Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Durkwood Baloth and the Grittier Side of Green Ramp: A Deep Dive into a Delayed-Impact Combo

Green mana loves to grow forests, creatures, and a good old-fashioned giant threat that folds into a win condition as the game drags into the late turns. Durkwood Baloth embodies that late-game payoff with a twist: it’s not cast the moment you draw it, but exiled with five time counters and then, when the final counter drops, you may cast it for free. That sounds like a calendar that’s been manipulated by a mad wizard, but in the right shell, it becomes a clockwork engine for a green ramp deck 🧙‍♂️🔥. The art by Dan Frazier captures the primal, moss-draped beast that you’ve been waiting to untap on turn six or seven, only this time you get to fling it onto the battlefield with haste and force your opponent to respect the swing that follows ⚔️🎲.

Durkwood Baloth is a common in Time Spiral Remastered, a set that celebrated the many-layered timelines of MTG’s multiverse. Its suspend ability—Suspend 5—{G}—lets you exile Baloth with five time counters and then steadily remove a counter at the start of each upkeep. When the last counter is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost and it comes in with haste. It’s the kind of tempo play that rewards planning and a little audacity. The net effect is a delayed, devastating arrival that can catch opponents with their pants down, much like a surprise tutor in a fog of green ☘️💎.

Why this effect invites a dedicated combo shell

• Delayed but decisive payoff: The true value lies in cheating the mana cost for a 5/5 P/T creature with immediate impact. When Baloth lands with haste, it’s almost always a synchronous finisher after your ramp has stabilized. The key is to anchor the deck with strong ramp and acceleration so the last time counter can be removed on a critical turn, pressing for a lethal alpha strike 🧭⚡.
• Pressurized value from ramp-and-protection tools: Green’s typical tools—mana dorks, mana-fixing, acceleration, and card draw—combine with Baloth’s delayed payoff to create a robust game plan. You want to thread through cards that both protect Baloth while you’re stashing it in exile and allow you to push through a big combat swing once it re-enters the battlefield 🎨🪄.
• Haste as the all-important surprise factor: Baloth’s haste ensures that, on the turn it’s cast for free, it can attack or threaten to force opponents into defensive blocks. It maintains tempo in green-heavy strategies where you’re often trading big threats for action across multiple turns ⚔️🔥.

Key building blocks for a green ramp combo around Durkwood Baloth

To maximize the lethality of the suspend plan, you’ll want a core of ramp that buys time counters, accelerants that push the last-turn window earlier, and enough recursion to reassemble the threat in case it’s answered. Consider the following pillars:

• Ramp and acceleration: Explore a foundation of green staples like Cultivate, Explosive Vegetation, and Kodama’s Reach to accelerate into the late-game plans. Additionally, include mana dorks such as Llanowar Elves or Fyndhorn Elves to help shave a turn or two off your setup, enabling earlier removal of the last time counter on Baloth.
• Card draw and filter: Green loves to refill the hand after you’ve invested in the suspend plan. Cards like Sylvan Library, Harmonize, or Momentous Fall can sustain you as you work toward the Baloth payoff, while green can also leverage one or two copies of Pulse of Murasa-style recursion to recover Baloth if it’s removed by disruption 🧙‍♂️.
• Protection and inevitability: Temporary protection in the form of Garruk’s Uprising-style effects or countermagic backups in a more rental-friendly shell helps you weather counterspells and removals as you approach the big reveal. A few board-wipe resistors or graveyard-hate-insulation can keep the Baloth’s plan alive when the pressure mounts 💎.
• Recursion and reusability: If your meta tolerates it, reusing suspend-capable threats (or even Baloth copies) can keep your deck running. The suspend mechanic invites a design where you don’t just cast once but sustain the threat in the air while your opponents scramble to respond 🎲.

Two practical lines you might pursue on a turn-by-turn basis

Line A leans into a heavy ramp into a timely Baloth drop that swings with haste on the very turn the last time counter is removed. You’ll want to protect your fragile engine with a few counterspells or cantrips, then untap with the Baloth as a sudden, decisive blow. The math here: ramp to a point where you can exile Baloth with five counters late enough in the game so that the upkeep removal aligns with your own turn or your next attack step. The payoff is a 5/5 threat that enters the battlefield tapped? Not quite—this Baloth comes with haste, which matters when you’re trying to convert a single swing into a game win 🧙‍♂️🔥.

Line B focuses on resilience: you suspend Baloth and pair it with recursion and removal protection, ensuring that even if an early answer hits, you can loop back and re-exile another Baloth or a similar threat. The durability of the plan relies on your ability to draw into more ramp or a second Baloth to reassemble the plan, turning the suspend engine into a reliable late-game clock. In green, that clock often runs on life totals, not just on board state, so every swing matters and every draw slot counts 🎨🎲.

Flavor, art, and the collector’s eye

Beyond the mechanics, Durkwood Baloth is a reminder of how green’s natural imagery translates into a playable engine. The Dan Frazier illustration captures a moss-covered beast surging from the forest, a perfect visual echo for a card that waits in exile like a seed ready to sprout. The card’s common rarity in Time Spiral Remastered makes it approachable for budget-minded players who still crave a serious strategic payoff in their ramp shell. If you’re chasing a nostalgic green dream with a modern twist, Baloth is a wink to memory and a step toward a future where suspend-based combos can still surprise even seasoned opponents 🧙‍♂️💎.

On the collecting side, Durkwood Baloth’s foil and nonfoil versions offer a nice value proposition for players who want to responsibly combine playability with a dash of collectible charm. With a modern-legal footprint and a classic suspend package, it’s a card that invites both deck-building creativity and casual collection wonder — a nice pairing for MTG fans who like their strategies layered and their games lively 🔥🎨.

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