MTG Star Trek’s Sarek Draws Tons of Cards With New Mechanic

I don’t know about you, but with Star Trek Prerelease coming this Friday, I’m starting to collect cards for a new Commander deck. Star Trek offers some really bizarre design space for MTG, allowing players to build a wacky deck that’s not quite the same as the other dozen decks they already own.

As you might be able to tell, I enjoy finding and building Commanders that let you use cards that would otherwise be terrible in most MTG decks. For Star Trek, Sarek, Federation Ambassador is a huge candidate since it focuses on players having a bunch of different creature types.

This won’t be the most competitive MTG Commander in the world, but you can do some really silly things with Sarek using some really silly cards.

MTG Sarek, Federation Ambassador

Sarek, Federation Ambassador’s ultimate goal of getting to 15 different creature types is difficult to accomplish, which makes it all the more rewarding to pull off. The Non-Borg stipulation rules out Changelings, too, so it’s difficult but not impossible to cheat the system. More on that later.

This is where playing cards that are normally bad comes in. A surprising number of creatures have a ton of types attached to them, some of which can even draw a card with Sarek on their own.

Marvel Superheroes’ Pet Avengers is the clear winner here, offering six creature types for four mana, which is playable in Sarek despite the card otherwise being kind of underwhelming. Curious Farm AnimalsCurious Farm AnimalsWhen this creature dies, you gain 3 life.
{2}, Sacrifice this creature: Destroy up to one target artifact or enchantment. is a far better card, killing an artifact or enchantment in a pinch while otherwise offering four rare creature types.

Battle for Zendikar’s otherwise terrible Party mechanic support, like Tajuru Paragon and Stonework Packbeast, can help out here as well, providing five creature types each. Many of Magic’s recent Universes Beyond creatures, like Spider-Woman Secret Agent, also offer a ton of creature types with moderately useful abilities.

Speaking of Universes Beyond, a fair few cards from MTG’s TMNT crossover offer a bunch of creature types, too, like Splinter & Leo, Father & Son and Mikey & Mona, Mutant SittersMikey & Mona, Mutant SittersWhen Mikey & Mona enter, choose one or both. Each mode must target a different player.
• Target player chooses a creature they control and puts two +1/+1 counters on it.
• Target player returns a creature or land card from their graveyard to their hand.. On top of offering four creature types each, these cards also offer compelling political abilities that can help fight back against an archenemy, while supporting a potential +1/+1 counter subtheme with Sarek’s ability.

If you can pull off Sarek’s full activation, creatures like Evolution Witness and Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11When Michelangelo enters, create a Mutagen token. (It's an artifact with "{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Activate only as a sorcery.")
If one or more +1/+1 counters would be put on a creature you control, that many plus one +1/+1 counters are put on it instead. create surprising value while adding even more creature types to Federation. Even single-creature-type cards like Kami of Whispered Hopes can be worth the inclusion if you can consistently get 15 creature types in play.

15 creature types is still a heck of an ask, though, meaning you’ll want to include other +1/+1 counter distributors with Sarek, like Ouroboroid and Hulk, Brutal Brawler, to keep your +1/+1 counter payoffs consistent. These creatures don’t have many types to offer, but the ones they do have are unique and benefit Federation.

Of course, since you’re going all in on Federation, you’ll want Star Trek’s other payoffs in the 99 too, like Starfleet Academy and Captain Jonathan Archer. There are a few non-Federation cards that can also benefit from all the unique creature types, like Radagast the BrownRadagast the BrownWhenever Radagast or another nontoken creature you control enters, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is that creature's mana value. You may reveal a creature card that doesn't share a creature type with a creature you control from among those cards and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. and Volo, Itinerant Scholar.

Everything as Creatures

Because this deck is superfocused on enabling Federation, you’ll also want to minimize noncreature spells to get more creature types into play. This means using mana dorks like Delighted HalflingDelighted Halfling{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a legendary spell, and that spell can't be countered. or BiophagusBiophagusGenomic Enhancement — {T}: Add one mana of any color. If this mana is spent to cast a creature spell, that creature enters with an additional +1/+1 counter on it. over Signets, or cards like Coiling Oracle and Simulacrum Shaper over Cultivate.

By turning everything into creatures, this also makes creature-based payoffs like Beast Whisperer and Volo, Guide to Monsters extremely consistent and powerful. You can even dip into noncreature spells like Guardian Project and The Great Henge here, but you should only make room for the absolute best noncreature spells available.

The only real catch to focusing on creatures is that board wipes become absolutely devastating, taking out your entire board. So, you’ll want plenty of protection, like Heroic Intervention and Clever Concealment, to fight through them.

Drawing 71 Cards Per Turn

UPDATE: Due to a new errata from Wizards of the Coast, this combo no longer works.

Whenever MTG releases a card that cares about the number of creature types you have, there’s always a caveat to rule Changelings out of the equation. Once Star Trek comes out, MTG should have 360 creature types, meaning any Changeling would let Sarek draw 72 cards per turn if it weren’t for that non-Borg stipulation.

That said, there is a way to make a creature have every type except for Borg, making it fair game for the Federation mechanic. To pull this off, you’ll need Sarek, Werewolf Pack Leader and Amoeboid Changeling in play, with Artificial Evolution in your hand.

To start, use Amoeboid Changeling to turn Werewolf Pack Leader into all creature types. Then, to remove the Borg creature type, use Artificial Evolution on Werewolf Pack Leader. You want to change the text of Packleader’s activated ability to say non-Borg instead of non-Human.

After that, activate Werewolf Pack Leader, discarding its Borg creature type and becoming all 359 other creature types in MTG. Now, all you need to do is go to combat, and Sarek will draw 71 cards on the spot. This will often deck you out, so make sure you have enough cards, or a Laboratory Maniac effect in play, before you go for this.

This combo also works with other Federation payoffs, making 359 mana with Starfleet Academy, or giving a creature +359/+359 with Captain Jonathan Archer. If you want a cheeky combat-damage kill, you can do this entire combo at instant speed, but choose Brushwagg instead of Borg to turn Embiggen into a death warrant.

While this combo is extremely flashy and exciting, it has a fair few problems. Removing Werewolf Pack Leader at instant speed after Artificial Evolution is cast totally decimates the whole strategy, putting you down on cards. All of these cards are rather poor on their own, too, making them dead draws a majority of the time.

But the reason we’re playing Sarek, Federation Ambassador in the first place is to make bad cards do exciting things, which is exactly what this combo does, even if it’s not great. For all the players out there who like pulling off weird interactions with cards that no one else plays, Sarek, Federation Ambassador is the deck you’ll want to build when Star Trek comes out.

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