Waking the Trolls MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityRare
TypeEnchantment — Saga

Key Takeaways

  1. It destroys lands and provides creature and mana advantage by summoning Troll tokens.
  2. Demands specific board and mana conditions, which can limit its versatility.
  3. Offers meta-relevant disruption, combo opportunities, and a unique role in land control strategies.

Text of card

(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.) I — Destroy target land. II — Put target land card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. III — Choose target opponent. If they control fewer lands than you, create a number of 4/4 green Troll Warrior creature tokens with trample equal to the difference.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Waking the Trolls is not just a mere land destruction card; as it progresses through its saga, it provides you with ramping potential and a late-game board state advantage. By the final lore counter, you could summon a multitude of Troll tokens, potentially outpacing your opponent in both creatures and mana resources.

Resource Acceleration: While this card destroys your opponent’s land during the second stage of its saga, the third stage compensates by checking the land count difference, potentially granting you a multitude of rampaging Troll tokens. This can rapidly accelerate your available resources and set you up for powerful plays.

Instant Speed: Although Waking the Trolls operates at sorcery speed, its impact on the game is long-lasting. Its first stage may not be instantaneous, but it disrupts your opponent’s strategy, giving you indirect control of the game pace while you plot your next moves.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Waking the Trolls demands upfront resources by requiring a specific board state, namely that an opponent must control a land that could be targeted by this saga’s second lore counter ability. Not having this condition met can severely diminish its potential value when played.

Specific Mana Cost: The casting cost of Waking the Trolls involves a commitment to red and green mana, which may not seamlessly fit into a diverse range of deck archetypes. Decks not dedicated to these colors might find integrating Waking the Trolls a challenging task.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a six mana investment to bring Waking the Trolls into play, players might consider the cost steep for its disruptive abilities. In faster-paced games, this might be too slow, giving opponents ample time to find answers or to establish a more commanding board presence.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Waking the Trolls is not just a standalone card; its ability to disrupt land bases allows it to slot into a variety of control or land destruction decks. By targeting key lands, this card can adapt to numerous strategies and elevate the tactical depth of your gameplay.

Combo Potential: The card has natural synergy with strategies that benefit from land removal or benefit from opponents being land starved. Pairing it with effects that allow you to play additional lands can swiftly turn the tide of a game in your favor, giving you an advantage that’s hard for opponents to counteract.

Meta-Relevance: With a shifting MTG landscape that often values the stabilization of mana bases, Waking the Trolls can serve as a powerful tool to disrupt opponent’s strategies and provide you with an upper hand, particularly in formats where non-basic lands are prevalent.


How to beat

Waking the Trolls is a unique card in Magic the Gathering that can be particularly troublesome due to its land destruction aspect and potential to summon multiple Troll tokens. To effectively counter this card, it’s important to focus on speed and disruption. Aggressive decks that can put pressure on the opponent early will have an advantage, forcing the wielder of Waking the Trolls to defend rather than setting up their land-destruction sequence.

Another strategy includes utilizing instant-speed land destruction or counter spells to interrupt the saga’s crucial third chapter from resolving, thereby preventing the troll horde from arriving. Moreover, including cards that can rapidly replenish your land base or grant land indestructibility can mitigate the impact of losing a land to Waking the Trolls. Finally, graveyard interaction cards that can remove Waking the Trolls before it reaches its final lore counter can stop the saga from reaching its full potential, ensuring the trolls never wake.


BurnMana Recommendations

As magic players delve into the complex strategies of MTG, cards like Waking the Trolls offer a compelling dynamic to the battlefield. Its intricacies in land manipulation and potential to swing the game call for thoughtful integration into your deck. Assessing its pros and cons, and ways to beat it, it’s clear this card has a place in formats where land control is pivotal. Understand its unique role against various metagames and consider its synergy with land-focused strategies. Whether you’re tailoring a new deck or improving an existing one, recognizing the power of this saga card can be game-changing. Explore more about optimizing your gameplay and embracing the full potential of your deck with us.


Cards like Waking the Trolls

Exploring the landscape of land disruption in Magic: The Gathering, Waking the Trolls is a noteworthy card that emerges with a unique angle. Its closest analog might be the card Roiling Terrain, which also destroys a land and deals damage to that land’s controller based on the number of land cards in their graveyard. However, Waking the Trolls goes a step further by not only clearing a path but also allowing the caster to dominate the battlefield with land advantage in subsequent turns.

Another parallel can be drawn with Wildfire, which indiscriminately sacrifices lands and can largely reset the playing field. While Wildfire affects all players, Waking the Trolls targets opponents specifically, positioning itself as a potentially more tactical, if slower, option. Lastly, we can look at cards like Acid Rain and Rain of Tears for their land destruction abilities, yet neither bring the strategic depth of rebuilding your own land base as Waking the Trolls does after its sweeping effect takes place.

When considering the range of tactics available for land control, Waking the Trolls presents a unique blend of destructive capability and resource growth, making it an intriguing option for players looking to harness the power of the land in Magic: The Gathering.

Roiling Terrain - MTG Card versions
Wildfire - MTG Card versions
Acid Rain - MTG Card versions
Rain of Tears - MTG Card versions
Roiling Terrain - MTG Card versions
Wildfire - MTG Card versions
Acid Rain - MTG Card versions
Rain of Tears - MTG Card versions

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Waking the Trolls MTG card by a specific set like Kaldheim and Kaldheim Promos, 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 Waking the Trolls and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Waking the Trolls Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-02-05 and 2021-02-06. Illustrated by Daniel Ljunggren.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12021-02-05KaldheimKHM 2342015SagaBlackDaniel Ljunggren
22021-02-06Kaldheim PromosPKHM 234s2015SagaBlackDaniel Ljunggren
32021-02-06Kaldheim PromosPKHM 234p2015SagaBlackDaniel Ljunggren

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Waking the Trolls has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
BrawlLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Waking the Trolls card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2021-02-05 A chapter ability doesn’t trigger if a lore counter is put on a Saga that already had a number of lore counters greater than or equal to that chapter’s number. For example, the third lore counter put on a Saga causes the chapter III ability to trigger, but chapters I and II won’t trigger again.
2021-02-05 As a Saga enters the battlefield, its controller puts a lore counter on it. As your precombat main phase begins (immediately after your draw step), you put another lore counter on each Saga you control. Putting a lore counter on a Saga in either of these ways doesn’t use the stack.
2021-02-05 Each symbol on the left of a Saga’s text box represents a chapter ability. A chapter ability is a triggered ability that triggers when a lore counter that is put on the Saga causes the number of lore counters on the Saga to become equal to or greater than the ability’s chapter number. Chapter abilities are put onto the stack and may be responded to.
2021-02-05 If multiple chapter abilities trigger at the same time, their controller puts them on the stack in any order. If any of them require targets, those targets are chosen as you put the abilities on the stack, before any of those abilities resolve.
2021-02-05 Once a chapter ability has triggered, the ability on the stack won’t be affected if the Saga gains or loses counters, or if it leaves the battlefield.
2021-02-05 Once the number of lore counters on a Saga is greater than or equal to the greatest number among its chapter abilities, the Saga’s controller sacrifices it as soon as its chapter ability has left the stack, most likely by resolving or being countered. This state-based action doesn’t use the stack.
2021-02-05 Removing lore counters won’t cause a previous chapter ability to trigger. If lore counters are removed from a Saga, the appropriate chapter abilities will trigger again when the Saga receives more lore counters.

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