Commander Challenge – Wood Elemental

Another week means another chance to delve into the depths of MTG to try and pull out a card that nobody should be using. It’s a surprisingly enjoyable thing to do, because while there are a lot of mediocre cards, finding one that’s bad, but could also be used in a fun way, is tricky.

Today, we’re looking into one that is widely regarded as one of the worst cards in Magic. This is a card that has you sacrificing lands as it enters, and that’s bad. We are, of course, talking about the much beleaguered Wood Elemental Wood Elemental As this creature enters, sacrifice any number of untapped Forests.
Wood Elemental's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Forests sacrificed as it entered. .

What is Wood Elemental?

Wood Elemental Wood Elemental As this creature enters, sacrifice any number of untapped Forests.
Wood Elemental's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Forests sacrificed as it entered. is a four-mana green Elemental that reads, “As Wood Elemental enters the battlefield, sacrifice any number of untapped Forests. Wood Elemental’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of Forests sacrificed as it entered the battlefield.”

Now, at a glance, it’s not that bad. After all, sacrificing things isn’t always bad, so maybe it can work? Well, the thing is, you can only sacrifice untapped Forests, which means that you can’t actually cast this on turn four if you want it to survive, assuming you only have four mana.

You’ve got to not only sacrifice one Forest for each power and toughness, but they have to be different ones to the ones you used to cast it. It’s just not good, right? Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find two commanders you can use to make this work.

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Titania Elementals

First up is the lord of lands going to the graveyard, Titania, Protector of Argoth Titania, Protector of Argoth When Titania enters, return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Whenever a land you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, create a 5/3 green Elemental creature token. . This five-mana 5/3 allows you to put a land card from your graveyard back onto the battlefield, which is nice. It doesn’t even come in tapped either, so it’s just free mana. On top of that, it also reads, “Whenever a land you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, create a 5/3 green Elemental creature token.”

Now, you can see how both parts of this allow Wood Elemental Wood Elemental As this creature enters, sacrifice any number of untapped Forests.
Wood Elemental's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Forests sacrificed as it entered. to be useful. Playing Titania first and the Elemental second allows you to potentially sacrifice three lands to gain three 5/3 creatures, plus the 3/3 Wood Elemental Wood Elemental As this creature enters, sacrifice any number of untapped Forests.
Wood Elemental's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Forests sacrificed as it entered. itself too.

From there, you just need ways to play lands from your graveyard like Ancient Greenwarden Ancient Greenwarden Reach (This creature can block creatures with flying.)
You may play lands from your graveyard.
If a land entering causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time. , Crucible of Worlds Crucible of Worlds You may play lands from your graveyard. , and Ramunap Excavator Ramunap Excavator You may play lands from your graveyard. . You could even use something like Conjurer’s Closet Conjurer’s Closet At the beginning of your end step, you may exile target creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under your control. to flicker your Wood Elemental Wood Elemental As this creature enters, sacrifice any number of untapped Forests.
Wood Elemental's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Forests sacrificed as it entered. to keep getting this effect too. All of these cards are also useful for our next choice.

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Wooden Gitrog

Here we have everyone’s favorite Frog Horror, The Gitrog Monster The Gitrog Monster Deathtouch
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice The Gitrog Monster unless you sacrifice a land.
You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Whenever one or more land cards are put into your graveyard from anywhere, draw a card. . Gitrog here is a five-mana black and green 6/6 with deathtouch that reads, “At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice The Gitrog Monster The Gitrog Monster Deathtouch
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice The Gitrog Monster unless you sacrifice a land.
You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Whenever one or more land cards are put into your graveyard from anywhere, draw a card. unless you sacrifice a land. You may play an additional land on each of your turns. Whenever one or more land cards are put into your graveyard from anywhere, draw a card.”

That’s a lot of text, but the main reason we want them is they give us an extra color. We can use all of the graveyard land enablers as above, but we also want to include Herald of Leshrac Herald of Leshrac Flying
Cumulative upkeep—Gain control of a land you don't control. (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
This creature gets +1/+1 for each land you control but don't own.
When this creature leaves the battlefield, each player gains control of each land they own that you control. and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth Each land is a Forest in addition to its other land types. .

This combo allows you to steal lands with the Herald, all of which are also Forests thanks to Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth Each land is a Forest in addition to its other land types. . You can then play Wood Elemental Wood Elemental As this creature enters, sacrifice any number of untapped Forests.
Wood Elemental's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Forests sacrificed as it entered. to sacrifice everyone else’s lands before you run out of lands to steal with Herald of Leshrac Herald of Leshrac Flying
Cumulative upkeep—Gain control of a land you don't control. (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
This creature gets +1/+1 for each land you control but don't own.
When this creature leaves the battlefield, each player gains control of each land they own that you control. . It’s an absurdly silly way to use these cards, but come on, it’ll be fun.

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