All 44 Forestwalk Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on November 25, 2023

Elvish Champion | Illustration by Mark Zug

Lands are an integral part of Magic. You literally can’t play without them, and everybody has at least a few in the deck, even if they should be running one or two more. They’re the most important resource in the game and largely just a benefit to people playing them.

That’s part of what makes land destruction strategies so powerful: they’re one of the few ways to punish or interact with your opponents’ land base. Another way to punish your opponents comes from a classic and retired Magic keyword: landwalk.

Come with me for a walk through the forest as we uncover what makes this specific landwalk ability tick.

What Is Forestwalk in Magic?

Chatterfang, Squirrel General | Illustration by Jason A. Engle

Forestwalk is a keyword that means creatures with Forestwalk can’t be blocked if the defending player controls a Forest. It doesn’t need to be a basic Forest; lands like Breeding Pool and Murmuring Bosk also provide your Forestwalk creatures with unblockable.

Forestwalk is just one variation of landwalk. Each basic land type has a landwalk ability (i.e. Plainswalk for Plains), and there are a handful of cards with unique landwalk abilities like Ayumi, the Last Visitor with legendary landwalk.

As a note, several of the cards on this list don’t natively have Forestwalk but give it to other permanents or themselves. These fit in the list because they help exploit the same weakness of your green opponents playing typed lands.

#42. Rime Dryad

As an evasive ability, Forestwalk is already quite narrow. Rime Dryad narrows it even further by only walking over Snow-Covered Forests. If this had snowwalk in general it might be decent, but this is impressively unplayable.

#41. Veldrane of Sengir

Veldrane of Sengir just costs so much mana at every turn. Seven mana for a 5/5 isn’t good, and giving it Forestwalk reduces its power and has an extra mana investment. The best thing to say about this card is that it does an excellent job of convoying the flavor of the character.

#40. Orbweaver Kumo

Orbweaver Kumo is an expensive creature without the stats to back it up. It’s got some utility: reach makes it a solid defense creature while Forestwalk gives it offensive capabilities.

That said, it’s only got Forestwalk sometimes, and there are better cards and colors for spirit synergies.

#39. Scarwood Hag

Of the cards that give your creatures Forestwalk, Scarwood Hag is the weakest. is such a huge cost to give an unreliable evasive keyword and is basically impossible to play unless you’re in mono-green. Removing Forestwalk also basically never matters.

#38. Elvish Pathcutter

Elvish Pathcutter is better than the Hag, but only just. Its ability to give Forestwalk has a far less restrictive cost, even if it’s still too much. It costs three mana every turn and only targets elves.

Targeting itself isn’t even a viable option since that’s a total mana investment of seven to make a 1/2 unblockable for a turn.

#37. Dryad’s Favor

Dryad's Favor is another way to give your creatures Forestwalk, but it’s still not very good. It at least costs way less mana than the Pathcutter and doesn’t discriminate on type. This card just doesn’t give you much of anything and has all the weaknesses associated with auras.

#36. Zendikar Farguide

This is the most broken card Wizards has ever printed and was a design mistake. At least, that’s what I thought about Zendikar Farguide when I saw it as a Magic rookie in 2009 who greatly overvalued unblockable.

Of the many French vanilla creatures with Forestwalk, this is the worst. None of them are particularly large, but a 3/3 for five with mediocre evasion just isn’t worth it.

#35. Hidden Path

There are a few blanket ways to give your creatures Forestwalk on this list, but Hidden Path has two glaring weaknesses keeping it down here. It costs a lot of mana, and it’s a pretty intensive mana cost at that.

It’s also universal, and giving everybody else's creatures Forestwalk can backfire, especially if you’re playing EDH and not everyone in the pod is green.

#34. Zodiac Rabbit

Zodiac Rabbit is an adorable card from Portal Three Kingdoms and is one of several Zodiac cards with Forestwalk. It comes in last because a 1/1 for one generally isn’t a desirable card, even with evasion like this.

It comes below the other 1/1s because this is noticeably more expensive since it’s never seen a reprint.

#33. Willow Dryad + Shanodin Dryads

Willow Dryad and Shanodin Dryads are bundled together because they’re the same card. The same mana cost, color identity, even the same type. They beat out Zodiac Rabbit mostly on the principle of costing 20 cents rather than $10.

If I had to pick one, it’d be Shanodin Dryads since it’s got better art and flavor text than Willow Dryad.

#32. Jukai Messenger

Rounding out the French vanilla 1/1s on the list is Jukai Messenger. This card beats out the others because it’s got a relevant creature type. Neither dryad nor rabbit have any meaningful tribal support, but human goes a long way.

Lots of human cards want to make their creature bigger, so the evasive ability could be useful.

#31. Wormwood Treefolk

Wormwood Treefolk is a card. It costs life and mana to use its evasive abilities, but it offers more utility by getting Forestwalk or Swampwalk. It could be interesting in an EDH deck centered around dealing damage to yourself, and it’s got a relevant creature type as a treefolk.

#30. Wormwood Dryad

Wormwood Dryad is Wormwood Treefolk’s younger brother, and it benefits from the smaller size. Damage-wise a 3/1 isn’t that different from a 4/4, and you don’t want to be blocking with these cards anyways.

Only paying one mana instead of two and three mana for the creature instead of five are discounts significant enough to make this card better.

#29. Emerald Oryx

Emerald Oryx is a good example of most Forestwalk creatures. It’s a green French vanilla card with a bit of evasion. They’re often on the smaller side since big creatures that can’t be blocked are really strong.

The Oryx is a little lower on the list though since you can get better stat lines for four mana.

#28. Unseen Walker

Unseen Walker is a better card that gives your creatures Forestwalk. is still a lot of mana and it’s color intensive, but it does the trick.

This card is also a 1/1 for two and natively has forestwalk, making it a bit better than its contemporaries further down the list.

#27. Leaf Dancer

Rather like the Oryx, Leaf Dancer falls a little short since you can get better stats for a 3-mana French vanilla creature. This card does work as an interesting take on a centaur in Magic. While there are several creatures with the card type, this is one of the few that depicts them with the lower half of a deer rather than the more conventional horse.

#26. Cat Warriors

Cat Warriors shares a lot of traits with Leaf Dancer. They’re both 2/2 Forestwalk creatures for . This card comes on top primarily thanks to typing. Both cat and warrior are more relevant creature types than centaur, which doesn’t have any real tribal support.

#25. Elite Cat Warrior

Elite Cat Warrior stands above the Cat Warriors just as you’d expect. This is also a 2-power Forestwalk for three, but it has to major upsides.

An extra point of toughness makes this a better blocker and it’s got a less restrictive casting cost. Since these share card types, this is just a better version of Cat Warriors.

#24. Koth’s Courier

Koth's Courier looks a lot like the previous Forestwalk creatures, but it’s got a few benefits.

Human is better typing than cat since it’s just got more support. Second, this card is red. Most creatures with Forestwalk are green, so this gives an option to some non-green decks looking to take down their local Timmy.

#23. Slinking Serpent

Another non-green Forestwalker, Slinking Serpent gives Dimir () decks a way to punch through the bigger green creatures. It’s not the biggest creature about, but it could be a useful sideboard card to help take out a local green player.

#22. Zodiac Tiger

Even though Zodiac Tiger wasn’t printed with the cat subtype, it was errata’d to be one. This is a solid 4-drop with okay stats that can hit really hard if it’s not blocked.

#21. Heartwood Treefolk

Once more we find a creature sneaking out ahead because of a better creature type. Treefolk has better support than cats, plus Heartwood Treefolk benefits from its better statline than the tiger. Many treefolk strategies rely on having higher toughness than power, so a 3/4 fits right in.

#20. Rushwood Dryad + Zodiac Monkey

These creatures get to go together because they’re very close to being the same card. The only difference is the creature type; Rushwood Dryad is a dryad while Zodiac Monkey is an ape, neither of which are super relevant card type.

These do exactly what you want from a cheap French vanilla Forestwalk creature: they come down and hit often, chipping away at the opponents and getting around their 3/3s.

#19. Somberwald Dryad

Somberwald Dryad comes close to the others, but being a 2/2 squeaks it ahead. The extra point of toughness might not look like much, but it puts in some work. It protects this card from small pingers like Gut Shot and makes double blocking far more viable that a 2/1.

#18. Lynx

Look, having a supported creature type goes a long way, and cat is one of the more supported types among Forestwalkers. Lynx is just a 2/1. But the fact it can interact favorably with cards like Rin and Seri, Inseparable and King of the Pride outweighs the loss of toughness when compared to Somberwald Dryad.

#17. Vine Dryad

Vine Dryad is an interesting Forestwalk creature that you can do so many tricks with. A 4-mana 1/3 obviously isn’t much to write home about, but flash makes it a surprise blocker. You can even play it without paying its mana cost, which can change a tight combat in your favor if you opponent thinks you don’t have any spells to play.

#16. Ivy Dancer

Giving your creatures Forestwalk is really useful. We looked at a few creatures that do this for a bit mana (often too much mana), but Ivy Dancer freely gives the keyword out. You just need to tap it.

Ivy Dancer could be higher if it didn’t cost so much mana.

#15. Weatherseed Elf

Weatherseed Elf is a neat little card that can give a big advantage. Most creatures with Forestwalk are relatively small since a massive unblockable threat is a bit overpowered. But this card gives your big beaters forestwalk!

This is a great way to give your green opponents a taste of massive creatures coming their way without any way to block it.

#14. Boggart Loggers

Boggart Loggers is a useful tool that does more than just attack with its Forestwalk. This is an anti-green card to the core, punishing them for playing Forests and blowing them up later to deny your opponent resources.

It also has some fringe potential by blowing up treefolk.

#13. Tattermunge Duo

Tattermunge Duo is a card with some surprising combo potential. It’s easy enough to cast a green spell to get Forestwalk.

The red side of the card that pumps is especially interesting since it gives the card a way to offset the small size and pack as much of a punch as possible when it’s unblocked. And you could one-shot an opponent if you can find a way to cast enough red spells.

#12. Stalker Hag

Stalker Hag is just a solid creature card that has both Forestwalk and Swampwalk to get through your opponent’s defense with a reasonable body. Having double evasion makes it easy for this card to pressure multiple decks and opponents instead of just the mono-green player.

#11. Nature’s Cloak

Nature's Cloak is a card with potential as a finisher. Giving your entire team Forestwalk is powerful when facing a mono-green opponent. It does require you to be deep into green yourself, but that just means you have the biggest creatures to make unblockable.

It’s also a sneaky card your opponents never see coming.

#10. Lumbering Satyr

This beast of a card is pretty similar to Nature's Cloak, but Lumbering Satyr has a few key differences that makes it better than the Cloak. It gives all your creatures Forestwalk, not just green ones, and also comes stapled to a 5/4 for only four mana.

It’s a symmetrical effect that also gives your opponent’s creatures Forestwalk, but it still sets you up for a sneaky win.

#9. Woodlot Crawler

One of the few non-green creatures on the list with Forestwalk, Woodlot Crawler is an interesting but niche card. The combination of protection from green along with Forestwalk makes this a card that’s excellent at punishing green decks by attacking freely and blocking incredibly well.

This could be an interesting card to bring in if your meta is all green.

#8. Mirri, Cat Warrior

Mirri, Cat Warrior depicts one of Magic’s classic characters, and it’s a fine card in and of itself. It’s not game-warping, but the combination of vigilance, first strike, and Forestwalk makes Mirri effective as an early offensive and defensive play.

It also holds auras and equipment well to bolster its already strong abilities.

#7. Yavimaya Dryad

Yavimaya Dryad is interesting. It’s the only Forestwalk card that lets you slip behind an opponents’ defenses by giving them a Forest. Of course, you can also target yourself to ramp and get a valuable creature behind.

The ability to give an opponent a land also makes it an interesting political tool in a Commander game.

#6. Scarwood Bandits

Scarwood Bandits is a fascinating card that offers a lot of interesting gameplay, especially in Commander. The Forestwalk is nice, but the second ability is what’s really interesting here. Stealing your opponents’ artifacts is extremely powerful, even if you’re just nabbing a Signet from across the table.

The threat of activation is also really here, forcing your opponents to keep up two mana to protect their artifacts.

#5. Eladamri, Lord of Leaves

One of the two elf lords on this list, Eladamri, Lord of Leaves spreads some powerful abilities across the team. Giving your elves Forestwalk is a great way to finish the game.

Its second ability to give your team shroud makes it almost impossible for your opponent to interact with you. Eladamri itself isn’t shrouded, forcing them to have two removal spells to deal with the threat they really want to.

#4. Jedit Ojanen of Efrava

Remember when I mentioned that most creatures with Forestwalk are small for balance reasons? Jedit Ojanen of Efrava ignores that and smashes face hard. It also generates a massive amount of power by making 2/2s every time it attacks or blocks, making it incredibly strong as an offensive and defensive creature.

Its tokens also have Forestwalk to throw even more power at your forested friends.

#3. Chorus of the Conclave

Few of the Forestwalk creatures benefit your other creatures, but Chorus of the Conclave does. Letting you pay any amount of extra mana to make your creatures bigger is a powerful ability that gives you maximum mana efficiency each turn.

This ability also makes your creature relevant even if none of your opponents have Forests in play.

#2. Elvish Champion

Our second elf lord, Elvish Champion extends Forestwalk to your elves and pumps them with +1/+1, maximizing the amount of damage you sneak through with your Forestwalk.

This edges out Eladamri because it helps you end the game with a decisive blow. Eladamri’s protective ability is strong, but the anthem works better with the Forestwalk ability.

#1. Chatterfang, Squirrel General

Crowning the list is one of the best squirrel payoffs in the game, except you don’t need to be in squirrel tribal to get the most out of Chatterfang, Squirrel General. Forestwalk is a nice ability, but you’re really looking at Chatterfang for its ability to make Squirrels alongside other tokens. It doesn’t have to be creature tokens, either. You can produce a bunch of Treasures to make a windfall of mana and Squirrels.

This pseudo-token doubling makes Chatterfang the best of the Forestwalk creatures, even if that’s not the key ability that makes it so powerful. Chatterfang is also an incredible commander!

Best Forestwalk Payoffs

There are a few strong payoffs for Forestwalk to maximize the impact your creatures have on the board besides just killing your opponents. First, they carry +1/+1 counters as well as auras and equipment quite well since they benefit massively from the stat boost.

You can also maximize the power of cards that care about dealing combat damage to your opponents, like Coastal Piracy and Keen Sense. It’s also super useful as a meta choice if you find yourself playing against lots of decks using monarch or initiative to steal the valuable effect for yourself.

Wrap Up

Yavimaya Dryad | Illustration by Rebecca Guay

Landwalk is an ability you don’t see printed on Magic cards anymore. It’s a strong evasive ability not dissimilar to flying that helps sneak your creatures into the red zone to get the benefits from strong damage-matters effects, or just get those last points of damage to finish a game.

Forestwalk is a particularly interesting keyword because of how effective it makes creatures against the premiere creature color in Magic. Most of the Forestwalk creatures being green opens interesting avenues to playing color mirrors and winning over your opponents.

What do you think are the best Forestwalk creatures in Magic? Let me know in the comments below or on Draftsim's official Twitter.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe!