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A Complete Review of Legions (green)117. Bezerk Merlodaunt 4G CommonCreature - Beast 3/3 Whenever a Beast is blocked, that Beast gets +1/+1 for each creature blocking it. ==> FUN: 4 Bezerk Merlodaunt is a limited lord for beasts. It only gives the +1/+1 when beasts are attacking and blocked. On 1/1 creatures your opponent could just decide to take the damage, but beasts tend to be bigger than that. It's more expensive than I'd like for a 3/3, but it also gives the ability to itself, which makes up for it a bit. -- 118. Branchsnap Lorien 1GG Common Creature - Beast 4/1 Trample Morph G ==> FUN: 3 Finally a cheap morph cost on a sizeable creature. The low toughness doesn't help it, though. Branchsnap Lorien can best attack morphed and then trade with any blocker, hoping a bit of damage will trample over to the opponent. -- 119. Brontotherium 4GG Uncommon Creature - Beast 5/3 Trample Provoke (When this attacks, you may have target creature defending player controls untap and block it if able.) ==> FUN: 3 Provoke is nice, but it doesn't mean I suddenly want to pay six mana for a 5/3. Green usually does better than that. -- 120. Brood Sliver 4G Rare Creature - Sliver 3/3 Whenever a Sliver deals combat damage to a player its controller may put a 1/1 colorless Sliver creature token into play. Within weeks, more slivers nested in Otaria than ever existed on Rath. ==> FUN: 5 At first glance I figured I preferred the Ophidian Sliver, because drawing cards is better than getting vanilla 1/1s, but Brood Sliver doesn't create vanilla 1/1s, it creates *slivers*. That means that, against an undefended opponent, you can double the number of slivers you have each turn. Add to that a few Muscle Slivers and for good measure an Ophidian Sliver and you'll quickly have a huge army. Fun! -- 121. Caller of the Claw 2G Rare Creature - Elf 2/2 You may play Caller of the Claw any time you could play an instant. When Caller of the Claw comes into play, put a 2/2 green Bear creature token into play for each nontoken creature put into your graveyard from play this turn. ==> FUN: 5 Caller of the Claw is a pretty good answer to a Wrath of God or other mass-kill effect. Suddenly, you've got a pretty decent army again, while your opponent has nothing. But even without that, if you play it after suffering some losses during combat or even after your opponent kills one of your creatures, you get card advantage out of it. -- 122. Canopy Crawler 3G Uncommon Creature - Beast 2/2 Amplify 1 (As this card comes into play, put a +1/+1 counter on it for each Beast card you reveal in your hand.) T: Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each +1/+1 counter on Canopy Crawler. ==> FUN: 3 A 5/5 is probably the best you can reasonably expect out of Canopy Crawler. That means it can become an 8/8 blocker if you use the ability on itself. Not bad, but I expect even more from green. I know, I'm so spoiled. -- 123. Defiant Elf G Common Creature - Elf 1/1 Trample ==> FUN: 1 A 1/1 with trample? That'll come in handy if you ever meet any creature with zero toughness. I don't know what the design team was smoking when they thought up Defiant Elf, but it must have been pretty good. To be fair, the trample could come into play in a situation where Defiant Elf gets blocked by an effect rather than a creature, or if the blocker dies before combat damage. Other than that, it's also useful with creature pumpers like Giant Growth or with specific cards that interact with Trample, like Phyrexian Splicer. -- 124. Elvish Soultiller 3GG Rare Creature - Elf Mutant 5/4 When Elvish Soultiller is put into a graveyard from play, choose a creature type. Shuffle all creature cards of that type from your graveyard into your library. ==> FUN: 2 Elvish Soultiller is similar to Barishi, only one size bigger. That makes it a solid creature, but unworthy of being a rare. -- 125. Enormous Baloth 6G Uncommon Creature - Beast 7/7 Its diet consists of fruits, plants, small woodland animals, large woodland animals, woodlands, fruit grooves, fruit farmers and small cities. ==> FUN: 3 It's big, it's green, what's not to like? Ok, so it's a bit plain, but you can't have everything. Funny flavor text too. -- 126. Feral Throwback 4GG Rare Creature - Beast 3/3 Amplify 2 (As this card comes into play, put two +1/+1 counters on it for each Beast card you reveal in your hand.) Provoke (When this attacks, you may have target creature defending player controls untap and block it if able.) ==> FUN: 2 Even if you can only show two beasts, Feral Throwback becomes a 7/7. Not bad, but nothing that makes it worth being a rare either. Provoke isn't that useful on such a huge creature, because your opponent will be forced to block it anyway or face death in a few turns. If only Feral Throwback had trample. -- 127. Gempalm Strider 1G Uncommon Creature - Elf 2/2 Cycling 2GG When you cycle Gempalm Strider, all Elves get +2/+2 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 5 In an elf deck, Gempalm Strider is a small, cantrip, instant Overrun, that can also serve as a bear. Even if you only have one elf in play, it can still be a valuable combat surprise that can save your creature, kill theirs and is a cantrip to boot. -- 128. Glowering Rogon 5G Common Creature - Beast 4/4 Amplify 1 (As this card comes into play, put a +1/+1 counter on it for each Beast card you reveal in your hand.) ==> FUN: 3 By the time you get to six mana, you should have most of your beasts in play already and you have to show at least two before Glowering Rogon is worth its mana cost. -- 129. Hundroog 6G Common Creature - Beast 4/7 Cycling 3 "New links are being added to the food chain on a daily basis." - Riptide Project researcher ==> FUN: 2 Even taking the cycling into account, Hundroog is overcosted. Hundroog is an anagram of "Oh God, Run!", but that's probably a coincidence. A 4/7 just isn't that scary. Of course, now that I've said that I'm going to get beaten by one the first time I play with Legions cards... -- 130. Krosan Cloudscraper 7GGG Rare Creature - Beast Mutant 13/13 At the beginning of your Upkeep, sacrifice Krosan Cloudscraper unless you pay GG. Morph 7GG ==> FUN: 3 It's big. No, it's bigger than that, it's *HUGE*! But in practice, anything above 10 is wasted. By itself, Krosan Cloudscraper needs to attack twice for the win, just as a 10/10 would. It would be different if it could trample over chump blockers. At least there's the possibility of catching your opponent off-guard when you attack with it face-down. The upkeep cost is negligible for any serious green deck. No matter how mana intensive a green deck is, once it reaches ten mana, it can spare two to pay the upkeep. The upkeep is actually a bonus, because it prevents blue players from taking control of it and black players from animating it from your graveyard. -- 131. Krosan Vorine 3G Common Creature - Cat Beast 3/2 Provoke Krosan Vorine can't be blocked by more than one creature. ==> FUN: 3 If I understand how it works correctly, the two abilities on Krosan Vorine don't work very well together. When you provoke a 1/1, your opponent can just block your Krosan Vorine with a 2/4 and the 1/1 isn't able to block it anymore. But maybe it works the other way around and if you provoke a creature, it gets declared as a blocker immediately and your opponent won't be able to declare an additional blocker anymore. I'm assuming the first scenario is the right one. If it's the second one, Krosan Vorine deserves an extra star. -- 132. Nantuko Vigilante 3G Common Creature - Beast Druid Mutant 3/2 Morph 1G When Nantuko Vigilante is turned face up, destroy target artifact or enchantment. ==> FUN: 4 A total of five mana gets you a 3/2 and a Disenchant. That means the 3/2 effectively costs only three mana, which is a good price. I don't think Nantuko Vigilante can take the place of Creeping Mold for me, because the land destruction is often useful, but it's definitely a good attempt. -- 133. Needleshot Gourna 4GG Common Creature - Beast 3/6 Needleshot Gourna may block as though it had flying. The first aven scout squad returned from Korsa with disturbing stories. The second returned with disturbing casualties. ==> FUN: 2 Too expensive. It's better than Giant Spider, because it can safely block even the big fliers, like Serra Angel and Sengir Vampire, but at six mana I'd like to have more than just a good blocker. -- 134. Patron of the Wild G Common Creature - Elf 1/1 Morph 2G When Patron of the Wild is turned face-up, target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 2 Patron of the Wild is too expensive if you look at it as a Giant Growth that comes with a 1/1 attached. Probably pretty good in sealed, though. -- 135. Primal Whisperer 4G Rare Creature - Elf Soldier 2/2 Primal Whisperer gets +2/+2 for each face-down creature in play. Morph 3G ==> FUN: 3 Fun, but too expensive. You don't want to keep your creatures face-down too long anyway, because they're usually stronger face-up. Also, a single Pyroclasm will force you to turn all your morphies face-up or lose them and at the same time kill Primal Whisperer. -- 136. Quick Sliver 1G Common Creature - Sliver 1/1 You may play Quick sliver any time you could play an instant. Any player may play Sliver cards any time he or she could play an instant. The directors of the Riptide Project wanted instant results on the sliver experiments. They got their wish. ==> FUN: 4 I like playing creatures as instants. There's nothing quite as satisfying as wiping that smug grin from your opponent's face when you're suddenly able to block and kill his attacker. Of course a 1/1 isn't very good at that, but with the right other slivers in play, it could be more than just a vanilla 1/1. Plus, your other slivers can now be played as instants as well, which means your opponent can expect a surprise Breeding Sliver or even a Sliver Queen. -- 137. Root Sliver 3G Uncommon Creature - Sliver 2/2 Root Sliver can't be countered. Sliver spells can't be countered. "It would take another apocalypse to stop the Slivers now." - Riptide Project researcher ==> FUN: 3 A sideboard card against counter decks. A pretty good one, but Counterspell decks aren't as powerful as they used to be and Root Sliver is vulnerable to other ways of creature destruction, like the simple Shock. -- 138. Seedborn Muse 3GG Rare Creature - Spirit 2/4 Untap all permanents you control during each other player's untap step. "Her voice is wilderness, savage and pure." - Kamahl, druid acolyte ==> FUN: 4 Awakening-on-a-stick. Seedborn Muse could turn out to be a very useful card with all the morphies around. Not only do you get all your attackers untapped to block your opponent's attack, you also get access to double the amount of mana you had, mana that can be used to turn your creatures face-up and to cycle some cards. -- 139. Stonewold Invoker 1G Common Creature - Elf Mutant 2/2 7G: Stonewold Invoker gets +5/+5 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 2 A bear that later on becomes a 7/7 at a hefty upkeep cost. At eight mana, there are easier ways of getting something big into play. And with all the morphing creatures around, getting a cheap 2/2 that can later become big isn't that special anymore. -- 140. Timberwatch Elf 2G ??? Creature - Elf 1/2 T: Target creature gets +x/+x until end of turn where x is the number of elves in play. Even through the Mirari's voice, the elves still hear the call of their kinship. ==> FUN: 2 Strong, but elf decks already have so many options for pumping creatures and I doubt Timberwatch Elf will make the cut. -- 141. Totem Speaker 4G Uncommon Creature - Elf Druid 3/3 Whenever a Beast comes into play, you may gain 3 life. ==> FUN: 3 Totem Speaker could have been a very fun card, but it's expensive for a 3/3 with an ability that doesn't help you kill your opponent directly. Also, it's not a beast, so to make use of Totem Speaker, you'd have to dilute a beast deck. A good idea, but two strikes against it makes Totem Speaker a mediocre card. -- 142. Tribal Forcemage 1G Rare Creature - Elf Wizard 1/1 Morph 1G When Tribal Forcemage is turned face up, creatures of the type of your choice get +2/+2 and gain trample until end of turn. ==> FUN: 3 As always with these type of cards, I'll compare it to Overrun. For the same amount of mana as Overrun (3 to play Tribal Forcemage face-down and 2 to morph it), you get a much more limited effect. The only bonus is that you get a 1/1 as well, but that's not a big one. It does mean you can tutor for Tribal Forcemage with something like Worldly Tutor, which could come in handy. But then, you'd have to show it to your opponent in advance, giving him time to prepare. -- 143. Vexing Beetle 4G Rare Creature - Insect 3/3 Vexing Beetle can't be countered. Vexing Beetle gets +3/+3 as long as no opponent controls a creature. ==> FUN: 3 Vexing Beetle is basically a hoser against the old creatureless counterspell decks that aren't popular anymore. You can also try to play it with a lot of removal and hope you can get the +3/+3 bonus that way, but it seems like a lot of effort for only marginal gain. -- 144. Wirewood Channeler 3G Uncommon Creature - Elf 2/2 T: Add X mana of any one color to your mana pool, where X is the number of Elves in play. ==> FUN: 4 It's a bit more expensive, but Wirewood Channeler basically the new Priest of Titania. At two toughness it's a bit more durable and it can also get you the color mana you need (usually red if you're playing a version of Elf-ball with lots of mana elves and Fireball for the win). -- 145. Wirewood Hivemaster 1G Uncommon Creature - Elf 1/1 Whenever a nontoken Elf comes into play, you may put a 1/1 green Insect token into play. ==> FUN: 5 Ok, 1/1 insects aren't all that fearsome, but if you're sitting on an Overrun, every little bit helps. And it doesn't take much to think of a good use for extra 1/1 tokens. Fecundity and Goblin Bombardment come to mind. |
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