Deadwood Treefolk MTG Card

Brings creatures back from the graveyard upon entering or leaving the battlefield, ensuring continuous resource advantage. Works well with flicker and sacrifice strategies, allowing for multiple uses of its creature recovery ability. Despite higher mana costs, it provides flexibility and combo potential that can be crucial in various deck builds.
Card setsReleased in 5 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityUncommon
TypeCreature — Treefolk
Abilities Vanishing
Power 3
Toughness 6

Text of card

Vanishing 3 (This permanent comes into play with three time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. When the last is removed, sacrifice it.) When Deadwood Treefolk comes into play or leaves play, return another target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

Cards like Deadwood Treefolk

Deadwood Treefolk slots comfortably into the world of creature recovery cards in Magic: The Gathering. With its Cadaverous Bloom-like ability for creature retrieval, Deadwood Treefolk shares similar mechanics to cards like Eternal Witness and Archaeomancer, both of which allow players to reclaim cards from their graveyard. What distinguishes Deadwood Treefolk is its vanishing ability, providing a built-in timer that can summon it back for a second use, something its counterparts lack.

Looking at other creature cards, Golgari Findbroker acts as a parallel, offering the return of a permanent card from the graveyard to your hand. The Treefolk’s advantage lies in its broader revival range, targeting creatures specifically and thus focusing on a pivotal aspect of gameplay. Pulsemage Advocate also offers a comparable effect, but requires a trade-off by returning cards to an opponent’s graveyard in exchange for the retrieval, whereas Deadwood Treefolk requires no such sacrifice.

In evaluating their roles in deck building, Deadwood Treefolk emerges as a considerable choice for recurring creatures, particularly in decks that capitalize on entering and leaving the battlefield triggers, thanks to its delayed yet repeatable ability to return creatures to your hand.

Eternal Witness - MTG Card versions
Archaeomancer - MTG Card versions
Golgari Findbroker - MTG Card versions
Pulsemage Advocate - MTG Card versions
Eternal Witness - MTG Card versions
Archaeomancer - MTG Card versions
Golgari Findbroker - MTG Card versions
Pulsemage Advocate - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Deadwood Treefolk ensures you maintain a healthy hand by returning a creature card from your graveyard to your hand when it enters or leaves the battlefield. This action recycles your resources, potentially giving you a significant edge over the competition by reusing powerful creatures.

Resource Acceleration: While Deadwood Treefolk doesn’t directly accelerate mana resources, it efficiently recovers high-value creatures from your graveyard. This reuse of resources can be seen as a form of acceleration, as it saves you from spending additional mana and turns to cast new creatures from your hand.

Instant Speed: Deadwood Treefolk doesn’t operate at instant speed itself, but it synergizes well with cards that can flicker or sacrifice creatures at instant speed. This can create opportunities to repeatedly exploit its enter-the-battlefield or leave-the-battlefield triggers, thus providing situationally fast and reactive plays that can catch an opponent off guard.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Deadwood Treefolk demands you return another card to your hand when it leaves the battlefield, which can be inefficient if your hand is already full or if returning a card is not strategically beneficial at that time.

Specific Mana Cost: Requiring one green and two other types of mana, its casting cost may not easily fit into multicolor decks that don’t focus on green mana. This can restrict its inclusion to primarily green-based deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of six mana, Deadwood Treefolk comes in at a higher mana value. For the same or lower cost, there are alternative creatures that might present more immediate board impact or offer additional abilities.

Reasons to Include Deadwood Treefolk in Your Collection

Versatility: Deadwood Treefolk slots into several deck archetypes, delivering value in terms of creature recovery. Its ability to return another creature from your graveyard to your hand when it enters or leaves the battlefield makes it a flexible pick for commanders and casual gaming alike.

Combo Potential: This card’s capabilities shine in strategies focused on entering and leaving the battlefield effects. Pair Deadwood Treefolk with effects that bounce or sacrifice creatures to generate repeated value, turning it into a cornerstone of intricate combo chains.

Meta-Relevance: With recurring strategies commonly seen across formats, Deadwood Treefolk maintains relevance by fortifying your board presence and recovering key pieces after board wipes or removal, keeping you resilient in a diverse meta.

How to beat

Deadwood Treefolk is a card that commands attention on the MTG battlefield. A utility piece in commander decks, its recurrence ability can be quite an annoyance if left unchecked. To effectively neutralize its impact, consider strategies that involve exile effects or graveyard disruption. Cards like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void can hinder the Treefolk’s ability to restore a creature from the graveyard to your hand.

Another approach is to use counterspells like Counterspell or Mana Leak when it is cast, preventing it from entering the battlefield in the first place. Alternatively, for dealing with the creature on the board, exile-based removal such as Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares can be highly effective. Lastly, you can try to outpace the value generated by Deadwood Treefolk through aggressive strategies or go over the top with more significant threats that demand immediate answers, ensuring your opponent’s plays remain on the back foot.

In essence, understanding and interrupting the recursion game plan which Deadwood Treefolk contributes to is key. With smart plays and the right answers in hand, overcoming the challenge it presents is well within any savvy player’s reach.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Deadwood Treefolk MTG card by a specific set like Planar Chaos and Commander 2011, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Deadwood Treefolk and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Deadwood Treefolk Magic the Gathering card was released in 4 different sets between 2007-02-02 and 2023-01-13. Illustrated by Don Hazeltine.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12007-02-02Planar ChaosPLC 1262003NormalBlackDon Hazeltine
22011-06-17Commander 2011CMD 1502003NormalBlackDon Hazeltine
32013-11-01Commander 2013C13 1412003NormalBlackDon Hazeltine
42023-01-13Dominaria RemasteredDMR 1552015NormalBlackDon Hazeltine
52023-01-13Dominaria RemasteredDMR 3371997NormalBlackDon Hazeltine

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Deadwood Treefolk has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderRestricted
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal