Continuing with my series on awesome 1-mana creatures (which began with White and Blue), I’m covering the wide, wide world of 1-mana green creatures today, seeking the best and/or most interesting of the bunch to present here. 1-mana powerhouses on legs are Green’s strength; the following list contains creatures you would never believe cost just 1 green mana!
As always, if I’ve missed an awesome Green creature, let me know (nicely) in the comments! All images came from MagicCards.info.
 Great for Green/White–not often that any creature generates white mana, after all! |
 The ability to become a 3/3, AND the ability to be played for no cost? Awesome! |
 A classic for mana ramp, PLUS it flies–a rarity in Green! |
 Run 4 of these little guys and somebody’s getting +4/+4…or perhaps 4 creatures are getting +1/+1, or any other combo you choose! |
 Sometimes you just need colorless mana, even in a Green deck. For that, there’s this guy. |
 A little touch of Blue flavor (countering spells) on a Green creature, playing off of Green’s historical hatred for artifacts. |
 Great for keeping your creature force ready to block! |
 One of my boyfriend’s favorites, for its synergy with Muscle Burst as well as its land fetch. |
 (Technically a 0-mana creature, but it’s a land that’s summoning-sick like a creature, so I think it counts.) Great as a land source OR an emergency blocker! |
 Would be hilarious with Lure for killing a token army! |
 For those times when you need to add Trample to a creature that really ought to have it (ahem, Krosan Cloudscraper?) |
 1/1 shroud, and it’s an Elf to boot! |
 Great for mana ramp. |
 The green Soul Warden, and arguably better suited to Green for all the creatures Green can play for cheap. |
 1/1 Evolve is actually pretty strong, given that you’re likely going to play more powerful creatures later. And you can use those counters to regen it? SWEET |
 1/1 Reach is already great for Green, but the added power upon blocking a flying creature is just gravy. |
 If you need to be able to enchant your creatures, this little lady will serve you better than Elvish Lookout (mentioned earlier in this list). |
 More powerful than it might appear–Infect is DANGEROUSLY good. |
 Ditch a card for land fetch when you need it? OKAY! Helps to thin your deck AND get you the mana you need! |
 Great for at least partially combating a Mill deck–gets your lands back into play where you need them. |
 Here we see one reason why Elves win so doggone FAST in Magic…mana ramp on creatures! |
 Forestwalk is always a nice touch in a Green deck; Shanodin Dryads, Willow Dryad, and Zodiac Rabbit all come with this ability too. |
 Sack for mana ramp–a little different functionality from Elvish Pioneer, but same result! |
 Can’t leave out this classic, either! Elf and mana ramp for 1 mana…phew! |
 And if you want to get COMPLETELY silly with your Llanowar Elf action…LOL |
 Not so great in a one-on-one, but I could see this working great in a team game or Emperor game to help your buddies ramp up just as fast as you do! |
 Swampwalk is unusual but handy for a Green creature. |
 Shroud PLUS the ability to be a 3/3 mid- to late-game. |
 There’s a reason these things were snapped up like hotcakes when they were first printed–Exalted, 3 colors of mana, AND a 1/1 creature in one package! |
 This is one of those creatures that works great with your own cards, but gets SILLY when you play against another Green deck. |
 Suddenly I have an urge to build a Cat deck just to include this little beast! |
 Early-game mana cost, mid- AND late-game functionality. WIN |
 1-mana STOMP! Who cares that you have to sack a land to get it? |
 The phrase “EACH creature with flying” makes this 1-mana elf GREAT. Wonderful for getting rid of an army of 1/1 Birds, Spirits, etc.! |
 1/1 flying Faerie in Green? Yes, it exists! |
 Hilarious with a little mana ramp. And I love the flavor text, LOL |
 Like Rogue Elephant, this cat is utterly worth the extra cost of sacking a land, AND it adds Shroud! |
 1/1 deathtouch <3 |
 Fog on legs! |
 Though it has no power, its potential high toughness PLUS Reach is well worth it for 1 mana. |
 Wither AND the ability to be a 3/3 till end of turn? WOOT! |
 A classic first-turn alpha strike creature–even if you can’t pay the echo cost next turn, you still did 2 damage first turn! |
 Block creatures up to 3 power, even in the air! |
 Lovely synergy for Green/White/Red, Green/White, and Green/Red, but still a good creature even in a mono-Green deck! |
 Weren’t expecting that out of Green, were you? Just power up the bugs with Gaea’s Anthem and keep opponents from bouncing, preventing damage, etc.! |
 A Persist-like new ability on a 1/1 Wolf? Cool! |
Pretty sure this guy was banned in a format or two which I think means an auto include “Deathrite Shaman”. card has a lot of upside for 1 mana and unless i’m mistaken didn’t see it on your list 🙂 Also any way you could link part 4 in the comments. And part 5 in part 4’s comments? Can’t find the links. Thanks appreciate all the work!. Oh one last note under the spore frog you wrote fog on legs…I have decided it would be 5.8 times funnier of you changed it to “Fog on frog” that is all.
Thank you! I will add Deathrite Shaman ASAP, and edit all of the posts in this series to include links to each other 🙂 Glad you liked the list!
Noble Hierarch is probably the most disgusting one-drop EVER! I think you forgot Elvish Mystic, though…
I didn’t include a picture of Elvish Mystic because it basically does the same thing as Llanowar Elves–but I will include a link to it, since the Mystic is more Standard-friendly 🙂
And I agree, Noble Hierarch is overpowered…great for Bant decks, though! LOL
Ain’t Birds of Paradise not being better then Noble Hierarch? As its mana of any color instead of 1 of 3?
I agree that Birds’ mana generation is superior, but Noble Hierarch is great for decks that run a lot of Exalted creatures. It all depends on what you need. 🙂
New from Gulds of Ravnica: Pelt Collector. It’s pretty much experiment one, but slightly different, so you could include it. Here’s a few more:
Gnarlwood Dryad
Renowned Weaver
Hero of Leina Tower
Drayad Militant
Oh, and you say Noble Hierarch is a 1/1, but it is actually a 0/1
Wild Nacatl is not good in mono green. Might be usable in green/red or green/white but even then it’s so/so. But yeah in mono green it’s a 1/1 for 1 that does nothing, and thats not good in any sense of the word. Plus it has the drawback that if your opponent playing red and/or white somehow gains control of it, it’s bigger for them than it was for you.