The third Tarkir: Dragonstorm preconstructed Commander deck has now been revealed. Sultai Arisen cares about interacting with the graveyard, and a very powerful Commander is offered to accomplish this. As usual, there are ten brand new cards, as well as a fair few reprints, included within this Commander deck.
While the cards in this deck are a bit difficult to trigger, they all have the potential to take over the game in the right shell. Ideally, Sultai Arisen aims to be just that shell, but upgrades are always possible.
Teval, the Balanced Scale
Teval, the Balanced Scale may have been revealed during Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s Debut video, but it remains one of the more exciting Commanders in the set. Not only will this Dragon ramp you ahead, but you also get a Zombie every time a card leaves your graveyard. This synergizes disgustingly well with Insidious Roots, another card that cares about cards leaving the graveyard. With just a few effects, it’s easy to create an army, or an infinite combo, with Teval.
Black Zombie Druid tokens, in particular, are rather unique. Some cards, like Gilt-Leaf Archdruid, have already begun spiking in price as an upgrade to decks with Teval at the helm. Interestingly, Teval also has a main set equivalent that enables Delve for all your spells. This seems like a great upgrade for Sultai Arisen.
Kotis, Sibsig Champion
Kotis, Sibsig Champion synergizes quite well with Teval but isn’t the best Commander in itself. The card can technically grow into a win condition but doesn’t present a ton of value outside of that. Casting one creature from your graveyard with, essentially, an Escape cost of three is good, but not great. Teval, on the other hand, presents a value engine to build an entire deck around.
That doesn’t stop Kotis from synergizing extremely well with Teval. Notably, casting and exiling as a cost are two different instances of cards leaving the graveyard, which means Teval gets triggered twice. A similar interaction is how Insidious Roots decks can go infinite in Standard.
Kotis seems like a great support card in the 99 of many decks that care about creatures in the graveyard.
Floral Evoker
Floral Evoker is a bizarre ramp creature that plays double-duty in decks that want to get creatures to the graveyard. If reanimation is your plan, Floral Evoker is a great way to get your threats into the bin. As a nice little addition, Floral Evoker will turn into a threat if left alone for too long.
In order for Floral Evoker to be worthwhile, you want to be doing everything that this card offers, or part of it really badly. If you really need cards that bring lands back from the graveyard, and an effect like Crucible of Worlds is not good enough, this is an ok way to do that. That said, if you’re not particularly keen on discarding creatures, then Floral Evoker probably isn’t worth it.
Steward of the Harvest
Steward of the Harvest is a really neat design that might be a bit difficult to implement effectively. At worst, Steward makes all of your creatures mana dorks, but with some careful exiling, this card can accomplish some bizarre things.
Notably, only activated abilities of lands exiled with Steward of the Harvest get copied. This means that triggered effects of cards like Field of the Dead, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, or Dark Depths won’t work. If you’re playing with more expensive lands, however, you can do some pretty stupid stuff with this card.
Exiling Gaea’s Cradle will allow all of your creatures to tap for green equal to the number of creatures you control. In a similar vein, Serra’s Sanctum will do that for enchantments. Alternatively, Bazaar of Baghdad can quickly become a massive graveyard engine.
Otherwise, lands that add multiple mana with entry downsides can become fantastic ramp options. Lotus Field, for example, can allow all of your creatures to tap for three mana, and you won’t need to sacrifice two lands. One interesting thing to do in 1v1 formats is to use this to turn all of your creatures into Wastelands.
I’m not sure how good this card is, but from a design perspective, Steward of the Harvest gets an A+.
Diviner of Mist
Diviner of Mist would be a bit more interesting if it triggered on entry instead of an attack. The card doesn’t even have Flash, which gives opponents a lot of time to get rid of it. If you can give this card Haste, it can be worth your time, but I would ultimately pass on Diviner of Mist. If gives opponents too much time to make it do nothing.
Welcome of the Dead
Welcome the Dead has a very high ceiling, which makes it worth running in any deck that’s milling itself. Flashback is the icing on the cake, ensuring that this card can be utilized even if it’s milled over. Even making just two Zombie Druids with this card feels ok since you’re refilling your hand. Because of the way this card is worded, Welcome the Dead does count the card it discards. If you have any synergy with this card whatsoever, it’s probably a good inclusion in your casual Commander deck.
Will of the Sultai
Next in the new Will cycle appearing in the Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander decks is Will of the Sultai. This one is great in any decks that use a lot of Fetch Lands, or self-mill. Having your Commander in play allows you to both ramp quickly, and instantly make a massive threat.
For many decks, the first ability of Will of the Sultai will be worth it. The second one seems purely complementary since there are likely other cards that can do better things for five mana.
Colossal Grave-Reaver
This eight-mana behemoth is one of the few gigantic spells that are worth their casting cost. As long as you keep your graveyard supplied with mill effects, Colossal Grave-Reaver will be putting those creatures into play instead. This is an incredible payoff in self-mill and Reanimator decks alike. Like many of the cards in this deck, Colossal Grave-Reaver won’t have many homes, but it will be incredible where it does see play.
Teval’s Judgment
Teval’s Judgment is an absolutely incredible value engine. As long as you can trigger this consistently turn after turn, Teval’s Judgment will run away with the game on its own. Even cards like Ghost Vacuum will trigger Teval’s Judgment. This, ironically, gives you value against what will be your opponent’s best hate pieces most of the time.
This is yet another card that won’t see play in a ton of decks but will be incredibly powerful where it does.
Afterlife From the Loam
Afterlife from the Loam is worthwhile in any Commander deck that can reliably pay its full Delve cost. Breach the Multiverse is a popular Commander card for a reason, and this card has a very similar effect – potentially for much cheaper. This card’s explosive effect is still a good deal even if you can’t fully pay the Delve cost.
Of all the new cards in this Commander deck, Afterlife from the Loam is probably the most universal. Only a few specific archetypes may want to include the other cards, but Afterlife from the Loam could go in a ton of different things.
Best Reprints
There are a lot of strong reprints in Sultai Arisen. Life from the Loam, a card that Afterlife from the Loam references, is about $9 at the time of writing. The card routinely appears in Modern as a powerful engine that can grind into the late game. Its most common appearance is in Legacy lands decks, where it is the centerpiece of the whole strategy.
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen might be the best reprint in this deck. Typically selling for $12, any Commander deck that wants to ramp in black will consider playing this card. The card gets big incredibly fast, and even if it gets removed, the life loss that Ob Nixilis causes gives you immediate value.
Hedron Crab is $9, which is a fact that shocks some people. The crab is most notorious for its role in Modern Mill, one of the most hated archetypes in existence, but it’s also a very good self-mill engine. That is what it’s here to do in Sultai Arisen.
Dauthi Voidwalker is a card that commonly appears in many of my personal Commander decks. The card doubles as graveyard hate and a chance to do something silly with its activated ability. For two mana, there’s a ton of value in this $8.50 creature.
Conduit of Worlds is a $5 Crucible of Worlds that’s one mana extra but has additional modes.
Huge Potential for Huge Cost
Sultai Arisen’s new cards are all very powerful, but have very specific conditions to use. As a result, many of these cards will find homes somewhere in Commander, but probably won’t see a ton of play. The deck should, however, provide a very unique and powerful experience for this reason.
Sultai Arisen may be the most interesting deck among the Tarkir: Dragonstorm decks to play out of the box. These payoffs are unusual and probably have not been supported properly up to this point. The best-designed cards are ones that create new experiences, and Sultai Arisen appears to have succeeded.