Top 10 Forests

Roiling Canopy | Art by FeelFish

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Murmuring Bosk is the only land that can make multiple colors worth of mana with only the Forest land type?)

Oh, I've been waiting for this one for a long time.

I've been writing these articles for almost a decade now, and there have been a lot of favorites. Number one on that list of favorites is easily this nonsense looking at the wordiest cards for Alexander Clamilton. Number two? Well, that's five-color Mountains.

In other words? That's right, now that we have a green version of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle in Roiling Canopy, we're building five-color Forests.

Top 10 Forests

Criteria: Cycles or individual lands that include the land type "Forest" but are not, in fact, the card Forest. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Gingerbread Cabin

(57.6K Inclusions, 1.23% of 4.69M Decks)

For once, the list works! With our stated goal this week being to put together a deck utilizing every Forest we can... we don't want Gingerbread Cabin. Why? We're a five-color deck, meaning color-fixing is of the import. Combine that with an aggro lands deck not caring a whit about Food, and there you have it, our first and maybe our only cut from this list.

9. Murmuring Bosk

(61.1K Inclusions, 5.92% of 1.03M Decks)

Murmuring Bosk, on the other hand, does exactly what we want: it has the Forest type, and it taps for three different colors of mana. Even better, it has a chance to be slightly better than the Triomes, as it can enter untapped if we have a Treefolk.

So... Seen any good Treefolk lately?

Top 10 Treefolk That Care About Lands or Forests

1. Six
2. Yedora, Grave Gardener
3. Generous Ent
4. Shriekwood Devourer
5. Seedguide Ash
6. Timber Protector
7. Treefolk Harbinger
8. Harold and Bob, First Numens
9. Dungrove Elder
10. Orchard Strider

In short, yeah, there are a bunch of Treefolk that care about Forests. The main problem is that most of them cost a root and a branch. There are a couple among the cheap options that are intriguing, however, namely Six and Dungrove Elder. Six is well-known as one of the best value options in green, immediately allowing you to discard lands to replay cards from your graveyard, and also filling said graveyard each turn while also putting a land in your hand to either play out or discard for its retrace ability.

What's honestly more exciting, however, is Dungrove Elder. It will constantly be huge in our deck that plays 100% Forests in its land base and is constantly searching for more. Even more than that, however, is its hexproof. With our gameplan to be routinely plopping down four and five Roiling Canopy triggers, spot removal is going to be the bane of our existence. With that in mind, an already huge creature that is difficult to remove is exactly what we're looking for.

8. Cycling Duals

(52.7-87.5K Inclusions)

I said that Gingerbread Cabin might be the only card from this list we don't end up playing, and I meant it. With that in mind, doing some quick math, we're doing a Top 10, and the majority of these entrants will be cycles of four cards: Forests of each adjoining dual type, i.e. Plains, Island, Swamp, and Mountain. In other words? We're already close to 40 lands, just on the bulk of Forests that Wizards has printed. That's kind of the norm for lands decks anyhow, but if it does become a problem? The Cycling Duals can help with that. Draw too many lands and not enough gas? Spend two mana and see if you can't draw something to play. Now you've got a land in the graveyard to replay with your Blossoming Tortoise, too!

7. Tap Duals

(87.8-115K Inclusions)

I have less glowing things to say about the Tap Duals. Where the Cycling Duals have upside, these more-played lands just have empty space in the text box. So why are they more played? Well, because they come in Commander precons, in lieu of better lands that should be there to lower reprint values.

In other words, when more Forests get printed and the land count gets a little too high, even for a lands deck? These are the first to go, despite their higher play numbers.

6. Dryad Arbor

(184K Inclusions, 3.93% of 4.69M Decks)

Our last non-cycle on the list, Dryad Arbor is the most-played non-dual/Triome/basic land with a basic land type. The reason? It's the only land that is inherently also a creature, leading to all sorts of trials and travails when it comes to where you put it on the battlefield in competitive play.

As for whether we want it in our Roiling Canopy deck? An unequivocal yes. It both triggers Roiling Canopy and is also a creature to target with it. In short? It's everything we could want, minus some protection or evasion that hopefully gets tacked on later.

5. Surveil Lands

(270-244K Inclusions)

Cycling lands want to go to the graveyard. Six wants lands in the graveyard, as do a cavalcade of various land deck staples like Ramunap Excavator Mole Man, Moloid Master, Icetill Explorer, Ancient Greenwarden, Aftermath Analyst, Splendid Reclamation, Life from the Loam, and Blossoming Tortoise. In other words? These are rather easily best Forests we've seen yet.

4. Trilands (Triomes)

(252-326K Inclusions)

If I were to pick a close second, however, it wouldn't be the Cycling Duals. At least, not with the Triomes right here to make a simple case of "you're a five-color deck, I make three of those colors, and oh, by the way, did I mention that I cycle as well?" They do still enter tapped, which is just going to be a reality of this deck, but otherwise? These are our bread and butter.

3. True Duals

(287-331K Inclusions)

And right on cue as I mention the fact that almost every land in our deck is going to enter tapped, we hit the pricetags of the ones that don't. The original Alpha duals are hard to acquire real copies of, and if you were to build this deck on a budget, they'd be the first lands out the door. That said, if you can acquire passable copies of them, then there's no question that them entering untapped is a huge boon for a deck that is otherwise always going to be playing a turn behind.

2. Tango Lands

(204-831K Inclusions)

I don't remember if I've gone on record about this or not, but let me be plain here in case I haven't been in the past: I hate the Tango Lands. Even in two-color decks where it's likely you're going to be playing quite a few basics, these things are a constant disappointment.

So here's my basic opinion: if you've spent the money on fetches, you can probably afford to spend the money for better duals. If you haven't, then play the multitude of other two-color options that don't have land types.

As for our deck? They're Forests, and they make more than one color of mana. They're in.

1. Shock Lands

(921-977K Inclusions)

If you're wondering what better, more expensive duals I was referring to, it was these. The term "Shocks and Fetches" has become a shorthand for the best mana-bases in the game, and often a sort of "cake eater"-esque commentary on those bringing large budgets to the table. Ironically, the only way to do better than shocks and fetches? Spending the cash on fetches and True Duals.

No matter how we feel about the monetary issues of land bases, however, if we're going to build this nonsense pile of a deck, Shocks are going to be a requirement! And we'll make room for the fetches, too.

---

Honorable Mentions

There are a few more Forests that didn't quite make our list, but not many!

11. Snow Duals

(50.9-59.3K Inclusions)

Whether or not your average deck wants to play these has everything to do with whether said average deck wants to mess with Snow stuff. That said, for our purposes? These have a slight upside on the Tap Duals, as Into the North exists.

12. Turbulent Lands

(43.8-50.7K Inclusions)

The turbulent cycle is yet to be completed, but as of now has two Forest entries. As for the cycle as a whole? I like it a bit more than the Tango Lands, but honestly not much.

13. Sapseep Forest

(20.8K Inclusions, 0.44% of 4.70M Decks)

Sapseep is nothing to write home about, but does see some play in decks that care about lifegain. We are not one of those decks.

As for what kind of deck we are? Let's take a look, shall we?

Using The Wandering Minstrel as our commander almost feels like a cheat code, so if you do build this and find it's a bit too feisty for your Bracket 2 pod, I heartily suggest throwing Horde of Notions at the helm instead.

As for how the deck plays? It's extremely deceptive. The early turns are all laying down tapped lands and passing, with the mid-game turns being nothing but ramp. Once you get to ridiculous levels of mana, however, the deck tends to win out of nowhere, with a timely Scapeshift, Lumra, Bellow of the Woods, or Reshape the Earth putting out lethal damage for the entire table.

---

Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

---

What Do You Think?

The contentious point of this deck, mind you, isn't going to be how good or bad it is. It's going to be the pricetag, thanks to the absolutely ridiculous mana base. Even without the True Duals, this pile is going to cost a pretty penny. That said, no matter how I went about it, I would want the duals in there, as well.

And finally, what is your favorite Forest? Are you brewing anything with Roiling Canopy?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the tree stump table that appears to be... growing?