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A Complete Review of Torment (green)Put two 1/1 green Squirrel creature tokens into play. Flashback-1G, Pay 3 life. ==> FUN: 3 Massively overcosted. Two mana would make it good, three mana so-so, but four mana is ridiculous. I'd only play this for the flashback, but the life payment makes even that iffy. The problem is really that getting two 1/1s is perceived as better than getting one 2/2, but that's only true in special circumstances, like if you need extra creatures for an Opposition lock, an Overrun or for a fun deck with Fecundity. If you just want to put pressure on your opponent, you're better off with the 2/2, because it's harder to get rid of. -- Anurid Scavenger U, Creature - Beast, 2G, 3/3 Protection from black At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Anurid Scavenger unless you put a card from your graveyard on the bottom of your library. ==> FUN: 4 I haven't completely figured out how I feel about this mechanic. On one hand, Anurid Scavenger doesn't fit in a standard beatdown deck, because chances are you won't have enough cards in your graveyard to keep feeding it. On the other hand, in a more control oriented deck, you can cast it late in the game with counter backup and slowly get all your useful spells back into your library, not unlike what Gaea's Blessing is used for. It's not a strategy that fits in with Odyssey block, but it's worth testing. It could fit well in a graveyard filling deck as well. A Tolarian Winds, followed by a 3/3 with protection from black the next turn is pretty good, although it'll make keeping threshold a lot of work. -- Arrogant Wurm U, Creature - Wurm, 3GG, 4/4 Trample Madness 2G ==> FUN: 5 Did I say a 3/3 for three mana is pretty good? Well, a 4/4 for three mana must then be the best thing since sliced bread! The trample doesn't really impress me on a relatively small creature like this, but Arrogant Wurm looks like a promising card for madness decks. -- Basking Rootwalla C, Creature - Lizard, G, 1/1 1G: Basking Rootwalla gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Play this ability only once each turn. Madness 0 ==> FUN: 4 Basking Rootwalla was well thought out. Madness 0 means all colors can play with it as long as they have a way of discarding it, but you still need green mana to get any real use out of it. Without madness, it's still a solid weenie, probably the best one drop if you only look at the power. A 3/3, even with a two mana "upkeep", isn't bad. Green usually wants a mana elf or lyrist on the first turn, though, so I won't be too surprised if it'll only get played in decks that can discard it. Ok, we've now seen all the madness card in Torment. Each color gets two of them and it looks like the red and green ones are the most playable. The other ones seem more situational and control oriented. An interesting deck could be made around Compulsion and the blue madness cards (one a counterspell, the other draws a card). The Compulsion lets you search for the cards you need, madness cast and reliably, if not quickly, reach threshold. That could be a fun deck to play, but a deck with the green and red madness cards could actually be pretty strong. That gives you access to the two creatures we have just seen and Fiery Temper and Violent Eruption, both good removal. Of course there's Wild Mongrel for the free discard. There should probably be other non-random discard as well, in case the Mongrel gets Terminated with extreme prejudice. I don't see any obvious candidates in green or red for that yet, but you could always try splashing blue for Aquamoeba and the madness counterspell. -- Centaur Chieftain U, Creature - Centaur, 3G, 3/3 Haste Threshold - When Centaur Chieftain comes into play, creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain trample until end of turn. ==> FUN: 3 Look at Centaur Chieftain as a splashable mini-Overrun that comes with an extra creature attached. Once you have threshold that is. Before that, it's just a 3/3 with haste. Nice, but nothing special. Haste is a rare ability for green, but the instant creatures like Beast Attack and Simian Grunt have a similar enough feel to it that it doesn't seem out of place. -- Centaur Veteran C, Creature - Centaur, 5G, 3/3 Trample G, Discard a card from your hand: Regenerate Centaur Veteran. ==> FUN: 1 Hands up, who wants to pay six mana for a 3/3 with trample (oooh, scary!) and regeneration that costs both mana _and_ a card? Nobody? Why am I not surprised? Even at four mana Centaur Veteran wouldn't have been more than ok. -- Dwell on the Past U, Sorcery , G Target player shuffles up to four target cards from his or her graveyard into his or her library. ==> FUN: 4 At first glance, I had this down as a bad version of Repopulate, but then I noticed its effect isn't limited to creatures. It looks somewhat useful as a hoser against threshold/madness decks, because it's so cheap and can get four cards out of your opponent's graveyard at the same time. Mostly, though, I like it as a way to keep your library stocked even if you're drawing several cards per turn, something Gaea's Blessing is used for as well. Dwell on the Past doesn't exactly dethrone Gaea's Blessing, though, because it's not a cantrip, but I'd still consider using it as a poor man's version. -- Far Wanderings C, Sorcery , 2G Search your library for a basic land card and put that card into play tapped. Then shuffle your library. Threshold - Instead search your library for three basic land cards and put them into play tapped. Then shuffle your library. ==> FUN: 5 It looks like yet another version of Rampant Growth, but when you have threshold, it really jumpstarts your mana supply. A turn one Lay of the Land, turn two Tolarian Winds can get you a turn three Far Wanderings and give you seven untapped lands in play on your fourth turn. If you can then use a Fact or Fiction to get another Tolarian Winds or Far Wanderings or use Recoup to flashback your first one, you could easily get most of your lands into play. I'll leave you to imagine some devious, twisted way of winning from that point. Far Wanderings gets a big thumbs up from me, because it reminds me of Yavimaya Elder in terms of card advantage and deck thinning, with the extra plus of getting a good boost in available mana as well. -- Gurzigost R, Creature - Beast, 3GG, 6/8 At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Gurzigost unless you put two cards from your graveyard on the bottom of your library. GG, Discard a card from your hand: You may have Gurzigost deal its combat damage to defending player this turn as though it weren't blocked. ==> FUN: 4 Gurzigost or Gurzighost? A ghost would probably have been black, so I'll go for gost, whatever that means. It's easy to overestimate this guy, I think. Sure, five mana for a 6/8 is nicely undercosted, but it's not really something you'd want to cast on turn three or four, even if you manage to have enough mana. You have to make sure your graveyard is filled first. Spiritmonger, on the other hand, can be cast immediately with no second thoughts and it can protect itself much better. Of course, Gurzigost has the Thorn Elemental ability going for it. It's even a good thing that it costs a card to activate it, for madness casting and to make sure you have enough cards in your graveyard. Cycling cards back into your library can be a good thing for control decks, but Gurzigost will usually win the game in a few turns because it can't be effectively blocked, so I doubt that'll be very important. -- Insist R, Sorcery , G The next creature spell you play this turn can't be countered by spells or abilities. Draw a card. ==> FUN: 2 Another strong counterspell hoser, just like the red version. Insist should also be playable maindeck if you're expecting a lot of counterspells, because you can always burn it for a card, but it's still not a card that should be rare. -- Invigorating Falls C, Sorcery , 2GG You gain life equal to the number of creature cards in all graveyards. ==> FUN: 3 Not that strong in one-on-one play, but it should be good in multiplayer. Four Invigorating Falls, four Congregates and of course Lhurgoyfs for the win. If that won't make you a target in multiplayer, you should get into politics! -- Krosan Constrictor C, Creature - Snake, 3G, 2/2 Swampwalk T: Target black creature gets -2/-0 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 1 Another card that's too overcosted to see play outside of limited. It's not a very threatening black hoser by any means. -- Krosan Restorer C, Creature - Druid, 2G, 1/2 T: Untap target land. Threshold - T: Untap up to three target lands. ==> FUN: 4 Krosan Restorer is seriously better than Ley Druid. And that's a good thing too, because Ley Druid was just bad. A 1/1 that can untap a land should cost only G. Krosan Restorer adds one toughness, which is good against Simoon and Fire/Ice. The threshold ability can normally get you three extra mana per turn, which is good, but I'd rather use Far Wanderings, because it gets you a similar result without being fragile. Krosan Restorer has potential in combination with lands like Maze of Ith to stop two creatures from attack each turn or Treetop Village to allow you to block with it after attacking. -- Nantuko Blightcutter R, Creature - Insect Druid, 2G, 2/2 Protection from black Threshold - Nantuko Blightcutter gets +1/+1 for each black permanent your opponents control. ==> FUN: 2 A _much_ better black hoser than Krosan Constrictor, but it's still a rare hoser and too dependent on threshold to for my tastes. Obviously it's a good match with Darkest Hour or Sleight of Mind, but there are better matches. -- Nantuko Calmer C, Creature - Insect Druid, 2GG, 2/3 G, T, Sacrifice Nantuko Calmer: Destroy target enchantment. Threshold - Nantuko Calmer gets +1/+1. ==> FUN: 2 I prefer Nantuko Calmer's enchantment destruction ability on cheaper creatures. Did we really need this guy, now that we already have Elvish Lyrist _and_ Druid Lyrist? I don't think so. It would be different if it was a good creature by itself, but a 2/3 should cost three mana, not four. Even with threshold Nantuko Calmer isn't that great. -- Nantuko Cultivator R, Creature - Insect Druid, 3G, 2/2 When Nantuko Cultivator comes into play, you may discard any number of land cards from your hand. Put that many +1/+1 counters on Nantuko Cultivator and draw that many cards. ==> FUN: 5 I don't care that normal decks will probably only have one or at most two lands to discard to this guy. In casual decks Nantuko Cultivator has serious potential. With Groundskeeper and Yavimaya Elder it should be easy enough to get a hand full of lands. I usually don't even have to put much effort into that when playing green. At that point, casting Nantuko Cultivator doesn't just mean you get a 7/7 or 8/8, you also get to change your useless lands into new cards. What's not to like? -- Narcissism U, Enchantment , 2G G, Discard a card from your hand: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. G, Sacrifice Narcissism: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 4 Narcissism allows you to use all your cards as smaller versions of Giant Growth. Giant Growth is good enough at +3/+3 that +2/+2 is still pretty good. This looks like a good candidate for that red/green madness deck I discussed earlier. Even without madness cards, it makes your creatures much harder to block just by being in play and red players will have a serious problem killing your creatures as long as you have cards in hand. -- Nostalgic Dreams R, Sorcery , GG As an additional cost to play Nostalgic Dreams, discard X cards from your hand. Return X target cards from your graveyard to your hand. Remove Nostalgic Dreams from the game. ==> FUN: 5 I've always felt Recall should have been a green card and now it is. Nostalgic Dreams is even better, because it doesn't cost two extra mana for each card you want to return. Nostalgic Dreams is much harder to splash, though, so it won't fit in all that many decks. It looks like a few of them could do well in a red/green madness deck. Discard a few madness cards to cast them cheaply and at the same time get a few other madness cards back into your hand to cast through a Wild Mongrel. Sadly, you won't be able to get the cards you discard to it back with it, because you have to announce targets first, before you pay the discard cost. -- Parallel Evolution R, Sorcery , 3GG For each creature token in play, its controller puts a creature token into play that's a copy of that creature. Flashback 4GGG ==> FUN: 4 Parallel Evolution is a bit on the expensive side, but in the right deck it can double the creatures you have in play and double them again next turn. You don't even have to worry too much about your opponent also playing token creatures, because good token creatures are pretty rare. It's usually overkill to use Parallel Evolution twice in a row, but overkill is fun. Imagine a game like this: Turn 1: Forest, Llanowar Elf Turn 2: Forest, Call of the Herd Turn 3: Forest, flashback Call of the Herd Turn 4: Forest, Beast Attack Turn 5: Forest, flashback Beast Attack, Chatter of the Squirrel Turn 6: Forest, flashback Chatter of the Squirrel, Parallel Evolution Turn 7: flashback Parallel Evolution That leaves you with eight 1/1 squirrels, eight 3/3 elephants and eight 4/4 beasts. Now finish it off with an Overrun for extra points... -- Possessed Centaur R, Creature - Centaur Horror, 2GG, 3/3 Trample Threshold - Possessed Centaur gets +1/+1, is black, and has "2B, T: Destroy target green creature." ==> FUN: 2 The weakest of all the possessed creatures, because trample isn't that good on a medium sized creature and green usually has better creatures than the other colors, not weaker ones. The only saving grace is the color hosing ability, which should come in handy against all the green fatties being played. -- Seton's Scout U, Creature - Centaur Druid, 1G, 2/1 Seton's Scout may block as though it had flying. Threshold - Seton's Scout gets +2/+2. ==> FUN: 4 Another of green's solid threshold creatures. A 2/1 for two mana is playable and with threshold it's as strong as a Werebear. The ability to block flyers shouldn't be underestimated either. With threshold, Seton's Scout can kill a Serra Angel.
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