Upgrading Commander Precon - Desert Bloom (Yuma, Proud Protector)

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is finally here, and, with it, of course, we have 4 new precon Commander decks.

Out of these 4, we decided to tackle Desert Bloom, a deck that focuses on lands, more precisely Deserts.

Our commander this time is Yuma, Proud Protector, whose mechanic is similar to Landfall, but with Deserts in your graveyard.

Desert Bloom is a Naya deck, and, personally, I think there is no better color combo to execute what this deck wants to do. Hazezon, Shaper of Sand, which was in the original Desert Bloom list, used to be the most popular commander for Deserts. But now we have Yuma, Proud Protector, so we'll focus on him instead.

Kirri, Talented Sprout is also one of the alternative commanders for this deck, alongside Hazezon. However, because its ability interacts with Plants and Treefolk, besides lands, we thought it was best to use Yuma in our command zone, and give Kirri a list of its own at the end of this article.

Cards We Removed

We had to remove a significant number of cards. Let's start with our lands. We removed all lands that delayed our game plan, and refined the overall number of lands we had. Later on, we'll show you which cards we added instead, and why they make more sense for the deck's game plan.

We removed the aforementioned Kirri, Talented Sprout because it doesn't really work that well in practice, even more considering there are cards that interact with lands and your graveyard and are more efficient overall. Consequently, we also removed a few cards that are just too expensive or depend on specific conditions, like Angel of the RUins and Nantuko Cultivator.

Mostly, we had to open up some space to add better cards that have better effects or similar. For instance, Skullwinder opened space for Eternal Witness; Heaven // Earth opened space for Blasphemous Act, and so on and so forth. Many cards we removed actually do work with this deck, but you'll always need to remove cards that aren't that great to upgrade your deck to the best of your ability.

Interactions with Lands and Your Graveyard

To start, we added Riftstone Portal,Lotus Field, Survivors' Encampment, and Field of the Dead.

As you'll mill yourself frequently, Riftstone Portal might help you fix your mana curve because of its effect. Lotus Field is really useful as a sacrifice tool, and feeds your graveyard. It also creates three mana of a certain color for you.

We added Survivors' Encampment more because it is another Desert, and also because it creates mana of any color. We could add other Deserts, but they only create colorless mana, and that may be a problem long-term.

Field of the Dead, though not a Desert, is a great addition because we'll play several lands on the board, and it will create a token for each land, which will give us value over time. This is particularly great for cards like Jetmir, Nexus of Revels.

For ramp, we brought a few cards that will help us look for Deserts.

Crop Rotation gets you a Plant token with Yuma in play, as well as lands, like the aforementioned Field of the Dead or Lotus Field.

Dance of the Tumbleweeds is quite versatile because it will help you get your Deserts early on, and then, mid-to-late game, it may create a gigantic Elemental token if you have a lot of lands.

We also have Realms Uncharted to look for Deserts once again. "Losing" 2 lands to our graveyard would be its downside, but, thanks to Yuma, we'll create value with Plant tokens as we lose these cards. And we also have ways to get these lands back if we either mill them, sacrifice them with Yuma, or send them to our graveyard because of the effects of a few other cards we added. These include Splendid Reclamation, Aftermath Analyst, and, of course, Life from the Loam.

Clearly, Life from the Loam is one of the best cards in this deck. Instead of drawing cards with Yuma as you attack with him, you'll use this card's Dredge 3 and return it to your hand. Dredge may mill Deserts and trigger Yuma, and we may even get back some lands from our graveyard when we cast this spell.

We also added Splendid Reclamation and Aftermath Analyst. After all, they reanimate all lands in our graveyard at once, and may trigger Omnath, Locus of Rage and several other Landfall cards multiple times. This will give us a board that our opponents will struggle to deal with.

It was critical to add other types of ramp as well. One of them, for instance, is Colossal Rattlewurm, which we added as a defensive resource. You can use it as a blocker thanks to its Flash, and also as an offensive unit because it is a 6/5 with Trample. Right after it fulfills its role, if it is in your graveyard because you milled it somehow, you can search a Desert for only two mana, and exile it from there.

Spelunking isn't exactly ramp because you need to have a land in your hand and then put it in play through its effect, but it is in this list because of its other effect, which states, "Lands you control enter the battlefield untapped.". Most of your Deserts and other lands enter your board tapped, so having this mana will help your strategy considerably.

Dryad of the Ilysian Grove fixes your mana and guarantees you extra lands every turn. Even though this list has a few cards from the original list that have a similar effect, like Chromatic Lantern or Dune Chanter, it is acceptable to have redundancy this way, even more considering you'll also have extra lands.

Finally, Lotus Cobra and Tireless Provisioner do the same thing as usual - create mana with lands. Tireless Provisioner does this a bit better because it creates Treasures and doesn't float mana like Lotus Cobra, but both create value because virtually they'll make your lands create an extra mana. Tireless Provisioner can also create Food tokens if you're low on HP.

Additionally, Zuran Orb will give you some life if you sacrifice a land, and triggers Yuma if you sacrifice a Desert. It works really well with Splendid Reclamation and Aftermath Analyst as well, but be careful: if you sacrifice all your lands and then cast this spell, you won't have any lands left if your opponent counters your spell. So, be careful when you make this play.

It's important to keep in mind that Titania, Protector of Argoth works really well with Zuran Orb.

Answers and Other Resources

This deck had a few great removals, like Decimate and Cataclysmic Prospecting. But it also had a few target removals that are a bit too situational, like Unholy Heat and Valorous Stance, which we removed.

So, we added Generous Gift, Chaos Warp, and Beast Within because they hit any permanent, which means, they're very broad.

Blasphemous Act replaced Heaven // Earth because it is more efficient to remove creatures, flying or not. Even though you can only use it once, it often removes close to all creatures, not just a few specific cards.

It is almost a rule to use Constant Mists in a graveyard/land deck, even more so in a deck that takes advantage of lands that are in your graveyard and that you can get back relatively easily. This will give you some sort of security against aggressive decks.

Finally, we have more interaction: Eternal Witness retrieves your milled cards. After all, cards like Life from the Loam constantly mill not only lands, but other non-land cards you'll need eventually.

Garruk's Uprising gives trample to the Plant tokens created by Yuma. You'll put a lot more pressure on your opponents if you have some sort of evasion, considering, without it, they can just block your 4/2s with a 1/1.

Finally, we have Jetmir, Nexus of Revels. Jetmir plays a critical role in this deck. Because we create Plant tokens and also dozens of Scute Swarm tokens, we'll probably deal a lot of damage with it - maybe even enough to make it a win condition of its own.

This is our upgraded list! We added many great cards and created even more synergy with several cards that were already in the original list, like the Landfall cards. We also made sure Yuma creates as many tokens as he can. With these upgrades, the deck's overall mechanics and game plan should be way more fluid.

Alternative List with Kirri, Talented Sprout

And, as we mentioned before, this is our Kirri, Talented Sprout list. It is very similar to the Yuma list, but it has various Plants and Treefolk so we can use its ability better. Its mechanic is similar, but this deck focuses on creating and playing as many Plants as you can to deal a lot of damage.

This is a very fun deck. It is also a great alternative for those who were tired of playing Hazezon, Shaper of Sand as your commander. I'd definitely play this list IRL just because of how many interactions it has. It is perfect for Desert fans!

Do you like our list? Do you prefer Hazezon or Kirri? Would you change or add anything? Tell us what you think!