Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1GG
+1: Put a 0/1 Plant creature token onto the battlefield
-2: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control
-7: You gain X life and you draw X cards, where X is the number of lands you control
Starting Loyalty: 3
WCS is a counter-based anthem and some damage soak for 1GG? Seems good, sign me up.
I think I really like this. It gets Ajani Goldmane's best ability for even cheaper, and this is the cheapest plus ability that gets you a token yet. Seems like an easy recipe for taking over a board state in the early turns of the game. It's a good draw early and a good draw late. I can't wait to give this a spin, and I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up competing with the best of the Garruks.
Easy pass unfortunately. Green aggro cards need to be splashy for me since aggro usually only dabbles in green. Even then, there's better things to do.
I can't think of anything I'd cut for this. Curse of Predation is definitely better, and I think even Gaea's Anthem would be better if you want this kind of effect for 1GG
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Huh. I'm surprised at the lack of interest, honestly. Maybe Curse of Predation has more upside in aggressive builds, but the modes work together nicely and resemble popular cube cards such as Awakening Zone and Ajani Goldmane. So where does the problem lie?
I like her; at worst she's an anthem effect, and dropping her on turn 2 means her ultimate is extremely achievable. Churning out an army of 0/1 also works with cards like Purphoros, anthem effects, and Opposition. I like she's can be extremely good and will definitely test her.
Curse of Predation is better IMO because green usually isn't the dominant color in your aggro decks. I wouldn't really compare its ability to Ajani's because Ajani is only -1 and it lets you play offense and defense at the same time.
It's an interesting card. I love how early it comes out, and the army in a can + ability. However a more expensive Ajani Goldmane second ability is really lackluster and hurts the card. If it were -1 effect it would be a lot beter. The infinite is a decent card draw which green can always use, the lifegain is probably meh most the time, but you never know.
On the fence at 540 Multiplayer. We do support tokens heavily so it might get some votes for testing. Hard to say what it would replace.
I think I'm more with TennesseeFireman on this one. MonoG is clearly the best shell for a 3 drop walker (aside -- every color now has a walker With cost <=3, though red still lacks one=3), and she is the only walker at less than 4 mana who protects herself as a +. We're going from a limit of 2 walkers per monocolor to 3, and I think she seriously competes it's 5 mana Nissa for the slot (this is influenced somewhat by G already having a 5 mana walker, and our supporting tokens as a theme in WG more than usual).
I do feel curse is better as a pure aggro card, but I feel like I would include this in over 50% of heavily green decks I've drafted, and Curse in under 50%.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
If only those plants did something extra. Sacable for mana, life, combine multiple to make a super shrubbery, something.
I can see this only if you support green aggro very heavily, have +1/+1 matters theme or do something with just having a lot of tokens (Glare of Subdual, Opposition-like stuff)
Conclusion: Pass. Though I love 'small' walkers. Still hoping for playable one or two CC walkers one day.
Yes, her abilities are pretty weak. BUT she only costs 3 mana! That is a HUGE advantage for a planeswalker.
And while her token making is worse than Awakening Zone's (one turn faster though) and her team boosting is worse than Curse of Predation/Gaea's Anthem in most cases, she still has the typical planeswalker advantage of doing multiple different things and giving you the ability to chose each turn what you want to do with her.
Her + ability clogs up the ground and provides sacrifice fodder. Producing tokens with a + ability also means that such a planeswalker has an easier time reaching their ultimate than others. And the ultimate is pretty solid.
All in all, certainly not a must-have, but you should watch out for the common planeswalker-evaluation-trap of looking at the abilities individually and not taking the whole package and the inherent flexibility into account.
I think she is solid and I will certainly test her.
Sleeper. This card seems rather good, and I am kind of shocked at the disinterest people have so far. Curse of Predation is it's own thing, perhaps better in most scenarios, but less flexible AND I see no reason why Curse is enough - Having both seems far better than either one.
I'm just not sure what deck wants this. The 0/1 tokens can gum up the ground on defense, but the anthem effect seems out of place on the card. I'm not sure if I have a single deck that's interested in both of her abilities. My midrange decks don't want 0/1s and my creatures already outclass my opponents. Aggro doesn't want the plant bodies, and green control doesn't want the anthems. Midrange decks would rather just play a ramp spell, and aggro would rather play another body or a more consistent Anthem effect that does a better job at buffing all my creatures over the course of the game. I don't think this card has a home.
Only deck I can see wanting this would be a deck with a crazy number of token producers and anthems.
You'd want multiple anthem effects such that her plants can be threats by themselves without nissa AND multiple token producers, such that you don't have to go all-in with your hand to make her anthem deadly.
My cube definitely doesn't support this hardcore of a token deck, and 1GG mana cost further narrows this.
Only deck that ever see plays around here that she could be fine in is like, a midrange green deck with a few planeswalkers that produce tokens, lingering souls, deranged hermit and like a skull clamp.
Any other type of deck she falls way short of playable. Will not be testing.
She feels a lot like a smaller Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Making 0/1s kind of kills it for me though. 1/1s with no abilities would probably have been enough to cube it.
Only deck I can see wanting this would be a deck with a crazy number of token producers and anthems.
You'd want multiple anthem effects such that her plants can be threats by themselves without nissa AND multiple token producers, such that you don't have to go all-in with your hand to make her anthem deadly.
My cube definitely doesn't support this hardcore of a token deck, and 1GG mana cost further narrows this.
Only deck that ever see plays around here that she could be fine in is like, a midrange green deck with a few planeswalkers that produce tokens, lingering souls, deranged hermit and like a skull clamp.
Any other type of deck she falls way short of playable. Will not be testing.
I think that's true, and even in that deck, while pretty good, she wouldn't be needed. The other anthems and token producers already make the deck. She just fits in.
I'm just not sure what deck wants this. The 0/1 tokens can gum up the ground on defense, but the anthem effect seems out of place on the card. I'm not sure if I have a single deck that's interested in both of her abilities. My midrange decks don't want 0/1s and my creatures already outclass my opponents. Aggro doesn't want the plant bodies, and green control doesn't want the anthems. Midrange decks would rather just play a ramp spell, and aggro would rather play another body or a more consistent Anthem effect that does a better job at buffing all my creatures over the course of the game. I don't think this card has a home.
Any kind of deck wanting to play an attrition game is going to appreciate her 0/1 tokens, because the size of the tokens do not necessarily ever matter all that much. Decks like Stax are going to appreciate her in the way they appreciate Awakening Zone, it produces fodder every turn and has added flexibility to do other things.
It gives Green Aggro more noncreature permanent redundancy, which I personally enjoy. Sometimes I wish the game was not as linear as it commonly is - enter Nissa, in both this and her M15 variant.
Token decks are going to appreciate the anthem ability as well as the token ability.
She is nothing phenomenal, but she is a solid card if those archetypes are things you want to focus on. Seems to me that people have really high expectations from walkers these days that they have to do something crazy rather than just all around good for the premium paid. Her abilities for 3 mana are pretty solid.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1GG
+1: Put a 0/1 Plant creature token onto the battlefield
-2: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control
-7: You gain X life and you draw X cards, where X is the number of lands you control
Starting Loyalty: 3
WCS is a counter-based anthem and some damage soak for 1GG? Seems good, sign me up.
I think I really like this. It gets Ajani Goldmane's best ability for even cheaper, and this is the cheapest plus ability that gets you a token yet. Seems like an easy recipe for taking over a board state in the early turns of the game. It's a good draw early and a good draw late. I can't wait to give this a spin, and I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up competing with the best of the Garruks.
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Card isn't bad, but I'm going to pass at 540.
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On the fence at 540 Multiplayer. We do support tokens heavily so it might get some votes for testing. Hard to say what it would replace.
I think I'm more with TennesseeFireman on this one. MonoG is clearly the best shell for a 3 drop walker (aside -- every color now has a walker With cost <=3, though red still lacks one=3), and she is the only walker at less than 4 mana who protects herself as a +. We're going from a limit of 2 walkers per monocolor to 3, and I think she seriously competes it's 5 mana Nissa for the slot (this is influenced somewhat by G already having a 5 mana walker, and our supporting tokens as a theme in WG more than usual).
I do feel curse is better as a pure aggro card, but I feel like I would include this in over 50% of heavily green decks I've drafted, and Curse in under 50%.
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I can see this only if you support green aggro very heavily, have +1/+1 matters theme or do something with just having a lot of tokens (Glare of Subdual, Opposition-like stuff)
Conclusion: Pass. Though I love 'small' walkers. Still hoping for playable one or two CC walkers one day.
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And while her token making is worse than Awakening Zone's (one turn faster though) and her team boosting is worse than Curse of Predation/Gaea's Anthem in most cases, she still has the typical planeswalker advantage of doing multiple different things and giving you the ability to chose each turn what you want to do with her.
Her + ability clogs up the ground and provides sacrifice fodder. Producing tokens with a + ability also means that such a planeswalker has an easier time reaching their ultimate than others. And the ultimate is pretty solid.
All in all, certainly not a must-have, but you should watch out for the common planeswalker-evaluation-trap of looking at the abilities individually and not taking the whole package and the inherent flexibility into account.
I think she is solid and I will certainly test her.
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You'd want multiple anthem effects such that her plants can be threats by themselves without nissa AND multiple token producers, such that you don't have to go all-in with your hand to make her anthem deadly.
My cube definitely doesn't support this hardcore of a token deck, and 1GG mana cost further narrows this.
Only deck that ever see plays around here that she could be fine in is like, a midrange green deck with a few planeswalkers that produce tokens, lingering souls, deranged hermit and like a skull clamp.
Any other type of deck she falls way short of playable. Will not be testing.
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I think that's true, and even in that deck, while pretty good, she wouldn't be needed. The other anthems and token producers already make the deck. She just fits in.
Any kind of deck wanting to play an attrition game is going to appreciate her 0/1 tokens, because the size of the tokens do not necessarily ever matter all that much. Decks like Stax are going to appreciate her in the way they appreciate Awakening Zone, it produces fodder every turn and has added flexibility to do other things.
It gives Green Aggro more noncreature permanent redundancy, which I personally enjoy. Sometimes I wish the game was not as linear as it commonly is - enter Nissa, in both this and her M15 variant.
Token decks are going to appreciate the anthem ability as well as the token ability.
She is nothing phenomenal, but she is a solid card if those archetypes are things you want to focus on. Seems to me that people have really high expectations from walkers these days that they have to do something crazy rather than just all around good for the premium paid. Her abilities for 3 mana are pretty solid.