Elf Combo Card- Green Sun's Zenith

[Troy_Costisick]

Check this out:



Simple, re-useable, and quite handy IMO.

Peace,

-Troy

[The Atog Lord]

This is an extremely good card! It finds most Elf combo pieces for two mana. And it can let you find your larger combo components once your combo has started flowing. The fact that it is reusable is also impressive. Eventually, sure, there won't be anything left to get -- but by then, you've probably already won. A very impressive card indeed.

[Delha]

Holy crap. I'm gonna go ahead and agree with "very impressive".

[Daenyth]

Could this have any place in a noble fish deck? It fetches almost all of the creatures and could help dig up the right one at the right time. Not sure how much the extra mana hurts, but it could be interesting.

[A.-1.]

It's unplayable in Noble Fish especially if you want to play Gaddock Teeg.

It's absolutely playable in Elf combo, but I'm not sure if it would be best used in combination in Summoner's Pact or in place of Pact.  Being able to get around CotV at one is a nice bonus.

[BruiZar]

It gets casali pridemage and gaddock teeg (though he shuts this down too) which can be pretty relevant. This card isn't even dead on turn 1, you can go forest, Green Sun Zenith into Dryad Arbor. Consider me a believer

[The Atog Lord]

Wow, getting Dryad Arbor with this card seems absurd. A one-mana Rampant Growth? That seems extremely good. It lets this card function as a Llanowar Elf.

[Delha]

Agreed, nice catch there. Sounds better and better.

[the_lord_shaper]

It can also get selkie, trygon, tarmogoyf, and Hierarch. But it seems better in a gush deck, with lotus cobra maybe.

[MaximumCDawg]

Wow.

I don't know that Elf Combo is necessarily the breakout deck with this card, but the idea of being able to CAST - not just tutor for, but CAST - any creature in your deck, paying only colorless mana, at any time, by paying G, is absurd.  I wonder if this can spawn a new archetype using green utility creatures.  Along the same lines, I am concerned that the printing of this card will prohibit the printing of other very cheap green utility creatures.  4 mana to tutor out a Virdian Shaman is not impressive, and all the 1-cc utility creatures have to tap to use their ability (Scavanger Folk, Elvish Lyricist). 

[BruiZar]

4 mana for Eternal Witness can be worth it actually. For example, getting that Glimpse of Nature back so you can try another combo after having it countered. 4 mana for elves is not that hard to get.

[MaximumCDawg]

Upon further consideration, I'm going to get out there and say this is a phenomenal gain for combo elves.  Currently, people run around 12 mana dorks - Arbor, Llanowar, Fyndhorn.  With this gem, you can replace up to four of these dorks with Zenith and Dryad Arbor.  You lose a bit of creature density, true, but you end up adding up to four creature tutors into your deck while still having exactly the same mana density.  (Because first turn Zenith for Arbor is functionally the same as a mana dork, barring wasteland).  

As I browse the cheap casting cost green creatures, there is sort of a lack of really snazzy beaters to grab, sadly.   Best I can see is grabbing Talara's Battalion or Wren's Run Vanquisher (4/3 or 3/3 deathtouch for 2G), which is good, but not great.

[Troy_Costisick]

My thought is you can lower the density of non-elf cards like Symbiote.  It also makes me really want to run Priest of Titania to power out Regal Forces each turn.

[Evergreen]

I actually think this card is insane.  Since no one has mentioned the possibility of using Zenith in a Hermit Druid deck yet, I wanted to post my list, which Zenith fits into perfectly.

4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine
3x Bayou
3x Misty Rainforest
1x Dryad Arbor

4x Dark Confidant
4x Hermit Druid
3x Narcomeba
1x Flame-Kin Zealot
1x Qasali Pridemage

4x Thoughtseize
3x Bridge from Below
2x Cabal Therapy
1x Dread Return
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Duress
1x Imperial Seal
1x Vampiric Tutor

4x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Worldly Tutor

1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm

2x Chrome Mox
1x Sol Ring
1x Black Lotus
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire

Side:

4x Nature's Claim
2x Extirpate
2x Pithing Needle
2x Swords to Plowshares
2x Ancient Tomb
1x Tinker
1x Darksteel Colossus
1x Tarmogoyf

The sideboard is by no means optimal, as it was constructed hastily since I was playing Living Wish in Green Sun's Zenith's spot, which obviously necessitated a completely different configuration of cards.  However I am very confidant in the main deck, and with Zenith's addition it has been performing well in the limited testing I have done with it (take that for what it's worth).  Zenith substantially increases the amount of times you land a turn 1 or 2 Hermit Druid, while also beating chalice at 2.  If my positive results in testing continue and if there is any interest I will make my own thread and discuss my choices in greater detail since I feel my list is different enough from the "Hermit Blaster" lists to warrant it.  However, it could be that playing elf combo is just a better way to abuse this bad boy.  This is one of the most exciting cards I've seen out of Scars block thus far, I can't wait to see how people break it.  

[mike_bergeron]

Can this be abused in anyway by Painter's Servant?  I am trying to think if it could grab dreadnoughts and toss them on the battlefield without the drawback, or silly stuff like that.

It looks fun, and I can't wait to goldfish the elves deck with this- very cool. 

[MaximumCDawg]

Painter's seems like a pretty lame synergy.  Yea, sure, you can now fetch cards out of your deck.  But would you play this card:

Tutor's Servant
3
1/3 Artifact Creature
If you cast Worldly Tutor, you may pay an additional X.  If you do, and the creature you reveal with Worldy Tutor has a casting cost of X, you may put that creature onto the battlefield instead of on top of your library.

[Delha]

I am trying to think if it could grab dreadnoughts and toss them on the battlefield without the drawback, or silly stuff like that.

Doesn't work on Dreadnought, since his ability is ETB. Ironically, it would have worked back when the 12-power sacrifice was an additional cost.

I think you could surely come up with some nasty targets, but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. That goes double once you start considering the fact that those are dead cards when you don't have Painter.

[Eastman]

Evergreen this card does seem like a good addition for hermit druid.  I always thought that deck was in serious need of another way to find hermit, but living wish was just too slow/inefficient.  This does it for much cheaper than the wish.  I would be keen to discuss in a seperate thread on the subject. 

[beder]

Definitely very exciting, in a G/x/x aggro/fish deck, as a tutor to find the right creature at the right time.
The tool kit could be made of "one-of" or "3-4 of" with so many optioons given that there are so many interesting green creature.
And against shop, it will sometimes even be better than a real tutor for  , given that you play only one spell and so pay the extra sphere mana only once.

Like it!