MTG Salvation

Harrow :



What do you guys think about Harrow?

As a independant add to cube? And compare to cards like Farseek and Cultivate/Kodama's Reach?

Which is better in your opinion? Why?

Thanks!

I think the card has fallen into disfavor due to being in a bad spot between lower cost, 1 card for 1 card options like search for tomorrow and equal to higher cost options that give 2 to 1 advantage, such as cultivate and explosive vegetation. If harrow granted the ability to grab non-basics like crop rotation, or was cmc 2 then you'd have a card better positioned to remain in contemporary cubes.

It's still probably an option for larger cubes, but there are just better cards than harrow out there.

I'd no longer run Harrow in a 540 or lower card cube. It might make the cut at larger sizes or if you really push the lands matter theme.

Cheers,
rant

Hopefully the return to Zendikar block this fall will give us more of a reason to run this over the other options. But as it stands, without a deep land-based theme of some kind, it's worse than all the other comparable options.

I wouldn't consider it too much worse than comparable options like Cultivate. For one thing, it's an instant. And for another, the lands enter play untapped - doesn't that mean that, like the Urza block's "free" spells, it technically only costs G? For a third, more minor point, it plays well with the Loam package, which struggles a bit to find targets at higher cube sizes. If you push ramp and you're looking for more combat tricks, it's a great inclusion. Being able to chain your ramp spells into your removal, pump or countermagic can put you pretty far ahead on board

It only costs G if you're immediately using the mana, which makes the instant speed less relevant. But it fails to do either of the things that you include Cultivate for. It doesn't give you card advantage, and it doesn't give you 2 additional resources. And the land sacrifice is part of the cost, so it's pretty brutal if you run into a Daze or Mana Tithe.

How would you classify them.

Personnally, I'd go with something like :

1) Farseek
2) Cultivate
3) Harrow

Harrow is at the bottom of my list because while you can benefit from its almost free cost, it only basicly get you a rampant growth effect on turn 3 and that's pretty bad. The land sac additionnal cost is pretty sad as well. Instant speed opens you to some nice play for sure but I don't think it really worth it. More like a 720 cube card to me. And looks more like a control card IMO, keeping yourself open to respond with a 2cc counterspell.

I think Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are the best of them. Then the Farseek/Rampant Growth variants. Harrow and others would bring up the rear.

Cultivate is card advantage, and it gives you +2 resources. I think it's way better than the 1-for-1 ramp that's available that's not strapped to a body.

What is making me classify Farseek in front of those, just by a slim marge btw, is the speed it brings. Sometimes, when you are out of mox, bring a 4cc creature on 3 turn is a mess for your opponent to react. This is what Farseek does and it can also search for a dual or a shock land. Only drawback is that you can't search for a simple forest when you are G/x with mass of Green and very little of X. It happens to me once and it was so sad.

The thing that makes Farseek good is the ability to find duals and shocklands. I still think it's behind Cultivate and Kodama's Reach, though. Kodama's Reach has to be #1 because there's always that tiny chance that you can live the dream and splice Through the Breach onto it.

I think that green has a glut of good 1-2 mana ramp options, but very few options that generate card and resource advantage together. Which is why I consider them to be ahead of Farseek by a pretty good margin.

Pay attention to this card post new zendikar set.

I LOVE the landfall mechanic, but too many of the best landfall cards have been outclassed in recent sets. Would be great for lands.dec to be a competitive archetype, and it's short ~2-4 strong pieces for it to be competitive.

Harrow is one of the best enablers for a landfall cube deck that is also playable in a green ramp deck that is short playables.

The only reason I play Harrow is to add value for landfall, loam, and crucible. As a ramp spell, there are clearly better options, even though this one is passable. It is not the best in class, but it intersects in so many ways, it is worth thinking about. Not many ramp spells can eek advantage out of a strip mine or ice effect, for instance.

I am surprised to see Farseek removed from so many cubes. I consider it better than cultivate and kodama's reach because of the ability to find a dual and cast a turn faster than those two. Using up an entire turn 3 to tap out and play it can sometimes be a problem.

I think if you have tons of 2 mana ramp available, the perks of farseek are kinda minimal and alternatives become more desirable. People not running it are probably already running signets and/or talismans and I just don't see that big a need for rampant growth variants there.

I was actually running Harrow for a little bit because I'm always on the lookout for ways to drop land in the graveyard, but ultimately I've found reach/cultivate to be nicer, particularly when you've got ways to play additional lands each turn. I think if people see appeal in Harrow's sacrifice feature, they might wanna take a look at Crop Rotation. It's clearly no substitute for ramping, but I think the loam decks can use it pretty well and it's just kinda cool how you can get your strip mine or wasteland stuff going a little easier, or get other broken lands online too.

I really like Harrow.

It's an instant that plays well in control decks that want to ramp (bonus Torrential Gearhulk points btw). It puts lands into the GY so it can be an enabler for some archetypes. It potentially fixes two colors of mana and most importantly, the lands enter the battlefield untapped. Meaning you can double spell of your ramp card which is huge.

It might not be as powerful as some options, but it plays significantly better than most!

If you have enough landfall triggers, Harrow can be a combat trick of sorts. Attack with Vinelasher Kudzu, play Harrow to give it two +1/+1 counters.

How are people feeling about Harrow these days. I am still running it but had in my head it's a bit of a pet card because I have an orignal foil. My players all seem to value it pretty highly because its instant speed ramp that can fix for double colours and get a land into the yard for any effects that care/trigger for that.

Still seems to be a pretty unique effect as the LotR version doesn't get them untapped. Nothing can compare to the joy of casting Harrow with no blue mana up, and grabbing 2 Islands and casting counterspell then seeing your opponents face, but maybe that's just me.

I dropped Harrow for Cultivate this past year.
Note that our cube is powered, but we still have slower games.

Harrow just wasn't having the impact it needs with the relative increase of power and speed you are seeing at the lower end of the curve from cards being printed over the past few years.

It honestly was great before, but now it just feels too slow and was being used more as a reaction to strip mine effects, or suboptimal when a turn could have utilized a 2 mana or 3 mana high impact card that put the opponent on the ropes versus setting up a combo thay may not fruition until 2+ turns later, when the match had already been decided.

Cultivate is a card I avoided adding into my cube for a long time, but it feels its something that's necessary.

Quote from steve_man »

Quote from TheGroglord »

How are people feeling about Harrow these days.

I've never liked Harrow since Kodama's Reach / Cultivate have always just been generally better. The guaranteed card advantage and risk of not getting blown out by a counterspell is much better than Harrow's benefits of being instant speed and the lands ETBing tapped, IMO. I'd only consider Harrow if I had a serious landfall theme going on or something.

Quote from Alan Yuan »

Cultivate is a card I avoided adding into my cube for a long time, but it feels its something that's necessary.

I cut Kodama's Reach / Cultivate a long time ago and never looked back.

My UG High Tide - Time Spiral and Golos, Tireless Pilgrim - Field of the Dead decks always complains about the lack of Kodama's Reach / Cultivate.

I'm tempted to agree ...