Selesnya Guildmage

Creature — Elf Wizard

({GW} can be paid with either {G} or {W}.)

{3}{G}: Create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token.

{3}{W}: Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.

Tokens

• Saproling 1/1 G

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
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
PreDH	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (35)

CrimsonWings3689 on What do you want more …

7 hours ago

Posting this full well knowing it can get into soapbox territory, but there will be numbers to back it up.

If using Scryfall, using only the is:hybrid and f:commander syntax, we have 518 cards currently: https://scryfall.com/search?q=is%3Ahybrid+f%3Acommander

With that, if we exclude cards like the original 10 Guildmages from Ravnica and their like, that have mana symbols in their textbox/casting cost that would prohibit their use in a mono color deck, or one with fewer than the maximum color identity (ex. Selesnya Guildmage, Repudiate / Replicate, Deathrite Shaman, Seedcradle Witch, Spider Manifestation, Vibrance, Waterlogged Teachings  ^Flip, Ajani, Sleeper Agent, Moonhold) there are 66 cards of that original 518 cards that the hybrid rules change wouldn't "help" see more play.

That is also assuming that there's an exception made for hybrid mana in the textbox for cards like Elite Headhunter & Fiend Artisan. Without that exception, that would add another 43 cards to the pile of "can't actually be used in a deck that's not the 2 or more colors the card represents."

The greater majority of the commons (178 cards total of the 518) are either trash/chaff or close enough, with only 8 of those breaking the $0.50 mark. https://scryfall.com/search?q=is%3Ahybrid+f%3Acommander+r%3Dcℴ=usd&as=grid&unique=cards

Quite a lot of hybrid cards aren't seeing play because they're not spectacular at what they do. There are corner cases like Waves of Aggression, sure. But that's not enough of a reason to rework the format to include them.

Caerwyn on What do you want more …

8 hours ago

To provide the full quote:

“The most interesting design space was on the uncommon cards. The block had a ten-card cycle of creatures (the Guildmages) with a hybrid cost and two monocolor activations. You could access one of the activations in a monocolor deck, but access to both activations required a two-color deck. The overlap designs were all things monocolor designs could capture, but the Guildmages showed that hybrid mana could allow designers to make things they otherwise couldn't.”

And here is an example Guildmage: Selesnya Guildmage.

As can be plainly seen, the cards are not capable of functioning in mono color. You might be able to cast them in Mono-white, but if you want the Green-only ability, you need to use Green. So, in a mono-colored deck, they are effectively only that color.

This is no different than any other mono colored card with an off-color ability - if a Black card has fire breathing, it is the red mana of the ability, not the black card color, which confers the fire breathing ability.

(Edit: Looks like someone else pointed this out at the same time as I did).

DemonDragonJ on Life Springs Eternal

7 months ago

Profet93, this deck contains numerous cards that offer payoffs for gaining life, so Oracle of Nectars is good for that, and I wished to have Selesnya Guildmage in at least one of my decks.

DemonDragonJ on Advice for a Green/White EDH …

11 months ago

I am planning to build a green/white EDH deck, with Sigarda, Host of Herons as the general, so I would like to ask for advice on constructing it.

Most decks that have the original Sigarda as the general tend to be either "Voltron" decks (i.e., making the general as powerful as possible) or "enchantress" decks (i.e., focusing on enchantments), so I would like to make my deck slightly different from the typical Sigarda deck; specifically, I plan for the deck to have three major themes: a focus on gaining life, but not quite to the extent of my Liesa, Shroud of Dusk deck; a focus on generating creature tokens, but not to the extent of my Ghired, Conclave Exile deck; and a focus on putting +1/+1 counters on creatures, but not to the extent of my Atraxa, Praetors' Voice deck; in other words, it shall be a "jack of all trades" deck, but with plenty of synergy and overlap between those themes. Sigarda does not directly contribute to any of those themes, but I chose her as the general, because she is very difficult to remove, once she is on the battlefield, and I feel that this type of creative and unusual deckbuilding is good and should be encouraged.

First, for gaining life, I am considering cards that make it easy to do so, such as True Conviction, Dazzling Angel, Archangel of Thune, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, Sunscorch Regent, Oracle of Nectars, and Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn, as well as cards that offer payoffs/rewards for gaining life, such as (again) Archangel of Thune, Lathiel, Trelesarra, moon dancer, Blossoming Bogbeast or Trudge Garden.

Second, for generating creature tokens, I am considering Vernal Sovereign, Aura Mutation, Trudge Garden (again), Selesnya Guildmage (possibly), or Scepter of Celebration, and, for cards that reward me for generating tokens, I am considering Juniper Order Ranger, Cathars' Crusade, Dazzling Angel, and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice.

Third, for placing +1/+1 counters on creatures, I am considering Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Archangel of Thune, Juniper Order Ranger, Cathars' Crusade, Sunscorch Regent, Forgotten Ancient (possibly), and (possibly) Vigor, and, for cards that allow me to use those counters as payment for other effects, I am considering Fertilid, Mindless Automaton, (possibly) Ooze Flux.

Notice how many of those cards have synergy and overlap, allowing me to pursue three themes in a single deck, and I also plan to have a number of generically good cards that I use in many of my decks, such as True Conviction, Mirari's Wake, Seedborn Muse, or Sigarda, Font of Blessings, as well as several cards that I have not used in any of my previous decks, thus far, such as Hydra Broodmaster, Pledge of Loyalty, Camaraderie, Commander's Plate, Behemoth Sledge, Shield of the Oversoul, or Veteran Beastrider. I also am considering putting either Valkyrie Harbinger or Kalonian Hydra into this deck, but I do not wish for this deck to be too similar to any of my other decks, so I would prefer to avoid putting those cards into this deck, if I can avoid doing so, and I also am not yet certain about Doubling Season, staff of completion, or Selvala, Explorer Returned, since those cards would be awesome in this deck, but I do not wish to use them in every deck in which they would be a good addition.

What does everyone else say about this? Do you think that this is an interesting idea, and what suggestions can you make, for me? Thank you, very much, and I certainly am awaiting everyone’s responses!

enpc on Feedback Requested! Tsukimi Moon's Mirror

3 years ago

sean360: generally, the point of tapping creatures (or even tapping additional creatures) is to help reduce the mana cost of an ability (an example would be Selesnya Evangel vs Selesnya Guildmage). This also works ith powerful abilities as your options would be to have them cost prohibitive amounts of mana, or to have hybrid costs.

Given that Trostani, Selesnya's Voice only costs 3 to populate as a tap ability and Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage only costs 4 mana to populate with no other restrictions, 3 mana as a tap ability is very reasonable. Also worth noting is that sure, the commander gets much better with Seedborn Muse, but so do a lot of other commanders. That's more about seedborn muse than it is about your commander though.

The point of this creature though (similar to Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage) is that it has the ability to create a token which you can then start populating from (i.e. it doesn't need any additional card support to do its thing). Guildmage has the ability to create multiple tokens at a high cost (6 mana for a 3/3 is quite expensive if it were a creature, but on an ability it makes a lot of sense). Your idea here is that your commander does a similar thing. While you can't keep churning out 'seed tokens' (something guildmage can do if all tokens are destroyed), your token has the ability to be very powerful.

This is why I would recommend tying it to "creatrue you control" which helps self balance the card. You can't just copy the biggest baddest thing on the battlefield, unless you're the one who already played it (regardless of how you got it onto the battlefield). It also stops you from just straight up cloning an opponent's commander. Again, there are cards that do this but you have to work for it (in that you have to find/draw the card and then play it - it's not just straight up tied to your commander).

Additionally, this isn't a "copy/steal" deck as much as it's a "play big tokens then make more of them" deck. Not only are you the wrong colours for that kind of deck (typically they lean more into grixis) but also you really don't want to play a copy/steal deck.

Lord_of_Lords on Ellie's Saprolings

5 years ago

Do you want to replace Song of Freyalise with a creature, mana, utility, or some combination of these? For a 2-drop, I like Selesnya Guildmage if you have the mana to use it. And if it gets removed, better that than a lord.

Just some other ideas:

Sporeweb Weaver: blocks flyers, heals, and makes tokens.

Fungal Rebirth: a post-wipe 3-for-1?

Bow of Nylea: give all your tokens deathtouch + some utility.

Heroic Intervention: anti-board wipes

mlink4 on Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

5 years ago

DoctorAwker I appreciate the feedback! I'll definitely tweak the ramp package as when I put it together it was mostly based on what I had on hand. I'll look at some of the big token makers you mentioned because I want the deck to have legs in the late game too! I may swap Selesnya Guildmage for Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage as it seems to do the same job just better. Another instance of me just putting in what I have. As I stated in another comment, she's just picking up the game and I have some EDH decks that will match well with this one. I'm hoping she picks it up like she has been and then we can invest more in optimizing with cards you mentioned such as Doubling Season! I'm trying to keep costs down a bit but I'll definitely keep your comment handy!

Idoneity on Big Tokens

6 years ago

Ah, tokens! Initiate the throng, then fulminate as such.

I have many suggestions.

Now, typically I am an advocate for running fewer lands in decks, however, this deck has an excruciatingly low amount of card draw. Either make way for lands or add a half-dozen cantrips.

Some of my favourite draw spells you could use are Once Upon a Time, Skullclamp, Adventurous Impulse, and Oath of Nissa. These dig for lands whilst having value late-game.

You have many anthems, some of which are quite lacking in my opinion. Syr Alin, the Lion's Claw, Kongming, "Sleeping Dragon", Selesnya Guildmage, Oakhame Ranger, Ahn-Crop Champion, Cultivator of Blades, Valor in Akros, Spear of Heliod, and Dragon Throne of Tarkir are all quite mana-hungry and little impact. They depend on a board state to work, and without one they verge on useless. I would like to call out Call for Unity in particular as being incredibly slow and capricious.

Haazda Marshal, Recruit the Worthy, and Oakhame Ranger are quite halacious in the aspect that they do not much.

Avoid Fate is interesting, but it doesn't do a lot. Many of the cards in here are restrictive depending on board state, thus I would cut this.

Painter's Servant is cute with your effects that care about colour, but I believe this to be rather inconsistent. Without Lifeforce or Order of the Sacred Torch, it's a two-mana 1/3.

I am unsure as to why Reito Lantern is even here. If you seek graveyard hate, Ground Seal replaces itself, Relic of Progenitus is awesome, as is Remorseful Cleric. Night Soil is on theme.

For what I would include, Rootborn Defenses defends the board, Druids' Repository adds far too much mana, Aura Shards and Aura Mutation shatter and batter, Hour of Reckoning kills many things, Increasing Devotion allows for rebounding eftsoons wrath, Master of the Wild Hunt is one I particularly enjoy, Sprout Swarm is difficult to interact with, Sigarda, Heron's Grace has early and late-game potential, and Devout Invocation creates tokens abound. Triumph of the Hordes can just wipe out an entire table.

This deck has almost no card draw. Mentor of the Meek, Skullclamp, and Huatli, Radiant Champion can draw many, many cards. When you get to it, Sylvan Library is fantastic. Harmonize, Slate of Ancestry, Shamanic Revelation, Collective Unconscious are ways to refill in preparation of a board wipe.

Beast Whisperer is just good value.

Swords to Plowshares, Kenrith's Transformation, and Path to Exile get problematic permanents out of the way at an excessively cheap cost.

I would recommend far more ramp. Llanowar Elves, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Fyndhorn Elves, Elvish Mystic, and/or Birds of Paradise. Incredibly quick if you get them out turn one, and oft set you far ahead enough that it doesn't matter when you get wrathed.

That shall be all from me. If you so wish, I have two swarm decks that you could reference for honing your build, each of which have tested well for the years I have had them.

The decklists: Eladamri, Leader of Skyshroud Beseeming Perfection

May fortune betide you, and the tokens your enemies. Farewell!