Jund players got another amazing toy with World Shaper precon. Early on, it looks like this will be a real banger of a precon. Plus, since it’s not a Universes Beyond release, its price is more reasonable.
Anyway, in this article you’re going to find everything about it, including:
- full decklist
- all 12 new cards
- review of both commanders
But first, let’s check what the World Shaper precon is all about.
Sacrifice Lands for Value
This deck cares about lands. For the most part, it wants to sacrifice them for all sorts of rewards. Once they’re in your graveyard, you’ll still be able to benefit from them in various ways.
Thus, World Shaper seems like an amazing option for players who like various land shenanigans. If you enjoy commanders such as The Necrobloom, Hazezon, Shaper of Sand, and The Gitrog Monster, you’ll want to pick this deck up soon to avoid any potential price spikes.
After all, most land-based decks end up being fairly popular.
World Shaper Decklist
World Shaper Spoilers
First up, the two commanders, each with a quick overview, then we check the 10 other new cards from the deck.
Main Commander: Hearthhull, the Worldseed
If you haven’t been paying attention to the new set, you might be wondering what are spacecrafts. That’s a new artifact subtype, similar to vehicles. With the new rules change, legendary vehicles and spacecrafts can now be used as commanders.
You need to tap your creatures to put charge counters on Hearthhull. (Equal to the tapped creature’s power.) Once it has enough charge counters, it unlocks abilities and eventually become creatures. For more details, check spacecraft rules article.
So, what do you get for four mana from Hearthhull? With two charge counters you can pay 1 mana, tap it, and sacrifice a land. You’re rewarded with two cards plus the ability to play an additional land. In a deck like this one, that’s certainly useful.
However, the real power comes when you get to 8 charge counters. Now you control a 6/7 flyer with vigilance and hast. Oh, and whenever you sacrifice a land, each opponent loses 2 life! That’s not limited with once per turn. With the right setup this ability can actually win you the game on a single turn.
This seems pretty insane, particularly if you build your whole deck around it.
Secondary Commander: Szarel, Genesis Shepherd
Szarel is a 2/5 flyer for 5 mana, which allows you to play lands from your graveyard. As every experienced Commander player knows, that’s a fairly powerful effect. Particularly in a deck that actually wants to sacrifice lands, so they often end up in the graveyard.
The second ability cares about sacrificing nontoken permanents. It’s nice that the ability isn’t too limiting. It doesn’t specify that you need to sacrifice lands. Sure, the deck will probably be built in a way that you’ll mostly sacrifice lands. However, if you want to build around Szarel, you’ll have lots of flexibility.
So, whenever you sacrifice a nontoken permanent, you get to put a couple of +1/+1 counters on one of your other creatures. If you somehow manage to boost Szarel’s power, you’ll be putting more counters, making the ability even more potent.
Plus, in properly built deck, it shouldn’t be too hard to trigger this ability multiple times per turn. Now, you could play it nice, or you could add some infect creatures to the mix, to potentially OHKO your opponents.
All in all, Szarel looks like a strong card on its own, that also offers a lot of room for building around it. A great commander for avid deckbuilders.
Other 10 New Cards
World Shaper Upgrade Ideas
I wanted to quickly mention a few ideas for players who plan to do some upgrades right away.
Plus, as we’ve seen from some Final Fantasy Commander decks, the price of best upgrades often spikes, even before the decks actually start to ship. Thus, it might be a good idea to pick up some cards sooner rather than later. With that in mind, here are three recommendations, which could fit nicely in the deck.
Zuran Orb
If you’re a more enfranchised Commander player, you can easily imagine how sacrificing lands for no cost with Szarel, Genesis Shepherd could win you the game in certain spots. Or it could just net you some occasional advantages.
But that’s the hard way. The easy way is to pair it with fully stationed Hearthhull, the Worldseed. If you control enough lands, you’ll simply sacrifice them all and kill your opponents. Absurd!
Thus, the card would be a great addition to the deck, and the only modern era printing is form Modern Horizons 3. Certainly a card that could see an uptick in price.
Sylvan Safekeeper
While Zuran Orb can gain you a couple of life, Safekeeper keeps your creatures… safe. At least from targeted removal, plus it works with all of your sacrifice-lands synergies. For a single green mana, that’s an amazing deal and an excellent addition to the deck.
Nahiri’s Lithoforming
This sorcery will do wonders in this deck. It massively helps with combo finish, or can be used a value play mid game, depending on the board state.
Sure, it’s not a card that’ just’s a power house on its own, but based on the World Shaper’s decklist, there’s more than enough support for it. It’s also a great fit with both main and secondary commander.
Plus, the price of the card is quite low. As of July 9th, it’s just a little above a bulk rare territory. It’ll certainly overperform its price by enabling some epic play patterns.
For more recommendations, check our World Shaper Upgrade Guide.
Shape the World!
And that’s it for the World Shaper precon overview. What do you think about the deck? Which upgrades would you recommend? Let us know in the comments below.
Want to learn about other Edge of Eternities Commander precons? There’s just one more, and you can find all about Counter Intelligence here.
Until next time, enjoy Magic, and may you never run out of lands to sacrifice.