Subject: ISSUES: Re: Green ID Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 09:31:09 -0400 From: "R. Kinyon" To: mr_jetlag@hotmail.com CC: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com P. Rozales - You're right - Green's theme is not an obvious one. But, it does exist, and you did hit on it - really fast fat and the ability to win any and all creature battles. You say, "Well, that doesn't win tournaments, so don't bother telling me about it." But, it does win tournaments, and I'll show you how. Green is, and always has been from Alpha onwards, a creature color. Green's spells are almost incidental, frankly. Green's creatures were always the biggest, meanest, baddest dudes on the block, with notable exceptions (as always). And, unlike all the other colors, Green could get out these bad boys quickly and consistently (unless Black drew Dark Rituals). This means that other mages have to be able to deal with an unlboltable creature very early on, usually before Wrath of God can hit. (The loss of Swords to Plowshares in T2 helps green a lot, don't you think?) Let's take a quick look at an archtype for a moment - the Geddon deck. The original Geddon deck was EhrnaGeddon. A Green creature forms the focus of a deck, married with a White sorcery, backed by Green mana production and White removal. Green's strength married to White's strength. Nothing wrong with that... Now, a lot of people are complaining about cards like Gaea's Blessing and Sylvan Library. Well, first off, before Blessing came out, no-one complained about Sylvan. And, I personally think that Blessing is an anomaly, just like Regrowth was an anomaly. When I first saw Regrowth, I thought "Hmm...this doesn't fit..," but I didn't care. It was just a thing that was - you played Black for Tutor, Red for Bolts and Wheel, and Green for Regrowth and Birds. Accordingly, Desert Twister (and its ilk) were also anomalies, but every color needs _SOME_ removal, and since Green didn't really go in half-measures, R&D gave it the best removal spell in the game and left it at that. (I always thought that was so cool, if so uncastable.) Maybe anomaly is too harsh a word. Green creatures rule the jungle and Green spells do stuff without hurting anything. Just my two cents on the idea of Green's ID. Rob