As of yesterday, the dust from Secrets of Strixhaven preview season has had a full week to settle. Now, we can get a more rounded perspective on the set, divorced from initial hype. While many of the headline-grabbing cards still look great, we’re also seeing more overlooked cards rise to the surface and reveal their true quality. Ark of Hunger might be the best example here, offering a potent new MTG combo enabler for Boros players everywhere. While it hasn’t had a ton of love so far, this card is poised to make serious waves in Commander.
Ark Of Hunger MTG
From the start, Ark of Hunger is an intriguing proposition. For four mana it essentially ‘draws’ you one card per turn, since you can play whatever it mills. This is similar to Red’s usual Impulse draw, but better, as you still get the card in your ‘yard if you can’t cast it.
While drawing one card a turn is underwhelming, especially compared to heavy hitters like The One Ring, Ark’s draw does have its advantages. Since it mills, it can set you up nicely for reanimation synergies with cards like Goblin Welder or Terra, Herald of Hope. The fact that you get to play the card from your graveyard also lets you get extra value out of Commanders like the new Qunitorius, History Chaser.
You even get a nice point of incidental life drain whenever you play your milled card, powering up lifegain Commanders like Ragost, Deft Gastronaut, and Bre of Clan Stoutarm. This triggers whenever anything leaves your graveyard, not just via Ark itself, making the card an attractive draw engine for Aggro decks like Arabella, Abandoned Doll to boot.
You can lean harder into this synergy by running cards that leverage your graveyard as a resource. Flexible graveyard hate like Augusta, Order Returned and Agatha’s Soul Cauldron works well here, turning your spent cards into profit and extra damage. Throw in artifact untappers like Manifold Key and Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, and you can double down on the draw and damage each turn.
Opening The Ark
While it’s great as a value piece, Ark of Hunger gets really interesting as a win condition for a bunch of existing infinite combos. The easiest of these involves Enduring Renewal and an X-cost creature like Endless One. Simply cast the creature for 0 mana, and it’ll die immediately, causing Renewal to return it to your hand. This will deal one damage to each opponent, and you can repeat it infinitely to wipe them all out.
Getting a little more complex, Ark can also serve as a win condition for the classic Krark-Clan Ironworks loops. With one of Junk Diver or Myr Retriever in your ‘yard and one in play, you can sacrifice them to Ironworks and re-cast them to essentially switch them around. Throw in a mana generator like Crime Novelist, and you can do this infinitely for infinite mana and damage.
If you’re willing to branch out into Mardu colors, Ark of Hunger gets even more lethal. With Phyrexian Altar, Gravecrawler, and another Zombie, for instance, you can create an easy death loop. Even better, if you can get ahead of the table on life, you can draw a ton with Necropotence and burn your opponents for each discard in the end step, since each exile triggers resolve independently.
Thanks to its combination of fair uses and deadly combos, Ark of Hunger is well-positioned to make its mark in Commander on release. With pre-sale prices barely over the $1 mark, it should be a great budget pickup after the usual post-release drop, too.
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