Rushwood Elemental MTG Card

Rushwood Elemental aids deck efficiency, provides mana acceleration, and allows versatile instant-speed play. It requires precise mana and card discards, which might strain deck construction and your hand’s resources. The card is meta-relevant and synergizes well within green ramp strategies, ensuring a solid presence.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Rare
Type	Creature — Elemental
Abilities	Trample
Released	1999-10-04
Set symbol
Set name	Mercadian Masques
Set code	MMQ
Power	4
Toughness	4
Number	264
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Hannibal King

Text of card

Trample At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Rushwood Elemental.

Cards like Rushwood Elemental

Rushwood Elemental stands out in the world of green creature cards in Magic: The Gathering. This card shares some similarities with other creatures like Terra Stomper, which is also known for its significant power and toughness. Both are capable of becoming major threats on the battlefield. However, Rushwood Elemental has the added benefit of being uncounterable, ensuring its deployment against control decks.

Comparably, Silvos, Rogue Elemental is a creature that brings regeneration to the table, a feature that Rushwood Elemental lacks. Although both are high-cost, high-impact creatures that can quickly turn the tide of battle, Silvos offers more resilience to removal. Yet, Rushwood’s uncounterable nature gives it a distinct place within MTG’s multitude of green titans.

To wrap up, Rushwood Elemental finds its niche in providing a reliable and uncounterable presence for green decks that prioritize formidable creature plays. With its commanding presence, Rushwood Elemental competes well among the vast forest of similar MTG creatures, further solidifying its role in strategic deck building.

Silvos, Rogue Elemental - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Rushwood Elemental by color, type and mana cost

Ashaya, Soul of the Wild - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Rushwood Elemental offers the potential for significant card advantage by enabling you to call upon the top card of your deck if it’s a land, placing it directly onto the battlefield. This ability not only thins your deck, making your draws more efficient but also boosts your chances of pulling non-land cards in subsequent turns.

Resource Acceleration: This elusive creature can swiftly bolster your mana resources. Through its innate capability to play extra lands, Rushwood Elemental propels your mana progression, giving you the opportunity to deploy more powerful spells or overwhelming board presences ahead of your opponents’ curve.

Instant Speed: The flash ability of Rushwood Elemental permits you to summon it at instant speed. This flexibility allows for strategic end-of-turn plays, keeping your mana open for counters and interactions during your opponent’s turn, or for surprising them by sneaking in an additional blocker or an attacker ready for your next turn.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The rushwood elemental card demands a card to be discarded to unlock certain abilities. While this can be strategically beneficial in some scenarios, it becomes a steep price to pay when your hand is already struggling for resources.

Specific Mana Cost: Decks that want to include this elemental card need to be fine-tuned to accommodate its specific mana requirements. This can sometimes lead to deck-building constraints, especially for those who prefer a more flexible mana base.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Even though the elemental brings with it a robust presence on the battlefield, its higher mana cost can impede your early game strategy. Many players find that there are alternative creatures or cards that offer a more immediate impact or better value for the same or lower investment.

Reasons to Include Rushwood Elemental in Your Collection

Versatility: Rushwood Elemental offers flexibility in deck building, serving as a robust top-end threat in green-focused creature decks. Its natural resilience to sorcery speed removal allows it to thrive in varied board states.

Combo Potential: This card has synergy with landfall abilities and other effects that benefit from having multiple lands enter play. Its ability to potentially grow with each turn makes it a formidable piece in decks that aim to ramp quickly.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where the battlefields often fill with creatures, Rushwood Elemental can become an indomitable presence. It matches well against strategies that do not rely heavily on instant speed interaction, asserting dominance with its incremental growth each turn.

How to beat

Rushwood Elemental is a formidable force on the battlefield in MTG, packing a punch with its formidable size and ground-based might. To navigate against this leafy adversary, it’s essential to have a strategic approach. This elemental thrives in a game where it can dominate as a towering threat, so to level the playing field, consider employing flying creatures which Rushwood Elemental can’t block or spells that can remove it from play without triggering any potential abilities that depend on combat.

Direct damage spells are incredibly effective tools, especially those that can match or exceed the toughness of Rushwood Elemental. Moreover, the use of combat tricks can turn the tables during key combat phases, swinging momentum back in your favor. Enchantment-based removals, such as Pacifism, can also neutralize this powerhouse without the need for a direct confrontation. Control decks, with their wide array of counterspells and board wipes, may also prove instrumental in keeping Rushwood Elemental at bay before it has an opportunity to make a significant impact.

In essence, while Rushwood Elemental may at first glance appear to be an unyielding force, a carefully curated deck that highlights evasion, removal, or control elements can ensure that your strategy remains unshaken by such primeval might.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Rushwood Elemental MTG card by a specific set like Mercadian Masques, 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 Rushwood Elemental and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Rushwood Elemental has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal