Viridian Lorebearers MTG Card


Viridian Lorebearers - Fifth Dawn
Mana cost
Converted mana cost4
RarityUncommon
TypeCreature — Elf Shaman
Released2004-06-04
Set symbol
Set nameFifth Dawn
Set code5DN
Power 3
Toughness 3
Number99
Frame2003
LayoutNormal
BorderBlack
Illustred byDarrell Riche

Key Takeaways

  1. Viridian Lorebearers excel in drawing cards by maximizing land count, offering strategic depth to gameplay.
  2. Instant speed activation provides flexibility, while specific mana costs and discard requirements shape deck construction.
  3. This card’s inclusion in collections hinges on its synergy with green’s meta and potential in combo plays.

Text of card

, : Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of artifacts your opponents control.

A small band of elves pledged many years ago to avoid the Edges of Forgetting. They have remained hidden until now.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Viridian Lorebearers promises to keep your hand replenished, capitalizing on the number of lands you control. The ability to potentially draw multiple cards makes it a powerhouse in decks that ramp up their land base swiftly. You’re not just drawing a single card; you’re setting up for successive turns where your options and threats amplify, keeping opponents on their toes.

Resource Acceleration: Thanks to this creature’s synergy with land-heavy board states, it can act as a form of indirect resource acceleration. Each land serving double duty by bolstering your defense or offense while also fueling your card draw engine keeps the resources flowing more reliably, securing a solid path to victory.

Instant Speed: Notably, the card draw ability can be activated at instant speed, offering significant flexibility. This feature allows you to navigate around an opponent’s strategy and find an answer or a threat exactly when needed. During an opponent’s end step, you can convert unused mana into new cards, ensuring that every resource you have can be used to its utmost potential.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Viridian Lorebearers require you to have at least four other green cards in your hand to activate its ability. This demand can prove challenging when trying to manage your hand efficiently, and may force you into hard decisions about what to keep and what to discard.

Specific Mana Cost: This card comes with a rigid green mana cost, making it exclusively viable in mono-green or heavily green-focused decks. Its presence in your deck may limit creative flexibility and force a particular style of play.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The Lorebearers carry a somewhat high mana cost to get on the board, which might not always align with the pace of your game. When the battlefield is demanding quicker or more impactful plays, they might not offer the best value for the mana spent, especially when other creatures or spells could offer immediate impact or versatility.


Reasons to Include Viridian Lorebearers in Your Collection

Versatility: Viridian Lorebearers can be a flexible asset across various deck archetypes, particularly those that harness the power of +1/+1 counters and green’s inherent strengths of creature growth and board presence.

Combo Potential: This card shines in synergistic plays, as it not only grows with your card draws but also works well with proliferate mechanics or any strategy seeking to exploit larger creatures for value or victory.

Meta-Relevance: Given green’s role in the current meta with creature-heavy and counter-centric decks, Viridian Lorebearers may serve as a key component that capitalizes on drawing and playing more cards, reinforcing your board state with a formidable threat.


How to beat

The Viridian Lorebearers present an interesting challenge for MTG players. This card leverages a library’s expanse to empower itself, making it a potentially formidable force in any game. To mitigate the threat posed by the Lorebearers, one strategic approach is to minimize the number of cards in your own library, thereby weakening their potency. This can be achieved with milling tactics, that is, forcing the opponent to put cards from their library into their graveyard. The fewer cards they have, the less intimidating the Lorebearers become.

Moreover, employing removal spells that specifically target creatures, such as Doom Blade or Path to Exile, provides a direct solution to the issue at hand. It’s important to act swiftly before the Lorebearers’ strength grows in correlation with the library size. In addition, prevention is key; countering the Lorebearers before they even hit the battlefield with spells like Counterspell or Mana Leak can ensure that you never have to deal with their potential escalation. Always be ready to adjust your strategy as the MTG landscape changes, and with the right planning, the Viridian Lorebearers can be efficiently contained.


Cards like Viridian Lorebearers

Viridian Lorebearers is an intriguing addition to creature-based card advantage engines in the world of MTG. It’s reminiscent of creatures like “Elvish Visionary”, which, traditionally, also allows you to draw a card upon entering the battlefield. Yet, Viridian Lorebearers takes it further by potentializing the card-drawing effect based on the number of lands you control, offering a scale-able late-game benefit.

Another card worth mentioning is “Coiling Oracle”, which provides immediate value by revealing the top card of your library and if it’s a land, putting it onto the battlefield, or otherwise drawing the card. While Coiling Oracle may offer instant gratification, Viridian Lorebearers rewards players for a long-term strategy and a populated battlefield. “Tireless Tracker” is an additional parallel, creating clues and drawing cards as lands are played, though it shifts the focus to incremental gain rather than a one-time larger draw.

All things considered, Viridian Lorebearers stands out in the realm of green creatures that provide card advantage. It uniquely leverages land presence to potentially offer a significant boost in card draw, aligning well with the ramp strategies often seen in green’s slice of the color pie.

Elvish Visionary - MTG Card versions
Coiling Oracle - MTG Card versions
Tireless Tracker - MTG Card versions
Elvish Visionary - MTG Card versions
Coiling Oracle - MTG Card versions
Tireless Tracker - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Viridian Lorebearers by color, type and mana cost

Giant Spider - MTG Card versions
Marsh Viper - MTG Card versions
Scarwood Bandits - MTG Card versions
Carnivorous Plant - MTG Card versions
Erhnam Djinn - MTG Card versions
War Mammoth - MTG Card versions
Aurochs - MTG Card versions
Lhurgoyf - MTG Card versions
Jackalope Herd - MTG Card versions
Golden Bear - MTG Card versions
Argothian Swine - MTG Card versions
Elvish Piper - MTG Card versions
Erithizon - MTG Card versions
Skyshroud Cutter - MTG Card versions
Ulvenwald Oddity // Ulvenwald Behemoth - MTG Card versions
Fungusaur - MTG Card versions
Monkey Monkey Monkey - MTG Card versions
Matsu-Tribe Birdstalker - MTG Card versions
Order of the Sacred Bell - MTG Card versions
Anaconda - MTG Card versions
Giant Spider - MTG Card versions
Marsh Viper - MTG Card versions
Scarwood Bandits - MTG Card versions
Carnivorous Plant - MTG Card versions
Erhnam Djinn - MTG Card versions
War Mammoth - MTG Card versions
Aurochs - MTG Card versions
Lhurgoyf - MTG Card versions
Jackalope Herd - MTG Card versions
Golden Bear - MTG Card versions
Argothian Swine - MTG Card versions
Elvish Piper - MTG Card versions
Erithizon - MTG Card versions
Skyshroud Cutter - MTG Card versions
Ulvenwald Oddity // Ulvenwald Behemoth - MTG Card versions
Fungusaur - MTG Card versions
Monkey Monkey Monkey - MTG Card versions
Matsu-Tribe Birdstalker - MTG Card versions
Order of the Sacred Bell - MTG Card versions
Anaconda - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Viridian Lorebearers MTG card by a specific set like Fifth Dawn, 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 Viridian Lorebearers and other MTG cards:

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See MTG Products

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Viridian Lorebearers has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderRestricted
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Recent MTG decks

Continue exploring other format decks
See more decks