Prophecy Fields

1 of these cards is super-awesome, 1 is good, 2 are "meh" and 1 is baaaaad. I'll give you a minute to guess which is which.

*insert Jeopardy theme*

If you guessed Noxious Field is super-awesome, Sunken Field is good, Flowering and Verdant Field are "meh", and Barbed Field is bad, go get yourself a cookie! You earned it with all that hard thinkin' you just did.

Barbed Field

Yeah, it's Geistflame on a stick, and no matter what anyone tells me, they will never convince me that Geistflame is better than Lightning Bolt. If it didn't cost 4 to put on a land, it'd be a bit better (like an Arcane Teachings, but for land) but as it stands it's too expensive.

Pros: Geistflame on a stick

Cons: Geistflame on a stick, really expensive

Rating: 1/5

Flowering Field

It's protection against Geistflame! There are very few situations where the prevention of 1 damage is going to save something (unless they use a weak spell like Geistflame (okay, I'm going to stop ragging on that card now)), but it's cheap and there could be a situation that 1 damage could save a creature, so it does fare batter than Barbed Field.

Pros: Weaker Ivory Charm on a stick, cheap

Cons: Only prevents 1 damage

Rating: 2.5/5

Noxious Field

Easily the best out of the bunch. Who doesn't love Pestilence on a stick that doesn't have a sack trigger? Although, it can only be used once a turn, whereas Pestilence can be used multiple times a turn. Still, this is 1 mana cheaper than Pestilence, so it gains a little something there.

Pros: Pestilence without the sack trigger, cheaper than Pestilence

Cons: Can only be used once a turn

Rating: 3.5/5

Sunken Field

Now, I'm tempted to give this card a 6/5 rating because Wizards thinks that Force Spike is ridiculously overpowered and scares away new players (no, seriously, read it in this article). However, as a blue player, I can say with certainty that the 1 extra mana is usually not enough to stop someone in casual. It'll annoy them, but it probably won't stop them outright. However, you could get this out fairly early since it's cheap and you might be able to stop one or two spells.

Pros: Force Spike on a stick, cheap

Cons: Force Spike usually doesn't do anything in casual

Rating: 3/5

Verdant Field

Eh, this could work sometimes. It's very much like Flowering Field; there are only a few times where 1 power or 1 toughness is going to make a difference (unless someone's using a certain card, which I promised not to name anymore), but that one time where it comes in handy, you'll be glad you had it. However, unlike Flowering Field, this card isn't that cheap, so it's usefulness is downgraded slightly.

Pros: Weaker Feral Instinct on a stick

Cons: Only gives +1/+1, not that cheap

Rating: 2/5

Crookclaw Transmuter

I think this card gets a harsher reputation for being bad then it deserves. To start off, it's a 3/1 flyer with Flash for 4, which if you you look at other cards of the same cost with Flash isn't that bad. It's got one less toughness then King Cheetah for example, but it makes up for it with its flying. It also has a fairly good ability on it: About Face. That ability is a little under-appreciated in my book. Sure, it won't do anything against an angry Doomgape, but it could be the difference between surviving and losing with regard to a Lord of Tresserhorn or Thunderblust. I don't think people appreciate that there are a lot of cards that just increase the power of a creature rather than both the power and toughness and that's where this card shines. Conversely, you could turn your Wall of Bone into a deadly creature that you can just regenerate or kill your opponent's Necropolis. As I mentioned before, this card's biggest flaw is that it doesn't do anything against a creature with equal power and toughness, but it could just be flashed in front of that big thing and stop it (unless it has Trample). It also doesn't have much toughness, but it will have served it's purpose once it's within Geistflame range anyway.

Pros: Makes offensive creatures weak, makes defensive creatures strong (or kills them outright), flash flyer

Cons: Doesn't do anything to balanced creatures, little toughness

Rating: 3/5

Ravnica Dual Lands

These cards are really, really awesome! Now, why are these awesome? To start, they've got basic land types (but they're not basic lands). This means that cards like Gift of Estates could pull 3 copies of Temple Garden, Liliana of the Dark Realms lets Watery Grave tap for four black mana, and Seedguide Ash allows you to put 3 Breeding Pools into play. Why does this matter? I mean, you could search for 3 Plains with Gift of Estates, Liliana makes Swamps tap for 4 black mana too, and Seedguide Ash could just look for 3 Forests. The big difference: it's multicolour.

One of the problems with multicolour decks is that there aren't a lot of cards that search for multiple types of land, but a card that that can search for one type of land can search for one of these lands that can produce two colours which is better for a multicolour deck. However, they do come with the caveat that you have to pay 2 life when it comes into for it not to come into play tapped (however, if WotC didn't do this, they'd just be reprinting the Original Dual Lands and no one wants to pay those prices!). Also, it is vulnerable to nonbasic land destruction, but that's a fairly minor concern as well.

Pros: Can produce 2 different kinds of mana, have basic land types

Cons: Nonbasic land vulnerabilities, have to pay 2 life in order for it to come into play untapped

Rating: 4.5/5

Fatigue

This card is truly one of a kind. It's the only card in Magic that forces a player to skip their next draw step. Now, forcing an opponent to skip a can be really good depending on the situation (such as countering the effects of Maralen of the Mornsong) and it can sometimes be useful on yourself (such as if you're going to draw out next turn or if you'll die because of Spiteful Visions), however it can easily be worked around. Every colour has cards that allow it to draw outside of the draw step, so forcing your opponent to skip their next draw step might not be that useful, depending on your opponent's deck's construction. However, this card is one of those cards that doesn't see play very often and it can throw a wrench into people's plans sometimes. Your opponent might have a Laboratory Maniac deck that revolves around cards like Howling Mine and Font of Mythos in order to draw out faster and this card gives you the chance to extend the game a turn in order to kill your opponent before they can draw out. It can also stop people who stack their decks in order to get "that winning card" for a turn, unless they have other draw abilities. That's what the biggest downfall of this card is in a nutshell: it works, only if your opponent isn't expecting it.

Pros: Stops an opponent from having a draw step, can save you from drawing out at the beginning of your own turn, can catch your opponent off guard

Cons: Only stops an opponent's plans if they don't have any other way to draw, relies on element of surprise or the arrogance of your opponent

Replacement: Fatespinner

Rating: 2/5

Edgewalker

Yay! 1,000 views! I know it's small potatoes, but it makes me feel important so I'll review one of my favourite cards today: Edgewalker.

What I really like about this card is two-fold: its colour and its ability. Black/white is probably my favourite colour combination because both colours support each other's strengths and cover each other's weaknesses. The ability on this card is also just awesome. It makes your Cleric spells actually cost less coloured mana, something which is extremely rare in any card. Put 4 of these in a deck with Conspiracy and suddenly that Angel of Despair only costs 3. Toss in a Semblance Anvil and it only costs 1. Now, this does require you to run Conspiracy or a black/white Cleric deck (probably Orzhov-flavoured), so outside of those situations it's not that good. Also, it doesn't reduce the colourless mana you need to pay, so at best you're usually only saving 1-3 mana with one of these out. However, in the right circumstances, it's a really, really good card.

Pros: Reduces coloured mana costs for Clerics

Cons: Only reduces coloured mana, only works with Clerics

Rating: 3/5 

Krovikan Elementalist

Take a good long look at this card, because you'll probably never see it again. Seriously, I didn't even know this card existed and my hobby is surfing Gatherer! Anyway, is it some magical hidden gem of a card that begs to be brought back like Lim-Dul's Vault? Eh... no. This card kinda really sucks. To start, it's a 1/1 for 2 black mana, making it not very splashable, which doesn't make much sense since both its abilities are in other colours. Cards like Nightscape Master can get away with it because it's abilities are pretty good (well the blue one is at least). This card's abilities on the other hand are both pretty bad. Paying 3 to give something else +1/+0 just isn't worth it. Okay, it doesn't have to tap like Armorer Guildmage or Shaper Guildmage, but are you going to want to pay the cost more than once? Better yet, are you going to be able to pay the cost more than once? His second ability is essentially a weakened, yet more versatile, Fling. It can make something hop over defenses or it can stop something from hopping over yours. But, if you're running blue, you've got better options (like Leap, Soar, or even Jump). All in all, you've got better options than this guy, unless you really want to use up your Morgue Toads quickly.

Pros: Weakened yet versatile Fling, firebreathing for other creatures, abilities don't require tap

Cons: Expensive for abilities, harder to splash because of mana cost

Rating: 1/5

Dragon Engine

This card really tries to be good, but sorts of fails at it. To start: it's a 1/3 Construct (it's been errata'd) for 3. Power/toughness-wise, that's pretty "middle-of-the-road"; it's not as strong as Phyrexian Soulgorger but it's not as weak as Darksteel Myr (I'm only talking about power & toughness, not usefulness right now). But, how good is it for it's cost? 

Well, it does kind of has firebreathing. It's colourless firebreathing, but it's also expensive firebreathing. However, it's pretty much expected that firebreathing will be more expensive if it's colourless (only Soldevi Simulacrum and Snow Fortress have cheaper firebeathing in the colourless world), so it can be forgiven for that. But... that's about this card's got going for it. Duskworker regenerates each time it gets blocked, meaning it's pretty useful if you throw a Lure on it. Steel Hellkite has an amazing ability on it, and say what you want about Roterothopter, at least it's got flying! All in all, it's not that great a card. Makes you think what the city of Kroog thought Mishra had. Rubber bands and a BB gun?

Pros: Standard colourless firebreathing, average power/toughness for cost

Cons: No evasion, pretty bland

Rating: 1.5/5

The 6 Wishes

Oh Judgement (and to a lesser extend Future Sight), you so crazy! Now, I won't review these cards separately since they all effectively do the same thing. These cards were obviously meant for tournament play, wherein you have a sideboard that you can draw your cards from. However, in casual play, these can get stupid. Normally, the rule is "you can only choose cards you have with you", but I've had a couple rules lawyers drive home to get a card they want to play it because it's "outside the game". The funniest combo you can make with any of these cards is what I've heard termed "Magi-ception". You cast  Shahrazad, use Burning Wish to bring Shahrazad into the subgame, use Burning Wish again in the sub-subgame to make a sub-sub-subgame, and then you keep going if you have the cards (adding Death Wish to this can make it go even longer). The only weakness to these cards is that they specify what type of card you have to bring in or, in Death Wish's case, have a big drawback.

Pros: Brings in needed cards from outside the game

Cons: Can only bring in specific types of cards or cost you half your life, rules lawyers can abuse these in casual occasionally (usually solvable by a punch to the face)

Rating: 4/5 

Sorrow's Path

Umm... Yeah... This card sucks. There is only 1, count them: 1, situation where this card can be useful and it is the following:

You swing with a tramply creature whose power is several times more than your opponent's life total (for the sake of both argument and excess, let's pretend it's a Sutured Ghoul that you exiled 4 Jokulmorders for, making it a 48/48) and an Armor Thrull (because you run an awesome deck). Your opponent decides to block your giant Ghoul with a Sentinel and pays the 0 cost for his ability and blocks your Thrull with a Birds of Paradise (let's pretend your opponent got hit on the head recently and can't think straight). With this card, boom! Suddenly he takes 47 damage to the face while you only lose 2 life and all of your gribblies die.

However, there is one major flaw with this plan. If you use the above setup, your opponent could have lived if he didn't block your Thrull. You see, this card requires 2 blockers to work, so if your opponent only blocks 1 creature. this fails. It also fails if you're trying to swap a flying blocker that's in your Kulrath Knight's way with a ground-walker because it can't cause illegal blocks. Finally, it fails because it'll wipe out any gribblies you have and deal you 2 damage in order to make one switch (or, it can do that if your opponent uses Rishadan Port on it (sidenote: Look, an actual good use for Rishadan Port! Now to find someone dumb enough to use this card...)). All in all, it fails.

Pros: Switches blockers in very, very limited situations

Cons: Hurts you, hurts your creatures, and probably hurts your family somehow

Rating: 0/5

Deep Water

This card is not as useful as you'd think. The only real use that I've ever seen with this card is to put it in a beck that runs Urza-tron in order to produce copious amounts of blue mana which is useful if you're running Invoke Prejudice, Island Fish Jasconius, or Reality Twist. The other use I've seen for this card is actually almost completely accidental. Let's say you're in a multiplayer game and the only guy running black plays Contamination. You're screwed now right? Not if you have this and say a Silver Myr. Now you can produce your blue mana and stay on top of the game! However, outside of that deck build and that situation, this card isn't very useful at all.

Pros: Defeats Contamination if you have an artifact that can produce blue mana, in an Urza-tron combo, it results in a lot of blue mana

Cons: Not useful outside of a couple specific situations

Rating: 1/5

Then and Now: Door to Nothingness

Here, at the request of a friend of mine, is a new thing that'll I'll be doing: comparing cards that have been reprinted to when they were first printed. This is mainly to look at how the game has changed from when it was first released to today. First up: Door to Nothingness.

 

Back when Door to Nothingness was first printed, I saw it as a novelty card. Sure, 5-colour decks had existed before (as evidenced by cards like Coalition Victory), but there weren't that many outside of Sliver decks. As a result, I never saw it played. So, what's the big change? 3 words: colourless mana fixing. One of the biggest problems with running this card is the fact that you need 2 mana of each colour, something which wasn't very easy to do back in the day but is easier to do today.

Cards like the Obelisks from Shards of Alara, Alloy Myr, and Khalni Gem let players have multiple colours in their decks without having to worry about having the right mana out to play it. Sure, cards like the Cameos and Gilded Lotus were printed before or even in the same block, but there was a problem with the cards before this set: they weren't widely used. Gilded Lotus, for example, was a rare that was really expensive price-wise and usually only came out in the late game whereas the Obelisks and the Mana Myr were cheap and common. The Cameos only produced 2 colours, so you would need a lot of of them to make this card work while Khalni Gem make 2 mana so you'll only need 3 in a 2-colour deck. There may have been cards that produced multiple colours of mana before Fifth Dawn, but more efficient and wider colourless sources came afterwards.

So, that's it. If you have any suggestions for more cards that I should compare when it was first printed to the latest printing, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Infect

Okay, it has become very clear to me that I need to explain my position on Infect. In short: I absolutely despise Infect. Is it because I hate poison counters? Quite the contrary, I actually like the idea of poison counters as a way to slowly chip away at your opponent's health. But, there's the key: slowly chip away at their health, which is the opposite of what Infect does.

Now, for those of you who don't remember back when poison counters were a fair and likable mechanic, I'll give you an example.

This is Marsh Viper, one of the original cards with poison counters. Why is it so much more balanced than a creature with Infect? First, look at it's cost. It's a 1/2 for 4. For what it does, that's actually a fair price. Second, and most importantly, it gives a set number of poison counters, unlike Infect, which varies on the power of the creature. But, rather than pull out card comparisons, I think it would be best if I just ran down some arguments that I've come up against and explain my position on them.

#1 - "Infect is balanced because there are cards to deal with poison counters"
Actually, there's only 1 card in all of Magic that removes poison counters: Leeches from way back in Homelands. Now, if you're talking about cards that prevent you from getting poison counters, that's not necessarily true. You're probably thinking of Melira, Sylvok Outcast as a solution to Infect, and it is; if you're running green! Where's the white, blue, black, or red solution for Infect? You can't just claim "there's a solution" when only 1 colour in block has a viable method of prevention and only 1 card in the entire game exists that can solve the problem.

#2 - "Infect creatures are really expensive"
For the most part, yes this is true. A lot of creature with Infect are overcosted in a vain attempt to make Infect balanced. However, Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon is a reasonably priced 4/4 Flying Infect with the possibility of Haste and regeneration for 5. Hand of the Praetors gives players poison counters and powers up Infect creatures for 4. Blighted Agent is unblockable for 2!

#3 - "There aren't that many good creatures with Infect"
You mean besides the ones I just mentioned? Well, even if that were true, there are a multitude of ways you can give other creatures Infect. Grafted Exoskeleton gives a creature +2/+2 and Infect for 6 (or 4 if you have the right cards out) and Glistening Oil and Phyresis give creatures Infect as well. Tainted Strike is an instant-speed powerup and it gives Infect. Finally, Triumph of the Hordes could be seen as a better Overrun since it's cheaper and much more deadly.

#4 - "It's just as unfair as Wither and you never complained about that"
I don't even think this warrants a response. Wither was a much better mechanic because it forced you to chose whether or not it was better to kill an opponent's creature in exchange for weakening one of your own or letting it deal you damage so that you could swing with a better creature. One of my friends has an excellent Wither deck that I find is one of the most tactical decks I've played against recently for that reason. Infect is not a choice. You have to block a creature with Infect whether you want to or not because you will die and there is no way to recover from a hit with Infect.

Those are the biggest arguments I've come across in favour of Infect. If you have anything you'd like to say about Infect and attempt to convince me why it's balanced, post them in the comments below. I am willing to take back all of this if someone can prove to me that Infect is a balanced mechanic, but I find that very unlikely.

The Rest of the Worldwake ETB Lands

I'll be the first to admit it: I dun goofed. As was pointed out by one of my friends on Facebook, I forgot the other 4 ETB lands from Worldwake in my Khalni Garden Review. There's a very good explanation for that though: outside of Halimar Depths, which I honestly thought was from Zendikar, I've never seen any of these played so I forgot they were a set. Rather than do them all at once, I'll just do a quick review of each one right now.

Bojuka Bog

Exiling an opponent's graveyard is nice, but there are only so many instances where that will be useful. If they're not playing a reanimator or Flashback deck, it's ETB effect is pretty lackluster.

Pros: Exiles an opponent's graveyard

Cons: Will only be effective against certain types of decks

Rating: 3.5/5

Halimar Depths

Like I said before, the only reason I forgot about this card was because I thought it was from a different set. I run at least 2 of these in all of my blue decks because its ETB effect is the best out of the set. It's a mini-Sage of Epityr on a land! The only time that that effect won't be useful is right after you set up your top cards, but first turn - mwah!

Pros: Early game stacking

Cons: Isn't useful if you've already stacked your deck

Rating: 4.5/5

Sejiri Steppe

This card is probably the weakest of the set. Sure, giving something protection from a colour is nice, but it only really works against mono-colour decks and with the prevalence of multicolour decks coming into being, it can really backfire easily. This effect is much nicer on an instant like Stave Off or Prismatic Boon

Pros: Give a creature protection from a colour for a turn

Cons: Not at instant speed, doesn't work well against multicolour decks

Rating: 2/5

Smoldering Spires

This is the card Sejiri Steppe was trying to be. The ability's fairly mediocre and it's definitely more useful in the early game. Late game, this probably won't make much of a difference (unless they've got something like Foriysian Interceptor that you can gum up).

Pros: Stops a creature from blocking, great early game

Cons: Only stops 1 creature from blocking, weak late game

Rating: 3.5/5

There! Now all the Worldwake ETB lands are dealt with. Happy now Smythe?

Stormbind

Since my last review was... short, I decided to post another one today. You're welcome.

I used to run a Madness deck, and I had 4 copies of this card. Of course, there aren't that many cards in red or green that have Madness. However, discarding a Fiery Temper and turning it into 5 damage for 3 or even chucking a Basking Rootwalla with a cardless Shock. Now, this is a little pricey since it costs 2 for that Shock, but its 2 colourless, and in a dual-colour deck that's pretty nice, but the randomness of the discard is a little annoying and it might result in you discarding a land or something without Madness. I'll admit it, my deck wasn't the greatest...

Pros: Turns cards into colourless Shocks

Cons: The Shocks cost 2, discard is random

Rating: 2.5/5

Khalni Garden

Not much to say about this, except that it's a cool land because it gives you a gribblie in exchange for coming into play tapped. Umm... yeah, that's it. 

Pros: Gives you a gribblie

Cons: Comes into play tapped

Rating: 4/5

Mangara's Tome

I really like this card because it sort of stacks your deck, but leaves in that random chance as well. Also, unlike stacking your deck, this can't be ruined by an opponent forcing your to shuffle your deck. Removing up to five cards from your deck and drawing them in a random order might not seem like a very good idea, but in the right circumstances it can be quite an effective strategy.

Let's take the example of an EDH game at turn 6 (the turn after you play this) to demonstrate this. By this point, your deck would have gone from 99 cards to 86 (assuming no extra card draw at all), which means you have a 6% chance to draw one of the 5 cards you want. However, if you played this, you know have a 20% to draw the card you want. This also works in the opposite fashion as well. Let's say, in the same game, you have 5 cards that you don't want to draw. You can take them out of your deck and you no longer have to worry about drawing them.

The other, and probably more overlooked scenario where this card can be good is in a self-mill deck as a backup plan. Let's take a blue self-mill deck running 4 copies of Laboratory Maniac, but it hasn't really gotten going yet. Your opponent plays Clear the Land and you're thinking that's great because it means less cards in your deck, but lo and behold, the top 4 cards were your Maniacs! Okay, that's a little far-fetched and unlikely, but something like that is possible. As you're playing your first Maniac, it gets a Counterbore flung at it. Your opponent's knows what type of deck you're playing and calls for Maniac during Cranial Extraction. But, probably the biggest worry for this scenario in a self-mill deck is that you mill one Maniac and then Extirpate targets it. With this card, you can still play your mill cards (against other people and the group ones as well) without have to worry about drawing out. Not a perfect solution, but a backup.

This card is close to perfect, but it does have a couple drawbacks. The fact that you have to shuffle the exiled cards is a bit of a pain, especially if one card is more important than the others. Now, you could use this for a tutor of sorts, but it does cost 7 to work (and has to wait until you draw next). Then again, it is colourless. Finally, the risk of it being destroyed and the cards along with it might not be worth the risk, especially against red or green.

Pros: Pseudo-stacks your deck, draw-out prevention, removes unnecessary cards
Cons: Cards are vulnerable to destruction, shuffling the cards may prove risky
Rating: 4/5

Thundermaw Hellkite & Odric, Master Tactician

I... I quit. 

*gets up*

*leaves room*

*slams door*

*smashes face against wall*

*comes back*

Seriously you guys?! We're letting powercreep of this magnitude get made?! Now, for you out there who might be saying "But jimbob, it's not that bad! A 5/5 Flying Haste Dragon for 5 has been done before and it doesn't do that much damage, so what's the problem?" (Actually, the next cheapest 5/5 with Flying and Haste is Hellkite Charger at 6 with an ability that costs 7, so, you're wrong). Well let me tell you that you are obviously not reading the last 3 words on the card: "Tap those creatures". What does that mean? That means that most defenders will be rendered useless against this thing! Yeah, I know Reach exists, but that's not the point! The point is that this card taps down 75% of defenders against it and there's nothing you can can do about it. Shroud or Hexproof? Doesn't protect since it's not targeted. Protection from Red? It'll stop the damage, but not the tap since again, it's not targeted. Indestructibility? Won't matter until it's got 1 toughness anyway. Seriously, this card is easily the most broken card in M13...

*edited profanity and burning of several objects*

Wow. Just wow. Who at Wizards thought cards of this magnitude would be a good idea? Seriously. "But it can die to Doom Blade, so it's not that bad!" What if you're not playing black or cards that can stop a creature? This is an argument I hear way too often. "Everything has a counter, so just find it and use it." That's a bull answer and you know it. Games like Magic shouldn't be about building the "one deck to rule them all", it should be about trickery and tactics, not finding the one solution and hoping you run into that one problem. I know I'm getting on a soapbox here, but I think I proved my point about how ridiculously powerful cards are getting nowadays.

Back to the review. There isn't much else to say about these cards. They're super-overpowered and have very few flaws. Thundermaw only affects Flying creatures though, so a creature with Reach could block it and Odric needs 3 other creatures to attack with him (although I doubt people building a deck in a set where  Captain of the Watch and Captain's Call are going to have much of an issue there).

Thundermaw Hellkite

Pros: Taps 75% of blockers, 5/5 Flying Haste for 5

Cons: Doesn't tap Reach creatures

Rating: 5/5

Odric, Master Tactician

Pros: Master Warcraft on a very reusable stick, 3/4 First Strike for 4

Cons: Needs 3 other creatures to work

Rating: 5/5

Elvish Pathcutter

Not all Elves are good, as proven by this card. At base, it's too expensive. It's a 1/2 for 4 with a fairly bad ability. What other 1/2s are better? Callous Oppressor, Academy Rector, or Bitterheart Witch are better 1/2s for 3, 4, and 5 mana respectively. It's not like the fact that it's a 1/2 for 4 that makes it bad, 1/2s can be worth 4+ mana if they have a good ability. But, this ability isn't very good. Yeah, forestwalk can be good sometimes, but it's just not worth it here. Surprisingly, there are only 6 cards in Magic that give a target creature forestwalk (not landwalk, forestwalk specifically) and they are all green. Now, if we're talking about an Elf deck, there are only 2 cards that work, this card and Weatherseed Elf, and Weatherseed Elf is better. Why? Weatherseed only costs 1, which means it comes out earlier. It taps rather instead of having a cost, meaning it can be used on the fly without worrying about saving mana. Now, this card can be repeatedly used unlike Weatherseed Elf, which is its only saving grace at this point, because this can only be used on Elves, meaning that it's use is limited outside of an Elf deck.

Pros: Can used multiple times, gives forestwalk to Elves

Cons: Only give forestwalk to Elves, expensive

Rating: 0.5/5

Multani, Maro-Sorcerer

King. Of. Multiplayer. Right here. In a four-player game, around turn 4 (when a green deck should be able to get this out), this will be, on average, a 16/16 Shroud (4x4 cards in hand). In an Emperor game, this could be a 24/24 shroud (6x4 cards). If green had more card-draw, this card would be one of the best EDH generals out there (and probably banned as a result). However, this card's strength is also its greatest weakness. If you are playing against a Hellbent deck, this is probably at most a 7/7, which still isn't bad, but it's not that great. It also has Shroud, which means that it can't be enchanted with green's various awesome enchantments and it shields it from most regeneration (save for Wrap in Vigor or a sacrificed Loxodon Hierarch). Finally, this card has no way to get past defenders.

Pros: Usually giant in multiplayer games, shrouded

Cons: May not be as big in duels, shrouded, no evasion

Rating: 4/5

Spiny Starfish

This card is a boss, not that it looks like it. This is not a card that you run on its own, unless you're playing a really defensive deck. However, with certain cards, this card can be awesome. With Acorn Catapult for example, it makes 2 creatures every turn for 2 mana. Prodigal Sorcerer also works like this too, but cheaper, but it only produces 1 creature instead of 2. With Pestilence, you can make 0/1 tokens for 2 mana, so it isn't as efficient as Acorn Catapult, but it works faster and only once (lest you kill all of your gribblies, unless you want to, like in a Grave Pact deck). There are better versions of this card (namely Ant Queen), but this card can still stand up. Now, it does cost a fair bit in that it costs 3 to put down for a 0/1, but in the right deck it shouldn't matter too much.


Pros: Highly effective gribblie-producer
Cons: Really hard to get started on its own, a tad expensive
Rating: 3.5/5

Astrolabe

You know, I always liked the "draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep" thing that a lot of old cards had. For Instants and Sorceries, it kept your hand topped up during your opponent's turn, and for permanents, it was just a nice bonus. That's one of the reasons I like this card. The other reason is because it effectively doubles up some mana. This can very useful in a lot of situations. Probably the best example is being used in blue counter deck. Let's say your opponent plays something that you have to counter (let's say Apocalypse) but you only have 1 blue mana available and a Counterspell in your hand. Well, with this card, you know have the mana and a replacement card at the beginning of the next turn! There are some downfalls to this card though. If you need 2 colours of mana, you're out of luck. Also, it does cost 3 mana to put down, so it's not the fastest or cheapest solution to a mana shortage.

Pros: Produces 2 mana for 1, draws you a card

Cons: A little expensive, only produces 1 colour

Rating: 3/5