The ability can be turned into your advantage actually. Examples?
1) if you played no land this turn and have none on hand, play this guy, return a land, replay the land, and it basically costed one mana less.
2) Landfall. Bounce a land, replay it and trigger landfall stuff again.
3) Lands with charges that you used up, or with come-into-play abilities.
4) For cards that care about your handcount, since you can play this guy and keep the same handsize.
5) For stuff like seismic assault to get new ammunition.
It's not great but playable. 4/3 for four mana with a slight advantage in the right deck is nice. 3.5/5
Posted By:
majinara
(11/7/2009 1:47:27 PM)
This is the lowest rated card I have seen in a while...
With Landfall this isn't as terrible as it was before Zendikar.
Posted By:
jugglingguy
(11/24/2009 7:07:19 PM)
Playable... and so is not trash...
I could see a combo with this. In a land fall deck.
Base rating: ***
Off manna vs stats -*
As for the ability... semi awkward, but it's usable: +*
Surprisingly, by my own rubric, this card gets: ***
Posted By:
Zoah
(1/6/2010 7:11:01 PM)
the flavor text is really unoriginal...
Posted By:
Kryptnyt
(2/8/2010 5:32:14 AM)
*grumble grumble*
Given the precedent set by things like Lowland Giant and this card's drawback, I feel they easily could have dropped the price by 1 to make this guy way more interesting.
Posted By:
HairlessThoctar
(12/12/2010 9:29:33 AM)
Ad Majinara: There is actually another use for his ability:
6) Use the bounced land for Retrace - see Flame Jab and others.
Posted By:
Rotary_Fist
(2/17/2011 4:46:32 AM)
This seems to be less broken version of Sea Drake.
Wizards gave it same p/t and same returning land effect.
Sea Drake is powerful in a sense that a player can play City of Traitors and a Mox to cast it in first turn. 4/3 flying FIRST TURN is very aggressive for mono blue and scary since blue can easily gain card advantage like Standstill.
(Imagine first turn 4/3 flyer and second turn Standstill . . )
Of course, Wizards basically nerfed it so badly that it almost seems unusable.
Posted By:
Hoonster
(3/1/2011 7:21:03 PM)
Halimar Depths, Teetering Peaks, Smoldering Spires. I love those lands, they make a huge impact on the game. I love Deprive, so I'd give this card a shot, especially since this color combination needs a chubby Ogre Resister so bad.
Posted By:
DacenOctavio
(9/9/2011 11:44:04 PM)
Definitely underrated. It's not fantastic, but playable, and the right deck (hint: use landfall) can make good use of it.
Posted By:
Tiggurix
(10/8/2010 3:23:58 PM)
Potentially useful, mostly just a pain in the rear. If you haven't played a land yet this turn, he basically reduces his own cost by 1, and any land with an etb effect becomes more usable. But he needs to be built around a bit.
Posted By:
DoragonShinzui
(4/26/2013 8:42:07 PM)