Whether you prefer red, white, black, blue or green, understanding the five different mana colours in Magic: The Gathering is important. After all, it can drive your strategy. When it comes to choosing which colour deck most represents how you prefer to approach game play, green is just one of the colours you should consider. Here, we explore the colour green.
What does green represent?
This is the colour associated with:
· Raw strength
· Animals and plants
· The natural order
· Regeneration
· Simplicity
· Fertility
· Growth
The colour green can be seen as having perhaps the strongest intuitive identity of all the colours, with the exception of black. With a strong emphasis on nature and the natural animal kingdom it focuses on the belief that “might” makes right. Green is representative of the power of the land and the animals that live there. It gets larger creatures than any other colour and pays less for them. This means it can summon dinosaurs, wurms and elephants easily, which can be very effective with their high levels of power and toughness.
Green is a popular choice with new players because it has a very simple game plan: keep attacking in combat until you win. There are also several ways in which green can increase creature strength when required. The most famous of these is through “combat tricks” such as Giant Growth.
None of this, however, means that the green deck is lacking in options should your game lose momentum. Where the other colours might use expensive angels, demons or dragons, green has little to offer in the way of flying creatures. Instead, it doubles down with brute strength and trample ability. Fertility and growth are the other key aspects of green gameplay, and this can be seen with a rapid regeneration of resources including mana development. “Mana dorks” give extra mana to green – “mana dork”, for those new to the game, is MTG slang for a creature with a low converted mana cost that produces extra mana to help a deck cast its spells more efficiently.
Why might you play green cards?
A green player is someone who can appreciate the real pleasure that comes with playing cards that are powerful. Skilful green play is often down to the sequence of your cards and knowing when you need to commit yourself. With a strong focus on creature cards, there is potential for both disruptive and combo decks. Above all else, green rewards those players who want to be proactive. It gives them the opportunity to accelerate towards play that is particularly powerful. The philosophy of green is not well suited for being a control deck primary colour as it does not have good interaction and reactive plays.
Combo decks
A combo deck describes a deck of MTG cards that has the goal of winning the game quickly with a relatively small number of cards in combination. They tend to involve land-based combos or creatures; these are the two card types that green is best at looking for in its deck and then manipulating into the game. Successful combo decks find specific cards quickly and win as fast as possible. The best combo decks will use mana acceleration (or ramp) with cards like Llanowar Elves or Rampant Growth. Green can produce mana turn after turn to help cast large spells.
Fast decks and slow decks
These two types of decks differ in how quickly they are able to cash in on the mana advantage that is generated by the colour. Aggressive green decks prefer to play a three-mana creature as quickly as turn two, putting the pressure on their opponents immediately. Slower decks will, however, take more turns to build up resources before getting to turn five and casting a game-ending-ten-mana spell.
What’s your favourite colour? Do you prefer the raw strength and regeneration of green, the ambition and fear of black or maybe the speed and chaos of red?
Let us know in the comments below.
All Magic: The Gathering (MTG) card images and symbols © Wizards of the Coast
Comentários