Yawgmoth's Destiny: Green

• Yawgmoth's Destiny: White (Part 1)
• Yawgmoth's Destiny: Blue (Part 2)
• Yawgmoth's Destiny: Black (Part 3)
• Yawgmoth's Destiny: Red (Part 4)

June 11, 1999

Ancient Silverback 4GG

6/5. G: Regenerates.
All: Useless
Finally, the quest to make a decent Craw Wurm shifts into high gear. This time, they're brave enough to up the toughness and add regeneration. But there's no reason to play this over many far better creatures, like Child of Gaea and Weatherseed Treefolk.

Compost 1G

Whenever a black card is put into one of you opponents' graveyards, draw a card.
EX,T2: Useless
US: Weak
Yet another green hoser that just isn't Perish. Hoser cards have to be SB cards, and as SB cards they have to devastate. This isn't a bad effect, but it won't win a game like Perish can win a game. If the opposing deck isn't mostly or all black, this won't give you enough cards to be worth it. If Eastern Paladin hits the table, this isn't going to save a green creature deck. It would help if green actually had a way to kill black cards. As it stands, I don't see using up space in my SB for it very often. Most Saga black decks would normally fear Phyrexian Processor more than this.

Elvish Lookout G

1/1, untargettable.
All: Useless
The ability probably hurts more than it helps. You want to pump it up, if only with Rancor, and you can't. Meanwhile, they can't kill it off, but there isn't that much pressure on them to do so. It has no evasion, it does only one damage. The reason the other untargetables were good is that they were capable of winning games. This really isn't.

Elvish Piper 3G

1/1. GT:Put a creature card from your hand into play.
All: Weak
If you're going to play the Piper, you're going to have to build your deck around him. That means getting him into play quickly, having creatures worth using him on, and protecting him, while having an alternative game plan for when you can't. Sneak Attack would be a good companion, because it simulates the Piper's effect. Together, they give you eight ways to not pay for creatures. You can then choose whether or not to add the Survival engine to the deck. The other way to go is to use Gaea's Cradle or an elf mana engine, or both, along with creatures you'd still rather not pay for, like Verdant Force. This method is probably best monogreen.

Emperor Crocodile 3G

5/5. When you control no other creatures, sacrifice Emperor Crocodile.
All: Weak
To have this be safe, you need another 5-toughness creature and a third creature. That's probably overcommitement. In general, if you have another creature on the table that your opponent can't get rid of, you were doing fine anyway. If you're counting on a Bird or Elf or two to keep this alive, it isn't worth the risk. I'd rather pay an extra mana and get a creature like Weatherseed Treefolk that has trample and can't be killed permanently, rather than a creature that's all too easy to remove.

Gamekeeper 3G

2/2. When Gamekeeper dies, you may remove it from the game to Oath of Druids.
All: Weak
The main problem with Gamekeeper is that it's a creature card. If you lose a Gamekeeper, you can't insure you get a Verdant Force unless you stack your deck, because there are 3 other Gamekeepers. That means that Gamekeeper would have to go into a normal deck, and you will often end up with elves or birds and such. That makes four mana seem like too much. If it was a little better than a Gray Ogre, like Llanowar Sentinel, it would be of more use because there would be a chance that the original card would cause problems in addition to the side creatures. More basically, you really don't have time for this effect nowadays.

Goliath Beetle 2G

3/1 Trample
All: Useless
It's not a horrible creature, but there's no reason to play it over other, better green creatures.

Heart Warden 1G

1/1. T: Add G. 2,sac: Draw a card.
EX: Useless
T2: Weak
US: Good
It's nice to be able to turn your mana into cards when you don't need it anymore. But Mind Stone was a good example of how to make a card like this. It gave you colorless instead of colored mana, but it also came in untapped, making the cost of its cantrip status well under one mana. The Heart Warden is a full mana up from Llanowar Elf. If you want to play mana creatures in Urza's Saga this is a decent choice, especially if you don't want just one. In Type 2 it's tougher to justify it, but in the right deck it's not impossible. In Extended you have much better options.

Hunting Moa 2G

3/2, echo. When it comes into play or dies, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
EX: Useless
T2,US: Good
The comparison would probably be to Cradle Guard and Spike Feeder. Here, you get two +1/+1 counters for 2G, which isn't great but is sometimes quite good, with the option to pay 2G for a 3/2. In another way, it's a Viashino Outrider with more options and a nice plus when it dies. Practically, it's a lot of power and toughness, and because you can spread it out it's hard to deal with without losing card economy. Again, in Extended the green deck has to be speed, speed, speed so you can't use it. A solid addition to green creature decks.

Ivy Seer 3G

1/1. 2GT: Reveal X green cards; target creature gets +X/+X.
All: Useless
This is clearly inferior to several other seers. You can't hold back your cards to the extent you want to, because you need a creature to pump up with the Seer. The chance that this will be better than, say, Gaea's Embrace is very small as well.

Magnify G

All creatures get +1/+1 until end of turn.
All: Useless
You've got to be kidding. This even affects your opponent's creatures. That makes it next to useless in creature combat, and this doesn't do enough to be used to take out your opponent, and those are the reasons you use creature pumpers in the first place.

Marker Beetles 1GG

2/3. When it dies, target gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
2, sac: Draw a card.
All: Useless
Hunting Moa is a similar card that has what it takes. This doesn't. The bonus is almost worthless, and its cantrip status is nice but nowhere near good enough to justify the casting cost.

Momentum 2G

Growing Enchantment. Target gets +X/+X.
All: Useless
Considering that for this cost you'd probably get about +3/+3, say from Blanchwood Armor, this card takes way too long to become worth it. Creature enchantments like this normally are best the turn they come into play and the turn after, and because they make the creature harder to kill, and like the other growing creature enchantments Momentum doesn't do that.

Multani's Decree 3G

Sorcery. Destroy all enchantments and gain 2 life for each enchantment destroyed.
All: Useless
There's nothing wrong with a little lifegaining on the side. I approve of that. But the point of enchantment removal is to kill really important cards and/or kill a lot of cards at once. When this is good, ordinary Tranquility or Hush would have been great as well. If you're killing a Worship, you don't really care about the life (for example). Hush's cycling makes it viable in the maindeck in Urza's Saga. In Type 2, you have better options. Even decks with dangerous enchantments generally won't have more than two out at most, and will often cut down on their quantity against a green deck while sideboarding, and a lot of the time they're playing a funky deck where your life total couldn't be much more irrelevant.

Pattern of Rebirth 3G

When enchanted creature dies, that creature's controller tutors for a creature and put it directly into play.
All: Useless
This should have let the controller of Pattern of Rebirth do the tutoring. That would have given the card more options. At least, this is an effect worth waiting for. Still, for four mana you enter the realm of Natural Order, and the cost of sacrificing a creature over having a creature to enchant is well worth getting the creature immediately and not having to worry about it being ignored or locked down.

Plated Spider 4G

4/4, can block flyers.
All: Useless
It's the same cost as other color's flyers, often with better overall special abilities than their slight power or toughness deficit. Green's creatures need to be better. At five mana, green needs to start casting creatures that are really difficult to deal with, like Deranged Hermit and Weatherseed Treefolk. If Plated Spider fits into your strategy, you're monogreen and using your big creatures to block. That doesn't make much sense. If it does, use Spike Weaver.

Plow Under 3GG

Put two target lands on top of their owner's library.
All: Good
It's virtually guaranteed two for one, and often a two turn Time Walk. Stunted Growth was a very overlooked card. This isn't as devastating, but it also helps you control your opponent's current mana supply instead of forcing you to already have that under control. Also, you don't have to worry about them not having a hand. If they have no land, you're probably going to be OK. And if you're not, denying them draws wouldn't help anyway. This is really solid, and I've already learning it's really annoying to play against.

Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary GG

Elf Legend, 2/1. T: Add G to your mana pool for every forest you control.
EX,T2: Good
US: Excellent
This is normally going to give you at least two mana, and will often give you more. It lets you get to six mana on turn 3, and then eight mana (the Verdant Force zone) on turn 4 with almost no disadvantage. At 2/1, it can even attack. It's hard to fit it into a Stroke deck because as a creature it has the one turn delay, Mind over Matter is gone (which would have been one good reason to want it), and its vulnerability. If you're going with the Forest strategy, you have Vernal Bloom. One important effect is that by playing these and Priest of Titania, the green decks once again are insured that they will have an unreasonable amount of mana most of the time in US block even without Gaea's Cradle.

Scent of Ivy G

Reveal X green cards. Target creature gets +X/+X.
EX,T2: Useless
US: Weak
Scent of Ivy is much worse than Giant Growth, since no sane deck is going to average more than +3/+3 and most of the time that's as much as you need anyway. The normal way to play Giant Growth or Symbiosis or Might of Oaks is for it to be the last card in your hand, giving you board control and tempo advantage. Here, you have to give that up to use it. There's no point. Without Giant Growth it may see some small amount of play in Urza's Saga to keep your opponent guessing, but that's it.

Splinter 2GG

Sorcery. Lobotomy target artifact.
EX: Useless
T2: Weak
US: Excellent
Why the big jump? Uktabi Orangutan. And after that, Creeping Mold. You don't need this outside Saga block. Getting rid of the other copies may be nice, but rarely will it be that vital. Certainly it isn't as important as having a 2/2 and saving one mana. Maindeck, it's not as good as the flexibility of Creeping Mold. That leaves the sideboard, where it may have some use dealing with artifacts you just want to go away, like Cursed Scroll or Temporal Aperture, but that would only be worth it in a situation where artifact decks were dominant. In Urza's Saga, of course, this fills the gigantic hole in the green deck. Now it has a very good way to deal with artifacts.

Taunting Elf G

0/1, all creatures able to block it do so.
EX,T2: Useless
US: Weak
In other words, you get through for one turn. There are other ways to use it, in particular Might of Oaks to kill everything on the other side, but basically you get through one turn. Is that worth a card? In general it isn't, and I'd rather have a creature enchantment. If you get into situations where you can get your opponent in range but can't finish him off because of blocking, this may not be that bad, but I don't think that is going to come up that often. I've talked a lot about 1 and 2 power being worlds apart. The jump from zero to one is gigantic. This isn't a threat at all, and that's a very high price.

Thorn Elemental 5GG

7/7. Thorn Elemental can deal its damage to defending player.
EX: Weak
T2,US: Good
If it attacks, your opponent takes seven. It's hard to kill. It's also hard to cast. Does this belong in decks that cannot cast it? After Verdant Force, this would probably be my next choice for a BFC. Thorn Elemental is one mana cheaper, and if I was choosing a BFC for a green creature deck I'd choose the Elemental. The Elemental is about finishing players off and blowing open stalemates. The Force is about winning the game on its own over the long term, being better than a whole deck, defending while it attacks. You should choose the one that fits your deck better. If your deck is all about playing one creature, make it the Force. If it just needs a finisher, choose the Elemental.

Yavimaya Elder 1GG

2/1. When it dies, search for up to two basic lands and put them in your hand. 2, sac: Draw a card.
All: Weak
When I first saw the Elder, for some reason I thought it put the lands into play. I then spent some time trying to build an engine around it, or fit it into an existing engine. I couldn't find one that did better than what was already out there. When I realized you put the lands in your hand, that killed its potential in engines. This takes at least three and probably five mana to get two basic lands, even if it is as a cantrip. That means if it's any good it fits into creature decks, and those decks would much rather be summoning mana creatures or beef.

Yavimaya Enchantress 2G

2/2. Yavimaya Enchantress gets +1/+1 for every enchantment in play.
EX: Useless
T2,US: Good
If you're playing all 12 enchantresses, what is your goal? Are you going infinite (or at least to 21 or 61 mana)? If you are, why is this one in the deck? If you're not, it seems like a waste of a lot of card drawing. Assuming there will almost always be at least one in play (Wild Growth or Exploration, say) this is a 3/3 for three mana, which isn't bad with its potential to become huge. In decks that either aren't trying to go infinite or don't win that many games that way, this fits right in. It certainly belongs in the beatdown versions that use Auratog and Rancor.

Green, as always, was very shallow. Green's focus is creatures, and most creatures are bad. Only when they come in one mana less than you'd expect do you end up with a tournament level card. Still, green's top isn't that bad. It got Splinter, it got the excellent Plow Under and an excellent new mana creature. Green didn't do badly…

I'm sorry. I can't keep a straight face. Green's pretty bad, actually. The only thing that saves it is that its missing link (artifact destruction) showed up, while blue's (decent counter) didn't. And it filled out its solid creature roster pretty well. But there are no green decks I want to build around cards in this set. Green's enjoying a resurgence right now in T2, at least on the net, but that's about Uktabi and Rancor and the 8 mana creatures. Sometimes the decks use Plow Under, but that has very little to do with why they are played.

Finally, a correction. I copied the ability of Lurking Jackals incorrectly, and said it was you who had to have 10 or less life. Actually, it's your opponent who needs to have 10 or less life. I don't think I was thinking of Opal Avenger, which has the ability I thought the Jackals has; I just misread it. Thanks to Andy Crowner for pointing this out quickly, and giving me a chance to correct it. Since he also thought the card was good, I'll take a closer look.

I still hate it. In fact, I like it even less. This was what I said about the ‘alternate universe’ card:

Lurking Jackals B

When you have 10 or less life, it becomes a 3/2.
EX: Useless
T2,US: Weak
By the time you get to 10 life, 3/2 will probably not be that impressive. The purpose of Jackals would be to gain tempo, by dumping insane amounts of power on the table at an insane pace. But a lot of decks don't do damage, or at least don't do early damage, or at least don't need to. If you're mana burning or damaging yourself, that slows you much more than the mana you saved. So your deck is going to have to do 10 to itself anyway. There are three good ways to do that: Infernal Contract, Lurking Evil and Yawgmoth's Bargain. This strategy is going to mean committing to doing that damage to yourself every game or playing with a lot of dead cards. Are the Jackals good enough to create a truly suicidal black? Can you play both them and Hatred in the same deck? Good questions.

I saw a glimmer of hope for the card. Black has good ways to get to 10 with good compensation. But get your opponent to 10? Andy suggested a R/B deck with Phyrexian Negator. You need the red to either remove your opponent's creatures to stop them from blocking a Negator or to bring your opponent down to 10. Once again, the goal of this deck has to be tempo. If your deck doesn't tap out every turn, paying one mana in advance is a minor advantage, while having to do 10 damage to activate it is a major disadvantage. This deck should then finish itself with other cards that help you gain momentum on the first few turns. Sonic Burst is good burn for this deck, for example. It would look something like this:

At this point, the red is getting in the way. It's not enough of an improvement in card quality to be better than the ability to play traditional Suicide Black acceleration in the form of Hatred and City of Traitors. That puts you back playing Suicide:

That creatures a new problem, of course: The Hatred theme is messing with the Lurking Jackals. The Jackals are almost never going to help you with the Hatred kill, and Hatred is rarely going to be worth using to activate the Jackals. At any rate, doing that is not a quality play. In particular, Jackals is showing itself to be a card that you dump on the table and becomes good when you've emptied your hand (thus hopefully doing 10 damage), but isn't Cursed Scroll better at that? If you then decide to use Cursed Scroll and Lurking Jackals, Hatred has to go. Without Hatred, City of Traitors leaves the deck, which wipes out the second turn non-ritual Priest of Gix start.

The next step will be for Lurking Jackals to leave.

You'll find that in games where the Jackals activate, you didn't need them. By that time, your deck has used up its cards and has mana to spare. If you still have cards, the Jackals at 3/2 aren't even that much better a value than the Skittering Skirge or Sacromancy. At this point, you'll realize that Cursed Scroll is so valuable in this situation compared to another ground creature (also note that this strategy has forced us to get rid of all the shadow creatures) that you're willing to Vampiric Tutor for that Cursed Scroll rather than spit out another 3/2, given that the Tutor gives you other options as well.

What just happened is what I originally called “Dojo Drift”. You find a cool looking card, in this case the Jackals, and want to use it. You build a deck around it, in this case by doing 10 damage quickly. Then that deck goes through a series of transformations, each clearly an improvement, that ends in a standard deck, in this case Suicide Black, killing the first idea or card. This is what happens to most interesting new cards and decks. Most of the time, you just ask the question: Why is this card/idea better than the existing card/idea? And it's rare that there's a good answer.

This ends part 5. Part 6 will cover the artifacts and the only land. Since that's only 18 cards, instead of the 25 included in each color, I'm going to throw in a look back at the cards readers think I've rated incorrectly. I made one outright error that I know of, but I'm sure a lot of people think I wasn't fair to a lot of cards. There's a wait between when I send in an article and when it gets posted, so there will be a larger than usual wait for the last section. I will wait for at least three days after the date posted on New Wave for Part 5. At that point, I'll take a closer look at 5 or so cards. If you want to vote, send your opinion direct to me, at zvi@sprintmail.com. You can name up to five cards. It helps if you include your reason(s) why the cards you mention are good, up to and including decks. I'll give credit where credit is due, but anything you send is fair game for me to post. Use the subject line “Yawgmoth's Destiny Overlooked Cards”.

Zvi Mowshowitz