MTG Top 10: Saprolings | Magic: the Gathering

[@TopsideCrisis346]

I actually got into Magic originally back in Fallen Empires (I wasn't the brightest kid, to be sure 😅 ). Green is my favorite color, so Saprolings was my first real deck. I never won many games with it, but they've always held a special place in my heart. 🌱🥰🌱

[@onlyxenolord7494]

Very sad my boi Slimefoot didn't make the list.

[@Cameron-ds9xs]

#1 in our hearts

[@PsychoDiesel48]

No tendershoot dryad either

[@WUZLE]

I had a deck called Unified Field Theory that had four Verdant Forces in it. I was fond of Overgrown Battlement back in the day and had as many as ten green walls in the deck. Overgrown Battlement can produce a frightening amount of mana when paired with Wall of Blossoms and Vine Trellis. I miss casual multiplayer. When I tried to get back into Magic a few years back all people wanted to play was Standard or Commander.

[@timothylee8494]

I doubt it’s ever seen serious competitive play but there’s also a hilarious Sprout Swarm combo deck in pauper where you run a bunch of creatures that’ll untap when you cast it, and if your opponent has sweepers you win off Thermo Alchemist or Impact Tremors

[@andrewsparkes6275]

Sprout Swarm was strangely enough a massive card in Time Spiral Limited, which was indeed played as a Day 1 format in some GPs/PTs. It just doesn't get counted here as this only counts Top 8 finishes in Constructed Events. But it did see competitive Limited play, for sure!

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

>strangely enough It's not strange at all, Sprout Swarm is one of the greatest Limited bombs of all time. If your opponent didn't have a counterspell, which were not the most common in Time Spiral Full Block Limited if they could hit Sprout Swarm, it was impossible to stop you from simply creating an entire army and grinding anyone to dust.

[@mantissaPuc]

Actually, the most common play of Saproling Burst + Fires of Yavimaya was to create 3 x 4/4, and sometimes 4 x 3/3 (both gives 12 total power on the 1st turn and 9-8 power on the second)

[@MrDebauch]

was nice at the time if you had pandemonium in play when you casted saproling burst... they were dead.

[@PhilippeLemaire]

Survival of the fittest, Recurring nightmare, Verdant Force and the whole ETB creature toolbox, Tempest / Mirage Standard is very nostalgic to me.

[@Kasigi03]

Saproling Burst should have seen more play after the intro of Proliferate. Keep that bad boy around as long as possible, keep pumping out big ol' Saprolings

[@AkukAkuku]

Thank you for always mentioning the cards that fell out of the top ten!

[@camdenharper7244]

What exactly is a saproling? I always thought of it as a sentient sapling. But the art over the years makes it clear as mud. Discuss.

[@jackvogel701]

I assume they have so many different forms since each different brood of fungus or whatever else that makes them makes them in a different image. They are just little guys don’t question it

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Saproling comes from saprotroph, so saprolings are decay feeders.

[@IskandrArchive]

I my mind they were some lichen like being that partially fungus, partially plant, something probably small but would absolutely swarm.

[@1uplink169]

Nature zombies

[@andyspendlove1019]

Genuinely curious, why do you define what Pauper is in each of your videos (“Pauper, a format where only commons are legal”) but not any other formats? I feel like more people would be more unfamiliar with the defunct formats like Block and Extended, right?

[@poiri]

Until relatively recently Pauper wasn’t a format that Nizzahon looked at to calculate the point total for each card, so it makes some sense to define it to make sure everyone’s on the same page (at least that’s my guess as to why). Though I believe it’s been long enough to where that isn’t necessary anymore, if that is the actual reason.

[@dragonfire72]

​@@poiriTo add to this, he specifically brings it up with cards that see heavy play in pauper but not other formats- the format needing commons is integral to why the card succeeded.

[@andyspendlove1019]

@@poiri ahhh that makes sense

[@warrensharp6681]

Also every video is someone’s first video

[@MarylandBF]

Premodern needs some love

[@mrcatchingup]

I put a bunch of shallow cards aside while organizing cards the last few months, I am surprised none of them are on this list. I will be building those decks in the reasonable future, one as a 60 card, 4 of a kind deck and one as a commander deck.

[@SerathDarklands]

I know it's not the best Saproling generator out there, but my favorite is Verdeloth the Ancient. Not only does it produce X Saprolings as a kicker cost, but all treefolk and saprolings besides Verdeloth himself gain +1/+1. Plus, the art is really cool.

[@NizzahonMagic]

I love Verdeloth too.

[@SerathDarklands]

@@NizzahonMagic It also helps that it was one of the first legendary creatures I ever got, and since I play mono green with artifact support, it was exciting for me. I really should get back into Magic. I haven't played since high school, which was almost 20 years ago. Goddamn, I'm old.

[@RedScarGaming]

Verdant Force works especially well in a Saproling themed commander deck. I can vouch for that.

[@jackvogel701]

Sprout swarm may be my favorite magic card. Love to see it and the rest of the sappy bois!!

[@frigidfirefilms6147]

Aether Mutation against an Eldrazi is pretty great

[@catoticneutral]

sweet, I was hoping for an updated changelings video

[@kieranharwood7186]

Bit confused by the Saproling Burst Combo... Each loop draws a card and gains a colourless mana... How does that win with Whetstone? Say you do it on turn 8, so you both have 45 cards... You can only do 45 loops, netting say 51 mana (including your lands), 3 for whetstone gives you 48, which is 16 activations, so you mill for 32 and now they still have 13 cards in deck... For this combo to work you either need a massive starting deck, a way to shuffle your graveyard back in (you are drawing, not milling, so Gaea's blessing doesn't help), another source of mill or a way to make the activation cost cheaper...

[@Senrath]

The deck played a one-off copy of Serra Avatar, which shuffles itself back into the deck when it's put into the graveyard from anywhere, including via discard.

[@assault410]

oh yeah, Avenger of Zendikar makes plants

[@NizzahonMagic]

Haha yep!

[@jinakochan]

[@javierpatag3609]

Play Echoing Courage in any Pauper saproling deck. A saproling token’s name is also “Saproling” so *_ALL_* your saproling tokens are going to get buffed.

[@AustinMallon]

No tendershoot dryad? Must be getting overlooked

[@NizzahonMagic]

It has one point. The problem is being a 5-mana 2/2 is absolutely brutal, most decks in 60-card formats can kill it for one mana before it ever makes a Saproling.

[@oberlin27]

Question- Why doesn't Saproling Burst see play with proliferate? Or is it my misunderstanding that proliferate can add ANY counter on a creature?

[@NizzahonMagic]

Well, in 60 card formats it's only legal in Legacy and Vintage these and proliferating Saproling Burst is nowhere near strong enough for those formats

[@zackpumpkinhead8882]

I want Night Soil to be the Pauper metagame sleeper silver bullet 2024!

[@vincentparra349]

Im awake for one of your video drops for once!

[@ElPanadero18]

I’m surprised not a single Ixalan saproling-maker made the list.

[@mightyfp]

In almost 30 years I never noticed how shifted the kerning (letter spacing) on verdant force is. All the text on the left side (name, type, artist) is all justified. The capital V just looks off. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@snakeman830]

I'm surprised Tendershoot Dryad didn't make the list

[@jairomy]

Fires into Saproling Burst you usually made 3x 4/4s not a 6/6 or 2x 5/5.

[@peterspeth111]

Just spoiled new saproling commander already ordered all the cards for it was just waiting for a good commander

[@devononair]

How do I have a saproling deck without ANY of these cards?

[@AENock]

Skill issue

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

Ahhh Saprolings, I've honestly found them to be just fine. I liked building them in my fungus commander, but that's about it. Unlike "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)", they don't elicit much passion from me.

[@MageSkeleton]

Let's be real, most people are going to watch this video for ideas to put into their Slimefoot, the Stowaway commander deck. And most these cards are in the wrong colors lol.

[@charlescothran4946]

WHAT!?! NO THALLIDS???

[@matth9788]

Non-sexy bot comment

[@muneerkhan6526]

4 minutes in and there's already 5 of them. I wonder why they're so attracted to Nizzahon?

[@matth9788]

@@muneerkhan6526 it's obvious. His extensive MTG knowledge lures them in.

[@athko]

its too bad mycoloth cant make this list :/ its my favorite card..

[@athko]

tana, the bloodsower too, shes my fav commander :P

[@jackvogel701]

Mad respect for both of those choices

[@lemkele1]

Technicaly saproling appears on creature cards since each changeling is a saproling as well

[@borisbadaxe9678]

Fallen Empires?! 😡🤬

[@jackcarlson5227]

Leaving a comment to say your videos are great, but also… Whyyyy do you let pauper influence these lists? These lists are analyzing play at “Magic’s highest level of competition.” Pauper is fun but irrelevant and it pains my boomer heart to see Sap Burst get supplanted by janky commons.

[@TheLuckySpades]

It is a competetive 60 card format that wizards endorses and has fitting tournament data, so it fits his criteria

[@stuflames4769]

Why let Standard influence anything? Or let Pioneer influence anything? Heck, why let Modern? ... Pauper is a tracked, competitive format. That's all the justification it needs.

[@jackcarlson5227]

“Because it’s his list and he wants to.” is also a perfectly fine reason, but I think the difference between Pauper and Standard/Pioneer/any format which has been the medium for Pro Tours or Grands Prix is fairly plain to see. If you are interested in cataloging the history of the game, there are limited formats which are more significant than pauper and yet are not represented in Nizzahon’s data. It isn’t my intention to dog on Pauper’s claim as a fun or interesting format-only stating that I find its inclusion here incongruous with the mission statement of the channel.