Nissa, Genesis Mage

Planeswalker — Nissa

+2: Untap up to two target creatures and up to two target lands.

-3: Target creature gets +5/+5 until end of turn.

-10: Look at the top ten cards of your library. You may put any number of creature and/or land cards from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

wallisface on Why is Untapping Lands a …

8 months ago

legendofa I have an issue with you contesting my statement of "a large portion of those cards are extremely old" and then deciding yourself what the goalposts should be for my own statement. I never said that only old-bordered cards are old... the current "new" border has still been in use for a ridiculous quantity of time, and the colour pie has shifted numerous times since its creation. For me, anything that was printed 10+ years ago, fits into the "extremely old" category... so if you're going to pull me-up on what's old-or-new, that is the yardstick i'm measuring.

Now, ordering cards by how old they actually are (instead of arbitrary card-frames) yields the following (using only the cards you've already listed):

1993 (31 years ago): Ley Druid

1995 (29 years ago): Juniper Order Druid

1996 (28 years ago): Nature's Chosen, Emerald Charm

1997 (27 years ago): Elder Druid, Earthcraft, Llanowar Druid

1998 (26 years ago): Awakening, Argothian Elder

1999 (25 years ago): Early Harvest

2002 (22 years ago): Krosan Restorer

2004 (20 years ago): Rude Awakening, Nature's Will

2005 (19 years ago): Stone-Seeder Hierophant, Seedborn Muse, Patron of the Orochi

2006 (18 years ago): Magus of the Candelabra

2007 (17 years ago): Woodland Guidance

2009 (15 years ago): Garruk Wildspeaker

2010 (14 years ago): Bear Umbra

2012 (12 years ago): Arbor Elf, Urban Burgeoning

2013 (11 years ago): Voyaging Satyr

2014 (10 years ago): Nissa, Worldwaker

2017 (7 years ago): Initiate's Companion, Hope Tender, Nissa, Genesis Mage, Blossom Dryad

2018 (6 years ago): Ley Weaver, Cacophodon

2019 (5 years ago): Wilderness Reclamation, Rime Tender

2021 (3 years ago): Sculptor of Winter, Saryth, the Viper's Fang, Jorn, God of Winter  ^Flip

2022 (2 years ago): Likeness of the Seeker  ^Flip, Civic Gardener

2023 (last year): Rustvine Cultivator, Portent Tracker

2024 (this year): Innocuous Researcher

Using the above data, the below rant is in defense of my claim "From what i’m seeing, the general trend is that this effect used to be quite prominent in green but something that’s slowly being phased out/down for green over time", which may have been the other thing you were contesting??

Now, at face value this paints a picture that indicates an-eb-and-flow of constant printings of green-land-untap effects, perhaps even slightly favoring those printings in the more recent years. HOWEVER - this does not take into account the actual percentage of cards printed in any given year.

For example, in 1996 2 cards exist in our category, BUT only 468 new cards were printed that year. 2022 also has 2 cards in our category printed, but also had 2004 new cards printed into it, meaning those 2 cards represented a significantly lower percentage of what green represented that year.

With Wotc printing an increasingly large quantity of cards every year, this effect has been getting an increasingly lower-percentage-share of cards given to it. The one anomaly I see is 2017, where 4 cards were printed in a year that made 861 new cards, making it about on-par with our beforementioned 1996 example.

legendofa on Why is Untapping Lands a …

8 months ago

wallisface I'm still going to contest that. Scryfall search comes up with 45 mono-green cards with the words "untap" and "land". Ignoring stuff like Blizzard and Choke, there are nine cards in that group with ye olde bordere that untap lands, seven with the Modern border, and fourteen with the 2015 border, skipping those whose primary purpose is to turn lands into creatures like Wakeroot Elemental. Two of them are legal in Standard, and thirteen--about a third of the total, and more than ye olde bordere--are legal in Pioneer. I'm not seeing the dropoff for land untapping in green.

{G} Ye Olde Bordere, "untap" + "land": Ley Druid, Elder Druid, Juniper Order Druid, Nature's Chosen, Early Harvest, Earthcraft, Awakening, Argothian Elder, Krosan Restorer. total 9

{G} Modern Border, "untap" + "land": Rude Awakening, Nature's Will, Stone-Seeder Hierophant, Magus of the Candelabra, Garruk Wildspeaker, Bear Umbra, Urban Burgeoning, Voyaging Satyr. total 8

{G} 2015 Border, "untap" + "land": Nissa, Worldwaker, Initiate's Companion, Hope Tender, Nissa, Genesis Mage, Blossom Dryad, Ley Weaver, Wilderness Reclamation, Sculptor of Winter, Saryth, the Viper's Fang, Likeness of the Seeker  ^Flip, Civic Gardener, Rustvine Cultivator, Portent Tracker, Innocuous Researcher. total 14

{G} Ye Olde Bordere, "untap" + "permanent": Emerald Charm, Seedborn Muse. total 2

{G} Modern Border, "untap" + "permanent": none.

{G} 2015 Border, "untap" + "permanent": Cacophodon, Rime Tender, Jorn, God of Winter  ^Flip. total 3

{G} Ye Olde Bordere, "untap" + "Forest": Llanowar Druid. total 1

{G} Modern Border, "untap" + "Forest": Patron of the Orochi, Woodland Guidance, Arbor Elf. total 3

{G} 2015 Border, "untap" + "Forest": none.

So there's 39 green cards that can untap lands in some capacity, with 34 of those being more or less land-specific. Again, these counts ignore cards that untap lands by turning lands into creatures, focusing only on those whose main function is the untap. It also ignores Un-cards.

Analysis of blue to follow.

wallisface on Genesis Surge

1 year ago

So, some thoughts:

• you’re at 62 cards, which is 2 more than you should have - i’d just ditch the two Nylea's Disciple as they’re doing absolutely nothing for you.

• Raking Canopy should never be in the mainboard of a deck as it’ll just be useless far too often. It would be dubious even in a sideboard. Nissa, Genesis Mage is too much mana for too little profit also. I would swap both for two copies of Garruk Wildspeaker, which offers you quicker ramp and some plan-b options.

• you only have 3 cards to hit off your genesis effects, which is faar too low a ratio to ever be reliable. Added to that, your description mentions Spawnsire but that card’s not in the deck.

• Unbound Flourishing doesn’t seem very good here. It would be better served as more payoff cards from your genesis effects.

wallisface on Help improve my deck pls

1 year ago

Two things that might help people better evaluate this:

1) what format is this for? I assume Modern??

2) make this as a deck on the site and put the link to it here. It’s a bit hard reading the list as a wall-of-text.

Just from looking at what’s there at the moment, a bunch of cards don’t seem very good/helpful - namely Nylea's Disciple (doesn’t advance your boardstate therefore doesn’t do anything), Nissa, Genesis Mage (and excessively high mana cost and basically only provides even more mana), Gelatinous Genesis (there’s just better things to be doing than this).

I’m worried you’re investing a lot of energy to maybe be cheating out some kindof-ok (but a bit meh) creatures, when you could instead just be Tooth and Nailing out an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Xenagos, God of Revels to win the game on the spot.

Renegadespider on Help improve my deck pls

1 year ago

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/genesis-surge-1/?cb=1714747746

So I'm trying to make the ulimate Genesis Deck that focuses on cheating out Creatures and producing lots of mana to activate Spawnsire, Avacyn, Angel of Hope is for boardwipe protection Archetype of Endurance is for targeting Exile protection, Nylea's Disciple is for life gain from using The One Ring for draw and all the Genesis Cards to cheat my Board state out, except Gelatinous Genesis which for an alt win con. I've managed to get everything out by turn 4 before...but it just doesn't feel fast enough, I brick way too often, by either drawing way too much mana or not drawing enough mana, any advice?

Licecolony on Mono-Green SuperFriends!

2 years ago

Heck no Lokasa!
If Pir, Imaginative Rascal gets you excited, I think you 'ought to go for it. This is YOUR deck, you can make it however you like. We can work to compensate for the speed by changing out the ramp package!

I will note that with Pir, Imaginative Rascal, you'd also get Toothy, Imaginary Friend as a free second commander which gives you access to cards like Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres, Ichormoon Gauntlet, Deepglow Skate along with a bunch more planeswalkers and proliferators and duplicators. Since your deck is called mono-green, I'm gonna write the rest of this comment assuming you don't want to add any blue cards.

Accelerated Ramp, these are gonna focus more on getting lands straight to the battlefield and being cheap to use. If possible, having these attached to creatures to block early on:
Nature's Lore
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Three Visits
Rampant Growth
Yavimaya Elder
Fertilid
Topiary Stomper
And that would take place of all of your three mana mana-ramp and your ramp that brings lands to hand (they work best with Azuza, so now we don't need them).

Then we can come up with fast removal to protect you early and give you early blockers:
Cankerbloom
Thrashing Brontodon
Nature's Claim

We can replace the planeswalkers we lost earlier Garruk, Savage Herald, Nissa, Genesis Mage, Vivien, Arkbow Ranger, Vivien, Champion of the Wilds, Vivien, Nature's Avenger with more that'll keep you safe and will give us space for better support cards:
Nissa, Ascended Animist
Wrenn and Seven

Finally, we can think about how to use those planeswalkers more effectively with cards like:
The Peregrine Dynamo doubles up your planeswalker ability
Kamahl's Druidic Vow can be another Genesis Wave in this deck.
I'll also add Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider though will warn you MOST people do not enjoy playing against that card.

Note that my opinion is just as useless as anyone else's and any choices you make will be the right ones for you. I hope you find your fun <3

Acheron-69 on Stompy Elves

3 years ago

Duskwielder > Essence Warden Briarblade Adept > Elvish Dreadlord Kazandu Nectarpot > Evolution Sage Taunting Arbormage > Skemfar Avenger Nissa, Genesis Mage > Reclamation Sage Fyndhorn Elves > Arbor Elf Haunted Cloak > Nim Deathmantle Foul Orchard > Wirewood Lodge Golgari Guildgate > Grim Backwoods Witherbloom Campus > Field of Ruin Forest > Evolving Wilds Pride of the Perfect > Black Market Crown of Skemfar > Asceticism Enslave > Dictate of Erebos Tangletrap > Assassin's Trophy Crushing Vines > Putrefy Feed the Serpent > Deadly Rollick Inspire Awe > Obscuring Haze Bladebrand > Feign Death Harvest Season > Kindred Summons Gruesome Fate > Kindred Dominance Return from Extinction > Torment of Hailfire

Bloom Tender > Sol Ring Elderleaf Mentor > Arcane Signet Eyeblight Cullers > Rampant Growth Greenseeker > Key to the City Wildborn Preserver > Three Visits Springbloom Druid > Farseek Silhana Ledgewalker > Rogue's Passage Lys Alana Bowmaster > Beast Within Seedborn Muse > Whispersilk Cloak Rishkar, Peema Renegade > Door of Destinies Wildheart Invoker > Darksteel Plate

KongMing on

4 years ago

How about Time of Need? Could be useful to throw an opponent off when they don't think you have the mana or speed to play and tap Sisay for another tutor, or when you need two in a turn.

Awakening is a risky play, but you may be able to make better use of it than your opponents. Quest for Renewal has a more limited scope, but you can put it to good use in this deck. And of course, there's Seedborn Muse.

You could also make advantageous use of Crackdown, since so many of your attackers are white.

Gideon, Martial Paragon gets you another tutor and buffs your field, and is also tutorable with Sisay. Nissa, Genesis Mage is similar, but helps you mid-game ramp.

Staff of Domination has many uses. Also, Paradox Engine, because I assume you like winning?