The Essence of Green: Understanding the Card
In the vibrant and ever-evolving world of Magic: The Gathering, a select few spells possess the raw, unbridled power to reshape the battlefield in a single, decisive play. These are the cards that define archetypes, warp strategies, and etch themselves into the very fabric of the game’s history. Among this elite class stands Natural Order, a green sorcery that embodies the essence of green mana: growth, acceleration, and the summoning of titanic forces. This article serves as a comprehensive guide to understanding and mastering the art of Natural Order, exploring its mechanics, strategic applications, and enduring legacy in the competitive landscape of MTG.
At its heart, Natural Order is deceptively simple in its construction. The card reads: “Sacrifice a green creature. Search your library for a green creature card. Put that card onto the battlefield. Shuffle your library.” Yet, within this concise text lies the potential for explosive plays, mana efficiency, and the swift deployment of game-ending threats.
The core of the spell involves a trade: a green creature for a larger, more impactful green creature. This exchange allows players to cheat on mana, effectively ignoring the casting cost of the summoned behemoth. It is this ability to leapfrog the standard mana curve that makes Natural Order so powerful, allowing you to accelerate past your opponent’s defenses and establish a dominant board presence.
Understanding the mechanics is crucial. You sacrifice a green creature, which is the cost. You then search your library, an integral part of the spell. You *choose* and reveal a green creature from your deck and place it directly onto the battlefield. Finally, you shuffle your library, ensuring the randomness of future draws. This process highlights a core element of the card: its reliance on your existing board presence. You need a green creature in play to even cast Natural Order.
Strategic Applications: Orchestrating the Summoning
The true depth of Natural Order lies in its strategic applications. Building a successful Natural Order deck demands careful consideration of several key elements.
Creature Selection: The Titans of the Green
The first, and arguably most critical, decision is selecting the creatures you aim to summon. Choosing creatures with devastating enter-the-battlefield effects, raw power, or unique abilities maximizes the value of the spell.
Creatures like Craterhoof Behemoth are prime examples of devastating finishers. When Craterhoof Behemoth enters the battlefield, it grants all your creatures a substantial power and toughness boost, often leading to an instant win.
Progenitus, with its shroud ability, presents an incredibly difficult-to-remove threat that requires multiple removal spells to deal with.
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to play extra lands and gives all lands all basic land types, effectively turning all your lands into ramp spells. This can be extremely potent when combined with other ramp effects or powerful lands.
Other strong choices include versatile creatures like Woodfall Primus to destroy any permanent, or large, hard-to-remove creatures to dominate the board and win the game.
Sacrifice Targets: The Price of Power
Deciding which creature to sacrifice is equally important. The choice depends on the situation and the deck you’re facing.
Creatures with beneficial death triggers become valuable sacrifices. For example, a creature that generates mana can provide you with extra mana to use on the very turn you cast Natural Order.
Creatures with enter-the-battlefield effects are also good sacrifices.
Consider sacrificing a small, less impactful creature that might not have a huge impact on the game.
The ideal sacrifice target often depends on your board state and the specific matchup.
Deck Archetypes and Strategies: Building the Green Behemoth
Natural Order often serves as the cornerstone of an entire deck strategy. Here are some examples.
Legacy Elves: Elves decks often use Natural Order to cheat a Craterhoof Behemoth onto the battlefield, allowing them to generate a large board presence and swing for the win. The elves provide a ramp effect that leads to faster plays, and a large creature to sacrifice.
Commander: Commander, or EDH, decks provide the opportunity for all sorts of Natural Order strategies. Decks that focus on ramp effects or creatures that generate mana can use Natural Order to ramp and deploy creatures onto the battlefield.
Reanimator strategies: A Reanimator deck will often focus on sacrificing a creature, then casting Natural Order to bring back creatures from the graveyard, or ramp and play multiple big creatures.
Combo Potential: Amplifying the Order
While not always directly involved in traditional combos, Natural Order can significantly accelerate combo decks.
Card Interactions: The Symphony of Synergy
Natural Order doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It thrives on synergy with other cards.
Mana dorks such as Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise.
Tutors, which increase consistency by finding the right green creatures.
Protection spells for your creature, counterspells to protect your strategy.
Ramp Spells: As stated above, ramp spells give you the mana advantage to cast Natural Order to win the game.
Format-Specific Considerations: Navigating the Battlefield
The impact of Natural Order varies across different formats.
Legacy: The Apex Predator
In Legacy, Natural Order reigns supreme. It is a key card for Legacy Elves and other green-based strategies. The format’s vast card pool allows for highly efficient mana generation and potent creature selection. It allows for swift, game-ending plays. The best decks, with the right hands, can win the game with an explosive turn or two.
Commander: The Green Titan’s Playground
Commander provides ample opportunities for Natural Order to shine. A commander can easily take advantage of the card to overwhelm their opponents with huge creatures, or combos. The format’s singleton nature requires careful deckbuilding, but the card’s power remains undeniable.
Advantages and Disadvantages: Weighing the Scales
Like any powerful card, Natural Order possesses both significant advantages and inherent vulnerabilities.
Advantages
The best aspect of the card, the acceleration and mana advantage, is arguably the most potent of its advantages.
By summoning large creatures directly onto the battlefield, it often circumvents traditional removal, like direct damage.
The speed with which Natural Order can deploy game-ending threats often forces opponents to react quickly.
Disadvantages
Reliance on a creature.
Susceptible to graveyard hate: if the sacrificed creature is sent to the graveyard, cards that manipulate the graveyard can be a problem.
Vulnerability to removal: The creature can still be removed.
Slower in certain matchups.
History and the Meta: The Evolution of a Spell
Natural Order has witnessed various metagame shifts.
Release and Early Impact
Natural Order debuted in Urza’s Saga. The card generated lots of hype and excitement for green decks, and many strategies emerged.
Evolution
The card has seen its metagame applications evolve over time. It remains a powerhouse, consistently appearing in top-performing decks.
Tips and Tricks: Mastering the Green Summon
Protection
Play around countermagic: If your opponent is holding up blue mana, consider ways to either bait them or ensure Natural Order resolves. Consider using protection spells.
Sequencing and Decision Making
Timing: Determine when to cast Natural Order. The right time is often when you can maximize its impact.
Sacrifice Choice: Sacrifice the correct creatures to help win the game.
Sideboarding
Bring in cards to help with particular matchups.
Conclusion: The Unwavering Strength
Natural Order is a pillar of many green-based strategies. Its ability to provide a mana advantage and summon colossal creatures has earned it a place among the game’s most impactful spells. By understanding its mechanics, strategic applications, and historical context, you can harness the power of Natural Order to reshape the battlefield and secure victory. Embrace the power of the green titans and prepare to dominate the MTG landscape.
