
With how fast mana acceleration was with the release of the Zendikar fetch lands, this little 1 drop became a 5/5 very quickly, and it only grew stronger with each of your succeeding up-keeps, as long as you still controlled five or more lands.
With all the removal that’s come around since this card’s release, however, it’s just not as solid a card as it used to be. It definitely sees some play in Commander, though. I myself actually used to have it in my Ghave, Guru of Spores deck when I found it was an amazing one-drop to upgrade my pre-con Counter-Punch deck with.
It’s one of the more flavorful cards of Zendikar, and if it survives for one of your upkeeps, you get a 5/5 for 1 mana, that can become a 9/9, then a 13/13 and so on. Talk about value! It’s a card I’ve seen some people try to brew with in Modern, and some crazy Budget Zoo decks can certainly use this guy! It’s all about keeping him alive, because if they don’t Bolt him immediately, the game gets rough!