Nemesis - a Complete Review (green)

• white
• blue
• black
• red
• green
• artifact
• land
• conclusion

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 2
Maybe as a surprise blocker or to give your opponent a creature to trigger something like Planar Collapse or Defense of the Heart. Other than that, just use Treetop Villages if you want some lands that can double as creatures.

102. Blastoderm, 2GG, Creature - Beast 5/5, Common Fading 3 Blastoderm can't be the target of spells or abilities.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 5
This is a very nice use of fading. Blastoderm is too big to just soak up the damage, yet it's also hard to safely block (Masticore can do it, but won't be able to do the final point of damage to kill it). Targeted creature removal is also useless against this. Regenerators and high toughness creatures or creatures with protection from green (Mother of Runes) can be quite frustrating for a Blastoderm, though. In the end, what hurts this guy is lack of trample and no way to cast Rancor on it.

103. Coiling Woodworm, 2G, Creature - Beast */1, Uncommon Coiling Woodworm's power is equal to the number of forests in play.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
One toughness makes this guy too vulnerable to get played. It could get quite big against a green deck, but any weenie can block and kill it, unlike Titania's Chosen.

104. Fog Patch, 1G, Instant, Common You may play Fog Patch only during the declare blockers step. All attacking creatures become blocked. (This spell works on unblockable creatures.)

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 5
At first this seemed like just a Fog clone, but if I'm not mistaken, you can block your own creatures with this. With all the special effect that trigger on being blocked in this set and in Masques, there are bound to be a few interesting combos possible. Like Sapprazan Heir giving three cards when blocked. I'm drawing blanks on any others that have strong enough effects to use a Fog Patch on, but there probably are a few.

105. Harvest Mage, G, Creature - Spellshaper 1/1, Common G, Tap , Discard a card from your hand: Until end of turn, if you tap a land for mana, it produces one mana of any color instead of its normal type and amount.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 4
In tournaments, if your deck needs a card like this to get its mana right, count on loosing. A lot. And green has better weenies, so you can't see this as a weenie with a possibly useful ability. On the other hand, it would be quite classy if you could pull off casting a Sliver Queen with only 6 Forests in play. With only Forests, you could still make a 5 color deck. Interesting, but very vulnerable.

106. Mossdog, G, Creature - Beast 1/1, Common Whenever Mossdog becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, put a +1/+1 counter on Mossdog.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
Most things your opponent will target Mossdog with will just kill it anyway. Masticore is an interesting exception, not a lot of 1/1s can survive the Purple Menace.

107. Nesting Wurm, 4GG, Creature - Wurm 4/3, Uncommon Trample When Nesting Wurm comes into play, you may search your library for up to three [Nesting Wurm] cards, reveal them, and put them into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 5
Unlike Howling Wolf, Nesting Wurm is a threat. Sure, a 4/3 for 6 mana is massively overcosted, but you do get to cast 4 of the buggers. Which makes for an assault not a lot of decks will survive. I don't see this fitting into any current decks, but these'll definitely see play in my fun deck. I just hope that Prophecy doesn't have another creature like this but now in the rare slot. That would be seriously frustrating to try to collect.

108. Overlaid Terrain, 2GG, Enchantment, Rare When Overlaid Terrain comes into play, sacrifice all lands you control. Your lands have " Tap : Add two mana of any color to your mana pool."

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 5
This'll be fun in a Gush/Mana Breach/Horn of Greed/Exploration type deck or even just with Storm Cauldron. It's not very strong, mainly because Vernal Bloom or Mana Flare will usually just be stronger, depending on what you're planning to do.

109. Pack Hunt, 3G, Sorcery, Rare Search your library for up to three copies of target creature and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 5
Ahh, selective card advantage. Almost an Ancestral Recall for green. Sure it's more expensive, but you know you'll get three quality cards from it. Think how much card advantage you'd get by using this on Yavimaya Elder. Or on Albino Troll. Or on Elvish Lyrist or Uktabi Orangutan against enchantment or artifact heavy decks. Or on Deranged Hermit. I'll stop now before I start drooling.

110. Refreshing Rain, 3G, Instant, Uncommon If an opponent controls a swamp and you control a forest, you may play Refreshing Rain without paying its mana cost. Target player gains 6 life.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 1
Lifegain just isn't that strong. Against black, life isn't so much the problem as finding a solution to Perish.

111. Reverent Silence, 3G, Sorcery, Common If you have a forest in play, you may choose to have each other player gain 6 life instead of paying Reverent Silence's mana cost. Destroy all enchantments.

==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 3
Like I said, lifegain isn't that strong, so the ACC is very playable. This is almost a 0cc Tranquility. If it was an instant as well, it would be a no-brainer and any deck that could use it would. As it is, I expect it to see quite a bit of use, because enchantments are quite strong right now and Elvish Lyrists aren't always the right answer.

112. Rhox, 4GG, Creature - Beast 5/5, Rare You may have Rhox deal combat damage to defending player as though it weren't blocked. 2G: Regenerate Rhox.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
A smaller Thorn Elemental with regenerate. The regenerate is expensive, but by the time you can cast this, you'll have the mana to use it. Still, I don't like this as much as old Thorny. The 2 less power hurts and the regenerate may look like a bonus at first, but really, Thorn Elemental just didn't _need_ regeneration.

113. Saproling Burst, 4G, Enchantment, Rare Fading 7 Remove a fade counter from Saproling Burst: Put a green Squirrel creature token into play. Its power and toughness are each equal to the number of fade counters on Saproling Burst. When Saproling Burst leaves play, sacrifice all creatures put into play with Saproling Burst.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
This one is very hard to figure out, but I think this is the best way to look at it: by the time your squirrels (why would a Saproling Burst create squirrels anyway?) can attack, you'll only have 6 fade counters left. If you create 6 creatures, they'll be 0/0 and die. 5 will be 1/1 and live for one turn. 4 will be 2/2, then 1/1, then dead. 3 will be 3/3, 2/2, 1/1, dead. 2 will be 4/4, 3/3, 2/2, 1/1, dead. 1 will be 5/5, 4/4, 3/3, 2/2, 1/1, dead. When goldfishing, 5 will do 5 damage total, 4 will do 12, 3 will do 18, 2 will do 20 and 1 will do 15. 2 or 3 creatures is probably the best idea in that case. But there are more uses to this card. You can get a horde of creatures immediately after a Wrath+Armageddon. You can draw a lot of cards with Collective Unconscious. Also, you can turn 4G into 14 mana with an Ashnod's Altar in play. Use that to cast a Snake Basket and blow it up for 10 snakes, which turn into 20 mana. With only one extra red mana, you can kill your opponent. As long as your opponent is a goldfish anyway.

114. Saproling Cluster, 1G, Enchantment, Rare 1, Discard a card from your hand: Put a 1/1 green Squirrel creature token into play. Any player may play this ability.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
Speaking of Ashnod's Altar, have one of them in play, along with a Fecundity and suddenly this card becomes a threat. Discard a card to make a squirrel and sacrifice it to get another card and a net gain of 1 mana. You need only a single kill card, because you can browse through your deck easily enough like this. Three cards is probably a bit much for a serious combo, but who knows. Other than that, this card isn't great, though. Discarding cards for 1/1 creatures didn't work for Pegasus Refuge either and at least your opponent didn't get to use that.

115. Seal of Strength, G, Enchantment, Common Sacrifice Seal of Strength: Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
You can never have enough Giant Growths. I'm not sure Seal of Strength will make the cut for general use, but in enchantress decks they're good.

116. Skyshroud Behemoth, 5GG, Creature - Beast 10/10, Rare Fading 2 Skyshroud Behemoth comes into play tapped.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 5
Coming into play tapped stops any silly tricks with Sneak Attack, but Sneak Attack has Serra Avatar to play with, so that doesn't really matter. This looks like a strong creature at first, after all, two hits with a 10/10 should kill most players, right? But lack of trample hurts it. A pair of 1/1 tokens can keep this Behemoth down easily. Of course that changes if you cast Rancor on it. Either way, though, Endless Wurm seems better. Sure, you have to build your deck around it, but that's not that hard. And it's almost as big for only 5 mana. Deranged Hermit is a similar story. For 5 mana (wit echo) you get 9 power worth of creatures. It's more fragile than the Behemoth, sure, but at least it sticks around longer than 2 turns.

117. Skyshroud Claim, 3G, Sorcery, Common Search your library for up to two forest cards and put them into play. Then shuffle your library.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
It's both card- and tempoadvantage. But is it good? Well, it costs only 2 mana, because you get the Forests untapped in play, but you can only cast it when you already have 4 mana and really that tends to be enough for most decks. This will just thin your deck a bit, because the cardadvantage isn't very useful in most cases. I prefer Gaea's Bounty, which costs only 2G and puts the Forests into your hand. At least you can discard them to spellshapers more easily that way.

118. Skyshroud Cutter, 3G, Creature - Beast 2/2, Common If you control a forest, you may have each other player gain 5 life instead of paying Skyshroud Cutter's mana cost.

==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 3
This will speed up green weenie a little, but not by too much, because it will take the Cutter 2 and a half turns to undo the lifegain it caused.

119. Skyshroud Poachers, 2GG, Creature - Rebel 2/2, Rare 3, Tap : Search your library for an Elf card and put that card into play. Then shuffle your library.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
This is probably the weakest of the three, because elves aren't known for being versatile. Most just produce mana and only the Lyrist springs to mind as being handy to fetch with this.

120. Skyshroud Ridgeback, G, Creature - Bear 2/3, Common Fading 2

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 2
It's a nice creature, but it doesn't last quite long enough. With only two attacks, it goldfishes for 4 damage before it fades away. And because it has no evasion, it will probably not get in even that much damage. Compare this to other green creatures for G that also have 2 power, yet don't have the fading drawback.

121. Skyshroud Sentinel, 2G, Creature - Elf 1/1, Common When Skyshroud Sentinel comes into play, you may search your library for up to three Skyshroud Sentinel cards, reveal them, and put them into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
At 1/1, these won't be much of a threat, but they're more splashable than Howling Wolf, which makes them better in my Teferi's Puzzle Box deck. Basically, cast a Teferi's Puzzle Box and use things like Howling Wolf, Yavimaya Elder and Land Tax to keep your hand size up, so you sift through your deck like a madman, while your opponent runs out of steam fast, because he doesn't have easy ways of getting his hand size up. Not a tourney worthy deck, but very fun to play. Although I'll probably get rid of the Land Tax, because it proved to be _too_ strong in the deck. In fun play you want to give your opponent a chance as well. Anyway, Skyshroud Sentinel might also be nice as a way to reshuffle your library with Sylvan Library in play or when playing with Sage Owl and Brainstorm. After all, even after you fetch the other three Sentinels the first time, you're still allowed to look for three more when casting the other three. And if you choose to look, you get to shuffle.

122. Stampede Driver, G, Creature - Spellshaper 1/1, Uncommon 1G, Tap , Discard a card from your hand: Creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain trample until end of turn.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 3
It's weakish as far as green weenies go and the ability doesn't look that good. I guess it can give Blastoderm the trample it so sorely lacks, but in the end, I think most decks will prefer Might of Oaks as a kill card, if only because Stampede Driver has to wait for Summoning Sickness to wear off before it's even usable.

123. Treetop Bracers, 1G, Enchant Creature, Common Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and may be blocked only by creatures with flying.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 2
Maybe it'll see some play, because green seriously lacks unblockables. I doubt it, though, most of the time green just rolls over the blockers anyway.

124. Wild Mammoth, 2G, Creature - Elephant 3/4, Uncommon At the beginning of your upkeep, if a player controls more creatures than any other, that player gains control of Wild Mammoth.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 3
Usually it's a pretty safe bet that you'll keep control of these, but in the mirror match it's a 50-50 bet. Control green could get hold of it as well with Spontaneous Generation. In the end, 3 mana for a 3/4 is nice, but not enough, I think. Cradle Guard costs the same, although with echo, yet doesn't see much play anymore. Simian Grunts are better in controllish green decks, because they can be creature removal and there's no danger of loosing them if you're playing a creature heavy weenie deck.

125. Woodripper, 3GG, Creature - Beast 4/6, Uncommon Fading 3 1, Remove a fade counter from Woodripper: Destroy target artifact.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 3
It's nice to see green get more artifact destruction, but it can't stand up to the monkey, I think. It's easier to get rid of a bunch of artifacts at once this way, but 6 mana is a lot to get rid of an artifact. Getting a 4/6 creature in the bargain is nice, but that'll fade in three turns. For beatdown, Blastoderm is just better, not to mention cheaper.