Five devotion to green isn't that hard to hit.
Green has lots of inconspicuous permanents, like
mana elves and Auras on lands. And you'll want
them once you get Nylea out, because she not
only rewards you for having a good-sized army
(in both number and individual bulk) but lets
you spend mana to pump up creatures. Everything
about her abilities say that you want plenty of
creatures on the field anyway, and that's how
Green always likes to play.
Nylea, as you probably know by now, is Theros'
equivalent of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the
hunt, hunters, wild places and animals, &c. She
was the one who sponsored Orion and immortalized
him as a constellation, though as far as I know
he doesn't have an equivalent in Theros (write
in if I'm wrong, though). I know that she's not
literally Artemis, and so there's not much point
in complaining that you'd expect a little more
subtlety from such a figure, but it might have
been interesting to see that side of green.
As it is, though, Nylea may not even be the
biggest creature in your green deck, amazing as
that seems, and trample will be very useful.
That would, of course, make the power and
toughness boost not as useful; still, it's good
at turning mana elves into threats in the late
game. The sacrifice effect on Fires of Yavimaya
has won games down the years, and it's a
one-shot effect. All things are possible when
you have faith.
Today's card of the day is Nylea, God of the
Hunt which is a Legendary four mana Green
enchantment that is Indestructible, gives other
creatures you control Trample, allows you to pay
four mana to give target creature +2/+2 until
end of turn, and with Devotion of five or
greater is also a 6/6 creature. This
is a solid card for mono-Green as
it can be played easily, particularly with
acceleration, and even if not a creature the
Trample benefit is worth the casting cost.
Hitting Devotion is fairly easy though with some
very playable options at two and three mana with
all Green mana symbols. Overall it is a
little lacking for the competitive scene, but is
quite strong in other formats.
In Limited this is an easy first pick in Booster
as are most of the gods and a compelling reason
to focus on Green in the draft. For Sealed
it depends somewhat on the pool, but just
splashing it for the Trample is a valid option
and it only increases in value if Devotion is
activated.
Nylea is my favorite of all the god cards. With
all the good double green casting costs out
there, she's easy to animate and makes for a
pretty imposing creature. But just as important,
regardless of whether she's animated or not,
giving all your other creatures trample is a
huge benefit in the color of big creatures. How
annoying is it to get your 6/6 creature chump
blocked by a 1/1? But that's not all. Once your
opponent declares blockers, use your remaining
mana (you ARE playing ramp, right?) to either
pump up one of your mana creatures to make it a
real threat, or put it on something already big
to trample through for a bunch.
As with all gods, however, there are times you
draw her without enough other creatures to
animate her or make her trample ability useful,
and maybe you don't have an extra 4 mana to use
her ability. That's Magic. But if it happens too
often, you might look at your deck construction.
Even in limited, if you're lucky enough to get a
mythic, Nylea is a pretty good one.
