In recent years, many players have noticed more and more powerful options for drawing cards in green. Cards like Return of the Wildspeaker or Beast Whisperer are great, but sometimes you need to find a specific card to win the game. Luckily, green also has some of the best tutors in Magic.
Tutors typically let you search your library for a card and put into your hand. Green tutors, however, are some of the best in the game because they often put cards right onto the battlefield. What they have in power, however, they lack in flexibility. Most green tutors can only look for one card type, but you can plan around that during deckbuilding. They might not give you the utility of Demonic Tutor, but they’ll often win you the game if they resolve.
Maybe you’re not sure if you want to run green tutors, or you don’t know how to make the most out of them. Either way, this article will explain everything you need to know about some of Magic’s most powerful cards.
| Pros | Cons |
| Often put cards on the battlefield | Can only find a couple card types |
| Can be efficient |
Which Card Types Can Green Tutors Find?
Green doesn’t have any tutors that can find every card type, so it’s important to know what you can find with them.
First, green has lots of ways to find creatures. Some of green’s most famous tutors, such as Green Sun’s Zenith, fall into this category. When combined with finishers like Craterhoof Behemoth, these cards can serve as extra win conditions.
Of course, you can still use them situationally. If you need to destroy an artifact, for example, tutoring for Reclamation Sage could keep you in the game. Still, the most common use for these tutors is to find your deck’s win condition.
Green tutors are also able to find lands, which can be surprisingly powerful as well. Not only are there great utility lands, such as Strip Mine, but there are also many land-based combos you can use to win the game.
These tutors become even stronger when they can search for multiple lands since you can find your entire combo with them. Getting both Thesbian’s Stage and Dark Depths on the battlefield at once is pretty hard to beat!
You might be wondering if ramp cards count as land tutors. After all, they let you search your library for cards and put them onto the battlefield. While there’s some overlap here, most ramp cards only let you get basic lands.
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It’s also common for land tutors to make you sacrifice a land, so you aren’t actually getting ahead on mana. For this article, I’ll only be discussing cards that let you search for any land, whether or not they count as ramp.
What Makes Green Tutors So Strong?
The biggest reason why green tutors are so powerful is that they put cards onto the battlefield instead of into your hand. These tutors find whatever you need in the moment, as well as cheat the card’s mana cost (assuming its not a land). These cards combine two of the best effects in Magic, and that potency can’t be overstated. Most tutors will help you set up a game-winning play, but these can get you there even faster.
Another key strength for many green tutors is that they have repeatable effects. The most famous example of this is Birthing Pod, which lets you search for creatures on each of your turns (or more often, if you can untap it).
Finding a haymaker like Craterhoof Behemoth is great, but not every deck has a single card that can win them the game. If you need to assemble a more complicated
Which Green Tutors Are Banned?
Of course, not every format can allow such powerful cards to wreak havoc. More green tutors have been banned than those in any other color. The following lists will consider every tutor, but make sure they’re legal in the format you’re playing before running them!
| Card Name | Banned |
| Birthing Pod | Modern |
| Green Sun’s Zenith | Modern |
| Natural Order | Historic |
| Primeval Titan | Commander |
| Survival of the Fittest | Legacy |
| Sylvan Primordial | Commander |
Top 5 Green Creature Tutors
First, let’s go over the strongest cards that find creatures. There were plenty of great options that didn’t make the list, so don’t feel like you have to stick with these to find success. Still, if you’re looking for the best of the best, you can’t top these.
#5 – Finale of Devastation
Let’s start with the most recently printed entry on the list: Finale of Devastation. Since you have to pay more mana to get expensive creatures, it can be tricky to get your big finisher out with this card.
Thankfully, green can produce more mana than any other color, so it’s easier to pump lots of mana into this. Giving your creatures +10/+10 and haste is also a fantastic bonus for spending more on this spell. Such a strong buff should at least knock a player or two out of the game, and that’s if it doesn’t just secure the win.
I also like that Finale of Devastation doubles as a reanimation spell. If your opponents have already dealt with your big threat, you can just bring it back! I especially like using this card in decks that can manipulate their graveyards, such as my Kathril, Aspect Warper EDH deck. The flexibility this spell gives you is its biggest strength, as it opens up even more lines of play than a typical tutor would.
| Pros | Cons |
| Flexible | Can cost lots of mana |
| Searches library and graveyard |
Recommended Formats: Commander
#4 – Green Sun’s Zenith
Green Sun’s Zenith just barely beat out Finale of Devastation for #4. The two cards work in very similar ways, but they have some key differences.
The biggest upside to Green Sun’s Zenith is that it costs one less. That may not seem like a big deal, but when you might be paying more than ten mana for X, any discount you can get is important. You might not get Finale’s mass pump effect, but fetching a creature that expensive will often win you the game anyway.
It’s also nice that this tutor shuffles itself back into your library. Having the potential to find another creature (assuming you don’t win from the first search) is a minor but notable upside.
| Pros | Cons |
| Flexible | Can cost lots of mana |
Recommended Formats: Commander, Legacy
#3 – Worldly Tutor
Worldly Tutor is reminiscent of tutors in many other colors. For just one mana, you find any creature card and put it on top of your library. Of course, not getting the card immediately does lower the power level of this tutor. It’s also a sorcery, so you can’t play it on the end step before your turn like you can with Vampiric Tutor.
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Still, there’s no denying that Worldly Tutor is excellent. It’s the most efficient option for finding a creature in green, and you can pair it with card draw to get that creature right away. Even if you have to wait a full turn cycle, it’s unlikely that your opponents can interact with the top of your library.
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheap | Puts card on top of your library |
Recommended Formats: Commander
#2 – Birthing Pod
Birthing Pod might be the most famous (or infamous) tutor on the list. This Phyrexian contraption lets you sacrifice your creatures to get more expensive ones. If you’re playing with this card, you likely have strong creatures at each mana value that you’d love to search for.
Normally, you can only get one creature per turn since you have to tap Birthing Pod, but it becomes even more dangerous with untapping shenanigans.
Birthing Pod also has Phyrexian mana in both its initial cost and its activated ability. If you’ve got the extra life, this lets you start tutoring even faster than you otherwise could. Reducing the cost of such a strong effect really pushes this card’s power level, and it’s undeniable that this is one of the best tutors available in green.
| Pros | Cons |
| Repeatable | Mana value restrictions |
| Phyrexian mana |
Recommended Formats: Commander
#1 – Survival of the Fittest
Only one tutor could stand above the rest, so perhaps it’s fitting that Survival of the Fittest is my pick for #1. Unlike most of the other tutors we’ve discussed, this card doesn’t put creatures directly on the battlefield. Instead, it has a cheap, repeatable effect to add creatures to your hand.
Survival of the Fittest tops the list because of its efficiency. You only have to spend two mana to cast it and one to activate its ability. That’s a small price to pay to get the right cards into your hand. If your deck has graveyard synergies, you might not even mind discarding cards for its effect. If you’re looking to get as much value from your tutors as possible, Survival of the Fittest is your best bet.
| Pros | Cons |
| Repeatable | Makes you discard cards |
| Cheap |
Recommended Formats: Commander
Top 5 Green Land Tutors
Of course, there’s still an entire group of green tutors we need to cover: land tutors. Lands are some of the most subtly powerful cards in Magic, so these tutors could easily be worth a spot in the right deck.
Honorable Mention – Kura, the Boundless Sky
Kura, the Boundless Sky might not have made the top 5, but it’s still an excellent option if you need to find multiple lands at once. This dragon searches for any three lands when it dies, which can assemble just about any land-based combo. It can find all of the tron lands at once, or it can grab any utility lands you might want access to. That’s a pretty decent upside considering it’s also a big threat in the air.
Still, we have to mention its downsides. Kura only gets these lands if it dies, which isn’t guaranteed. Your opponents might have exile effects, or they might choose to use their removal on other targets. This card works best alongside sacrifice outlets, and it works even better if you can recur it again and again.
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It also doesn’t put the lands directly onto the battlefield. Every tutor in the top 5 does this, so Kura is much slower by comparison. When you also consider that Kura is one of the most expensive land tutors available, it’s hard to justify placing it above the next five options. Still, you shouldn’t underestimate how strong it is to tutor for three cards at once.
| Pros | Cons |
| Tutors for three lands | Only triggers on death |
| Puts cards in hand | |
| Expensive |
Recommended Formats: Commander
#5 – Titania’s Command
Magic has a long history of powerful modal spells. If you can use a card in a variety of situations, it’s unlikely that it’ll ever be dead in your hand. Since modal spells give you a list of effects to choose between, they can often help you no matter what the
With The Brothers’ War, we’re getting a new cycle of commands! Titania’s Command not only lets you search for any two lands and put them onto the battlefield, but you can also create tokens, buff your creatures, or exile someone’s graveyard.
Putting two lands onto the battlefield at once is ridiculously strong. Whether they’re utility lands or combo pieces (such as Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers), you can gain a game-deciding advantage in one move.
What I really love about this card, though, is that it isn’t just a tutor. It can also improve your
Niche effects like exiling an opponents’ graveyard can be clutch on modal spells because you can always just choose the more standard effects. In this case, you want cards that can disrupt graveyard strategies, but you also don’t want them to be dead in other matchups. Modal spells like Titania’s Command are a great solution to this problem!
The one downside to Titania’s Command is that it’s rather expensive. There’s no denying that it’s a powerful card, but other land tutors are either cheaper or give you more value for that higher mana cost.
| Pros | Cons |
| Tutors two lands | Expensive |
| Flexible | |
| Ramp |
Recommended Formats: Commander, Standard
#4 – Elvish Reclaimer
Elvish Reclaimer is the slowest tutor on the list, but it still has a lot going for it. As a one-drop, it can come down early and start tutoring for lands. However, you can’t use its ability on the same turn that you play it because it requires you to tap it. Every other tutor on this list can be used right away, or at least has the potential to.
Still, getting a repeatable tutor out on turn one is a pretty strong start to any game. If you’re looking to fill up your graveyard, Elvish Reclaimer also works towards that gameplan early.
Having a one mana 3/4 in the mid-game isn’t too shabby, either. It can deter attackers with its decent stats, and then you can use its ability once your opponent goes past combat.
Elvish Reclaimer is a cheap, powerful option for finding the right lands, but it requires a lot more work than just casting it and getting the effect.
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheap | Can’t tutor right away |
| Repeatable | Sacrifices a land |
Recommended Formats: Commander, Legacy
#3 – Crop Rotation
Crop Rotation works a lot like Elvish Reclaimer, but it isn’t repeatable. If you’re looking to tutor for multiple lands, Crop Rotation won’t get you all the way there. However, it does its job incredibly well.
First, it’s an instant. Casting your spells at the last possible second is always a benefit because it gives your opponents less time to react. Having open mana might also deter them from making the best play since they don’t know what tricks you might be holding.
Crop Rotation is also more efficient than Elvish Reclaimer. With the Reclaimer, you have to invest three mana and a land before getting your first tutor. Crop Rotation only requires one mana, so you can act on your game plan more quickly.
This card has definitely helped me win the game multiple times. My opponents usually don’t see it coming since I only have one land untapped, but it can turn a basic forest into my best land. Surprising your opponents with something like Gaea’s Cradle is an easy way to gain momentum!
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheap | Sacrifices a land |
| Instant |
Recommended Formats: Commander, Legacy, Pauper
#2 – Scapeshift
You can get any lands you want with Scapeshift, but it often doesn’t matter what you’re finding. Rather than search up specific combos, this card works best when you can get as many lands as possible. With cards like Avenger of Zendikar or Rampaging Baloths on the battlefield, you’ll get so many landfall triggers that you can practically win on the spot.
Field of the Dead in particular pairs very well with Scapeshift. Even if you have to search for it with all the other lands, Field of the Dead will trigger for each land that you get.
With just a modest
| Pros | Cons |
| Tutors for multiple lands | Sacrifices lands |
Recommended Formats: Commander, Modern
#1 – Primeval Titan
Primeval Titan doesn’t have the explosive potential of Scapeshift, nor does it have the cheap mana value of Crop Rotation or Elvish Reclaimer. Still, I believe that it’s the best green tutor for finding lands.
First of all, it gets you any two lands when it enters the battlefield. Not only is that effect immediate, but it also gives you more cards than most other land tutors. If you’re trying to assemble a two-card combo, such as Thesbian’s Stage and Dark Depths, this effect is perfect. Second, it also serves as ramp. You don’t have to sacrifice anything to get these lands, so they should put you ahead on mana.
Primeval Titan also has the potential to be a repeatable tutor. Because it’s a 6/6, you can attack freely with this giant on most
For the immediacy of its effect, the fact that it ramps you, and the potential to get even more triggers from it, I have to put Primeval Titan at #1.
| Pros | Cons |
| Tutors for two lands | Expensive |
| Repeatable | |
| Ramp |
Recommended Formats: Legacy, Modern
End Step
Whether you’re looking for creatures or lands, green tutors give you some of the strongest effects in Magic. I hope this article has shown you why green tutors are worth running, as well as inspired you to try out these powerful cards for yourself!
