It’s that time of year again, known as Commander Christmas! I want to start by informing the reader that Wizards of the Coast has raised the MSRP of the commander pre-constructed decks by $5 this year, while the reprint value has been reduced from previous years. I am excited to get my hands on them, and to start, lets take a look at the Nature’s Vengeance deck list.
Nature's Vengeance | Designer: Wizards of the Coast |
Now I wouldn’t consider the deck is bad, but I’m fairly disappointed as it’s not what was expected or advertised. This is by far the weakest deck right out of the box this year and doesn’t really fit the name. A real pitfall of the deck is the lack of being able to weaponize your lands, as well as it trying to pull the player in many directions with none of the possible commanders sharing any play style. Lord Windgrace is a value engine centered around lands. Gyrus, Waker of Corpses wants creatures with great “Enter the Battlefield” triggers to be loaded into the graveyard for it’s attacking trigger. Thantis, the Warweaver leans in the direction of a punishment deck by forcing people to attack, into you in particular. All of this will lead to a slightly confusing “play out of the box” experience. Most had a mental image of what the deck would do before it was fully spoiled, myself believing we’d be more in the realm of Molten Vortex or Borborygmos Enraged, with value cards like The Mending of Dominaria or Ramunap Excavator. Overall, if you plan on getting a full set of the precons to play against each other, I’d recommend it. I’d also suggest picking it up if you have the intent and desire to make your own upgrades. Outside of those reasons, if you just had interest in some of the cards in the deck, I recommend just buying the singles you need.
I plan to take this deck into a more competitive direction, highlighting my choices here. First, creatures we are able to take advantage of that let you play additional lands.
Next we can look at creatures that care about lands. Whether they’re in play, in hand, the graveyard, or in the library.
Now we want spells that care about lands. Getting lands and bringing lands back from the graveyard. We also want ways to weaponize our lands. This includes instants, sorceries, artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers.
Now that we’ve decided on a theme, I feel like we are lacking something. Powerful spells to take advantage of all this mana we have access to. Mana sinks are great when having excess mana and I wanted to put a Bentley spin on the deck, so lets look at spells with an X in their cmc.
Now we’re cooking with fire. After considering all of these options, here’s the full decklist.
Lands, A study | Designer: Andy Bentley Test Deck |
Now feel free to let me know how you would change the deck. What would you run that I’m not? You can pick my list apart and use pieces, and develop your own unique take on the deck. I know I didn’t really include a budget cap here, but feel free to throw together a budget list for yourself. Have fun with it because, after all, it’s just a game.
I'm a semi-competitive magic player. I like playing jank and fun decks. I'm a fun-loving layed back guy. I play EDH, Standard, Modern, and Legacy