This is an interesting card. Once it hits play,
all your creatures are going to be 6/6's
basically for the rest of the game. If it dies,
but you've played another creature since then,
well, you'll still have an Essence of the Wild,
won't you? That's good, especially if you've got
ways to make tokens or produce creatures on the
cheap. It's bad if you have a creature that's
better than the Essence-- either by being bigger
than 6/6 or by having a relevant ability. Say
your opponent has a big flyer you need to deal
with. You topdeck Deadly Recluse! Too bad your
Essence is already out-- play the Recluse and
you get a 6/6 that doesn't have reach or
deathtouch.
Essence of the Wild is an all-in strategy, no
doubt. You need to be fairly confident that
6/6's with no combat-relevant abilities are
going to be able to win it for you if you can
produce enough of them. Cards like Awakening
Zone, Scatter the Seeds, and other noncreature
token producers are the best ways to complement
the Essence, but you're still as vulnerable as
ever to Days of Judgment or flyers.
There was an article on Wizards of the Coast's
website previewing this card, which you could
check out for a few deck ideas. Really, that
article is just the tip of the iceberg. Sure,
cards like Pandemonium technically don't need
more help, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant is
technically scary enough already without making
dragon-sized tokens while ramping to
astronomical loyalty. But they may be even more
stylish combined with this card. I'm surprised
how long it took Magic to do its version of a
"green man," but I'm glad he's an interesting
card!
Today's card of the day is Essence of the Wild
which is a six mana 6/6 that makes creatures you
control enter the battlefield as a copy of it.
Green has many other options for large creatures
with more independent effects, but building a
dedicated deck around this can potentially be
very effective. Benefiting from the
typical mana acceleration and a combination of
effects that can provide creatures while this is
in play makes for a pretty specific build.
In that design it will work well, though the end
result is probably not stable enough of a
combination to work competitively.
In Limited a 6/6 for six is a top pick even with
three of that cost being the same color and it
is likely that any creature played after it will
be more of a threat as a result of the effect.
In Sealed this can make Green a very compelling
choice for primary color, with enough support,
and can win the game if combined with token
production. For Booster drafting
additional support dramatically improves the
chances of Essence being a game-winner instead
of a relatively easily managed threat.
Welcome back for yet another great card
of the day here at Pojo.com! Today we look at
one of my favorite cards from Innistrad, Essence
of the Wild. Essence of the Wild is a mythic
green Avatar creature that costs three green
mana and three generic mana. Essence of the Wild
is a 6/6 that says creatures you control enter
the battlefield as a copy of Essence of the
Wild.
This ability may seem confusing at first,
but once understood (properly) it makes this
card what it is, mythic! This means anything you
drop from the point this guy lands IS this guy,
and that means each copy must be dealt with for
this to end! A simple 1/1 instead becomes a 6/6.
True, their abilities would no longer trigger,
but you have a 6/6 in its place. The potential
best combo in standard for this guy is running
Kessig Cagebreakers and Parallel Lives with
Essence of the Wild. Fill your graveyard with
creatures early, get out the Cagebreaker and
Parallel Lives, and then watch as you swing with
Essence of the Wild out to drop an army of 6/6’s
that each must be destroyed before it ends. For
added fun, be sure to add in Bellowing
Tanglewurm from Scars of Mirrodin to give each
Essence of the Wild Intimidate! Or, for even
more broken fun, build an Innistrad Bant deck,
and use Geist of Saint Traft to drop a 6/6 into
play tapped and attacking! A Howlpack Alpha
would produce 6/6 tokens instead of 2/2’s, even
though they don’t get the pump from the Alpha,
my math says a 6/6 is still better than a 3/3!
But perhaps this cards greatest potential
is in older formats such as modern or vintage.
The reason is because of old school token decks,
such as a Saproling deck. Saproling decks if not
kept in check fast produce incredible numbers. I
should know, my friend Erik and I both run
rather impressive Saproling decks based from
Ravnice (mine Golgari, his Selesnya) and this
guy throws them over the top. Now instead of
dropping out tons of 1/1’s, they are tons of
6/6’s. This gets incredibly hard to handle after
doubling them with Rhys the Redeemed. A single
Overrun, or activation of Garruk Wildspeaker’s
final is almost surely game over.
