Pointed Discussion

Yay! Finally another mana dork, and it ramps even more as you get out bigger creatures. Perfect for a +1/+1 counter deck. Not as versatile as BoP though.

Great mana-fixer. The bigger the things your deck has, the easier this makes it to get them out. You just have to have a little ramp up there.

Also, is an elf. Immaculate Magistrate, followed up by Genesis wave anyone?

Actually, I'm a little doubtful of her power in elf tribal. Most elves don't seem to be that strong p/t wise. In block constructed, though? Go for it!

I don't play Birthing Pod so I could use another opinion. Is this worthy or replacing some copies of Wall of Roots? I'd say yes, but it doesn't produce mana the turn it comes down, so...

Joraga Treespeaker will get you 1 extra mana on turn 3, unless you can play a 2/2ish for 1 and a 3/3ish for 2, and will usually have lower P/T. She also gives you essentially 2 extra mana on turn 2, since you don't have to cast her. Past that point though, it's a very fast ramp if you can keep playing bigger stuff.

Overall, this works very well in a Green deck not dedicated to ramp. One that plays extremely efficient creatures, along with cards with X in the cost, or just a few big things. Usually I just throw Birds of Paradise in a deck like that, but now it will be this.

It look like she will be to slow for standard, but i think she will see play in other slower formats, where you will also need the extra mana later.

I am not thrilled by this elf, unfortunately, because it starts of making ZERO mana. Llanowar Elf, Birds, Noble Hierarch all allow you to cast a 3cc spell on turn 2, and Gyre Sage may not even allow you to cast a 4 cc on turn 3 due to its restriction. It takes more set up and the benefit is higher in the end, but for a 2 cc mana maker I'd expect better.

Her text should say, "Add G to your manapool, then another G for each +1/+1 counter on it."

Increasing Savagery gives you your mana back immediately.

This is of course Simic affiliated, but Grull will have plenty of creatures to pump it and will benefit greatly from the mana acceleration.

Wow. Turn 3, 7 mana by top-decking Blessings of Nature, AND Evolve on top of that. The stuff Wizards releases these days...

@Purplerooster: it only produces mana equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on it, its not a viridian joiner, bloodrush will not make it produce any more mana.

Abusable, so 4/5. Not bad for ramp altogether, depending on your ramp strategy.

Ironically, I don't feel like this card is too terribly useful for a ramp deck unlike other mana elf type cards. When you play your big dudes it'll get +1/+1 counters, allowing you to play more big dudes... That you've already put into play. It's pretty nice, but there's probably other evolve creatures (like Crocanura) that'll provide better utility for that kind of deck.

However, since Gyre Sage becomes better for doing things you'd normally do (i.e. curving out for a better creature each turn getting another +1 every time), I feel it'll work nicely in a deck using X costing spells, green or otherwise. So, Rakdos' return, Bonfire of the damned, Sphinx's revelation, Kessig Wolfrun you get the idea. You'll probably have enough spare mana to be able to bypass Frontline Medic's annoying counter effect as well.

It died to removal? They used up a removal spell to kill your 2 mana creature. Not a greatly devastating loss.

Nice card, interesting ability, HUGE potential.
Slower than most mana ramp creatures, but all it needs is a Burst of strength to get going.

Also, with a Blessings of nature, an Increasing savagery, or even Hunger of the howlpack (with a morbid trigger) you can pull the infinate mana combo with Galvanic alchemist.

EDIT: Whoops! I forgot that you need {U} for the alchemist's ability. My bad guys. :(

This card is AMAZING with Simic's OTHER ability: Graft
Imagine the look onsomeones face when you play this along side, sayVigean Hydropon
Turn one:Simic Initiate
Turn two: this, graft the initate to Gyre Sage
Turn three: Vigean Hydropon, graft 1 counter from Vigean Hydropon and tap Gyre Sage to play Bioshift to move the rest of the counters to Gyre sage plus another counter from Gyre Sage's Evolve making him an 8/8 that taps for 8 mana a turn

And many more combos just within the guild that can break this *cough* Biomass Mutation *cough*

Something about this card doesn't seem to make sense to me. He only gives you mana, his stats boosts start on Turn 3 or later. Even if you were to get 3 counters on him he would still be doing the same type of job that Somberwald Sage would be doing, except he requires you playing other creatures to Evolve him, the Sage does it automatically. He provides you only while Sage provides you with any color. With 3 counters he is a 4/5, a decent attacker or blocker, while the Sage is merely a 0/1 not usable as an attacker or blocker.

By the time you get him to 3 counters, do you really want to be using him as a mana dork? This card just seems really weird that his ability is stat dependent. Usually creatures who have this ability are generic 1/1 but Gyre Sage pulls me in 2 different directions, 1) to attack or block 2) to use him as a mana accelerant.

I can see him performing both duties pretty well but he seems to be the first mana accelerant that can also win games by attacking.

Very good with Burst of Strength.

This card just screams break me.

This guy's going into my cascade deck.

Because of the way cascade works, the spells with the lowest mana costs are put onto the stack last, and therefore hit the battlefield first. Say I start a cascade with a Shardless Agent and it fetches this, it hits the field, and gets a +1/+1 counter right after it's cast...

Start with a Bloodbraid Elf, which fetches the agent, which fetches this, have two +1/+1 counters, allowing you to get to those Enlisted Wurms and Enigma Sphinxes that much faster... And don't even get me started on Maelstrom Wanderer... (I've decided the best way to play cascade is to have my only one and two drops being mana fetchers, like Rampant Growth, sources, like this card, and maybe correctors, like Prophetic Prism.)

Even if you aren't going crazy with cascade like I am, Shardless Agent is still this elf's best friend.

Would have been amazing had it cost one green mana and been a 0/1. However, I still think its quite playable as is.

Use this to get a Worldspine Wurm out by turn five and then start swinging XD.

One thing that's easy to forget about this card is that it is very useful if you are having bad luck getting lands. While normal mana dorks kinda mitigate the problem, gyre sage is especially useful because as you keep casting your 3 ~ 4 mana creatures, she can help you build up to the bigger ones when you cant seem to draw lands.

Quest for the Gemblades and Hunger of the Howlpack are what really make this IMO.

Your opponent basically has to choose between beefy creatures eating his health total or a potential turn 3 or 4 engulfing slagwurm,pelakka wurm, or any other big thing you want.

T1 drop a mana producer
T2 drop this guy
T3 drop quest, beast within, hunger of the howlpack, attack with this guy
T4 you're either attacking for 4+ a turn or you just bought a 7 cost creature

Mind you, horrendous card disadvantage here, be careful. Consider graft, evolve triggers, or other ways of getting free counters on her without the disadvantage.

I am ashamed that it took me so long to realise just what this card could do. Like Keeper of Progenitus and Sacellum Godspeaker, I just saw it as an awkward attempt at a rare mana dork.

It was only when I saw Burst of Strength did my brain then suddenly turn to Hunger of the howlpack and that 1 drop green enchantment that gives you a counter a turn.

It should NOT have taken me this long.

This card with 4 counters + Umbral Mantle = infinite mana. Really fun in Kraj EDH for similar reasons.

Turn 1: Forest Arbor Elf
Turn 2: Forest Gyre Sage
Turn 3: Miracle a Blessings of Nature, play a mountain Mountain
Tap Gyre Sage for 4, play Increasing Savagery
At this point you should have 1 untapped Forest, a Mountain, and an arbor elf, tap them for Feral Animist
Turn 4: Tap the mountain and play Legion Loyalist. Tap Gyre Sage for 9. Flashback Increasing Savagery, leaving 2 in the mana pool. Play Burst of Strength, leaving 1 in the mana pool, and untap Gyre Sage. Tap Gyre Sage for 20, so there's 21 in the pool. At this point if you went first, you should be out of cards. Pump Feral Animist 7 times, and attack with Arbor Elf, Legion Loyalist, and Feral Animist, who should be a 256/1 with trample first strike and can't be blocked by creature tokens.

If you went second, you can play another Burst of Strength for 20 in your pool, and tap for 21 more, tap a forest for a total of 42 and pump the Feral Animist 14 times, making Feral Animist a 32,768/1.

And that's how you can swing for over 32,000 and win on turn four in standard.

One other option is if you don't play legion loyalist, you can play a 3rd burst of strength instead (assuming you went second). You would tap Gyre Sage for 9, flashback increasing savagery (2 in pool), play BoS (1 in pool) tap for 20 (21 in pool) play BoS (20 in pool) tap for 21 (41 in pool), play BoS (40 in pool) tap for 22 (62 in pool) tap the mountain, both forests, and the arbor elf (66 in pool). Pump Feral Animist 22 times to make him a 8,388,608/1.

... and then lose to the boros reckoner that blocks you lol.

I feel like people are overlooking the fact that this isn't just another mana dork; in any deck that's halfways suited for it, this'll become a sturdy beater surprisingly quickly.

It's a turn-2 drop for evolving your Experiment One or your Cloudfin Raptor, and it's easily evolved by Crocanura, Renegade Krasis, or Elusive Krasis afterwards.

Not to mention all that extra mana is great for Ooze Flux.

This is the only "mana dork" I run in my Omnath, Locus of Mana EDH deck, because she's the only one that can also be a relevant threat. Her ability to play more than one role in a single game is, if you ask me, her real strength. Versatility is always good in Magic.

Combo with varolz, the scar-striped to feed counters without using evolve.

Standard speed
T1- land, tap for mana producer
T2- land, tap for gyre sage
T3- swamp, tap for Varolz
T4- discard creatures into graveyard then scavenge counters

Modern flare
T1- forest, Summon mana producer
T2- swamp, gyre sage, death's shadow goes to grave
T3- swamp, tap for Varolz
T4- scavenge death's shadow for one mana add 13 counters to gyre sage and swing with 17 mana

Can easily grow to sizes similar to that of a Tarmogoyf in the right deck.

Two words, Pack Rat.

Use with Vorel, Genesis Wave, and a lot of Hydras.

People keep saying this is "surprisingly good", but I have to disagree. Evolve tricks you into thinking you can just throw it into a creature-based ramp deck. If you do this, your game generally looks like:
T1: mana dork
T2: this. Now you have 1 extra mana, but there really aren't many 1 drops that can evolve this.
T3: A nice big 4 drop, evolving this. Now you have 1 extra mana. Again. You could do a 2 and a 3 drop, but you are going to run out of cards really fast if your ramp deck is full of low drops.
T4: Gyre sage is finally ready to give you 1 mana at the beginning of your turn. Pretty bad for a mana dork.

While it is true that gyre sage does continue to scale after that point, you're trading a lot of early game tempo for either gratuitous mana or a beater late game. You can't even hold off dropping this, since you need all those evolve triggers.

The way to get the most out of this is with 1 drops or lands that can give it counters (forced adaptation, hunger of the howlpack, simic initiate, slitherhead, llanowar reborn, Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, etc).