Fate Reforged: Playing to Your Weaknesses – Green

(NOTE: “Playing to your Weaknesses” is a series of articles I have been doing on my own blog since Avacyn Restored that cover all of the uncommons and commons in a new expansion and which ones I would choose to use as one of the 23 cards in a 40 card limited deck. For those of you uninitiated to limited, it simply means sealed and booster draft, where you open packs and then proceed to make a deck out of them. I’ve purposely left out the rare cards because it is much more likely that you’ll see multiples of uncommon and commons in your packs/pools.)

As for my rating system, I’ll merely state if it’s a high, medium, or low pick in draft. A HIGH pick means that you should take it as soon as you see it (if it’s in your colors of course). HIGH picks are bombs that won’t come around the table a second time. MEDIUM picks are cards that have good synergies with other cards and are great at filling your mana curve or acting as role players. These cards might come around a 2nd time if you pass on them, so if there is another card that ranks higher, take that one and wait for this to come back. LOW picks are cards that are the leftovers. Maybe you need a 23rd card for your deck to round things out – THAT’S what a LOW pick is. You can take these ratings to mean the same for sealed as well. )

Well we’re almost finished. A full day of pre-releases has just been completed here in Japan, and that will soon be the case where you live too. Lots of fresh data will soon be streaming in and we’ll be able to get a better look at what FRF/KTK limited will look like in the coming months. I’ve done 2 pre-releases already, using Temur for my first one (40 people: I went 2-1) and BGR/u for my second one (46 people, went 3-3 and finished in 17th place). I played green in both of these events (even though I had chosen Jeskai in the first one) and was pretty satisfied with what the color had to offer. The mana creatures worked well, Ferocious triggers activated rather often, and the creatures have been hitting hard. Green is no pushover.

Abzan Kin-Guard

Abzan was kind of a let down for many players at the pre-release, but that doesn’t mean the Kin-Guard isn’t worth playing. He has a 3/3 body for 4 mana which is already somewhat playable in my opinion, but giving him lifelink seals the deal in my book. If I was playing an Abzan or Sultai deck (with a lot of black cards), he would be part of my 23 cards. If you don’t have a lot of ways to turn his lifelink though, then you should consider cutting him from your deck if there is a more effective creature.

RATING: Low-Medium

Ambush Krotiq

Some people said you shouldn’t play the Krotiq because he causes you to return a creature to your hand, but I actually think there is some good synergy between him and quite a few cards. For example, Sandsteppe Outcast would let you play a second 1/1 spirit, Aven Surveyor could return 2 creatures, and Hooded Assassin would be able to kill 2 damaged creatures. It has a form of evasion as well, trample, which is another thing it has going for it. If you are running light on finishers in your deck, don’t shy away from his “drawback”. It just might end letting you put some nice combos together!

RATING: Medium-Low

Arashin War Beast

Arashin War Beast, AKA, the Gift Monster. He gives you the present of a 2/2 creature whenever he deals damage to a blocking creature, and believe me people will be blocking him or else they’ll be in for a world of pain. Even if they block and manage to kill him, you take out their creatures and then get to replace him with a 2/2 creature. Not a bad trade off. It’s no Thragtusk (M13) but I think it’s a pretty good finisher in KTK/FRF limited.

RATING: Medium-High

Destructor Dragon

SWEET. It’s a freakin GREEN dragon that has a built in Bramblecrush (ISD) when it dies! Let’s just imagine this for a bit. Your opponent’s firey blast immolates your Dragon, frying the beast until it’s a charred corpse and as it drops from the sky it falls on their planeswalker. Karma ^_^.  Let them block with their own dragon or kill it with a Return to Earth. That planeswalker is still going to die no matter what. He’s also a good way to get rid of those pesky Siege enchantments too. If you’re playing green, you definitely want to play him. unlike the Black dragon that sometimes misses when it dies, you’ll always be able to destroy something with him, even if it’s just their land. I might even consider playing him in my mono green devotion deck!

RATING: High

Return to the Earth

I found myself playing this in the main board of my Sultai/Jund deck at my second pre-release and I’m incredibly happy I did. There were so many flyers and dragons to deal with that your removal just gets overwhelmed. It also did a good job of taking out the Siege my opponent was playing. I know that the 2-1 booster draft and 4-2 sealed deck KTK/FRF tournaments will be a little different, but it’s still good to have against Wingmate Rocs and Butcher of the Hordes in limited.

RATING: Medium-High

Ruthless Instincts

I really like Valorous Stance in white because it gave you a mode that let you either be offensive or defensive, and Ruthless Instincts are pretty much the same. On one hand you can kill any attacking creature, flying or not (take that Silumgar, the Drifting Death! I hate you!). It untaps the creature, meaning you can attack on your turn then on the following turn give you another that your opponent might not had accounted for. On the other hand, the second ability lets you be aggressive and push damage through. I’m sure you hate it when your opponent chump blocks your 5/5 with a 1/1 spirit token, but this card ensures they’ll be hurting. Much better card than something like Temur Runemark. Not a first pick in draft, but something you might want to pick up the first time you see it.

RATING: Medium

Temur Sabertooth

I guess you could say Temur Sabertooth does the same thing that the Ambush Krotiq does, just better. With another creature in play, Temur Sabertooth becomes a very good attacker or blocker. Four power will handle a lot of your problems, and it can even survive a board wipe like Crux of Fate or End Hostilities (not to mention saving a few of your own creatures in the process). There’s really nothing bad I can say about it, just watch out for -1/-1 effects like Throttle or Orc Sureshot. High pick in draft.

RATING: High

Other Cards that Might See Play

• Ainok Guide – I guess putting the land into play would be too strong, but getting a land and getting a body in the process for 2 mana is pretty good. It can really help you to smooth out your land early in the game, especially in a 3+ color deck.
• Battlefront Krushok – if you’re playing a KTK Abzan heavy deck with lots of ways to put counters on creatures, this card would be nice as a one of. Nice way to put your opponent in a tough spot
• Feral Krushok – Nice body with no special abilities. Easily to play in 3 colors if your deck feels a little underpowered.
• Frontier Mastadon – Again, a decent body for 3 mana, and giving your weakest creature +1/+1 if you can activate its Ferocious is good too.
• Whisperer of the Wilds – Mana acceleration seems to be really good in this format. Along with Rattleclaw Mystic, you can do a lot of Morphing a lot easier. 
• Sudden Reclamation – seems like it would be good in a Sultai deck with a few delve cards, and since it gives you a land and creature you can grab anything that was already there as well. Not a bad way to filter through your deck either.

Coming Up Next

You’ve all been very patient and we’re almost at the end of the series for Fate Reforged. Green ended up being a lot better than I thought it was going to be and I feel it will really be able to push Sultai and Temur to better records in KTK/FRF limited. Abzan and Mardu have been rather well in Khans only limited, but with the inclusion of Fate Reforged I think we’re going into a much more balanced, and equally deep format. There’s only one more article to publish before I move onto my “Bang for your Buck” investment articles, and that’s Multicolor, Artifacts, and lands. I’ll be wrapping up that article with my overall feeling of the color combinations and what I think each has gained and lost by switching to the 4 KTK 2 FRF pack set up. If you have any overall thoughts on what the new limited will be like, I’d love to hear it! Until next time, thanks for reading.