Conspiracy Take the Crown Set Review: Green

Posted on August 30, 2016

Take the Crown, Green at Last!

Hello folks and welcome back to all things Conspiracy: Take the Crown! For the last few articles, I’ve been looking at every color, draft action, Conspiracy and more. Know what’s left? Just Green baby! Green is arguably the most popular color at casual Magic night. There’s something innocent to it. Pure nature. Instinct. Primal. Protective. Natural Selection. The color of Wurms, Elves, and Beasts. Green has a cachet that really sells players, and like many, I look fondly at the new green cards from any new set that gets released for more face smashing goodness.

In an earlier article of mine I discussed my hopeful reprints for Eternal Masters. I was sad to see some cards missing from that, but here they are in Conspiracy: Take the Crown. Burgeoning. Burning Wish. Horn of Greed. It’s nice to see them with another day in the sunshine. We’ll look at the last of them today.

Are you ready for the Green-tastic adventures of casual multiplayer drafting?

What’s out there that strikes my fancy?

Let’s see!

Caller of the Untamed — Among all of the draft triggers in the set, this is one of my favorites. Everybody drafts one or two really good creatures out there that either get cut in the numbers, or are in another color. Maybe you were thinking about splashing a color earlier, and you decided against it. Perhaps you were defensively drafting late as a really good creature in a color you aren’t playing fell. Maybe you grabbed a creature early that was really good, and then were forced out of that color. For all of those reasons, the Caller of the Untamed can flex to work with your draft. Plus, for bonus points, after you draft the Caller of the Untamed, you can look for something to snag that works for it. You know how you’ll sometimes have a mid-pack pick the only stuff in color is something you won’t play, and might, at best, make a marginal addition to your sideboard? Well grab that flyer for your Green deck and you’ll be fine. And for one final helping hint, since you can tap the mana and make a token of the card, you can use it over and over again. So you can draft a creature who is really powerful in multiples. Take Knights of the Black Rose as a useful example. They will keep giving you the Monarch as you play them, and imagine you have three out. No one is attacking to steal that Monarch from you! After all, that’d be a 12 life swing. Another great example is Fleshbag Marauder. You tap three, make one, sacrifice it, everyone else sacrifices stuff, and you keep on going. And don’t even think about Sanctum Prelate, holy crap. Anyways, you get the idea. And the idea is this card is just nasty.

What about the Green(ish) Conspiracy?

Natural Unity — This is the final Conspiracy we are looking at in our set reviews. Your chosen creature gets a limited “put a counter on it” ability. I think this works incredibly well with something like Commander Cube, where you can combine the value of counters onto some leaders who could really use it. Leaders like Ghave, Guru of Spores; Yasova Dragonclaw; Skullbriar, the Walking Grave and Daghatar the Adamant all have something to offer. And it slides well into making a big hitter bigger, like winning with a creature a turn earlier with Commander damage. Outside of that limited area, I’m not sure how powerful it is in other Cubes or other Limited formats.

And now it’s time for your regularly scheduled Monarch making card review, already in progress…

Regal Behemoth — When you drop this beater, you 'll draw a card later, and you get the ability to sort of tap your land for any color for the rest of the turn. Sure, that's not a great ability on the 5th or 6th turn when you drop it. But you'll still get the Monarch and draw a card, so that's fine. A 5/5 trampler that is a Merchant of Secrets is a good investment on its own. Don't wait for the perfect play, just drop it and move on. Then later if you have the need, you can play it there as well. Meanwhile you can still use the "all color mana tap" of your lands to help stuff later if you keep or reacquire Monarch-hood.

Selvala's Stampede — I have found the Council’s Dilemma stuff to be a bit hot and cold. Some stuff is merely draft noise. I don’t think you’ll be seeing Lieutenants of the Guard, Orchard Elemental or Messenger Jays at the kitchen table too many times. Meanwhile we have a handful of cards that really seem to be something special. Expropriate. Capital Punishment. Selvala's Stampede. And the Stampede intrigues me for a few reasons. Let’s assume that you will always call “wild” due to the card advantage issue in play (The card costs 6 mana to play, what would you want to Eureka out of your hand that you couldn’t already play?) And others will likely want to reduce your card advantage-ness, so they will likely vote “free.”. Now you can drop some goods and get a free creature onto the battlefield. That’s intriguing to me. I’m willing to admit that this could be a lot better than I’m thinking, or a lot worse when I head out to play. But I think the worst possible situation is usually getting one free creature and a few permanents from your hand onto the battlefield.

And while those cards are all strong stuff, none of them make my top three new cards from the Green side of the set. So what does?

Top Three New Green Cards:

3.Splitting Slime

Green decks at the kitchen table, especially in Commander, invariably have some mana acceleration. And it’s nice to have an ongoing mana sink to help out with that. And that’s where the Splitting Slime slides in. 5 mana (maybe on the fourth turn?) is easy to do, and you get a 3/3. Then on the next turn, spend one more mana to monstrous it into a 6/6. And you make another 3/3 when you do. Then you can spend more mana in 6’s at a time to make that one bigger and another 3/3. It’s a good option as the monstrous makes 6 power of creatures for each 6 mana you invest. That’s good math over the long term. Now someone can shut down your little daisy chain by killing the newly minted 3/3 token prior to your next monstrous. But it’s still a fun mana sink for your green ramp needs.

In a similar role, I really like Domesticated Hydra as well. Now I think both of these are better than the other monstrous cards in the set, because they are good in a green capacity, and can be shaped to do more to help ramp style decks. Both fit multiple roles and needs.

2.Borderland Explorer

I love this guy! It’s like a beefy Veteran Explorer. When it arrives, everyone can discard a card in order to Lay of the Land themselves. It’s nice, and you don’t have to sacrifice a 1-drop yourself to give everyone a nice bump in land-age. You still have your 3/1 beater on the table, ready to smash. No one is going to mind it, and yet you can use it as a platform to begin smashing. Thus it helps push the game like Veteran Explorer, and can get folks out of land screw. But it doesn’t sacrifice card advantage to do it, and it sticks around on the battlefield. It’s the better card.

Maddening Ramp ? Casual | Abe Sargent

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Chandra, Flamecaller

The goal of this deck is to use Borderland Explorer to help make a R/G madness deck. From the zero madness Basking Rootwalla to dropping the Reckless Wurms for cheap, there are a bunch of ways you can push it. So consider this:

5th turn — drop Borderland Explorer. Discard Reckless Wurm. Pay its madness. Fetch a basic land. Result – you tapped 5 mana, you have a 4/4 trampler, 3/1 dork, and a land in your hand.

And that’s a typical turn, not something amazing or anything. You can also madness out a Fiery Temper on turn three, get a Basking Rootwalla on turn and grab that land, and so forth.

And you have lots of your typical madness engines, like Wild Mongrel here as well. Faithless Looting is strong, and Chandra, Flamecaller is downright amazing here as a madness outlet or just a high end drop. Meanwhile, we have loads of burn and such to keep the table under control. Don’t be afraid to use a big fat Avacyn's Judgment and either win or blow up the opposing world.

1.Selvala, Heart of the Wilds

For multiplayer, I legitimately feel like green is the best card drawing color these days. Its cards tend work better with the creatures, attacking and other strategies that you want to be doing. From Greater Good to Soul of the Harvest to Momentous Fall to the latest version of Selvala here, we have loads of card drawing. Many of the best green drawing cards have been major engines for decks (Argothian Enchantress, Glimpse of Nature, as examples). Like the original Selvala, Explorer Returned, this one is more of a Rites of Flourishing. She helps everyone. She’ll keep the card flow moving. The player of the creature with the most power on the battlefield draws a card. But like a lot of symmetrical effects, (such as Fecundity) you are building around her, so you’ll likely have more high power stuff in your deck to get the triggers. And that eases into a lot of where green is already at, so she plays well with decks and strategies you are already doing – playing green with high powered creatures. And you can tap her for some mana as well. She’ll always tap for at least 2 mana of any color, and likely more later. And she’s just 3 mana to play, with a 2/3 body to boot. This combination makes her an amazing addition to the kitchen table, and one of the strongest new cards in the set, bar none. Only cards like Kaya, Ghost Assassin and Recruiter of the Guard are better.

There are a lot of cards that work with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. Here’s a quick decklist to show you some of the ones that pop into my mind.

Selvala's Heralds ? Casual | Abe Sargent

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Lands (24)
24 Forest

The goal of this deck is to draw an epic-ton of cards, and then drop either Multani orSage of Ancient Lore as your winner. Check out stuff like Triumph of Ferocity, Garruk's Packleader, and Sage of Ancient Lore itself. When cycled, Krosan Tusker gets you two cards, Cultivate two cards, etc. Then Greater Good a beater into a ton of cards. And then win. It’s a powerful deck that can just blow you out of the water, and Yeva, Nature's Herald gives the deck a suitable amount of trickery for the occasion. You can see tricks like Garruk, Primal Hunter, Garruk's Horde, and tons more here.

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for the win!

All of those cards are strong. But that’s not all. We have 23 reprints. And while some are Prey Upon and Irresistible Prey, we do have a good number of solid, quality reprints that need another dose of sunshine.

Top Three Green Reprints:

3. Forgotten Ancient

Forgotten Ancient is authentically forgotten. Lost to time. And the need for a lot of counters. But the first crowd sourced Magic card is still a very good card. Put counters on it, and then distribute them elsewhere. It blows out a lot of counters to everyone, can be used to fuel a powerful evasive threat, to reload counters for things like Spike Weaver, Triskelion, Mindwarper, or Festercreep, and can be used to do some serious work with counter-increasing stuff like Doubling Season. It's brilliant in lots of shells, and works anywhere.

2. Burgeoning

I listed Burgeoning as a card I really wanted to see printed a while ago because I wanted it in foil. Cards originally printed pre-Uzra’s Legacy are only available in foil if they were subsequently reprinted in other sets or prestige as promo foils. Since many are on the Reserve List, there are a few that I want, and Burgeoning is one that could be reprinted. It’s great for multiplayer when you see a lot of land getting played, is a great turn one-drop because you can drop all of the lands early, and keeps on getting you lands later as you draw cards from other places.

1. Berserk

Berserk is Back! It’s not just From the Vault anymore, I suppose. But the willingness of Wizards of the Coast to reprint this card a few times begins to tease my WTF-radar. It’s great. It’s creature removal for green in multiplayer. It’s useful for getting in some damage, or getting a surprise Commander kill with double damage out of nowhere. Anyways, Berserk Baby!

Honorable Mention

Oh, and let’s give an honorable mention nod to Wild Pair. That’s always been a great card, and one with a lot of juice. Just cast a creature, and get another for free. And the sheer flexibility of adding power and toughness together and then getting a creature with the same total is something that makes some players collapse into a Johnny-centric bliss. (As an example, if you played Wall of Blossoms after dropping Wild Pair, you could get Acidic Slime to arrive on the battlefield as well. Another example – play Regal Behemoth for getting the Monarchy, and fetch up Craterhoof Behemoth for the table or Regal Force if you prefer. What can you turn something with a high toughness into, like Silklash Spider? Even a simple 1/1 like Farhaven Elf can also get a Fierce Empath for the table which grabs a beater for your hand. Epic card advantage and beats ensue. ) (And those examples were all mono-green!)

So welcome back Wild Pair!

Shoot, we have great stuff like Beast Within and Birds of Paradise. The repeats here are quite strong.

And that’s Green! And that’s a set review!

Of the various cards, here’s my Top Ten List, teased out of the various entries, for the best 10 cards in the set for all things casual.