Typal decks have always been a big part of Magic: The Gathering, but they’re particularly significant in Commander. In a format with a bit more breathing room, these strategies have a chance to flourish. Often, the struggle with MTG typal is picking which set of synergy you want to tap into, which is where Rukarumel, Biologist comes in. Thanks to its full five-color palette, and wildly flexible ability, this legend gives you access to the full scope of typal in a single deck. Not to mention a powerhouse combo or two, for good measure.
Rukarumel, Biologist MTG
Rukarumel, Biologist is a simple MTG card that enables a dazzling array of possibilities. First and foremost, it makes an excellent Sliver Commander, since it’s five colors, and produces 1/1 Sliver tokens at a reasonable rate. What Slivers need more than anything is more Slivers in play to leverage all their buffs, and Rukarumel provides exactly that.
Of course, the really exciting thing about Rukarumel is that it lets you augment the types of all your other creatures. Like a more specific Maskwood Nexus out of the command zone, Rukarumel lets you add an extra type to creatures in your hand, board, library, graveyard, and even exile.
What this means in practice is that you get to tap into a lot of powerful typal synergies without necessarily going all-in on a particular type. For example, if you want easy access to a creature combo, you can name Goblin and use Goblin Recruiter and Goblin Matron to nab the pieces.
The beauty of this ability lies in its sheer flexibility. If you’re looking to play a value game, Zombie is probably the type to pick, giving you Cryptbreaker for draw, and premium recursion like Relentless Dead and Unholy Grotto. Alternatively, if you want to pursue a ramp plan, you can pick Elf and stock up on cards like Priest of Titania and Elvish Archdruid. Normally, running these powerful typal tools would require you to dedicate most of your slots to creatures of their type. With Rukarumel, however, you can just run best-in-slot creatures and enjoy the benefits regardless.
Dropping Your Whole Deck
On top of its MTG typal applications, Rukarumel, Biologist is also a solid combo enabler. Since it affects the creatures in your deck with its ability, it absolutely pops off with both The World Tree and Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree.
Naming God or Praetor with Rukarumel will let The World Tree or Realmbreaker cheat out every single creature in your deck for 10 mana, appropriately. While these combos are mana-intensive, they’re very easy on resources, since you only need one card and your Commander to pull them off. They’re also pretty much guaranteed to win you the game.
If you’re feeling like something a little more subtle, Rukarumel also opens up some infinite lines with its token ability. With Intruder Alarm, you can untap Rukarumel each time you use the ability. Provided you have other creatures that can tap for the three mana needed to use it again, you can repeat this infinitely. This combo lets you build up an alpha strike force for your turn, or just close things out right away with Impact Tremors. If your creatures can tap for more than three, Bloom Tender, for example, then you can generate infinite mana this way, too.
A Step Too Far?
As cool and powerful as Rukarumel, Biologist is, there are also some fundamental issues with its design. Typal decks, in general, are interesting because of the restrictions they place on the deckbuilder. Each has access to set colors and synergies, creating set strengths and weaknesses. With Rukarumel, however, these balancing elements are all removed, letting players access the synergy without committing to the usual restrictions, which can make for boring deckbuilding.
Likely because of these issues, Rukarumel isn’t nearly as popular as you’d expect given its raw flexibility. According to EDHREC, only 3,882 players run this card as their Commander. Given how popular typal decks are in the format in general, this feels shockingly low. This could be due to Rukarumel being perceived as another ‘boring’ five-color Commander, but it also goes against the intended spirit of typal decks, which could play a big part here as well.
In any event, the fact that players haven’t warmed to Rukarumel so far makes it a cheap card to pick up. Near-mint copies of the foil precon version are available for just $1.28 right now. If you’re not a fan of foil, The List printing is actually even cheaper at $1.19, though you will have to deal with that planeswalker stamp in the corner. Either way, if you like the look of the synergies Rukarumel brings to the table, you can grab a copy for a relatively budget price.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew!