As we have taken this road through Naya-town, one thing I keep coming back to is, ultimately, Naya () probably wants to win with big creatures. But it doesn't always have to be Terra Stompers and Wooly Thoctars. We can certainly have some fun with it. And with a budget of $500, we can really have some fun with it.

This guy allows us to approach Naya from a different angle. As our enemies march on us, let the very land itself rise up to meet them.

Trample, Haste, and a power and toughness based on Obuun's power, stapled on to a land at the beginning of combat? Obuun might be a 3/3 for four mana, but I suspect we can do more with this. I want a land to hit so hard a player just straight-up dies from the hit. Let's get to work.

First up, we need lands. Lots of them. We're running 55, plus an additional five spells which have lands on the back. That's 60 lands, more than half the deck. It's worth it, because our lands are our most valuable resource (that's kind of generally true, but it's even more true in this deck). Most of our lands are focused on fixing our mana, because we want to hit our colors on time to cast Obuun on either turn three or, at the latest, four, but we've got a few of particular note. Let's go through them.

First, we are running a number of fetch lands; we have all the on-color Modern fetches and Prismatic Vista, plus Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds and the Mountain Valley-style fetches, which don't see as much play but are pretty great in Commander.

Second, we have lands which do some important things. Rogue's Passage is good, as is Kessig Wolf Run, Gavony Township, and Forge of Heroes. The Passage can help our huge land slip past any defenses, and the other three can be used to buff up our Commander, further buffing our land. Think of this: if we have 13 lands on the battlefield and a 10/10 Commander, we can use Kessig Wolf Run to pump our Commander to 19/10, which means our attacking land will be a 19/19 Trampler. And our Commander is still a 19/10! Reliquary Tower is likely to be important given how many cards the deck can end up drawing (more on that later), and don't forget about Karn's Bastion. Extra mana can be used in lots of ways in this deck, specifically with the goal of increasing our Commander's power, so watch your abilities.

Third, we're running a pile of creature lands. We don't have them all, but we've got a few which can turn into not-irrelevant creatures all on their own. Given what we're doing, this could come in helpful. Heck, Raging Ravine will keep its counters, so if we have a Gavony Township active we can use it to give the Ravine and Obuun counters, buffing twice!

We've also got a bunch of ways to get extra lands. Regular readers of mine will know I'm a huge fan of Cultivate and Kodama's Reach, as well as other Green spells which get more than one land. There are very few of those in this deck - in fact, the only one which stipulates basic land searching (aside from Terramorphic and the like) is Circuitous Route... which can still get Gate cards.

No, we're running things that look for "land card(s)" or "Forest cards", because we don't want to have to fill our deck with basic lands and we *really* don't want to fail to find when we search, since we want those Landfall triggers from our Commander. Whenever possible, we want to be able to find whatever we want (Sylvan Scrying, despite not putting the land on the Battlefield, lets us go get that Reliquary Tower or that Kessig Wolf Run), or at least to be able to grab a Temple Garden or Highland Forest.

Another thing we're doing is allowing ourselves extra land drops. Spells like Explore and Scale the Heights lets us generate an extra trigger, but Explore can also accelerate us into a turn-three Commander if we play it on turn two. We have to run Oracle of Mul Daya, of course, for flavor and because of what it does, and Exploration is a much cheaper, Enchantment-based way to at least do part of what Oracle does. Burgeoning feels like cheating when we run this many lands.

The final thing is we want ways to buy our lands back. Crucible of Worlds is kind of the established way to manage this, but it's really expensive and probably not worth it for this deck, which isn't looking to recycle lands all the time, but rather get back whatever we sacrifice to its own ability (Blighted Woodland) or dies in combat, which could happen. We have Ancient Greenwarden, which does what Crucible does but stapled to a 5/7 and which doubles up our Landfall triggers. The Mending of Dominaria, should it reach its third step, will return all our lands from our 'yard to the Battlefield, which could be a flurry of Landfall triggers. Then there's Splendid Reclamation, which does the same thing for four mana right now, as opposed to three turns from now.

A couple more notes about our lands. We are also running Tomik, Distinguished Advokist, who gives our lands (on the 'field and in the 'yard) what amounts to Hexproof and prevents our opponents from playing lands out of their graveyards (for whatever that's worth), and Terra Eternal, which makes all lands Indestructible. Both of these things are good.

Also, I want to mention Cultivator Colossus specifically. We don't really care how big it will get; what's important is its enters the Battlefield effect. Assuming we have a couple of lands in our hand when we play it, we should be able to ride the chain for at least a little bit, since we'll be drawing lands a little more than half the time. Keep in mind that to keep going, we have to play the land from our hand - this will be important in a minute.

But first, let's talk about some other ways to make our Commander (and therefore our land) huge. One card I didn't want to ignore was Colossification; we pay seven mana, our commander gets +20/+20, and now our land does too. We also have Blackblade Reforged, which is reliably going to be +10 or +14, and that seems worth it for the price. Reshape the Earth gets us 10 lands out of our Library and gives our Commander 10 counters, which isn't bad, and Animist's Awakening lets us dig for X mana and put all the lands we find on the 'field, which should be a bunch. The Ozolith will keep any counters on Obuun safe should he have to take a quick ride to the Command Zone.

In addition to the big swings, we also have a few little ways to generate value. Evolution Sage, for example, basically has Landfall: Proliferate. Since we're already putting a counter on Obuun when a land enters the Battlefield, this doubles them up; we just proliferate the counter. Retreat to Kazandu works differently but has the same effect. (Please, never gain the life from that, unless it's a question of life or death.)

Exponential Growth also deserves special mention here. It's a source of potential game-ending power, because for six mana, we'll double Obuun's power twice. For eight mana, three times. For 10, four. Let's assume Obuun has two counters when we pay 10 mana into Exponential Growth. We double - 10 - then double again - 20 - then double again - 40 - then double again - 80. We have an 80/80 land with Haste and Trample headed across the field. Come at me.

Of course, Omnath, Locus of Rage is too absurd not to include. It's not quite on theme, but it certainly can make a major diversion to our opponents. We get more tokens, plus we get a death trigger, so if someone actually does manage to kill one of our lands which Obuun has made an Elemental until end of turn, we still get to bolt to the face.

Strionic Resonator and Lithoform Engine are both here for the same reason; they'll allow us to trigger Obuun's combat triggered ability twice, turning two lands into combatants. Timed correctly, that should let us kill two players in a single turn.

A few more cards to point out. Amulet of Vigor is amazing in this deck. The ability to use our comes-into-play-tapped lands right away is huge, especially if we wind up with a bunch of them at once, like with Splendid Reclamation. Abzan Falconer is funny, but should be considered more of a Sorcery-speed combat trick in this deck. For three mana, we can play a guy which puts our Commander into the air. If that's in combination with some other major power boost, an unprepared opponent could die to a flying 22/22 or something. Finally, there's Emeria Shepherd, which lets us return permanents from our 'yard to our hand. This is good generally (Evolving Wilds!) but it's also good specifically, because we can use it along with Cultivator Colossus to keep the Colossus rolling. Here's how it works:

We play the Colossus with the Shepherd on the 'field. We play a land from our hand. Both the Colossus and the Shepherd trigger; we draw a card and return Terramorphic Expanse (or Windswept Heath or whatever fetch land) from our 'yard to our hand. We play Terramorphic and return another fetch land (preferably) as well as draw another card. We keep rolling through the fetch lands (even if we fail to find, we are still playing a land from our hand) in order to keep drawing until we draw whatever we need. Amulet of Vigor is a good target, because then any other lands will start coming into play untapped, including the slow fetches. We can go till we run out of mana (if we're having to pay for something like Blighted Woodland) or if we don't want to keep paying life for the fast fetches.

Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor

• Creatures (8)
• 1 Abzan Falconer
• 1 Ancient Greenwarden
• 1 Cultivator Colossus
• 1 Emeria Shepherd
• 1 Evolution Sage
• 1 Omnath, Locus of Rage
• 1 Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist

• Instants (7)
• 1 Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Hunter's Insight
• 1 Khalni Ambush // Khalni Territory
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1 Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glacier
• 1 Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge

• Sorceries (16)
• 1 Animist's Awakening
• 1 Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary
• 1 Circuitous Route
• 1 Explore
• 1 Exponential Growth
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins
• 1 Planar Outburst
• 1 Reshape the Earth
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Scale the Heights
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Splendid Reclamation
• 1 Sylvan Scrying
• 1 Three Visits

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Burgeoning
• 1 Colossification
• 1 Exploration
• 1 Glorious Sunrise
• 1 Retreat to Kazandu
• 1 Terra Eternal
• 1 The Mending of Dominaria

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Amulet of Vigor
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Lithoform Engine
• 1 Strionic Resonator
• 1 The Ozolith

• Lands (55)
• 1 Mountain
• 10 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 1 Alpine Meadow
• 1 Arctic Treeline
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Blighted Woodland
• 1 Boros Guildgate
• 1 Bountiful Promenade
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Cave of Temptation
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Forge of Heroes
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Grasslands
• 1 Gruul Guildgate
• 1 Highland Forest
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Jungle Shrine
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Lair of the Hydra
• 1 Llanowar Reborn
• 1 Mirrorpool
• 1 Mountain Valley
• 1 Naya Panorama
• 1 Needle Spires
• 1 Prismatic Vista
• 1 Raging Ravine
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Selesnya Guildgate
• 1 Sheltered Thicket
• 1 Spire Garden
• 1 Stirring Wildwood
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Foothills

Buy This Deck Export text format

We came in at $482.36, which is just a touch under budget. Of course, the fetches and shocks are expensive, and some of these cards are the only ones which do what they do, so a budget version would simply not be as strong. Still might be fun, though, to play with lots of Basics and not protect much of anything, just run a ton of ramp spells and go to town!

How would you build Obuun? What would you add? Any tricks? Please let us know in the comments!

In the meantime, get out there and become one with the land.

Thanks for reading.