devoted druid. I keep seeing this dude's name pop up in places here, and it's been making me think. He was once one of my favorite mana elves back in TSP/lorwyn when I played a bunch of pump spells on him to churn out groundbreakers, timber mares, and uktabi drakes, but he actually seems like a pretty good mana elf for cube. While left alone, he can only add 2 mana a single time, but as soon as you add any global pump or equipment, he's able to give you some pretty insane turns. Does anyone run this guy already, and is how often does he give you more mana than he should?
I just added the Druid but haven't played with her yet. I wanted to push ramp and this seemed like the next best ramp critter I wasn't running. I'm expected Devoted Druid to be solid with occasional bursts of aweseomeness, like T3 Vorapede or Garruk, Primal Hunter.
This card is still a very uncommon addition- which doesn't automatically mean that it is a bad card though. We have been running the Elf since almost a year now and it has lead to some pretty sick plays so far.
The untap ability doesn't even necessarily have to be used to generate mana, just having threatening to be able to pay for some of the soft counters makes those cards significantly worse. The other use of the untap ability is in combination with the Swords/Jitte, since it not only ignores the tap effects (which happen to be very good against equipments) but also can give you a blocker with double protection or get more counters on Jitte.
To be fair, you have to jump through a few hoops to get counters on a jitte with this guy though, considering his 0 power, particularly if he also has a -1/-1 counter on him too. The same could be said about any dude with Vigilance.
I like that you can threaten to add extra mana though. I've totally blundered whilst playing against a U/G deck that packed Wall of Roots. I knew his only two counterspells were Mana Drain and Voidslime. I cast a Sword of Feast and Famine, assuming he didn't have enough mana for the Voidslime (and Mana Drain was in the yard). He totally did have the Voidslime and could pay for it putting a counter on Wall of Roots during my turn. I was like "son of a *****"
With my NEO update, I'm planning to add Devoted Druid to go with Swift Reconfiguration. I'm also aware Devoted Druid can combo with Vizier of Remedies. Are there any other cards Devoted Druid pairs with that are worth considering?
I wouldn't be putting Vizier of Remedies in a cube just to combo with the Druid, since it doesn't do anything without the Druid. But generally Druid can convert your pump spells into a lot of mana. Become Immense comes to mind. Druid is also very good with Colossification as you can enchant and attack on the same turn, or generate 20+ mana.
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To be fair, you have to jump through a few hoops to get counters on a jitte with this guy though, considering his 0 power, particularly if he also has a -1/-1 counter on him too. The same could be said about any dude with Vigilance.
I like that you can threaten to add extra mana though. I've totally blundered whilst playing against a U/G deck that packed Wall of Roots. I knew his only two counterspells were Mana Drain and Voidslime. I cast a Sword of Feast and Famine, assuming he didn't have enough mana for the Voidslime (and Mana Drain was in the yard). He totally did have the Voidslime and could pay for it putting a counter on Wall of Roots during my turn. I was like "son of a *****"
Juju Alters - Altered MTG Cards
[180 classic cube]
[180 classic cube]