Pointed Discussion

G/W has some amazing colorless lands.

Between this, Nantuko Monastery, and Stirring Wildwood, 42lands.dec is looking pretty strong right now!

And this card will see much play, as the only card that competes with it is Gavony Township, and can really say that card can compete with this?

The art in this is much better than the promo version. This one gives a better sense of something huge slumbering within.

A really clever card. I like how the ruined temple covered in roots basically just stands up and starts kicking ass. Would've preferred a more traditional man-land, but Populate and whatnot.

This is an amazing land that will be dangerous in the hands of pros like me because we will populate it.

And then I populate while I populate and throw more populate on the stack before you can murder my beatstick.

Gavony is better.

today at the prerelease, lost EVERY game they played this card. absolute beast.

won every time I populated the token at the prerelease. you just can't recover from things like that.

Pro tip: Azorious detained your creatures? No worry! You can still tap them as a cost to get the huge token! ;)

This card is good in Limited, but you are deluding yourself if you think it's good in competitive Constructed. Gavony Township is a significantly better spell-land. Vanilla creatures tend to be very bad in Constructed unless they're very efficiently costed (Tarmogoyf!). Obviously the effect being on a land makes it better, but not better than Township. Township can win a lot of games you'd normally have no business winning, whereas this token not only has more requirements to happen (six mana, sac a land, tap two creatures), it's easily dispatched by a single removal spell and can even just be chump blocked for as long as it's relevant.

It's been said already, but in limited this thing is a beast, esp. with populate, and double esp. with Trostani. I lived the dream and populated 4 of these things with her on the board and ended up with over 40 life and a helpless opponent facing a beatdown. Really good with the trample enabling spells too such as the Selesnya Charm etc...

How in the world is this rated at 3.4? This card is easily a 4.5; it's an absolute beast.

Edit: Constructed isn't the only format that matters. I mostly limited formats (and casual), and I've found it to be far more enjoyable than Standard. Yes, different cards are better in different formats... this is why Mental Misstep is banned in eternal formats (plus extended), where cheaper cards are more prominent, while it doesn't do anything in block constructed or standard. I don't care if this card isn't good in eternal formats, because I don't enjoy them. It all depends on your frame of reference.

1. It is never a dead draw. Sure, there may be better draws you can ask for if you're not set up right, but it will never just sit in your hand uselessly. It is still a colorless mana land that doesn't even enter tapped.
2. Since it's played as a land, it can't be countered by anything except those rare few creatures like that can counter abilities (i.e. Azorius Guildmage)
3. You can activate the ability at instant speed, which is always advantageous in Magic. You like to have an open mana pool, am I right?
3. It puts a huge, vigilant token onto the battlefield, which populate likes. Unlike most other token strategies which rely on numbers, populate actually wants quality tokens to be on the battlefield... Grove of the Guardian provides.

I won so many games at the prerelease by making my opponent think I was at a disadvantage. My opponent swings in with all his creatures to overwhelm my blockers (even accounting for the Grove, since popping it would mean having one less blocker) and then I pop the land for the Elemental then follow it up with Druid's Deliverance. Then all of a sudden I have two 8/8 Elementals, all my creatures from before, and he's tapped out. The two Elementals alone accounted for 16 damage, with the two I needed to pop the Grove I could usually swing in for 20.

For all intents and purposes, this card could have been an 8/8 with flash, vigilance, and "this spell can't be countered". Except it's better, because it's a token for proliferate and a land.

Hello Grove, I'd like you to meet Pithing Needle...

Hmmm... Let's see here... Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage... Parallel Lives... Trostani, Selesnya's Voice... Do I win yet?

This can potentially be :

Creature - Elemental
As an extra cost to cast Grove of the Guardian, tap two untapped creatures you control.
You cannot cast Grove of the Guardian if you have already played a land this turn.
If you have Grove of the Guardian in your opening hand, you may to your mana pool once each turn.
Vigilance
8/8
-
In this perspective, it really is a good card. Of course it has it's own weaknesses (such as unsummon effects and the two creature requirements being the most punishing of them), I still think it's more than meets the eye, and is a potential threat that can get you killed if you overlook it.

Only good in Standard.

dramatic rescue bait :D

If you are playing Limited and are drafting white and green, this is an obvious first pick. If you are not playing white and green, this is also a first pick, given how difficult it is to deal with. While not as hard to deal with in Standard or any other non-block Constructed format, in limited, you will generally need to tie up a lot of resources to get rid of it. There are only 2 land destruction cards in RtR, and they both costly (5 CMC each) and sorceries. Creature removal that can take care of this guy is generally expensive (Trostani's Judgment and Assassin's Strike for 6 CMC, Voidwielderfor 5 CMC, Launch Party for 4 CMC and one of your creatures), rare (Abrupt Decay, Cyclonic Rift, Detention Sphere, Supreme Verdict, Pithing Needle), or generally unplayable (Traitorous Instinct without a sacrifice outlet).

Sure, there's Selesnia Charm, which is 2 cmc and uncommon, but you know that it'll also be highly sought after and likely grabbed by the same people playing the Grove (or not in your colours anyway). Similar goes with Avenging Arrow. But no matter what you (try to) do to him, the controller will typically always have answers instant speed, and cheap ones at that, typically involving populate effects.

I hate this guy. 5/5.

4/5.

Is this colorless or does the ability make it g/w?
Color types still confuse me

Man, I don't like Selesnya, but all these temple colossi are just the epitome of cool. If you haven't played Shadow of the Colossus and want to experience these things in videogame form, do it now. You will not be disappointed. You will be moved.

A pain in the ass card. If they've ramped at all you KNOW that thing is getting populated. If they haven't, you still need removal *right now.*

4/5

This card on my opponents side gave me the win once. I was playing simic. I used thespian stage to copy it. Prophetic prism To give me the white i needed then I used its ability. It came in triggering my ivy lane denizen so I put the counter on my elusive krasis giving me the one extra power I needed to win what would otherwise be a losing game.

@goatllama:

It's colorless. The color of a card is typically indicated by its mana cost. (There are exceptions.) Lands, having no mana cost, are mostly colorless, with the exceptions being Dryad Arbor and activated Zendikar man-lands, such as Stirring Wildwood. The man-lands only gain color when they are activated. Otherwise, they are colorless.

While abilities with activation costs don't affect a card's color, they do affect a card's color identity, but that's only used in EDH/Commander.

5 cmc and two tapped creatures to put the ultimate Populate target onto the battlefield.

The token is supposed to be Risen Santuary

turns into a risen sanctuary

This deserves a higher rating than what it currently has, honestly. This wins games. So many of Selesyna's cards Populate stuff, and this land turns into a populatable, Vigilant 8/8. You can't go wrong there.

Under-loved card. This is actually quite good (as a 2-of, maybe 3-of MAX) in any Selesnya deck (or any Bant, or Naya deck) that makes use of Flash (and similar effects) and/or tokens. It's just such an unexpected turn of events if you can get the token out the turn you drop this, especially -- or at the end of the next turn! If you're lucky, they weren't paying attention to this thing since it was "just" your land drop. The fact that you can use this ability even after blocking, etc. is what really makes this card... and, playing G/W or G/W/anything-else you SHOULD have SOME creatures strong enough to survive any attack.

I rate this a solid 4/5, as it's not one of those cards that necessarily goes in every deck running its colors -- but it really is surprisingly good in the right deck. I've used this for more than one out-of-nowhere tournament win. This, and also Trostani's Summoner from my sideboard -- another under-loved Selesnya card.

Vigilance matters, and that is a BIG ol' creature. In Standard Naya, a bloodrushed Ghor-Clan Rampager and/or a Boros Charm is more than most people can handle.

I love this card in Selesnya tokens
tap down two centaurs of the army you probably already have and then just cast a whole tonne of populate spells
unless they expect an army of 14 8/8 tokens its unstoppable