The final entry of my tiering and discussion series on the AotP colors, here are the high range, uncivilized savages of AotP! Personally, I find green to be the strongest color. It is similar to red in that it looks to move pretty quickly across the map and roll lots of attack dice, but green trades away direct damage spells for extra range utility, which IMO is a net win. Combining big move and attack dice with higher range gives the player the tools they need to burst down the most important targets, as long as the combat dice don't totally hate you, anyway. I'd argue that only blue can pull off crazier high range + movement shenanigans than green can, but often at less power than what green is capable of.
Video of my thoughts on green, and naturally, I tackle each spell card and army card in-depth. Enjoy the first ~7 minutes to get a good idea of what I think of green in general!
Titanic Growth (10, AoP) – The value of instant access to +3 power with a fairly liberal requirement (6 sight spaces) to apply the +3 power on a creature (hero or squaddie!) until end of turn all for just 10 points is theft on the level of the 2020 election. Blue has to pay 35 for Roilmage’s Trick to just have a chance to get +3 or +4 power! IMO this is hands down the best spell in the game due to how insanely threatening it is in combination with Kessigs, but it also remains a very powerful and efficient spell even if the Kessigs aren’t in the picture; say we enhance the Eldrazi Ruiner instead – no figure wants to face 9+ attack dice from that thing, either! Underestimate TG + Kessig Hunt at Dawn/Dusk at your own risk. I dare you to name a more iconic & game-warping spell & figure duo in AotP.
High (7 spells)
Overrun (25, AoP) - +2 power for your squad until end of turn is worth it alone. Green’s ranged squads tear things up with this card, and if you want to try and trample stuff, they can run in and engage all the same to make use of that perk. Combine this with one or two of green’s other fantastic four spells (Snare the Skies, Titanic Growth, Paths Revealed) and your squad is an absolute terror for one turn. You're gonna punch through the enemy PW like he was a wet paper bag.
Snare the Skies (10, AoP) – Good, inexpensive boost for Kessig Rangers, Elf Rangers, and Illusionary Projections (Kiora.) Combine with any of the rest of green’s fantastic four spells for unadulterated long-range devastation.
Bountiful Harvest (15, AoP) – Heal 3 from your PW or a friendly green PW, no strings attached. Helps to prevent chip damage or a bad defense roll from killing your PW. At basically 5 spell points per wound healed, I find it hard not to include this in every green deck.
Groundswell (10, AoP) - +3 power stim for your PW? Sign me up! Nearly as good as Titanic Growth, but creatures are easier to launch into power levels of over 9000 compared to what we can do with Planeswalkers.
Paths Revealed (15, AoP) – A wonderful enchantment to place on Kessigs (either form) as well as on the Pummelroots. PR can easily enable your squads to murder your opponent when used in tandem with TG and especially Overrun.
Primeval Light (35, AoP) – Very expensive, but clutch in certain instances against white, blue, and black. This clears out all enchantments and enables us to go ham with two other cards directly afterward (preferably, some mix of the fantastic four - Titanic Growth, Overrun, Snare the Skies, and Paths Revealed.) When you play PL, you will want to have a plan to win this turn or the next turn; press the advantage while opponents are magically naked and vulnerable. Yes, green takes advantage of the vulnerable, don’t you know this is part of the color’s core values?
Leaf Arrow (20, AoP) - The green Planeswalkers all have high range, so this card is potent for them. The option to destroy LA for +2 power until end of turn gets you a slightly gimped version of Groundswell, and even Arlinn-wolf can make good use of that +2. This card is pretty useful, although I do wish the price was just a little bit lower.
Mid (11 spells)
Predatory Strike (15, SOI) - This is about as useful as Leaf Arrow, but it feels slightly less consistent than Leaf Arrow, especially given AotP’s primarily flat maps. On Heroscape maps, Nissa and Arlinn-wolf are unholy in their ability to get to high ground. This card can be a better value than Leaf Arrow while playing AotP on competitive Heroscape maps.
Fog (25, AoP) - A fantastic hidden enchantment when you are making a push toward a critical objective, or you need a squad to hold ground. As long as Fell the Mighty and Ob Nixilis aren’t in your game, Fog should do a fine job of keeping your squad alive for one turn, because once it is flip activated, it prevents ALL damage until the end of the turn (including spells that do damage!)
Nissa’s Expedition (10, AoP) - A chunk of extra move and disengage should help you get your PW out of trouble or get them in range of their target of choice, and hopefully take a shot from high ground. A fine card for 10 points.
Skyreaping (5, AoP) - This is up here as green’s only 5 point sorcery. The draw aspect is decent enough by itself, and it is the primary reason I would put this card in a green deck. The 1 damage dealt to flying creatures is a good bonus, but a bit tough to reliably line the situation up. It has use against red’s phoenixes and white’s heroes. Lastly, this is a good bait card to scout with when blue has one or more of their trio PW hidden enchants in play, since a Psychic Rebuttal counter isn’t so devastating here.
Earthen Arms (30, BfZ) – The only hero a strict green build can use is the Eldrazi Ruiner. Although expensive, EA is satisfactory. The Ruiner is totally worthy of EA’s healing, though, and +2 power (plus another potential +3 from Titanic Growth) is no joke. Arlinn can also use this on Mad Prophet; he can output similar damage to ER against heroes and Planeswalkers. Kiora has the two blue ranged heroes where EA can be applied, too.
Elvish Blade Finesse (20, BfZ) - Not a bad way to get 2 true damage onto an enemy Planeswalker! It works against a figure adjacent to at least 2 of your elves, so if you need to prioritize something other than the enemy PW, go for it.
Equestrian Skill (10, SOI) – A decent and cheap enchantment that makes the Kessig and Elf Rangers even more annoying with hit and run tactics, but a single damage marker on an enchanted creature will break this enchantment for that creature, and I find it sad that it doesn’t offer 3 spaces of move like the Sprint abilities do.
Rabid Bite (20, SOI) - Another pretty tough sell when green does not have enchantments to permanently buff their power, and even worse, they have absolutely NO toughness buffs. This also has no effect against Planeswalkers. Green only has access to Eldrazi Ruiner as a hero figure, and it seems to me that we mostly want to use Rabid Bite on a big and bulky figure to extract the most value. The Eldrazi with his base 6 power and 3 toughness can Fight and delete almost any given squad creature while taking 0-1 damage in return, so Rabid Bite seems more powerful if you have him in your army. However, on turns where I’m playing one or more of green’s powerful spells like Titanic Growth, Overrun, Snare the Skies, or Paths Revealed on my squads, I don’t really want to use any of my 3-spell limit on Rabid Bite, and I’d prefer to gun down the Planeswalker if there is an opening. Titanic Growth + Overrun + Rabid Bite used on a Pummelroot (4 base + 3 + 2 = 9 power) can outright murder the heroes with 6 life and 3 toughness, but it also can put your buffed squad creature’s life at risk mostly due to lack of green’s toughness buffs, which means your figure will likely take some damage during your use of Rabid Bite in return, and you do not want your super buffed creature dying before you have a chance for him to roll his massive attack value! Altogether, I think this card is too situational and costly, but somewhat usable because green offers some healing to help offset any damage taken via Fight.
Rapid Withdrawal (5, BfZ) - While this is cheap and it’s hard to fault a 5-point card, this one seems really situational, because most squads in the game have 3 power, and green doesn’t have any way to permanently buff their squad’s power. RW will likely only get any reasonable consistency with Pummelroots, and that’s under the hope that black, white, or red don’t buff their squads with additional power. RW can be helpful when used in combination with Overrun or Titanic Growth, though, for one or two potential turns of RW-enabled disengages.
Sheltering Word (15, SOI) - Remove 1 damage from each creature in a friendly squad. That squad gets disengage until end of turn. Not too bad of a card, especially for the option of healing friendlies, but I don’t foresee most great AotP players often spreading their damage output thinly between whole squads; IMO you want to destroy one or more figures per turn with focus fire to reduce the capacity of enemy squads to retaliate. That will limit the use of SW to an extent, although disengage can be clutch in rare occasions.
Natural End (15, SOI) - Heals up to 2 damage from amongst your squad and removes their enchantments. Seems mostly like an anti-black card, since black has so many squad-hating enchantments that they want to put on your squad, and NE wipes those off of your squad. In general, this card is even more niche than Sheltering Word, and IMO has a similar fate of limited use.
Low (1 spell)
Naturalize (20, AoP) - This card is basically “pay 20 points to hedge a bet that your opponent uses a figure with enchantments on it to attack into the enchanted squad.” This card is a really tough sell IMO. It has too high a potential for moments where a figure with no enchantments attacks and triggers this card, and absolutely nothing changes, and thus Naturalize is destroyed with no effect. It is decent in that it can remove enchantments from an attacking hero or Planeswalker. Here’s the problem I have with it: I want it to act like white’s Solumn Offering where we can defensively use it to destroy crucial offensive enchantments, and Naturalize has POTENTIAL to do that, but, just like white’s Solumn Offering, even if it removes a single enchantment, did Naturalize do it quickly enough before the enchantment earned too much value for your opponent? Additionally, since this is one of only two green hidden enchants (the other being fog,) and since both of those hidden enchants are triggered by attacks, they both somewhat deter your opponent from attacking the enchanted squad. So, your opponent might attempt to wipe out your squad via abilities or spells instead, which would cause Naturalize to go to the graveyard with no effect. I find it hard to justify the use of this card.
Worst spell
Moonlight Hunt (30, SOI) – 30 points!? MH can only target a creature, has a damage ceiling of 4, and requires Transform figures to be adjacent to our target. The only remotely saving grace for this card is that it can be used from anywhere – there is no range limit or line of sight requirement.
Tier list for green's army cards:
Spoiler Alert!
Arlinn (340, SoI) – Rank 5 – Activation Frequency: Low, ascending. The offensively destructive potential of green/red is insane, and that color combination almost entirely puts Arlinn in rank 5. Arlinn is not particularly strong as a standalone army card. She is utterly frail at base 6 life and 3 toughness, and her base move is weak, at 5. This is all slightly mitigated by what is available to her in builds; Bountiful Harvest, Arlinn-wolf form having 4 toughness and 7 move, and access to two haste army cards in Firecats and Mad Prophet which can help clear out nearby threats in a pickle, or apply instant additional offensive pressure in situations where she is aggressing. Speaking of her transform ability, it is very fun & unique; you can play at 7 range with her Archmage Assault power to potentially deal true damage at the end of her turn, or you can play as Arlinn-wolf in melee range with her 5 power and Howl, which grants a +1 power token to one of her unique squads every turn where she dealt combat damage! With her access to creatures like Pummelroots, Firecats, Elf Rangers, and the mighty Kessigs, no opponent (perhaps bar blue) wants Howl triggering multiple times. Titanic Growth + Twinflame + Kessig Ranger double attack = you will hear your opponent’s tears and drink the lamentations of their birthing persons. I think her builds primarily lie in a mix of two playstyles – a “true damage spam” build with things like Archmage Assault, Elvish Blade Finesse, Circle of Flame, Pyroclasm, Rolling Tremblor, Incinerate, Infernal Plunge, etc. Or, a “buckets of attack dice” build with things like Howl, Overrun, Twinflame, Firebreathing, Power of Fire, Senseless Rage, and Titanic Growth, all permitting tons of attack dice to be tossed.
Kiora (345, BfZ) - Rank 5 – Activation Frequency: Medium-low, ascending. I would likely score Kiora a 3 if she was mono-blue, because her stats and abilities don’t seem to be anything special. Her access to powerful green spells and the Kessig Rangers definitely put her up a notch. Yeah, I’m that biased toward the Kessig Rangers and green’s power stims. Kiora is certainly going to rely on her creatures for damage output compared to OG Jace due to her weaker base stats and more support-oriented abilities. I’m not a massive fan of any of her three abilities (Sea Born, Bident of Thassa, Carry by Waves,) but Carry should easily get value each game – the ability to move any one of your creatures (including heroes!) up to 4 spaces at the start of Kiora’s turn is a great way to coordinate army movement and remain flexible in positioning. However, it is at odds with Kiora’s seemingly more passive leaning – why do I want to take a turn with Kiora after I have summoned squads, when I could just take a turn with those squads to move and slay things with them? It might be a better mid-late game power when squad numbers have been dwindled. Notably, Carry occurs at the same time as the Illusionary Projections’ Illusionary Deception (start of blue Planeswalker’s turn,) so when activating Kiora, use Carry by Waves to move a Projection, and then immediately teleport swap Kiora with that Projection via Deception for an... interesting maneuver. You haven’t seen all of the wonders of the world until you’ve endowed Titanic Growth + Roilmage’s Trick buffs unto your Hunt at Dawn/Dusk Kessig figure at least once in your Planeswalking adventures. Your ego will be enormous while you stroll around the map with the ability to make two attacks with ten dice each. Oh, and one more suggestion, try using the Eldrazi Ruiner with Essence Flux, Titanic Growth, and Roilmage’s trick for some surprise Planeswalker one hit KOs via 13 attack dice, as well. MAKE YOUR OPPONENTS GROVEL! I have to quit gushing at some point, so suffice it to say that the beastly burst offense of green loves to use the insane mobility and spell trickery that is provided by blue. There are so many wonderful creature and spell combinations to be found in this color duo. Due to this, Kiora is a top tier Planeswalker IMO.
Nissa Revane (330, AoP) – Rank 4 – Activation Frequency: High, descending and then ascending. If it weren’t for her unfortunate base power of 3, Nissa would be an easy rank 5, IMO. Luckily, Nissa’s offense can be supplemented with Leaf Arrow, Predatory Strike, and Groundswell. Base 7 life and 4 toughness make Nissa a bit tankier than most Planeswalkers, Sprint makes it such that she will more easily achieve high ground while defending or even that she might not have to defend at all if she manages to skirt her way out of threat range, and access to Bountiful Harvest extends the insanity even longer. Sprint, in tandem with her high range of 7, gives her unparalleled capacity in dictating where the general fighting will occur. In some cases, it can be optimal to run & gun with her by moving around the map and poking enemies until she is cornered; that is when you slow your activations with her and summon your damage-soaking green slaves to fend off the invaders. Pick a god and pray if ever you are found in an endgame situation where you must chase her around the map with range 1 figures. Mono-green is a nice color to be locked to, although they sadly lack a hero creature outside of the universally available Eldrazi Ruiner. As usual, access to Kessig Rangers and silly strong green spells like Titanic Growth, Groundswell, Snare the Skies, and Overrun all boost the expected strength of any green army.
Kessig Rangers/Ravagers (90, SoI) - Rank 5 – Activation Frequency: High, slightly descending. My vote for most influential and powerful creature card in the game. Although they are a 2-man squad, they offer a decent move 5 + range 5, and their Hunt at Dawn/Dusk ability makes it such that all buffs that you place on that chosen Kessig will get you a double dip effect. Case in point: Titanic Growth. When you select one Kessig for both Titanic Growth AND Hunt at Dawn/Dusk, that guy is at attacking TWICE with 6 dice, and we are still talking before other modifiers such as glyphs, height, and other spells, any of which will make him more astronomically powerful! Even better, Hunt at Dawn/Dusk ability takes effect at the start of their turn even if only one of the Kessigs remain, which means an opponent must slay both of the Kessigs to truly be safe from the Titanic Growth murder combo. I honestly do not often transform these guys unless I have no other able-bodied figures to fight or if the Eldrazi Ruiner is approaching (so I can get them into melee range in order to bypass his Otherworldly non-adjacent defense boost.) IMO the Kessigs elevate the threat of all green armies simply by existing in the army. Also, by the nature of hunt at Dawn/Dusk's "at start of turn" clause, a green player is given some slight relief in knowing that red and blue are COMPLETELY INCAPABLE of tapping into the sweet sauce of the Kessigs. Things like Mind Control, Welcome to the Fold, Malevolent Whispers, and Dissension in the Ranks do not enable anybody to take a turn; they simply allow a move and/or attack. Make serious-sounding threats about using your opponent's AotP set for firewood and using the Eldrazi Ruiner's arm to cook marshmallows over the fire if they try to attack twice under the guise of Hunt at Dawn/Dusk. It works, I may or may not have friends that know from experience.
Pummelroot Elementals (90, AoP) - Rank 4 – Activation Frequency: Medium-high, descending. Reasonable frontline fighters for green, 4 power and Trample are certainly wonderful to have as a base. While they are quite similar to the Rhox, I think the Pummelroots have access to better spells and that their better base stats make up for the lack of Battle Formation. Pummelroots can put major hurt on almost anything within their threat range, be it an exposed hero/Planeswalker or a group of squad figures. Their threat range is disappointing at 5 move + 1 range = 6, though, putting them in league with many of black’s and white’s slowest and shortest threat ranges. In a pinch, their mobility can be significantly boosted by Paths Revealed and even disengage via Sheltering Word, and if you toss other buffs like Titanic Growth and/or Overrun in the stack, the Pummelroots DEMOLISH things.
Elf Rangers (80, AoP) - Rank 3 – Activation Frequency: High, descending. IMO the role of these guys nearly completely conflicts and overlaps with Nissa as ranged hit & run figures. If your Planeswalker is kept somewhere safe from enemy threats, I believe it is very reasonable to continuously use these guys to annoy the hell out of opponent figures. However, I think it is silly to attempt to alternate between using the Elf Rangers and any other army cards to poke the opponent. These rangers will likely need constant activation to remain out of combat via their sprint. To illustrate: if my opponent places their 3 Leyline Phantoms nearby to threaten both my Planeswalker AND my Elf Rangers (thus push comes to shove,) I’m taking my turn with my Planeswalker to get her out of that situation and leaving the sleeping elves to be feasted upon by the... whatever race those blue creatures are. Yes, the elves need to keep moving, but the situations where any Planeswalker should be handed over to nearly certain death should be EXTREMELY niche/calculated, even in “kill ‘em all” scenarios.
Path Wardens (100, BfZ) - Rank 2 – Activation Frequency: Low. Having never used them, jury is still out for these guys. To me, on paper they are somewhere between 2 and 3. I’m not really much a fan of defensive things in AotP, especially not an expensive two-man defensive squad (coming in at 50 POINTS PER FIGURE!) that is easily destroyed/disturbed by many anti-squad effects. However, granting full immunity to attacks from anything but adjacent enemy figures is nothing to scoff at, this even prevents non-adjacent Planeswalkers from attacking small or medium creatures under the protection of a Path Warden. Perhaps this is a good way to gain a foothold near an important piece of high ground with your Pummelroots. However, the problem afterward is spending your turns to reposition these elves instead of generating more offensive pressure with the other squads at your disposal.
For me, green adds up to the winning formula. Their Planeswalkers have huge range which allows them to generally remain safe from threats and behind their creatures for protection. There are many spells in green which can make their Planeswalker and/or their squads a threat at almost any given time, and the Kessig Rangers are EXTREMELY OPPRESSIVE, especially in dual-color builds. With some patience in using green's powerful key cards like Primeval Light, Overrun, Snare the Skies, and Titanic Growth, I think it is the most consistent color.
I think my recent AotP Tabletop Simulator tournament supports/proves my stance: All 4 of the participants signed up with armies that were at least 1 part green (2 Nissa armies, 1 Kiora army, and 1 Arlinn army which won the tourney) and we had no restrictions other than those which already exist in the rulebook!
June 19th, 2023, 04:16 PM
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