The 31 Best Animate Land Cards in Magic

Last updated on March 12, 2026

Part the Waterveil | Illustration by Titus Lunter

Every Magic player has experienced the tragedy of mana flood when they draw more lands than spells, leaving them with tons of resources and nothing to do with them as their opponents deploy spell after spell.

Utility lands are one way to lessen the impact of mana flood. Cards like Castle Ardenvale and Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin don’t mind when you flood because they give you a mana sink.

Another, more exciting, form of mitigation comes from animating your lands. Why tap them for mana when you can attack with them instead?

What are Animate Land Cards in Magic?

Planar Outburst (Battle for Zendikar) | Illustration by Vincent Proce

Animate land cards turn lands into creatures. These effects are often temporary, only lasting until the end of the turn, though some effects turn them into creatures indefinitely.

Creatures that become lands either receive a base power and toughness, like Sylvan Awakening making lands into 2/2s, or turn into a 0/0 creature with +1/+1 counters, as in Coastal Discovery. Many animated lands gain a creature type of elemental. Speaking of elements, earthbending is a mechanic from Avatar: The Last Airbender that is all about animating lands and giving them recursion, so I'll leave them to their own article, though they very much deserve mention here.

I only consider cards that make lands into creatures for this ranking. I do not look at lands that become creatures. I primarily rank these cards on their value in Commander, so some cards that make small creatures didn’t cut it.

Honorable Mentions: Earthbending

Earthbender Ascension, Ba Sing Se, Toph, Earthbending Master are great examples of earthbending and a reminder that +1/+1 counters work beautifully because even if a land stops being a creature for a time, the counters stay on it until it leaves for another zone.

Honorable Mention: Titania, Gaea Incarnate

Titania, Gaea Incarnate is a meld case in which Titania, Voice of Gaea and Argoth, Sanctum of Nature do not animate a land, but Titania, Gaea Incarnate does. They become a keyword soup legend with an activated ability that moves your lands into the center of the table with chunks of four +1/+1 counters.

#31. Hunting Wilds

Hunting Wilds costs an incredible amount of mana to animate a mere two lands, but the non-kicked spell is very respectable. Fetching two lands is the going rate for 4 mana, and fetching two cards with the forest subtype means this green sorcery can do some serious fixing by grabbing dual lands or even Triomes. Heavy green decks may play this as an Explosive Vegetation variant that does something later in the game.

#30. Life // Death

Life // Death is tricky to rank because it’s almost always played because Death is a powerful reanimation spell, leaving Life as an afterthought. Turning your lands into 1/1s for so little mana becomes a powerful win condition, though, especially when paired with Overrun effects that can blitz through your opponents. Ultimately? A fine split card, even if Death dominates Life.

#29. Animate Land

Animate Land does the job. This plays like a removal spell in that you ambush a creature with a surprise 3/3, but a 3/3 isn’t the most impressive creature in the context of EDH. It’s not incredible, but this green instant can do work in the right deck.

#28. Rootwise Survivor

Rootwise Survivor is an expensive and risky way to make a 3/3 out of a creature since it needs to survive tapping into your second main phase. Crewing a vehicle or station is a great way to safely tap, and if you can do this consistently this human can pump a ton of +1/+1 counters onto one land or multiple lands.

#27. Rampaging Growth

Rampaging Growth can play like Deathsprout if you use it before blockers, but it can also be a horrible do-nothing if your opponent has a kill spell for the land you search up. One land for 4 mana is well below rate, though I admit this has some versatility.

#26. Jolrael, Empress of Beasts

Discarding two cards feels like an immense cost that makes me wary of playing Jolrael, Empress of Beasts, but making your entire mana base into 3/3s threatens tons of combat damage. You can also animate an opponent’s lands as a political tool—perhaps warning the table that the next person who casts a board wipe gets hit with Armageddon.

#25. Coastal Discovery

Coastal Discovery may not be the flashiest or most impactful card-draw spell in Commander, but awakening a 6-mana 4/4 that draws two cards makes this a respectable blue sorcery at casual Commander tables.

#24. Sage of the Maze

Sage of the Maze is hot off the press of Modern Horizons 3 but promises to make an impact in Gate-focused decks. A mana dork that taps for 2 mana and becomes a late-game threat? Fantastic. This card sits so low in this ranking only because of its narrow scope.

#23. Nissa of Shadowed Boughs

Even if you can’t exploit Nissa of Shadowed Boughs turning your lands into creatures, you get a planeswalker that ramps you and reanimates creatures. Getting loyalty counters from landfall triggers gives Nissa an intriguing way to grow and makes it hard for your opponents to pressure it while you make land drops.

#22. Tatyova, Steward of Tides

Making lands into 3/3s isn’t scary, but what about flying 3/3s? Those have some bite to them, making Tatyova, Steward of Tides a powerful way to animate your lands. This merfolk druid pairs well with saboteur effects like Coastal Piracy and Toski, Bearer of Secrets.

#21. Tendril of the Mycotyrant

Tendril of the Mycotyrant has an expensive activated ability, but its animated lands are among the most impactful on the list since they’re permanently 7/7s, not to mention all the +1/+1 counter synergies you can layer on.

#20. Lifespark Spellbomb

A temporary 3/3 is underwhelming, but the option of a temporary 3/3 or drawing a card endures Lifespark Spellbomb to me. Green isn’t famous for its artifact synergies, but decks like those headed by Gruul commander Meria, Scholar of Antiquity or Temur commander Rashmi and Ragavan won’t mind a cheap artifact that cycles.

#19. Wrenn and Realmbreaker

Wrenn and Realmbreaker promises perfect mana fixing, and some card draw to go with its animate land ability. Its ultimate can win games, and the animate land ability gives it some built-in protection. You need to be a permanent-centric deck to get the most out of this green planeswalker, but that’s an easy ask.

#18. Nissa, Worldwaker

Nissa, Worldwaker animates lands twice as an uptick and ultimate. This card does want you to be in mono-green, so you have plenty of Forests for the second uptick and basic lands to tutor with for the ultimate. It’s fantastic alongside cards like Garruk's Uprising and Challenger Troll that care about creatures with four power.

#17. Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper

Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper makes animating lands into a spellslinger payoff. It works best in tempo-oriented decks that want to use lots of interactive spells to knock opponents off-kilter while finishing things with all the 3/3s. Or larger, since you can stack multiple triggers on a single land.

#16. Sylvan Awakening

Sylvan Awakening is one of the strongest mass land animation cards because it makes them indestructible, removing one of the key weaknesses of the card effect. The best way to utilize this is alongside Overrun effects.

#15. March from Velis Vel

March from Velis Vel has a pretty tight restriction since you need to have a large concentration of lands with a nonbasic land type. Deserts and Gates are the most obvious decks to leverage this. The power of this blue sorcery lies in how it animates the lands: They don’t merely become creatures, they become copies of your best creature. The ceiling of attacking with an army of Inferno Titans or a horde of Blossoming Bogbeasts is worth building around.

#14. Ignition Team

I only uncovered Ignition Team while writing, and what a gem I found! It’s at least a 7/7 but often much larger in a 4-person Commander game. Then you get to dump a bunch of mana into making an assault team of lands! You can’t use this red creature indefinitely without other ways to add counters, but how long do you need to use it when you convert your lands into threats?

#13. Genju of the Realm

Betrayers of Kamigawa introduced a full cycle of Genju enchantments that turned the enchanted land into creatures. Genju of the Realm stands well above the rest. It turns one of your lands into an incredibly large creature that dodges board wipes and sorcery speed removal.

#12. Emergent Sequence

I like Emergent Sequence less than your average Rampant Growth variant your opponent can just Lightning Bolt your extra land, but Rampant Growth variants are still quite powerful. Plus, if you’re playing with fetch lands or ways to play additional lands, the emerging land can become quite the threat.

#11. Liege of the Tangle

Liege of the Tangle screams big impact. It doesn’t quite make the top ten because you can do much better as green top-end, but if you want to animate lands, this green creature does a fantastic job ending games by turning as many lands as you like into 8/8s.

#10. Destiny Spinner

To maximize Destiny Spinner’s land animation, you need to play it in a deck filled with enchantments. But this enchantment creature is also one of the most common land animation cards you’ll come across since it’s typically played as a budget-friendly alternative to Allosaurus Shepherd.

#9. Llanowar Loamspeaker

Llanowar Loamspeaker might be the best land animation card to slip into the average deck. 2-mana dorks with upside are playable in a variety of decks. If you care about fixing for multiple colors and getting elementals into play, or want an extra creature lying around, you can probably play Llanowar Loamspeaker.

#8. Koth of the Hammer

Many of the land-animating planeswalkers push you towards playing mono-colored decks, and Koth of the Hammer is no different, encouraging you to play mono-red since every ability references Mountains. A formidable Cube staple to supercharge mono-red decks, I’m most intrigued by this red planeswalker’s -2. Doubling your mana sets up explosive turns, and you can apply pressure after with your animated Mountains.

#7. Nissa, Vital Force

Nissa, Vital Force has always stood out as a prominent planeswalker in my mind because you can ultimate it the turn after you play, or even sooner with cards like Pir, Imaginative Rascal. The 5/5 lands are also quite formidable and among the largest produced by cards on this list.

#6. Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor

If you want to animate lands, Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor is one of the best commanders for it. You get to slap your opponents around with lands while building up Obuun as a nasty threat with all the +1/+1 counters—or you make your other creatures big! This elf spirit is quite the flexible Naya commander.

#5. Planar Outburst

Casting a board wipe sits pretty high on the list of impactful things you can do in an EDH game. You always want to cast Planar Outburst for its awaken cost, so you’re left with the only threat in play when the dust settles.

#4. Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir

Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir doesn’t just animate lands but utilizes them with its card draw ability. These lands can hit quite hard, especially if you pair Jolrael with cards that let you ignore the maximum hand size like Sea Gate Restoration and Ancient Silver Dragon.

#3. Kamahl, Heart of Krosa

Kamahl, Heart of Krosa boasts an incredibly impactful text box, even if you don’t animate lands. I’ve referenced Overrun effects several times, and this card puts one in the command zone! Animating a flurry of lands to smash your opponents with this green commander ends games quickly.

#2. Part the Waterveil

Extra turn spells are busted. Ones like Part the Waterveil that exile themselves are weaker since you can’t get to any tricks with cards like Eternal Witness, but getting a large creature to swing with on your extra turn makes up for it.

#1. Nissa, Who Shakes the World

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is one of the most powerful planeswalkers ever printed, a pretty impressive achievement considering other contenders include Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Oko, Thief of Crowns. This amazing green planeswalker also encourages playing mono-colored or at least heavy green, but it only takes one or two Forests to utilize this pushed passive ability. Not to mention all the damage/ramp you get from untapping and animating lands. Nissa, Who Shakes the World makes an excellent top-end for all manner of green decks.

Best Animate Land Payoffs

First up are cards that synergize with animating lands. Bumi, Unleashed can lock out non-land cards on an extra combat phase, and rocks a powerful untap reward. Badgermole Cub is an astounding that more than makes up for its cost in no time and a perfect fit when you turn lands into creatures. Toph, Greatest Earthbender grants the powerful double strike to any of your animated lands. Cards like Blossoming Tortoise, Tatyova, Steward of Tides and Jyoti, Moag Ancient specifically reward animated lands and often play well with these cards as well as creature lands.

Because most animate land cards give the animated land the elemental creature type, you can get lots of value from cards that synergize with elementals like Omnath, Locus of the Roil and Kaheera, the Orphanguard to squeeze a little more value from these cards. You can add effects like Kindred Discovery to decks built around animating lands.

Since many of these abilities make the animated land into 0/0s with +1/+1 counters, cards like Hardened Scales, Shalai and Hallar, and Kami of Whispered Hopes that synergize with the counters can play well with these cards.

Finally, you can do a neat trick with animate land effects that turn the lands into creatures indefinitely. Because they count as lands and creatures, you can use board wipes like Flood of Tears and Ondu Inversion to remove everything… except your animated lands, leaving you with the only board presence in the game.

Does an Animated Land Have Summoning Sickness?

Yes: Animated lands are affected by summoning sickness. Any creature that comes under your control has summoning sickness the turn you obtain control of it, even if it was a non-creature permanent before becoming a creature (that’s why even vehicle commanders have summoning sickness, too). That means you can’t attack with it or activate mana abilities. Most modern land animation gives the animated lands haste to mitigate this issue; for example, Nissa, Who Shakes the World and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa. You do need to pay attention to which land you’re animating with older cards like Koth of the Hammer. Many a Cube game was lost by animating a summoning-sick land with that card.

What is the Best Way to Animate All Lands?

The best way to animate all your lands at once is Natural Affinity. Be warned that it affects opponents the same way. For permanent options, Living Plane and Nature's Revolt are next in line but altogether too costly. March from Velis Vel is a distant option because you can only declare a nonbasic land type which severely hampers how widely you can use it. Land animation is for the most part, a one-at-a-time effect.

Wrap Up

Nissa of Shadowed Boughs (Zendikar Rising) | Illustration by Yongjae Choi

Animating lands not featured in every set, but is one of the many ways you can mitigate flood in Magic by making your mana base do more than tap for mana. Not only do they help your mana base, but you can also build around them with a variety of payoffs and clever synergies.

Do you play with animate land spells? Did I miss some great ways to turn lands into creatures? Let me know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe and keep animated!