Mana dorks

The inclusion of mana dorks in Magic: the Gathering decks has been a game-shaping dynamic ceded in the original MTG sets and that's where today's history lesson begins. Mana dork is commonplace MTG slang for a creature with a low converted mana cost typically a one mana dorks two-drop that produces mana to help a deck cast its spells more efficiently, mana dorks.

While one-mana dorks usually just tap for mana, two-mana dorks can do anything from provide pressure to win the game with infinite mana! One-drops tend to just offer you one extra mana and very little else - but if you jump up to the two-drop slot, all of a sudden you're getting mana dorks with significant upside. Whether it's producing more than one mana, providing some sort of utility in combat, growing their own stats or even being the centerpiece of a powerful combo, some of Magic's two-drop mana dorks have ended up being extremely powerful cards in their own right. Let's have a look at some of the best of them! Llanowar Loamspeaker. We've seen two-drop mana dorks that end up turning into more sizeable threats as the game goes long Drover of the Mighty , Reclusive Taxidermist , but Llanowar Loamspeaker seems to have the potential to be a reusable source of decent threats that never has to get into combat itself. Wall of Roots.

Mana dorks

Deathrite Shaman Illustration by Steve Argyle. Mana dorks are a usually cheap creature that does nothing but generate mana and accelerate you. For the purposes of this article, I'm going to cast a wide net and include any utility creature that adds mana, filters mana, or searches up lands. Mana dorks may not seem that powerful at first. But any experienced player will tell you that getting early mana acceleration like that can slingshot you ahead in the game, allowing you to deploy cards your opponent can't handle. Acceleration is always powerful in Magic, especially when you can get it on turn 1 or 2, which is where most mana dorks land in mana value. That or the mana can only be used on specific things. Sunseed Nurturer generously adds one colorless mana to your mana pool. This card would only ever be used to keep up something like a Mystic Remora and is basically useless at all other points in time. Or if you play this later against a deck with more acceleration than you.

Mana dorks have traditionally been green creatures, a trend that began in Alpha mana dorks continues to this day. Delighted Halfling???? Priest of Forgotten Gods.

Your Magic: The Gathering decks need mana. It doesn't matter what style of deck it is, what colours, or how fast it is, if you don't have the mana to play the spells, it's as good as dead in the water. While some colours, like green, are brilliant at ramping out lands, every colour can benefit from mana rocks and mana dorks. Mana rituals may be a little bit more limited, but the effect is still the same: with just a few choice spells, you can have access to more mana than you thought possible, and hopefully outpace your opponents. Here is everything you need to know about mana rocks, mana dorks, and mana rituals in MTG. Updated May 2, Mana is essential for any MTG deck, and one of the quickest, most efficient ways to gain it is by playing mana rocks, mana dorks, and mana rituals.

The inclusion of mana dorks in Magic: the Gathering decks has been a game-shaping dynamic ceded in the original MTG sets and that's where today's history lesson begins. Mana dork is commonplace MTG slang for a creature with a low converted mana cost typically a one or two-drop that produces mana to help a deck cast its spells more efficiently. The role of these creatures within a strategy is to help smooth out draws and cast the other spells in the deck more efficiently, on time and on curve. Essentially, mana dorks are an extension of a deck's mana base but always in the form of creatures. It's also significant to note that because mana dorks are always creatures, they die to the various creature removal spells that people tend to play and so the key dynamic is that they create significant tactical advantages in terms of accelerating, ramping and fixing your mana, but always contingent on upon the mana dork surviving a full turn cycle to be able to use its activated ability to produce mana. It's a basic and significant interaction because there are several pieces of strategic insight latent in that statement:. Subsets of mana dork creatures, when deployed on the first or second turn, have great capacity to accelerate a player into bigger or more impactful sequences ahead of the curve. Using removal to curtail this burst of mana acceleration is commonplace counterplay to mana dork strategies. Mana dorks are typically not "threats" in the sense that they are used to pressure an opponent's life total in a significant way, but rather their "threat level" is contingent upon providing access to more or better mana because they break the parity of the one land per turn rule. Many mana dorks do have some amount of offensive capabilities to pressure an opponent's life total but also their planeswalkers.

Mana dorks

Deathrite Shaman Illustration by Steve Argyle. Mana dorks are a usually cheap creature that does nothing but generate mana and accelerate you. For the purposes of this article, I'm going to cast a wide net and include any utility creature that adds mana, filters mana, or searches up lands. Mana dorks may not seem that powerful at first. But any experienced player will tell you that getting early mana acceleration like that can slingshot you ahead in the game, allowing you to deploy cards your opponent can't handle. Acceleration is always powerful in Magic, especially when you can get it on turn 1 or 2, which is where most mana dorks land in mana value. That or the mana can only be used on specific things. Sunseed Nurturer generously adds one colorless mana to your mana pool. This card would only ever be used to keep up something like a Mystic Remora and is basically useless at all other points in time. Or if you play this later against a deck with more acceleration than you.

Citroen barbera

Renowned Weaponsmith is an artificer that produces a Sol Ring -like effect you can use on artifacts or activated abilities. If the downside of a Birds of Paradise is that it can be Bolted, the relative value of putting Birds of Paradise into a deck goes up when the other players are not fielding strategies that are looking to "Bolt the Bird. Crypt Ghast is a super mana dork that does far more than just tap for mana. Sylvan Caryatid is just about the gold standard for five-color fixing when you don't have access to Birds of Paradise. Apprentice Wizard. Korbz February 28, am. Slightly more usable than the Arcanist is Karfell Harbinger. Metalworker is the OG artifact mana dork and its Standard and Extended context was heavily informed by lands that tap for two. Weathered Wayfarer. Mana dorks are typically not "threats" in the sense that they are used to pressure an opponent's life total in a significant way, but rather their "threat level" is contingent upon providing access to more or better mana because they break the parity of the one land per turn rule. One-drops tend to just offer you one extra mana and very little else - but if you jump up to the two-drop slot, all of a sudden you're getting mana dorks with significant upside. A staple in basically every EDH deck, casual or competitive , this dork is a must-include because of the excellent value it represents. Burnished Hart is excellent, especially in multicolor decks. At best, you're playing this in some 4- or 5-color deck where you're getting plenty of mana across all of your colors assuming you've actually got permanents in play. This card dies to anything that sneezes on it at 1 toughness which basically makes it a mana rock that can be killed.

The original, the classic, Llanowar Elves is the card that would define mana dorks as we know them today. It has seen an astonishing 20 Pro Tour top 8 finishes, including two first-place decks.

OK, enough messing around. It's very uncommon that cards see print that provide such a dynamic as a mana dork, but when they do see print, we can safely assume the card will be impactful. The term comes from the card Dark Ritual , which simply costs one black mana, and gives three in return at instant speed. Jake was first introduced to Magic in , and has been a regular at his LGS ever since. I would argue that Lotus Cobra's capacity to generate boundless mana like Priest of Titania is only capped by the one-land-per-turn rule and can be offset in eternal formats via effects that allow additional lands to be played. Goblin Lackey doesn't "make mana" per say, but when it connects in combat often on the second turn , it allows a player to simply put a Goblin from hand into play, which can obviously shortcut a lot of mana cost in a single sequence. Up next is Metalworker. Jake Henderson August 10, am. Do you agree with my rankings, or did I miss something you find to be incredible? The other advantage of playing a mana rock is that, as they are artifacts, you can tap them immediately. Hexproof is huge because it takes the "Bolt the Bird" counterplay off the table much in the same way Sakura-Tribe Elder did but in a different way that enables a different set of synergies. Noble is such a popular and useful card that it even spawned a friend in Modern Horizons 2!