I think that Blue should get more land searching and that Green should be able to gain control of creatures and counter noncreature spells.
Mark Rosewater has described blue as the color of nuture, manipulation, cold, water, air, control, construction, man-made stuff, artificial growth, and what could be over what is. Blue has the third most amount of elemental creatures after Red and Green, and the elements, mana, and lands are semi-connected. Searching for lands involves the library, which is an area that blue manipulates often. Searching for stuff in your library involves what could be instead of what is. Putting more than one land per turn into play is artificial, man-made, and manipulates the environment (lands). There is even a precedent set in this with Dreamscape Artist. Because of this it makes sense to give blue nonbasic land searching, as nonbasic usually symbolizes civilization instead of nature.
To balance this out, blue has to lose something. Mark Rosewater has described green as being the color of Community, Interdependence, and the "if you are not with us then you are against us" attitude. Green's community spirit is usually represented with buffs like Overrun and token generation. But couldn't it also make sense for green to represent this with Mind Control effects? These are usually in blue because blue is the color of manipulation, trickery, deceit, and the mind. However, this doesn't mean much because historically, if there wasn't a good place to put something, blue got it (for example, Prodigal Sorcerer). Green has done something like this before in the form of Willow Satyr. However, this is not enough to balance out green's loss of nonbasic land searching. Green has always been the color of nature and has hated artifice and the unnatural. This is normally represented by artifact and enchantment destruction, but what if countering noncreature spells was moved to green? This would mean that green could, like all of the other colors, have options other than smashing your opponent to death with creatures. This has been done before with Avoid Fate and Lifeforce (Sort of). If this was done, Blue would still have counters that effect all types of spells, creature counters, and some ways of gaining control of creatures, they just wouldn't have as many Mind Control effects and would have no counterspells that only target noncreatures. After all, how does it make sense that the color that loves artifacts the most and is tied for instants and sorceries gets noncreature hate?
Blue doesn't care about land matters, because by and large, you can run a deck with Blue in it off of 4 Islands for the rest of the game. Green needs land, because Green has creatures with the highest mana costs, and Green ramp is firmly established as a theme of the color.
Green would still get ramp, just in the form of creatures like Llanowar Elves and spells like Rampant Growth that only search for basic lands. It just seems a bit limiting for green to be so focused only on creatures.
Green would still get ramp, just in the form of creatures like Llanowar Elves and spells like Rampant Growth that only search for basic lands. It just seems a bit limiting for green to be so focused only on creatures.
Green also has a few enchantments, and a fair share of sorceries and instants.
Green is the color most in tune with nature. Green creatures dislike anything not to do with nature, especially magic, which distorts reality for the sake of convenience. I like Green as a color - it's a very simple, straightforward, no nonsense color in general.
If green hates magic, then wouldn't countering noncreature spells be green? Artifacts, Enchantments, Instants, and Sorceries aren't natural, so green should be able to respond to them more effectively. I could see your arguement more for "gain control of enchanted/target creature" effects, but that wouldn't interfere with green's style of play much, they'd just be overwhelming you with your own creatures in addition to their creatures.
Mark Rosewater has described blue as the color of nuture, manipulation, cold, water, air, control, construction, man-made stuff, artificial growth, and what could be over what is. Blue has the third most amount of elemental creatures after Red and Green, and the elements, mana, and lands are semi-connected. Searching for lands involves the library, which is an area that blue manipulates often. Searching for stuff in your library involves what could be instead of what is. Putting more than one land per turn into play is artificial, man-made, and manipulates the environment (lands). There is even a precedent set in this with Dreamscape Artist. Because of this it makes sense to give blue nonbasic land searching, as nonbasic usually symbolizes civilization instead of nature.
To balance this out, blue has to lose something. Mark Rosewater has described green as being the color of Community, Interdependence, and the "if you are not with us then you are against us" attitude. Green's community spirit is usually represented with buffs like Overrun and token generation. But couldn't it also make sense for green to represent this with Mind Control effects? These are usually in blue because blue is the color of manipulation, trickery, deceit, and the mind. However, this doesn't mean much because historically, if there wasn't a good place to put something, blue got it (for example, Prodigal Sorcerer). Green has done something like this before in the form of Willow Satyr. However, this is not enough to balance out green's loss of nonbasic land searching. Green has always been the color of nature and has hated artifice and the unnatural. This is normally represented by artifact and enchantment destruction, but what if countering noncreature spells was moved to green? This would mean that green could, like all of the other colors, have options other than smashing your opponent to death with creatures. This has been done before with Avoid Fate and Lifeforce (Sort of). If this was done, Blue would still have counters that effect all types of spells, creature counters, and some ways of gaining control of creatures, they just wouldn't have as many Mind Control effects and would have no counterspells that only target noncreatures. After all, how does it make sense that the color that loves artifacts the most and is tied for instants and sorceries gets noncreature hate?
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Blue doesn't care about land matters, because by and large, you can run a deck with Blue in it off of 4 Islands for the rest of the game. Green needs land, because Green has creatures with the highest mana costs, and Green ramp is firmly established as a theme of the color.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Green also has a few enchantments, and a fair share of sorceries and instants.
Green is the color most in tune with nature. Green creatures dislike anything not to do with nature, especially magic, which distorts reality for the sake of convenience. I like Green as a color - it's a very simple, straightforward, no nonsense color in general.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.