Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
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Legality

Format Legality
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

Legendary Creature — Elf Druid

: Add to your mana pool for each Forest you control.

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Epicurus on People's Thoughts on Mommy Norn?

1 year ago

"She's a great roadblock for decks that combo off to go infinite. You know the ones, where you chain together ETB effects to garner infinite tokens / draw / mana / burn. {...} we've all seen them either in person or online with YouTube."

I was looking through all of my decks, both decks that I own and prototypes, and found very few that Big Momma Norn actually shuts down. There are a few that she hinders, there are a couple interactions in each of them that she denies, but the only ones that I see her as a scoop-worthy opponent to are my Yarok decks and my GW Soul Sisters deck. Which brings me to why I quoted the paragraph above from a previous comment.

As other users have already stated on this thread, I also don't play infinite combos. I do have one such combo in one of my decks, but (a) it happened by accident, (b) it's a 3-card combo in a deck that doesn't run tutors, (c) it doesn't have anything to do with ETB triggers, and therefore isn't nerfed by Ma Norn, and (d) is absolutely not necessary for the deck to win. Is that deck effected by Norn being on the board? To some extent, absolutely. Can it win against a Norn deck? Again, absolutely.

(The deck I'm referring to is Mazirek's Nut Sac, in case anyone wants to look at it and argue otherwise).

I can see this card being a nuisance if all or most of your decks rely heavily on ETB triggers, or if you play infinite combos that require ETB triggers, but for no other reason. And honestly, I'm glad if the latter is the case.

Honestly, on a different note, I don't see her shutting down more decks than Kunoros, Hound of Athreos does. And did Kunoros flood the format? Absolutely not. Why not? Because there are too many decks that operate perfectly fine in it's presence. It only attacks one specific archetype, and only slightly hinders others. That's why you see Kuranos much more often as part of the 99 than as commander. If Ma Norn is different, it's only because there are way too many decks being played in the format that absolutely depend on ETB triggers. In that case, she'll really only serve to help diversify the format, which is exactly the opposite of what gets a card banned.

Cards get banned because they flood and homogenize the format. Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary was banned because, at the time, you couldn't keep up with that deck, so there was no reason to play anything else. Leovold, Emissary of Trest was banned because drawing is one of the most fundamental aspects of the format, and therefore wrecked every single deck archetype, and subsequently became a "play him or lose to him, your choice" kind of commander. I could go on, but basically the ban hammer comes down when a very large percentage of decks are built around that card, thereby rendering most other decks obsolete. It's really more of a business decision than anything, because flooding a format with one card means less sales of anything else. It's also just not any fun for people who want to build anything else to know that they're going to see that one deck over and over and can't beat it. Again, cards become banned when they enter the category of you have to play them, or you're going to lose to them.

On that subject, I personally wish that Thassa's Oracle would be banned. There are way too many of those decks out there, and they're not any fun to play against. I'd also like to recommend Cyclonic Rift for the hammer, because it is my number one hurt feels card (it's not just a board wipe, it's a one-sided middle finger for everyone). And no, neither of those can be in the command zone to start the game. However, both are infinitely less situational than Ma Norn. They're both devastating to every single deck archetype, not just the most popular ones.

And my final thought on the subject is that there are many other better and more versatile Stax commanders. Tegrid has been mentioned a lot on this thread, and for good reason. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir could be added to that discussion. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV might not shut down any decks, but puts you at a +2 or +3 mana advantage, which is much less situational than the advantage Ma Norn gives you. Shit, even Archelos, Lagoon Mystic, a very underrated commander, whom a lot of people overlook, has much more of a capability of shutting down a much wider category of deck archetypes than does Ma Norn, and has a much better color identity if you want to play Stax. I'm not saying that Archelos is a better card, not by a long shot. I'm just trying to illustrate how dumb it would be to cry for the hammer to come down on Ma Norn before she ever even sees the command zone. She's not going to flood the format, won't wreck the game, and really just makes mono-white a viable option and nothing else.

Anyway, that's my rant.

bushido_man96 on Good Ol' Kamahl

1 year ago

Hate to be the one to tell you this, as that is my favorite card, but Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary is banned in Commander.

legendofa on What Commander Do You Think …

1 year ago

Grubbernaut From a very casual Commander player to a cEDH player, do you have an opinion on Braids, Cabal Minion or Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary as part of the banlist? I personally feel like those two in particular are not overpowered as commanders at this point, nor do they lead to especially prohibitive or overwhelming lines of play. I don't think dominance is the only, or even main, criterion for an EDH ban, but am curious about your opinion as a more competitive player.

plakjekaas on What ONE card would you …

1 year ago

420MensRightsActivist I'd say that Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt strongly disagree with your assessment of the situation. If you Jeweled Lotus out Marwyn, the Nurturer into land + Quirion Ranger on turn 1, you can Invigorate into Ashaya, Soul of the Wild and go infinite mana on turn 2. What's the Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary line that's faster?

The speed of high-power EDH is largely decided by fast mana rocks nowadays, and Rofellos is incredibly poorly equipped to take advantage of those. Which is why I mentioned it in this topic.

Niko9 on What ONE card would you …

1 year ago

I definitely agree on Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary In an elf deck, I'm not even sure if he'd make the cut. There is just so much mana generation at this point that a green creature that ramps would have to be nuts, absolutely nuts, to actually be broken.

Honestly, I think they just need to reset the banlist at some point. The way that things have been added and taken off over time leaves it in a disjointed state. If everyone sat down, had a set criteria, and came up with a new list every few years, it would be a much more cohesive list.

plakjekaas on What ONE card would you …

1 year ago

Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary seems not that busted anymore with Dockside Extortionist running rampant through the format. I have a Marwyn, the Nurturer deck that would probably outspeed Rofellos in mana generation, as low mana elves are easier to bring into play early than actual lands with the forest type.

smilodex on Best Commanders in EDH [Tier List] Part 1

2 years ago

@Rivrek: Like enpc already mentioned. Tazri gives you access to the best cards in the format, and he can convert infinite colorless mana into a win by using his ability until you find either Thrasios/Spellseeker + Thassa's Oracle to close out the game. But in most cases, Najeela, Kenrith or Thrasios + Partner are just the better choice.

@Dam0: After the Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary ban, Seton, Krosan Protector was the best mono green commander, but after that Selvala, Yisan and Ashaya showed up and Seton got overshadowed. I've no doubt that Seton is still a strong commander, but he's just outclassed by Selvala/Yisan and Ashaya... Maybe he's on the same page as Marwyn... After the release of all the mentioned commanders, I've rarely seen Seton. Because of that, we're also lacking enough reliable data on him... In our opinion, he's a bit outclassed, and therefore he's fringe competitive for us. But show us your list and tell me the advantages of Seton over Marwyn or Ashaya.

@Nonary27: You already answered your own question. With Unesh you can snowball very quickly because of all the card advantage she provides... I mean, you can play Universal Automaton for and do a Fact or Fiction-effect for every changeling or Sphinx you'll play. Mono blue wincons (Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Triskaidekaphile or Atemsis, All-Seeing) are also easier than deleting every opponent with combat damage, and you can also easily protect your gameplan with Counterspells which is obviously better than mono red spells. There are also mono blue Sphinxes who can win a game by themselves: Sphinx of the Second Sun & Consecrated Sphinx

Omniscience_is_life on None

2 years ago

Yisan Braids, Cabal Minion makes you have no lands, ergo you can't cast removal, Iona, Shield of Emeria makes you literally unable to cast any spells, Erayo, Soratami Ascendant / Erayo's Essence counters all your removal, Leovold, Emissary of Trest takes your hand--and with it, all your removal--away, Lutri, the Spellchaser is just an auto-include in all RU=< decks as companion, Griselbrand can just draw all the answers in the world in response to you removing him, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn has protection from basically everything, and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary ... he's just TOO handsome. I mean, c'mon.

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