Gatecrash tips: Playing to your Weaknesses – Green

Gah, even with two posts a day, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get all of the articles done in time. Tomorrow will definitely be black and blue, but multicolor might have to wait until after the pre-release on Saturday for me. If I have the time I’ll put the last one up on Friday night/Saturday morning, but no promises right now. Sorry. Before I start on green, I wanted to thank everybody who has been following my articles! I managed to get 500 page views today thanks to everybody checking out my Gatecrash articles! I’m overjoyed that so many people are checking out my webpage.

Let’s get this show on the road

Adaptive Snapjaw

During Avacyn Restored I made the mistake of not having enough finishers in my deck and I got overwhelmed by my opponents who curved out at 6 or 7 mana with Angels and other large creatures while my biggest creature topped out at 4 power. Never again. I like Adaptive Snapjaw for a few reasons. To start off, he’s a 6/2 for 5 mana. It’s usually a good idea to have 1-2 creatures on the large size in your sealed deck/draft pool so you have some late game threats. What makes this guy better is that there’s a good chance that 5 mana investment could end up turning into a 7/3 or 8/4, especially when teamed up with larger Gruul creatures. How much would you pay for an 8/4? Well, in the past Craw Wurm was a 6/4 for 6 mana, and Scaled wurm was a 7/6 for 8 mana, so a potential 8/4 for 5 mana isn’t bad. He’d shine in Gruul decks, but as a finisher in a straight Simic or RUG deck he’d also do well. If your mana curve needs somebody to fill the 5 spot, I’d recommend him. Not a first choice, but I could see him taking the 18 spot in my 23 card deck.

Alpha Authority

I think I talked about Hexproof a little bit in my Gatecrash primer and how powerful it will be in this format since there are very few board wipes. I stand by my opinion and think this card will be pretty useful, especially if you have a threat you want to protect from kill spells. The second part of this card’s powers is that it can only be blocked by one creature, which means this card would fit best on a Gruul creature that could easily take out the blocker. This card would also be good in Simic, especially if you want to protect one of your rares that is pumping up your other creatures. However, I don’t think it would be as good in Naya. Would I take this in a booster draft though? Sure, but it only if I have a decent pool of creatures already, and even then it would probably fall into the 23rd card slot.

Crowned Ceratok

I loves me the tramples. Not only does he have trample, but he acts like an Overrun, giving trample to all other Simic creatures that have counters on them. Even outside of a UG or RUG deck, I think it would still be nice. A 4/3 trampler in Naya is also decent. The bottom line is that trample is good in limited, and he’d be especially good with some bloodrush cards in the same deck with him. I’d probably take this guy in the top 10 of my draft if I got him.

Experiment One

Experiment One has gotten a lot of exposure from the other Magic sites, and I think he’s a solid first turn card. In all likeliness you’ll end up with a 3/3 on turn 3, and after that he’ll inch up incrementally as you drop your finishers, turning that initial one mana investment into a 5/5 or so. If I was playing Naya, Simic, Gruul, or RUG, he’d be one of my top 5 picks.

Forced Adaptation

*Watches the Slumbering Dragon shift in it’s sleep* Uh oh, we better leave sleeping dragons lie for now and talk about how this could be great in limited. Before taking this card get your creatures first. I’d hate for your deck to be all spells and enchantments and few creatures (another mistake I’ve made before). I think this card would be great in Naya by slapping it on one of your Boros soldiers like Purefire Paladin or Woljek Halberdiers, and this card would be absolutely deadly with Gruul tramplers. If you need some added power in your deck, put this in there, but it might be a good idea to keep it in the sideboard and see what your opponent is playing first. Probably my 20th choice in a sealed deck.

Ivy Lane Denizen

The Denizens are really starting to grow on me. The red and white were so so, but this card is great in limited. Each time you play a green spell he can add a counter to another creature (or himself). This can grow your Naya creatures if they’re having trouble breaking through your opponent’s front lines, or you can focus all of the counters onto a creature with trample that the other player can’t deal with. You should also keep in mind that these counters can be put on a Keyrune while they are in creature form, and they STAY on even after the card has reverted to an artifact. Great for Boros’ and Dimir’s Keyrune if you’re playing them. I’d probably make this my 12th or 13th pick in a draft to give me more reach. Best in two color decks, but it can splashed in others as well.

Miming Slime

Best in a Gruul deck, not bad in Simic, but probably a later pick in draft (20th?). If you only have 1 or two finishers, it wouldn’t hurt to add another in there by playing this card. Just be careful of removal.

Scab-Clan Charger

The Scab-Clan Charger has Bloodrush, but he’d probably fit better in a Simic or RUG deck in order to activate Evolve triggers while also playing the role of a blocker. His power won’t activate it, but his toughness could. The 2 mana bloodrush isn’t bad if you don’t want one of your creatures to die, though it wouldn’t make much sense to use it on offense. Late pick in Naya, but I’d probably take him in my top 20 for a Simic evolve build or RUG.

Serene Remeberance

You’re only playing with 40 cards, and Mill is going to be popular in limited, so this card would be incredibly useful. I don’t think you’d want to run this main deck, but if your rival is running heavy removal or mill, side it in. If you have your draft deck almost complete and see this in the second pack or third pack you open, I’d take it.

Slaughterhorn

A 3/2 or a semi-Giant Growth ability – your choice! It’s fast and has a good body for Naya that could see play early, but would probably only be so-so in UG or Gruul. I’d probably take this around card 18 in a draft. Splashes easily which is good too.

Verdant Haven

Not a lot of mana fixing or mana acceleration in Gatecrash, so this kind of card could see some play if you’re running 3 colors and have a high mana curve. Gruul and RUG could get the best use out this card to help them get their big creatures out more quickly. Not to helpful otherwise.

Other cards that might be useful:

• Rust Scarab – 4/5 that destroys artifacts and enchantments whenever it’s blocked. Good in sideboard, better than Naturalize? Guess it depends on how fast you want to destroy something.
• Spire Tracer – 1/1, but has evasion since it can only be blocked by flyers and reach. Good target to use pump spells on starting from turn 2.
• Wasteland Viper – Deathtouch and a pump spell! Nice in a Naya deck on a creature with first strike when your opponent double blocks to kill it.

Wrap up

The bloodrush abilites are okay, but red’s were better. Green is more suited to Simic decks. I believe Simic is going to be the deck to beat in the pre-release (especially RUG). It has access to trample, flying, hexproof, plus pump spells. If the promo card didn’t seem to suck so bad I’d choose their guild! Just remember to set up a good mana curve if you’re using Simic so you always get that trigger ability each turn. Keep the pressure on and watch as your creatures mutate into bigger and badder creatures.

I stayed up way to late doing this again (2 am), but I must persevere. Friday after work I’ll get on blue, and then finally black should be done by tomorrow night. Leave comments if you have any! I’m heading to bed until then.