Pretty cool, since it can get a 4/5 on the board
on turn three, or have it effectively have haste
if you play it turn four. But of course, your
opponent can revert your Treefolk back to a
Forest by killing the 1/1. And of course, if you
play the Druid too early, you're hindering your
mana development by attacking with your Forest
instead of tapping it for mana. And your
opponent may decide to permanently slow down
your mana development by hitting your animated
land with his Doom Blade. What then?
If the Forest you target didn't turn back into a
regular land after the Awakener Druid is no
longer around, a lot of intricate combos would
be possible. As it is, this card's interactions
are somewhat more straightforward. Getting two
creatures for the price of one is never a bad
thing, though, and the Treefolk Forest is
capable of swinging games when it appears
early (and the Druid sticks around for Gilt-Leaf
Archdruid's ability!).
Today's card of the day is Awakener Druid which
is returning to 2011 after a debut in 2010.
For three mana this 1/1 turns a Forest into a
4/5 Treefolk creature while Awakener Druid
itself remains on the battlefield. Taken
by itself this is good card advantage as you get
a 4/5 for three and a 1/1 at the cost of likely
not tapping a single Forest for mana. In
actual play a few problems can arise including
the obvious weakness of a 1/1 being, but if the
4/5 is destroyed or removed you also lose a land
drop. Green has plenty of methods to work
around this currently and in the right deck this
is a solid early threat if a little vulnerable
to disruption. An added benefit against
complete disruption that unless the targeted
Forest came into play on the same turn it will
be able to attack, which to the opponent is like
playing a 4/5 with Haste.
In Limited this can be a bit of a threat, but
without support is quite vulnerable and as in
the other formats can cost you a valuable Land
drop if your opponent targets it for removal.
Worth drafting with other strong creatures, but
not before more stable cards with a form of
evasion or protection. With Sealed almost
always should be included in a Green deck as a
credible threat.
G2 for a 1/1 that makes a Forest a 4/5
stomper for as long as the Druid remains on the
field. Not exactly anything groundbreaking for
competitive, nor casual really. It's more or
less a cheap, quick way to make a Manland (I
assume you know what those are) and then do
whatever for a turn. I see this being cool in
Draft/Sealed only for the quick tempo boost but
being more or less a junk card overall.
Competitive: 1/5, why when you have
Manlands?
Casual: 1/5, feel free to do something
with this other than play it.
Sealed/Draft: 2.5/5, tempo booster for a
turn or two or three.
