The plane of
Taramir has reached the end of its time. The struggles of the Waning Age have been forgotten, for the sun has set for the final time, leaving the world in darkness. The natural world is, as one might expect, in shambles: a few creeping vines grow where cultivated by humans or lit by the incandescent glow of volcanoes, and across the remains of ancient forests, a fungal morass now spreads, stinking seas of rot that represent what little is left of wildlife. This suits the Nightstalkers just fine, however, and they can be found to heed the call of green mana.
☼Taramir Block☼
Taramir Block consists of three sets: Taramir, Waning Light, and finally Age of Darkness. All three sets feature the new mechanics
Salvage and
Decay as well as the returning mechanic
Cumulative Upkeep. In addition, Waning Light brought
Fateseal into the picture. To this, Age of Darkness adds the return of
Vanishing.
Salvage: Salvage is an activated ability that can be activated only when the card with salvage is in its owner's graveyard, when he or she could cast a sorcery. Salvaging a card exiles it and has the listed effects. Taramir introduced Salvage while Waning Light added off-color salvage costs and Salvage spells with effects dissimilar to their initial effect from being cast. Age of Darkness introduces Colorless and Nonmana salvage costs.
Decay: Decay is an ability word that causes one or more depletion counters to be added to the permanent with Decay, and causes it to be sacrificed when too many depletion counters have been accumulated.
~Creatures~
It's worth noting that I'm somewhat proud of this set of creatures for having Nightstalker, Township, Fortress, and Other covered. Lastborn Spearmaiden is the only elf in the set (But for NGA drafters, far from the only one in the block)... but the Behemoth is not the only source of saprolings.
I debated hard about including the Behemoth and the other (rare) Saproling source: Worms (Carried over from Waning Light, where they had some tribal effects) were my main 1/1 token type and they certainly existed in green. In the end, though. I felt the random Thallid did more good than harm and left it in
Nightstalker Rooter
Creature – Nightstalker Shaman
Decay –
, put a depletion counter on Nightstalker Rooter: Untap target land. Then, if there are four or more depletion counters on Nightstalker Rooter, sacrifice it.
2/1
Wall of Mushrooms
Creature – Fungus Wall [U]
Defender
Salvage –
, Tap X untapped creatures you control: draw X cards.
“The western fields would be better defended if the peasants would stop ‘expanding their minds’ with our barricade.” – Lina, Township Militiawoman0/4
Lastborn Spearmaiden
Creature – Elf Warrior [U]
First Strike, Protection from Black, Vanishing 3
Exile an elf card in your graveyard: put two time couters on Lastborn Spearmaiden.
Raised to be the last of her species, she carries the memory and pride of a hundred fallen generations into the dark.4/2
Nightborn Behemoth
Creature – Thallid [U]
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Nightborn Behemoth.
Remove three spore counters from Nightborn Behemoth: put two 1/1 green saproling creature tokens onto the battlefield.
For a time, the worms squirmed atop the Sea of Rot’s food chain. Then, the fungus decided it had had enough.4/4
~Noncreatures~
All of these are cards I rather want to talk about: Worm Infestation, for one, is something that's traditionally black or
red. Green has gotten this sort of effect before, but rarely so messily or directly. For Age of Darkness, however, which has a sort of NPH-ish take on the color pie, I thought it was okay. Mold Avalanche, on the other hand, is pretty basic. It's part of the nonmana salvage cycle (Pitch from graveyard spells).
Song of Restoration, though... I considered making this a rare and knocking Green's multicolored hate spell down to uncommon (They don't all live at rare already). But in the end... I wanted to see this thing go, using the runaway nature of cumulative upkeep to make a normally "worthless" effect (life gain and nothing else) viable and even scary. On CKY's advice, that's what I've done.
Worm Infestation
Instant [U]
Sacrifice a creature. If you do, put X 1/1 black and green worm creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is equal to that creature’s toughness.
Mold Avalanche
Sorcery [U]
Destroy target noncreature, nonland permanent.
Salvage – Put a -1/-1 counter on each of two creatures you control: Search your library for two basic land cards, reveal them, and put them onto the battlefield tapped.
Nature’s Struggle
Instant [U]
Destroy target artifact, enchantment, or multicolored permanent.
Some said the natural world died with the sun, but it endured out of sight, still abhorring all that was alien to it