Hello again everyone, and welcome back to this year's edition of the Commander Breakdown. As with last year's review, we'll be reviewing and revising these decks through the lens of multiplayer functionality, while trying to keep individual card cost manageable. Unlike last year's review, we won't be limiting ourselves to just five cards.
For our second look at the new Commander 2018 decks we're diving into the Jund deck "Nature's Vengeance", and looking to find some room to improve.
Here's a quick look at our possible new Commanders, before we get into changes:
Our Planeswalker Commander in this archetype is going to give us card filtering every turn, and keep us going into the late game.
Lord Windgrace's first mode turns our mid and late game land draws into extra cards. His second mode makes sure we aren't being punished for throwing them away.
His ultimate is a more aggressive version of Terastodon, giving us ten power worth of creatures while wiping out value targets on our opponents' sides.
This card seems underwhelming, but it can definitely find a home. At 5/5 for six CMC with vigilance, reach, and extra abilities to boot, the value for cost is worthwhile.
If we're playing this as our Commander, we want to make sure you use these abilities to their best extent. Thantis, the Warweaver can be a one sided board wipe if timed correctly, and leave us in a position to strike down our opposition on the back swing.
Hail Hydra! Gyrus, Waker of Corpses is a sweet aggro commander alternative, and rewards us for casting it at any point in the game. As a commander, being taxed just makes this more monstrous.
The advertised theme of this deck is Lands Matter, with some inclination toward +1/+1 counters and graveyard synergy. If we're going to take advantage and keep control of the board, we can make a number of changes to this list:
Land Ramp
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Kodama's Reach
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Edge of Autumn
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Sword of the Animist
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Grow from the Ashes
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Hour of Promise
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Verdant Confluence
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Playing Extra Lands
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Burgeoning
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Azusa, Lost but Seeking
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Pir's Whim
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Wayward Swordtooth
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Mina and Denn, Wildborn
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Oracle of Mul Daya
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With all of these lands coming into our hand and play, we need a way to generate advantage prior to reaching our top end. Lord Windgrace is one card draw engine, but we'll need more in order to keep up:
Card Draw
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The Gitrog Monster
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Horn of Greed
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Tireless Tracker
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Nissa, Vital Force
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Phyrexian Arena
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Sylvan Library
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Between sending our own lands to the graveyard and other players interacting with our field, we will need a way to use our already expended resources:
Graveyard Interaction
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The Mending of Dominaria
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Ramunap Excavator
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Crucible of Worlds
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The Eldest Reborn
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Deathrite Shaman
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Liliana, Death's Majesty
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Since we're recurring our own graveyard, it's a good idea to load up on permanent removal that hits multiple targets and varieties of permanents.
Removal
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Strip Mine
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Garruk, Apex Predator
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Pernicious Deed
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Wildfire
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Jokulhaups
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Obliterate
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So our game plan is to keep the board under firm control, and hopefully lock our opponents out of their top end - if not the game itself. If we want to be extra cautious, there are plenty of other board wipes we could include, along with targeted removal like Jaya's Immolating Inferno. But we need to save some slots for ending the game:
Win Conditions
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Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
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Doubling Season
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Omnath, Locus of Rage
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Ulvenwald Hydra
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Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar
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Sheoldred, Whispering One
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Some or all of these changes should leave us in a good place to win some games, but it will take time and practice to see what works best.
If you're looking for a place to do just that, check out your friendly local game store. Wizard's Tower in the Ottawa area is hosting a Commander 2018 League on Saturday evenings starting August 11th. You can check out the details on their Events Calendar.
