Nissa's new incarnation is one of the more
spectacular planeswalkers you're likely to see.
Everything she does is huge, from the elementals
she turns lands into to giving you effectively
up to four (!) extra mana each turn. Ever played
with the original Garruk Wildspeaker card and
blown people out by getting extra use out of two
lands each turn? What do you get if you multiply
that by two? And don't think of her ultimate as
inviting Supreme Verdict or some such: think of
it as if they don't have that something, they
just lost the game.
Today's card of the day is Nissa, Worldwaker
which is a five mana Green planeswalker with
three loyalty. The first +1 makes a target land
you control into a 4/4 with Trample that remains
a land which is a very solid threat and in a low
mana curve build there is little risk to using
it. The second +1 untaps up to four Forests,
which can include those turned into creatures,
which allows attacks and mana usage or a
pseudo-Vigilance. The -7 allows you to search
your library for any number of basic land cards
and put them into play with the same 4/4 with
Trample effect from the +1. The ultimate is
devastating with Red/Green to provide the option
of Haste for all creatures you control. Overall
this is a strong planeswalker with three useful
effects that are almost always worth playing
which makes this a likely sight across a variety
of formats.
In Limited this is a clear first pick in
Booster and foundation for a deck in Sealed as
the first +1 and -7 are dominating abilities in
the format. The second +1 can support the other
two effects, but 4/4 Trample creatures will
often win with no additional support needed.
The new Nissa is a real beast. With no minus
abilities short of the ultimate, she's going to
build up relentlessly. She gives you two options
of how to proceed: Churn out 4/4 trampling
elementals each turn and overwhelm your
opponent, or have up to 4 more mana each turn to
ramp out other huge spells and win that way.
Either way sounds like a viable way to come out
on top.
At first I was concerned about using her
ultimate and having an opponent wipe the board.
But then I noticed that only the lands you
searched for that turn become creatures - not
all the land you already have in play. So, even
if the board gets wiped, you still have some
land to work with.
