Ten Green Cards That Would Rock in Commander

Hello again! These past few weeks I went over a bunch of cards that I like to use in commander in a number of colors: Red, Black, Blue, White, and Artifact (Click the color word for links to previous articles) By this point you should be well-acquainted with my focus and intent, but in case you aren’t…(skip to the meaty bits if you must)

I pick out a bunch of cards that intrigue me in Commander, not the staples of the format like powerhouse Earthcraft or Survival of the Fittest but think along the lines of bargain bin rares that usually don’t see the light of day. There were so many printed!

I am focusing on green this week. My first deck creation was a monstrosity built around Lhurgoyf back in the day, so I have always had a soft spot for green, though lately, standard has made a good run at making me hate it so…

Anyways, here we go:

10. Tornado - This card is especially useful late game when you have a bunch of mana to spare. The list of things it can hit are plentiful, the cost to yourself is not too bad. The repeatability is “once per turn” it doesn’t specify that it is your turn! If you have the mana, pop, pop, pop, don’t pay the upkeep or bounce it. It doesn't hurt that it's on the reserved list either.

9. Katabatic Winds - This enchantment is very powerful in green, which is why it has phasing to nerf it a bit. It absolutely shuts down flyers while it is on the board. Need to swing with your reach dudes every other turn? Boom. The phasing also helps with mass enchantment removal that you might run in green. The relatively cheap mana cost helps make an early impact too. It is also on the reserved list!

8. Ritual of Subdual - This reserved list card works wonders in commander because it often comes out fast in mono-green, there are plenty of non-land mana sources available and effective removal for opposing non-land sources of mana (such as artifacts). In a sort of green control shell, this would be a weird card that enemies won’t see coming.

7. Elephant Grass - Propaganda, but green! Combine with Darkest Hour and nobody can attack! In every deck that I have this has never been not useful. That may sound weird, but it's true. There has not been a time when I didn't want to stack mana costs on creatures that attack me. Being able to repeat this effect is even better (by returning it from the graveyard to play via the library in most cases with Gaea's Blessing or similar effect)

6. Storm Front - As long as you have mana, you can keep tapping dudes. This may not be great all the time, but it can definitely save you some trouble in most cases (someone usually has an annoying flying creature).

5. Clear the Land - This card is pretty useful at putting a lot of cards onto the battlefield fast. This also is a cheap way to exile a bunch of opponent's cards after some scrying or having been put back on top of their deck with an effect like Temporal Spring, Painful Memories, or Memory Lapse.

4. Gurzigost - The only creature on this list is a doozy. 6/8 for five mana seems like a deal right? Well, like anything that seems like a deal, there is a catch. It has an upkeep of 'unmilling' two cards from your graveyard (putting them back on the bottom of your library). Combine it with a bunch of instants (Fog, buff effects, etc.) and cumulative upkeeps or sagas and there might be combo potential here.

3. Freyalise’s Winds - Have I made it clear that I am a control player? This choice should make that glaringly obvious. This enchantment keeps stuff tapped at least half of the time, which is usually a blue ability. This works well with Chisei, Heart of Oceans, Clockspinning, Fate Transfer, and/or Hex Parasite.

2. Greener Pastures - In a land control shell, this card might be interesting, but in most cases, you can probably find a way to control the population. Imagine, if you will, a day when Night of Soul's Betrayal, Dingus Staff, and Zuran Orb are in play? Add this little enhcantment and things don't go so well for everybody else...

1. Squallmonger - This card could be good...or it could be a problem. As it doesn't damage itself, but hurts everyone and flying creatures, it seems that the drawback is not utterly terrible. Add an aura like Lifelink or Vampiric Link and this becomes significantly less painful. Add Curiosity and card draw gets stupid.

Honorable Mentions

These cards are pretty darn good for various reasons, but they didn't make the "Impact" list for whatever reason, mostly because there are simply a lot of cool green cards!

Fallow Earth/Plow Under/Harmonic Convergence - I like these cards because I love messing with people's draws. Especially nasty slow-down effects like putting land that a player owns back on top of his or her library so they can draw it again. As these cards only hit once, and usually aren't that big of an impact in commander, they are here in honorable mentions.

Song of Serenity - This cheap enchantment could spell trouble for a lot of commander players, turning any aura into Pacifism. Play it with some odd forms of control such as Retether, Umbilicus, and Bequeathal. I sometimes use it with other forms of weirdness like Arcanum Wings and control effects like Yavimaya's Embrace for additional fun.

Fecundity - One of the few cards to have art by both Rebecca Guay (Original Urza’s Saga/8th ed./Commander 2013 versions) and Terese Neilsen (Ultimate Masters version). Either version is kind of sweet art, but the effect it has is fairly strong, especially in a mass kill deck. Add in an effect that generates token creatures for your opponents (like Forbidden Orchard) and you may have a combo...

Welp, that's all I have this week. Sorry about this one being a little late, I had some heart trouble this past month and it kind of delayed a few things. I'm back now though so don't worry. Next week I will tackle Gold...right after the Olympics too! It will be the penultimate article in this series.

Until then, stay cool.