Hermit Druid – MTG Card Review – Throwback Thursday

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Twenty years ago, some enterprising designer thought they would put a design into Stronghold that offered a unique, high-risk way to get extra lands. It turns out it’s much better as one of the earliest one-card combos, a card that was doing what Dredge did a decade before Dredge had a name. To be fair, it was a little more unusual back then to have a deck with no basic lands at all, but people soon figured out what sorts of benefit you could get from it. From Ashen Ghoul to Bridge from Below to the very recent Over My Dead Bodies, this guy is a two-mana demonstration of why the graveyard is really a lot more like a second hand than anything else.

Constructed: 5/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 2/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5

Hermit Druid is busted.

…wait, you want more? Okay.

So, Hermit Druid looks pretty unimpressive at first: reveal to your first basic land, and put everything else into your graveyard. That, of course, is not how Hermit Druid is used. His effect basically says:

• G, T: Put your library into your graveyard.

That looks a lot different. And incredibly degenerate. You have Narcomoeba (which comes into play when milled), a lot of recursive creatures, Dread Return, Bridge from Below, and a lot of other potential shenanigans to abuse Hermit Druid with. It’s banned in Legacy for a very good reason: it comes down for two mana and wins you the game on your next turn. What’s not to like?

Constructed: 5
Casual: 2
Limited: 1.5
Multiplayer: 2
Commander: 3.5