Simic Land-Creatures with Tatyova, Steward of Tides!

Posted on October 14, 2022

Hello awesome folks!! I hope you are having a great day! Simic Lands matter is one of the most played archetypes over in Commander, and we have loads of Commanders to choose from, like the very popular Tatyova, Benthic Druid. I typically don't step foot into this morass unless there is a new take on this heavily trodden archetype, and that's exactly what the latest Tatyova brings!

Let's take a look:

New Tatyova is a 3-drop that's harder to cast, with in the mana cost, but is an on-curve 3/3 with two relevant abilities. The first gives your land dorks flying, which suggests a deck-build with land creatures like Mishra's Factory. Then she has landfall, if you have seven or more lands, where one land becomes a 3/3 with haste and is still a land, thus flying thanks to Tatyova. This is a different creature-based land matters deck that seems really cool to build around. Ready?

Creatures Meeting Lands

Let's start with cards that make lands into dorks. Part the Waterveil is the only Time Warp in my brew. You can upgrade it's mana value of six to nine and make a permanent 6/6 with flying if you control Tatyova. I have a bunch of other awaken cards here too. The Druid is a 3-drop 1/1 that will make a Forest you control into a 4/5 Treefolk for as long as you control the druid. That's 5/6 power and toughness for 3 mana, but it's fragile.

The instant turns any land you control into a 9/9 with haste that also counts as legendary. This is a great combat trick, and a 9/9 with flying and haste for 5 mana seems pretty strong. Nissa is my only planeswalker in this brew. Your Forests will tap for an extra , which is pretty nice, but it's here for that +1 to turn any land into a 3/3 with haste and vigilance while untapping it. You can use this on the five turn you cast her and tap out, untap that land and give it haste and vigilance and swing and keep it open for a turn.

Check out this legendary duo. The former is a 5-drop X/X where X is your land count. And then your nontoken dorks are Forests, so they are all now with the flying if you control your Commander. They also tap for mana, although they cannot tap on arrival unless they have haste. The latter legendary dork is an 8-drop 5/5 that can spend two and turn a land into a 1/1 Elemental dork with haste, vigilance and indestructible for the turn only. Then at the beginning of your combat, all of your stuff gets +3/+3 and trample, so with Tatyova that's trample, flying, and +3/+3 on each land dork you control, which should win the game quite quickly. Also note that I tossed in Kamahl, Fist of Krosa as well.

Things with Landfall

This isn't really a traditional "landfall" deck so I might have five or seven cards total with the ability. Check out Druid Class! This 2-drop gains us life on land drops, and that's pretty good over the course of a game. You can also level up and get an Exploration effect for 3 mana and then spend 5 mana to turn a land you control into X/X where X is your land count. I also have Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait which is a 6-drop 5/5 with landfall draw a card. We need those cards! And then you can drop an extra land each turn. I also have the original Tatyova in here as well.

Answers

Most of my answers are obvious, like Counterspell and Beast Within. Check out this pair though! The Bond is a two-cost sorcery speed Naturalize that also drops a land from your hand to the battlefield for free! Nasty synergy here! Then the Scatter to the Winds is another awaken option, this time a 3 mana counter that can upgrade to a 3/3 land dork for 6 mana.

Card Flow

Most of my card flow is cards that draw and then you play a land like Explore, Eureka Moment, Urban Evolution. Then we have Coastal Discovery, a four-cost draw two that lets you make a 4/4 land for just two more mana than the base cost of the sorcery. Nice right?

I am running 40 lands, and then two modal land/spells. This one is a three-cost instant that digs six and then puts one instant or sorcery from those dug into your hand. I don't have any mana rocks here, no equipment, just two enchantments, just the one planeswalker, and then only 22 actual dorks, so that should be able to grab answers, card draw, or ramp quite ably here. Or you can just drop it as a land.

Synergies and Win-Cons

Now let's turn to some synergies and win conditions other than the ones that make lands into dorks. These two are cheap Simic colored Allies that help out our dork lands. The Human is a 3-drop 2/3 that gives your lands flying just like Tatyova and serves as a backup Commander in case you cannot cast it after removal. Then you can return a card with Awaken from your graveyard to your hand and we have four. Not likely to happen, but hey, it's here. (Also note that Part the Waterveil exiles itself on resolution) Then the Elf is a two-cost 2/3 with vigilance. If you control six or more lands, this and your land dorks each get +2/+2. This was played when it was legal in Standard, and it also makes loads of senses here.

Check out this pair. Earth Surge is a 4-drop that pumps your lands by +2/+2, and unlike Sylvan Advocate above, this does not require six lands to work. It's your typical Glorious Anthem effect. The Wurm is awesome here! This is a seven-mana 9/5 with trample, and when you are searching your library for anything, cast it! That means after your mana is set your top deck of a Rampant Growth or Cultivate turns into a game winning 9/5 with trample. Nice here! It's also just in 1794 decks over at EDHREC.com so that's pretty minor so it's definitely underplayed.

Yedora, Grave Gardener is an on curve five-mana 5/5. When another nontoken dork of yours dies, return it flipped facedown as a Forest. So, if we turned a land into a 3/3, and then lost it, then this would bring it back as a Forest. Then if we turn that Forest into a dork and it dies, it comes back as another Forest. That's pretty strong synergy here. I also like the synergy of X/X with X land cost, so I also added in more like the Cultivator Colossus and Beanstalk Giant. This 7-drop will bring trample to that body, and then on arrival to the battlefield you can drop a tapped land from your hand and then if you do, draw a card and keep going.

We have a lot of lands that are creatures, so they are likely to die to things like Murder effects and Lightning Bolt damage and mass removal like Damnation and then creature combat. I did toss in Heroic Intervention to help stop that and then some counters in here as well, but this is going to happen. But we have a four-mana mass recursion spell that we can toss in after that and get our fuel back and a bunch of landfall triggers to boot. Welcome to the team!

Ramp and Lands

Check out these two recently printed ramp instants. Joint Exploration is a two-mana scry 2 and draw card, like a better Opt. Then you can kick it for a mana to drop a land from your hand to the battlefield. Nice! Jaheira's Respite is a five cost that lets you ramp out basics equal to the creature count attacking you, so that could be two or three in the mid game and four or five later. Then it Fogs too. Don't forget that!

Dryad Arbor was the first land I thought of when putting this brew together. It counts as a Forest for those cards that care. It's a 1/1 Dryad naturally so it flies with your leader. Then it can be fetched by Forest grabbing mana ramping. Guildless Commons is an ETB Tapped and bounce a land to your hand and tap for 2 mana. This is here to get another landfall trigger out of your deck and I am also running the on-color Simic Growth Chamber as well.

Check out these two win-cons in the land zone. The first can activate for to make an X/X sized Hydra that turn, and with the flying of your Commander that's pretty strong. The second can turn six mana into a 7/7 Giant with ward 3 that also has flying with your Commander. I also tossed in many other man lands like Treetop Village and Mutavault.

Check out these two common artifact lands. The Bridge makes my two colors of mana and is indestructible. The Citadel doesn't arrive tapped, taps for colorless and rocks indestructible. Both can be turned into indestructible man-lands. Nasty here!

Check out my decklist below!