Earthen Arms MTG Card


Offers card advantage by enhancing your creatures without needing extra cards. Earthen Arms excels in green-focused decks, yet requires careful timing. While versatile, it’s comparatively costly and requires green mana commitment.
Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityCommon
TypeSorcery
Abilities Awaken

Text of card

Put two +1/+1 counters on target permanent. Awaken 4— (If you cast this spell for , also put four +1/+1 counters on target land you control and it becomes a 0/0 Elemental creature with haste. It's still a land.)


Cards like Earthen Arms

Earthen Arms is a unique spell that strengthens your game in Magic: The Gathering by placing two +1/+1 counters on a target permanent. An intriguing aspect of Earthen Arms is its Awaken ability, which allows you to turn a land into a potent creature in addition to the counters if you have the extra mana to spend. This feature offers flexibility, echoing the adaptable nature of cards like Incremental Growth that can disperse multiple counters across various creatures.

Another comparable card is Strength of the Tajuru, which injects a variable amount of counters based on the mana invested into it, offering scalability. However, Earthen Arms’ potential to animate a land as a creature provides it with a subtle edge in strategic versatility. Then, there’s the card Spread the Sickness; while it provides the additional benefit of destroying a creature, it misses the creative aspect of land animation that sets Earthen Arms apart.

Comparing these green spells reveals that Earthen Arms might not be the paramount in generating sheer numbers of counters, but its dual utility and land animation capability grants a tactical flexibility which can be crucial in the evolving dynamics of a game.

Incremental Growth - MTG Card versions
Strength of the Tajuru - MTG Card versions
Spread the Sickness - MTG Card versions
Incremental Growth - MTG Card versions
Strength of the Tajuru - MTG Card versions
Spread the Sickness - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Earthen Arms by color, type and mana cost

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Regrowth - MTG Card versions
Superior Numbers - MTG Card versions
Summer Bloom - MTG Card versions
Elven Rite - MTG Card versions
Rampant Growth - MTG Card versions
Gaea's Blessing - MTG Card versions
Monstrous Growth - MTG Card versions
Nostalgic Dreams - MTG Card versions
Nylea's Intervention - MTG Card versions
Sylvan Scrying - MTG Card versions
Wildcall - MTG Card versions
Revive - MTG Card versions
Weird Harvest - MTG Card versions
Farseek - MTG Card versions
Living Wish - MTG Card versions
Channel - MTG Card versions
Explore - MTG Card versions
Nature's Spiral - MTG Card versions
Savage Punch - MTG Card versions
Mulch - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Earthen Arms offers the potential to bolster your battlefield presence, thereby indirectly contributing to a form of card advantage. By placing +1/+1 counters on your creatures, you’re effectively increasing the card value of each creature affected, without the need to invest in additional cards.

Resource Acceleration: While Earthen Arms itself does not directly provide mana, its low cost coupled with the ability to strengthen creatures early in the game can accelerate your resource advantage. It allows for a stronger defense or a more aggressive strategy, paving the way to leverage your existing resources more effectively.

Instant Speed: As a sorcery, Earthen Arms can strategically be played during your main phases to surprise your opponent and modify combat calculations in your favor. While it might not be at instant speed, the element of timing when you play Earthen Arms can still be crucial to its impact on the game.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: A draw back for using Earthen Arms is the need to discard another card. While shaping the battlefield to your advantage, this could potentially put you at a card disadvantage, making careful hand management essential.

Specific Mana Cost: Earthen Arms comes with a specific mana requirement that includes green. This can limit the card’s flexibility, as it may not seamlessly fit into multicolored decks or those that do not prioritize green mana sources.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For the benefits it provides, Earthen Arms has a relatively high mana cost. There might be alternative cards in the expansive MTG universe that offer similar or better effects for a lower investment, thus affecting its inclusion in competitive play.


Reasons to Include Earthen Arms in Your Collection

Versatility: Earthen Arms is a flexible addition to green decks that focus on landfall strategies or ramping up to deploy larger threats. Its ability to put +1/+1 counters on any target creature or to bolster lands into formidable beings makes it a utility card in both offensive and defensive plays.

Combo Potential: For those looking to amplify their game with synergistic card interactions, Earthen Arms can serve as a catalyst. It pairs well with cards that benefit from counters or those that trigger landfall abilities multiple times to gain an escalating advantage over opponents.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where creature-based strategies and board presence are key, Earthen Arms offers a substantial boost. Its capability to scale creatures or awaken lands can swing the tide in games where establishing and maintaining a solid board state is essential to victory.


How to Beat

Earthen Arms presents an intriguing mechanic in the realm of Magic: The Gathering, bringing a land-focused strategy to the table. Compared to other sorceries like Rampant Growth or Cultivate that also play with lands, Earthen Arms offers the unique ability to place +1/+1 counters on a creature, potentially turning it into a larger threat. More akin to Growth Spasm, Earthen Arms adds the versatility of bolstering your creatures or your lands. However, to ensure victory against a deck utilizing this card, one might consider efficient removal spells or counter-magic to neutralize the enhanced threat before it grows out of control. Cards like Fatal Push or Path to Exile are reliable options to deal with the boosted creatures directly.

Additionally, leveraging land disruption strategies, such as land destruction or bounce effects, can offset the advantages gained from land enhancements. A thoughtful approach to managing the board state is essential when facing an opponent utilizing Earthen Arms. Keeping your answers versatile and timely is key to ensure that the scales of power don’t tilt in your opponent’s favor thanks to this crafty sorcery.


Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Earthen Arms MTG card by a specific set like Battle for Zendikar and Mystery Booster, 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 Earthen Arms and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Earthen Arms Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2015-10-02 and 2019-11-07. Illustrated by Dan Scott.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12015-10-02Battle for ZendikarBFZ 1722015NormalBlackDan Scott
22019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 11892015NormalBlackDan Scott
32020-09-26The ListPLST BFZ-1722015NormalBlackDan Scott

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Earthen Arms has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PioneerLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2015-08-25 Any permanent can have a +1/+1 counter put on it. Those counters won’t have any effect unless that permanent is or becomes a creature.
2015-08-25 Awaken doesn’t give the land you control a color. As most lands are colorless, in most cases the resulting land creature will also be colorless.
2015-08-25 If a spell with awaken has multiple targets (including the land you control), and some but not all of those targets become illegal by the time the spell tries to resolve, the spell won’t affect the illegal targets in any way.
2015-08-25 If the non-awaken part of the spell doesn’t require a target and you cast the spell for its awaken cost, then the spell won’t resolve if the target land you control becomes illegal before the spell resolves (such as due to being destroyed in response to the spell being cast).
2015-08-25 If the non-awaken part of the spell requires a target, you must choose a legal target. You can’t cast the spell if you can’t choose a legal target for each instance of the word “target” (though you only need a legal target for the awaken ability if you’re casting the spell for its awaken cost).
2015-08-25 If you cast Earthen Arms for its awaken cost, a land you control can be both targets.
2015-08-25 The land will retain any other types, subtypes, or supertypes it previously had. It will also retain any mana abilities it had as a result of those subtypes. For example, a Forest that’s turned into a creature this way can still be tapped for .
2015-08-25 You can cast a spell with awaken for its mana cost and get only its first effect. If you cast a spell for its awaken cost, you’ll get both effects.