I remember back in Time Spiral block, where this
was comboed with Kavu Predator. And then again
later on where it got comboed with Punishing
Fire. That combo probably improved Punishing
Fire more than it did this card. I don't think
I've ever seen it used as just a straight dual
land though. Is it because people were averse to
the idea of giving your opponent life every time
you cast a spell? I doubt it-- the pain lands
pretty much proves that a 1-point life total
disadvantage was worth the mana fixing. I think
the real flaw was that one half of this card is
green, and green has always been the king of
mana fixing and acceleration. Red/green decks
have never been as big on dual lands as
white/blue or blue/black decks have because they
can play Rampant Growth or Harrow to sort out
their mana troubles. If there had been a whole
cycle of lands like this, the W/U and U/B ones
would have been widely used. This one, not so
much.
Grove of the Burnwillows is my favorite card in
the new From the Vault set, although I can't
help but think it might have been nice if we'd
had the new art but still had the
"future-shifted" card frame. The original will
always remain as a vision of a future that I
long to see, but wonder whether we ever will.
What you may not know is how close it came to
being a candidate for From the Vault: Exiled, as
a result of the time that it, along with
Punishing Fire, was in basically every deck in
the nascent Modern tournament format. In the
end, Punishing Fire was the one exiled, but it's
honestly not clear which was the most powerful
partner in that combo. There are so many dual
land variants in recent sets that we sometimes
forget just how special that type of card can
actually be. The Grove comes into play untapped,
which isn't a given even in the modern age, and
most red-green decks have high enough damage
output that using it three or four or more times
in the early game matters less than you might
expect.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
one of the more beautiful works of art contained
in From The Vault Realms the most amazing work
of art goes to the new Dryad Arbor. In standard
you cant use this and in modern its being
utilized in combo decks that don’t care about
your opponents life total and allows for a
decent amount of mana fixing. In legacy and
vintage duel lands exists as well as shocklands
so I don’t foresee this card seeing much play
but also perhaps in combo oriented decks that
really need green or red mana. In casual and
multiplayer you still have access to its most
powerful combination this card combined with
Punishing Fire allowing you to slowly hit a
player or control creatures. In limited its
unexciting mana fixing with a small price
attached for its use. Overall a card that used
to be much better combined with Punishing Fire
but now sees a fair amount of modern play and
can still be used casually with cards like Kavu
Predator and Punishing Fire.
Today's card of the day is Grove of the
Burnwillows which is a land that can tap for
Green or Red and give all opponents one life or
it can tap for one colorless. Combining
this with effects that trigger from or prevent
opponent life gain gives this some options other
dual lands don't have and have been used
successfully in the past. Overall a dual land
that doesn't deal damage to you or come into
play tapped certainly has value and with the
right build even has advantages which make it
fairly competitive.
In a Limited format this may not have as many
combinations, but if using both colors or
splashing one an opponent gaining life isn't a
large penalty against a dual land like this.
As a rare it should be a first pick, though
leaning towards two colors in one card is a risk
both Red and Green are good options to splash
for removal or acceleration respectively.
In Sealed it depends on the pool, but running
two or more colors is almost required and this
can be a major benefit.
For Multiplayer this gets noticeably less
efficient depending on the format rules and how
many opponents are in the game, so barring a
specific combo that works against every opponent
gaining life it is less likely to be an
efficient play. It is also possible that
the benefit to other players may make you less
of a target as long as you are tapping it for
colored mana each turn, though avoiding that
when possible is clearly preferable.
Welcome back to
the card of the day section here at Pojo.com! We
are looking more at the From The Vault Realms
cards today by taking a look at Grove of the
Burnwillows. Grove of the Burnwillows is a land
that taps for one generic mana or taps for
either red or green mana, and then each opponent
gains one life.
I was fortunate enough to pack an
original Grove of the Burnwillows from Future
Site, and man if only I knew how insane it would
become. Before long, there was a deck that a
friend of mine ran using a little card called
Rain of Gore, and then I never looked at the
Grove of the Burnwillows the same way again.
Tapping for mana is great when it hurts your
opponent, especially when you are able to untap
the land and do so repeatedly. Even if you have
a single Rain of Gore and four copies of Grove
of the Burnwillows, that is four life lost
simply for adding mana to your mana pool. Two
copies of Rain of Gore means eight life, and so
on. Other methods of slowly draining his
opponent also made the game end that much
sooner. But I will never forget being Fogged and
losing a life because he cast the Fog.
There are plenty of other ways that the
Grove of the Burnwillows became such a popular
card. But the question really should be how will
you use yours?
