One of my favorite ways to choose a commander is to let the commander come to me. I can preorder any new legendary creature that catches my eye from this fine online retailer. I still have decks that I preordered and built based upon spoilers because the commander was so intriguing. While I enjoy those builds, I also love to wait and see what new legendary creatures come to me from opening booster packs. This is especially true when I skip a set and instead of buying a box, just pick up random packs here and there.

Today's commander is one that makes sense in the context of another event in my life. If you have followed CoolStuffInc.com's commander writing team long enough to remember when we were called GatheringMagic.com, you might remember Bruce Richard. He is now co-host of the Temple of the False Pod podcast, but he used to be part of our commander writing team. He was always better at me at eschewing staples and really diving into the immense pool of "viable" cards available in lower and even mid-powered EDH. I tend to build with more staples, with more combos and for a higher-powered game.

Just a few weekends ago I was able to join Bruce and a bunch of his friends and regular tablemates for "Bru-con." It's a weekend of cube, draft and commander that he hosts once a year. It was my second time joining them and every year they give out a "door prize" in the form of a random bulk rare. It's a fun time and a kind gesture and my door prize this year was a card I already had, but which I was still grateful to receive.

It was the Ixalan rare Waker of the Wilds.

Flash forward a week and I was opening a few March of the Machine: Aftermath booster packs. I didn't love the lower number of cards per pack and the higher price, and I didn't love the cards I ended up getting, but one rare caught my eye. Land creatures are rarely in my thoughts and even less often in my decks, but there I was, looking at a copy of Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir.

Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir is a legendary Human Druid who lets you turn one of your lands into an X/X green and blue Bird creature with flying and haste until end of turn. X is the number of cards in your hand, and it's still a land. I generally hate putting my lands into danger by turning them into creatures, but the last line of text on the card caught my eye. Whenever a land creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.

Draw a card? Yes please. Those are the most powerful words in Magic: the Gathering and they definitely piqued my interest.

Waker of the Wilds happens to be a Merfolk Shaman who lets you pay XGG to put X +1/+1 counters on target land you control and that land becomes a 0/0 Elemental creature with haste. Again, it's still a land. I already had a Waker of the Wilds, but I took having another one randomly come into my life as something of a sign. I was meant to build this deck.

Paths Not Traveled

There is one build path for Jolrael that I looked at and decided against, but which I thought deserved a mention. I was looking through commons and uncommons and came across a bunch of Ikoria creatures with the mutate mechanic. Mutate will allow you to transform an existing non-human creature under your control, turning it into a combination of two creatures. The new mutant will have the power and toughness of the creature on top, but the name and text boxes of all of the cards in the mutate stack. It's crazy and it gets pretty complicated.

In the case of a mutate card, would this be a clever way to take a land creature that is only a land until end of turn and keep it? Would it be a way to give it a bigger power and toughness? Is this an angle we can use to squeeze a little extra value out of a land creature strategy?

The answer, unsurprisingly, is that it depends.

There are a lot of different ways to turn lands into creatures. There are auras that can enchant a land, turning it into a land creature for as long as it's enchanted. There are creatures, including our commander, that can animate a land until end of turn. Some of these methods involve putting +1/+1 counters on the new land creature and others just give it a specific power and toughness.

I'm not a judge, but after doing a bit of research I came away with the following. If you turn a land creature into a creature until end of turn, the ability that makes it a creature and gives it a power and toughness until end of turn are abilities that are now on the creature. If you add in the text box of a mutant creature when you add it to the mutate stack, that will not remove the "until end of turn" ability that was added to it when it was animated. Your top card might be a 6/6 Auspicious Starrix, but that stat line gets overridden by the existing ability of "until end of turn it is an X/X creature that is still a land and at end of turn it becomes a land again."

If we just use Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir's ability we can turn a land into an X/X Green and Blue Bird creature with flying and haste where X is the number of cards in your hand. That ability is added to the land card. If you mutate it with your Auspicious Starrix, it won't matter whether the 6/6 Starrix is on the top or the bottom of the mutate stack. That additional characteristic-defining ability will override the 6/6 stat line and it will still revert to a land at end of turn.

If you doubt this, please check with a judge because this gets into layers and layers in Magic get complicated. The long and the short of it is that I decided I don't want to mutate any of my lands and I probably won't want to equip or enchant them as auras and equipment would fall off when the land creature reverts back to being just a creature.

Land Creatures

My starting point for this build was to look at other ways to turn lands into creatures. If my land creatures can draw me cards when they do combat damage, why not lean into that theme a bit?

There are a number of land enchantments called "Zendikons" that allow you to turn a land into a land creature. Wind Zendikon will make the enchanted land into a 2/2 blue Elemental creature with flying. Nissa's Zendikon will turn a land into a 4/4 Elemental creature with reach and haste and Vastwood Zendikon will turn a land into a 6/4 Elemental creature with no additional keywords. While not a "Zendikon", Harmonious Emergence can turn a land into a 4/5 Green Spirit creature with vigilance and haste. In all of these cases, the creature is still a land and if that land is put into a graveyard, it (the land) is returned to its owner's hand.

There is one land enchantment that is particularly flexible. Nature's Embrace can enchant a creature or a land. If the enchanted permanent is a creature it gets +2/+2. As long as it's a land it can tap to add two mana of any one color. If used to enchant a land creature it stands to reason that it will provide both abilities and if it stops being a creature the aura won't fall off and have to be put into the graveyard.

There are a few instants and sorceries to turn lands into creatures. Hydroform is an instant that will make target land into a 3/3 Elemental creature with flying until end of turn. Rude Awakening can be entwined to untap all of your lands and turn them into 2/2 creatures. Sylvan Awakening can turn all of your lands into 2/2 Elemental creatures with reach, indestructible and haste. Neither of those is likely to win a game of commander on their own, but if you've got a Beastmaster Ascension on the field and someone just wiped the board, you could probably dish out some serious damage before people rebuild.

I've also got a few creatures that can do this trick beyond just my commander.

I've got two creatures that both let me create land creatures and give land creatures an ability. Embodiment of Insight gives land creatures vigilance and Tatyova, Steward of Tides gives land creatures flying. Both have landfall triggers that will make a land into a 3/3 Elemental creature with haste.

I don't yet know if Silvanus's Invoker's ability is playable, but if games go long enough I might be able to scrape together enough to turn a land into an 8/8 Elemental creature with trample and haste. If I were to make infinite mana I could theoretically turn all of my lands into creatures.

The Combo Path

Winning might come the old-fashioned way, but this deck has enough infinite mana outlets to make it an easy choice to toss something into the mix to let me win that way. I decided to run with Deadeye Navigator and creatures that can untap lands when they enter the battlefield. That means Great Whale, Palinchron and Peregrine Drake. Cloud of Faeries is in the mix too. The biggest reason I like this combo is that you'll leave your lands untapped once you've generated however much mana you need. A big issue with "man-land" decks is that a lot of your potential attackers and blockers might need to be tapped for mana. Deadeye combo leaves you ready to swing out once you're done making and spending your mana.

You might use that mana with Silvanius's Invoker to make 8/8 land creatures, but there are better options available.

For starters, Genesis Wave and Animist's Awakening are a pair of "X" spells that can put lands onto your battlefield. The former actually puts permanents with mana value X or less into play, while the latter just puts lands into play tapped. With infinite mana you'll be able to play out every land in your deck, making cards Sylvan Awakening and Animist's Awakening potential wincons.

If you're able to go infinite with Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Waker of the Wilds in play you should be able to swing for the win. Both can turn your lands into creatures and pump them up. Kamahl works in increments of +3/+3 and gives them trample. Waker of the Wilds gives them +1/+1 counters and haste.

If you did want to drop out the Deadeye package you'd have a few extra slots for more interaction or removal, both of which are in admittedly short supply in today's list. On a first draft I lean into what I want the deck to do just to be absolutely sure it will get a chance to do it. As I play it, I decide how much I enjoy the basic concept and I usually drop out underperforming cards and add in more responsible choices. Sometimes that initial lack of answers is a problem, sometimes not.

It's Still a Land

This deck won't look too scary in the early and midgame so I'm hoping in a casual environment I'll be able to fly under the radar a bit. Swinging every turn to try to get card draw might make that tricky. I'm running a few bounce effects in Aetherspouts and Aetherize to repel a wave of attackers. I've got Return to Nature but this is not trying to be a control deck. It's a low-powered casual deck with a combo I might fall into, but more likely won't see that often. You could probably drop Deadeye Navigator and a few of my pricier spells and lands and have a very budget friendly casual deck that's still quite close to this list.

If you wanted to tune this list up, I think you'd lean into the combo and use tutors to pull up your land-creature themed infinite mana outlets. By adding in a lot of interaction - both counters and removal - and you could have yourself a pretty good mid-to-high power list that just happens to try to win by swinging with your lands. It's up to you whether you think that is more or less fun than any other combo win. I think it might be, but any combo is fun at first and usually gets a little stale over time if you hit it too often.

Jolrael Lands | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Amphin Pathmage
• 1 Archetype of Imagination
• 1 Cloud of Faeries
• 1 Coiling Oracle
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Destiny Spinner
• 1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• 1 Embodiment of Insight
• 1 Great Whale
• 1 Jolrael, Empress of Beasts
• 1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
• 1 Ohran Frostfang
• 1 Palinchron
• 1 Passwall Adept
• 1 Peregrine Drake
• 1 Quandrix Cultivator
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Silvanus's Invoker
• 1 Tatyova, Steward of Tides
• 1 Waker of the Wilds
• 1 Yedora, Grave Gardener

• Instants (7)
• 1 AEtherize
• 1 Aetherspouts
• 1 Crop Rotation
• 1 Eureka Moment
• 1 Growth Spiral
• 1 Hydroform
• 1 Return to Nature

• Sorceries (13)
• 1 Animist's Awakening
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Genesis Wave
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Open the Way
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Reshape the Earth
• 1 Rude Awakening
• 1 Scapeshift
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Splendid Reclamation
• 1 Sylvan Awakening

• Enchantments (10)
• 1 Beastmaster Ascension
• 1 Coastal Piracy
• 1 Harmonious Emergence
• 1 Nature's Embrace
• 1 Nissa's Zendikon
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Reconnaissance Mission
• 1 Vastwood Zendikon
• 1 Wilderness Reclamation
• 1 Wind Zendikon

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Bident of Thassa
• 1 Bow of Nylea
• 1 Sol Ring

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Nissa, Steward of Elements
• 1 Nissa, Who Shakes the World

• Lands (42)
• 13 Forest
• 13 Island
• 1 Blinkmoth Nexus
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Crawling Barrens
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Dread Statuary
• 1 Dreamroot Cascade
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Hall of Storm Giants
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Inkmoth Nexus
• 1 Lumbering Falls
• 1 Mishra's Factory
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Rejuvenating Springs
• 1 Tanglepool Bridge
• 1 Yavimaya Coast

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You'll notice I'm running way more lands than I usually play. A bunch of them can be turned into creatures, and land creatures can give me card draw. I have to expect some of them are going to die, and in a more refined list I would be running more ways to play lands out of my graveyard.

Early Results

I was able to play this list in a couple of online games in our Thursday night Tabletop Simulator group. It ended up being a pair of 3 player matches, which are never ideal. I was on this list for both games and one tablemate played both games on a partners deck with Silas Renn, Seeker Adept and Armix, Filigree Thrasher. I was playing man-lands and he was on an artifacts / energy themed build. Both were relatively lower powered. Our third tablemate was on Atraxa, Grand Unifier Praetor tribal in game one and on Henrika Domnathi in the second game.

It's hard to say what the power levels were because of the fact that it was a three-player game and I didn't take the time to look at everyone's decklists, but it seemed like player three was coming in at a higher power level and the games seemed to play out that way.

In the first game the Atraxa player got us loaded up with poison counters and then played with his food, keeping us alive until he could play out and crack Realmbreaker to put all of his Praetors on the field. I had already had a rough week with a handful of games on Monday and Tuesday night that hadn't exactly filled me with joy, so this didn't do much to change that. I do really hate Praetors.

As it turned out, my own deck decided to have me draw into Deadeye Navigator and not one, not two, but three of the combo pieces. I had shuffled plenty of times and it was Tabletop Simulator doing the randomization, but I was basically looking at a possible win in hand while at 7 poison counters and very little time to go for it.

The Atraxa player had been dominant all game and got a bit lucky. He had something (a Planeswalker?) on the field with a Duress ability: target player reveals their hand and discards a card of his choice. I hadn't played out any of my combo pieces as I hadn't yet gotten the eight mana I needed to play it out in one turn. Playing it out early would probably have gotten me killed first. At any rate, he chose the other player, but when it was pointed out that I had more cards in hand, he changed his mind and chose me. I revealed my hand, Deadeye Navigator was discarded, and he won easily on his next turn.

I wasn't thrilled, but sometimes that's how the cookie crumbles. In game two our third player didn't stomp us, but after we got him down to a relatively low life total, he was able to play out a Bolas's Citadel, gain life, and end up getting the win yet again. He was on Henrika Domnathi and I think he was playing something of an aristocrats strategy, but again it felt like he was up a few notches in power from what we were playing. That might not be a fair evaluation with such a small sample size, but it was my feeling coming away from that second game.

In that second game I was able to use Reshape the Earth to play out a half dozen lands that can turn into creatures, and for once felt like I was going to have enough mana to really use them. When the Henrika player dropped that Citadel and started squeezing value out of it, I knew I'd have to just swing out at him until he was dead if we were to stand a chance. I would have been able to get there but for a Darkness that he cast on my turn before he ended up winning.

It was a frustrating night, made worse by the initial stomping, and a conversation in the second game where I felt like I was being gaslighted by a player insisting that Bolas's Citadel wasn't that strong in a less strong deck. Newsflash: it is, and it's what let him get to the win. We ended up having a long and at times spirited conversation after the second game about wincons and combos and whether or not it matters how you get there.

I maintain that cracking a Realmbreaker to put every Praetor in your deck on the field against a couple of decidedly more casual decks is no more fun, fair, or clever than hitting a combo like Deadeye Navigator and Peregrine Drake that would let me kill the table with my lands. My tablemate seemed to think that Realmbreaker was somehow less boring or better or something. The fact that I'd be happy to never see another Praetor in a game of Magic again probably affects my opinion on the matter.

My goal in playing these new decks is to get at least a few takeaways to share with you.

The first is simple: playing a deck themed around lands that turn into creatures is not a great plan. It's janky and weird and fun, but you have to lean really hard into playing land ramp so you end up having enough lands to make mana and then still have lands available to use as creatures. Playing fewer lands and more artifact ramp might seem like an option, but I want the possibility of an alpha strike with one of those "Awakening" spells after a boardwipe so the more lands I play, the better. Lands also matter for a deck running Deadeye / Palinchron, so it was an easy choice to lean away from artifact ramp.

The second takeaway is one I've already hinted at. When you lean too far into a strategy and neglect basics like removal and stack interaction when you're playing blue, you're just not going to be able to protect a possible combo win and you're not going to stop more powerful, resilient decks from winning. A single Swan Song could have stopped that Darkness, but I was intentionally coming into the game with a low powered, low interaction deck. As the deckbuilder and as someone who does know better, I only have myself to blame. Variance might have kept those answers out of my hand when I needed them, but not having them in the list in the first place was my fault.

In the grand scheme of things, losing and winning streaks generally even out. I've been in a rut, but it wasn't that long ago that I had a run of great games in our Thursday night group so it's probably good that someone else had their turn. I still wish we had managed to get a fourth player, as that extra body always helps even things out and sometimes keeps someone from running away with the game.

Final Thoughts

If you wonder why I'd parade out a deck like this - full of goofy land creatures and a combo I can't protect or dig for - my answer is simple. Part of my duty to you as my readers is to share my truth, and the truth is that sometimes I build and play lower powered decks that aren't focused on controlling the game or single mindedly driving for the win.

Commander is a game about winning and losing. It's also about much, much more than that, and one of my failings is that I focus too much on the goal and not enough on the experience. When I'm in a run of "bad games" for me that really means that I haven't won in a while - usually because I've been trotting out lower powered decks and also having a bit of bad luck along the way. Some of those games weren't really "bad" but when I come up short I do have trouble appreciating the good parts of those games.

It doesn't matter if you were up 3 goals, 15 points, or 5 runs in the seventh game of a seven game playoff series if you blow the lead and lose in overtime or extra innings. It makes for a better experience if my deck actually did something, but it's not always enough to make me happy at the end. If that sounds overly melodramatic, I may just be feeling the ups and downs of this year's hockey and basketball playoffs a little more than usual.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you back here next week!