Much better than Kismet since it hardly matters if most creatures come into play tapped or not. Works with a lot of things, and punishes fetchlands doubly.
AmericanVigor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
This card heavily counters one of green's biggest assets: fast mana.
It is not a regularly intuitive card to play.
Kirbster
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Solid Sideboard card, for the most part - I'm also guessing it was printed in the same set as Choke for a reason.
BorosRecruit
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Anyone try this with Amulet of Vigor? Sounds like a nice, early shutdown.
Root Maze hoses decks that use fetchlands like Arid Mesa or Windswept Health to retrieve mana-producing lands. Their fetchland enters play tapped. When they get to crack their fetchland next turn, the retrieved land enters play tapped. It's not until two turns after they play a land that they can get mana from it. Combine with a well-timed Wasteland to wreck any dual land like Taiga, and Root Maze becomes a one-card 1cc soft lock.
Meanwhile, you can play lands which normally come into play tapped but which produce additional mana, or which offer other nice effects. Specifically, use in conjunction with Cloudpost and Vesuva (and now Glimmerpost to maximize Locus potency).
Root Maze is also great against corner cases. It can trip up Ad Nauseam decks, which rely on their ability to use Lotus Petal and Chrome Mox to ramp up early mana. It puts a huge roadblock in the way of fast Affinity wins. It gives you enough time to destroy a Grindstone before the activation mills you to death. It slows down use of Trinisphere and Life from the Loam.
I'd also recommend combining this card with Winter Orb, and sometimes even Tangle Wire.
orisiti
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Vigor-- Most of greens mana acceleration comes from tutoring lands into play, usually tapped. This will slow a green deck down a bit, yes, but it will slow every one else don a bit more. I do run it with amulet of vigor in my mayael edh to slow everybody up a little bit before i stabilize and start cranking fatties out.
Comments (9)
This is an evil card to combine with Stasis.
It is not a regularly intuitive card to play.
Root Maze hoses decks that use fetchlands like Arid Mesa or Windswept Health to retrieve mana-producing lands. Their fetchland enters play tapped. When they get to crack their fetchland next turn, the retrieved land enters play tapped. It's not until two turns after they play a land that they can get mana from it. Combine with a well-timed Wasteland to wreck any dual land like Taiga, and Root Maze becomes a one-card 1cc soft lock.
Meanwhile, you can play lands which normally come into play tapped but which produce additional mana, or which offer other nice effects. Specifically, use in conjunction with Cloudpost and Vesuva (and now Glimmerpost to maximize Locus potency).
Root Maze is also great against corner cases. It can trip up Ad Nauseam decks, which rely on their ability to use Lotus Petal and Chrome Mox to ramp up early mana. It puts a huge roadblock in the way of fast Affinity wins. It gives you enough time to destroy a Grindstone before the activation mills you to death. It slows down use of Trinisphere and Life from the Loam.
I'd also recommend combining this card with Winter Orb, and sometimes even Tangle Wire.
Most of greens mana acceleration comes from tutoring lands into play, usually tapped. This will slow a green deck down a bit, yes, but it will slow every one else don a bit more.
I do run it with amulet of vigor in my mayael edh to slow everybody up a little bit before i stabilize and start cranking fatties out.