Multicolor Green - The Green!

So, we have the idea that we want to play a few colors (3 for now, potentially 5 once Gatecrash releases), centered around a strong mana base of Shocks, Core Set Duals, and Farseek, to have the ability to cast our spells.

We have a choice of colors to play, but the first color it makes sense to look at, perhaps not obviously, is the Green!

The Green spells will be castable whatever other colors we intend to play, and knowing what we have covered with our base color lets us understand what we need to supplement that.

We'll go through by casting cost, and talk about what we need at that casting cost around our core.

Casting Cost: 1

(And Arbor Elf, the hyper-annoying version)
Decks with cards like these mana elves want to emphasize casting something stupid on turn three, and adding a bunch of terrible draws turn 7. 

We're looking to be alive turn 7, so in general, I'm not a fan of this sort of approach.

They are pretty good with Gavony Township, but they also do things like stress you to have untapped G on turn 1, which is much harder than having G1 on turn 2 (Farseek)



Mana creatures also have a terrible time against removal, especially sweepers, which seem quite common in other decks, and potentially in ours as well.  I'm disinclined to move towards these "elves".

Ulvenwald Tracker is a good way to leverage our guys being ginormous.  We make our super-big guy fight their sorta-big guy, and we come out ahead. 

Unfortunately, this guy is not getting activated before some late turn, and at that point, our powerful late-game spells are coming online, and at that point, we can probably spend two, three, or even five mana on this sort of effect (kill target creature), that doesn't require me to have a summoning sick one-toughness creature live, or have another creature that is bigger than their guy, etc.

If we were mono-green, this would be pretty high up on the list, maybe as a two-of.  But with omni-colors, we probably have better options.  This is reusable, which is big, but it's not more than a one-of for us.

Rancor is very interesting.  It is two points of hasty power, probably even more than that with the trample.  It is good against sweepers, and makes your little guys big.

Unfortunately, we don't look to be playing a lot of little guys (more 3/3's), and in a late game slug-fest, the trample doesn't really matter.  On top of this, Rancor is very weak against instant-speed removal (even Unsummon), which our deck is not very weak against to begin with.

If we had more cards like Avacyn's Pilgrim, and less cards like Thragtusk (Ironically?) Rancor would be better for us.  As is, we don't need 2 damage to win a game, we need to live until we can cast our 10th Thragtusk.



So, the green one-drops are looking pretty weak for Green, but that's actually fine.  We have a lot of turn one tap-lands, and our late game spells have the power to catch us up.  We just need to realize that we need to make up for a lack of ones in Green with stronger than average twos.

Casting Cost: 2

The core of our mana base, I predict quite a bit of this spell being cast, which should set up some very powerful turn threes. 

We have a better than 80% chance of casting this if we draw it (40%) turn two, which causes us to have some very impressive turn threes, from either a omni-color three-drop plus a tapped shockland, or a omni-color four-drop.

We need something else in the two-slot to supplement our 4x Farseek, and this is a strong contender.  It contrasts with Gatecreeper Vine in that it has one power.  It trades with mana guys instead of blocking them, and attacks for a point on an empty board.

The card is random, so this also competes with off-color cards like Think Twice.  As a non-wall creature this does okay with Rancor, Gavony Township, or Vault of the Archangel.

As a creature, both Visionary and Vine provide you with something to target with Restoration Angel, which greatly improves their blocking ability, and can bring them "up to speed" with cards like Think Twice.

Gatecreeper Vine is at a strange place in this deck.  It has zero power, and only two toughness, which is not much different than one toughness in this format.  The only things that might attack for one (and thus not kill our Vine) are an unflipped Delver, a mana creature of some sort, a human token, or some other threat from a non-hyper-aggressive deck.

A deck like Zombies (BR, BG, BRG) is full of two-power attackers.  The white and green aggressive creatures blow through this guy.  So why is he worth talking about compared to the Visionary before this?

Well, this deck is full of omni-mana, higher casting cost spells, and what we really need alot of the time is going to be just another land.  We wouldn't play any Gates, but just getting the one-of basic of an off color or a forest means we can hit our land drop and keep going until we get to our 5's, 6's and 7's.  A random card could be good late, but a land is what we'll need on turn two alot of the time.

Because of the nature of the "Draw" off Gatecreeper, we'd likely max out at one of these in the deck, just because there won't be that many targets for the 'Creeper.

I really like Mayor.  I'm sad that it hasn't seen more play, and I think the time may be right for a resurgence.  There are fewer Unsummons, Gut Shots, Phyrexian Mana Spells, and just fewer instants to make this guy a liability.

That said, he is pretty vulnerable, and likes to have some Human/Werewolf buddies, who are in short supply these days.  On the plus side, if your control oppoent doesn't cast a spell, he'll flip, and you get a wolf on your turn.

He is pretty strong against Wrath (one-man army, that you can just pass with and not be ashamed), is very easy to cast, and starts the beats rolling on turn two. 

When we start out with the presumption that we will be playing 3-5 colors, Quirion Dryad is one of the spells that comes to mind as something that should be talked about.

This creature should get around +1/+1 a turn.  It won't be pumped by any of the spells on this page, including more copies of itself, so we would have at least 11 (Dryad, Thrag, Farseek) "blanks" for pumping this, and 26 lands that also don't pump it.  So we might be just a little too Green for this to pay off.

If a spell like Detention Sphere or Dreadbore gave two counters (it does not), it'd be better, but for now, this probably isn't cutting it.

Strangleroot Geist is a pretty aggressive card.  It is relatively hard to deal with, but it is answered by the hate people are already playing for a potentially more deadly threat, Geralf's Messenger.  (Pillar of Flame, Terminus)

It also matches up pretty poorly with Gavony Township, and against opposing Restoration Angels and Thragtusks (Though it does work okay with your own)

It is also surprisingly hard to cast without a heavy-forest mana base.  Until Gatecrash, it is actually easier to fix White than Green, because White has two of our shocklands.  Naming Geist with Cavern of Souls is also not something we really want to do.

This is a pretty strong version of "Disenchant" for us, if we have any sort of token theme.  It is an instant, so it is an instant Detention Sphere destroyer, or Beast/Centaur token cloner for blowouts on blocks, or end of turn kill-yous against control decks.

As Bant we have Ray of Revelation, as Jund we have Ancient Grudge, but both of those leave out the other shard's perminant type.

Rakdos Keyrune, Detention Sphere, Runechanter's Pike, Gilded Lotus, Underworld Connections give us targets for this spell.  How important the off-types are, and how many tokens we have, determine how many of these we'd try to sideboard.  I'd guess the maximum is two, and we'd go from there.

It's also important to note that though this looks like a "half white" card, this is still perfectly castable in any sort of Green variant, because of the joy of hybrid mana.

Casting Cost: 3

Borderland Ranger is the 3cc version of Gatecreeper Vine, and what a difference a mana makes....  Not only do we get two points of power, but we lose defender!

When I mention that we'd want one at most of this sort of thing, it would apply to the total of Gatecreeper + Borderland.  Borderland is probably better, but Gatecreeper gives you something to do on 2 that isn't horrible.

Indestructible is pretty good.  Getting bigger is pretty good.  Unfortunately this guy's best friend is Rancor, and his worst enemy is Terminus, so he may not have a future in standard these days.  He doesn't get owned by Restoration Angel or Thragtusk, so that's something...

Another guy that sort of beats Thragtusk, and is only moderately embarrassed by Restoration Angel.  Flash lets you hold up your blue instants in a Bant version....














Things we're not considering:
Chromatic Lantern:  Green gives us good, consistant fixing.
Decendant's Path: Too wonky in a multi-type deck.
Champion of Lambholt: Not casting enough creature spells
Triumph of Ferocity:  Might be good, 3's a good magic number.  But we'd just have it as a 1-3 of.

Casting Cost: 4

Anything that 1:1's a planeswalker is not to be overlooked.  Also doubles as a naturalize effect for most probable targets.

It's not that exciting, to be sure, but if we have planeswalkers, it is better than something like Planar Cleansing.

Will get a lot better with Gatecrash, for now we're likely only getting Temple Gardens OR Overgrown Tombs, so we can only play perhaps one of these.  This certainly does the job at ramping though, and will be better than competitor "Seek the Horizon", since it puts them into play.  (And you don't need as many basics)

This could be a sweet one-of, if most of our creatures are Green or hybrid Green.  Flash blocking is nifty, and it stresses counter-mana.  (The creature types here aren't exactly doing alot of favors though). 

Flash is also extra-good against planeswalkers as a kind of pseudo-haste.










Not considered: Roaring Primadox, Seek the Horizon, Parallel Lives, Growing Ranks, Garuruk the Relentless, Deadbridge Golliath, Briarpack Alpha, Witchbane Orb

Casting Cost: 5

There are a lot of good 5's in Green.  There really are.

Unfortunately, there is really only one "5" in all of magic right now, and that's Thragtusk.  He's super-easy to cast.  He is a near three-for-one.  He almost single-handedly kills the entire deck type of "aggro", and "control" (in combination with Cavern of Souls).

He gives value vs removal.  He gives value vs trading in combat.  He gives value via any way of removing him once he's in play.  There are really no hate cards for him in the whole format.  THRAGTUSK IS A MISTAKE!  And we must do our best to exploit it.

There are a lot of other 5's in green, but we have to understand that they are almost forced to be either one-ofs, or sideboard cards, due to the nature of the format.

Acidic Slime is a lot of value.

It removes problematic lands, enchantments, and artifacts, many of which have no main-deck answer in the format.  Vault, Township, Detention Sphere, and so on.  It trades with the front half of a Thragtusk, or a Resto Angel.

It saves you some life, deals with a problem, and gets the beat on for the future.  The reason to play Bramblecrush is that planeswalkers are everywhere.  But Acidic Slime certainly does a lot for +1 mana.

Vorapede is a Thragtusk that:
Doesn't gain 5 life
Is harder to cast
Is worse against Terminus
Is better against any other kind of removal.
Is different(worse?) with Restoration Angel
Has Vigilance and Trample

That's still a pretty good Thragtusk.  It gains life off blocking while attacking, and it does some damage while it's at it.  It doesn't work well against non-traditional removal (O-Ring and co., Unsummon, Terminus), but that's still pretty good.

I don't like Wolfir Silverheart.

We don't (shouldn't) be living in a format where there is no Doom Blade or global sweeper effects.  Ultimate Price, Dreadbore, Terminus, Supreme Verdict, Oblivion Ring, all exist and are heavily played as removal that Wolfir Silverheart is fairly weak to.

It requires a board presence, making it weak to wraths.
It opens you up to instant speed removal for blowouts in combat.

It is good against Red removal, and has a bit of haste (presuming you have an untapped creature after casting it).  Unfortunately, it's creature type is horrible in a Cavern meta.

"Big Garruk" is a pretty solid planeswalker.

It interacts favorably with opposing Thragtusk.  It survives a Restoration Angel hit.  It produces tokens that interact favorably with the aggro decks of the day.

It interacts favorably with your own Thragtusk, being a GGG2 Draw 5 cards.  Even if they remove the Thragtusk in response, or if you only have a 3 power creature, drawing three on the second turn and still having your threat around is very good.

I think a 1x Garruk gives a very strong threat that Control and Aggro alike will have a hard time dealing with.  About the only thing it doesn't handle well is some sort of huge flying threat (Olivia, Angel of Serenity, multiple Restoration Angels), but he sure does gum up the ground, and give a ton of advantage early and late.  Little Garruk doesn't stand up to Thrag or Angel well at all, so it's good to see one more mana (and a bit more Green) actually do something. (and a lot of something at that)

I do like me some spiders, and this guy is a repeatable way to remove Restoration Angel, spirit tokens, Spectral Flighted things, and even Angel of Serenities.

He is pretty glacially slow though, so I see this as a sideboard card at best, that brick-walls aggro, and provides some value over time against problem (flying) creatures.










Not considered: Creeping Renaissance, Kessig Cagebreakers, Gilded Lotus, Stuffy Doll

Casting Cost: 6

Yeah.

So, you have to remember that if you're paying 6, you're paying MORE than a Thragtusk, or a Garruk P.H., and that really means the spell has to have a huge effect if it's a creature, and the green creatures just don't match up.

This does solve almost any problem but a creature (which we can in theory handle) or planeswalkers (which are problematic).  It competes with Bramblecrush and Acidic Slime, and I'm really not sure that this has a place anywhere, but it's cool, and I can't not have a 6...

I actually think this guy is not terribly embarrassing against Thragtusk.  He is best with mana guys, and doesn't combo all that well with some of the possibilities (because they're tokens), but he blocks Thragtusk, and attacks through it, which is more than a lot of cards can say.












Not considered: Feed the Pack, Revenge of the Hunted, Staff of Nin

Casting Cost: 7+ (and X's)

If you're going big, there's not much bigger than this guy.

He gives Trample, +5/+5 (unless they interact at instant speed), and being a 10/10 Haste Trample does a good job of ending games against control where we got some damage in early.

If we have any sort of board presence at all, this guy should end the game.

Where Angel of Serenity ensures the game will go on another 10 turns, this guy (for one more mana) ensures that the game will end NOW, as long as you have any sort of board presence.

A Resto Angel, Thragtusk, and beast token represent 36 trampling damage, 26 against one removal spell.  And to top things off, it is a BEAST, which is actually a good creature type!

8 mana is alot, to be sure, but with Farseek, Ranger/Vine, and Angel on those, along with our incredible ability to stall the board, and we can reasonably see this guy coming out before the game is over.  If we do play this guy, it's a solid mark for Ranger over Vine....

Also, this guy rocks with Angel, if you somehow don't kill them with the first swing.

I hate Mana Bloom.  It gets you a 4-drop on 4, which is something no spell outside Farseek can do (and fixes your colors), but a suspend-lotus-petal-for-2 is not exactly exciting.

I'm fine casting a 4 drop on turn three, but I also want to cast my 5 on turn 4, and not have to have my second lotus petal also cost me another two land that came into play tapped.










Not included: Primordial Hydra, Worldspine Worm (Yeah right), Akroma's Memorial.

Summary

So, we don't really have a lot of good, cheap stuff in Green.

We have Farseek, which is one of the best cards in the deck, but what about when we don't have Farseek?  And what if our opponent is interested in doing some damage to us?  Sure, we can Borderland Ranger or Gatecreeper Vine to stall, but neither of those spells actually accelerate us.  We'll need to use our other colors to protect us early, or get us to the late game without being dead.

In the late game, there's plenty of good stuff in green (and really in any color), so we need to be sure we have strong 1-4 drops to really suppliment our late game.  What this means is that Angel of Serenity, as good as it is, is not as important to our game plan as a card like Centaur Healer, since we already have a game-ender in Green.  We need to still be alive to cast it, from our other colors.




We do have some strong possibilities for ending the game, which is often a problem where Thragtusk is involved.