Last time, we looked at the three-colored menace that is Planeswalker Deck “Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver”, a pretty competent showing as far as Preconstructed Decks go. But as usual, we need an opponent to pitch against the Blue-Black-Red Aggro force of evil; and while a White deck would have been a perfect fit from a color standpoint, WotC instead decided to go with the lore and give Nissa a chance to fight the Elder Dragon. Her choice of colors is not simply Green though, but instead Blue-Green for a touch more card draw at the cost of pretty much everything else it seems. But I do not want to be negative from the get-go. There will be plenty of time for potential negativity over the course of the paragraphs below, but let us see what “Nissa, Genesis Mage” can bring to the table with a color combination that is famous for resource generation. Here is the decklist for the Planeswalker Deck featuring “Nissa, Genesis Mage”: Creatures (22): 2x Feral Prowler (1G) 2x River Hoopoe (UG) 2x Aerial Guide (2U) 3x Avid Reclaimer (2G) 3x Pouncing Cheetah (2G) 2x Weaver of Currents (1UG) 2x Aven Reedstalker (3U) 2x Angler Drake (4UU) 4x Brambleweft Behemoth (4GG) Spells (12): 3x Unsummon (U) 2x Ambuscade (2G) 1x Bounty of the Luxa (2UG) 2x Nissa’s Encouragement (4G) 1x Reason / Believe (U / 4G) 1x Nissa, Genesis Mage (5GG) 2x Spring / Mind (2G / 4UU) Lands (26): 14x Forest 8x Island 4x Woodland Stream Planeswalker Deck “Nissa, Genesis Mage” is in it for the long run, seeing as the cover card needs seven mana to be put onto the battlefield. But Blue-Green actually serves as a good color combination to fetch the necessary resources in both mana and card draw, as you will see throughout the entire article. I mean, we do not start with a one-drop in terms of creatures, but for two mana we get “Feral Prowler” as a 1/3 that lets the player draw a card when it dies. A perfect hit for a ramp deck: 1/3 means that it can block things of the same price pool without dying, and even when it eventually succumbs to damage it still generates resources. “River Hoopoe“, another two-drop, follows a very similar idea: Being a 1/3 means it can block just fine, it has Flying to broaden the amount of stuff it can block while potentially chipping away at the opposing life points, and having a resource-generating effect for five mana means that it still has a purpose when drawn into later in the game. This brings us to the solid amount of three-mana creatures in the deck, with the first one being “Aerial Guide“, a 2/2 Flying creature that also gives another attacking creature Flying when it attacks and therefore works in unison with your bigger options down the line. “Avid Reclaimer” is the “Nissa”-centered creature card, being a three-mana creature with 2/2 that can be tapped for a Blue or Green mana while also healing you for two life points if you have a Nissa Planeswalker on the field. This is not particularly good ramping, but in this deck it certainly helps reaching key points quicker. “Weaver of Currents“, however, does helps the deck come up to speed with two colorless mana being generated via the tap effect of this 2/2 creature. “Pouncing Cheetah” is a tad weird in my opinion, being a 3/2 with Flash in a deck that really cannot make all that much out of dropping the creature on the field during the opposing turn. And Flash seems to be a light theme in the Planeswalker Deck “Nissa, Genesis Mage” seeing as the copies of “Aven Reedstalker” not only provide a 2/3 Flying creature for four mana but it also comes with Flash for that surprise effect. That leaves us with the big options for this deck, with “Angler Drake” being a very solid six mana creature that gives you a 4/4 with Flying and a bounce against one target creature while the playset of “Brambleweft Behemoth” is somewhat underwhelming seeing as they only bring a 6/6 Trample creature without anything other features to the table. The creature line-up is fine, I guess. Blue-Green can be much weirder than what we are shown here, but at least we have some solid options to cover our hides. And there is plenty of potential for “Nissa, Genesis Mage” to be a showstopper, so lets see what this card can do: For seven mana, this version of Nissa starts with five loyalty, and as usual comes with three effects to work with. +2 allows you to untap up to two lands and up to two creatures, which the deck can certainly work with, while -3 gives one creature +5/+5 for a solid boost to cheat onto “Brambleweft Behemoth” or one of your Flying creatures. And then there is the effect for -10, which allows you to look at the top ten cards of your library, place any number of lands and/or creatures from them onto the battlefield, and then shuffle the rest back into the deck. The lands you get this way probably do not matter all that much, unless you are taking “Nissa, Genesis Mage” and place the card in a deck with Landfall, but being able to just get three or four creatures for free might just allow you to swing for game the following turn; although the chances of reaching that point of the game are rather slim. The Blue-Green color combination solves a lot of its issues with non-creature spells, so let us take a look at what Nissa brought for us to play. “Unsummon” is the usual creature bounce cantrip and therefore serviceable as temporary removal, but little more. “Ambuscade” looks like a pretty expensive card that lets creatures fight, but it actually only allows your creature to hit something which might be worth the three mana it costs. “Bounty of the Luxa” gives the deck even more mana and card draw, leaving me wishing for something impactful to actually do with all those resources. And then we have the usual searcher for the cover card; and in this case I am not sure whether they were taking the piss. “Nissa’s Encouragement” is a sorcery for five mana and allows you to search your library and graveyard for a Forest card, a copy of “Nissa, Genesis Mage“, and for some reason a “Brambleweft Behemoth” our resident 6/6 Trample creature. All in all this spell can help, out this will never see play outside of this deck and even in the Planeswalker Deck “Nissa, Genesis Mage” it feels kinda off. The last two spells are both split cards, so we get a little bit more bang for our … mana. “Reason / Believe” starts with the one mana side that simply allows you to Scry 3, which is kinda meh for one mana to be honest. However, this serves as setup for the Aftermath-having “Believe”, which costs five mana to let you look at the top card of your library, put the card onto the battlefield if it is a creature or draw it when it isn’t. This could be good; if it wasn’t for the fact that the biggest creature in the deck at hand is “Brambleweft Behemoth“, a laughably bad target to fetch in my opinion. And then there is “Spring / Mind“, a basic land searcher that places the search target directly on the battlefield tapped, and a six mana draw options that gives you two cards and attempts to be a reasonable choice despite its cost since you can play it from your graveyard at instant speed. Planeswalker Deck “Nissa, Genesis Mage” has plenty of solid options for ramping and resource generation, all while having a few stalling creatures that allow you to get through the early game. My problem with this deck is mostly that all those resources account to nothing if there is nothing worthwhile to play in the deck: A playset of “Brambleweft Behemoth” might actually be able to bring some damage to the opposing face, but it is a far cry from what I would like to see in the deck. Bigger creatures, potentially even for more mana, would make perfect sense since you have ways to draw into them while even being given some options to get them onto the battlefield from your deck (“Reason / Believe“, and the last effect of “Nissa, Genesis Mage“). That combined with some better removal options, since you are only getting so far with a few copies of “Unsummon” and “Ambuscade“, would definitely improve the deck overall and would make for a much better end product. Now, I guess this lack of power is a blessing in disguise, since a starting price of 17€ is not terrible all things concerned. There are Blue-Green options that could make this deck shine, but be prepared to buy some additional singles when going for Planeswalker Deck “Nissa, Genesis Mage” since this package definitely needs some help in terms of power.