Dude, I'm so glad Verdant Force won that poll. Like, Ernham Djinn is an outstanding green card with a TON of history, but it also already has a TON of historical video references that detail its resume. It is so refreshing to learn about such an impactful card that fills a different role in Magic's history.
I remember a guy at my local store who had a reanimation deck with Verdant Force. At the time Akroma was printed, it was clear that their glory das were over. Sadly, nowdays Akroma is also view as an outfashioned creature.
Watching friends play magic in 97, I finally decided to take the plunge and buy cards. My very first rare is my boy v force. My Timmy eyes grew so big. I was forever hooked.
Man this brings back sooo many memories. I used to play a reanimator deck back in type 1 and this was my big fatty... Now Atraxa makes him look like nothing…. Then again I would pick up duals for like 25 bucks back then. Man crazy how times have changed 😅
Despite the success in World's 98, Recurring Nightmare was banned only after Urza's Saga came out. One of the reasons was the easy infinite mana using Recurring Nightmare with the blue creatures that untap lands as an ETB like Peregrine Drake (and to make things worse there were some lands in Standard that could generate more than 1 mana like Gaea's Cradle and City of Traitors...)
What do the deck do with infinite mana? one easy path, is use Survival of the Fittest to put Sliver Queen in graveyard, reanimate her and get infinite tokens (that tokens may even have haste if you search and reanimate Heart Sliver, or sacrificed for damage with Acidic Sliver). And Sliver Queen was already used on some lists before Urza's Saga.
@@dustinchang5089 Palinchron was from Urza's Legacy, Recurring Nightmare was already banned when he was released... The trick to go infinite was to sacrifice one Peregrine Drake to reanimate a second one that was already in your graveyard, with 4+ lands (easy to assemble with Survival of the Fittest) Stroke of Genius (or any X spell) could be used to kill (once infinite, you could draw your whole deck with Wall of Blossoms - that was already used in 98 version of the deck), but people prefer to use some creature based kill that could be searched/reanimated and used even without going infinite.
Love this series. Hope we can get Erhnam at some point. It was such a house in the 90s. I would like to see some more non creature cards get covered. I know power creep hasn't hit them as hard, but fact or fiction would be a good one to do, black vise too.
I had a deck called Unified Field Theory that had four Verdant Forces in it. It also had many green mana walls including Overgrown Battlement, which along with the other walls produced a lot of mana to cast the Forces. It was a fun casual multiplayer deck, which was my favorite format back in the day.
One rules point that was missed - the effect was intended that each plauer is given a token on their upkeep. 5th edition was the newest rules set and 6th had not come along and cleaned things up yet. Up until this point, the player whose turn it was was supposed to get the effect. But wizard issued an errata of sorts which made it much better than originally designed.
I’ve noticed in this series and most of all with this card, that I really think art goes a long way of solidifying a “classic” creature. No shade at the nightmarish collage-style art on Spirit of the Night, but I really do think Verdant Force’s more whimsical “fairy tale” troll look helps wedge it in your memory more. I know it and other Magic cards at the time had my look for Tony DiTerlizzi’s books. Good art or good flavor text can sometimes push a good card into legendary status.
Interesting! I didn't know that it *was* good. When I first heard about this card, it was described as the first Timmy card. It wasn't supposed to be good, just big and splashy.
I actually got curious from this whether you have a list of the top 10 best creatures to cheat into play, and it seems like you don't, so that could be a cool list.
Poor Verdant Force lol😅 I can just imagine it being stuck in my hand for an entire game cause I can’t manage to play it. Though, I bet there might be some kind of fun token sacrificing interaction nowadays. Not good maybe but fun.
The creature single handedly responsible for people thinking green has good creatures. Also the last relevant green creature, since then black and even blue always had objectively superior creatures to green.
Verdant Force has 2 problems today - it costs too much & it doesn't do anything when it comes down, which wouldn't be a big issue if it had some kind of protection. For that cost you're just not getting something significant to happen. Like even if it kept the same cost, but was a Saproling lord along w/ an engine & had Ward 2 it would be worth it.
Mana cost was no problem at all back then with cards like Gaea's Cradle and Priest of Titania.. like Nizza said, have VF out by turn 3 and even if Verdant Force and the rest of you elves and sapprolings die not a problem either with Repopulate
Dude, I'm so glad Verdant Force won that poll. Like, Ernham Djinn is an outstanding green card with a TON of history, but it also already has a TON of historical video references that detail its resume.
It is so refreshing to learn about such an impactful card that fills a different role in Magic's history.
I remember a guy at my local store who had a reanimation deck with Verdant Force. At the time Akroma was printed, it was clear that their glory das were over. Sadly, nowdays Akroma is also view as an outfashioned creature.
Beat a black player with Akroma last week.
The Dojo! That takes me back!
I love this channel. Has kept my interest in a variety of topics MTG related, beyond just the epic limited format breakdowns!
Glad you enjoy it!
Have to agree. This is easily my favorite MtG channel and this kind of content goes a long way to keeping me playing.
Came here for the Wakefield reference, immediately satisfied and continued to watch video with glee
3:16
Watching friends play magic in 97, I finally decided to take the plunge and buy cards. My very first rare is my boy v force. My Timmy eyes grew so big. I was forever hooked.
Man this brings back sooo many memories. I used to play a reanimator deck back in type 1 and this was my big fatty... Now Atraxa makes him look like nothing…. Then again I would pick up duals for like 25 bucks back then. Man crazy how times have changed 😅
7/7s and magic in general have come a long way over the years 😅
In 1998 there were some Oath of Druids deck (normally Simic) that used Verdant Force too.
love the new "how good was..." series!
Despite the success in World's 98, Recurring Nightmare was banned only after Urza's Saga came out. One of the reasons was the easy infinite mana using Recurring Nightmare with the blue creatures that untap lands as an ETB like Peregrine Drake (and to make things worse there were some lands in Standard that could generate more than 1 mana like Gaea's Cradle and City of Traitors...)
What do the deck do with infinite mana?
one easy path, is use Survival of the Fittest to put Sliver Queen in graveyard, reanimate her and get infinite tokens (that tokens may even have haste if you search and reanimate Heart Sliver, or sacrificed for damage with Acidic Sliver).
And Sliver Queen was already used on some lists before Urza's Saga.
@@mantissaPucor reanimate Palinchron, go infinite, cast a giant stroke of genius.
@@dustinchang5089 Palinchron was from Urza's Legacy, Recurring Nightmare was already banned when he was released...
The trick to go infinite was to sacrifice one Peregrine Drake to reanimate a second one that was already in your graveyard, with 4+ lands (easy to assemble with Survival of the Fittest)
Stroke of Genius (or any X spell) could be used to kill (once infinite, you could draw your whole deck with Wall of Blossoms - that was already used in 98 version of the deck), but people prefer to use some creature based kill that could be searched/reanimated and used even without going infinite.
Highly recommend Jamie Wakefield's writing to anyone interested in the early magic scene.
Love this series. Hope we can get Erhnam at some point. It was such a house in the 90s.
I would like to see some more non creature cards get covered. I know power creep hasn't hit them as hard, but fact or fiction would be a good one to do, black vise too.
May the force be with you
Babe wake up! New Nizzahon history video!
I still have this card! It’s not even good anymore but it’s still neat I guess. The power creep on creatures since this came out is unreal
This is fantastic series.
Secret Force is one of my favorite decks ever. Good to see the Verdant one getting some love.
Verdant Force is still one of the top reanimation targets in Pre-modern and can put up results in that format.
I had a deck called Unified Field Theory that had four Verdant Forces in it. It also had many green mana walls including Overgrown Battlement, which along with the other walls produced a lot of mana to cast the Forces. It was a fun casual multiplayer deck, which was my favorite format back in the day.
One rules point that was missed - the effect was intended that each plauer is given a token on their upkeep. 5th edition was the newest rules set and 6th had not come along and cleaned things up yet. Up until this point, the player whose turn it was was supposed to get the effect. But wizard issued an errata of sorts which made it much better than originally designed.
Wow. It has been a long time since I thought of The Magic Dojo.
The first time somebody reanimated,this on turn two against me. My mind was blown , nightmare is one of the sickest cards ever.!
Verdant Force is alive and well in my Premodern cube
Doing the Lord's work.
Love this series!
These types of effects are great.
Especially when you focus on them.
It took awhile after Verdabt Force’s release before the ‘Godzilla’ reanimator]deck was established and started doing well in tournaments.
I certainly started using Force again when it was legal in Arena standard.
I remember opening this guy in a Tempest pack back in the day and my jaw hit the floor. How could a creature possibly be this good?
I was thinking about DS colossus when you were discussing how he was "fatty" status. 11 indestructible trample was always fun to cheat into play.
Ernie will get his day to shine
It shines bright in the land of boring.
Recurring Survival seems like it was a fun deck to play.
Cali Nightmare is still one of my favorite decks ever
Anyone else miss Jamie Wakefields tourney reports on Dojo? (Or hell Friggin Rizzo on Star City before they went different).
I certainly use Verdant Force in my Slimefoot Commander deck. Works really well there.
At some point we'll need a comparison using your points system of all the cards you've covered in this series.
I’ve noticed in this series and most of all with this card, that I really think art goes a long way of solidifying a “classic” creature. No shade at the nightmarish collage-style art on Spirit of the Night, but I really do think Verdant Force’s more whimsical “fairy tale” troll look helps wedge it in your memory more. I know it and other Magic cards at the time had my look for Tony DiTerlizzi’s books. Good art or good flavor text can sometimes push a good card into legendary status.
I remember thinking Richard Kane Ferguson's stuff was bad ass
@@maxbrown4261 you remember correctly
My nomination for your next one: arcbound ravager
Still rocks. One of the best creatures in my Slimefoot EDH deck.
Erhnam my boy😢
Betcha if it was just a poll that was "Erhnam Djinn - Yes or No?" It'd win with No.
@@chaoticklutz3633😂😂
@@chaoticklutz3633 😂😂😂
After this set came urza’s saga block. Man that set both of them.
Tempest introduced pre-con decks. One had alluren in it. And slivers were born
I do enjoy this series.
Maybe you'll eventually get every card...
Still a powerhouse in current Premodern.
Interesting! I didn't know that it *was* good. When I first heard about this card, it was described as the first Timmy card. It wasn't supposed to be good, just big and splashy.
He’s so strong, I still play him in Commander
I always felt like the original art Verdant Force looked kind of embarrassed.
I actually got curious from this whether you have a list of the top 10 best creatures to cheat into play, and it seems like you don't, so that could be a cool list.
I started with tempest but exodus was where the rarity colors started irrc. So many broken cards in that set, especially compared to stronghold
Justice for Ernham Djinn!
Verdant Force looks like my landlord (the og art)
How Bad Is Power Creep, Actually?
First round verdant force is killer...dark rituel..entomb and reanimate or exhume
Isn't verdant embrace a reference to verdant force?
If Erhnam Djinn stopped giving this series forestwalk, it might be able to block it for a week.
Poor Verdant Force lol😅 I can just imagine it being stuck in my hand for an entire game cause I can’t manage to play it. Though, I bet there might be some kind of fun token sacrificing interaction nowadays. Not good maybe but fun.
Verdant Force = OG Atraxa
How great was Tarmogoyf actually?
I cut Verdant Force from my Slimefoot commander deck...
How many polls has the djinn lost at this point lol
I believe every German-speaking player's instinct is to reply "verda**t gut" to your question.
Still got one left in my binder. 😂
How powerful was tricking creatures into play, really?
Do you happen to watch some Pokémon videos?
Verdant Force wrecks Wood Elemental
Rife with bad information. Made it's major debut as part of Godzilla deck, with Stronghold, not Exodus.
Boohoohoo.
@@stuflames4769 not exactly a deep dive
I think he is only viable in commander now like he said.
You're uploads keep getting buried by sky news I'll go searching tho
This is egagement
Easy. It doesnt't provide a whole lot of value when played. Worst case scenario - you get a 1/1 then it dies.
The creature single handedly responsible for people thinking green has good creatures.
Also the last relevant green creature, since then black and even blue always had objectively superior creatures to green.
...?
You're suggesting Green hasn't had a relevant creature since Verdant Force?
Apparently someone wasn't around for Tarmogoyf or Craterhoof Behemoth. (Which was featured IN the video. Come on!)
Verdant Force has 2 problems today - it costs too much & it doesn't do anything when it comes down, which wouldn't be a big issue if it had some kind of protection. For that cost you're just not getting something significant to happen.
Like even if it kept the same cost, but was a Saproling lord along w/ an engine & had Ward 2 it would be worth it.
Even in their glory days, it suffered of not having trample. In reanimation decks time is crucial.
@@melvinfz0301you could put Rancor on it
Mana cost was no problem at all back then with cards like Gaea's Cradle and Priest of Titania.. like Nizza said, have VF out by turn 3 and even if Verdant Force and the rest of you elves and sapprolings die not a problem either with Repopulate
An opponent upkeep trigger is pretty close to having an effect on coming down.
There's not really such thing as objective proof of a card's potential or power....but this channel gets pretty close.