The 3 Best Green White (Selesnya) Creature Lands in Magic Ranked

Stirring Wildwood | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

Creature lands: half creature, half land. Straightforward concept, yeah? They’re a land type that’s been kicking (the ones with legs at least) since early Magic, and we’ve seen various cycles of creature lands up to and including Wilds of Eldraine. They’re a fun way to add a bit of a punch to your mana base (from the ones with hands at least), though there’s variation between them.

Today we’re looking at the Selesnya creature lands, so buckle up! It’s going to be a long one. Wait, what’s that? There are only three? Hmm, alright then, maybe the buckle’s not necessary.

Quick note: You’ll often hear the terms “manland” and “creature land” used interchangeably. I’m going to stick to the more inclusive term “creature land” from here on out, so just know that they mean the same exact thing.

What Are Green White Creature Lands in MTG?

Grove of the Guardian | Illustration by Christine Choi

A “creature land” either has an ability that turns it into a creature (it “animates,” as we say), or just naturally has the types “creature” and “land” in its type line, à la Dryad Arbor. Obviously, the creature lands are those that have both green and white in their color identity with no additional colors. They don’t actually have to produce or , but both of these colored mana symbols appear in the card’s rules text somewhere.

Other than that, the cards we’re chatting about today exist as standalone designs or parts of different cycles, so there’s no commonalities between them other than they have a color identity and turn into a creature in some way.

Honorable Mention: Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

I want to briefly mention Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree since some people might wonder why it’s absent from the list if I left it off completely. This falls more in line with token generators than it does creature lands. The term “creature land” implies the land itself is being put in harm’s way either by becoming a creature or by sacrificing itself to create a creature. Vitu-Ghazi does neither. Ignore that Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi card where Vitu-Ghazi literally becomes a creature.

#3. Grove of the Guardian

I remember Grove of the Guardian turning the wheels in my head as a new Magic player, especially since it released alongside the populate mechanic from Return to Ravnica. The dream was populating 8/8 Elementals, and I didn’t really have money for Armada Wurms anyway. But even as a new player I knew this card was asking you to jump through hoops for the payoff.

The allure of an 8/8 biggie sounds sweet, but at the functional cost of 6 mana and tapping two creatures, it’s easy to find yourself in spots where you just can’t activate it. Not to mention creating a token effectively turns your opponent’s Unsummons into Strip Mine here. At least there’s a low opportunity cost in Commander, assuming you’re not playing a super greedy mana base and have a few slots for utility lands.

#2. Nantuko Monastery

If I accomplish nothing else today, I at least hope that someone discovers Nantuko Monastery for the first time and finds a good home for it. It’s a creature land hiding behind threshold, but it comes in untapped, provides mana until you fill up your graveyard, and animates for cheap.

The question is: Which deck actually wants this? Well, Vrestin, Menoptra Leader literally just came out, and Nantuko Monastery becomes an insect creature, so maybe there’s something to that. self-mill perhaps? Alright, I’m stretching a bit here. I just think the card’s neat.

#1. Stirring Wildwood

The enemy-colored creature lands from Zendikar had their time in the Constructed spotlight, though most of them have dropped off a cliff. In fact, some of them literally are cliffs, so it was probably inevitable. You won’t see Stirring Wildwood stirring around Modern much these days, but it used to be a staple in hatebear-style decks and is a respectable tap land for your budget-friendly Selesnya Commander decks. At the very least it’s a sizable upgrade to a guildgate or gain land.

It also happens to become an elemental, which is a creature type with plenty of support, though the white in its color identity bars it from inclusion in most flavors land-matters decks.

Best Green White Creature Land Payoffs

Selesnya isn’t the most popular landfall color pair in Commander, but enough cards like Maja, Bretagard Protector and Trove Warden exist that you could build a land-centric deck in this color pair. The creature lands don’t enhance the strategy much, though these decks tend to play cards like Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator, which let you recur your creature lands should they die in combat.

Creature lands are also great at dodging most board wipes. They leave behind some board presence against an opposing wrath, and they play well alongside your own wraths when you can plan around them. You see this more often in Azorius () control decks using Celestial Colonnade, but there’s no reason can’t invoke this strategy if you want.

Finally, creature lands play well with spells that animate lands and put +1/+1 counters on them. Think cards like Nissa, Who Shakes the World or awaken spells like Planar Outburst. In the case of a normal creature land like Stirring Wildwood, you can use a spell or ability to turn it into a creature with +1/+1 counters on it then activate Wildwood’s ability to change the base power/toughness from 0/0 to 3/4, which adds to the +1/+1 counters already there.

Now Landing

Nantuko Monastery | Illustration by Rob Alexander

I wish I had more to show off here, but creature lands aren’t that common in Magic. We get a cycle maybe once per Standard rotation, though the last few batchesfrom Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Wilds of Eldraine definitely pushed their power level into the modern age of Magic. Here’s to hoping the enemy-colored creature lands from WOE are a sign of another half-cycle coming up in a future set!

Where are you at on creature lands these days? Do you play one or two, or do you cut them altogether? Let’s be real, I really just want to know if anyone out there has a home for poor ol’ Nantuko Monastery. Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.

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