Why are Cultivate and Kodama's Reach so popular?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on June 10, 2019, 11:01 a.m. by Qolorful
I don't understand why people like these cards so much? I normally feel like I am wasting mana with them. Sure they get you two lands, but they are only basic lands and one is just in your hand. Why aren't people playing more of Nature's Lore and Farseek ? They cost one less mana to cast and can fix your colors more efficiently. Farseek can grab any shock land in the game along with others like Canopy Vista or Scattered Groves , which I think is just more valuable than a card that take an extra turn to play. Nature's lore is even better because the land fetched can enter untapped, so if you fetch a Temple Garden or something, you can use it immediately to cast another card. That makes effectively cost 1 to search up a nonbasic land.
I guess what I'm saying is I don't think cultivate deserves to be in 47,000 decks on EDHREC when nature's lore is in 10,000. There are things I would rather do on turn 3 than ramp 1 basic land and put one into my hand.
If you disagree, then tell me why. I want to understand why these cards are so popular.
With Nature's Lore specifically it has a couple of reasons I see it seeing less play. One of the bigger ones that isn't about how many more printings of the other two cards in comparison to it is the fact that a deck can only run so many forests. In mono green this isn't an issue as much but the more colors you add the less forests you can squeeze in even with duals. You probably at least want a couple basics of each of your colors for other ramp cards/ non basic punishing cards (Blood Moonect.)
And sometimes you run out of forests to fetch of the color you need. For an example if I need blue mana and already have my blue/green dual on the battlefield my ramp card can't get me the color that I need which feels akward for a ramp spell. Nature's Lore is a strong ramp card yes and probably should see a little more play but I guess I can see a bit of reasoning why it doesn't.
As for Farseek I wonder how much the fact it is absolutely useless in monogreen holds it back? Monogreen has a ton of stupid decks that you can make and and farseek is a dead card in monogreen. And it is kind of just ok in two color decks where you have 2-3 duals max typically. It gets a lot better the more colors you add.
June 10, 2019 11:44 a.m.
Also it probaby doesn't help that alot of the value of both cards goes down if you don't have any orignal duals. The more targets you have for both the better they become and orignal duals are simply more targets for both. If you are more budget then you aren't going to get as many good targets and more liklely you are going to just grab basics with both compared to someone with a larger budget.
June 10, 2019 11:51 a.m.
edengstrom1 says... #5
Most decks that run Nature's Lore and Farseek will also probably run Cultivate and Kodama's Reach .
Also, everyone and their brother has a Cultivate that they can throw into a deck, while most people have to actually go purchase Nature's Lore if they want it.
I think it is more of a convenience thing than anything else. EDH is a casual format and most casuals don't want to go out of their way to buy ramp.
June 10, 2019 12:23 p.m.
GhostChieftain says... #6
I agree with edengstrom1... for the most part. In casual decks most things don't happen til turn 3 or after anyway, and it is some decent ramp in those decks. Everybody has a few copies, so why not run it if the group is casual? Where I disagree is that EDH isn't just a casual format. As decks get stronger and faster and more towards cEDH levels, you will see almost none of these two cards because you need to be doing something more impactful with 3 mana. Turn 3 against strong decks can be the last turn and you can't waste it on mediocre ramp.
June 10, 2019 12:40 p.m. Edited.
So the consensus I am seeing is that its a combination of the two being so commonly owned among players and that lore and farseek are more restricted in the type of deck they go in? I suppose that makes sense. It hadn't occured to me that farseek is dead in all mono green decks of which there are many, and that lore is just a pricy rampant growth in a lot of them. It makes more sense now to me now, I just play a lot of 3 and 4 color decks, so I hadn't really considered that enough when weighing them.
I still don't like them very much but I can see them for what they are now at least. Thanks for all the replies, I love to hear about cards from other's perspectives, very enlightening.
June 10, 2019 12:43 p.m.
CastleSiege says... #8
But why run Farseek when you can run Three Visits? :)
Also, I find Harrow is another ramp spell that doesn't see enough play. Sure you have to sacrifice a land, but it's instant speed and the lands come into play untapped.
June 10, 2019 12:49 p.m.
If your play group isn't fast, its a good card. Ramp, technically card advantage and its such a easy card to have access to just throw in all your decks.
Once lists start to get a lil more tight, that's probally when people will start to consider cutting those 2 cards.
June 10, 2019 3:06 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #11
Wait, people aren’t playing Nature's Lore and Farseek ?? I play a lot of Cultivate/Kodama’s Reach but I still play the other two.
June 10, 2019 3:44 p.m.
Sarkhan420X says... #12
Cultivate and Kodama's Reach also thin the deck out a bit more. surprised nobody else mentioned this.
June 10, 2019 8:03 p.m.
Nature's Lore is 1:1, Cultivate is 1:2. Card advantage is key in magic, and so is making consistent land drops. It's quite obvious to me why it's in more decks. Getting to fetch a dual land is not really a significant advantage over fetching 2 different basics almost ever.
June 11, 2019 7:19 a.m.
SynergyBuild says... #14
Rzepkanut card advantage sadly gets super complicated in EDH, because card advantage generally has an easy way to estimate in 1v1, as in you can easily tell who has more cards at their disposal, in EDH, unless you assume each opponent will use their cards against you, there is no such way to estimate it. Often when card advantage is brought up assuming you only worry about a third of your opponent's cards there are other issues.
It is just a difficult topic. Personally, I am not a fan of Cultivate/Kodama's Reach, but especially for budgetary reasons I wholeheartedly respect the cards.
Pieguy396 says... #2
Nature's Lore is very good, and a surprisingly underrated card given how popular it is, but Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are generally considered to be at least slightly better largely because they provide you with an extra card of value.
June 10, 2019 11:33 a.m.