Please hold while we load your cart...
Well, before I start I have to mention my experiences at the pre-release last Sunday. I had a solid G/B build with Silvos, fat Green creatures, and two copies of"What the hell were they thinking?"
What spell am I talking about? No, it's not some broken rare; this card came in the uncommon slot and it won ten - count them, ten - games for me all by itself. I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty certain no uncommon should be able to win that many games with no assistance from any other spell.
What am I talking about? Centaur Glade.
When I first looked at the Spoiler list I assumed (which is always a bad thing to do) that this was a rare (like Mobilization and Dragon Roost). It wasn't until I opened two of them at the pre-release that realization dawned: They'd made it an uncommon.
What the hell?
I'll talk about it in more detail below, but I really would like to know... What possessed R&D to make it an uncommon? How, after you decide that Mobilization and Dragon Roost should be a rare, can you justify making the most powerful one (in Limited, anyhow) an uncommon? I don't see the logic; if it's to make green more powerful in Limited, then why didn't they just drop a few casting costs or increase some stats? You don't make a solo game breaker into an uncommon; that's just plain stupid.
I felt sorry for my opponents, I really did; all I did was make centaur after centaur and rotate them ninety degrees... That's it! No interaction, and no tricks - either they had enchantment removal or they died. My opponents were forced to use card after card from hand to keep up with my one enchantment; meanwhile, I'm gathering up potent spells in hand in case they so anything unexpected or deal with my Glade. Sick, sick, sick. That is not what Limited is about. It's no surprise that the pre-release was won by a guy with one of these (plus Visara) in his deck, is it? It's no surprise I mulliganed to a five-card hand (four lands plus a Glade) twice and still won those games is it?
I challenge someone to explain to me why the Glade is an uncommon and the other two are rares.
Okay, well enough whine (red and white) - it's time to look at the cards for Constructed.
Biorhythm
Well, I'm assessing this for two reasons; one, according to R&D it may be quite good - and two I don't want one of the two Green cards I look at to be Centaur Glade. The casting cost is pretty prohibitive; only a deck that's heavy on the mana-producing creatures is going to be able to make good use of it. It has good synergy with Green's primary themes, and has the potential to assist Elf-based decks in killing opponents and/or staying alive. It's clearly a must-counter spell for control decks, as their creature count is so low they'd be in real trouble if it resolved. This said, 6GG is a lot of mana, even with critters that produce mana (mana producers are so fragile) and there will be a lot of times this card just sits in your hand doing nothing.
Birchlore Rangers
He's not a Llanowar Elf, but he can accelerate your mana by allowing your other elves work in pairs, this lets you use slightly more beefy elves that can take a few hits or even mount an offensive when required. Using a horde of nothing but 1/1s would just be asking for trouble; this guy is pants by himself, but combined with other elves he can get quite sick. I don't think I should go on about how good lots of mana (in any colour) is; you figure out what you'd do with seven mana on turn 3... (Be one short of a Biorhythm, perchance?)
Centaur Glade
I really like this card; it's clearly broken in Limited, (but then you should play main deck enchantment removal in Limited) so is it breakable in constructed? It produces instant-speed 3/3s; that makes it a nightmare for control decks; manawise, it costs two more than Mobilization to cast and only one more to produce creatures three times the size of those soldiers - and it can win the game all by itself (when supported by eight lands). That's pretty promising isn't it? I was wondering if this card would be redundant in Constructed when faced with the token-generating might of Squirrel Nest and Words of Wilding. (Squirrel Nest is less mana-intensive, but I hate squirrels.)
On a more serious point, Squirrel Nest is a strong card, but I prefer getting 3/3 bodies and being able to generate multiple creatures in a turn from one source. Centaurs don't just chump, they're capable of hurting most creatures used. As for Words of Wilding, I'll explain when I deal with the card.
Early game this guy is nuts - he's nucking futs. I did not appreciate having to beat a turn 4 Visara that was fuelled in part by this elf... But it did make me realise the card's potential in constructed. He is not as good as a Llanowar or a Bird, but also his acceleration is more permanent (in such a land-destruction free environment as our current one.) He's sweet mana acceleration, and this is the kind of card I like to see printed; an interesting variant on an old theme. Looks like a strong card in particular when Llanowar Elves take their vacation.
Elvish Vanguard
This is the kind of card I'm not so excited about, but I can see what R&D was thinking when they designed it:"Quirion Dryad has turned out to be better than we thought; it's really popular right now. Let's give them a new version! It has to be green, of course, so let's have it trigger off elves."
Nice try, but a big part of Quirion Dryad's success was its ability to work solo; Elvish Vanguard is an actuality more like Squirrel Mob, but not as retroactive. Players put elves into play on their turn; they can make instants on the opponent's turn, and during the combat phase. That's what made the Dryad so great - and that's what'll stop this card ever being a true dominator. I'd rather let my elves make 7/7s, thankyouverymuch.
Enchantress's Presence
We have two enchantresses to compare this to: The Verduran Enchantress and the Argothian Enchantress. The Presence costs as much as the Verduran... But it has the drawback of being untargetable for enchant creatures, so this makes it sort of a variant on the Argothian Enchantress. But for me that extra one casting cost is a big factor. The Presence won't power Enchantress decks like the ones that were around in Auratog's day; it looks more like a component in a combo deck. And I do like combo decks - well, some of them anyhow - but I've never thought much of combos that are use green as a major part of the engine. I prefer Bargain as a combo deck; for me, that's the standard against which I compare all potential combo decks. I know there have been better and more broken combo decks in the history of Magic - but Bargain, I feel was one of the best (alongside CadBloom).
Why? It was a very real threat in the environment (unlike Rice Snack and the Wake/Time Walk thing) - but it never won all the time* (like NecroDonate and Academy), most people couldn't play it well enough to make it a sensible choice. There were a lot of tough decisions to make... And if you made a single one wrong, the deck would punish you.
I've gotten off the point just a tad. Enchantress's Presence is a good card; I'm happy to have it in tandem with the Verduran Enchantress, as that means you have enough enchantress effects to make building such a deck worthwhile. I just wish we'd got something more like an Argothian Enchantress instead.
Gigapede
Whee! Deadly Insect! But better, much better. Green seems to be getting some very hard-to-deal-with creatures; what with the Bear and Centaur outposts and repetitive 7/7 trampler production, we're spoilt for choice. But this one is my favourite; Deadly Insect has always been a bit of a favourite with casual players (at least in my area), and this is huge improvement upon it. The Gigapede (apart from having a cool name) has the potential to inspire its own deck and it provides a hard-to-deal-with finisher for any deck using green. This guy is a total star; it's good to see such a hard-to-kill one toughness critter.
Hystrodon
I'm glad R&D are cutting down on Blue's share of the pie... But the jury's still out on this Green variant. Without morph, he'd not be that impressive, but the morph increases his speed to a potential turn-3 attack (1: Mana accelerator, 2: make a morph, 3: flip Hystrodon) - and with trample, that's pretty much a guaranteed draw. I'm going to say it will get played, but it may have to wait for the superior green creatures of Onslaught block to rotate out.
Krosan Tusker
Without the cycling ability this guy would be bad. But it's the cycling that makes him playable; in fact I'm not sure if you'd ever play him outside of a Limited environment. But he does have that cycling ability... And I feel it's a pretty strong one. For some reason, it makes me think of Oversold Cemetery; perhaps there's some kind of synergy there. Hmm, every turn, for 2G you can fetch a basic land and draw a card? That seems decent, if maybe a little redundant when faced with the"I just about do that by myself" Undead Gladiator. Also, the Tusker faces some competition from Explosive Vegetation and Far Wanderings. (Well, except for that whole"I can counter those" aspect of it - The Ferrett) Will its ability to sometimes be an (overcosted) 6/5 push it over the edge and into the world of Standard? Maybe...
Naturalize
Well, it's a Green Disenchant... This was a huge surprise for me, and it also left me a little worried about the fate of White. For me, Disenchant, Wrath of God, Armageddon, White Knight, and Swords to Plowshares have embodied the theme of this colour. We lost Swords first; fair enough, as it does distort (just about) every environment it's in. Then Armageddon went, which was hard to take; its disappearance was one of the more subtle effects in causing the rise of Control decks to the top of the pile. White Knight went at the same time as Armageddon, although reasonable replacements have appeared since (Longbow Archers just isn't as exciting, though, is it?) I hope Naturalize doesn't herald the disappearance of Disenchant from 8th Edition: We'd be down to Wrath of God and weenies as White's themes represented in the core set.
I guess I'm trying to say that although this is a great card, Green doesn't need it (in Standard, at least; Block is a different matter, I'm sure) - and even if does did why couldn't we just have had something more in line with Green's themes (sorcery-based removal)? Maybe some kind of 1/1 monkey for 2G that disenchants when it comes into play (how about those two monkeys on the Uktabi Orangutan's card?)
Time will tell if my worries are for nothing, and even if they do come true, I'll adapt, I'll survive (but only because I don't play white in Standard).
Ravenous Baloth
Some have dubbed this boy"Spike Feeder on steroids." I feel that's pretty accurate, you get a lot for one extra colourless mana (and the loss of the spike ability) don't you? A whole +2/+2, plus the added ability to sacrifice any beast for four life. I'm not sure if it's an improvement or just a good alternative, the spike ability is a pretty good one (even if only two spikes are any good, I do like Spike Cannibal as well as the Spike Weaver and Spike Feeder, though) and I'm not sure if replacing it with the ability to sacrifice any beast is that good. I'm going to have to consult my copy of Apprentice to see how many beasts there are and what they are...
(I wish I could have the sound effect of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy being accessed here...)
Okay, I've got forty-six - and the picks of the bunch for Standard seem to be as follows:
- Anurid Brushhopper
- Aquamoeba
- Gurzigost
- Hystrodon
- Krosan Tusker
- Phantom Nishoba
- Ravenous Baloth (of course)
- Snapping Thragg
- Snarling Undorak
- Thought Devourer
- and... Vizzerdrix!
Hooray! I never thought I'd be able to get a Vizzerdrix into one of my articles. It's enough to say I'm a huge fan of the two giant killer bunny rabbits and I await far, far more. Wow, this means my quest to kill people with rabbits has gained another weapon (sure, I could use Illusions of Grandeur - but that's not the same, is it?)
Back to the point, a G/W(r) deck seems in order. There are not many good red beasts, but if we're going to be using beasts, red does provide us with Contested Cliffs and burn. Also there's straight G/W, U/G, U/G/r or even G/B(r). I have a feeling there will be a beast deck of some form soon...
Silvos, Rogue Elemental
This boy is what pit fighting is all about! (Although despite his size, he'd still get his arse handed to him by both Visara and Jareth.) There's enough acceleration to make him a potential turn 4 drop - and when that happens, the game is going to end in short order. He's a pretty tight package and I think it's the combination of eight power, trample, and regenerate that make me believe he'll be played to good effect in Standard. He can win the game by himself and survives a lot of the removal used as well. I wish I had Pernicious Deed to use with him; but I guess I'll make do, right?
Voice of the Woods
I think this guy has a decent ability... But if you're going to make lots of elves, wouldn't you be better off using Overrun or Biorhythm as a finisher? I think it's the casual crowd that'll enjoy this card most of all, 'cause making 7/7 trampling tokens is as fun as Magic gets (but not the most fun you can have with a token...) I'm going to be using my HeroClix Sentinel figures as my Elementals (yes, I have more than one) - those things stand at seven inches tall!
Wall of Mulch
It's not Wall of Blossoms. This excited me at first look; I thought it would be a perfect substitute for the flower wall... But the ability to sacrifice walls to draw cards isn't that great. Perhaps it should have been a 0/5 or a 1/4; something that would require your opponent to use removal against it. But it's a 0/4, and that's just going to die chumping most Odyssey and Onslaught creatures. Okay, when it dies you can draw a card - that's nice, but not enough to make up for the fact that it's a wall. Despite being constructed from one of my favourite sorceries, it's not going to enter my walls of fame list:
Sorry Mulch; you do make all these walls better - but they're not in the Standard environment now, are they?
Maybe Wall of Mulch is good if your opponent plays Aurification...
HA, HA, HA!
Words of Wilding
Like Words of War, this one has a direct effect on the play area from now until this card is destroyed; whenever you want, you can"draw" and play a 2/2 Grizzly Bear for one. That's some good... But then I figure you all got that one yourselves. So what can I tell you?
Without some kind of combo effect, this card is not as good as either Squirrel Nest or Centaur Glade. Losing your draw step (even to get a 2/2) is a pretty big thing - and we're losing a lot of cantrips with the Invasion block departing. I'm sure either this or Words of War will be used in some kind of Combo deck; it's clear that Words of War is the better choice (if you can afford using the red mana), as it wins the game straight away. Overall, it's a solid card, but green has better ways to make tokens in both Onslaught and Odyssey.
Next time, it'll be the lands and a batch of decks utilizing the remaining colour combinations. G/R, G/U, R/W, U/R etc... I'm thinking about something including Centaurs or Bears and Opposition for starters. But I'm open to any suggestions y'all have.
Until next time, remember to pack those Naturalizes (or Disenchant if that floats your boat), peeps!
Keep clicking heroes,
-f3n
Styfen@yahoo.com
P.S. - I've just read over this and I've realised I might sound a little downcast in my summaries. It's not that I'm upset about the Green cards; in fact I think Green's done very well out of Onslaught. I'm just flat worn out, and Odyssey's Green cards are better overall...
P.P.S. It's hard for these cards to compete with Wild Mongrel, isn't it?
* - A phrase like"won all the time" is, of course, a generalisation. No deck wins all the time, for Magic is a game that does throw some pretty random draws at you once in a while.
