Standard is in transition, with 9th Edition temporarily robbing Green mages of Birds of Paradise and offering up Llanowar Elves during the reprieve. The Core Set rotation has every Green mage scratching his head, wondering how Greater Good is ever going to replace Fecundity in his token deck and laughing at the absurd power level gamut spanning between Silklash Spider and Web.
In addition to the deck-building challenges the Core Set rotation has wrought to Green mages, it's also a tumultuous time for Green creature types.
King Cheetah became a Cat. Elvish Piper now also a Shaman. Elvish Berserker admitted he's also a Berserker. The most powerful update was granted to Elvish Champion who is now a full-blooded Elf and searchable with Wirewood Herald while increasing the tribal count for comrades like Wellwisher, Timberwatch Elf, and Priest of Titania.
But no other green creature comes close to the creature-subtype fiasco that shrouds Verduran Enchantress. Once a Summon spell, now a Creature spell, created as an Enchantress, previously a Wizard, henceforth a Druid, but now also Human!
One of only five Druids in 9th Edition, Verduran Enchantress may finally have text that can be set in stone. The Druid subtype has seemingly made the Enchantress subtype obsolete for foreseeable future Enchantresses. That's too bad, because Green/White mages love their Enchantresses (we all know which one), not their Druids. Perhaps, through sheer player appeal and her unreprintable power level, Argothian Enchantress will remain an Enchantress forever, like a caryatid of strength and beauty?
Only time will tell. But time, it appears, isn't on the Druids' side. The occupation has fallen onto hard times since the inception of the Shamanistic Movement, with Druid jobs jeopardized by a massive influx of Shaman workers.
The Dominarian job market can no longer support the Druids' agrarian-based economy. Employers are looking for action, aggressively hiring for their fighter-mage departments and investing heavily in youthful Magepunk advertising while more and more Druids lose their jobs to newer Shaman upstarts. Tending the land just isn't cool enough anymore.
The entire Kamigawa Block possesses but one druid, the friend-seeking Promised Kannushi. Promises are made; promises are broken. Magic cards are made; Magic cards are broken. But apparently Druids aren't even made.
Ravnica: City of Guilds introduces two new Druids while the reprinted Elves of Deep Shadow joins Llanowar Elves for an update to Elf Druid. By contrast, Ravnica sports eight new Shamans.
Oh, the Druid tribe has fallen on hard times indeed. What is an aspiring young Elf, who's always dreamed of growing well-tended crops for a living, to do when she enters the job market? Is keeping all the Elves fed no longer a noble profession?
This is very important stuff, by the way. We're not talking about a dip in power level, a color trend, or a poorly-executed mechanic. We're talking about the systematic eradication of an entire Green Creature subtype. From Odyssey to Ravnica, the Druid class has descended from "embraced" to "embroiled."
Let's analytically review the now and future Job Market for Druids and Shamans:
Druids
- Druids are green.
- Druids were at their highest employment rate during the Odyssey Block (the Best Green Set Ever), where they were embraced as an official class. Before Odyssey, the Druid profession was randomly assigned to creatures, especially if they had the name "Something Druid".
- The Druid Tribal Lord is Seton, Krosan Protector.
Druid Job Listings (+ Ravnica)
Green: 48 + 3
Black: 1 [Quagmire Druid]
G/U: 1 [Wood Sage]
Post-Ravnica Standard-legal Druids: 6 + 3
Shamans
- Shamans are Green, Red, and sometimes Black.
- Shamans were at their highest employment rate in Kamigawa Block.
- The Shaman Tribal Lord is Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro.
Shaman Job Listings (+ Ravnica)
MonoGreen: 20 (+ 4)
MonoRed: 18 (+ 1)
MonoBlack: 7
G/B: (+ 2) [1 Gold, 1 Golgari Guild]
G/W: (+ 1)
Post-Ravnica Standard-legal Shamans: 34 (+ 8)
The job advertisement posters above showcase what kind of prospective employment one might find in a Pre-Ravnica Standard Druid and Shaman deck respectively. One profession is clearly understaffed in the power level department. Shamans employ format-defining creatures, while the Druids look like some casual Green mage's maniacal deck-building escapade.
And now, the best Druid deck I've built to date:
Theme
The Druid tribe is dominated by utility creatures that mess with Land cards. Therefore, the theoretical best Druid deck should have Land cards changing zones frequently, like this deck has.
Staying true to theme, everyone in the deck is a Druid. Well, almost everyone. As you'll see later, there exists one consummate fattie for the Druid class.
Mana Base
1x Forest
2 Centaur Garden
4 Diligent Farmhand
4 Werebear
4 Hermit Druid
4 Yavimaya Elder
3 Seton, Krosan Protector
This deck goes very low on lands, but the creature support shows up quickly. Seton turns everyone into a mana Elf, but without summoning sickness, so he's more like Earthcraft than Citanul Hierophant.
And yes, I'm well aware that Hermit Druid is broken - but here he's a powerful enabler that draws a Forest each turn, not a 1G Morality Shift. Even so, Hermit Druid is so powerful that I go out of my way each turn to activate him.
On a side note, the newest Druid, Llanowar Elves, isn't very helpful here because Diligent Farmhand and Werebear perform his function. Seton grants the mana Elf ability to everyone anyway, and there's not much to power out in the middle of the curve. This deck requires some setup for the mid-game, which lets the multipurpose utility creatures shine just before the crushing late game.
Utility
4 Diligent Farmhand
4 Werebear
4 Hermit Druid
4 Yavimaya Elder
1 Groundskeeper
3 Seton's Scout
2 Nullmage Advocate
3 Nantuko Cultivator
2 Squirrel Wrangler
4 Muscle Burst
The forgotten Nantuko Cultivator is a defining mid-game play, turning the extra Forests earned by Hermit Druids and Yavimaya Elders into a pile of +1/+1 counters, threshold for the two-drop beaters and Centaur Garden, Groundskeeper fuel, and Gurzigost food. You may be so excited by the explosion in beatdown possibilities that you forget to draw a fresh grip of cards.
Squirrel Wrangler lets you trade lands in play for creatures if necessary or helps you wiggle into an alpha strike position in the late game. He's the "other" way to win if your opponent is particularly vulnerable to a swarm strategy.
Nullmage Advocate gives the deck at least some game when faced with unstoppable lock pieces. He's also the deck's most savage Free-for-All Multiplayer creature, sometimes winning you the game single-handedly on politics alone.
Seton's Scout is the only aerial defense the deck has. In some matches, you'll need to rely on thresholded Seton's Scouts and Muscle Bursts to compete with large, offensive flyers - or simply try to race them with Gurzigost. Diligent Farmhand and Yavimaya Elder are both defensive creatures that absorb attacks, which is worth noting here.
Fat
4 Gurzigost
1 Thriss, Nantuko Primus
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
Thriss is a fattie I wouldn't normally enlist (he should really be another Forest) - but he did train the barbarian Kamahl, changing him from Pardic Fighter-Mage Red to his more powerful Green Druid form. On the other hand, Kamahl is a fattie I'm happy to cast in a land-happy creature deck even if he wasn't also a Druid.
Gurzigost. We've got graveyard. We've got Muscle Burst. We need Gurzigost. Beefy! And in the late-game, we can use Gurzigost Battlefield Scrounger-style to draw exactly what we want.
Goldfish
To demonstrate how a typical game might progress, I'll just goldfish a hand Menendian-style. I don't know how this will turn out; I hope this is a good idea.
I've drawn this opening hand:
2 Forest
1 Diligent Farmhand
1 Hermit Druid
1 Werebear
1 Seton, Krosan Protector
1 Squirrel Wrangler
From here, the plays are pretty straightforward. Green decks tend to be straightforward.
Turn 1: Draw Farmhand - Forest, Farmhand.
Turn 2: Draw Muscle Burst - Forest, Hermit Druid.
Turn 3: Draw Forest - Forest, Seton. Tap Seton and Farmhand for Werebear. Tap Werebear to activate Hermit Druid, spilling five cards.
Turn 4: Draw Seton's Scout - Forest, Farmhand, Scout, Wrangler. EOT Sac a Farmhand for a Forest and activate Hermit Druid, spilling six cards.
Turn 5: Draw Muscle Burst - Forest, activate Hermit Druid spilling 1 card. Attack with Werebear and Seton's Scout, sac Farmhand for a Forest, Muscle Burst for six, Muscle Burst for seven. That's twenty-one damage.
This game turned out weird because I dumped three Gurzigosts and Kamahl into my yard instead of drawing them and I didn't draw the Yavimaya Elder + Nantuko Cultivator combo, but the kill was faster than normal regardless. The threshold guys can finish it, but it's just more fun to let Gurzigost, Squirrel Wrangler, or Kamahl do the dirty work because you can frequently gain resources in the process instead of losing them.
Alas, with the influx of Shamans over Druids, it doesn't appear that my Druid deck will have any prospective updates in the near future. Truth be told, it's powerful enough to turn heads as it is, but we'll see how good a Shaman deck I can make before the Druid deck goes on strike permanently.
Farewell, Druids. You will be missed by this green mage.
Kenneth Nagle
NorrYtt
Casual Green Mage Extraordinaire
NorrYtt@gmail.com
2005.9.15
Relevant Format: Post-9th Edition Pre-Ravnica Standard, Casual
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