Subject: Volrath's Gardens Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 21:13:24 EST From: Shadzola To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Volrath's Gardens at first look is a semi-weak card for green. It has no card advantage and can easily be destroyed. It requires a lot of creatures and a high amount of mana to be effective. For those of you unfamiliar with this card it follows: Volrath's Gardens 1G Enchantment (rare) ST 2, Tap an untapped creature you control: Gain 2 life. Play this ability as a sorcery. At first look, this card looks highly ineffective because of the way that it makes you not only spend 2, but tap an untapped (and otherwise useful blocker, attacker, ability-user, etc.) creature. For this card to be any good, it is implied that you must have at least two creatures out and have stable board control backed up with disruption in your hand. However, this card has a huge potential to be broken beyond belief. Certain other cards such as Heartstone and Mogg Maniac have the potential for huge combos, but suck otherwise. This is where the Gardens are different. This obvious first use is that this card rocks in Limited. When a huge creature stand-off occurs, this card will probably swing the game in your favor. And unlike cards like Gerrard's Wisdom, Natural Spring, Bottle Gnomes, Spike Feeder, and Essence Bottle, this card is cheap and resuable. It is splashable with only one G in its casting cost and no other G anywhere on the card. It could be argued that this card could be better than Ivory Tower in some instances. For example, when two beat-down decks in Limited square off, there is usually a creature stalemate where there are few cards in hand and a lot of creatures out. This card takes advantage of this by trading 2 mana and tapping a creature for two life. And because it can be used multiple times during a turn, gaining upwards of 6 to 8 life is not a fantasy. While it is common knowledge that mass destruction, direct damage, and big creatures win Limited games, life gaining is also very important. Fanning the Flames is a very weak card in Limited because it is so expensive and has RR in its casting cost. There are no incredible mass destruction cards to come out of Stronghold with the possible exception of Shard Phoenix and Evacuation. And even though there are plenty of big creatures from Crovax to that green worm, they are all balanced throughout the different colors and are easy to stop with cards like Death Stroke and Smite. That leads us to life gaining. Without a doubt, the best pure life gaining card in ST/Standard, Volrath's Gardens are splashable, powerful, fast, and permanent. Running 20+ creatures, this card can easily swing the game in your favor. I've played games where stand-offs occur or when a deck is on the ropes and has managed stall for a couple of turns where this cards wins you the game. When you rifle off 12-16 life in 2 turns, your opponent is probably going to turn colors. And because this is an enchantment, 6-8 life a turn will easily win you the game, even if your opponent is hitting you for 3 a turn. And it can be used on creatures the first turn that they come into play, giving you an advantage over your opponent. While this is arguably this best card out of Stronghold in Limited right now, it does have other uses. Most notably in Standard combo decks. While too costly and too demanding to be tossed into, say, a Stompy deck, gaining two life a turn for only 2 mana and tapping a creature is a very good cost. Consider the Gardens' uses with the following cards: Zur Weirding: While everyone on the net is saying that someone is going to make a kick ass combo deck built around this card, nothing so far has been done. A friend and I tried making a Weirding deck way back before 5th and found that we had a lot of trouble. The deck eventually evolved to run 3-4 Glaciers, 3 Outposts, and plenty of counterspells, making it a CounterPost deck, but before that it used Island Sanctuary, Fountain of Youth, and Bazaar of Wonders to deck an opponent. Now, a Blue/Green Weirding/Gardens deck is becoming a definite possibility. Using counterspells and Ensnaring Bridge to hold off an opponent early, simply drop, say, a Wall of Blossoms/Tears (or any other creature for that matter), Garden, and Weirding and you've just set up a lock. With Ensnaring Bridge, your opponent is forced to make a lose-lose decision: should I deny my opponent I card and not be able to attack or let them draw a card and be forced to play it? Not a good choice. Then, you can use a variety of methods to deliverer to killing blow. Cursed Scroll and Grindstone are two possible options. Awakening: For those of you unfamiliar with this card it reads: Awakening 2GG Enchantment ST At the begining of each player's upkeep, untap all creatures and lands. Not all *that* strong on its own. You could put in a blue deck and start playing extremely aggro, but that's another story. Combine this card with Volrath's Gardens and you've got a pretty potent combo. Just tap all your creatures and lands during your turn to gain a ridiculous amount of life and then everything resets at the begining of your opponent's upkeep so you won't be smacked around while your tapped out. Just make sure that you have a way to kill your opponent via direct damage or decking. Necropotence: While no one is going to make a Volrath's Gardens/Necro deck, I just had to mention this card. Because Necro costs BBB, it will be very hard to play with this card in a Necro deck, but you could always splash it for utter domination. The combo itself is pretty obvious: drop a creature and the two aforementioned cards and you're drawing at least two cards a turn for every 2 you spend. In a Necro deck, you could be drawing in upwards of 6-10 cards a turn. Ouch. Pox: Same as Necro. Pox costs BBB so there is little chance that this will ever happen in a tourney deck, but once again -- too cool a combo for me not to mention. After poxing, drop a Golem and proceed to gain back that life you lost while filing away your opponent's life with a scroll. Didn't take much genius to come up with. 5CG-esque deck: This one takes a little thought to figure out. With 5CG, an attacking Sligh horde that puts you at around 8 usually spells doom. With Volrath's Gardens, you can gain a huge card advantage over your opponent. When your Sligh-like opponent is ready to administer the Fireblasts, Incinerates, and now Shocks, just start cranking out life via the Gardens and you've probably sealed the game. While this card probably won't work outside of the sideboard and in most instances isn't as effective as Elephant Grass, I still think that this card will find its way into some decks like 5CG. Turbo Mulch-esque deck: For those of you who haven't been religiously reading Stronghold articles, this deck uses Mulch (1G, Sorcery, Look at the top for cards of your library and put all basic land into your hand. Put the other cards in your graveyard) and Gaea's Blessing to wind up with no graveyard, all your lands in play, and a constant string of creatures. This card fits perfectly into this huge mana generation deck along with its small creatures. After a good Mulch/Blessing engine has been achieved, Volrath's Gardens can easily more than compsensate for an early loss of life. And you can gain enough life so that you don't have to worry about blocking for a long period of time. So in conclusion, not only is Volrath's Gardens one of the strongest Limited cards to come out of Stronghold, it also has very breakable uses in Standard combo decks. When I first looked at the Stronghold spoiler list, I thought: this card is broken beyond belief. Looking back, would I say the same thing? The answer is a sad no. However, Volrath's Gardens shouldn't be frowned upon as another bad green card (even though it does have some really cool art). It does have practical uses unlike other Stronghold cards that are cool (i.e. Sliver Queen). But the only way to know how good a card is for yourself is through playtesting. So don't take my word for it . . . Jeremy Widder shadzola@aol.com Comments welcomed/encouraged. If you disagree with my opinion, e-mail me. If you agree with my opinion, e-mail me.