One of the many things that makes Modern Horizons 3 unique is the fact that, despite being a Modern-focused set, there are four new Commander Precons to look forward to. Each Commander deck has its own cool theme. On top of that, each deck comes with a decent chunk of new cards.
So far, we’ve covered both the Creative Energy and Eldrazi Incursion Precons. Today, we’re going to focus on the Tricky Terrain deck and all the new cards that were recently revealed. Let’s start by looking at what the face Commander is all about.
Omo, Queen of Vesuva
The primary legend for the Tricky Terrain deck is none other than Omo, Queen of Vesuva. Omo is a cool card that can enable some funky interactions. The fact that Omo can make your Lands count as every Land type provides some intriguing synergies that we haven’t really seen before.
For instance, if you can put everything counters on a bunch of your Lands, then play
Cloudpost
Cloudpost
This land enters tapped.
{T}: Add {C} for each Locus on the battlefield.
, your Cloudpost now has the ability to tap for a bunch of mana at a time. Similarly,
Basilisk Gate
Basilisk Gate
{T}: Add {C}.
{2}, {T}: Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of Gates you control. Activate only as a sorcery.
becomes much more threatening as more of your Lands become Deserts. Omo is such a sweet design.
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Jyoti, Moag Ancient
Jyoti, Moag Ancient is the backup Commander, but is a pretty sweet card to build around as well. It starts by making some Land Creature tokens when it enters. From there, all your Land Creatures get buffed every combat. In order to maximize Jyoti, you really want to ways to make your other Lands into Creatures as well as ways to increase Jyoti’s power.
If you can Equip Jyoti with something like
Blackblade Reforged
Blackblade Reforged
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each land you control.
Equip legendary creature {3}
Equip {7}
which increases its power by a lot, your attacks become very scary. Cards like
Sylvan Awakening
Sylvan Awakening
Until your next turn, all lands you control become 2/2 Elemental creatures with reach, indestructible, and haste. They're still lands.
now threaten to deal a ton of damage out of nowhere with Jyoti in the mix.
Aggressive Biomancy
Aggressive Biomancy is a pretty generic card for most Simic decks that are playing to the battlefield, but it’s a decent one at that. This card has the potential to make a ton of copies of your best Creature if you’ve been able to ramp at all. The goal here is to copy something large with a potent enters-the-battlefield effect a bunch of times. This way you get to generate tons of value and remove some of the opponents’ best threats in the process.
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Copy Land
Copy Land is a really cool card for Commander. Getting to copy win conditions like
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
This land enters tapped.
Whenever a Mountain you control enters, if you control at least five other Mountains, you may have this land deal 3 damage to any target.
{T}: Add {R}.
or
Field of the Dead
Field of the Dead
This land enters tapped.
{T}: Add {C}.
Whenever this land or another land you control enters, if you control seven or more lands with different names, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
is an awesome option to have. As good as Valakut and Field are, they are much more menacing in multiples. The same is true with Cloudpost. Copying your best Lands in a Singleton format can be very impactful. So long as you have good cards to duplicate, Copy Land delivers.
Desert Warfare
Desert Warfare is the ultimate payoff for a Desert deck. Once you assemble five or more Deserts onto the battlefield, you’ll get to start building out a massive army every turn cycle. This card works well with Omo, since you can start making your non-Desert Lands into Deserts whenever Omo enters or attacks.
Beyond generating a swarm of Sand Warriors, Desert Warfare also combos nicely with Deserts in play. Many Deserts, like
Ramunap Ruins
Ramunap Ruins
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}, Pay 1 life: Add {R}.
{2}{R}{R}, {T}, Sacrifice a Desert: This land deals 2 damage to each opponent.
, have potent sacrifice abilities. Warfare lets you sacrifice your Deserts, then bring them back. You can also use Desert Warfare as a pseudo-ramp piece if you can discard or Mill multiple Deserts at a time.
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Horizon of Progress
Horizon of Progress is a Land with some nice, activated abilities. You can use it as a way to ramp towards your bigger plays, assuming you have excess Lands in hand. You can use it as a
Reflecting Pool
Reflecting Pool
{T}: Add one mana of any type that a land you control could produce.
variant, though it can be a bit painful. If you need some action, you can always cash it in to draw a card. Interestingly, if Horizon of Progress has an everything counter on it and you control Desert Warfare, you can start sacrificing and recurring Horizon of Progress over and over.
Lazotep Quarry
Lazotep Quarry is a Land that allows you to sacrifice Deserts to make token copies of Creatures in your graveyard. This activated ability is a bit expensive, and you ideally want other Deserts in play to sacrifice. Still, the late-game payoff is certainly there.
Lazotep Quarry can also function as a free sacrifice outlet. This is less important for a Desert ramp deck, but decks built around
Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
Flying
Whenever Korvold enters or attacks, sacrifice another permanent.
Whenever you sacrifice a permanent, put a +1/+1 counter on Korvold and draw a card.
or
Rakdos, the Muscle
Rakdos, the Muscle
Flying, trample
Whenever you sacrifice another creature, exile cards equal to its mana value from the top of target player's library. Until your next end step, you may play those cards, and mana of any type can be spent to cast those spells.
Sacrifice another creature: Rakdos gains indestructible until end of turn. Tap it. Activate only once each turn.
should make great use of Lazotep Quarry.
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March from Velis Vel
March from Velis Vel has the opportunity to function similarly to a Sylvan Awakening with Flashback, but it does require a bit more work utilize. In order to maximize March, you need to have a lot of Lands with the same non-basic Land type. Omo can certainly help with this, and Jyoti can pump all your Land Creatures to enable a massive attack.
On top of that, you also want a Creature with high power to have your Lands copy. This isn’t always easy, but the upside of being able to send all your Deserts or Gates into the red zone and deal a ton of damage out nowhere is there.
Planar Nexus
Planar Nexus is pretty self-explanatory now that we’ve described Omo. The same Locus, Desert, and Gate synergies and beyond apply to Planar Nexus. The only negative here is that Planar Nexus requires additional mana input to make colored mana. As long as you have cards that combo with Planar Nexus, though, its inclusion should be a slam dunk.
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Rampant Frogantua
Rampant Frogantua, in addition to having a sick name, is quite powerful. At minimum, if you can connect with it, you can start milling over Lands and ramping towards your top-end. If any other players have lost the game or you have another way to increase Rampant Frogantua’s power, though, things can get out of hand very quickly. It doesn’t take much for this card to put a bunch of Lands into play at once.
Sage of the Maze
Sage of the Maze, seemingly referencing
Maze’s End
Maze’s End
This land enters tapped.
{T}: Add {C}.
{3}, {T}, Return this land to its owner's hand: Search your library for a Gate card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. If you control ten or more Gates with different names, you win the game.
, is an elite ramp element and finisher in a dedicated Gates deck. Right off the bat, you can tap Sage to add two mana of any color to your mana pool. If you have a lot of Gates in play, you can start tapping Gates one by one to untap Sage repeatedly. In each exchange, you are essentially tapping one of your mana sources to get two mana out of Sage. This can help you play some huge spells in short order.
Beyond making mana, Sage can then start turning your Lands into enormous monsters. Once again, you can use your Gates to untap Sage and potentially animate a large number of your Lands to attack with during your turn. If you’re playing Gates, Sage should be an automatic inclusion.
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Sunken Palace
Sunken Palace is another new Land with a strong activated ability. You need seven cards in your graveyard, but the payoff is awesome. You can exile those seven cards, pay a bit of mana, and your reward is that you get to copy a spell you cast or ability you activate. Cards like Rampant Frogantua or
Blossoming Tortoise
Blossoming Tortoise
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, mill three cards, then return a land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
Activated abilities of lands you control cost {1} less to activate.
Land creatures you control get +1/+1.
that both ramp you and fuel your graveyard work wonders alongside Sunken Palace.
Talon Gates of Madara
Talon Gates of Madara is a very flexible card, and a solid addition to any Gates deck. When it enters play, you can Phase Out any Creature. In some cases, you will want to play Talon Gates of Madara naturally, Phase Out an opponent’s blocker, and get a big attack in.
Most of the time, though, you’ll want to pay four mana to put this Land into play at Instant speed and Phase Out a Creature by surprise. Of note, Phasing Out your Commander in response to a removal spell or board wipe is a great interaction to be aware of.
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Trenchpost
Trenchpost isn’t the strongest Land in the world, but it gets a lot of its mileage by being a Locus. Cloudpost and Glimmerpost are such strong cards that any new Locus is a welcome inclusion for Commander. There’s even a chance Cloudpost decks in Legacy will play a few copies of this card to make Cloudpost and Glimmerpost more consistent.
In a Commander setting, Trenchpost does play well with Omo, and forcing someone to Mill some cards isn’t nothing. Milling yourself can be a strong play with Desert Warfare or Sunken Palace at the ready, too. Finally seeing MTG’s third Locus Land get printed after over a decade is exciting, even if it isn’t as busted as the other two.
Wonderscape Sage
Finally, we have Wonderscape Sage. Wonderscape Sage provides a nice flow of card advantage, assuming you have Lands with non-basic Land types to return to your hand. Getting rid of Lands on the battlefield to draw cards isn’t great from a tempo perspective, however. As such, you really want to pair Wonderscape Sage with cards like Burgeoning or Exploration. This way, you don’t run low on Lands in play to cast the big spells you draw with Sage.
Overall, Omo isn’t the most individually powerful Commander in the world. Still, there are tons of really cool ideas present in this Commander deck, and the focus on all sorts of different non-basic Land types at once is awesome. If you’re looking for something off-the-wall to bring to your local game store for Commander night, the Tricky Terrain deck has you covered.
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