Card/Deck Green Noncreature Spells

[Diakonov]

I'm currently running Primal Command, but my playgroup thinks it's garbage. I'm starting to wonder if they're right.

What are some good noncreature options for green at this point?

Also, how often do you see nongreen players running Birthing Pod? I currently have it classified as colorless.

 

[Suicufnoc]

Primal command isn't garbage. Pod decks are usually green. I run 2 as green and 1 as colorless. Curse of Predation is an awesome aggro card. Rancor is good too. all the garruks are pretty good. I like sylvan or mirris guile, but I'm running 26 fetches at 360.

 

[Peter LaCara]

I'm a big fan of Setessan Tactics. It's a combat trick and a removal spell all in one! It's broken open some pretty big board stalls.

Chord of Calling is a neat little toolbox spell. It can be sort of like a surprise pod activation. There's a reason it sees play in Modern.

I'll second Curse of Predation. That card gets out of hand fast.

I just put Pendelhaven to test in my cube. Green has a lot of 1/1's lying around. Oran-Rief, the Vastwood is another option along those same lines. This assumes you're not doing a ULD or something like that.

 

[CML]

If you think about it, Sakura-Tribe Elder is basically a sorcery, which is a non-creature spell, I guess

See the Unwritten is also technically not a creature!

Green can have a nice themeless enchantment theme with Sylvan Library, Survival of the Fittest, and Eidolon of Blossoms

 

[Suicufnoc]

Oh how is eidelon of blossoms doing for those who've tried. I'm super interested lately

 

[Eric Chan]

I've oscillated between "worthwhile" and "hot garbage" on Primal Command, myself. It's currently in my list, but lately I've been leaning more towards hot garbage, so it's on the chopping block. Jason swears by it, but he also swears by Call of the Herd, so.

Birthing Pod is green, through and through. Trying to cast it and then activate it every turn for colourless is asking for a quick trip to Doomsville.

If you support a graveyard theme, Mulch isn't the worst. I ran Overrun - or something similar, like Overwhelming Stampede - for four years (!), but I've finally come around to the stance that that category of spells isn't cube-worthy. Revenge of the Hunted was sweet when I ran it, but I suspect it was always more fun than good, and I think Setessan Tactics does the same job better. I'm currently experimenting with a small heroic theme, and Boar Umbra is in there for a trial. I did get run over by a 7/7 umbra-ed up dude the other day, so so far, so good.

Last thing: Mwonvuli Acid-Moss is the best green non-creature spell, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

 

[DreamPaint]

Primal Command has been one of our strongest green cards basically forever. What doesn't your playgroup like about it? How are they using typically using it?

Other commonly run green spells that I enjoy are Harmonize and Sylvan Library.

Two cards that I don't often see in lists are Bow of Nylea and Primeval Bounty. Bow is pretty good once it gets going and does a lot of random things that green decks enjoy having access to. I know it's pretty wordy and kind of ugly, but it gives the big mana decks something good to do every turn. I was against adding it, but I've been pleased with it's inclusion. Primeval Bounty is a card that I almost never see in lists, but it's been nothing short of insane. It takes a turn to get going, which makes it feel somewhat fair, but after that it does an incredible job of stabilizing the board and your life total. My playgroup consistently says it's a top green card. Check it out.

 

[Eric Chan]

They... kinda don't play Primal Command. That's the main problem. For its cost, it's slow and doesn't do a whole lot. With all the goodies that green has gotten in the last half decade, you're often better off just running another medium-sized creature to fill out your deck. There's sometimes no need to tutor up that six drop when your fours and fives are just as sweet.



I agree that Bow of Nylea might be decent, but I find there's only so much room in each colour for global enchantments. Right now, Curse of Predation holds that spot for being higher impact, as it works both immediately as well as over the long haul. I could be looking at Bow wrong, though - are you saying it's better in slow decks, as opposed to fast attacking ones?

 

[DreamPaint]

Yeah I like Bow in the ramp decks. The green decks we build aren't interested in attacking with lots of creatures, so Curse wouldn't see a lot of play. Primal Command has always been a way to put the game completely out of reach for the aggressive decks. It's basically the tipping point of stabilization for the green decks against anything more aggressive. Like gain 7 put a land on top of your deck goes a long way towards undoing previous damage and avoiding future damage by giving you time to go over the top. That's how its played out for us in the past.

 

[Eric Chan]

That's interesting - I can see how Primal Command would be good if you're ahead, and doing half a Plow Under would press your tempo advantage. Over here, the aggro decks blitzkrieg fast enough that the slower green ramp decks are usually on the back foot by the time they can cast the command, and really just need to tutor up a defensive fatty to stay alive. In those instances, just plopping down any of the midsized beef I linked above is often a better plan towards stabilizing the board.

So I guess the real key to Primal Command is, how often do you want Plow Under? If the answer is "sometimes" or more, the command is probably worth your while.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I love the original Garruk. He's a neat way of sneaking a playable Overrun into your cube.

 

[Diakonov]

Which garruk do you guys prefer between OG and relentless?

 

[Suicufnoc]

I love Relentless personally. Played both during their time in standard. Wildspeaker probably had more impact? I forget

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Overrun is good. Whenever I think about cutting it, it wins a game. Whenever I'm playing green, there is usually at least one board state where I lose a game, that if I had overrun instead of random green dude #45 I would have won. I'm sure there are a few games that someone loses because they have overrun instead of a dude, but I'm pretty sure those cases are dwarfed by the reverse.

I think fog variants are underrated. Constant Mists is just a stupid card and I don't suggest it, but Moment's Peace is very good, particularly if you are self-milling.

Setessan Tactics is awesome. The enchantment theme is awesome.

Bow of Nylea reads like complete crap, but then you get into a game and find that one of the 8 million things it does is relevant in almost any board state and realize that its a pretty decent card.

OG Garruk is better, but Relentless is more awesome.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

My current lineup (in a multicolor cube) consists of:

 

[CML]

Which garruk do you guys prefer between OG and relentless?

yes

 

[Lucre]

Natural order is one of my favourite busted green cards and it has cool cross colour synergy. You can also build your cube to contain their power level.

 

[Chris Taylor]

So a computer scientist is in the delivery room, and gets handed his child after the delivery. His wife, obviously excited, asks "Is it a boy or a girl?"

yes

 

[Lucre]

I like non creature ramp because I like the idea of control decks running ramp. Harmonize is really nice when 50% of the cards in your deck are lands or cards that act like lands.

 

[Eric Chan]

I feel like I want one "explosive" ramp spell to help out the green ramp archetype, which needs a little boost if it's to hit seven mana or more. Preferably not a creature, so that it doesn't get sauteed the minute it lands; though, if it's good enough, I'm all ears. Suggest one, or help me pick one of these?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Growth Spasm accellerates from 3 to 6 if you have a land. It's awesome! Overgrowth is decent but somewhat more prone to removal and it doesn't fix.

 

[Lucre]

good explosive ramp is hard to come by in modern... especially if you are limited to green. I wonder if non-green decks would want coalition relic in your cube eric. I guess 3 colour control would probz want it but those decks need help too anyway lol.

 

[VibeBox]

this is still a brutal spell

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I've grown to dislike Coalition Relic (and Worn Powerstone). What exactly are the aggro decks in a cube like that to do against a turn four Frost Titan? And that's not even close to the worst that can come down at six mana in some cubes (though it's pretty close, Frosty plays a lot meaner than he looks).

Between ramp in green, reanimator in black, and welder effects in red, I think there's enough ways to cheat fatties into play that I don't need every color to have access to that kind of artifact mana.

 

[Lucre]

But eric doesn't tend to cube really good six drops bootman. Eric cubes modern so his reanimator isn't even really good or consistent it's mainly useful for re using thragtusk or mulldrifter lol.

I also don't know about your cube, but like most of the time when I cube aggro unless I'm playing a really under supplied archetype or like a synergy aggro deck that NEEDS its gravecrawlers I usually have some of the best removal in the cube.