I always thought this was an interesting card,
and I kind of like that all of its printings
after Scourge have been in stand-alone
supplemental sets - it fits much better there
than in the Standard and Modern tournament
grind. It lacks the immediate punch of something
like Quirion Dryad, but it starts with higher
toughness and gets absolutely out of hand at
multiplayer tables, making it a much better
choice for the slower sorts of environments in
which many casual players exist. And it's yet
another combo with Doubling Season, but then
again, what isn't?
Forgotten Ancient has an interesting history: it
was actually the first “You Make The Card” card,
appearing in Scourge for the first time. It's
far nastier than it looks at first glance; it
gets bigger anytime anyone casts a spell,
resulting in an unkillable monstrosity fairly
quickly. And if it's not big enough to get the
job done, you can move its counters over to
other creatures to make them more lethal. This
gets out of hand very quickly in EDH and
multiplayer games, as Forgotten Ancient can grow
very large when many people are casting spells.
Its day has long since passed in Constructed
formats, but Forgotten Ancient is a house in
multiplayer games.
