Recent designs for five-color MTG Commanders have been unreasonably cookie-cutter. With many recent legends just acting as a home for a new mechanic, there’s little in the way of flexibility for deckbuilding. That said, with a little imagination, even the most streamlined card designs can find new angles. Terra, Magical Adept, for example, just had an incredible Duel Commander result, while ignoring its Saga synergies completely.
Terra Reimagined
This build of Terra, Magical Adept is all-in on cheating in massive creatures like Etali, Primal Conqueror or Vaultborn Tyrant ahead of time. To accomplish this, Terra uses a few key enchantments, like Sneak Attack and Necromancy, to power out massive creatures as consistently as possible.
To help make this happen, Terra, Magical Adept’s entry effect is surprisingly key. By milling five cards, Terra both digs for the deck’s key enchantments and gets massive creatures into your graveyard to reanimate. Between dozens of discard outlets like Psychic Frog and graveyard tutors like Buried Alive, it’s clear that getting massive creatures into the graveyard is integral for Terra’s plan.
With so many different ways to get creatures into the graveyard, all that Terra needs to succeed is ways to find her key pieces. Multiple tutor effects, like Enlightened Tutor, Worldly Tutor, and Loyal Retainers, help here, but this Terra variant goes further. To flesh things out, multiple inoptimal cheating effects, like Hunting Grounds and Makeshift Mannequin, are included to give Terra more consistency.
While this encompasses most of Terra’s game plan, a few cards help mesh things together. Multiple Evoke Elementals, like Grief and Deceit, for example, can help clear your opponent’s interaction while doubling as emergency reanimation targets. The deck also employs as many fast mana options as possible, like Cabal Ritual and Simian Spirit Guide, to occasionally hard-cast the deck’s massive threats.
Well-Positioned, but Beatable
By going all-in on cheating in big creatures, this Terra, Magical Adept list is one of the most consistent combo options in Duel Commander. This inherently gives the deck a significant advantage over all the format’s aggressive and midrange strategies, including the ever-present Spider-Man 2099.
What Terra can’t deal with, however, is control decks. Combine graveyard hate like Rest in Peace with Countermagic, and Terra has no recourse to win the game. Fortunately, control decks aren’t very popular in Duel Commander, allowing for Terra to see a lot of success despite this weakness.
Even with this in mind, however, this build of Terra, Magical Adept is unlikely to become a consistent powerhouse in Duel Commander. With little to no interaction available, potent hate pieces like Containment Priest and Grafdigger’s Cage threaten to derail Terra’s entire game plan. For this reason, Terra feels more like a metagame read than a top-tier deck. Bring it to the right room, and no one will be able to stop you.
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, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!