Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
Why Natural Connection Became a Green Cult Favorite
Green has long been the color of growth, resilience, and a little bit of wild, forest-fueled hustle in Magic: The Gathering. When a card like Natural Connection drops into a legendary green deck, it doesn’t just tick a box on a curve—it whispers a promise: you can bend the game to your will with a simple, reliable action. This instant from Commander 2020 did just that for many players who adore land-based strategy. It’s not flashy in the way a game-ending bomb is, but it’s the kind of tool that earns lasting respect in the EDH community and beyond 🧙♂️. The card’s appeal sits at the intersection of value, accessibility, and thematic flavor that green players celebrate with a sly grin and a fist pump.
At a glance, Natural Connection is a straightforward spell: pay {2}{G}, search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. That’s it—no bells, no whistles, just guaranteed acceleration and mana-base fixing when you need it most. The mana cost aligns with green’s historical emphasis on ramp, and the instant speed means you can spool out a land during your opponent’s turn or in response to a disruption, keeping your tempo intact even as you shore up your mana base. In the context of Commander 2020’s green-heavy offerings, this card slots into decks that want predictable growth without overcommitting to fetchlands or other more brittle tools. It’s a quiet backbone that supports splash color strategies and heavy land-based synergy 🔥💎⚔️.
What truly cements a card into “cult favorite” territory is how it ages in players’ minds. Natural Connection isn’t the flashiest tutor or the most dramatic play you’ll ever see, but it gives you reliable access to a basic land—every time, in the right color, and with minimal friction. In green EDH decks that prize land drops, ramp acceleration, and the flexibility to fetch exactly what you need for a mana curve, a common instant that can tutor for a basic land becomes a lifeline. The “basic land only” constraint feels like a clean, honest mechanic that plays well with all sorts of strategy archetypes—from CEDH-friendly builds that want consistent color fixing to more casual, big-mwin EDH boards where fetching dependably is half the battle 🎲🎨.
“Zendikar will not surrender, and neither can we.”
That flavor text from a plane famous for its roaming, treacherous terrain echoes the card’s practical personality. Natural Connection embodies Zendikar’s resilient spirit: it doesn’t pretend to be a grand spell; it quietly helps you keep marching on by ensuring your mana is never stranded due to a late-game land drop. It’s a reminder that some of the most memorable moments in MTG arrive not from the loudest burst of power, but from steady, dependable forward motion that keeps the game moving in your direction 🧙♂️.
Design, Lore, and the Green Ethos
Wesley Burt’s illustration for Natural Connection catches the earthy, forgiving vibe of a green instant. The art resonates with players who love the tactile pleasure of stepping through a lush battlefield, a reminder that mana—like a thriving forest—is something you cultivate, not conjure out of thin air. The card’s Commander 2020 frame and its common rarity reinforce the feeling that this is a “deck-thickener” rather than a one-off splurge. It’s the sort of card you slot into multiple green EDH shells—ranging from token swarms to big-muy mana-fixers—without feeling out of place. And in a world where collector excitement often centers on rare and mythic cards, the steady, budget-friendly footprint of Natural Connection commands a different kind of reverence, the kind that true green players share with one another over a table crowded with dice, dice towers, and a chorus of “land drop!” cheers 🧙♂️🎲🔥.
From a lore perspective, the Zendikar motif—the plane that thrives on exploration, peril, and the stubborn will to endure—pairs nicely with this card’s practical resilience. The ability to fetch a basic land taps into the theme of steady, reliable growth that green planeswalkers and half-mad green mages prize. It’s a card that embodies the spirit of fixing and ramp, all while staying within the color’s comfort zone. In EDH circles, that alignment between flavor identity and mechanical function often fuels a card’s cult appeal more than any single tournament win ever could ⚔️🎨.
Why It Endures in the Green Canon
There are a few ingredients that keep Natural Connection rising in the ranks of green favorites:
- Reliability in a pinch—as a common instant, it’s affordable in every sense: in-game impact, mana cost, and availability. The ramp payoff is immediate and predictable.
- Versatility across formats—the card’s legality in Modern, Pioneer, Legacy, and Commander means it’s valuable in a broad spectrum of green decks, from casual to competitive.
- Low friction—no land type restrictions, no trigger conditions, just pick a basic land and place it. That simplicity makes it a nice fit in multi-deck EDH environments where you don’t want to clutter the game with complex interactions.
- Budget accessibility—with prices hovering around a few cents in USD and modest EUR values, it’s easy to slot into a dozen decks without breaking the bank, letting players experiment with green ramp on a budget 🧙♂️💎.
In practice, you’ll often see Natural Connection used in decks that lean on green mana engines like arbor-friendly midrange builds, or in control shells that want to stabilize their mana base to protect a late-game engine. The card doesn’t replace big spells or game-winning combos, but it shores up a deck’s foundation—something real MTG fans recognize as a victory all its own. That’s the heart of its cult status: a card that quietly makes everything else sing by removing the fear of a clunky mana base.
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Ultimately, Natural Connection endures because it speaks to a core truth of green strategy: win through steady, scalable growth that your opponents can feel and your friends can trust. It’s a card that invites players to lean into the joy of land, tempo, and the quiet thrill of “there it goes”—the moment you fetch the right land, the board breathes a little easier, and the path to victory reveals itself a little clearer. In a rainbow of legendary spells and over-the-top combos, this humble instant stands as a friendly reminder that sometimes, the best magic is the one that simply gets you there 🧙♂️🎨.
- Set: Commander 2020 (c20)
- Mana cost: {2}{G}
- Type: Instant
- Oracle text: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
- Rarity: Common
- Flavor text: “Zendikar will not surrender, and neither can we.”
- Artist: Wesley Burt
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