I have to be honest: I was sort of expecting
this card to be a land. I don't know how it
would have worked, but I was. In its current
form, it was intended to work with the rest of
Return to Ravnica's Selesnya cards, as both
halves of its rules text arguably reference
that, but even if you use it as "just" a Keldon
Warlord variant, that's hardly a bad thing.
Note, for example, that it also has some
interest for Wall decks, as those also tend to
have lots of creatures that sit around and don't
do much and a need for one or two creatures that
can attack. You want to be careful with a 9/9
creature that can be killed by Pyroclasm, but
you definitely want to explore the potential of
a 9/9 creature for three mana.
Today's card of the day is Wayfaring Temple
which is a three mana Green/White with power and
toughness equal to the number of creatures you
control that also Populates when it deals combat
damage to an opponent. This requires a bit
of support and is one of the more efficient
Populate cards, so in that build and with at
least one aura or equipment available to add
evasion or Trample it can be very effective for
the cost. Otherwise it is weak by itself
by requiring multiple creatures in play, in
situations where it can't attack, or when
lacking a token to copy. Overall this is a
decent card in the right deck, but it needs both
the right build and a favorable field to be
worthwhile.
In Limited this is a decent card even with just
one other creature in play and very beneficial
to a Populate theme if one can be assembled.
As a first pick it is somewhat weak, though that
can be overcome with fortunate and aggressive
drafting of token production in Booster.
In Sealed there's no real reason not to play
this barring a total lack of tokens as anything
above 2/2 will be a bargain.
Welcome to the card of the day section here at Pojo.com. We
close out our week looking at Wayfaring Temple
from Return to Ravnica. Wayfaring Temple is a
rare green and white creature that costs one
generic mana, one white mana, and one green
mana. Wayfaring Temple has power and toughness
equal to the number of creatures you control.
Whenever Wayfaring Temple deals combat damage to
a player, Populate.
Wayfaring Temple is a great card for a Selesnya based deck
especially if it utilizes tokens. A simple
Rancor on a Wayfaring Temple can become a large
problem, fast! Trampling damage means that it's
going to try breaking through, and with all the
pumps, it will be hard to know when to block,
and what with, because letting a Wayfaring
Temple through is never a good idea. The thing
with Populating always is making sure you have
something worthy of Populating. It's hard to say
that getting another 0/1 Plant token is a
successful Populate. But getting Centaurs or
Wurms is. So just make sure the pieces are in
place when the Wayfaring Temple hits.
