If we had a nickel for every time Wizards recently made a new Commander that facilitated a mostly land deck in MTG Star Trek, we’d have two nickels. This isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.
Alongside the new Q, Stacking the Deck, this set also introduced Pavel Chekov, First Posting, which enables some funky combos. With some careful deck construction, using 97 lands, you can even create a wild near-infinite combo.
Pavel Chekov, First Posting 97 Land Combo
Essentially, Pavel Chekov, First Posting is just
Abundance
Abundance
If you would draw a card, you may instead choose land or nonland and reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a card of the chosen kind. Put that card into your hand and put all other cards revealed this way on the bottom of your library in any order.
on a stick. First printed in Urza’s Saga, this enchantment lets you sculpt your draws by picking either a land or a nonland card.
On its own, this ability is, unsurprisingly, incredibly useful, and it’s very easy to exploit, too. While you can definitely play Pavel Chekov fairly, however, the real fun is in abusing this card’s combo potential.
Since you can guarantee you’ll draw a nonland card, it’s easy to use Chekov as a tutor with some careful deck construction. If
Cultivator Colossus
Cultivator Colossus
Trample
Cultivator Colossus's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control.
When this creature enters, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. If you do, draw a card and repeat this process.
is the only nonland card in your deck, for instance, you’re guaranteed to find it once Chekov lands.
As soon as you play Cultivator Colossus, you can string together drawing lands with Chekov and putting them into play with Cultivator. Since you can repeat this process, you can draw and play every single land in your deck this way.
While this will leave you with an absolutely massive Cultivator Colossus to end games with, this combo is incredibly flimsy. On its own, Cultivator has no protection, and if it’s removed, you’re completely dead in the water.
To make matters worse, Cultivator Colossus needs three uninterrupted turns to kill everyone, which is just not going to happen. Thankfully, by adding one extra nonland card into the 99, you can get around this rather fundamental flaw.
With
Ruin Crab
Ruin Crab
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, each opponent mills three cards. (To mill a card, a player puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.)
in play first, for instance, you can Mill out each opponent before you run out of lands. Alternatively, you could just be boring and use
Thassa’s Oracle
Thassa’s Oracle
When this creature enters, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is your devotion to blue. Put up to one of them on top of your library and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. If X is greater than or equal to the number of cards in your library, you win the game. (Each {U} in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to blue.)
, drawing and playing it once your deck is empty enough.
Playing Pavel Chekov, First Posting Fairly
Realistically, while these combos can work, they’re still not amazing. Without any other cards in the 99, you’re waiting until turn six at the earliest to drop Cultivator Colossus if you find an Ancient Tomb or a Temple of the False God. Technically, this is fair in Bracket 3, but since you’re defenseless until then, it’s not exactly good.
Given how dubious this combo is, it’s much better to build Pavel Chekov, First Posting as a regular Commander deck. When doing this, you’ve still got tons of options, as Chekov’s ability works wonders in a wide variety of decks.
Most of the time, however, Pavel Chekov, First Posting will be built as a Landfall deck that never misses its land drops. Unsurprisingly, this is pretty strong in the archetype, especially when alongside
Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you may draw a card.
and
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you gain 1 life and draw a card.
.
With these cards, you can easily draw tons of lands, then play them with
Exploration
Exploration
You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
or Azusa, Lost but Seeking. Naturally, this staple synergy supercharges all your other Landfall cards, like
Scute Swarm
Scute Swarm
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, create a 1/1 green Insect creature token. If you control six or more lands, create a token that's a copy of this creature instead.
and
Lotus Cobra
Lotus Cobra
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, add one mana of any color.
.
For better or worse, a Landfall-focused Chekov deck is pretty cookie-cutter, all things considered. This doesn’t mean the card is bad, however, as the consistency it provides is a real godsend. Never being mana screwed or flooded is an insane boon, after all, but that doesn’t mean Chekov is perfect.
A Fun But Flawed Commander
As much as consistency is exceptionally useful, however, Pavel Chekov, First Posting arguably isn’t the most interesting Commander. Unlike other options like
Hearthhull, the Worldseed
Hearthhull, the Worldseed
Station (Tap another creature you control: Put charge counters equal to its power on this Spacecraft. Station only as a sorcery. It's an artifact creature at 8+.)
2+ | {1}, {T}, Sacrifice a land: Draw two cards. You may play an additional land this turn.
8+ | Flying, vigilance, haste
Whenever you sacrifice a land, each opponent loses 2 life.
or
The Necrobloom
The Necrobloom
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, create a 0/1 green Plant creature token. If you control seven or more lands with different names, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token instead.
Land cards in your graveyard have dredge 2. (You may return a land card from your graveyard to your hand and mill two cards instead of drawing a card.)
, Chekov doesn’t do much that’s unique.
Due to this, Chekov may actually be better suited to being in the 99, but this isn’t great news. While Chekov is far from bad, Abundance isn’t a Commander super staple, so his long-term appeal may be lacking.
Ultimately, since Pavel Chekov, First Posting hasn’t been released yet, we can only wait and see what happens. Hopefully, if nothing else, this new Abundance on a stick will end up being surprisingly cheap, making it a great budget option.
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 MTG Rocks Podcast!
MTGRocks’ editorial and corrections policy lets us create content you can trust.