February 21, 1998
The Card of the Day is...
Wood Elemental
Legends Rare
3G Summon Elemental
*/*
"*s in the lower right-hand corner are set to the number of untapped forests you sacrifice when Wood Elemental is brought into play."
A brief rundown of the card:
The phrase "Trying to polish crap" comes to mind when I was thinking about Wood Elemental. No matter how I'd try to dress it up, Wood Elemental is bad. Real bad. All the better reason to build a deck around it and try to beat cocky players with decks costing $100's. They will laugh and taunt at your concept--until you get an extremely lucky draw and they draw 6 huge creatures and one Ice Floe---and you somehow win a game. Only play cocky players once, then move on to another that doesn't know about your previous losses with Wood Elementals. Keep at it until you do somehow pump up a huge Wood Elemental, and crush someone. Never play them again with that deck. You will be known as "The guy that annihalated so-and-so's #1 deck with Wood Elementals" forever and ever. You will be considered a god in your own mind for a while at least. Here are some suggestions for proper care and feeding of {gulp} Wood Elemental:
- Birds of Paradise/Llanowar Elves/Mox Emerald...
Having enough non-forest mana to cast Wood Elemental is a very important consideration while dealing with this hungry beast. If you can cast Wood Elemental without having to tap any of your forests, all the more to shamelessly hurl to the graveyard when you unleash the mighty Wood Elemental.
- Veteran Explorer/Rampant Growth/Nature's Lore/Untamed Wilds...
All of these cards and a few more are great for getting lots of land out quickly. A deck filled with these cards can have 7 lands out on the 4rth turn pretty easily. If you throw in some luck, Moxes and a Black Lotus (and who wouldn't to compliment their Wood Elemental???), you could also summon a 7/7 Wood Elemental on the fourth turn. Hmmmm, that's not too awful.
- Summer Bloom+Land Tax
Summer Bloom is an alternative means of placing many lands into play on a given turn. Land Tax can help assure you'll always have that land to put into play.
- Llanowar Druid
You can sacrifice this druid to untap all of your forests. You'll need as many untapped forests you can get your hands on.
- Mystic Veil/Dense Foilage
These enchantments are great for protecting your Wood Elemental from harm. You really don't want anything bad to happen to this monster once you summon him. It's not as simple as just casting another to replace it.
- Seeker/Fear
If you're going to put all of your effort into creating one giant creature without trample, you had best make sure your nasty will be unblockable. I've put too much time into casting Scaled Wurms quickly, only to have them consistently blocked by kelp or knight tokens. Seeker and Fear can almost guarantee your ungodly Wood Elemental will be able to hit every turn.
- Giant Growth/Regrowth
I strongly suggest you put the "default" green cards in your Wood Elemental deck. Your going to need all of the power you can get.
- Armageddon
Since almost all of your lands are going to the graveyard anyway, why not try to squeeze out an Armageddon after you field a Wood Elemental. If you can pull this off, your angry tree just might be able to win you a game or two. This idea comes to us from Steven Taylor.
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