MTG Top 10: Saprolings | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 264

[@Liberatt]

One thing to note. The number 8th card shows Multani destroying the number 10th card, which is pretty interesting.

[@schnauzberry4835]

Looks like he's squeezing the saporlings out of the fruit or whatever that cluster is

[@insanebrobot9853]

Ho

[@dayel11]

Woah, i didn't expect Tendershoot Dryad to not make it into the list! Probably she was too frail for its mana cost, but she can take over the games.

[@redstonepro5412]

Yes, but today for your creature to be good it has to make sure swords to plowshares would be bad against it That means that a 4+ drop has to generate a 2-for-1 by just entering the battlefield

[@sammysammyson]

@@redstonepro5412 Not for any recent standards though, and most of these cards earned their points in their standards.

[@RaptorBlade]

Yeah it is amazing

[@redstonepro5412]

@@sammysammyson ecpecially for recent standardcards Look at what is playable in standard right now... I have to admit hastestuff is playable too But generally the playable creatures are either stuff like cavaleer of flames that randomly kills the opponent or agent of treachery who doesnt care if he survives

[@sammysammyson]

@@redstonepro5412 I was referring to Swords and other cheap removal specifically; most of the played cards in standard will win you the game or generate extreme tempo and/or value (Brazen Borrower (not that it sees much play right now, but it does in Modern), Bonecrusher Giant, Agent, etc.).

[@Argetbrisingr101]

Gotta say, hearing you say "Fires of-" gives me ptsd.

[@MineRoyale.]

Invention really is a frightening word

[@exiledhero3791]

My brain said fires of yavimaia and I was confused for a second

[@charredhusk]

ExiledHero 37 that would be the difference between someone who plays mostly standard, and someone who does not, I would guess.

[@thecollectiblecollectabill2298]

@@charredhusk ya. first thing i though of was fires of yavimaya when i read his comment. printing that as uncommon into a rare fervor was just a dick move

[@Wintersmith12]

Me: "Saprolings are little fungus/plant creatures right?" Early Magic art: "Nope. Baby xenomorphs."

[@otofx]

Wow, I never realized that there no actual Saproling creature cards!

[@sentientmeatcomputer8097]

I often forget which day it is, I just rely on Nizzahon uploads to tell me

[@Cameron-ds9xs]

My absolute fav tribe thank Niz

[@angelalex6944]

Tendershoot Dryad is still my favorite tho

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

You know, I never quite got what a Saproling is. But what I do know is this, it seems like none of them saw play in Vintage. Therefore I despise them as much as I despise garlic butter. But you should still do "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)".

[@cassandracastro2759]

In my group, we call them Little Potatoes (but i believe their some kind of fungus).

[@timvandoren2432]

You despise garlic butter? Why? It's garlic and butter, what could be bad?

[@nicholasmays4257]

@@timvandoren2432 he's a lobster

[@fidly4]

So weird, I literally looked through all cards with the word "saproling" in their text earlier today and then this comes out.

[@claytonrobert8020]

Ah Thallids, how I love thee, was hoping to see Night Soil make an appearance.

[@SirZapdos]

Fun fact: The two players who finished in the top 8 of PT Chicago 2000 with Rith, the Awakener were Brian Kibler and Jon Finkel. Kai Budde won the event.

[@aaronsmith6632]

Thallid Planeswalker (card idea) GG: +1: put a 1/1 saproling into play -2: put a saproling into play for each saproling you control Loyalty 2

[@gingeryoder1003]

this is it. you've done it. the PERFECT mtg video

[@captainkarnage9874]

Top 10 legendary creature

[@heidibenner1577]

Captain Karnage Emrakul

[@SliderFury1]

Verdant Force was my boy back in the day, I won a couple of small, local tournaments with him at the center of my Overrun deck. Would use Natural order to tutor him up and then swing with a half dozen 4/4 trampling saps. Good times. Magic sure has changed. That deck was nearly undefeated in my playgroup, but not too long ago I had my friend play my old Overrun deck against a green Eldrazi scion ramp deck I made, focused around early denial with Thought-Knot Seers and Beast Within to buy time to drop Titans like Emny and it's just not even a contest. Overrun never made it past turn 6 even with shit hands from my Eldrazi lol. I miss when Magic was slower paced.

[@IvarTheBonerless]

Verdant Force (Or "Verdie" as we called him) is probably my favorite old-school card from back in Highschool when I first started playing.

[@PokeBattlerJaze]

Hmmmmmm, don’t know them all that well so guessing verdant force Edit: I was close, literally never even heard of number one though

[@nicholaslangrock8293]

I'm leaving this comment before I watch the video, and if my EDH boy slimefoot isn't on this list, I'ma gonna be pissed.

[@Eastside97]

He’s my EDH boy too lol. My first and favourite commander!

[@zarebear5690]

Saprolings are so fun, one of the first tribes I ever tried to really brew around when I started out.

[@DarkLUZ8]

Vamos Saprolings yo se que pueden dar pelea!

[@cassandracastro2759]

Tengo una baraja de Treefolks-Saprolings-Shamanes, y aunque tenga el campo lleno de arbolotes que pegan con la dureza, todos saben que los saprolings son los verdaderos enemigos a vencer en esa baraja.

[@DarkLUZ8]

@@cassandracastro2759 genial, yo me arme un deck ardilla simic para llevarle la contra a un amigo XD

[@robburgess9684]

A note about Fading: the permanent gets sacrificed to the fading mechanic Only if you can not remove a fading counter to pay for its upkeep cost. A permanent with fading can stick around on the board for as long as you don’t have to pay for that upkeep cost of removing a fading counter.

[@cassandracastro2759]

I love saprolings. Even more when they're infinite, and better when they become as strong as I want.

[@JulianHernandez-tn5gu]

A fellow Ghave player?

[@cassandracastro2759]

@@JulianHernandez-tn5gu Nope, but I do want to make a deck with it. I use a treefolk deck that uses Life and Limb and Sporemound to create infinite saprolings. The treefolks are there to hold the ground until I have all the pieces for the combo, and to kill with their toughness (using Huatli or that enchantment i cannot remember its name right now).

[@blackmistninja]

I'm surprised Mycoloth didn't make the list :(

[@bradcallahan3546]

Bad cards don’t make the list. I guess you missed that part.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Mycoloth has 1 point.

[@blackmistninja]

@@bradcallahan3546 Bad cards? Mycoloth has won me a ton of games, dunno what your problem is lol.

[@blackmistninja]

@@NizzahonMagic Well...least my boi got -1- point...xD

[@raynmanshorts9275]

I was so excited when Saprolings and Thallids returned in Dominaria. One of the first cards I remember having was a Vitaspore Thallid. Not a great card, but I was fond of it nonetheless, especially since I loved token decks when I first started playing.

[@octavioquilate]

Hey I used to play saproling burst with pandemonium to otk in an academy rector deck back in the day, it was in extended though

[@saeldaug]

Really surprised Sprout Swarm didn't make the list - maybe there is something I'm overlooking?

[@Bartleby1892]

Maybe you are overlooking that it is shit. It doesn't even look good next to Saproling Migration.

[@aarlavaan]

@@Bartleby1892 how so? instant, convoke, and buyback. sure it only gives 1 token, and is expensive with the buyback, but you can technically go infinite with it in the right deck.

[@Bartleby1892]

@@aarlavaan Yeah sure, good point, solid defense. If you build a deck around it, it has a higher potential than the Migration, I'll admit that. Many "shit" cards have this potential. As a standalone though, you pay 2 or 5 mana for a 1/1, which you'll admit is terrible. Anyway, I don't want to offend any fans of the card. Do we reach a compromise if I call it "jank" instead of "shit"?

[@aarlavaan]

@@Bartleby1892 I can agree with that. I think the convoke affords a bit of flexibility that pushes it into jank territory.

[@Monechetti]

Sits down at computer, "okay, 2 hours straight of writing, no excuses, no distractions" see a video about saprolings, the best mtg creature (fight me), "oh, okay, so some distractions".

[@gorskivuk7751]

nobody gonna fight you

[@marvthereddevil5418]

Sprouting Thrinax is probably my favourite Alara card. He's the star player in my casual Devour deck. Unsurprising, but still a little odd to see no Thallids here. Nowhere near tournament competetive, but very fun in casual & hilarious with Doubling Season & Sporesower Thallid in play.

[@nu--13]

Saprolings are my favorite X3 it was my first mtg deck I made not counting just blue or black and red, they were my first creature type 🙃

[@SerathDarklands]

My personal #1 is Verdeloth the Ancient.

[@derpyderperson2912]

Saproling burst + proliferate actually sounds like it could be pretty sweet

[@WUZLE]

I had a saproling deck back in the day. It was called There's a Fungus Among Us and it's so old none of these cards were in print when I played it. Multiple Spore Flowers and Fungal Bloom made me pretty durable in multiplayer games back when people actually played casual multiplayer instead of Commander.

[@ronmarshall1566]

Slimefoot one of my favorite weather lights

[@mbarker_lng]

Verdant Force in multiplayer Commander could be pretty nasty as it churns out 3 or 4 per turn.

[@tonythepokemonguy751]

fires was my favorite deck to play back then

[@jdonvance]

"When that last fading counter leaves the card, it's sacrificed" should be "When you run out of fading counters to remove, it's sacrificed." It won't die until you try to remove a fading counter, but can't. Of course, this token's toughness is dependent on the number of fading counters on it if no other modifiers exist, so the creature will die as a state-based action, not sacrificed.

[@TheThirdGenQ]

"Cards that make saproling tokens" BUT LIFE AND LIMB!!!!

[@TheRoadrunner76]

Top 10 nonplaneswalker or creature legendary cards

[@danjames1933]

Huh... would’ve thought Life and Limb would be on the list

[@heuclmeucl-heucl5351]

Dan James I looooooove life and limb + mycoloth!

[@AidanWR]

Wow, saprolings used to look really weird. Makes you wonder what eldrazi scions would look like if they were a type that recurred like saprolings

[@barrettpurvis5766]

I feel like doing a top 10 cards by set would be a cool idea

[@megatenshi]

Saprolings are such a strange enigma to me. They're a pretty important creature type that most Magic players recognize by name(and could probably name a couple cards that make them,) but also find themselves limited to 99% vanilla 1/1s being shat out by different cards. This game is strange

[@thefunniestvalentine4789]

Much like Goblin tokens, they’re made quickly and for less mana than other creatures would be. It’s much better to get 4 1/1 vanilla saps for two or three mana than it is to get 1 vanilla 4/4 for three mana. Also, unlike Goblins, saprolings have a HUGE emphasis on being reliably made, with things like Mycoloth, Tendershoot Dryad, and Verdant Force. Any one Saproling on your board has a pretty good chance of staying on, and sometimes getting that reliable 1/1 is just better than nothing.

[@megatenshi]

@@thefunniestvalentine4789 It makes sense in context, I just find the design space to be a little bizarre(in a good way.) I'd be down to keep getting Saproling cards lol

[@eightbitblitz5868]

Hearing anything about saprolings makes me curl up in a corner and want to die. My brother had a saproling deck that I literally could not beat. I suffered greatly.

[@TheKalaxis]

Saproling Burst + Pandemonium = 21 damage to the face

[@presenceofthemastermtg5962]

At long Last!

[@georgu]

Knew which card will be top 1 before watching the video and was right 😁

[@nikooneshot2115]

It'd be cool to see 10 different lists that are top 10 cards of each colour pair.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Already did it

[@nikooneshot2115]

@@NizzahonMagic Ah whoops I've just seen it now

[@jasonsmith2218]

Love the video's and still inspiring me for my channel with your great content. Haven't watched through yet but hoping my foil Nemata Grove Guardian makes the list.

[@alfredosaint-jean9660]

Sad that an iconic and unique mtg creature only see play in standard.

[@TheSpiritombsableye]

7:10, that's Vanishing, not Fading.

[@NizzahonMagic]

They are pretty much the same

[@SirZapdos]

@@NizzahonMagic Not quite. With Fading, when you remove the last counter, the card still sticks around until the next upkeep. With Vanishing, when the last counter is removed, the card is sacrificed. So Fading X = Vanishing X + 1. Best example is Blastoderm with Fading 3 being colourshifted as Calcidern with Vanishing 4.

[@TheSpiritombsableye]

@@NizzahonMagic, they are definitely not. Vanishing cards disappear when the last counter is removed via itself and Fading cards disappear when no counters can be removed via itself. This is like saying that Persist and Undying are the same thing.

[@DR-lz1zv]

Outro tune?

[@joemaland2186]

Good, but you didn't mention Verdant Embrace , Necrogenesis and Tendershoot Dryad

[@NizzahonMagic]

Why would I? Obviously they don't have the points

[@aaronsmith6632]

I used to play the fungal dudes who'd give you a sparkling every 3 turns. They seem underpowered by today's standards.

[@marvthereddevil5418]

I've got a casual Thallid deck still. Lots of fun, especially with Doubling Season.

[@christopheraaron1255]

Doubling season and things like Sporesower thallid.

[@marvthereddevil5418]

@@christopheraaron1255 For sure, if you're playing Thallids without Sporesower, you're doing it wrong lol

[@lennartkock6136]

No mycoloth? What a boss it is

[@rowan1036]

Can you do Top 10 worst expensive cards. I think that would be really interesting.

[@invisiblehand13]

This should have been an April Fools' Day list. Talking about "Top Saprolings" is about as competetive doing a deck-tech discussion about "Mono-Blue Homarids" This whole list has a combined total Nizzahon score lower than that unuseable fossil, Rorix Bladewing. Top 10 Homelands/Fallen Empires next? (Gave the video a "like" anyway, even though it made me feel old.)

[@666Metalbassist]

Saprolings get no love, despite being basically an evergreen type.

[@Wesleyy13337]

Not shown: Ghave, Guru of spores. RIP all EDH players.

[@jesterbomb123]

Ghave can only be played in Eternal formats lol he def would never see play in vintage and now that legacy is unsupported by wizards its even less likely

[@Jonathan-qk5ed]

When are you gonna be making Top 10 Basic Lands...

[@williamkeys2596]

I may be called an idiot for not getting it but I'm going to ask anyway. Why is Gristlebrand such a "scary" reanimation target? I understand a 6/6 flample creature is a pretty big creature but I never understood what his ability actually does

[@NizzahonMagic]

His activated ability + lifelink is what matters. He draws you 7 or more cards most of the time, which usually stocks your hand enough to reanimate more things, etc.,

[@williamkeys2596]

@@NizzahonMagic ok now I get it. Yeah that is a pretty big deal especially with a big hand fill up like that. Thank you very much for clearing that up for me. PS I love your channel man,, I'm pretty sure I've watched every single list video you have made up to this point. Thank you for giving me something awesome to listen to at work and keep up the great work! I look forward to the next list.

[@Lovuschka]

Can't you make a trigger warning? (Because Saprolings come often as tokens from triggered - or activated - abilities.)

[@yeeesitsme.ididit5927]

*singing* In the yeeaaarr two thousaaaaaaaaanddddd

[@pedrobianchi2412]

I miss DiTerlizzi’s art.

[@atomicsquirrel6457]

Wasn’t Verdant Force described as The Best Fatty Ever Printed by Jamie Wakefield?

[@snoozingoriginal4263]

Top 10 horsemanship

[@איתןשי]

Where is Mycoloth?

[@pendingapproval9200]

No Mycoloth? Really?

[@NizzahonMagic]

Only 1 point

[@Dragracingduleist]

Wheres 3 mana nissa who makes a 0/1 sapporling

[@NizzahonMagic]

It is a Plant, not a Saproling.

[@knodeway1826]

I’ve never heard of this creature type before now

[@HeruCS2]

Day 7 of asking for top ten basic lands.

[@ikejohnson5494]

Not that I’m complaining, I love the video, but it is funny how it seems like you might be running out of ideas.

[@NizzahonMagic]

How does this mean I am running out of ideas?

[@ikejohnson5494]

Nizzahon Magic just with how specific and niche some of the video topics have been getting. Saprolings for example is fairly narrow.