As a decades long MTG fan, one of the most useful bits of knowledge every player needs to have is a general awareness of when your opponent is most likely to ruin your carefully laid plans.
What is their preferred method of removing your creatures off the board?
How soon will it start happening?!
IS THERE EVEN ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP IT!?
I present to you ALL Nature Counter cards along with where along the mana curve you can expect to start experiencing their nasty effects!
NOTE: Some cards appear identical in effect but with different mana costs due to omitting additional effects unrelated to these lists. Please look up each card to see what other "surprises" they might have. (This is ESPECIALLY true for these lists, in particular)
| Creature Abbreviations | Keyword Abbreviations | |
|---|---|---|
| [c]reature | (Ab)ility | (R)oar |
| [r]elic | (A)fterlife | (S)tart (o)f (T)urn |
| (E)nd (o)f (T)urn |
As you'll notice for each list, Nature has the largest [insert anything here] output of any domain for whatever keyword they have access to. They rambo the hardest, even lift the mostest, and topdeck like they are "The Heart of the Cards". The cost? 50% of the time, it's entirely random ALL the time. (i.e. Nature worships RNGesus)
Nature rarely gets to choose both the target and damage of a spell or attack (Confused!), but the RNG of it all can be mitigated through careful play. If there's only 1-2 creatures alive to smack, there's a good chance the chaos of nature removal will payoff. That means your best defense against Nature's onslaught is spreading your board "wide" with lots of individual creatures. This is even true of their 1 DMG God power, and Nature removal can feel entirely useless if they can't properly cull the board before a take-down.
Most efficient single target damage:
- [1] Primal Guidance (2-3 DMG)
- [2] Canopy Barrage (4 DMG)
- [2] Uproot (*8 DMG) — *Summons 2/2 Walking Tree for opponent
- [3] Lightning Strike (8 DMG, 2 Burn)
- [4] Frenzied Ritual (*12 DMG) — *Hits a friendly Creature, too
- [5] Vicious Manticore (4/3, Blitz/Overkill)
- [6] Enchanted Vines (*4x4 DMG) — *Can target friendly Creatures
- [6] Giant Pangolin (6/3 Blitz, Armor 2)
- [7] Charging Oryx (*7 DMG) — *Randomly attacks when Summoned
- [8] Guerilla Gardener (8/8 Blitz/Overkill)
Multi-target damage sources:
- [4] Wildfire (1 DMG)
- [6] The Hunt (*1-8 DMG) — *Randomly spread across enemy Creatures
- [6] Selena's Insight (*) — *Triggers duel, board wipes opponent if you win AND survive
- [7] Seasonal Rebirth (15 DMG) — *Summons 1/1 Walking Plant for opponent
- [8] Vinebound Jotun (3 DMG)
- [9] Dinysus, the Bountful (4 DMG)
With few exceptions, AoE damage isn't RNG-based while single target damage is only targeted when the damage source is random (Arrow of Rage) or a Creature has vanilla Blitz. Thankfully, you won't truly see board wiping removal until 6 mana, but at 7 (Seasonable Rebirth) the damage is stronk! I, personally, haven't seen boardwipes very often due to card rarity, but it is something to be aware of. I'm also fairly certainly you'll start to see more of it if @copperpitch keeps releasing budget aggro decks ;)
My word of advice for approaching Nature removal: Attempting to brute force Nature doesn't work unless you have ample sources of Protect/Ward shielding your creatures from RNGesus' vengeful wrath. Don't be afraid to hold back important plays until you've baited out the more common removal sources, and consider grouping summons together if your side of the board is empty.
Normally, I'd include +X cards under removal because they're effectively instant if you have a creature in play. However, Nature has so much pure damage removal that I've shifted pump cards to board control. Even if we pretend I didn't run out of room on the mana curve list, Nature has many sources of +X that linger beyond the turn they're cast. This includes the notorious "Aspect of the Pangolin" that is still causing considerable drama in the community.
With that in mind, if your domain has access to non-damage removal that effectively counters big beasties, you really should make room for them while the meta supports rampaging Nature decks. As I've seen a few point out, Nature puts themselves at risk by stacking up multiple cards. A well-placed hard removal can trade 1 for 2+ cards to gain a serious card advantage if the Nature player doesn't incorporate card draws. I have to admit this is easier said than done, however, as Nature creatures typically place a harshly short timer on your health if you're unable to immediately respond with removal.
In other words, do your best to time your own removal appropriately. It might seem worthwhile to overkill a Frontline blocker to let you swing through for damage, but that damage is meaningless if they respond by dropping the literal embodiment of "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO NATURE!"
coughGiantPangolincoughcough
Also, know that AoE +X starts at 2 mana for Confused Creatures (Gloam Druid) and 5 mana for everything else. Amazons have strong +X synergy, so be especially wary of that if you notice nearly exclusive Amazon plays (like early +X for Amazon cards)
Guh. Just guh. Like, seriosly. . . GUH!
As I've already established, Deception and Magic are kings of card manipulation, but for whatever reason: Nature is somehow part of that conversation. My best metaphor would be that if Deception likes to cast illusions and Magic likes to summon familiars/minions, Nature is that dang wandering/roaming CR 20 monster your DM likes to surprise the party with.
Nature has nearly two dozen sources of RNG card draw. As in, if they wanted to, their entire deck could feature card draw with many, many variations on how they combined said card draw. I say "guh" not necessarily because this is imbalanced and/or overpowering, but because it's more unpredictable than Deception, in my experience.
An entirely F2P core set player has access to 4 such cards meaning up to 8 cards in their deck could provide that many (and likely more) random Nature cards from the entire domain. For this reason, alone, I strongly recommend F2P players find useful ways of incorporating said cards to grace their decks with RNGesus' saving grace:
- [1] Revivification
- [5] Tainted Treant
- [5] Valewarden Minotaur
- [6] Opalised Rooots
Only Valewarden Minotaur is non-common, so acquiring these cards isn't a big ask.
When playing against Nature card draw, I recommend viewing it like deck stamina or longevity. By including RNG card draw, those draws aren't always going to be amazing, but they will allow Nature players to eke out wins via attrition if your deck doesn't have any form of deck extension. For example, War aggro might ram into Nature control, only to realize 20 cards later that they have 10 cards left to win with while Nature has a full hand of cards that continues to refill every few turns. This means Nature has both a short term damage timer on your health and a long term card timer on your deck.
To round out the list, I've included every source of mana Refresh Nature has access to. Like Magic, Nature has the ability to recycle the mana they use each turn. This ranges from literal "Refresh X mana" spells to creatures that Refresh mana after a specified trigger. If Nature is running card RNG, be very wary of Refresh. The recycled mana could allow them to make surprising plays you honestly won't be able to anticipate.
That's all for now, but do share in the comments below if you've discovered other strong combos or plays worth learning or being prepared for!
~ Ent
Counter Lists for Each God:
DEATH — Card Removal, Board Control
DECEPTION — Card Removal, Board Control, Card Advantage
LIGHT — Card Removal, Board Control
MAGIC — Card Removal, Board Control, Mana Ramp
WAR — Card Removal, Blitz, Creature Ramp