I think this PW deserves some discussion. She has a glaring weakness in that she does nothing without creatures to support her, but I think she's pretty dece even so.
-Her + grants evasion and 2 power to the board, in creature matchups this can turn the tide in your favor very quickly. If you are on the backfoot against aggro she beefs up a blocker or two and has 5 loyalty to show for it. If you are the aggressor she speeds up your clock like crazy.
-Her -3 is strong removal, in GREEN, especially if you used her + the turn before.
-Her -5 is kinda weird and gives cube owners a bit of wiggle room with how to implement it, but most will probably choose sideboard. Chances are your best creatures will be in the main, but grabbing any threat as a way to replace herself is not bad. Especially if you find yourself in a situation where your control opponent wiped the board and Nissa has no creatures to pump.
She's a super fair walker and will pretty much only be good in fair green decks, but I like fair green decks and I think this Vivien has a good bit of play to her. May test in my 540.
EDIT: Can a mod please delete this thread? I reposted in the new card section. Whoops!
I think this PW deserves some discussion. She has a glaring weakness in that she does nothing without creatures to support her, but I think she's pretty dece even so.
-Her + grants evasion and 2 power to the board, in creature matchups this can turn the tide in your favor very quickly. If you are on the backfoot against aggro she beefs up a blocker or two and has 5 loyalty to show for it. If you are the aggressor she speeds up your clock like crazy.
-Her -3 is strong removal, in GREEN, especially if you used her + the turn before.
-Her -5 is kinda weird and gives cube owners a bit of wiggle room with how to implement it, but most will probably choose sideboard. Chances are your best creatures will be in the main, but grabbing any threat as a way to replace herself is not bad. Especially if you find yourself in a situation where your control opponent wiped the board and Nissa has no creatures to pump.
She's a super fair walker and will pretty much only be good in fair green decks, but I like fair green decks and I think this Vivien has a good bit of play to her. May test in my 540.
The way I see it, if you are cool with one of those weaknesses you can be cool with both of them. Having three green pips means you are only going to play this card in a heavy green deck, which also means you are going to have a lot of creatures. I think this PW will really appeal to green drafters and potentially pull people deeper into the color. Her + ability plays so well to green's strengths and her fight ability helps shore up a major color weakness and reduces the need to splash heavily. I think she might help bolster fair green in my cube, which is something I'm looking to do, and I'm ok that she isn't the most flexible walker out there. Kind of like green's version of [[Cryptic Command]].
Card is good. 1GGG is way too restrictive for the type of decks you want her in.
Generally heavy green is a ramp variant, and 4+ drops that don't ramp or end the game fast will never be too special (though she's certainly playable).
Not worth the restrictiveness
I'm not convinced she's as restrictive as everyone thinks. Mana dork powered midrange is a deck that happens a lot in my meta and getting three green sources by turn 4 in those decks is trivial. I'll report my findings if I ever get a chance to test her out.
I doubt most cubists are running it. She seems inferior to both the 4cc Garruks and now we have a better Vivien printed. In light of that, plus green's other 4 and 5 drops, this just seems utterly bland.
Yeah I agree. It doesn't really seems to fit into typic ramp shells, but other than aggro, I think she might be pretty fine in Unga Bunga Midrange as well. For those who aren't familiar with Unba Bunga decks, there's a sweet description here, thanks to CubeforTwo! FWIW, Usman Jamil thinks the card is underrated as well.
Yeah I agree. It doesn't really seems to fit into typic ramp shells, but other than aggro, I think she might be pretty fine in Unga Bunga Midrange as well. For those who aren't familiar with Unba Bunga decks, there's a sweet description here, thanks to CubeforTwo! FWIW, Usman Jamil thinks the card is underrated as well.
Excellent video!
Agree with the premise, and a major issue with super ramp green decks.
If I wasn't doing a bunch of eccentric stuff that my duplicates support (collected company, birthing pod and fastbond) I'd be trying to support something like this... including vivien arkbow ranger.
I think this PW deserves some discussion. She has a glaring weakness in that she does nothing without creatures to support her, but I think she's pretty dece even so.
-Her + grants evasion and 2 power to the board, in creature matchups this can turn the tide in your favor very quickly. If you are on the backfoot against aggro she beefs up a blocker or two and has 5 loyalty to show for it. If you are the aggressor she speeds up your clock like crazy.
-Her -3 is strong removal, in GREEN, especially if you used her + the turn before.
-Her -5 is kinda weird and gives cube owners a bit of wiggle room with how to implement it, but most will probably choose sideboard. Chances are your best creatures will be in the main, but grabbing any threat as a way to replace herself is not bad. Especially if you find yourself in a situation where your control opponent wiped the board and Nissa has no creatures to pump.
She's a super fair walker and will pretty much only be good in fair green decks, but I like fair green decks and I think this Vivien has a good bit of play to her. May test in my 540.
EDIT: Can a mod please delete this thread? I reposted in the new card section. Whoops!
I think this PW deserves some discussion. She has a glaring weakness in that she does nothing without creatures to support her, but I think she's pretty dece even so.
-Her + grants evasion and 2 power to the board, in creature matchups this can turn the tide in your favor very quickly. If you are on the backfoot against aggro she beefs up a blocker or two and has 5 loyalty to show for it. If you are the aggressor she speeds up your clock like crazy.
-Her -3 is strong removal, in GREEN, especially if you used her + the turn before.
-Her -5 is kinda weird and gives cube owners a bit of wiggle room with how to implement it, but most will probably choose sideboard. Chances are your best creatures will be in the main, but grabbing any threat as a way to replace herself is not bad. Especially if you find yourself in a situation where your control opponent wiped the board and Nissa has no creatures to pump.
She's a super fair walker and will pretty much only be good in fair green decks, but I like fair green decks and I think this Vivien has a good bit of play to her. May test in my 540.
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Generally heavy green is a ramp variant, and 4+ drops that don't ramp or end the game fast will never be too special (though she's certainly playable).
Not worth the restrictiveness
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She's the best heavy green agro planeswalker by a mile... But it's rare that a cube supports that deck.
In a random ramp shell, I'm guessing she doesnt cut it, unless you have some mini devotion package
Last Updated 02/07/24
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Excellent video!
Agree with the premise, and a major issue with super ramp green decks.
If I wasn't doing a bunch of eccentric stuff that my duplicates support (collected company, birthing pod and fastbond) I'd be trying to support something like this... including vivien arkbow ranger.
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg