Green is a great multiplayer color. Massive creatures and powerful spells make for a terrifying opponent. Add in mana acceleration and a few of the newest Gatecrash cards, and you’ve got a wrecking ball that will destroy your opponents.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Alpha Authority

When it comes to auras, the easiest question to ask is: will Uril want this? In this case, nope, he doesn’t want it. As an aura, it’s okay but most of the time, you want to cast auras on creatures who already are hexproof.

Burst of Strength

A neat little combat trick, Burst of Strength probably doesn’t do enough to warrant inclusion in a deck unless you have a lot of plans for that +1/+1 counter. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, gatecrash, green, magic: the gathering, review

There is a side of me that loves a great blue-white control deck or a black-blue behemoth that wins by taking control of the entire battlefield – and the stack. I’ll even dabble in red-black when I want pure chaos to take over.

But at my core, I’m a green-ally player at heart. My favorite deck is now referred to as Naya, but it was built long before that name was a thing. If I called it anything, it would be Thornscape (though those cards got removed a long time ago). But there is something about the Gruul Clans that makes me smile while smashing.

Gruul’s new mechanic, Bloodrush, allows you to turn creatures into pump spells on the offense and has a little touch that is great for multiplayer. It is target attacking creature – any attacking creature. This little change makes combat much more interesting for red and green since they can’t smash every turn.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Scorchwalker

Not the most exciting card in the bunch, being a 5/1 for 4 is pretty standard. The bloodrush addition is interesting because it gives mono-red some new pump options besides Brute Force. I’m most interesting in this for mono-red infect, but any aggressive red deck could use this… but that doesn’t make it good.

Skinbrand Goblin

This is much closer to what I want! The ability to be a small body or a cheap pump spell is exactly what red wants. And it is a goblin, so it will be right at home in tribal decks. Skinbrand is awesome, and when it comes to commons, this is the kind of utility I like to see. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, borborygmos, gatecrash, green, gruul, magic: the gathering, red, review

At the end of Dissension, the Simic Combine was all but destroyed. Since then though, a new leader has risen and reevaluated the guild’s focus into something… more. Or maybe they are just trying to combine the weirdest assortment of creature types possible. It’s hard to tell when the guild is almost as crazy as Izzet. Almost.

In multiplayer formats, blue and green is one of those color combinations that sounds like it can do anything. Green gives access to big creatures and fast mana, while blue adds in control, card advantage and evasion. And when you combine the two colors, weird things happen – like Crab Fish, Lizard Drakes and something called a Krasis. Anyone know what a Krasis is? Because I don’t think a mutated fish is a muddling of water a wine.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Clinging Anemones

I’m a sucker for awful creature types, and find jellyfish to be hilarious. I don’t find 4 mana walls to be that hilarious. The big difference between power and toughness means he’ll evolve easily, but that doesn’t stop the fact that this is a 1/4 defender for 4.

Cloudfin Raptor

I have no idea if this card is good. The aggro-player in me says no, but the combo player loves the idea of having a card that makes so many tokens. This is a perfect little engine piece in kitchen table 60, but in Commander, it doesn’t do enough. But bird mutants are kind of awesome. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, blue, gatecrash, green, magic: the gathering, review, simic, zegana

Green is usually the most multicolor-friendly color thank to an abundance of color fixing. For Commanders, that usually means green becomes a cornerstone of any 5-color deck (or four color at the kitchen table – unless you like playing on hard mode).

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Arial Predation
Green keeps getting more and more targeted flier removal. While strictly better than Wing Snare, Aerial Predation’s measly two life doesn’t compare to Eaten by Spiders.

Archweaver
Giant spiders are usually decent, but the combination of reach and trample just feels wrong. When monogreen has access to gems like Silklash Spider, why would you pay seven for a 5/5? It gets even more absurd when you go into the multicolor spiders that really defend you. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: casual, commander, game, green, magic: the gathering, return to ravnica, review

As a guild, I loved Selesnya. I’ve been a green-white player since the days of Ernhamgeddon. The only guild I possibly like more is Boros, but giant armies of creatures brings me back to how I remember playing Magic on the playground in grade school. And now, they have an ability perfect for combo players to abuse.

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice

As a commander, this is pretty good. Sure the mana cost is clunky, the life gain doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but that last ability makes me giddy with excitement. Populating on demand sounds like so much fun, especially in eternal formats where any and all token generators are available. I also see this pairing getting along very well with Doran.

Armada Wurm

Ten power for six mana? That’s absurd even in green. It’s great because it costs twice as much removal to work and it is basically a Titan. The casting cost isn’t nearly as prohibitive as it looks and I fully expect to see this abused for years to come thanks to Sneak Attack, Reanimation and good old fashioned ramping. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, green, magic: the gathering, populate, review, selesnya, token, trostani, white

I’m a late convert to the Golgari guild. While I’ve been a Naya player at my core since it was called Thornscape, the Izzet vs. Golgari Duel Deck was something I found beyond fascinating. I love reanimating and find the graveyard an underutilized resource in casual Magic, so Scavenge got me excited.

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

A lot of Jarad’s thunder is already echoing in the distant thanks to the fact that people have had a few weeks to play with him. In multiplayer, this guy is excellent. He’s big and just keeps getting bigger as the game progresses. His activated ability can rapidly end games as everyone else’s life totals get ground lower and lower. And he’s recursive! Sure, the mana cost is clunky as can be but it is worth it.

Deadbridge Goliath

Remember when Blastoderm was an awesome creature? Well, now you get a 5/5 with a bonus when it dies! How is that possible? While a 5/5 isn’t the most exciting creature, he’s big, he’s cheap and you can easily cast him turn 3 without fail. When he dies, you can scavenge him to make any creature on the battlefield into a giant. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, black, golgari, green, jarad, magic: the gathering, return to ravnica, review, scavenge

Green is an odd color in Magic 2013 because there doesn’t seem to be that much new with it. Big creatures, some pump spells and that is about it. A handful of cards make me sit up and take notice, but the reality is M13 doesn’t offer that many new toys.

Magic 2013 Casual & Commander Review
White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Other

Bond Beetle
Ironshell Beetle has been one of those odd two-drops and Bond Beetle continues the tradition. While not the most exciting card, the versatile nature of it combined with a bounty of bounce effects makes me think Bond Beetle can be abused – or just used as some awkward anti-undying mechanic.

Boundless Realms

Late game, there is nothing worse than drawing land after land. Boundless Realms is such an odd card though that tries to walk between being excessive ramp and deck thinning. Thanks to a high casting cost, this card doesn’t seem to really work in many environments. Commander players are too busy tricking their decks out with nonbasic lands, while kitchen table 60 needs something to do with all these lands.

Though I do really like the idea of making a Living Lands deck… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: commander, garruk, green, m13, magic 2013, magic: the gathering, review, yeva

Planechase 2 (2012) Reviews
Chaos Reigns | Night of the Ninja | Primordial Hunger | Savage Auras

The final Planechase 2 deck personally offends me. As someone who has been playing white-green aura decks for the better part of the last 15 years, I have no idea how Wizards thought they could make a white and green aura deck and not include Armadillo Cloak in it! Is it because it doesn’t actually have lifelink? Is that why Wizards? Why don’t you just keep rubbing salt in my wounds!

Savage Auras is a deck that will teach people just how terrible many auras are. With elements of Voltron decks, Savage Auras looks fine on paper but after playing a few games with it, I quickly realized it doesn’t work. Totem Armor helps and Rancor is always awesome, but most of the time you’re still just hoping people won’t immediately exile your cards.

Like the other Planechase 2 decks, Savage Auras includes 8 new planes, 2 phenomena and six brand new cards (five of which are exclusive to this deck). Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Gaming, green, magic: the gathering, phenomenon, plane, planechase, planechase 2, review, savage auras, white

Planechase 2 (2012) Reviews
Chaos Reigns | Night of the Ninja | Primordial Hunger | Savage Auras

The third Planechase 2 set doesn’t really go for subtlety. Like many red-green decks, Primordial Hunger really has a single goal: make the biggest creatures and then smash people repeatedly with them until they die. That’s about it.

Using tokens and smaller creatures as fodder for dragons and other devouring beasts, you don’t want to get attached to any creatures in your deck (or on your battlefield) because a bigger one will probably eat them in a turn or two.

Like the other sets, six new cards are included in Primordial Hunger. But unlike the others, some of these cards don’t really make sense to me as a Planechase multiplayer release. They’re good cards, but kind of boring. But I guess this means we aren’t going back to devour as a mechanic any time soon. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Gaming, green, magic: the gathering, phenomenon, plane, planechase, planechase 2, red, review, thromok the insatiable