Mana dorks

Your Magic: The Gathering decks need mana.

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:.

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. Wall of Roots was once a Constructed staple, particularly in Modern, where it powered up creature-focused midrange decks with sacrifice subthemes such as Birthing Pod RIP, taken from us too soon. Sylvan Caryatid. Sylvan Caryatid is just about the gold standard for five-color fixing when you don't have access to Birds of Paradise. These days it sees play in Pioneer's Five-Color Niv to Light, of course, but it has a history that goes back a long way before that. It was a Standard powerhouse when Theros was around, but in Modern it did its best work in a combo deck with Jeskai Ascendancy.

Kiora's Follower may not look like much at first.

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.

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. Firstly, it costs hybrid mana. And second, Deathrite Shaman is one of the most versatile mana dorks in existence. Not only can it tap for any color of mana at the cost of exiling a land card from a graveyard, but it can gain life too. It can even drain your opponents for two life per activation. That alone would be remarkable, but Deathrite Shaman is also a hate card. Birds of Paradise is easily one of the best mana dorks of all time since it taps for all colors of mana. Yes, you read that right.

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 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.

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Burnished Hart is excellent, especially in multicolor decks. Mana dorks are usually one or two drops that have the ability to produce mana. Bloom Tender becomes incredible the more colors your deck runs. 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. It's odd to have a non-green mana dork on this list at all, let alone so high on it, but Giada, Font of Hope is just that good. Weathered Wayfarer. These all have the ability to tap and add one green mana to your mana pool. It more than makes up for the in its mana cost with additional benefits that nets it the place of fourth best green mana dork. While some colours, like green, are brilliant at ramping out lands, every colour can benefit from mana rocks and mana dorks. Soldevi Adnate.

Magic: The Gathering 's popular Commander format is filled to the brim with unique and distinct strategies and archetypes for players to utilize when building their decks. Regardless of the type of deck a player may be building, there are various types of cards that can be a great asset to nearly any type of deck. In addition to mana-generating artifacts, often referred to as mana rocks , a popular mana ramp choice for many players to utilize creatures that are capable of being able to produce mana.

Mana dorks may not seem that powerful at first. We don't often see mana dorks in colors outside of green and the ones that do exist tend to be outclassed by green's stronger and more efficient variants. The exalted boost was also impactful in ways that were important at the time. Our Privacy Policy. Mana dorks are usually one or two drops that have the ability to produce mana. Burnished Hart is excellent, especially in multicolor decks. 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. With hexproof, you were much closer to guaranteeing your untappable mana dork would survive and provide you with the colors you need while you churn through your deck with cantrips and eventually win with an unearthed Fatestitcher. 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! A little slow out of the gate but Treespeaker makes up for it with its cost. For me, a big part of what makes learning to play Magic and continuing to play it over time is seeing how the old cards often inform new designs.