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Not that I mind that! Druids are another one of those great creature types that aren’t coming out your ears: the best kind. Whatever prompted Streetz to choose Druids over say, Clamfolk or something is beyond me. He keeps us away from sunlight whenever he can. If I’m lucky, I’ll get rewarded with 3 extra breadcrumbs this week! I’ll feast like a king! Grass Is Green To start off this environmentalist parade, I’m going to swing over to my old friend Ms. Merriam Webster to see just what we’re dealing with this time around. She claims a druid is defined as either a Celtic Priest, or a wizard or magician in Christianic Folklore. This doesn’t tell us much other than that they’re European magic people. So we delve deeper into Celtic Mythos! The Celts were a group of ancient people that lived in Northwestern Europe, although the people living there now are still called that. These people were named so after their trademark tool, the celt, which was essentially a giant stone chisel that doubled up as an axe and a plow. Ancient Celtic Mythology, while differing from area to area, centers on the concepts of Nature, Growth, and Reproduction. Their polytheism is paralleled to a crude version of Roman mythology, except Celtic mythos does away with things like Gods of the Arts and replaces them with more earthy things like Epona, Goddess of Horses (Go-Go Legend of Zelda!) and Cernunnos, The Horned One. (Take a guess what he was the God of. *nudge nudge*.) [shaking head... ~Streetz~] Now, if Druids were the priests of this religion, where would they sit on our giant, delicious pie? Let’s recap: Priests of Nature. How BLUNT do I need to be? These guys are green! So very green! They preached Green to the Irish 5,000 years before R&D even defined green! Druids mechanically have been known to do two things in Magic: Either they help your mana base, or they populate it. Mana abilities appear most often on Druids, along with the untapping of lands. But that’s not all Druids have been notorious for. Magic’s Druids also have a thing for squirrels. Squirrel Generators, Squirrel Lords, Squirrel Wranglers, all of these can be found in Druids. Magic’s Druids like them some squirrels. Why?
Because they can be found in just about any forest, anywhere. Druids value squirrels as familiars because they’re so naturally in tune with forests. What an Interesting Leaf…
Well, I’m sick of trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about. I’ll admit it: I have no idea how Oath of Druids affected the metagame, and you can tell. Look at my previous excerpts, what did I really say besides “Meloku and Nantuko Shade are good, and Lin Sivvi is banned.”? Not much, and I know you’re not pleased. So you can all go and stick your Oaths where they’re not supposed to go, Spikes, I’m featuring something that I know what I’m talking about. He is ancient; He is Ley Druid. For the longest time Ley Druid wasn’t even given his due. Alpha through Fifth Edition featured him a Cleric. A Cleric?! As you can assume, I HATE Clerics. Luckily, Ninth Edition brought my old favorite back from the dead with new art, and now he’s a Druid. Thank God. (Incidentally, Ice Age Block has a bunch of Druids with the creature type cleric, so maybe when Coldsnap comes around we’ll see them get errata too. We can hope, right?)
Ley Druid was, technically due to above, the first Druid in Magic, and he’s still the caricature of what a Druid should be. Because of R&D’s “Townsfolk is obsolete” thing, I bet Cartographer would be a Druid if it was reprinted. And you can thank Ley for that. Druids like lands because of Ley. For the record, I meant into a mono-white weenie deck, Spikes. Don’t worry, I still love you. For the record there are also two other druids that should be druids, but were not (~Streetz):
I wonder when these two guys will be errata'd? I bet the Llanowar Druid will be soon (thanks to MTGO)... but Thelonite Druid? I doubt we'll ever see him be what he really should be... a druid. ~Streetz~ What, you think these things grow on trees?! Here are some fun Druid Tribal decks for your perusal....
Wait! Tekkactus has a deck for you! Check it out! ~Streetz~
The idea here should be simple enough. Use Druids-Make Squirrels. Keep pumping out said Squirrels until either Squirrel Mob is too horrendously big to be stopped or you have so many squirrels that you’re opponent is just plain overrun. Deranged Hermit combined with Cloudstone Curio makes for a nasty generator, since when the tokens come into play you can bounce the Hermit and do it again. Groundskeeper will save the lands you lose to Squirrel Wrangler, which you’ll need, since the deck is so mana intensive. Throw Doubling Season into the mix and well… more squirrels For the record, I think Deranged Hermit should have been a druid. If only Onslaught has been printed before Urza's Block. Well, nevermind.. that would have been a bad idea... Tempest - Onslaught - Urza's. I don't see that working out too well. ~Streetz~ Citanul didn’t think THIS up. It should be noted that that druids actually exist, or did, anyway. They’re not just a fantasy archetype. Druids have had impact on the world. If you don’t believe me, look at this:
Britain’s most famous pile of rocks… the mighty, mighty Stonehenge. For the longest time, no one knew who put them there or why. The cartoon Beast Wars claimed that it was built by the ancient Autobots as a type of communications system. In Jackie Chan Adventures, it was some kind of Illuminatus Doom Cannon. But scientists found out the truth, and yours truly is going to tell it to you. Druids built Stonehenge. The current theory is that it acts as a gigantic sundial that tells the month, rather than the hour. Perhaps the Druids used it to help their crop rotation or something mundane. But, since that’s boring, I’m going to tell you that it’s a real live Green Mana Rig. Seriously. Back to Otaria Again?
Druids got this too, including a lord in Seton, Krosan Protector and a reformed barbarian-turned-manland-lover Kamahl. Then Onslaught came and screwed it all up with it’s… eugh… Wirewood. Lame! We can all agree, however, that for a small window of time, we had Centaurs replacing elves. Centaur Druids. And it was good. Get that Mirari Out of Here! That’s it, that’s the end. I hope you finish out your Druid week festivities with a bang. Go out plant a sapling. Then, tune in whenever I write my next article when I take a look at a new face to magic…
…or at least, two equal halves of old faces used to make a new one. You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here. Most Popular
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Geez,
it’s been forever! I’ve missed you, maggots! (Ok, sure, my most recent article
may have seemed way late, but I had it submitted since before Christmas. Blame
Dungeon Siege II.) I can’t even remember what I cryptically promised you all for
this installment. It might have been Angels. If it was, I was lying. You’re
expecting me to say ‘Creature Type Spotlight: Druids’ as the last sentence of
this section ain’t cha? Well didn’t I trick you out, it’s in the middle! Ha-ha!
As you may know, or maybe not if you only pop in to read my articles, (Yeah
right, ya’ll come for Raiding The Dollar Bins, I know. Leave my pipe dream be.)
This week is Druid Week. So whether I wanted to do a Druid feature or not, I
pretty much have to.
Now,
you’re thinking “Now here comes the part where he tries to bull-#%@$ a paragraph
where he tries to appease the competitive player.” 
Kamahl's
Druids. 
Druid-ball. 
Remember
how back in Insects I mentioned about how the Odyssey Block gave a helping hand
to so many great creature types?