5 Green EDH Hidden Gems Under $5 | Commander Quickie
Hey friends, I'm back with another quick list for you: 5 Green EDH Hidden Gems Under $5! I define "hidden gem" as any card that sees less than 1% representation in decks found in EDHREC's database and I've sorted them into lists because, well, people like lists. Let's get started!
1. Gaea's Touch
People seem to like obscure oldschool gems, so here's one for Mono Green players: Gaea's Touch lets you play an additional basic Forest from your hand each turn. You can also cash in the enchantment to generate two green mana like a ritual. Think of it as an Exploration except it costs one extra mana and it's limited to mostly Mono Green decks. Despite the restrictions, a two-mana Exploration is still a great rate for this effect and the ritual effect if you need to ramp something big is a nice perk. It also helps that Gaea's Touch is under $2 while Exploration is still $18 after its recent reprint, so you're saving a good chunk of change.
Any Mono Green deck should seriously consider running Gaea's Touch. It's great ramp in decks full of basic Forests and has especially good synergy withNissa, Vastwood Seer, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar, and Omnath, Locus of Mana.
2. Kenrith's Transformation
Even if budget isn't a factor, Kenrith's Transformation is one of the best targeted creature removal options in Green. As many Magic players have learned from Oko, Thief of Crowns' short-lived multi-format domination before he got banned everywhere, turning your opponents' best creature into an elk is incredibly powerful. And in Commander it's even more powerful as elk'ing a commander doesn't cause it to leave the battlefield, so your opponent can't send it back to the command zone and be recast later. Instead it's cursed to roam the battlefield as a helpless elk, denying your opponents the use of their commander's abilities until they manage to destroy either the elk or the enchantment.
This super powerful effect costs only two mana which is a solid rate, but what really sets this card above similar options is that it also draws you a card. Top tier removal at 2 cmc and draws you a card is just too good to pass up on.
Kenrith's Transformation is good in any Green-heavy deck, especially ones that don't have access to White or Black for even more efficient creature removal options. Since it's an Aura it synergizes particularly well in Enchantress decks such as Siona, Captain of the Pyleas, Eutropia the Twice-Favored, and Tuvasa the Sunlit.
3. One with Nature
One with Nature is one of the most efficient ramp engines in the format. Once you've ramped out a single basic land with its triggered ability this aura is essentially a half-priced Rampant Growth that has already paid for itself. Any more ramp triggers beyond the first then becomes absurd value for just one green mana. Of course there are some hoops you must jump through to get this reward: you need to enchant a creature and that creature needs to deal combat damage to a player, so you generally want to run One with Nature in a deck running a decent amount of creatures that have some form of evasion. But the juice is worth the squeeze, friends, as it's easy to get tons of value out of this one mana enchantment.
I love One with Nature in a whole bunch of Green decks. As an Aura it's an obvious inclusion in Enchantress decks like Siona, Captain of the Pyleas, you can get extra triggers per turn cycle when slapped on to Tahngarth, First Mate, and it triggers Gargos, Vicious Watcher, removing blockers from the equation.
4. Compost
Here's yet another oldschool color hoser popping up on my lists: Compost is a cheap 2cmc enchantment that can draw you an absurd amount of cards when facing opposing Black-heavy decks. Some of the most popular strategies in Black involve Sacrifice (Meren of Clan Nel Toth) and Self-Mill (Syr Konrad, the Grim), which means usually means that they'll be dumping tons of black cards into their graveyard and drawing you tons of cards in the process.
Compost's power is largely dependent on your personal meta. If you're not playing against any Black decks then this is a dead card, but against one or more Black decks this enchantment will be a huge draw engine. I think the risk is definitely worth the reward, unless you know that your playgroup runs few if any Black decks.
Compost is a fine inclusion in any Green deck. Since it's an enchantment it's strongest in Enchantress decks like Siona, Captain of the Pyleas; it can trigger through discard as well so it's great in Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, but my favorite home is Pharika, God of Affliction since you can give your opponents black snake creature tokens and then draw cards when they die.
5. Invigorate
Alright, we've covered four enchantments so let's switch it up with an instant: Invigorate is a card that way too many people sleep on in Commander. Since having a Forest in play and giving an opponent 3 life is a negligible cost, Invigorate is basically always a mana-free spell that gives a creature +4/+4 at instant speed. Now I know that doesn't sound like much on its own, and that's true, but the beauty of this card lies with how well it synergizes in Green.
Green has a ton of powerful staples that are keyed off your creatures' power or toughness. By boosting the creature for free with Invigorate you can draw four more cards off Return of the Wildspeaker, generate four more mana off Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, or effectively give a creature +8/+8 after Xenagos, God of Revels doubles its power and toughness.
In many green decks that scale heavily off power/toughness, Invigorate is a powerful free way boost other cards. It's an all-star in Gargos, Vicious Watcher, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Infect decks like Saskia the Unyielding, and so much more. I've been slipping Invigorate into more and more Green decks and it never disappoints.
That's All, Folks!
There's many more hidden gems to find, so if you've got any good ones you'd like to appear on a future list then let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
