Sylvan Scavenging – Foundations
Date Reviewed: January 13, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.13
Limited: 4.63
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I expect a lot of confusion in the months and years to come over whether this card is in Standard or not, specifically from people who only look at the art, see Bloomburrow, and forget when that set rotated from Standard. That’s another reason to play cube, by the way – nothing rotates unless you want it to! Sylvan Scavenging is not, of course, entirely unique apart from its incredible cuteness: it is definitely reminiscent of the cards that incrementally add creatures or just power to your side of the table. Unlike the more powerful examples of the effect (think Garruk Wildspeaker), it is capable of being deactivated by an opponent playing aggressively enough with removal spells, but under most normal circumstances, you should be able to have at least its first mode available. It’s also worth noting that if you do manage to get the free Raccoon token, you can give it a +1/+1 counter the next turn and threaten to make what is effectively a perpetual motion machine. That’s pretty slow compared to something like Garruk Wildspeaker, but if Garruk is in the top tier of this style of card, I would expect Sylvan Scavenging to be in at least the decent tier.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5 (I’m wary of the popularity of Wrath of God variants since they’re just the most effective creature removal in a four-player free-for-all format, but if your deck has a theme of making tokens either incidentally or without paying mana, this might put it right over the top)
Sylvan Scavenging is an interesting sort of card because it steadily accumulates value…but with a catch. The catch is that the main desirable mode requires a creature with 4 power or greater, as a free 3/3 is pretty nice…but it can usually help you get there by dumping a counter on a creature to embiggen it. This procs at the end step, which is usually better than an upkeep trigger for this effect…though you would sometimes like the extra power that turn, having a Racoon to block on your turn is pretty nice.
I think the main question is how reliably you’ll be able to have the second mode online…a free 3/3 each turn is pretty nice and adds up over a long game, but it’s rare for that mode to be online on turn 3…not impossible, but definitely not the most common of things. All the same, I think this is the sort of “sleeper” card that does a lot of damage with fairly minimal investment, and I don’t see it as being a star…but it needn’t be a star, and it’s quite good for what it is.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 4.75 (keep one creature, and this gets nuts)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
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