Did That Tree Just Move?

Did That Tree Just Move?

Hello, my fellow casters and Metazoo enthusiast! My name is Antonio, and today I want to dive into one of my favorite cards. Wood Devil of Coos Country. I’m going to talk a little about the lore, and then we can get into some gameplay mechanics. 

In the rural forest of Coos Country, New Hampshire, there have been reports of tall, grey-haired, slender animals lurking around. These reports date all the way back to the 19th century. Many conspiracy theorists in the 1970s believed they had sighted Bigfoot. They reported seeing a fast-moving humanoid Sasquatch along the Appalachian Trail. Witnesses say you can walk right into a Wood Devil without even knowing. Their tall, skinny, gray-haired figure allows them to blend in when standing next to tree trunks. Thankfully, today’s sightings are far less common than they were 50 years ago. That said, there’s still a reason to fear the forest at night, and I’m not taking any chances.

Now let’s get into the card. Wood Devil of Coos Country is a very versatile and playable card. If you claim a plant as one of your fourth wall items and bring a real tree to your tournaments, you can play Wood Devil for three less forest aura. This means it will only cost two neutral auras to play Wood Devil of Coos Country. Because of this, you can fit this card into any deck. Now is it useful in your deck? Well, that’s up to you to decide. Wood Devil has something unique about its attack. The attack “Devilish Scream” reads: “You may distribute this Attacks Damage to any number of Beasties, Artifacts, or Casters (minimum of 5 damage per target).” This is great because we can damage all kinds of Beasties. Spirit and Flying are two very prevalent traits right now. You could even spread damage to your own Beasties and wake them up if they’re asleep. Wood Devil’s scream pierces through anything and everything in the arena.

The Wood Devil also has a trait that Is near and dear to my heart. That is the trap trait. I’ve played a lot of water, and water has a lot of options for traps, so I am no stranger to trap setups. Wood Devil quickly became one of my favorite traps after the Casters Cup 2022. My biggest fear at Casters Cup was running into lightning. The Radioactive Hornets became the BIGGEST problem for water. Quetz? That’s fine. One drop flying Beasties with ten health and ten attack? Suddenly I’m terrified. When you play a trap, it enters the arena face down. When a trap is targeted, or the Beastie the trap is under is targeted, the trap flips face up. When Wood Devil is flipped up, it gains first strike. The first strike was super helpful against the hornets, and being able to avoid being paralyzed was crucial. I was also able to bring out a Wood Devil with a couple of lightning in a bottles and clear out the hornet tokens. Traps are really useful for protecting your weak but critical pieces. For me, that was Loveland Frogman. Use a trap to bait or force your opponent into attacking, the element of surprise is powerful in Metazoo. I could talk about traps and mind games all day, but I’ll save that for another time.

The second trait that Wood Devil has is convert. Convert is helpful if you need to use the extra aura to pay for something neutral or forest. In this meta, everyone is playing growth. Wood Devil’s convert could help you get that extra forest aura if needed. Wood Devil’s convert trait can be overlooked because of all of the other extraordinary abilities it has. That additional aura could be a FAC to clean up those hard-to-reach Beasties, or a Fourth of July to secure the victory in turns. 

Wood Devil is a very surgical Beastie. I like to call this card The Cartographer because it draws the map to victory. In Metazoo, it doesn’t matter how much lethal damage you swing at a single target defending itself. If you attack with 100 damage to a 40lp Beastie, the rest of the damage fizzles away. I know the 25 damage attack on Wood Devil isn’t a lot. But being able to ping multiple Beasties can put them in kill range for your other attackers. But I know this wouldn’t be a Wood Devil article if I didn’t mention Powerup Red. A Wood Devil with Powerup Red can turn the tables. You just hit the uno reverse card. Unlike other Beasties, you’re not gonna throw 100 plus damage at a single target. You’re going to clear the arena. I once made a Powerup Red Wood Devil fly with Manta Ray. That is what we call in the biz, peak gameplay. 

In all seriousness, I really do enjoy playing this card. Wood Devil is one of the most terrifying Beasties in the game and real life. If you haven’t had the chance to play Wood Devil, throw him into your deck and give it a try. It may not work for everyone, but it has become a staple as of late. Next time you find yourself in the forest, double-check to make sure that tree is really a tree. You never know where the Wood Devils of the world may be lurking. Make no mistake; magic is real. Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found some of this information useful.

-Antonio H.  

Lore Source:

https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Woods_Devil