this guy is so darn cute and combo able: storage lands, plains walkers, thalids, the list gos on and on. btw i love him with my mycoloth and paradox haze.
Dingo777
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(5 votes)
use with plainswalkers, yes I summon nicol bolas, double his counters, and boom, cruel ultimatium
Treima
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
Pretty neat. Can hold off vanishing effects, boost +1/+1 counter totals, and generally be an aid.
Willyum
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
this card is insane. i love the art work for it aswell, reminds me of halloween :)
Joseph_Leito
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Great for those "20 counters FTW" cards.
Mode
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
That's indeed a great combo card with a still somewhat resistant 1/3 body, and being able to double any counters including loyality counters from planeswalkers, time or fade counters from vanish / fade permanents, or tower counters from Helix Pinnacle, storage counters on lands or whatever you've got a great assortment of combos besides the common +1/+1 or charge counters. The downside is that you'll regrettably have to find another card to tap this guy with, since attacking with it won't be a good idea... Also, i'd have loved this guy if he was able to remove the counters instead. Would still not made him broken since this is a Johnny card that requires comboing to do anything, but apart from that this guy is still quite useful.
iondragonx
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
@Mode Forget Helix Pinnacle. It has shroud so Gilder Bairn can't target it. Having problems using this guy's Untap symbol? The ultimate way to tap your own creature = Springleaf Drum. =D
UNBAN_SHAHRAZAD
★★☆☆☆ (2.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Meh. Doubling Season is better, harder to kill and more cost effective. Also, you can't use this card with Helix Pinnacle because it has Shroud.
redwinedrummer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Excellent for Phantom decks. Great combo with Glare of Subdual and/or Springleaf Drum, then use it to exponentially pump Phantoms. The 3 toughness makes it a little hard to destroy.
Gilder bairn + hair strung koto = lots of counters, lots of milling.
f_fivefiftyseven
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This plus any way of giving it shroud and any way of getting it to tap itself or plus indestructibility is INSANE. Glider Bairn has the more combo potential than just about any card ever printed. Combine it with anything and everything that uses counters.
I just thought of something deadly. Gilder Bairn + (enchanted with) Presence of Gond + Pentad Prism = infinite mana after the first 2 times you double pentad prism's counters.
True_Smog
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
He is so spooky, I think it should be better to kill him just for in case...
A0602
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(4 votes)
Enchant him to give him a way to tap. You can double up Gemstone Array and you have yourself infinite mana very quickly. I am sure that you can find some use for that...
Catmurderer
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
I'd like to see him with Experiment Kraj...
vosrevesrevers
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
i've had this + saproling burst once and i ended up with 22 saproling tokens each with 120/120... no joke
Very fun card in casual formats, tap it down with tap effects, play a planeswalker of choice and for fun lets say elspeth and with out passing priorty have it double her counters and have her go ultimate.
Alqatrkapa
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Graft. Enough said.
imblaine
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
This card could be the best friend of players who play hydras.
Favorite. card. ever. Awesome versatility. totally awesome for anything; planeswalkers, quests, even Magosi, The Waterveil or Lighthouse Chronologist. total need for u/g time warp deck. Awesome art, too. just totally kick ass.
DeathDark
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Personally, I strapped a Paradise Mantle onto him, so he provided 1 of the mana he needed for the doubling. Then, I played Protean Hydra, getting him up to 52,428,800/52,428,800. Eat your heart out, Big Furry Monster.
Dragon's Blood also helped, as when Protean got kill-spelled, I dropped a +1/+1 counter on each of my creatures and blew them up to 16 counters.
I'm with Swordfishtrombones on using this card with planeswalkers and levelers, but I'm unclear how it works with Magosi, The Waterveil - Pay U and tap Magosi to get an eon counter and you skip your next turn. At some point you use Gilder Bairn to put two eon counters on Magosi. You can then tap Magosi and remove a counter to take an extra turn; however Gilder Bairn's adding of counters doesn't let you utilize the extra counters because Magosi is returned to your hand as a part of its effect, so the extra counters disappears.
He also dominates with Mycoloth for a ton of Saproling tokens and the Myojins (especially Cleansing Fire) of the Kamigawa block to be able to use their divinity counters twice, or repeatedly if you give Gilder Bairn indestructibility or regenerate.
This card opens up possibilities on many many cards that normally would have been to slow, and makes a plethora of combos. It ranks up there with Painter's Servant with the obscene number of cards it interacts positively with. 5/5 from me.
NobleWhiteGangsta
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Too bad you can't manipulate Gilder Bairn to work with poison counters on a player...Or is there? I (personally) don't know...Perhaps someone will figure it out. I'm really curious, what is an actual player considered in magic... Is it a permanent? IMO a player is the most permanent object in the game...The reason for the game to be played is based on two players (or permanents) coming together to play a game for supremacy. Planewalkers are considered permanents (they act like a tag teaming homeboy/home girl on your behalf). They have loyalty counters which Gilder Bairn works well with. So I pose the question again... If a player had POISON counters on them, could Gilder bairn make more of them and set a cancerous play into effect? Ending with 1 poison bite and then starting the deathclock on that player to die within.......say 4 turns. The poison decks may perhaps make a come back...I hope someone will set me straight!
UltimaCenturion
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Wow! I just thought of a great combo all by myself! This and Doubling Season! Just kidding. I just wish that Wizards would ban doubling season so people stop talking about it.
I really want this card, though. EDIT: Magosi the Waterveil DOES NOT WORK with this card. You have to bounce Magosi when you take an extra turn, thus removing ALL eon counters from it. This also doesn't work with Lighthouse Chronologist if you are running mono-blue, as you are paying just as much mana, if not MORE, than you normally would to get him all the way. Otherwise, if you are running other colored land, then yes, the two work together.
AXER
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(4 votes)
Does this guy remind anyone of that kid from "Where the Wild Things Are"?
allmighty_abacus
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
holy planeswalkers batman!
ZombieSnail
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
This guy has some fantastic, evocative art. And Gilder Bairn is probably my favorite card, 5/5 Seeing your opp chump block a 33/35 is the sh!t
Batstewart
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(5 votes)
@NobleWhiteGangsta You are, in the game, essentially considered a Planeswalker. The Planeswalker permanents are basically like other players with certain spells they can play, that you have temporary gained an alliance with, hence the 'loyalty' counters. There are certain auras that allow you to {enchant player}. This being said, I would say that you could not double poison counters. Although I did have the same hopes at first, haha.
This does not hit poison counters. But you know what does?
Proliferate.
If you haven't looked at the online spoilers yet, you can find the Proliferate ability there. Though it does not double poison counters, it does add one.
Diachronos
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(5 votes)
With the Rise of the Eldrazi set out, you can essentially do his ability an infinite number of times if you have a Training Grounds out and Paradise Mantle on him. Tap him for {(G/U)}, use it to untap him, and keep doing it until you're satisfied.
I can see him being extremely useful for Planeswalker users. All but four of them (Ajani Vengeant, Nissa Revane, and both versions of Jace, but their abilities are so good that it's worth having to wait a bit longer) would be able to use their best ability on the turn they were dropped, and that's if you only used one!
arkitektofyurdemyz
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Yep this guy is awsome. 1 fun thing to do is use the training grounds paradise mantle combo Then pump up door of destinies and use tezzeret to turn it into an artifact creature. Then use fateseal to transfer all the counters onto lightning reaver. Go
RareCardHunter
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Here is a combo that you don't even realize about:
This is one of those cards that I always end up thinking of, one of those cards that ends the sentence: "Hey, this would be so sweet with ___________ !" Like Momentary Blink or Isochron Scepter or Doubling Season. For changing the way I think about every other card, 5/5.
@Iondragonx Helix Pinacle still works wonders with this because of the many ways you can get infinite mana with him. Quite a few cards will allow it, and if you're playing paradise mantle and training grounds, you can always add in some Pili-palas for that as well, allowing you to drop the pinacle and reach 100 on the same turn.
Kalad
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Can you imagine how insane this would have been back during Urza's in an Enchantress deck? This card has amazing synergy with its entire disruption package: Parallax Tide (Oh look, you'll never have any lands in play, ever), Parallax Wave (Creatures? Hah...no), Smokestack (annnnnd, sack your whole board), Tanglewire (tap everything. have fun with that), Opposition (What? I can use your untap ability until the end of time? Cool. And while I'm at it, tap everything) ... I mean, probably completely unnecessary win-more, but still. It fits in perfectly, and is in the right colors, and one thing enchantress was never short on was obscene amounts of mana.
pjlizard
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
best friend to any planeswalker.
TheSwarm
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Great card, plenty of combo options. Wtf is the flavor? how does a small child in a demented frogsuit give planeswalkers strength? or charge artifacts? or decay creatures?
Necrotic Plague with elvish abberation and gilderbairn in the grave and jace the mindsculptor, good game
Hey, does this work with Planeswalkers? If so...then this + damn near any planeswalker...Chandra Ablaze or Garruk Wildspeaker or of course Jace, the Mind Sculptor or even Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker hek...even Sarkhan Vol and then just tap 2 colorless mana and double the amount of loyalty counters, such as Cloudpost and Vesuva for max counters...yes Vampire Hexmage could remove them...but only a retard would do all this boosting and let that happen.
Ricster24
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Untap?!?!?!?!?!? 0.o
Wynzerman
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(2 votes)
This guy loves him some quests and levelers :)
Airlacher
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Gilder bairn + paradise mantle + doubling season + saproling burst + training grounds = swing with 2X X/X saprolings where X is INFINITY!!!!!!!
I run this guy in my Simic deck along with a few Kraj. One particularly nasty game was against an Elf deck. I had managed to get out enough big creatures out they couldn't yet swarm me when I drew a Cytoplast Manipulator. Drop her on the field, tap Kraj to steal a Priest of Titania, tap it for nine mana, use three of it to activate the untap ability, tap, add nine mana, untap, double counters, tap, add nine mana, untap double counters, then stole most of the remaining elves and swung with a 42/42 Mormir Vig and a 100+ Kraj.
VampireDucky
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
its the kid from where the wild things are, and he is leaving jolly ranchers throughout the woods for us to eat...... best card ever and thats all there is to it.....
brockdjwest
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I was never really that crazy about foil cards until I got a foil of this :D
TPmanW
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Nobody's mentioned The Mimeoplasm? He gets along pretty good with this guy, either as a copy of him (attack then untap to double his size) or sitting next to him on the battlefield.
I use all three in my Simic deck, along with Graft creatures and Evolution Vat. The Vat can be used to add counters to any creature you want them on, or to tap Bairn if you have no better way.
Psionic Gift is also hilarious on him, especially if Training Grounds is out- One G or U to ping for one and double the counters on something, as many times as you care to pay for it.
And while he may not be my favorite foil ever (that's Hallowed Fountain), he is certainly one of the best.
KokoshoForPresident
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This doesn't work with helix pinnacle because the pinnacle has shroud, and this targets. But it does nasty things with planeswalkers.
My friend uses this card in his Planeswalker Deck. All he has is 4 copies of this little guy, some tri-color lands that enter tapped, that paradise mantle and training grounds. And the moment he brings a Planeswalker out, we're doomed. Hence my friends and I have adopted a kill-on-sight policy with this card.
aaron987
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
This would work well with Shape of the wiitigo. Just put it right on this guy. He would immediately turn into a 7/9. Then each turn you attack with him. Next turn, he gets another +1/+1 for attacking, and after attacking, pay to untap him and double it for the next turn.
If the turn when you play the wiitigo is called turn 1, it would look like this:
Turn 1: Shape of the wiitigo makes him 7/9. Attack. Turn 2: +1/+1 for attacking makes him 13/15. Untap. Attack. Play his ability to double it and make it 26/30. Turn 3: +1/+1 for attacking makes him 27/31. Untap. Attack. Ability again to make him 54/62. Rinse and repeat if they are still alive.
For more fun, find a way to give him trample.
Kalandarambe
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
@Spongee, actually you would only be able to win the game on turn five, as Gilder Bairn is only able to put counters on permanents which already have a counter on them, and Darksteel Reactor does not enter the battlefield with any counters on it. At the beginning of your next upkeep a counter would be put onto it, and then the unending tapping of Gilder Bairn would be possible.
AceMcBruha
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Pentad Prism: Just get it up to 7 with manual mana, and you've got infinite all-color mana. (couple it with some easy tapper on this guy. Veteran's Voice just for laughs.
ExzcellionGamma
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Tamiyo... meet your new servant.
Secksee
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
Is this guy cosplaying as Sgt. Frog?
Goatllama
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Cute little ouphe! I love these guys, and the Bairn here, along with Kitchen Finks, are probably the two most famous.
zenitramleirdag
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
gorgeous art..i bet this would look very beautiful in foil..
Lord_of_Gelectrodes
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(10 votes)
Here's this little guy's backstory. Plane: Lorwyn/Shadowmoor The plan moves along perfectly. The few meddling slugs that have gotten in my way were quickly disposed of by my minion, Kraj. All of the multiverse now moves to my whim, for the planeswalkers are but pawns in my master plan. They think I am the weak servant. My froggy suit fooled them easily. As the Darksteel Reactor counts down, Even those who were my greatest foes cannot stop me now. Today I take over this pathetic little plane, tomorrow, the entire multiverse!!
Don't underestimate an Ouphe in a frog suit.
Cydrius
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(2 votes)
This guy plays hilariously in a Devour deck, especially when enchanted with Presence of Gond
Maniacal_Alchemist
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
If you have the mana base, the following combination is lots of fun:
Why has no one mentioned lv up creatures such as echo mage, or lighthouse chronologist, seriously this is insanely good {X} cards especially with primordial hydra well at least agressively, im not a slow build up person, it's all about fast and efficient.
Continue
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Whose bright idea was it to include as a mechanic? That just seems silly...
Or while we're at it, even better than the cocoon is Burst of Strength
Won't be long before this produces infinite mana
JaxsonBateman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Love this guy. Alongside Paradise Mantle it becomes too easy to use his ability. Effectively 2: double counters on target permanent. That's dead sexy.
Due to the Paradise Mantle, I much prefer it in a Ux deck to a Gx deck (though UGx is also quite viable). I personally use Trinket Mage as my Paradise Mantle tutor-of-choice (given that, at worst, he becomes an expensive Birds of Paradise thanks to the mantle), and then include a few other cards that are typically fine or good on their own, but can do absurd things with counter doubling. Planeswalkers, for example, and Primordial Hydra. Also include a couple storage lands (like Calciform Pools) as they can eventually provide infinite mana if they get enough starting counters on them.
Actually, now that I think about it, UGx would be a great way to go. Fauna Shaman to grab both the Trinket Mage and Gilder Bairn, and then to find whatever creature/s you want to abuse counters with.
SyntheticDreamer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
And then the little guy grew up, lost the ability to give counters to planeswalkers and enchantments, and became Vorel of the Hull Clade.
Maybe one day a set will have tribal ouphes. I like unusual creature types that haven't been beaten to death: the phoenix, archon, rhox, etc they need more, and lords. Speaking of more, devils are getting a little love, not much, however.
talcumpowder0046
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Not legendary?
NUUUUUUUUU!
Deckforge
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Ral Zarek, Gilder Bairn and may be Krark's Thumb or Rings of Brighthearth.
My friend uses four lands, a pentad prisim, guilder bairn, and utopia vow to get infinite mana, then infinites his planeswalkers, then infinites his Hydra's.
mrchuckmorris
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
@Diachronos Speaking of planeswalkers, how about Ral Zarek?? Potential infinite-turn combo right here:
Turn 1: Lay down Gilder and Ral. Ral taps Gilder and untaps a land (or something else you need). Ral is now at 5 loyalty counters. Gilder untaps and doubles Ral's loyalty counters to 10. Turn 2: Unleash Ral's -7 ultimate (flip 5 coins -- each heads = extra turn!).
On all of your extra turns (unless you somehow got all tails), you rinse and repeat stacking loyalty and extra turns when you can spare the counters. All you need is some better-than-awful luck and mana for Gilder's ability cost (-1 if you keep having Ral untap land). Of course there may be some gaping hole in this plan, but for now, I think I'm gonna go find some of these Gilders and see how a deck fares with them and Ral.
MostlyLost
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Somewhere in Wizards R&D, a developer is kicking himself for inventing the untap symbol. 4.5/5
Gilder Bairn and Blood Bairn... Two of the most disturbing images in Magic. For their own reasons.
footyking
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
this is going to be fun with the new tap engines coming in born of the gods.
SirLibraryEater
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is Vorel's first childhood pet. I run him in my Vorel EDH with Karametra's Favor and Kiora(as well as her Follower).
See, the real kicker about this is they printed it AFTER planeswalkers were invented. They knew precisely what manner of nonsense everyone would be up to with that ability. And they printed it anyway. I love you, Wizards.
jonrds
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
While he's good, if you have the colors and aren't using him for planeswalkers, I prefer Vorel now.
The untap screams combo, but if you don't have anything to tap in the first place, you have a problem (attacking is dangerous). Again, if you can get the colors (and outside of training grounds, etc), having an activation cost of {G}{U} is better than {2}{(G/U)}. Lastly, the extra point of toughness taking it out of standard burn range is really useful.
Comments (108)
The downside is that you'll regrettably have to find another card to tap this guy with, since attacking with it won't be a good idea...
Also, i'd have loved this guy if he was able to remove the counters instead. Would still not made him broken since this is a Johnny card that requires comboing to do anything, but apart from that this guy is still quite useful.
Forget Helix Pinnacle. It has shroud so Gilder Bairn can't target it. Having problems using this guy's Untap symbol? The ultimate way to tap your own creature = Springleaf Drum. =D
3.5
Myojin of seeing winds.
Happy Trample!
Dragon's Blood also helped, as when Protean got kill-spelled, I dropped a +1/+1 counter on each of my creatures and blew them up to 16 counters.
Gilder Bairn is certainly versatile, though. Great for levelers, as already mentioned, in any multicolor decks to get Kargan Dragonlords, Transcendent Masters, or, as Swordfishtrombones mentioned, Lighthouse Chronologists.
He also dominates with Mycoloth for a ton of Saproling tokens and the Myojins (especially Cleansing Fire) of the Kamigawa block to be able to use their divinity counters twice, or repeatedly if you give Gilder Bairn indestructibility or regenerate.
Just kidding. I just wish that Wizards would ban doubling season so people stop talking about it.
I really want this card, though.
EDIT: Magosi the Waterveil DOES NOT WORK with this card. You have to bounce Magosi when you take an extra turn, thus removing ALL eon counters from it.
This also doesn't work with Lighthouse Chronologist if you are running mono-blue, as you are paying just as much mana, if not MORE, than you normally would to get him all the way. Otherwise, if you are running other colored land, then yes, the two work together.
And Gilder Bairn is probably my favorite card, 5/5
Seeing your opp chump block a 33/35 is the sh!t
Proliferate.
If you haven't looked at the online spoilers yet, you can find the Proliferate ability there. Though it does not double poison counters, it does add one.
I can see him being extremely useful for Planeswalker users. All but four of them (Ajani Vengeant, Nissa Revane, and both versions of Jace, but their abilities are so good that it's worth having to wait a bit longer) would be able to use their best ability on the turn they were dropped, and that's if you only used one!
Then pump up door of destinies and use tezzeret to turn it into an artifact creature. Then use fateseal to transfer all the counters onto lightning reaver. Go
Kresh the Bloodbraided + Paradise Mantle + Doubling Season + Gilder Bairn + Training Grounds + Sword of Vengeance
Use this combo when Kresh the Bloodbraided already has a lot of counters on it.
Turn 1: Forest, Birds of Paradise
Turn 2: Island, Training Grounds
Turn 3: Forest, Gilder Bairn, then cast and equip Paradise Mantle
Turn 4: Forest, Darksteel Reactor, tap and untap Gilder Bairn to add 20 counters on Darksteel Reactor. You win the game.
Necrotic Plague with elvish abberation and gilderbairn in the grave and jace the mindsculptor, good game
Art: 10/5
Ability: 20/5
Foil: 40/5
No really, this card has the best foil ever. Under the right lighting angle, this trinkets really do glow in the night.
This guy has synergy with the two most over-linked cards ever: Doubling Season and Training Grounds.
I use all three in my Simic deck, along with Graft creatures and Evolution Vat.
The Vat can be used to add counters to any creature you want them on,
or to tap Bairn if you have no better way.
Psionic Gift is also hilarious on him, especially if Training Grounds is out-
One G or U to ping for one and double the counters on something,
as many times as you care to pay for it.
And while he may not be my favorite foil ever (that's Hallowed Fountain),
he is certainly one of the best.
If the turn when you play the wiitigo is called turn 1, it would look like this:
Turn 1: Shape of the wiitigo makes him 7/9. Attack.
Turn 2: +1/+1 for attacking makes him 13/15. Untap. Attack. Play his ability to double it and make it 26/30.
Turn 3: +1/+1 for attacking makes him 27/31. Untap. Attack. Ability again to make him 54/62.
Rinse and repeat if they are still alive.
For more fun, find a way to give him trample.
Plane: Lorwyn/Shadowmoor
The plan moves along perfectly. The few meddling slugs that have gotten in my way were quickly disposed of by my minion, Kraj. All of the multiverse now moves to my whim, for the planeswalkers are but pawns in my master plan. They think I am the weak servant. My froggy suit fooled them easily. As the Darksteel Reactor counts down, Even those who were my greatest foes cannot stop me now. Today I take over this pathetic little plane, tomorrow, the entire multiverse!!
Don't underestimate an Ouphe in a frog suit.
Quicksilver Dagger
Rushwood Grove
Helix Pinnacle
Viridian Joiner
Primal Cocoon
Gilder Bairn
Or while we're at it, even better than the cocoon is Burst of Strength
Won't be long before this produces infinite mana
Due to the Paradise Mantle, I much prefer it in a Ux deck to a Gx deck (though UGx is also quite viable). I personally use Trinket Mage as my Paradise Mantle tutor-of-choice (given that, at worst, he becomes an expensive Birds of Paradise thanks to the mantle), and then include a few other cards that are typically fine or good on their own, but can do absurd things with counter doubling. Planeswalkers, for example, and Primordial Hydra. Also include a couple storage lands (like Calciform Pools) as they can eventually provide infinite mana if they get enough starting counters on them.
Actually, now that I think about it, UGx would be a great way to go. Fauna Shaman to grab both the Trinket Mage and Gilder Bairn, and then to find whatever creature/s you want to abuse counters with.
NUUUUUUUUU!
Turn 1: Lay down Gilder and Ral. Ral taps Gilder and untaps a land (or something else you need). Ral is now at 5 loyalty counters. Gilder untaps and doubles Ral's loyalty counters to 10.
Turn 2: Unleash Ral's -7 ultimate (flip 5 coins -- each heads = extra turn!).
On all of your extra turns (unless you somehow got all tails), you rinse and repeat stacking loyalty and extra turns when you can spare the counters. All you need is some better-than-awful luck and mana for Gilder's ability cost (-1 if you keep having Ral untap land). Of course there may be some gaping hole in this plan, but for now, I think I'm gonna go find some of these Gilders and see how a deck fares with them and Ral.
4.5/5
For their own reasons.
See, the real kicker about this is they printed it AFTER planeswalkers were invented. They knew precisely what manner of nonsense everyone would be up to with that ability.
And they printed it anyway.
I love you, Wizards.
The untap screams combo, but if you don't have anything to tap in the first place, you have a problem (attacking is dangerous). Again, if you can get the colors (and outside of training grounds, etc), having an activation cost of {G}{U} is better than {2}{(G/U)}. Lastly, the extra point of toughness taking it out of standard burn range is really useful.