"Nissa , Genesis Mage : Born to Battle."

"Nissa , Genesis Mage : Born to Battle."

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Green Mages will surely get a kick out of Nissa , Genesis Mage. I don't know how she fits in the story since the current Nissa has Blue mana interwoven to her being. This version of Nissa will cost a lot more but will run all green baby! And Green mages don't look at that 7 mana CMC , they got mana baby , lots and lots of it even without the rocks in EDH.

So what will convince you to part with you money and get Nissa , Genesis Mage for your EDH decks? Let us look at the all the ways that she entices us and why she could very well be the Nissa for all of us who loves our creatures big and plentiful.

Her first ability is a +2 that let's you untap up to two target creatures AND up to two target lands! 

This means that you have protectors for Nissa as well as available mana for you to use either cast other spells or even play mind games with assuming you are splashing blue colors in your EDH deck. 

Imagine untapping mana dorks like Gyre Sage with a lot +1/+1 counters on it or lands like Ancient Tomb or Shrine of the Forsaken Gods. Or Any of the Ravnica Guild lands that give 2 mana of that guilds colors. I would say that that is a lot of mana and at least two blockers should your opponents decide that Nissa , Genesis Mage is a big threat and she is but let us get into that a bit later.

Her 2nd ability is a -3. In a pinch she can give a creature +5/+5 until end of turn.(What no trample???). I would like to say that this is my least favorite ability of hers and something that destroyed enchantments or artifacts or reanimated lands are more welcome but hey +5/+5 on an animated  Inkmoth Nexus will give alarm to any cautious player.

I guess the reason I would buy Nissa , Genesis Mage is the more powerful Summoning Trap that is her ultimate ability(-10 Loyalty counters) which reads , look at top ten cards of your library and put into play any number of lands or creatures among them on the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

I instantly thought of this guy. Omnath , Locus of Rage. An EDH deck that literally trampled on me. Imagine getting him in that ten card pile or even merely have him in play as you activate this ability and you potentially have a lot of 5/5 Red and Green Elemental creature tokens in play. 

Or how about a ton of creatures coming into like the old Genesis Wave decks and then the final blow of the Craterhoof Behemoth! 

I am sure that there are still a lot of Land fall or creature shenanigans but I am just excited at the thought of pulling it off. This is one of the reasons I write , it makes me happy to share exciting things like this to people. I am thankful for those who continue to read what I write and who share the same excitement when it comes to cards such as these.

Nissa , Genesis Wave...I mean Nissa , Genesis Mage is ready and willing. Now it's time to pull it off.

"Nissa , Steward of Elements: Simic XXXXXcitement!"

"Nissa , Steward of Elements: Simic XXXXXcitement!"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

At long last a new Simic planeswalker! And she comes in with a lot of X as well! Welcome....Nissa?How in the world did Nissa get imbued with Blue mana? Does any one else find it weird that Nissa who actually dabbled in black mana first didn't get a Golgari colored version first? Well I guess it was just me.

Now on to the new Nissa who is the first planeswalker who has an X cost on her , Like a Hydra , Like Endless One. Like something I can add into a Simic Tiny Leaders deck some day. This card is so playable in standard that it hurts. So I guess the ideal time to cast it is if you have enough mana to abuse the top of you mana carve. Let us say that highest cost in your deck is 3 mana , you ought to cast it paying 3 for the X and Simic Mana. She now comes in with 3 starting Loyalty counters.

Now looking at her 2nd ability first which cost 0. You can look at the top card of you Library if it is a Land or a creature with converted mana cost less or equal to the number of counters on Nissa you get to put it on the battlefield. For free! So 3 mana cost creatures and below are free for you now per activation. Now imagine if you have infinite mana and in a Simic EDH deck that is not impossible(Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron anyone?) You can put at least 20 mana on the X cost and you almost get a creature card or land free all the time.

So now the biggest task is to make sure that you have cards that you can cast for free that are equal or less than Nissa's  counters. And this is where her first ability which is a +2 helps immensely. You can Scry for 2 and if you think what you see is not what you need then put it in the bottom of your library. On the other hand if you like what you see try and not act too happy about it so you can still bluff your EDH opponents.

At this point Nissa and her last ability are just a bit redundant but it is still an ability that can help you close out games. It is a -6 that lets you target 2 lands , awaken them to become Elementals, give them haste and flying until end of turn. Wow. You summon 2 creatures with a combined 10 points of damage! Unopposed it would only take two turns to finish an opponent. 

Well I think I have covered all of the planeswalkers in Amonkhet for now. Nissa is the one the makes me all excited here. So what do you think of the new Nissa? Should she have gotten a Golgari colored card instead given that the plane of Amonkhet is so connected with death? Thanks for reading. Keep on brewing.

"Nissa , Voice of Zendikar: Land powered!"

"Nissa , Voice of Zendikar: Land powered!"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Now that I have finally decided to buy a Nissa vs. Ob Nixilis duel deck I wanted to focus on these two planeswalkers and so I first talk about the 3 mana costing Nissa , Voice of Zendikar who comes in with 3 loyalty counters.

Her first ability allows you to put a 0/1 creature token that will serve as early protecter against those who would want to prevent you from achieving her ultimate ability.

The second ability is a -2 that allows you to put a +1/+1 counter on all your creatures. This suggests that a deck that could put in a lot of 1/1 tokens would benefit from Nissa , Voice of Zendikar and she should fit nicely into Saproling decks or Tokens of the Selesnya Enclave who just produce too much of those to handle.

Her ultimate ability is a -7 one that lets you gain X life and draw X card where is is the number of lands you control. Since Nissa demands green mana this would be great in a mono green deck or any deck that has green in its combination of colors. Ramping up mana is a green thing to do and with the abundance of land that would be dumped into play expect Nissa to give you tons of land and tons of cards as well.

Easily the most expensive card ins this duel deck I look forward to adding her to a future Selesnya deck I would be doing. I thought that I would be able to add her to my existing Sultai superfriends deck but her abilities are much suited to a deck that produces lots of tokens or generate lots of land. 

In conclusion I might not need her in my Sultai Superfriends deck after all. Hmmmmm