Comprehending Competitive - Green in cEDH

Carpet of Flowers

by Rebecca Guay

Competitive Color Breakdown

White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Multicolor | Colorless | Lands 

Comprehending Competitive is going green this week with the last in our series and the leanest, if not the meanest, of cEDH colors. 

Widely considered the strongest color in traditional EDH, green is uniquely suited for Commander in a way no other color is. In a format with such a strong emphasis on mana, green's ability to ramp is as good in cEDH as it is casual. It's just a little different. You're not going to see Kodama's Reach

Acceleration

Green-Only Dorks

Multicolor Dorks

Take your pick. Typical Magic slang refers to these creatures as dorks, but they're so strong that I prefer to think of them as jocks.

This isn't unique to cEDH of course. "Bolt the bird" is a well-worn adage for a good reason. Letting your opponent have three mana on their second turn is extremely dangerous in a 1v1 format, and if you have appropriate removal, you're going to use it. 

But in cEDH, removing a mana dork is usually a terrible play. Such one-for-one trades don't translate well to a multiplayer environment because the other two players have spent nothing but benefited from both you and that opponent spending resources.

Boardwipes are also rare in cEDH, and while Cursed Totem

These are just some of the reasons that mana dorks are powerful. Another is their redundancy. The list of playable dorks extends well beyond what I've listed above, and there's one for all seasons. Care about snow permanents for some reason? Boreal Druid

Green even has ritual-esque mana in the form of Elvish Spirit Guide

That's right: more one-drop mana sources, and we haven't even reached the best. These enchantments are essentially dorks insofar as how they accelerate your mana on turn 1. They also have a charming synergy with Arbor Elf

Finally, the floor upon which all green decks lie. Carpet of Flowers

Card Advantage

Coming in at number one is an efficient enchantment that lets you trade life for cards; the blackest green card of all time. Sylvan Library

At only two mana, Sylvan Library is one of the most reliable sources of card advantage in the format, up there with the Rhystic/Mystic duo. All it asks you to do is show some brinkmanship and embrace your greed. As I see it, if you're not sinking 8 life into this a turn until you're below twenty, you're a giant coward

Beyond Sylvan Library

Interaction/Protection

The above three are the perfect responses to interaction, particularly the most common types: blue counters and bounces. In the case of the Veils, you're even able to protect anything you put on the stack. At one mana, this is about as efficient as protection gets, and they can be quite difficult to play around. Open blue mana is often a sign of counters lying in wait, but few look at an untapped Forest and worry if their interaction is going to resolve or not. 

If you don't want to worry about holding up cards and mana, or you want to double down on protecting your green permanents, you can't do any better than Destiny Spinner

Green is the undisputed master of answering both artifacts and enchantments. In a format overrun with Mana Crypt

Boseiju, Who Endures

Another relative newcomer. For all its strengths, one of green's longstanding weaknesses has been the inability to interact with the Thassa's Oracle

While it depends on your opponents' Devotion and the size of their graveyard, Endurance

Stax

Green has what might be the most effective stax creature in the format right now. It turns out the creature

Dockside is a wincon and a ritual wrapped into one, managing to be the most popular creature in the entirety of cEDH. It's no wonder that Ouphe sees so much play in response. Even Manglehorn

Possibly the strongest one-mana stax piece in the format. While all decks rely on lands, non-green decks are particularly reliant on artifact mana, meaning Root Maze

Tutors

While black has the best tutors, green certainly has the most. Or at least, the most playable ones. If you want to find a creature of any kind for any reason, green has you covered. To hand, to the top of the deck, to battlefield. Instant, sorcery, stapled to a creature, or stapled to an artifact or even an enchantment. The redundancy of effects is almost as good as the rate on these cards, each one of them efficient in their own way.

It's worth noting just how creature-centric cEDH has become. The most powerful wincon is a creature

Sometimes you want more than one creature. You want all of the creatures. Or a specific series of creatures. Or even a chain of creatures that goes from a single activation to a game-winning state.

Yisan is, of course, a mighty cEDH commander in his own right, but he's no stranger to the 99. Despite being three mana to play and another three to activate, the ability to tutor a card and cheat on its cost is more than enough to warrant his inclusion.

Birthing Pod

Most commonly used to fetch Gaea's Cradle

Combos

Affectionately referred to as the "tendies" combo when Bloom Tender

An iconic combo in eternal formats since Misthollow Griffin

Infinite green mana and infinite untaps. Easy to assemble, easy to execute, and localized entirely within green. You'll see this in Yisan, Selvala, Marwyn, and a host of green-heavy decks besides. 

The new kid on the block, courtesy of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Reconfigured Druid is one of the fastest infinite mana combos in cEDH. At just three mana, a cost that can be split over two turns, unbounded green mana has never been so convenient. It's a creature combo that doesn't care about summoning sickness! It remains to be seen where this will land in the meta.

Back in the day, before the great plague took hold, Protean Hulk

Unfortunately, I lack the time and space to include even a handful of Hulk piles in GIF form. I wouldn't dare ask my humble gifmaster Scholars of Kaladesh to try. Hulk piles are not only mechanically complex compared to other popular combos, there are a wide variety of playable lines. 

Without flash, what draws players to Hulk nowadays are commanders with an in-built sacrifice effect. For an in-depth explanation of Hulk combos and how they can work in your deck, see this non-exhaustive list of possible piles courtesy of Commander Spellbook. Some of the finest Hulk commanders are Minsc, Varolz, and Thrasios/Tevesh. Whatever the combo, whichever 6cmc of creatures are used, the end result is the same: victory.

Miscellaneous Goodies

Your untap step? No. Our untap step.

If your commander has a repeatable activated ability, there's a damn good chance you'll want Seedborn Muse

While these cards broadly do the same thing, there's a tremendous amount of nuance to their applications. Eternal Witness

Eat Your Greens

If green has anything in cEDH, it's depth. All colors have their qualities, but green is special in the sheer quantity of valuable cards that overlap with each other. While mana production and access to creatures are its greatest strengths, there's very little it can't do. How does it stack up against blue and black? I think weaker than either, but not by much.

There's been much ado in recent years about the rise of red, with some crying in the streets that green's stocks have fallen. While I do see a red sun rising, this reflection on green has reminded me just how much it still brings to the table. I'll be speaking with some cEDH experts on that topic for a future article.

For now, thanks for reading Comprehending Competitive.