What am I doing here? Why am I taking the time to craft this post for you all to read? Well it is because I have not found a solid breakdown of a land-based commander deck like the one that I have played on and off over the last four years. The point of this deck is to play lots of lands and then to use those lands to do thinks beyond just tapping for mana. There are the obvious uses; such as utility lands like Strip Mine and Maze of Ith. Beyond simply using lands that are tools however, this deck aims to use other cards to make all lands tools. These cards include, but are not limited to; Trade Routes, Seismic Assault, Zuran Orb, and many more. Once you have one of these cards and enough lands then you can kill creatures and players alike, draw lots of cards, and even mill out your opponent.
My first commander that I chose for this strategy was Damia, and this was circa 2013. I had been inspired from the legacy archetype of Lands and that deck's ability lock down a board first and then find a way to win. Many of the Blue and Black tools you will see in the deck to this day were originals from my first draft. The deck ran permission, card draw, tutors, ramp, and won with things like Villainous Wealth
After about six months of play I put Damia and her lands aside for other newer and shinier strategies.
In the summer of 2016 I returned to the lands! "It had been long enough", I thought to myself. I needed to explore again and take advantage of the many resources that the realms lay before me. This time around I dropped the Blue for Red! (Not a common occurrence as I am blue mage at heart) I was very much inspired by the strategy portrayed in Aggro Loam decks of the Modern format. Seismic Assault being the main draw and win condition. I picked up the pace, went for more ramp and lest control, and tried to throw lands at people as fast as possible.
Then...Commander 2016 was released.
Yidris combined the Sultai (GUB) and Jund (GRB) wedges that the deck was familiar with and allowed me to mend the differences between my natural tendencies (U) and the pieces I knew in my soul made the deck explosive (R) without compromising the essentials (GB). That's just the colors!
Yidris provides the deck with a mid-game threat and bonus card advantage in a way only he can. He is decent at a 5/4 with trample. If and when he connects he gets your free spells that most of the time you don't mind taking advantage of, as most of the deck is proactive. There are certainly draws where the deck has only give you lands and spells without much reach. When this happens I often find it best to use Yidris for the extra distance. Depending on the field (and how afraid of him your opponents are) you can usually connect and are able to turn a couple of your spells into four and therefor push you forward with more momentum that most commanders could do with the same hand. For this reason, and for the colors he provides us with I believe he is the best candidate for the job!
Simply put; none of the available combinations provide something to the deck that it needs, or can take advantage of what the deck is doing. Some might argue the same is true for Yidris, as he does not directly feed off the synergy or strategy of the deck. I do believe however that he is a more streamlined and valuable tool than any GBRU combination of partners.
I will say that playing with white was something I considered in the early days. There are some great white cards that can take advantage of what we are doing.
In my opinion however, and what I have noticed when playing with five-color mana-bases in EDH, you have to cut out many utility land options to make sure you can reliably hit all of your colors. If we do go five-color we also have to drop Yidris, and pick another commander. Each of which would bring something to the table, but not that makes me want to have to construct a five-color mana base and try to squeeze in utility. If you are eager to go on such an adventure I would recommend Child of Alara and a "Baby Boom" strategy.
The other option to gaining access to White would be dropping a color and playing another three or four color general. This I would say is even less advised that trying to go five-color. Green is an absolute must, and Red provides us with a lot of our punch. Blue and Black get us card advantage, tutors, and some recursion. The most likely choice in my eyes would then be Naya (GRW) however you would end up playing a fairly different deck form what I have presented you with below.
Lotus Cobra is one of our better creatures, an excellent card for any opening hand. Explosive ramp that takes advatnage of fetch lands and other ramp alike (i.e. Verdant Catacombs, Sky Shroud Claim)
Thrasios is not always the creature you are looking for. I do feel though that in certain situations he can generate immense value during turns you are coasting or trying to advance your board state while also staying out of the spotlight.
Azusa allows you to play three lands in total in one turn, without anything else. At her lowest power level you ramp two turns ahead, which is nothing to baulk at. She does how pair very nicely with a Crucible of Worlds and a Misty Rainforest or a Trade Routes and a Temple of the False God.
Courser is an excellent card. It is very non-threatening; almost never getting shot with removal, and if it gets countered you probably did something to upset that player. Course is sneaky in that it can generate card advantage in a unique way, by getting land drops of the library you are likely to only draw gas. The life gain you get from Courser can also end up making a difference, at the very least it let's you us a Scalding Tarn with a net gain in life with both land triggers.
Eternal Witness is just one of those cards you don't want to be caught without. It is one of the best forms of recursion and with certain engines becomes much more synergistic than one might think.
This iteration of Nissa is not as bad as she looks. I do think that her ETB (Enter the Battlefield) ability could be a lot better considering it can only get a basic forest, and it only goes to your hand. However in this deck it doesn't usually take long for you to hit your seventh land drop.
Flipped Nissa becomes a very awesome CA (Card Advantage) engine. She basically represents a a free Coiling Oracle ETB ability every turn. Her '-2' ability has never really been relevant for me. Her ultimate (much like Rude Awakening) represents a two-prong threat in this deck. Either you are able bolster your Alpha Strike force by a considerable amount and take someone out, or generate 6+ free mana and considerably inflate your Villainous Wealth or Genesis Wave.
Mina and Denn are a fun duo for sure. One of our deck's many options to cheat in extra lands on a turn, and an awesome utility ability masquerading as a threat. The cool thing about her ability is that the trample being enabled is not the strongest part of the ability in this deck. Being able to return certain, or sometimes any, lands to your had can allow you to trigger Landfall abilities, or ETB abilities on lands.
What can I say, this card is a $16 Commander staple for a reason. If you haven't caught on yet something this deck really likes to do is take or play lands off the top of the library. This can be an under-rated form of card advantage. If you are playing your lands from the top, then you are increasing the chance that you will actually draw something that impacts the game. This guys is the best at doing, as well as being our next "play an additional land" effect in the deck. Oracle keeps you ahead on cards, and although it shouldn't be; it is often allowed to sit on the field for turns at a time.
This guy is a house. He is a combo piece. He is one of the best sources of card advantage in the deck. Also, of course he is yet another bonus land drop source. When this card was originally spoiled I instantly knew I was going to be playing it forever. There's just something about this big old frog that I can't describe. Absurd affections aside, there are some key cards that this guys works with insanely well and I'll list these here but will save discussion for later in the strategy section; Dakmor Salvage, Seismic Assault, Trade Routes, Life from the Loam, Crucible of Worlds, Misty Rainforest, etc.
Titania is one of our better aggro threats that is in the deck. Upon entering she provides us with some nice recursion. Whenever we see one of our lands go to the yard from play we are rewarded with a nice 5/3 body. In some instances it is easy to spam these tokens into play at the end of an opponent's turn to effectively grant them all haste and alpha strike someone.
Simply put Greenwarden is an Eternal Witness on steroids. A bigger body with the option of exiling upon death to get extra recursion. An awesome asset to have when you need to get back a win condition that was hated out.
Avenger is our top end aggro threat. Just an all-around bomb that creates tokens our deck is well suited to pump up to minimum 3/4's in one turn. Creating a formidable attacking force.
This guys is our other house. Able to create some nice card advantage upon connecting with a player's face in combat, he is also a better seismic assault, in that you get an extra damage for each land you discard.
One of my favorite iterations Nissa. She can protect herself with a strong 5/5 body or give us one extra mana on the turn. One of the best parts about her is that she ultimates on her second turn in play. She provides us with an incredible emblem. Most closely related to Horn of Greed, it is even better. The Horn allows all players to benefit and it only counts for lands being played as a land drop. The Nissa emblem is only for you and includes lands being fetched, or returned to play. Not to mention that her middle '-3' ability represents recursion for a huge chunk of our deck in the form of permanents.
Mostly just here for removal and a threat. Wouldn't mind cutting him for something more synergistic, or some wider removal.
A super enabler in this deck, one of the best cards for sure. In its simplest form it gains us life and helps us stay in the game, especially when paired with Crucible of Worlds. When paired with something say Creeping Renaissance and Seismic Assault? Now we are talking about ending games.
This little guys is a fun way to sneaky win the game and rip a lot of cards off of your opponent. Our deck plays a lot of lands, and sometimes also gets tokens for doing so, and when you do this enough you can mill your opponents for a lot. Obviously want to make sure you aren't fueling your opponent here though.
Sometimes when you go for it and try to win the game there isn't enough left in your deck to cycle through. This card helps you load that back up and give us the gas to finish up.
This deck is sweet. I've made many land based themed decks in the past, and EDH is good for this as lands tend to be the safest thing to remain in play.
Sensei's Divining Top and Sylvan Library are excellent with Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya and they go well with the fetch lands.
39 lands is not a lot for a lands deck, so some of the stock of cards might be valued a bit high. Summer Bloom I don't think warrants a slot.
In a deck that has Seasons Past and Preator's Counsel, Crucible of Worlds, etc Elixir of Immortality seems terrible.
I'm not a fan of Manabond in this deck, you kind of want spells in hand for Yidris, so getting him into play then hoping to draw spells is kind of bad imo.
Having cards with X in the mana cost are not good with Yidris, so Villainous Wealth, Green Sun's Zenith, Death Cloud, Genesis Wave, Chord of Calling will fizzle if cascaded into. It might be that you want to put powerful spells to replace them that will give you value if cascaded into.
If you do keep Green Sun's Zenith and Chord of Calling in the deck then at least put Dryad Arbor so the cascade won't be a complete miss.
All your 1 costing cards will 100% cascade into Zuran Orb. After that they will be no more targets. Is this exactly what you want?
Yidris provides the deck with a mid-game threat and bonus card advantage in a way only he can. He is decent at a 5/4 with trample. If and when he connects he gets your free spells that most of the time you don't mind taking advantage of, as most of the deck is proactive. There are certainly draws where the deck has only give you lands and spells without much reach. When this happens I often find it best to use Yidris for the extra distance. Depending on the field (and how afraid of him your opponents are) you can usually connect and are able to turn a couple of your spells into four and therefor push you forward with more momentum that most commanders could do with the same hand. For this reason, and for the colors he provides us with I believe he is the best candidate for the job!
So some people may be asking "Why are you not playing some combination of..."; Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper, Kraum, Ludevic's Opus, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix, Ludevic, Necro-Alchemsit, Reyhan, Last of Abzan, Silas, Renn, Seeker Adept, Tana, the Bloodsower, Thrasios, Triton Hero, and Vial Smasher the Fierce?
Simply put; none of the available combinations provide something to the deck that it needs, or can take advantage of what the deck is doing. Some might argue the same is true for Yidris, as he does not directly feed off the synergy or strategy of the deck. I do believe however that he is a more streamlined and valuable tool than any GBRU combination of partners.
I will say that playing with white was something I considered in the early days. There are some great white cards that can take advantage of what we are doing.
In my opinion however, and what I have noticed when playing with five-color mana-bases in EDH, you have to cut out many utility land options to make sure you can reliably hit all of your colors. If we do go five-color we also have to drop Yidris, and pick another commander. Each of which would bring something to the table, but not that makes me want to have to construct a five-color mana base and try to squeeze in utility. If you are eager to go on such an adventure I would recommend Child of Alara and a "Baby Boom" strategy.
The other option to gaining access to White would be dropping a color and playing another three or four color general. This I would say is even less advised that trying to go five-color. Green is an absolute must, and Red provides us with a lot of our punch. Blue and Black get us card advantage, tutors, and some recursion. The most likely choice in my eyes would then be Naya (GRW) however you would end up playing a fairly different deck form what I have presented you with below.
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Thrasios, Triton Hero
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Eternal Witness
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 The Gitrog Monster
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
1 Greenwarden of Murasa
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Borborygmos Enraged
Planeswalker
1 Nissa, Vital Force
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
Artifact
1 Zuran Orb
1 Altar of the Brood
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Horn of Greed
1 Ghirapur Orrery
Instant
1 Crop Rotation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Constant Mists
1 Chord of Calling
1 Intuition
1 Putrefy
1 Realms Uncharted
1 Ancient Excavation
Sorcery
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Explore
1 Life from the Loam
1 Summer Bloom
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Treasure Hunt
1 Death Cloud
1 Genesis Wave
1 Journey of Discovery
1 Villainous Wealth
1 Damnation
1 Scapeshift
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Creeping Renaissance
1 Rude Awakening
1 Seasons Past
1 Preator's Counsel
1 The Great Aurora
1 Exploration
1 Manabond
1 Overburden
1 Squandered Resources
1 Trade Routes
1 Zombie Infestation
1 Fecundity
1 Rites of Flourishing
1 Seismic Assault
1 Zendikar's Roil
Land
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Breeding Pool
1 Buried Ruin
1 Command Tower
1 Dakmor Salvage
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Dust Bowl
2 Forest
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Glacial Chasm
2 Island
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mortuary Mire
2 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Petrified Field
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tolaria West
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Temple of the False God
1 Exploration
1 Manabond
1 Explore
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Squandered Resources
1 Summer Bloom
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Genesis Wave
1 Journey of Discovery
1 Rites of Flourishing
1 Ghirapur Orrery
1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 The Gitrog Monster
1 Rude Awakening
Card Advantage
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Thrasios, Triton Hero
1 Trade Routes
1 Treasure Hunt
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Fecundity
1 Horn of Greed
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Ancient Excavation
1 Nissa, Vital Force
1 Buried Ruin
1 Dakmor Salvage
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Petrified Field
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Life from the Loam
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Eternal Witness
1 Creeping Renaissance
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
1 Greenwarden of Murasa
1 Seasons Past
1 Praetor's Counsel
Winning
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Altar of the Brood
1 Seismic Assault
1 Villainous Wealth
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Borborygmos Enraged
Tokens
1 Zombie Infestation
1 Zendikar's Roil
Staxx
1 Overburden
1 Death Cloud
Tutor
1 Tolaria West
1 Crop Rotation
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Chord of Calling
1 Intuition
1 Realms Uncharted
1 Scapeshift
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Maze of Ith
1 Constant Mists
Land Sacrifice
1 Zuran Orb
Removal
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Dust Bowl
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Putrefy
1 Damnation
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
1 The Great Aurora
Lotus Cobra is one of our better creatures, an excellent card for any opening hand. Explosive ramp that takes advatnage of fetch lands and other ramp alike (i.e. Verdant Catacombs, Sky Shroud Claim)
Thrasios is not always the creature you are looking for. I do feel though that in certain situations he can generate immense value during turns you are coasting or trying to advance your board state while also staying out of the spotlight.
Azusa allows you to play three lands in total in one turn, without anything else. At her lowest power level you ramp two turns ahead, which is nothing to baulk at. She does how pair very nicely with a Crucible of Worlds and a Misty Rainforest or a Trade Routes and a Temple of the False God.
Courser is an excellent card. It is very non-threatening; almost never getting shot with removal, and if it gets countered you probably did something to upset that player. Course is sneaky in that it can generate card advantage in a unique way, by getting land drops of the library you are likely to only draw gas. The life gain you get from Courser can also end up making a difference, at the very least it let's you us a Scalding Tarn with a net gain in life with both land triggers.
Eternal Witness is just one of those cards you don't want to be caught without. It is one of the best forms of recursion and with certain engines becomes much more synergistic than one might think.
This iteration of Nissa is not as bad as she looks. I do think that her ETB (Enter the Battlefield) ability could be a lot better considering it can only get a basic forest, and it only goes to your hand. However in this deck it doesn't usually take long for you to hit your seventh land drop.
Flipped Nissa becomes a very awesome CA (Card Advantage) engine. She basically represents a a free Coiling Oracle ETB ability every turn. Her '-2' ability has never really been relevant for me. Her ultimate (much like Rude Awakening) represents a two-prong threat in this deck. Either you are able bolster your Alpha Strike force by a considerable amount and take someone out, or generate 6+ free mana and considerably inflate your Villainous Wealth or Genesis Wave.
Mina and Denn are a fun duo for sure. One of our deck's many options to cheat in extra lands on a turn, and an awesome utility ability masquerading as a threat. The cool thing about her ability is that the trample being enabled is not the strongest part of the ability in this deck. Being able to return certain, or sometimes any, lands to your had can allow you to trigger Landfall abilities, or ETB abilities on lands.
What can I say, this card is a $16 Commander staple for a reason. If you haven't caught on yet something this deck really likes to do is take or play lands off the top of the library. This can be an under-rated form of card advantage. If you are playing your lands from the top, then you are increasing the chance that you will actually draw something that impacts the game. This guys is the best at doing, as well as being our next "play an additional land" effect in the deck. Oracle keeps you ahead on cards, and although it shouldn't be; it is often allowed to sit on the field for turns at a time.
This guy is a house. He is a combo piece. He is one of the best sources of card advantage in the deck. Also, of course he is yet another bonus land drop source. When this card was originally spoiled I instantly knew I was going to be playing it forever. There's just something about this big old frog that I can't describe. Absurd affections aside, there are some key cards that this guys works with insanely well and I'll list these here but will save discussion for later in the strategy section; Dakmor Salvage, Seismic Assault, Trade Routes, Life from the Loam, Crucible of Worlds, Misty Rainforest, etc.
Titania is one of our better aggro threats that is in the deck. Upon entering she provides us with some nice recursion. Whenever we see one of our lands go to the yard from play we are rewarded with a nice 5/3 body. In some instances it is easy to spam these tokens into play at the end of an opponent's turn to effectively grant them all haste and alpha strike someone.
Simply put Greenwarden is an Eternal Witness on steroids. A bigger body with the option of exiling upon death to get extra recursion. An awesome asset to have when you need to get back a win condition that was hated out.
Avenger is our top end aggro threat. Just an all-around bomb that creates tokens our deck is well suited to pump up to minimum 3/4's in one turn. Creating a formidable attacking force.
This guys is our other house. Able to create some nice card advantage upon connecting with a player's face in combat, he is also a better seismic assault, in that you get an extra damage for each land you discard.
One of my favorite iterations Nissa. She can protect herself with a strong 5/5 body or give us one extra mana on the turn. One of the best parts about her is that she ultimates on her second turn in play. She provides us with an incredible emblem. Most closely related to Horn of Greed, it is even better. The Horn allows all players to benefit and it only counts for lands being played as a land drop. The Nissa emblem is only for you and includes lands being fetched, or returned to play. Not to mention that her middle '-3' ability represents recursion for a huge chunk of our deck in the form of permanents.
Mostly just here for removal and a threat. Wouldn't mind cutting him for something more synergistic, or some wider removal.
A super enabler in this deck, one of the best cards for sure. In its simplest form it gains us life and helps us stay in the game, especially when paired with Crucible of Worlds. When paired with something say Creeping Renaissance and Seismic Assault? Now we are talking about ending games.
This little guys is a fun way to sneaky win the game and rip a lot of cards off of your opponent. Our deck plays a lot of lands, and sometimes also gets tokens for doing so, and when you do this enough you can mill your opponents for a lot. Obviously want to make sure you aren't fueling your opponent here though.
Sometimes when you go for it and try to win the game there isn't enough left in your deck to cycle through. This card helps you load that back up and give us the gas to finish up.
Rampaging Baloths, Tireless Tracker, Tilling Treefolk are excellent additions to the theme.
Splendid Reclamation is what you are after, its the-bomb-dot-com in your deck.
Sensei's Divining Top and Sylvan Library are excellent with Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya and they go well with the fetch lands.
39 lands is not a lot for a lands deck, so some of the stock of cards might be valued a bit high. Summer Bloom I don't think warrants a slot.
In a deck that has Seasons Past and Preator's Counsel, Crucible of Worlds, etc Elixir of Immortality seems terrible.
I'm not a fan of Manabond in this deck, you kind of want spells in hand for Yidris, so getting him into play then hoping to draw spells is kind of bad imo.
Having cards with X in the mana cost are not good with Yidris, so Villainous Wealth, Green Sun's Zenith, Death Cloud, Genesis Wave, Chord of Calling will fizzle if cascaded into. It might be that you want to put powerful spells to replace them that will give you value if cascaded into.
If you do keep Green Sun's Zenith and Chord of Calling in the deck then at least put Dryad Arbor so the cascade won't be a complete miss.
All your 1 costing cards will 100% cascade into Zuran Orb. After that they will be no more targets. Is this exactly what you want?
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
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-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith