These Overlooked MTG Star Trek Green Cards Deserve More Love

We’re just a few days away from the full release of Magic’s Star Trek set now, and to say its reception has been muted would be an understatement. Players are reporting record-low Prerelease turnouts, and single prices are incredibly low for this time in the release cycle.

The exact cause behind this collective cold shoulder remains unknown, but it does mean a lot of the best cards in this set are flying under the radar right now. Some of the set’s top-tier green cards, in particular, feel very overlooked right now, meaning there are some low-key bangers you can grab if you’re so inclined.

Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy

How players aren’t more excited about Star Trek’s most iconic Doctor is beyond me. In 90% of scenarios, this card is just an Eternal Witness Eternal Witness When this creature enters, you may return target card from your graveyard to your hand. with Flash thanks to its first ability alone. This is an excellent rate for an MTG classic that over 723,000 Commander decks already run, with the added benefit of saving key permanents from graveyard hate and such.

If this were all Dr. McCoy did, it would probably already be worthy of consideration for most green Commander decks. There’s an entire second mode here, however, which essentially serves as a Not Dead After All Not Dead After All Until end of turn, target creature you control gains "When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control, then create a Wicked Role token attached to it." (Enchanted creature gets +1/+1. When this token is put into a graveyard, each opponent loses 1 life.) effect in green. While it’s not totally out of the color pie, thanks to Reincarnation Reincarnation Choose target creature. When that creature dies this turn, return a creature card from its owner's graveyard to the battlefield under the control of that creature's owner. , green doesn’t get access to this effect very often.

You can use this ability to protect your key creatures from removal or board wipes, which is ideal for keeping your Commander safe. Alternatively, you can use it on a value creature like Solemn Simulacrum Solemn Simulacrum When this creature enters, you may search your library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
When this creature dies, you may draw a card. , then sacrifice it to re-use both of its abilities. In any case, the extra +1/+1 counter here is excellent with creatures that care about those, such as Basking Broodscale Basking Broodscale Devoid (This card has no color.)
{1}{G}: Adapt 1. (If this creature has no +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on this creature, you may create a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token with "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}." and Jadzia Dax, Living Legacy Jadzia Dax, Living Legacy At the beginning of your first main phase, put a +1/+1 counter on Jadzia Dax, then add an amount of {G} equal to the number of counters on her.
Transfer Symbiont — {2}{G}, Discard this card: Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature. .

Outside of Commander, McCoy’s second ability even allows for the kind of “Scam” lines we saw before with the Evoke Elementals in Modern, but on a card with more overall utility. This could earn the card a seat in Standard, where the Lorwyn Eclipsed Evoke Elementals play very well with it indeed.

Given its clear power and potential multi-format appeal, it’s wild that hardly anyone is talking about Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy yet. As with many Star Trek cards, though, this means you can grab copies for next to nothing if you want to get ahead of the curve.

Captain Pike, Fullness of Time

While not quite as much of a slam-dunk as Captain Kathryn Janeway Captain Kathryn Janeway You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Whenever Captain Janeway or another creature you control enters, that creature explores. (Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.) , Pike is another Star Trek Captain that lands decks will love. Getting to play lands from the top of your library is a pretty huge ability in these decks, as cards like Oracle of Mul Daya Oracle of Mul Daya You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Play with the top card of your library revealed.
You may play lands from the top of your library. and Augur of Autumn Augur of Autumn You may look at the top card of your library any time.
You may play lands from the top of your library.
Coven — As long as you control three or more creatures with different powers, you may cast creature spells from the top of your library. have proven time and again.

Given how land-heavy Landfall decks typically are, this should essentially serve as once-per-turn card draw more often than not. It also pairs especially well with Exploration Exploration You may play an additional land on each of your turns. effects to blast through land pockets. Add cards like Sensei’s Divining Top Sensei’s Divining Top {1}: Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order.
{T}: Draw a card, then put this artifact on top of its owner's library. to manipulate your library, and the results can be incredible.

We’ve seen all this before on other creatures, of course, but what sets Pike apart is its excellent stat scaling. In everything but Mono-Green lists, there’s no reason why Captain Pike shouldn’t be swinging for big damage quickly. With how many good nonbasic lands we have access to nowadays, and land token generators like Overlord of the Hauntwoods Overlord of the Hauntwoods Impending 4—{1}{G}{G} (If you cast this spell for its impending cost, it enters with four time counters and isn't a creature until the last is removed. At the beginning of your end step, remove a time counter from it.)
Whenever this permanent enters or attacks, create a tapped colorless land token named Everywhere that is every basic land type. , it’s easy to lean extra-hard into this ability if you want to.

While it’s not revolutionary, a lands-from-library effect on a significant body is new for green, and it should see plenty of play in Landfall decks. Whether you’re attacking and blocking, or just offering Pike up to Greater Good Greater Good Sacrifice a creature: Draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power, then discard three cards. , there’s plenty of mileage to be had.

U.S.S. Discovery, at Black Alert

You’d be forgiven for glossing over U.S.S. Discovery during your early surveys of Star Trek, since the Spacecraft in the set all blend together a bit. This one is well worth a second look, however, given its potential in both fair lists and combo decks.

As the clever folks over at MTG Creative Combos have already figured out, U.S.S. Discovery enables a one-card win in current Standard. By running nothing but Quintorius Kand Quintorius Kand Whenever you cast a spell from exile, Quintorius Kand deals 2 damage to each opponent and you gain 2 life.
+1: Create a 3/2 red and white Spirit creature token.
−3: Discover 4.
−6: Exile any number of target cards from your graveyard. Add {R} for each card exiled this way. You may play those cards this turn. and copy effects, this deck can guarantee a chain of Discovers that ends the game on the spot with Quintorius’s passive. While this may be tricky to pull off in practice, largely due to the color requirements, the fact that it’s an option at all is intriguing.

Outside of this, U.S.S. Discovery feels like a fantastic fair card in Commander as well. Getting an on-entry Discover effect on an artifact is something new for Magic, so plenty of strategies will be able to abuse it that couldn’t quite find spots for the creature version.

You get more Discovers on attack, too, so five mana isn’t too much to ask for the kind of consistent advantage this can provide.

While it won’t redefine any given format, U.S.S. Discovery feels like it has enough solid potential to be worth noting. Hardly anyone is doing so yet, which makes it a bit of a hidden gem for now.

Holo-Engineer

Last but not least, green gets one of the funkiest Token cards we’ve seen in some time with Holo-Engineer. This newcomer converts any token you create, be it a creature, artifact, or something more unusual, into a 3/3 artifact creature.

Right out of the gate, this is fantastic for traditional Token decks, which tend to create 1/1s more often than not. Getting 3/3s instead is a major buff, making the likes of Hop to It Hop to It Create three 1/1 white Rabbit creature tokens. legitimate threats. Since all your tokens are converted into artifacts, you can also tap into synergy pieces like Craterclaw Colossus Craterclaw Colossus Haste
When this creature enters, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of artifacts you control. that might’ve been tougher to use without it.

The visual of turning your Clues, Treasures, and Food into 3/3 Holograms is a bit weird, but it’s an incredibly powerful play. This means that the new Quark, Humble Proprietor Quark, Humble Proprietor You can't sacrifice Treasure tokens.
At the beginning of each upkeep, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") , also weirdly overlooked right now, is bonkers with Holo-Engineer, netting you four 3/3s per turn cycle.

Add in Academy Manufactor Academy Manufactor If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each. , and you can stack the replacement effects to make twelve 3/3s per turn cycle.

While you usually have to take a hit on stats for a card like this, Holo-Engineer is a 6/6 for four across two bodies, which is a great rate even today. That, plus its surprisingly versatile ability, screams “Commander staple” to me, though apparently not to most players, as the card is largely going ignored right now.

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