Upgrading Commander Precon: World Shaper (Hearthhull, the Worldseed)

In a Multiverse not so far away, the new set, Edge of Eternities, invited us to explore Magic: The Gathering's Blind Eternities.

As part of this special set (which is full of sci-fi references, by the way), we also got two new Commander precons. Thank you, WotC!

In this article, we'll explore and upgrade the new precon, World Shaper , also known as "space landfall". And, guess what? It plays a spaceship as its commander.

And if you're wondering, "Wait, how can a Spacecraft be a commander?", then don't worry. We'll explain it all right away.

Without further ado, let's talk about...

We can't explore space without a proper "vehicle", right? Spacecrafts are a new artifact subtype, and, just like in popular media, we need a proper crew to pilot them through space (or the board) so we can face our enemies.

Our Spacecraft commander is Hearthhull, the Worldseed.

With the so-called "Station", we can tap untapped creatures to crew Hearthhull and make it a creature. Unlike the familiar crew, you can only activate this ability at sorcery speed.

So, you can only activate this ability during your main phase and when the stack is empty. Don't get lost, space adventurer!

Once this ability resolves, you may put Charge counters equal to the power of the creature you tapped on this Spacecraft.

When Hearthhull has two or more Charge counters (according to the number on the left), it gains its first ability. This, in turn, lets you sacrifice a land to draw two cards and play an extra land on that turn.

When Hearthhull has eight or more charge counters, it will be a 6/7 creature with flying, vigilance, and haste. From this moment on, when you sacrifice a land, each opponent will lose 2 life.

Besides this incredibly cool Spacecraft, this precon also includes a new legendary card as this list's sub-commander (or as the pilot of the Spacecraft? It was really unclear).

Because Szarel is a creature, we don't have to overexplain his effects. He flies and lets you play lands from your graveyard (which is very valuable because this deck centers around sacrificing lands constantly).

Furthermore, his second ability triggers when you sacrifice another nontoken permanent during your turn. When that happens, you may put +1/+1 counters equal to his power on another creature.

Please note that +1/+1 counters and charge counters are two different things.

Now that you know the creatures that will lead you in this space adventure, let's add some engines to fly off and venture even further into this list!

When you open your precon deck, this is the list you'll find:

To pilot this deck, you can't be afraid of sacrificing your own lands.

That's how you'll get ahead and activate most of your effects.

Ramp and Extra Lands

The first thing you need to do to sacrifice lands with your commander is to put lands in play to begin with. Let's start with the cards that fill your board with them.

Worldsoul's Rage is also recursion because it lets you play lands from your hand or the graveyard. As such, it recycles any lands you sacrifice.

Escape to the Wilds will give you an extra land and exile the top five cards from your deck. You can play them until the end of the next turn.

Oracle of Mul Daya really stands out because it lets you play lands from the top of your deck and one extra land per turn. The only downside is that you'll have to reveal the top of your deck, but it has more pros than cons.

Cards We Added

Spelunking is always a must in Landfall decks.

For just three mana, this powerful enchantment makes your lands go in play untapped (which is critical because this deck's entire mana base plays many of them that go in play tapped).

Abundance is perfect when you don't have a clear way to put a land down in a particular turn. With it, you can filter through the top cards in your deck and get right back on track with another land. As your commander draws two cards when you sacrifice lands, this enchantment is critical. You can pretty much pick exactly what you're going to draw this way.

You can also use it to get nonland cards if your hand is full of lands.

Cards We Removed

It broke our hearts to remove Arcane Signet from this deck, but we had to. It might be incredible, but we needed interactions with lands. When we were testing this deck, we found that putting this powerful Signet in play didn't make as much difference as playing extra lands every turn.

Recursion

Everything that comes around comes back around, including the lands and permanents you sacrifice.

The cards below both let you play lands or cast spells from the graveyard.

Titania, Protector of Argoth's ETB might return just one land from your graveyard to your board, but this precious legendary creature also interacts really well with the other cards in this list. For instance, whenever a land you control goes from the board to the graveyard, she'll create 5/3 tokens.

Soul of Windgrace is the type of creature that will make your commander draw more cards just by being there. It seems confusing, doesn't it? But we'll explain it.

Besides its ETB and attack power, this Cat Avatar has three activated abilities that you can use at any speed as long as you have enough mana and lands to discard.

The first one gives you 3 life. The second one draws a card. The third one gives it indestructible until the end of the turn and taps it (which could save it from scary board wipes).

You can also use Soul of Windgrace as this list's commander, as it has all the colors you need for that. However, as the effects of the other 99 cards in this Commander precon interact with sacrifice directly, you'll have to change part of it to make it work.

Cards We Removed

As marketing experts always say, recursion is the heart of the business (or something like that).

So, let's turn it up a notch. The new members of our crew for this space adventure are:

Ancient Greenwarden is very popular in Landfall decks. If it were a legendary card, it would probably be one of the top 10 Landfall commanders of all time.

In this list, however, this Elemental will let us play lands from our graveyard and make our effects trigger twice when lands enter our board.

Besides these great abilities, Ancient is also a 5/7 and has reach, so it's a great blocker on your board.

Another great addition is Conduit of Worlds.

Besides letting you use lands from the graveyard, when you tap this artifact, you can cast a permanent from there as well. After using this ability, you can't cast more spells on that same turn, though.

It's a big drawback, but if you use your only spell on that turn to reanimate something great, like [[Exploration Broodship], it's definitely worth it.

Cards We Removed

When you look at the lands in this deck, one certainly stands out - the one Wastes - because, usually, you'll see these lands in decks like Eldrazi Incursion. But then you move on to the creatures and find World Breaker in all its glory.

As we removed it from this list, we also removed Wastes so we could add Ziatora's Proving Ground. Of course, like everything else in this article, this is just a suggestion. Wastes still goes in play untapped, so you don't need to remvoe it. You can also put another land in its place.

This deck is green , so you'll play big, scary creatures on the board. However, we removed the two cards above to add creatures that add more value to this strategy besides just buffing power and/or return cards from the graveyard, like Ancient and Six.

Sacrifice

Let's see our magnificent Dragon Noble.

Unlike Soul of Windgrace, Korvold, Fae-Cursed King can work as a commander in this exact same list.

All our creatures and spells do something when we sacrifice permanents, and that's precisely what this Dragon does. Besides sacrificing them, this Korvold grows a lot and draws extra cards.

Cards We Added

The original list doesn't include protection, but we know this deck plays creatures the opponents love to remove. So, we added one protection card that also does something when we sacrifice lands.

Sylvan Safekeeper protects creatures, is a way to sacrifice a land, and is quite cheap.

Cards We Removed

God-Eternal Bontu could draw a lot of cards when it enters, but, as we play a commander that draws cards for less investment and doesn't rely on an ETB to do it, Bontu lost some space in this list.

Upgraded List

Finally, here's our upgraded list:

Our alternative commander, Szarel, Genesis Shepherd, works better when we focus on the +1/+1 counter mechanic to buff our creatures and destroy the opponents. You'll destroy all their life points in just a few attacks, in fact.

With cards like Halana and Alena, Partners, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, Scythecat Cub, and The Ozolith, we'll make this counter mechanic even stronger. In the end, you'll end up with a very efficient sacrifice/aggro list.

Does this deck need more upgrades? Honestly, just a few, at most.

Deciding what can stay, what we should remove, and what we should add was no easy task. After all, this deck is quite efficient, even straight out of the box.

Of course, if you play against people that insist on playing strong decks with all the game changers ever released, even in for fun matches, this deck will struggle a bit. But, in casual tables with other precons or even decks in the power level, this strategy is quite powerful.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!