Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Limited Set Review: Green

• 5.0: Disgustingly powerful and basically unbeatable. Either answer it the turn it comes down or just pack up your cards. (Esika’s Chariot, Fury, Starnheim Unleashed)
• 4.5: Incredible bomb that still gives your opponent a slim chance. (Icingdeath, Frost Tyrant, Alrund’s Epiphany, Grand Master of Flowers)
• 4.0: Great rare or the absolute best uncommons and removal. (Froghemoth, Murder, Skullport Merchant)
• 3.5: Great role filler or removal that you never cut. (Magic Missile, Clarion Spirit, Battle Cry Goblin)
• 3.0: Good playable that I’m basically never cutting. (Usher of the Fallen, Owlbear, Dragon Turtle)
• 2.5: Decent playable and the bar I hope nearly every card in my deck to reach. (Rally Maneuver, Steadfast Paladin, Goblin Morningstar)
• 2.0: Mediocre filler that normally is your 20-23rd card(s). (Contact Other Plane, Vampire Spawn, Valor Singer)
• 1.5: Replaceable, overall bad filler. Could also be decent sideboard cards. (Dungeon Map, Spiked Pit Trap, Village Rites)
• 1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Secret Door, Brazen Dwarf, Funeral Longboat)
• 0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. (You see a Guard Approach, Kick in the Door, Compelled Duel)
• 0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. (Mimic, Fifty feet of Rope, Bard Class)

Augur of Autumn

Rating: 4/5

The longer this lives, the more cards you’ll incidentally draw and the further you’ll pull ahead. It’ll be rare to get land screwed when you have this in play, and after consistently hitting your lands for a few turns you’ll eventually enable Coven and then Experimental Frenzy your opponent into the dust.

Bird Admirer

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Rating: 2.5/5

Both sides of this are fine but not great. I’d pretty much always play this though since it’s a good blocker early on that scales well into the late game.

Bounding Wolf

Rating: 1.5/5

Flash and Reach are not the best abilities to have on a 3/2. This being a Plummet some of the time is fine, but it still just feels like a Pouncing Cheetah which is not where I want to be with my three drop slot in modern limited.

Bramble Armor

Rating: 1.5/5

This is almost identical to Rosethorn Halberd, so I assume that it will perform similarly. If you’re incredibly aggressive and low on combat tricks/removal, then this seems fine. For most decks though this will just be too slow and underwhelming. Two mana is way more than one, and unlike Rosethorn Halberd it’s much harder to double spell early on in the game with Bramble Armor.

Briarbridge Tracker

Rating: 4/5

A 4/3 Vigilance for three is a great deal and even if this dies you’ll still be left with a Clue and be guaranteed an eventual two-for-one. Not a bomb or anything, but a way above rate creature that I rarely, if ever, will be passing.

Brood Weaver

Rating: 3/5

A worse Penumbra Spider is still great in my book. I love when a creature has a death trigger in limited because you are constantly attacking and blocking and trading creatures. Green also historically struggles against fliers, so do keep that in mind and evaluate creatures with Reach accordingly.

Burly Breaker

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Rating: 3/5

An above rate five drop with a little protection that becomes especially enormous once it flips sounds good to me. This is some solid top end and not something that I plan on cutting often.

Candlelit Cavalry

Rating: 2.5/5

By the time this will be cracking in I’d like to assume that you have Coven fulfilled. If you do this will be a big issue for the opponent, and even if you don’t Colossapede can only be so bad.

Clear Shot

Rating: 3.5/5

This more or less is the green Murder. You do run the risk of getting blown out by an opposing removal spell when you try to cast this, but that is more than made up for by the number of times where you’ll use this mid-combat and get a two-for-one.

Consuming Blob

Rating: 5/5

This is a better Biogenic Ooze, and that card wasn’t remotely beatable either. If this triggers twice the game pretty much ends, so never pass Consuming Blob and if you end up opening it late in the draft, try your absolute best to include it in your deck because it really is that good.

Contortionist Troupe

Rating: 3.5/5

Ivy Elemental is already playable, but this Coven ability makes Contortionist Troupe absolute dynamite. It’ll also be easy to fulfill Coven with this because you can set it to whatever power you need at the time. Great early, great late, and slowly takes over the game with a recursive ability that triggers almost immediately. Sign me up for the circus!

Dawnhart Mentor

Rating: 3.5/5

This almost fulfills Coven by itself and getting two bodies for three mana is simply a great deal. In the late game this will make combat near impossible, and it isn’t even that unreasonable for the game to drag on to the point where you’re able to activate this twice. Most of green’s creatures really have been fantastic so far!

Dawnhart Rejuvenator

Rating: 2.5/5

Centaur Nurturer from War of the Spark is back, and while rarely amazing, I really like this sort of card. It facilitates the multicolored green decks very well while also being great at keeping you alive and powering out your late game. Green has some great activated abilities as well that would make great use of the extra mana from this.

Deathbonnet Sprout

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Rating: 3/5

The award for the cutest card in the set definitely goes to this little dude! Milling one every turn is a little dangerous in limited, but this becomes a massive threat once this flips so I’d still always be happy to play this. 

Defend the Celestus

Rating: 3/5

A little expensive, but still very much capable of massacring the opponent in combat. This reminds me of a slightly better Common Bond, which was very solid back in the day. The four drop slot often gets filled up quickly when you’re drafting, but this effect is unique and powerful enough to prioritize early.

Dryad’s Revival

Rating: 3/5

Recollect is whatever in limited but getting two out of one card is very promising. While this will be decent in pretty much any deck, I can see it being especially potent in some sort of Temur Flashback deck with Ominous Roost and Seize the Storm. There’s also a lot of self mill in the set and if you’re ever fortunate enough to hit a powerful effect like this, it’s almost like drawing a card.

Duel for Dominance

Rating: 3.5/5

Pounce is fine, but once you’re consistently putting a counter on your fighting creature this becomes awesome. I think that Coven won’t be that hard to enable if you build your deck keeping the power levels of your creatures in mind, which means that this should be one of green’s best commons.

Eccentric Farmer

Rating: 3/5

Wow green is continuing to impress. I think that this is slightly worse than Borderland Ranger since you don’t get to pick the specific basic that you want, but the extra buff in toughness and the fueling of graveyard synergies leads me to believe that this is a very good common that I’m never going to be cutting. The only rough thing about this is the rare instances where you aren’t returning a land to your hand.

Harvesttide Sentry

Rating: 2.5/5

A good early Coven enabler that trades up in the late game once you fulfill Coven is the exact kind of two drop that I’m happy to play in most of my decks.

Hound Tamer

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Rating: 4/5

This card is crazy good. The body on both halves of it are good enough already and the activated ability will make combat near impossible for the opponent to navigate well while also making it a breeze to fulfill Coven. This is great at every point in the game and especially shines later on, so keep all that in mind and realize that this is one of the best uncommons in the entire set. Also just look at that art it’s perfect!

Howl of the Hunt

Rating: 2.5/5

This is a significantly better Feral Invocation, which I was already a fan of. There’s no Heroic like there was in Theros, but making a huge threat and ambushing an opponent’s creature sounds like living the dream to me. Do keep in mind that this effect will get worse later in the format when players start to play around it better.

Might of the Old Ways

Rating: 2/5

A high creature count with diverse power levels will increase your chances of fulfilling and maintaining Coven, which will allow this card to really shine. This is pretty weak when you’re not drawing the card, so don’t be afraid to board it in or out based on how much removal you see from the opponent.

Outland Liberator

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Rating: 3/5

I’m always down to play a two drop with some good utility. There are some powerful artifacts and enchantments in the format and this answers all of them incredibly well, especially once it flips.

Path to the Festival

Rating: 1/5-3/5

Another multicolored green enabler. I just know that three color Flashback is going to be a sweet deck to draft and I can’t wait to do it with this as one of my main color fixers. Keep in mind though that very few decks will be interested in a Rampant Growth effect like this.

Pestilent Wolf

Rating: 2/5

Beats in early and trades up in the late game. Nothing special, but playable nonetheless.

Plummet

Rating: 0.5/5

I’d try not to main deck this unless you’re low on playables for whatever reason, but like in every set prior this is a very potent board card.

Primal Adversary

Rating: 5/5

Primal Adversary spews a ton of power onto the board. At five mana this is fantastic and at seven or nine it’s basically unbeatable. What I love about this card is that even for three mana you get a powerful creature that’s immediately going to put the opponent on the backfoot. Never pass this, it’s far and away the best Adversary of the bunch when it comes to limited.

Return to Nature

Rating: .5/5

Another solid board card that you should never main deck.

Rise of the Ants

Rating: 4/5

Holy beans now this card at uncommon is very questionable! Four 3/3’s and four life out of one card is insane, and I see the game ending very quickly once this is cast. It blows my mind that this isn’t seven mana what the heck!

Saryth, the Viper’s Fang

Rating: 4/5

Wow ,so this protects your other creatures and makes combat a nightmare for the opponent. Thank goodness this can’t protect itself and doesn’t really do much unless you have other creatures. The fact that this card kind of has a fail rate is what’s keeping it from being a busted bomb.

Shadowbeast Sighting

Rating: 3/5

The powerful green four drop creature of the set. Obviously this will be great in every strategy, but what worries me about having this in the set is how good it will make the Flashback decks. By having a critical mass of great spells that make great creatures, you’re able to draft decks with crazy high spell counts and make it so cards like Seize the Storm are consistently spitting out 10/10 Tramplers. 

Snarling Wolf

Rating: 1.5/5

This is fine but unexciting. Don’t feel bad if you have to include this because it does beat down somewhat decently early on in the game, but there are much better green creatures that I would prefer to play over this.

Storm the Festival

Rating: 2/5-3.5/5

Assuming that you have a critical mass of powerful creatures then this seems quite strong to me. However, I would leave this on the sidelines if your deck is loaded with Rise of the Ants and Shadowbeast Sighting. This seems at its best in Gruul since there are so many beefy werewolves that synergize well together in that color combination.

Tapping at the Window

Rating: 1/5

Missing on this is way too likely for my liking. Spending two mana to do nothing is the absolute nightmare, and even when this does work it’s a five mana draw two. I wouldn’t play this unless I had disgusting bombs in my deck like Consuming Blob and Primal Adversary.

Timberland Guide

Rating: 2.5/5

An Avacyn Restored staple right here. It’s surprising how this type of creature is still able to hold its own in powerful modern limited formats. This is okay at pretty much any stage of the game, so while not super exciting I’m always fine with playing a couple of these.

Tireless Hauler

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Rating: 2.5/5

A big body that’s good on offense and defense is a good place to be for a five drop. It’s easy to come across five drops but this is still one that I’d be happy to play.

Tovolar’s Huntmaster

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Rating: 5/5

Alright, so this kinda just looks like Grave Titan to me. Yep, not remotely beatable, ya got that right. This might be the best card in the entire set, but it’s hard to say. If not that, then it’s definitely in the top three. Ten power when it comes into play should alone win the game and if it ever flips you’ll make even quicker work of your opponents board and life total. If you face this you better hope that you’re blue and can counter it because once this sticks you’re gonna lose. Never, ever pass it.

Turn the Earth

Rating: .5/5-2/5

If you see a ton of Disturb and Flashback cards I guess you can bring this in, but this does so little that I wouldn’t value this highly as a sideboard card. This is only good against such a specific subset of decks that you’ll almost never bring it in. The only time that I would main deck this is and be happy about it is if you have a really wonky Flashback deck that needs this sort of effect in order to not mill out. Memory’s Journey had its uses after all, and this is a much better version of that.

Unnatural Growth

Rating: 4.5/5

The restrictive mana cost is the killer here, but once you stick this your opponent might as well just pick up their cards. What pushes this over the edge is it triggers each combat, so your opponent will be totally outclassed both offensively and defensively. Better hope that you have a Return to Nature or two in the board for this!

Willow Geist

Rating: 2/5-3.5/5

In most decks this will just be okay, but in the dedicated Flashback decks Willow Geist will grow out of hand very quickly. Keep that in mind if you first pick this, since it really makes a world of a difference when this is built around.

Wrenn and Seven

Rating: 4.5/5

The ability I’m most interested here in is the -3. Making a huge treefolk protects Wrenn well, and before you know it you’ll be able to -3 twice and crush your opponent with your army of huge creatures. Just try your best to not mill yourself out with that +1 though.

Wow green really blew me away. At the moment, I think that it’s the best color in the whole darn set. I’ll do an official ranking of the colors after I review the multicolored cards and see if that’s still the case. 

Thanks for reading!