I assume that behind the manifest ability's long
but plain-language reminder text is some sort of
horrible contorted rules update. But I really
don't care about that. I'm more interested in
the fact that Whisperwood Elemental manages to
be a powerful stand-alone card and an
interesting card to build around at the exact
same time. I suppose you're trying to manifest a
bunch of creatures that you turn face up and
then use his sacrifice ability to manifest a
bunch more when they die? There's undoubtedly
something suitably "next level" beyond that, and
though I haven't figured it out yet, that's much
more interesting to me than the letter of his
rules.
Today's card of the day is Whisperwood
Elemental which is a five mana Green 4/4 that
you can sacrifice to give your face up non-token
monsters the ability to Manifest and you
Manifest the top card of your library at your
end step. This is a decent creature for
filling the field with 2/2 creatures or possibly
creatures to be cast from the face down
position.
Effectively having any creature in your deck
appear with Flash and unable to be countered is
a powerful incentive for the right build as it
does not support comes into play effects.
By itself it is just a 4/4 for five which isn't
impressive, but the creature advantage it can
help in building should gain it slots in decks
in current formats.
In Limited this is solid midgame creature that
adds card advantage making it an easy first pick
in Booster. The double Green out of five
is manageable for any deck with more than a
splash of the color, which makes it strong in
Sealed as well.
Mr. Whisperwood here is a force to be contended
with.
Manifest is an ability that's a bit tough to
evaluate. My take is that it's a free 2/2 that
could very well turn into a bigger creature.
Sometimes you'll manifest a non-creature that
you will hate losing, but unless you're running
tutors, it's no worse than that card being stuck
at the bottom of your library. A free 2/2 each
turn can add up pretty quickly.
The sacrifice ability is what makes Whisperwood
REALLY interesting, though. One of the biggest
foes of heavy creature decks is that a board
wipe completely kills you. It's always a
struggle whether to aggressively put out another
creature or hold back in case of the board wipe.
With Whisperwood on the table, you can
aggressively play creatures, knowing that you
will get a small army in return if they do clear
the board.
