Subject: Re: WOTC, for Christmas, please give green..... Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 22:41:45 -0500 From: DON Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Green control. Greens primary elements of control are those cards usable by every color; artifacts. Most people only think of Worbs when they think of Artifacts for green, but there are a hell of a lot more that are best used by green. Most Notably--------Disrupting Scepter, an artifact so powerful that one of the primary concerns in the game (disruption) is named for it. A second turn stick vs. virtually any deck turns into significant card advantage so quickly that when you finally drop a centaur, dervish, disk, maro, ghoyf or other threat that your opponent will have no way to deal with it. Other artifacts which, while useful for most colors, are best used with green are Serrated Biskellions. Arrows were far better, as they became huge creatures after dropping a Song, but Biskets are almost essential for weenie defense while gaining card advantage with the stick. Nevinyrral's disk is another obvious choice for a essential artifact. An early stick provides numerical card advantage for the green player, and a disk a few turns later when your opponent's played out his hand (or been forced to discard it) is a finishing touch few decks can recover from. A green control decks biggest nemesis is Not permission, as most people think, but SRB. Personally, my biggest gripe with Wotc's handling of green is the lack of good early mana production, as most decent Green combos absolutely rely on a first turn mana elf. To that end I must congratulate them on the vineyard as a perfect complement for green. Like Mana Flare, a Vineyard can seem to help your opponent, and occasionally it does, but it's not really played for the benefit of your enemy. Sample Green control 4 mana elf 3 Serrated Biskellion 4 Vineyard 4 Centaurs 3 River Boas 3 Whirling Dervish 2 lhurghoyf 1 Maro 2 Cursed Scroll 4 Disrupting Scepter 4 Disk 4 Giant Spider (really! they kill all Knights, and are pretty hard to kill) 3 Wastelands 3 quicksands 16 Forests 24 Creatures 22 land 30 Mana sources A whole bunch of Disruption and control Alan Webster Doesn't think 'Mono'- anything is strong unless you explore all your options