Awaken is an ability that appears on Instants and Sorceries, and gives an alternative casting cost for the spell. Whichever cost you pay, you get the normal effect of the spell. If you pay the Awaken cost, you then put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the awaken number of that spell onto a land you control, and that land becomes a 0/0 Elemental creature with haste that it still a land.
So yeah, if you pay extra, you can turn a land into a creature. Some notes:
- You can target a land that has already been awakened or is otherwise a creature. It will gain the additional +1/+1 counters and become an elemental if it wasn’t already.
- Awaken does add a target to a spell as you have to target a land for the ability. This means that if a spell has no other targets and the land gets destroyed (or would otherwise become an illegal target) in response, the spell will fizzle.
- If you cast an awaken spell for its normal cost, no target is added to the spell.
Awaken was decently well received, and is flexible and powerful enough that it will likely come around again some day. Turning lands into extra creatures is always a welcome sight in a set, and while this may not be a mainstay mechanic, it’ll be back.
Awaken you power, upgrade your collection, and visit cardkingdom.com!