As part of last weekend’s first look at Edge of Eternities, we got to see the two new face Commanders from the set’s Commander decks. The first of these, Kilo, Apogee Mind, is looking like a powerful combo enabler. The other, Szarel, Genesis Shepherd, is a stellar support piece for an underdog MTG typal deck. While it doesn’t specifically mention it in its text, Szarel is an absolute shoo-in for Insect lists in Commander.
Insect is a type that Wizards has been slowly feeding over the years, and it now has a good density of cards to its name. With the extra boost Szarel offers, it could well become a mainstay of Commander pods in the near future. At worst, Szarel is more than powerful enough to find a home in the 99 of many a Jund deck. If your deck runs lands and creatures, there’s a good chance this card will make it better.
Szarel, Genesis Shepherd In MTG Commander
- Mana Value: 2BRG
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Insect Druid
- Stats: 2/5
- Card Text: Flying.
You may play lands from your graveyard.
Whenever you sacrifice another nontoken permanent during your turn, put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to Szarel’s power on up to one other target creature.
Looking at it, Szarel, Genesis Shepherd doesn’t immediately scream ‘powerhouse MTG Insect Commander.’ Its abilities don’t mention the type at all, for one. The only obvious tie is that it’s an Insect itself. When you examine the wider landscape of Insect cards in Commander, however, the link becomes a lot more obvious.
If you check out the best Insect Commanders right now, you’ll notice a lot of thematic overlap with Szarel. Grist mills you cards and sacrifices creatures, fueling both halves of Szarel’s ability. Zask also cares about lands in the graveyard, and can buff Szarel’s power to increase the number of counters it gives out. Xira rewards you for sacrificing egged-up creatures, creating a nice double-synergy with Szarel.
These are just the most popular legendary Insects, too. The type as a whole is full of self-mill and sacrifice synergy, which plays perfectly with Szarel’s toolkit. Playing lands from your graveyard lets you go nuts with the likes of Molt Tender, safe in the knowledge that you’re essentially ‘drawing’ cards each time. Placing counters when you sacrifice nontoken permanents is fantastic with Mazirek and Fumulus, as well as Aatchik from Aetherdrift.
Basically, Szarel works very nicely with most of the established Insect support in Commander. With a few exceptions, like Kathril and The Locust God, these cards are all in Golgari colors, too. This means you can run them all in a Szarel deck and enjoy the full Insect experience. On top of that, you’ll get to play around with the extra tools that red has to offer.
A Touch Of Red
This is really the biggest upside Szarel, Genesis Shepherd offers over other MTG Insect Commanders. If you’re sticking purely to Golgari, Zask probably offers more pound-for-pound synergy with the type. Moving to Szarel gives you access to red, however, which is a pretty big deal.
For starters, there are a number of solid Insects in red. Tunneling Geopede, Skyclave Geopede, and Plated Geopede are all Insects with Landfall abilities, which play perfectly with Szarel’s first ability. You can also run Lithophage as an easy land sacrifice outlet, and Fire Ants as a repeatable, on-type board wipe. Some of the red Insects are even specifically strong in Commander, like Agitator Ant and Krenko’s Buzzcrusher. Szarel lets you broaden your horizons and play all of these cards.
On top of that, red is a color with a lot of powerful Aristocrats-style cards. Insect decks tend to make a lot of tokens, so cards like these are great for slowly grinding out advantage. Goblin Bombardment is probably the best sacrifice outlet in the game, and it’s exclusive to red. You can also run the likes of Impact Tremors or General Kreat, the Boltbringer, as additional ways to burn down the table as you go wide with tokens.
Finally, if you’re feeling like moving up to the higher brackets, red also gives you access to the inimitable Underworld Breach. This card is a Game Changer for a reason and serves as one of the most consistent win conditions in cEDH. It’s also great in pretty much any deck that plans to load up its graveyard, like Insect decks love to do. If you’re self-milling regularly, this will give you the second wind you need to end the game. It also makes it easy to slot insta-win combos into your deck, too.
Fine In The 99
Szarel, Genesis Shepherd is clearly a fantastic MTG legend to run at the helm of your Insect deck. Its power goes far beyond just that, mind you. It’s also just a great Jund creature in its own right, capable of earning a slot in the 99 for some of the format’s most prestigious Commanders.
The most obvious example here is undoubtedly Korvold. This is the best Jund Commander in the format, for both casual and competitive tables. The shenanigans you can pull off with that open-ended card draw ability are legendary. Szarel is a great fit in a Korvold deck for a couple of reasons. First of all, regularly sacrificing your permanents will get you extra Szarel counters to play with. Second, Szarel lets you replay Fetchlands from your graveyard, for easy Korvold triggers and mana ramp. Five mana is a lot, but I could easily see Szarel becoming a Korvold staple over time.
Other popular decks love what Szarel brings to the table. Lord Windgrace, perhaps the premier ‘lands matter’ Commander, loves the redundancy Szarel’s land recursion ability adds. The two play very nicely together, creating a draw engine and an ever-scaling board presence. Ziatora, the Incinerator is another great fit, providing a reliable sacrifice outlet to power Szarel’s ability, and eventually the ability to Fling your scaled-up creature at an opponent for the win.
While it certainly won’t fit in every Jund deck, Szarel has a lot of good options to choose from. Whether you’re using it there or at the head of a list, Insect or otherwise, it’s hard to imagine this one being anything other than a banger.
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