechanics like the Provoke and Brawl abilities. Look to other colors for help, like Red for Contested Cliffs and Black for the scary good Pernicious Deed.

Utility
This catchall category includes tempo, combat tricks, combo potential, excellent blocking, and card advantage. Green utility usually yields relatively small amounts of +1/+1 pumps, untaps, life, lands, cards, tokens, and mana.

Finisher
A finisher is a card that will take a weakened opponent out of her misery. Finishers are usually marked by their high mana costs, sorcery speed, and game-ending effects. They can either kill the opponent all by themselves after some setup or finish what your deck has already started.

Green's finishers are more alluring than other colors because Green also has the mana acceleration to cast them. They are usually creature-based, like all things Green.

I've scored each Green creature in these categories from 1 to 5, where 5 is Green at its best while 1 denotes a difficult, but doable ability. I've omitted categories that do not apply to a particular creature. Of course, creature choice is always deck specific, but I feel these ratings really help convey this information.

For example, the well-rounded Werebear scores Mana Acceleration 3, Utility 3, and Beatdown 3 while the variably stellar Molder Slug weighs in at Beatdown 4 and Removal 1-5.

Finishers are hard to quantitatively score because they are often deck specific, occupy only a few card slots, and are entirely optional. Still, there are many powerful finishers that Green mages can employ, so I've included them for the sake of completeness.

Now that you know what we're looking for in Green creatures, isn't it about time we got to the Green creatures already?

Ready, Go!

Birds of Paradise (Core Sets, Ravnica: City of Guilds - Rare)
Mana Acceleration 5, Utility 2

We might as well start with the best. Birds of Paradise costs a single Green mana. They tap for any color of mana. They fly. They are expensive to acquire. They chumpblock. And they kill people.

While they seem like harmless 0/1's, Birds of Paradise is often the creature that kills you. Not the Mystic Enforcer, not the Spiritmonger, not the Shivan Wurm, but the Birds of Paradise. We're talking about phenomenal cosmic power.

Birds of Paradise make many decks like The Rock and Survival of the Fittest variants possible and competitive. Besides providing mana, Birds of Paradise can be fodder for other spells or enhanced for flying beatdown. Mirrodin Block's equipment cards enable Birds of Paradise to pick up a Bonesplitter, Skullclamp, or Sword of Fire and Ice and become even more absurd.

Birds of Paradise is a relic of the past, of an age when Swords to Plowshares was "creature removal with a drawback" and Counterspell was "costed correctly". They are out of flavor with current color philosophy. Green creatures seldom fly. Birds are generally White or Blue. Small, flying Green creatures are Insects, and annoying ones at that. Tapping for one mana of any color is extremely good, definitely worth more than a single Green mana.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/askwizards/0704

Birds of Paradise has endured because its popularity, power level, and iconic status. Unfortunately, Birds of Paradise is so powerful that any R&D attempt to replace them is met with a wall of opposition from the spoiled public. It will be a sad day indeed when Green mages across the world begin their 1^st turns with Peacocks of Paradise.

What decks can play Birds of Paradise?
Decks that play more than one color, the more the merrier.
Decks that can make good use of a 0/1 Green flyer.

Veteran Explorer (Weatherlight - Uncommon)
Mana Acceleration 4

Veteran Explorer is one of Green's happiest Multiplayer cards. Fixing everyone's colors and mana screw early in the game has a very positive impact on the Magic experience.

Budget players can use Veteran Explorer to hose expensive dual land mana bases.

What decks can play Veteran Explorer?
Decks with basic lands that get political in Multiplayer.

Elvish Spirit Guide (Alliances - Uncommon)
Mana Acceleration 5, Beatdown 1

Elvish Spirit Guide has the strange distinction of being Magic's purest mana source. While most mana sources in Magic require such inelegant things as dropping a land, playing a spell, or resolving a triggered ability, Elvish Spirit Guide's singularly unique ability changes her into a Green mana at the moment you choose. Elvish Spirit Guide's ability works on your turn, your opponent's turn, against Cursed Totem, Null Rod, Trinisphere, Back to Basics, Abeyance, Meddling Mage, and almost every other card in Magic. Your opponent has to gain control of your decisions with cards like Mindslaver, Word of Command, and Mirror rorriM before Elvish Spirit Guide can misbehave.

Since Elvish Spirit Guide is not an Elf and removes herself from the game, she appears almost exclusively as fast mana in combo decks that have exhausted all broken fast mana sources and still need more. Elvish Spirit Guide's warm 2/2 Spirit body can be handy in a fluke.

What decks can play Elvish Spirit Guide?
Decks that require excessive redundant fast mana sources.

Llanowar Elves (Core Sets excluding 8^th Edition - Common)
Fyndhorn Elves (Ice Age - Common)
Mana Acceleration 4, Beatdown 4

The simple and elegant Llanowar Elves is also the perfect power level for Green's mana acceleration. If you play 4 Llanowar Elves, 4 Fyndhorn Elves, and 24 Green mana producing lands in a 60 card deck, you have a 53.75% chance of having three mana on your second turn based on your first 7 cards if you never mulligan. Of these hands, you will most frequently (13.73%) draw 3 lands, 1 Elf, and 3 nonland-non Elf cards and least frequently (0.00000000058%) draw 2 Lands and 5 Elves.

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=5263
If are further interested in how the Hypergeometric Distribution applies to Magic, you can make yourself an Excel spreadsheet. I use mine to designate "good" 7 card hands to see my mulligan percentage, and also to see how the colors of my mana base develop over time.

What decks can play Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves?
Decks with reliable early Green mana sources.
Decks with multiple strong 3-drops.

Priest of Titania (Urza's Saga - Common) and the Elf Tribe
Mana Acceleration 5

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/rb39
The Official Best Tribal Card Ever, Priest of Titania is the quintessence of tribal Elf decks. Deemed too powerful for Standard play, she can provide amazing acceleration for any deck with an Elf Engine.

Since the Elf tribe is pretty big, let's group most of them here with Priest of Titania. Onslaught Block was extremely nice to the Elf tribe, gifting it the potent kill mechanism Timberwatch Elf and the beatdown-wrecking Wellwisher. Even though Goblins dominated multiple formats, underneath it shone a golden age of deck design and discovery for the Elf tribe.

There are many decisions to make when building an Elf deck, like deciding on your Mana Acceleration, Card Drawing, and Finisher. Some Elf decks rely on an extremely high tribal count for beatdown. Others try to draw lots of cards to overwhelm an opponent with card advantage. Still others just try to accelerate into a massive finisher as fast as possible.

Below I've listed all the Elves you'll likely ever need. Most decks are only interested in the Mana Acceleration Elves, but Elves are versatile enough to morph into beatdown, combo, and even control strategies. Elf control decks are little weird, and you might have to get creative like Astral Sliding Deranged Hermit with Elvish Aberrations, Wirewood Guardians, and Skyshroud Poachers, but it can happen.

The Elf Tribe
Mana Acceleration
Birchlore Rangers
Llanowar Elves
Fyndhorn Elves
Quirion Ranger
Priest of Titania
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

Splashes
Birchlore Rangers
Skyshroud Elf
Wirewood Channeler

Beatdown
Wirewood Pride
Taunting Elf
Treetop Scout
Wirewood Hivemaster
Elvish Warrior
Timberwatch Elf
Caller of the Claw
Alpha Status
Elvish Soultiller
Deranged Hermit

Utility
Quirion Ranger
Wirewood Symbiote
Wellwisher
Seeker of Skybreak
Heart Warden
Caller of the Claw
Elvish Aberration
Wirewood Lodge

Removal
Elvish Lyrist
Elvish Scrapper
Viridian Zealot
Viridian Shaman
Glissa Sunseeker
Viridian Longbow
Blasting Station
Sword of Fire and Ice
Heartseeker
Masticore

Card Drawing
Skullclamp
Glimpse of Nature
Fecundity
Skyshroud Poachers
Bloodline Shaman
Wirewood Herald
Fierce Empath
Llanowar Sentinel
Sylvan Messenger
Collective Unconscious
Slate of Ancestry
Recycle
Brass Herald
Symbiotic Development
Stroke of Genius
Keep Watch
Future Sight

Finishers
Biorhythm
Overrun
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
Kaervek's Torch
Armageddon
Coat of Arms

Here are some sample Elf decks I've tried in the past. My current and favorite iteration is Toolbox Elves.

Finisher Elves
4 Birchlore Rangers
4 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Skyshroud Elves
4 Priest of Titania
4 Heart Warden
4 Wirewood Channeler
4 Fireball
1 Biorhythm
1 Fires of Yavimaya
4 Skullclamp
4 Land Grant

4 Taiga
10 Forest

Beatdown Elves
2 Taunting Elf
4 Treetop Scout
4 Skyshroud Elite
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Priest of Titania
4 Wirewood Hivemaster
4 Timberwatch Elf
1 Gempalm Strider
2 Caller of the Claw
4 Wirewood Pride
2 Alpha Status
4 Skullclamp

1 Gaea's Cradle
16 Forest

Tapping Elves
3 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Priest of Titania
4 Seeker of Skybreak
4 Bloodline Shaman
4 Wellwisher
4 Timberwatch Elf
4 Sylvan Messenger
1 Glissa Sunseeker
1 Voice of the Woods
1 Viridian Longbow
2 Intruder Alarm

3 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
1 Tropical Island
5 Forest
4 Wirewood Lodge

Toolbox Elves
3 Birchlore Rangers
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Herald
4 Priest of Titania
2 Wirewood Hivemaster
4 Timberwatch Elf
4 Sylvan Messenger
1 Wellwisher
1 Fierce Empath
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Caller of the Claw
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
4 Skullclamp
3 Armageddon
4 Land Grant

2 Savannah
9 Forest

The best Elf finisher from my casual and tournament experience is Armageddon. If at all possible, you should Armageddon on turn 3, because it takes the fight out of most decks while stopping hosers like Perish and Pernicious Deed from destroying you. Absolute Law in the sideboard against Red decks makes all your Elves nigh invincible and Cursed Scroll cannot race a pro red Elf tribe's speed.

The second best Elf finisher is probably Biorhythm, but it requires hard acceleration like untapping an active Priest of Titania or Wirewood Channeler. Still, Biorhythm is at its very best in an Elf deck.

Probably the most underplayed Elf is Sylvan Messenger. This guy hits plays like Fact or Fiction attached to a 2/2 Elf trampler if you can get the Elf slots in your deck up around 40/60. The trample turns lethal because of Timberwatch Elf. Control decks get very annoyed when they wreck your Elves only to find out you still have a full hand.

What decks can play Priest of Titania?
Decks that operate on an Elf Engine.

Heart Warden (Urza's Destiny - Common)
Mana Acceleration 2, Utility 2

Heart Warden was an underplayed Elf back in the day. The last time I saw Heart Warden, he was adorning an MTG.com banner. Dwarfed by the mechanically superior Yavimaya Elder, Heart Warden still has a place filling up the final slots of Elf decks or donning a turn 3 Pattern of Rebirth.

What decks can play Heart Warden?
Decks that need a creature to die on command.
Decks that often have way too much mana.

Quirion Ranger (Visions - Common)
Utility 5, Mana Acceleration 3, Beatdown 4

Quirion Ranger is the best Elf ever printed. She can:

• Attack and block.
• Untap a creature to block.
• Untap a creature to use a tap ability.
• Save a Forest from any bad effect.
• Make your hand size one bigger.
• Provide an extra mana by guaranteeing a land drop.

You can do one or sometimes more of these things once on your turn and once on each of your opponent's turns. In any case, this ability always costs you zero mana, though it can start costing you land drops if you play it greedily.

Quirion Ranger untaps creatures at instant speed, but she returns Forests to your hand at faster-than-instant speed. There is nothing your opponent can do to stop your Forest from going to your hand, and often that "ability" is more important than untapping your creature.

There are many subtle things Quirion Ranger can do. If you attack with a very large creature, your opponent may not be able to counterattack because Quirion Ranger threatens to untap your huge blocker. Extremely powerful tap abilities like Avatar of Woe and Tradewind Rider love Quirion Ranger.

Sometimes your Forests are better in your hand than they are in play once you reach the top of your mana curve, like after playing multiple Maros. I've prepared for my Armageddon by picking up Forests each turn, losing only 3 lands. I've used Quirion Ranger to bounce Forests and exchange them for destroyed Treetop Villages in my graveyard with Holistic Wisdom, eventually killing a control player. I've pitched excess Forests on the table to my Wild Mongrel. I've picked up a Forest to play Mox Diamond.

Quirion Ranger works with the Forest dual lands Taiga, Savannah, Tropical Island, and Bayou. You can drop first turn Taiga, Quirion Ranger and then second turn Horned Kavu off your Taiga while sneaking in a point of beatdown.

There's no summoning sickness for Quirion Ranger's ability. Many broken Elf turns start with an active Priest of Titania on the table and one or more Quirion Rangers in hand.

Quirion Ranger gets more powerful as the game progresses since you have more Forests on the table and more, bigger, and better creatures to untap. In Multiplayer, Quirion Ranger can untap your teammate's creatures or opposing creatures if you want to get political, all for zero mana.

My favorite aspect of Quirion Ranger is that only Green mages can play her. Green mages have Forests and Green mages have creatures, so you'll never see a Quirion Ranger in evil hands.

You get all this from a one-mana 1/1 Elf with one ability.

What decks can play Quirion Ranger?
Decks with very low land counts comprised mostly of Forests.
Decks with creatures with powerful tap abilities.

Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary (Urza's Destiny - Rare)
Mana Acceleration 5, Beatdown 1

A clear violation of the No Broken Cheap Legends Rule, decks built around Rofellos can easily accelerate to six Green mana on turn 3. Champions of Kamigawa brings Green mages Time of Need, a new Green toolbox engine that can decimate opponents alongside Rofellos.

The Rofellos Engine
4 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
4 Time of Need
2 Budoka Gardner
4 Yavimaya Elder
4 Eternal Witness
4 Skyshroud Claim
4 Beacon of Creation
1 Masticore
1 Genesis
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
5 Legendary Creatures of your choice
4 Land Grant

22 Forest

This deck is supposed to find and keep Rofellos in play. The land searching thins your library so Beacons of Creation for 8 or more Insects show up often. My current Rofellos deck sports the new Snakes from Champions of Kamigawa. Since I can always have Rofellos in play, usually I just get Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and win, but I also enjoy flipping Budoka Gardner and Orochi Eggwatcher. If you include Forest duals, you can splash your favorite legendary creatures between Land Grant, Nature's Lore, and Skyshroud Claim.

Rofellos's mana acceleration is oftentimes more unfair than Priest of Titania and Gaea's Cradle because he's very strong against reset buttons. Opponents cannot let Rofellos get active or crippling Plow Unders, Stunted Growths, Desert Twisters, and other bombs start flying. Rofellos is by far the best MonoGreen Control card, my archetypical infatuation.

What decks can play Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary?

Decks operating off a mono-Forest mana base.

In our next tour entitled, we'll visit Green's early game creatures and discuss how to use them effectively. Someone may die. Hopefully a Blue mage.

Kenneth Nagle
NorrYtt
Casual Green Mage Extraordinaire
Proud Member of the Casual Players' Alliance
ken2@msstate.edu