Traveling Botanist
Creature — Dog Scout
Whenever this creature becomes tapped, look at the top card of your library. If it's a land card, you may reveal it and put it into your hand. If you don't put the card into your hand, you may put it into your graveyard.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Tarkir: Dragonstorm
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #15170
Traveling Botanist pays for itself the turn it enters — every creature-based clue or Food or Treasure you crack costs one less mana, turning incremental value into a real tempo engine. The cost is a two-mana 1/2 with no immediate board presence, which means it earns its slot only in decks that generate tokens consistently enough to feel that discount on curve.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Sophia, Dogged Detective
Sophia, Dogged Detective's entire game plan is generating clues and drawing cards off them, so Traveling Botanist's cost reduction applies to nearly every activation — it's not a synergy piece, it's load-bearing infrastructure.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Traveling Botanist is a Commander card through and through. The 100-card singleton format gives it the critical mass of artifact token producers — clues, Foods, Treasures — that makes the cost reduction meaningful game after game. In competitive 60-card formats like Modern or Pioneer, dedicated artifact synergy decks exist but rarely need a 1/2 body attached to a marginal discount when more efficient options are available. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters; the effect is simply too slow for those environments. Commander is the one format where Traveling Botanist earns its seat, specifically in token-heavy Selesnya, Golgari, or four-color value shells built around sacrifice loops.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
At $0.08, Traveling Botanist is deep bulk — you're picking this out of a common box, not paying for it. Expect it to stay in this tier; it's a single-printing uncommon with narrow synergy demand that won't spike unless a new pushed token commander pushes clue or Food strategies into the mainstream.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.