Magic Origins: Feeling Green

It's spoiler season for Magic Origins, and we've already been given a surprisingly number of commons. Interestingly enough, Green has proven to be quite the contender in the Standard Pauper metagame right now, and out of the Commons that have been spoiled thus far, there are two Green cards in particular that have caught my eye. So I thought today I would spend some time looking at both of them.

The first card of note is Nissa's Pilgrimage. It's a ramp spell for 2G that allows you to search your library for multiple Forests, then put one of them onto the battlefield tapped. Even if you don't meet the requirements for Spell mastery, this is already strictly better than Ranger's Path from Magic 2013, and is one mana cheaper as well. Given that Green often relies upon Fight cards and/or power-boosting combat tricks, it doesn't seem like it will be too difficult to fulfill the requirements for spell mastery. At that point, this card ramps you for one and thins out your deck of three lands, which is a great effect for a mere 2G. Assuming you have decent spells to ramp into, this looks pretty solid.

Speaking of ramp targets, Rhox Maulers looks to be one of the better Green beaters we've had in some time. A 4/4 for 4G with Trample is already fairly respectable (I'm looking at you, Stampeding Rhino), with the four Toughness in particular being no small task for your opponent to deal with. But for the small price of having to deal combat damage to your opponent, these soldiers can grow into an impressive 6/6. Trample is particularly good here, since in this case it guarantees that even if it's chump-blocked it will still deal some damage to your opponent and thus still get the counters. While not quite as good as Stampeding Elk Herd, this is still one of the best Green creatures at Common in quite some time.

There's lots more Commons from Magic Origins where those two came from, and I can't wait to see what else this set has in store for us. See you next time!