Old Man Willow
Legendary Creature — Treefolk
Old Man Willow's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control.
Whenever Old Man Willow attacks, you may sacrifice another creature or a token. When you do, target creature an opponent controls gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BG
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
- Price
- $0.25
- EDHREC rank
- #10951
Old Man Willow enters as a 4/4 that immediately makes a creature unable to block or attack until your next turn — effective spot removal stapled to a body. The cost is real: five mana for a vanilla 4/4 with a one-shot tap effect is a lot to ask, and Old Man Willow has no built-in way to repeat it without Sméagol, Helpful Guide or similar Food-generation engines.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Sméagol, Helpful Guide
Old Man Willow is a Food producer that doubles as a blocker-neutralizer, which is exactly the kind of incidental value Sméagol, Helpful Guide wants — every Food token feeds the sacrifice triggers that keep the engine churning.
Doran, the Siege Tower
Old Man Willow's 4 toughness becomes 4 power under Doran, the Siege Tower, turning a mediocre beater into a legitimate threat for effectively three relevant stats on a single card.
The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride
Old Man Willow's 4/4 body is a cheap casualty target for The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride's attack trigger, netting a land drop and a card while the tap ability buys time to set up the hit.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Old Man Willow actually sees play — the Food synergy payoffs in Sméagol, Helpful Guide decks give it a real home, and the tap effect matters in a format where one threatening blocker can stall a combat step. In Legacy and Vintage, it's legal but irrelevant; five mana for a temporary tap effect doesn't compete with what those formats are doing on turn three. Oathbreaker follows the same logic as Commander: legal, occasionally useful in the right Food or toughness-matters shell, nothing more.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.25 bulk tier
Old Man Willow sits firmly in bulk territory at $0.25, and that price reflects its narrow appeal honestly — it's a role-player in specific Food-based Commander decks, not a card with cross-format demand. Don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.