Pointed Discussion

LOL. this is currently the highest rated card in the game. That's what I call ironic.

yay, card advantage.

a 3.8 would mean that someone gave this a rating less than 4. which is incorrect.

@luca

I am seeing a lot of good cards from Commander set being rated below 4 for some reason (and M12 as well). I kinda suspect there are people intentionally lower the ratings of thee cards. That's the only explanation on why a great card like Yavimaya Elder would be rated so low in this version while above 4.5 on the other two.

People tend to rate cards down in special sets (Duel Decks, Commander, etc) because they personally wanted something they didn't already own reprinted, or they don't like the new art (if applicable). That's why if you want to see what people really think of a card from a gameplay point of view, you gotta see the original printing's comments.

Every time I see this picture, I don't see a druid with branches, animals, etc. growing out of his head. I see some weird treefolk-looking dude with a face in his torso, a stag for an arm, and a fox for the other arm. Personally, I think that would be a fun concept for a card.
But seriously, I love this dude. 4.5/5 easily.

What's that? You rated me less than 4? My hair is a tree, your argument is invalid.

Everybody, on three

CORE SET REPRINT!!!!!

There are hundreds of ways to abuse this, but my current favorite is Scarscale Ritual.

The best green draw spell. I looked em up. Search 'Community Rating > 4', Green, Rules Text= Draw Cards.

Magus of the Library and Sylvan Library are arguably stronger, but Magus is really just a Library of Alexandria shout-out, so I don't count it, and Sylvan Library is not a creature, so I like Y. Elder for fitting Green's flavor better: We've recently seen a ton of 'just good stuff' creatures with extra abilities, and I think it's going a bit too far, but Green should always have Creatures that can do the work of Spells.

As for the other cards, the Dredge Mechanic turned out to be too strong, so those cards don't count the same way Magus of the Library doesn't count: 'needs Development'. (Magus also isn't all that Green-flavored)

If you take into account, in ADDITION to Tournament Worthiness-- Mechanics are Flavorful, Friendly for Fun, and Overall Balance, then this card sits somewhere either a little better than or a little worse than Solemn Simulacrum, and neither Artifacts nor Green should ever get a card that makes either of these two appear to be pale by comparison. That is an excellent standard to look for 'power creep'. It just doesn't get better than Yavimaya Elder. Or shouldn't.

Takes 4 cards total out of your deck! Gives you two land, and another draw (if you pay the sac cost, which you should!) Even though it has a double {G} in its cost it's amazing for multi-colour. I was wanting to buy a couple for my R/G burn deck, but I was looking through my binder and it turns out that I had two already. Lucky me :)

There should be a ruling explaining that you draw first. Because people don't seem toget that

@Doom_Lich: No, you don't. You pay {2}, sacrifice him and the ability goes on the stack. His "dies" trigger hits the stack, then resolves (assuming no one Stifled it or something), and you dig for two lands and shuffle. Then the draw ability resolves.

Any Green EDH deck should probably make room to run this. You can Natural Order sacking him to get a creature plus two lands. Uril decks can hook up Pattern of Rebirth to him, then make him kill himself for a creature plus 3 more cards. Or you can simply get a +2 any time you have open (maybe an unused Sol Ring?). This guy is very playable.

However, he's playable because he's pretty broken. (What else would you expect from Urza block?) Alone, he's a 3 mana +2 that only requires waiting a turn to use, and he ensures that you have your land drop for two turns. Have more mana open? You can do it right away. That's not even including the numerous other ways to abuse his death effect. Let's hope cheap Green creatures don't end up getting much more useful than this.

I'll give him a 4/5 for usability, but I'm considering lowering that score because of balance issues.

Interesting with Greater Good. You sac him, search two lands, draw 2, then discard three. Netting you a single card (card neutral i believe) (which is worse from a card advantage standpoint, but better from a card filtering standpoint.)

@Cactmoore

I thought I was the only one! Some kind of Ian McKellen-torso-head-animal-tree monstrosity...

needs to be modern legal

He's going to regret that headwear as soon as he tries to walk through a doorframe.

This card can be good. But it might be to slow for modern magic.

Sorcery
Search your library for up to two basic land cards, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle your library. Draw a card.

Would you play that card? I sure would. Now consider that Yavimaya Elder is almost always better than that.