The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is about to hit the shelves in a few days and with apologies to fans of Doctor Who, I'll be turning my attention to some of the exciting new legendary creatures about to enter into our format. Wizards of the Coast recently announced that they will be creating a Marvel themed Universes Beyond set, but I will always have more interest in cards that are set in the world of Magic: The Gathering.

Whether or not you share my disdain for the introduction of external IPs into Magic, it's hard not to get excited about some of the new cards coming out of the plane of Ixalan. In The Lost Caverns of Ixalan we will be traveling back to a world of dinosaurs, vampires, merfolk, and pirates. This expansion set isn't focused on creature types and rival factions the way Ixalan was, but is an adventure themed set focused on underground exploration.

When looking over legendary creatures for a starting point in my own exploration of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, a new legendary Cat caught my eye. Not only did it seem to have incredible potential, it also didn't have a single obvious build path. Today I've got a double feature for you, with two decks built around this new card.

Sovereign Okinec Ahau is a four mana Selesnya () legendary Cat Noble with Ward 2 and a pretty amazing attack trigger. Ahau is a Maya word for nobility, so his name is Okinec. While I may refer to my commander as "OK", he is far from just okay. His attack trigger is powerful enough that he might eventually be seen as belonging in the ranks of cats like Arahbo, Roar of the World and Jetmir, Nexus of Revels.

Whenever Okinec attacks, for each creature I control with power greater than its base power, I'll put a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the difference. Not only is this going to be a fun build, it's going to require that we dive into some of the mechanics behind how Magic cards work.

Layers and Base Power

The first question I had to ask is a simple one - what does the term "base power" actually mean? To find this out I had to dig into the comprehensive rules. In CR 613, the "Interaction of Continuous Effects" is explained. Layers are the way characteristic defining abilities and modifying abilities are applied, and the order in which they are applied.

If you had a creature with a +1/+0 counter and an aura that switches a creature's power and toughness, would the +1/+0 be applied before or after the power and toughness got switched? That might seem like an unlikely example, but understanding the nuances of layers is key to understanding what the term "base power" means.

I'm just going to look at the layers that matter for Okinec's attack trigger, but for a deeper dive into this, you can go to https://blogs.magicjudges.org/rules/cr613/.

Layer 7 is where power and toughness are determined. There are sublayers here that need to be looked at. These sublayers are applied in order, and multiple effects within a sublayer are applied in timestamp order.

In layer 7a effects from characteristic-defining abilities that define power and/or toughness are applied. An example of this would be Multani, Maro-Sorcerer, which has a power and toughness equal to the number of cards in all players' hands.

In layer 7b, effects that set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value are applied. Raised by Giants is an enchantment that would apply in this layer, making your commander a 10/10. This sublayer is where "base" power and toughness is established.

In layer 7c, effects and counters that modify power and/or toughness (but don't set P/T to a specific number or value) are applied. Anthem effects like Collective Blessing and any counters that are put on a creature would apply in this layer.

In layer 7d, effects that switch a creature's power and toughness are applied. The instant speed spell Twisted Reflection is an example of a card that can do this.

What that means for Sovereign Okinec Ahau is that his ability to put counters on creatures I control is going to work well with anthem effects, +1/+1 counters and pump spells. My first draft of Okinec plays around going wide and playing anthems.

Okinec Anthems

Anthems are good in decks that go wide and should be great with Okinec. Let's say you have five 1/1 Saprolings and you go to combat with Okinec attacking and a +1/+1 anthem enchantment on the battlefield. Your 2/2 Saprolings have a power one greater than their base power so they'll each get a +1/+1 counter and you'll be attacking with 3/3s. If you get another combat and do it again, your 3/3s will get two more +1/+1 counters and will end up as 5/5s. The pump your creatures get, whether from the anthem or from +1/+1 counters, will get doubled each combat, so you'll see them attack as 3/3s, then 5/5s, then 9/9s, then 17/17s, and so on.

Anthems are good, but I want to focus on having lots of creatures on the field so creatures like Thunderfoot Baloth and Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus fit right in. The former gives a +2/+2 anthem effect and the latter will double the power and toughness of each creature I control at the beginning of combat.

Overwhelming Stampede is a classic old sorcery that will pump my team by +X/+X where X is the greatest power among creatures I control. It's in this list along with Pathbreaker Ibex, which gives that effect whenever it attacks. I'm also running a couple of great finishers for any go-wide deck. Craterhoof Behemoth and Moonshaker Cavalry will give my creatures +X/+X where X is the number of creatures I control. Jazal Goldmane is also in the list and has an activated ability to give attacking creatures I control +X/+X where X is the number of attacking creatures.

I've got a few token generators in this list, including Craterhoof's best friend, Avenger of Zendikar. Mycoloth, Scute Swarm, Curious Herd, and Fungal Sprouting also made the cut, but I do wonder if the deck needs a greater focus on token generators. First drafts usually leave me with these sorts of questions, and it can take a few games to really get a feel for what the deck needs.

Sovereign Okinec Ahau Anthems | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sovereign Okinec Ahau

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Armorcraft Judge
• 1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1 Deep Gnome Terramancer
• 1 Elvish Mystic
• 1 Esper Sentinel
• 1 Fertilid
• 1 Fyndhorn Elves
• 1 Giver of Runes
• 1 Guardian Augmenter
• 1 Jazal Goldmane
• 1 Llanowar Elves
• 1 Mindless Automaton
• 1 Moonshaker Cavalry
• 1 Mother of Runes
• 1 Mycoloth
• 1 Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Regal Force
• 1 Scute Swarm
• 1 Steelbane Hydra
• 1 Thunderfoot Baloth
• 1 Vigor
• 1 Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus

• Instants (10)
• 1 Curious Herd
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Inspiring Call
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Return to Nature
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Teferi's Protection

• Sorceries (10)
• 1 Camaraderie
• 1 Ezuri's Predation
• 1 Fumigate
• 1 Fungal Sprouting
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Overwhelming Stampede
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Traverse the Outlands

• Enchantments (10)
• 1 Collective Blessing
• 1 Dictate of Heliod
• 1 Felidar Retreat
• 1 Gaea's Anthem
• 1 Glorious Anthem
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Hardened Scales
• 1 Marshal's Anthem
• 1 Reconnaissance
• 1 Unnatural Growth

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Spear of Heliod
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 The Great Henge
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (37)
• 13 Forest
• 13 Plains
• 1 Bountiful Promenade
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fortified Village
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Overgrown Farmland
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden

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The trick with Sovereign Okinec Ahau is that you need to attack with your commander to get your +1/+1 counters. With no built-in evasion, you not only need to run anthem effects but you need to run ways to make sure Okinec will survive combat. That means a portion of the deck needs to be devoted to cards like Trailblazer's Boots, Whispersilk Cloak, and other ways to let you swing through your opponents' defenses.

The other strain on this deck's resources is the fact that any deck wanting to go wide really has to run ways to protect a lot of creatures. That means there has to be a place for Heroic Intervention, Flawless Maneuver, and Teferi's Protection. The way to make sure you can get to all of these key cards is to run lots of draw, so I'm also making space for Camaraderie, Shamanic Revelation, Rishkar's Expertise, and a bunch of other Green and White card draw staples.

Will this list have what it takes to go wide, then go big, and then go lethal? I hope so, but if I had to peg this deck to a power level I'd put it at mid-power. It's going to be capable of doing great things but I'm not trying to combo off and I'm not even running Tooth and Nail to get Craterhoof/Avenger. It's a strong, but relatively fair combat-oriented deck that still has room to be tuned up.

If anthems feel like a sensible build path for Sovereign Okinec Ahau, it's worth asking if there are other ways to build the deck that can make more out of what this commander brings to the game. Sometimes it takes me building an entire deck and looking it over to realize that I missed something clever or even something that now feels obvious.

Obvious Hydras are Obvious

This might not come as a surprise to most of you, but even established and experienced content creators sometimes write up and build entire decks without seeing a strong and obvious build path that was sitting right there waiting to be explored. In this case, that obvious deck theme is to build Sovereign Okinec Ahau around Hydras and other creatures that have a base power and toughness of 0/0. Every Okinec trigger will double those creatures' power and toughness with +1/+1 counters.

I'm running ten Hydras in this second list. Most of them have some trick up their sleeve but none are quite as good at punishing players in Blue like Mistcutter Hydra. Those annoying Blue players who counter our spells and overload Cylonic Rifts may not deserve to have a huge uncounterable, hasty Hydra with protection from Blue bearing down upon them, but if they didn't do something obnoxious in the current game, they probably did something in an earlier game. An overloaded Rift will still bounce Mistcutter to your hand, but it's a great way to try to get back at that guy who countered your Kalonian Hydra the turn before.

Kalonian Hydra is going to be fantastic in this deck so it's well worth countering. It has trample and when it attacks I'll double the number of +1/+1 counters on each creature I control. Between Kalonian Hydra and Sovereign Okinec Ahau, my 5/5 Primordial Hydra will become a 20/20 and that bad boy will double its counters at the beginning of my upkeep! You can see how this deck will get out of control pretty easily if it goes unchecked.

I'm running a few non-Hydras in this list. Stonecoil Serpent has reach, trample and protection from multicolored, making it a phenomenal blocker against certain creatures and a real problem for players who have a heavily multicolored deck. Etched Oracle and Mindless Automaton each enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters. If I can get either of them big enough, I'll be able to start drawing cards at a pretty good clip. Etched Oracle lets me pay 1 and remove four +1/+1 counters to have target player draw three cards. Mindless Automaton simply lets me remove two +1/+1 counters to draw a single card.

Ochre Jelly is an Ooze X spell that enters with X +1/+1 counters and has the potential to stick around for a long time. When it dies, if it had two or more +1/+1 counters I create a token that's a copy of it at the beginning of the next end step. That token Ooze enters with half of the original Ooze's +1/+1 counters, rounded down. As long as I can keep growing it, I should always have a post-boardwipe blocker.

I'm also running a couple of spirits in Phantom Nantuko and Phantom Nishoba. They each enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters and when they would be dealt damage, the damage is prevented and I remove a +1/+1 counter from it instead. These two might play well in my anthems deck, as an anthem will let them survive combat damage forever. Even if they lose their last +1/+1 counter, they'll still survive thanks to the anthem's pump effect.

OK Hydras | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sovereign Okinec Ahau

• Creatures (31)
• 1 Archetype of Endurance
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Caustic Caterpillar
• 1 Esper Sentinel
• 1 Etched Oracle
• 1 Fertilid
• 1 Giver of Runes
• 1 Hooded Hydra
• 1 Kalonian Hydra
• 1 Lifeblood Hydra
• 1 Managorger Hydra
• 1 Mindless Automaton
• 1 Mistcutter Hydra
• 1 Mother of Runes
• 1 Neverwinter Hydra
• 1 Ochre Jelly
• 1 Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1 Phantom Nantuko
• 1 Phantom Nishoba
• 1 Primordial Hydra
• 1 Rampant Rejuvenator
• 1 Realm Seekers
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Scourge of Skola Vale
• 1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1 Shinewend
• 1 Spike Feeder
• 1 Steelbane Hydra
• 1 Stonecoil Serpent
• 1 Voracious Hydra

• Instants (10)
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1 Return to Nature
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
• 1 Teferi's Protection

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Ezuri's Predation
• 1 Fumigate
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Traverse the Outlands
• 1 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Reconnaissance

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Commander's Plate
• 1 Mask of Avacyn
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 The Great Henge
• 1 The Ozolith
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (37)
• 13 Forest
• 13 Plains
• 1 Bountiful Promenade
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fortified Village
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Overgrown Farmland
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden

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Neither of these decks are aiming for a combo win, but I think this second list is a bit stronger than the anthems build. You'll squeeze more value, more consistently, out of Sovereign Okinec Ahau's attack trigger when you're playing this many creatures with a base power of zero. The fact that many Hydras come with trample only helps matters, but I'll still need to make sure that my commander survives combat.

Final Thoughts

If you're playing in a mid-to-high powered meta where you've got games playing out on the battlefield more often than not, there's every reason to think a Sovereign Okinec Ahau deck would fit right in. You might even inspire your friends to run a few more boardwipes, as this deck looks like the kind that will be a real headache if it's able to set up a boardstate and go to combat too many times.

The biggest weakness is probably the fact that both OK Anthems and OK Hydras is telegraphing its game plan and that game plan revolves around the deck's commander. You can still do stuff if Okinec gets imprisoned in the moon, turned into a Treefolk or otherwise gets sidelined, but you may really miss those attack triggers.

My hope of playing either of these lists on Tabletop Simulator was complicated by the fact that TappedOut.net has inexplicably not been able to add Okinec Ahau to a decklist. They may have fixed whatever bug is screwing up this particular card by now, but as of this writing he isn't coming up. It's a worthwhile question to ask why I haven't moved all my decks over to a better platform, but I've been posting them on TappedOut.net for nearly a decade now and I'm a creature of habit. I'm guessing they misspelled it or something dumb like that.

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