Zacama, Primal Calamity - Naya "Hide Tide" Storm
Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2019 2:29 am
When it comes to what have been some of the best mechanics in Magic the Gathering, arguably anything that contains a potential "free" cost ranks among the top. Alternative casting costs like; exiling another card instead, Phyrexian mana, storm, cascade, the Urza's block untap land cards.
Here we have that mechanic in a commander, and oh boy it's time to abuse it, hang on for the ride.
Naya "High Tide" Storm Combo
This is a deck that aims to produce massive amounts of mana and draw tons of cards, with also the ability to use Zacama, Primal Calamity powerful removal abilities to clear most if not all of the opponents boards. It's a storm deck that looks to draw and play most of your deck in a single combo turn. Because of Zacama incredible ability to untap lands, you will string together huge incremental gains in mana by recasting Zacama over and over again.
Mana Doublers
One key aspect to the deck are cards that at least double the mana produced from lands. There are 15 of them in the deck.
With Zacama untapping lands ability, you can cast them and actually gain exponential mana. The idea is to follow it up with preferably more mana doublers and big draw cards so that you can assemble a win within a single big turn.
It's important to understand how to get the maximum amount of mana from your mana doublers. With so many of them in the deck, the possibility of stacking multiple of them means that casting Zacama multiple times will generate exponential mana. You will be casting lots of the mana ramp cards in the combo turn as you get to untap them with casting Zacama again. You'll often have an extra 10+ lands in play by the end of when you fully combo.
Draw, Draw, Draw
There are a lot of draw cards in the deck that are centered around a creatures power and with Zacama at 9 power you have access to one of the bigger creatures in the game.
With at least one mana doubler you can get a storm strategy going. With drawing cards you can follow up with other mana doublers, then cast out Zacama again to have triple or more mana from lands. You have massive potential in this deck to chain off with drawing your deck and having unlimited mana.
Ramp, Ramp, Ramp
There is a lot of land ramp in the deck to try and reach thresholds as quickly to make Zacama untap land trigger as potent as possible. It's actually pretty hard to ever flood out or have too much mana in this deck as you can always sink your mana into Zacama abilities. Clearing your opponents boards is a very fine game plan on its own.
Boom, Boom, Boom
Even if you do not finish the game in a single turn, normally you'll do enough that you have mana to destroy all/most of your opponents non-land permanents. At that stage it's hard for them to play around Zacama because once you've got the mana base setup, even removing it for a turn is really only delaying the inevitable.
This deck also plays a major control role, if the beast is unleashed.
Consistency with Redundancy
The reason this deck is so good is that it has a lot of the same type of cards, so you are never waiting too long to draw and assemble a very broken engine. 15 mana doublers, 15 big draw cards and a bunch of mana ramp cards. These cards are always going to be part of your game. It's also very hard for your opponents to stop you altogether. Eventually with so many cards aligning you to a strategy, you'll find yourself with the opportunity to combo off in a single turn very consistently.
What makes Zacama so special is that there really is no other card quite like this Elder Dinosaur.
There are some commanders who have different activated abilities that can do similar control roles and there are other commanders that can untap lands (as activated abilities), but no others can do both.
For me personally Zacama is very near and dear to my heart as I've ventured into many realms with commanders and decks but I had never managed to find anything that made me proud to be Naya .
Typically Naya is known for combat and big creatures which doesn't always make for the most competitive decks.
But when the design for Zacama was spoiled, I couldn't believe that they put a typically "blue" ability in untapping lands (on enters the battlefield) which we have previously with Cloud of Faeries, Peregrine Drake, Palinchron into a non-blue legendary creature!
The flavor on this card is amazing, chaining together huge turns, blowing up all your opponents' permanents and even just the way this three-headed Dinosaur looks bad-ass means that if you're prepared to finally play a storm deck outside of blue, the extra reward of doing it in Naya feels second to none in terms of satisfaction.
Here we have that mechanic in a commander, and oh boy it's time to abuse it, hang on for the ride.
Naya "High Tide" Storm Combo
This is a deck that aims to produce massive amounts of mana and draw tons of cards, with also the ability to use Zacama, Primal Calamity powerful removal abilities to clear most if not all of the opponents boards. It's a storm deck that looks to draw and play most of your deck in a single combo turn. Because of Zacama incredible ability to untap lands, you will string together huge incremental gains in mana by recasting Zacama over and over again.
Mana Doublers
One key aspect to the deck are cards that at least double the mana produced from lands. There are 15 of them in the deck.
With Zacama untapping lands ability, you can cast them and actually gain exponential mana. The idea is to follow it up with preferably more mana doublers and big draw cards so that you can assemble a win within a single big turn.
It's important to understand how to get the maximum amount of mana from your mana doublers. With so many of them in the deck, the possibility of stacking multiple of them means that casting Zacama multiple times will generate exponential mana. You will be casting lots of the mana ramp cards in the combo turn as you get to untap them with casting Zacama again. You'll often have an extra 10+ lands in play by the end of when you fully combo.
Draw, Draw, Draw
There are a lot of draw cards in the deck that are centered around a creatures power and with Zacama at 9 power you have access to one of the bigger creatures in the game.
With at least one mana doubler you can get a storm strategy going. With drawing cards you can follow up with other mana doublers, then cast out Zacama again to have triple or more mana from lands. You have massive potential in this deck to chain off with drawing your deck and having unlimited mana.
Ramp, Ramp, Ramp
There is a lot of land ramp in the deck to try and reach thresholds as quickly to make Zacama untap land trigger as potent as possible. It's actually pretty hard to ever flood out or have too much mana in this deck as you can always sink your mana into Zacama abilities. Clearing your opponents boards is a very fine game plan on its own.
Boom, Boom, Boom
Even if you do not finish the game in a single turn, normally you'll do enough that you have mana to destroy all/most of your opponents non-land permanents. At that stage it's hard for them to play around Zacama because once you've got the mana base setup, even removing it for a turn is really only delaying the inevitable.
This deck also plays a major control role, if the beast is unleashed.
Consistency with Redundancy
The reason this deck is so good is that it has a lot of the same type of cards, so you are never waiting too long to draw and assemble a very broken engine. 15 mana doublers, 15 big draw cards and a bunch of mana ramp cards. These cards are always going to be part of your game. It's also very hard for your opponents to stop you altogether. Eventually with so many cards aligning you to a strategy, you'll find yourself with the opportunity to combo off in a single turn very consistently.
What makes Zacama so special is that there really is no other card quite like this Elder Dinosaur.
There are some commanders who have different activated abilities that can do similar control roles and there are other commanders that can untap lands (as activated abilities), but no others can do both.
Show
Hide
- Breya, Etherium Shaper - Breya has three activated abilities, with two that are quite similar to Zacama targeting creatures for removal and also gaining life. Breya puts you into white and red (also blue and black), but not green.
She doesn't have the ability to remove artifacts or enchantments and requires additional resources to use the abilities in needing artifacts to sacrifice on-board. - Shattergang Brothers - In Jund, so no white but black instead but has a similar activation cost to remove artifacts and enchantments. However requires additional resources with needing the same card types to sacrifice.
Shattergang can also remove creatures on a different axis, by making opponents sacrifice their creatures which can line up well if they are a creature light deck or really badly against tokens, etc. No life gain however. - Gishath, Sun's Avatar - To the untrained eye some assume that these creatures are comparable but they don't actually share anything important in common, other than it can put you into the Naya color-pie. Sure they are both expensive beat-down creatures if you wanted to compare them that way but the ways you use these commanders is very different. Gishath ability leads itself into Dinosaur tribal nicely, where as Zacama doesn't care about it's own species, it would just prefer to eat them rather than team up with them.
- Teferi, Temporal Archmage - As far as actual deck approach, this is about as close as you'll get to this Zacama build. Teferi has the ability to untap lands/mana sources when you put him into play. Using High Tide, Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, with Islands leads into a very similar deck approach. Doesn't have the ability to remove permanents, gain life, and completely outside of the Naya colors however.
- Estrid, the Masked - Similar to Teferi in that you can untap lands the turn you cast it, if you have the support cards in enchant lands. Put's you into white and green as well if the colors were important to you.
- Patron of the Orochi - With haste can untap all your Forests once cast, leading into a similar approach to gaining lots of mana potentially. Only green however and without haste need to wait a full turn to get benefits. But actually Patron is one of my first commanders decks and honestly still one of my favorites. I build decks to do broken things and Patron is similar to Zacama in that you can do incredible things once you get to cast them at high mana costs (for commanders).
- Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - Another mono-green potential "storm" strategy. A very different approach however in that you will not be untapping lands but creatures instead. So your cards are not centered around mana doublers but big creatures for "power" and untapping creatures instead.
- Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder , Kess, Dissident Mage , Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge , Mizzix of the Izmagnus - With Zacama leading into a storm strategy, it's important to look at some other commanders that you might be looking to have "free" cost of spells. It's obviously a completely different approach but being able to chain big turns together has the same results.
The most notable thing about storm commanders in general is that they are mostly Grixis or Izzet , green is not part of their colors (Yidris is the exception). They all put you into blue however, the common color domination for typical storm.
For me personally Zacama is very near and dear to my heart as I've ventured into many realms with commanders and decks but I had never managed to find anything that made me proud to be Naya .
Typically Naya is known for combat and big creatures which doesn't always make for the most competitive decks.
But when the design for Zacama was spoiled, I couldn't believe that they put a typically "blue" ability in untapping lands (on enters the battlefield) which we have previously with Cloud of Faeries, Peregrine Drake, Palinchron into a non-blue legendary creature!
The flavor on this card is amazing, chaining together huge turns, blowing up all your opponents' permanents and even just the way this three-headed Dinosaur looks bad-ass means that if you're prepared to finally play a storm deck outside of blue, the extra reward of doing it in Naya feels second to none in terms of satisfaction.
You might like Zacama if
- You like playing a storm strategy in very unlikely color combination.
- You like incredible turns where you get massive amounts of mana and card draw.
- You like being able to destroy opponents' permanents over and over.
You might dislike Zacama if
- You don't like being all in on your commanders abilities.
- You don't like playing a solitaire turn to finish the game.
- You don't like relatively linear approach to winning.
- You have Deinophobia..oh yes it's real.
Zacama, Primal Calamity, Naya High Tide Storm
Approximate Total Cost:
Storm archetype with in-built control
The deck is mainly a storm deck, which means that you're chaining together drawing lots of cards and generating lots of mana to be able to draw your deck and play out as many cards as you want, usually in a single big turn.
However unlike other storm archetypes usually behind Grixis colors, there is a huge element of control. Zacama, Primal Calamity abilities are the real deal. Often decks get locked out by certain cards on the battlefield. Zacama has this incredible ability to remove practically anything that would cause problems.
The general idea is to get enough lands into play to give yourself an opportunity to cast a mana doubler and then be able to cast Zacama, so that you have large amounts of mana to spend on preferably further mana cards and big draw spells.
You can easily combo off with about 5 lands in play. The more lands you have the better obviously, but most of my wins come from starting around the 5-7 land range. But by the end of your combo turn however don't be surprised if you have like 10+ lands in play due to the many land ramp spells.
Mana doublers are everything!
Really the key aspect to playing this deck well is to understand how to be patient with the mana doublers that also give your opponents mana in Heartbeat of Spring, Mana Flare, Overabundance, Vernal Bloom, Keeper of Progenitus, Zhur-Taa Ancient, Dictate of Karametra.
You should really plan to never play one of these symmetrical cards and just pass the turn. Giving your opponents the chance at first shot at the extra mana is usually a terrible idea. This will probably lead to busted plays by your opponents and perhaps locking you out because they are able to establish their own accelerated game plan before you.
If you have one of the mana doublers that only gives you mana then I'm much more inclined to play it out and hope that it remains in play until the next turn. Dictate of Karametra is the best early play mana doubler in your deck, as the ability to cast it before your turn allows you to have fully untapped lands to potentially combo off.
Often you will just play out your own non-symmetrical mana doublers as soon as you can cast them: Mirari's Wake, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Mana Reflection, Zendikar Resurgent, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Caged Sun, Nyxbloom Ancient.
Expect your first one to be removed before you get to untap with it. But we have 15 mana doublers, redundancy is the name of the game and you should have a follow up or at least draw into one within a few turns. Obviously it's nice if you have the mana to be able to play a mana doubler and then cast Zacama, but realistically for your early game you will probably only have enough to play one and pass the turn, hoping to untap with it in play.
With Zacama costing 9 mana, if you are playing out a mana doubler which effects all players then often the key is to have enough mana to cast out Zacama in that same turn, i.e. 5 untapped lands. A nice sequence is to play a second mana doubler before casting Zacama and then you only need 3 untapped lands to cast it.
If you're familiar with "High Tide" builds in blue, then this deck requires a similar approach to sequencing, where you are tapping the least amount of lands, while stacking mana doubler effects.
The deck is mainly green , mostly to make Vernal Bloom, Nissa, Who Shakes the World and Caged Sun a lot more efficient. For these same reasons Forests are super important to lands being played out so a lot of the lands are Forest type.
Zacama's activated abilities
I've mainly focused the game plan around the untap lands ability but Zacama activated abilities are really another important aspect of the deck. It's unusual to get a commander who can almost deal with any permanent on the board. You can afford to run less disruption by default as you have it on-tap from the commander zone.
There is an Oblation to deal with most permanents. There are cards that can be problematic like Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Pithing Needle, Cursed Totem, etc shutting down Zacama abilities.
If you fail to completely combo for the win, you should seriously think about using Zacama, Primal Calamity ability to remove the mana doublers which help opponents as well if you have played them out. It seems odd to have played them out only to remove them, but if opponents have full hands and seemed to have been waiting on mana for playing their hands then it can be very wise to remove them and try and use the control game instead. Really tough call, but you just have to go with your instincts during those fail to fire game.
Starting hands and Mulligans
Your early game is to ramp land as much as possible. So when mulling your starting hands, you really want a few of these, rather than keeping your late game cards.
Only 36 land in a deck that must hit land drops?
Well there are a number of cards which smooth out getting your land drops, but it must be noted that you will have games where you miss land drops. This seems insane right? However mixed with a lot of early land ramp you will find that on average you will be getting to the right threshold of lands consistently.
You can keep land light hands, with the intention of getting a bit get lucky with your draws. I've posted an example of a one land hand in which I was still able to win on Turn 4 just to show you to really look at starting hands in terms of potential.
One land starting hand, Turn 4 win
Show
Hide
Only a Forest in hand, but have a lot of key components to comboing. Realistically need to draw some lands, I rolled the dice so let's go.
Turn 1, fail to draw a land.
Turn 2, draw a Plateau. Suspend a Search for Tomorrow and cast a Farseek. We are well on course.
Turn 3, draw a Mountain, now we have everything to try and go off next turn.
Turn 4, draw another land and we have everything we need. Play out the mana doublers, play Zacama, and draw 9 cards.
Turn 1, fail to draw a land.
Turn 2, draw a Plateau. Suspend a Search for Tomorrow and cast a Farseek. We are well on course.
Turn 3, draw a Mountain, now we have everything to try and go off next turn.
Turn 4, draw another land and we have everything we need. Play out the mana doublers, play Zacama, and draw 9 cards.
Early game
There are a lot of land ramp spells and you're hoping to just keep consecutively casting these cards until you feel ready to try a big turn. You'll notice that I've really focused in on 2 mana or less land ramp spells so that you have the potential for a lot more early tempo to your plays.
Also you're happy if you just spend a turn using cards like Krosan Verge and Blighted Woodland to ramp during the early stages rather than committing anything to the board.
Mid game
It must be noted that the 9 mana cost of Zacama alludes to it being a late game "haymaker", but in fact often I win through turns 4-7 with this deck.
As I pointed out you will often be able to go off with only 5-7 lands in play, so don't think that you need to ramp into a magical threshold of 9 lands to be able to do your thing.
Navigating around disruption is one of the hardest aspects of this deck. The way to look at this deck is that it's a 3 card combo deck. You need 1x mana doubler and 1x big draw, in conjunction with your commander to chain sequences that will often lead to winning the game that same turn.
You can afford to be a little less respectful of disruption because you have a lot of the same type of cards, so you have the ability to potentially follow up in following turns with another attempt at a combo sequence even if stopped initially. Other combo decks that rely on a very particular combination of cards cannot afford to really be disrupted because often those are they only cards in the deck that can do that ability.
You do have Silence, Grand Abolisher, Dosan the Falling Leaf to try and stop your opponents from disrupting your plans.
You will get some games where you can play Zacama and either have the option of chaining at least some sequence of value or using Zacama abilities to control some of the opponents' boards. Experience with opponents decks will help with this. For example I have decided to wait a turn to attempt to combo by using Zacama abilities instead to remove a couple of the most dangerous cards as they threaten to combo off as well.
Late game
You will get games where you flood out with mana so are able to play Zacama but not able to actually combo off. You can play these stalled out games, where you can remove your opponents permanents over the course of a couple of turns or sometimes all of them immediately if you have a mana doubler and then your opponents simply cannot play out anything, as you can remove them. "Oppressive" is the term opponents have used in this situation.
It's also difficult for opponents to time removal on Zacama when you have so much mana. After opponents' being locked down for a series of turns, I've had them try and force through getting a board presence by all opponents' committing playing out cards as much as possible. But often you can just cast out Zacama again and remove the permanents which threaten to change the game. Once this happens it really is hard for your opponents to gather up enough resources again to make an impact.
I have won games by simple attacking with Zacama over the course of turns, such is the power of Zacama activated abilities and his 9 power. This can be buffed by Mirari's Wake and Caged Sun to give you two attacks for commander lethal to shorten the clock.
Another major advantage of Zacama as your commander is that you really don't have to focus on protecting it outright to win. Unlike other decks where the commanders are central to remaining in play for a length of time, removing Zacama often just means you get to generate more mana. Therefore spot removal can be wasted on it. The exception is when you've calculated mana exactly for being able to cast a sorcery big draw card that relies on Zacama power and it gets removed in response.
I have played many stalled games where I'm top decking into finding a big draw card but have Zacama out and just remove opponents' key cards and they can't play out any of their permanent cards they draw because they'll just get instantly removed. It can be a control deck when you fail to find action cards.
Winning the game
However most of the time you are winning by combo with drawing as much of the deck as you want and having realistically infinite mana.
In the past I have run various different cards that deal damage to players like Rolling Earthquake and Conflagrate to burn players out.
Shivan Gorge was also another way to kill opponents' with infinite untaps combined with Sanctum of Eternity.
Currently the deck is using Finale of Devastation as the finishing blow. If it was cast earlier in the game then Underworld Breach gives you access to it again.
Simply cast out all your creatures, make them large enough to attack for lethal with haste, removing any blockers with Zacama damage ability.
Mana Doublers
Show
Hide
Heartbeat of Spring, Mana Flare - The cheapest of the mana doublers. Do not be tempted to play these out without having the means to combo off yourself in the turn you cast them. It seems really tempting to just cast them and pass the turn hoping to untap to go off, but often this will lead to handing the game over to opponents' as they get to cast all there spells before you.
Overabundance - The damage does add up during your combo turn, but with Zacama ability to gain life you can navigate around it not killing you fairly easily.
Vernal Bloom - There are a number of mana doublers that onloy work with specific land types or color of mana. I've designed the mana base specifically to be great with this card and other similar cards as it can be a key element to winning.
Note that there is Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove that can make all your lands Forest.
Note that there is Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove that can make all your lands Forest.
Keeper of Progenitus - With only a small number of lands in the deck that are not Plains, Forest or Mountain the mana base has been carefully designed to maximize this mana doubler. But as the ability is symmetric for your opponents', again be careful about giving them mana before you are ready to combo. As a green creature can be additional searched with Natural Order and Green Sun's Zenith.
Note that there is Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove that can make all your lands Forest.
Note that there is Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove that can make all your lands Forest.
Nissa, Who Shakes the World - Same as Vernal Bloom but not a symmetrical effect so opponents don't benefit. You can use her 1 ability to untap a land to get extra mana and of course with mana doublers (herself being one) you'll get additional mana on top of that. You can think of her as only costing 3 mana and with another mana doubler only 2 mana, as she gets to untap a land straight away.
Her -8 is unbelievable in this deck as you have so many Forests in the deck. There is very little chance your opponents' can stop you once you get this threshold.
Note that there is Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove that can make all your lands Forest.
Her -8 is unbelievable in this deck as you have so many Forests in the deck. There is very little chance your opponents' can stop you once you get this threshold.
Note that there is Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove that can make all your lands Forest.
Mirari's Wake - Pretty great at only giving you double mana and not your opponents.
Dictate of Karametra - This is one of the best mana doublers, as you can time to setup a mana explosion before your turn. Honestly if you have 5 lands in play and cast it before your turn, you're likely to go off in your turn.
Zhur-Taa Ancient - The 7 power can be relevant for the draw cards equal to power, if Zacama is locked out for a bit. As a green creature can be additional searched with Natural Order and Green Sun's Zenith.
Regal Behemoth is a non-symmetrical mana doubler, which is great for casting and passing the turn if need be. As a green creature can be additional searched with Natural Order and Green Sun's Zenith. If you lose the monarchy, then the trample element can help you get it back when needed. Usually there is at least one opponent you can expose to get it back.
Mana Reflection - You can get infinite colorless mana with Grim Monolith or Basalt Monolith with Mana Reflection.
Caged Sun - With only a handful of lands not providing "green", always choose this color when resolving this card.
Note that there is Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove that can make all your lands Forest.
Note that there is Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove that can make all your lands Forest.
Nyxbloom Ancient - Actually a mana tripler. Literally all you need to combo off for you mana sources. Often a target for Natural Order. Also can be search with Enlightened Tutor, Sterling Groove or Academy Rector as it's also an enchantment.
Zendikar Resurgent is one of the more expensive to cast mana doublers but it does come with the benefit of additional card draw with creatures. If you combine with Sanctum of Eternity then you will be able to draw your deck.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger - Another go to target for Natural Order. Depends on the competitiveness of your playgroup but choosing between usually Nyxbloom Ancient or Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger comes down to if you want to cut your opponents' off mana (Vorinclex) or look to combo quicker (Nyxbloom).
Final Fortune - Because this deck plans to finish the game in a single turn, Final Fortune is perfect for being able to setup mana doublers and then use the extra turn to untap everything and look to combo. You should realistically have a big draw card in hand already. If you have a single red source land available after you cast a mana doubler, then you'll be able to cast it. So in some instances it is better to wait for opponents to relatively tap out before playing out anything, as you can use this trick to really have the mana you need.
Draw
Show
Hide
Drawing equal to creatures power
Draw 7
Creatures with draw
Miscellaneous card advantage
Life's Legacy is the cheapest to cast of the sacrifice to draw effects. Perfect for the decks winning game plan.
Greater Good is easily the signature draw card for the deck. Not only do you get to draw most likely 9 cards, it also allows you to sacrifice Zacama so that you can look to continuous recast. This is normally the card opponents scoop to when you show them that you can just keep gaining mana and drawing your deck.
Momentous Fall is more costly than Life's Legacy but the instant speed can play around removal better.
Soul's Majesty draws at least 9 cards with Zacama power. Doesn't require a sacrifice which can be a boon if you've been cut off Zacama and looking to draw off one of your other creatures that you'd like to keep.
Return of the Wildspeaker is another instant speed draw with Zacama which allows you to play around removal a little better.
Garruk, Primal Hunter -3 draws 9 cards with Zacama power normally. Because you can potentially cast it out before you combo, it can free up your mana unlike some of the other card draw which requires casting at in the same turn you want to combo.
Rishkar's Expertise ability to draw 9 and then cast another card is great to put another mana doubler into play off it, as that means you don't have to tap lands, gaining huge benefits.
Draw 7
Wheel of Fortune is a symmetrical effect, but usually you're combing and if you're sitting behind Grand Abolisher or Dosan the Falling Leaf in your combo turn, then it doesn't matter giving your opponents cards.
Wheel of Misfortune has a lot of text, but just think of it as another Wheel of Fortune for your purposes. Unless all your opponents pick a larger number you will get to draw cards.
Reforge the Soul costs more than the Wheels but any draw 7 is amazing for the deck, so spending 5 mana is fine. There is no top deck manipulation so will only be random for getting the miracle cost.
Memory Jar is another symmetrical draw, but only lasts for duration of the turn. You can play it to setup a future turn, which is great for freeing up mana when looking to combo.
Creatures with draw
Grothama, All-Devouring - A really unique card. Card draw is at an absolute premium for this deck. There is Hunter's Insight and Hunter's Prowess that could also be played, but the reason I don't play these is that it means that you have to wait a whole turn to attack and also have to also connect with Zacama, which in my opinion is just too slow and not reliable.
There are two different ways to use Grothama, All-Devouring in this deck.
Even though it's a relatively hard card to get the draw, with Natural Order and Green Sun's Zenith, it's important to have access to at least one "green" creature for draw.
There are two different ways to use Grothama, All-Devouring in this deck.
- Use Zacama deal 3 damage to creature ability to kill it with 9 damage, draw 9 cards.
- Grothama, All-Devouring is the same in that you'd have to wait to attack with Zacama for them to fight, but at least you don't have to connect with him. Weirdly enough the fact that it kills Zacama is a bonus in this deck, as you get to recast Zacama producing more mana if you have your mana doubler.
Even though it's a relatively hard card to get the draw, with Natural Order and Green Sun's Zenith, it's important to have access to at least one "green" creature for draw.
Sandstone Oracle - Having creatures that draw cards is important with Eldritch Evolution, and Tooth and Nail. Dumping your current hand is pretty easy, so you end up drawing often 5-7 cards.
Miscellaneous card advantage
Sylvan Library - Although it's not one of the signature big draw cards, still an auto include as you can get an additional 2 cards each turn.
Genesis Wave is easily the most powerful of the big payoff spells when you have large amounts of mana.
Mana Ramp
Show
Hide
Land ramp
Mana ramp
Artifact mana
Search for Tomorrow is the only Turn 1 land ramp spell you can invest into, but with suspend it does mean that you'd only get the additional land on Turn 3. Can obviously be played at full cost later on in the game.
Nature's Lore even gives you an untapped Forest which can help with early tempo plays.
Any time you cast a spell that brings untapped land into play gains more value when you have mana doublers. With one mana doubler Nature's Lore and Three Visits are essentially "free" to cast as you'll immediately get 2 mana again.
Any time you cast a spell that brings untapped land into play gains more value when you have mana doublers. With one mana doubler Nature's Lore and Three Visits are essentially "free" to cast as you'll immediately get 2 mana again.
Three Visits is the same as Nature's Lore and with a reprint very affordable.
Farseek notably can't get Forests but as long as you have dual land types in the deck you can fix on all colors.
Rampant Growth can only get basics, but this is fine. You'll see that I explicitly have chosen 2 mana land ramp spells for earlier tempo.
Emergent Sequence is unique in that it does make the land a creature. Just like Dryad Arbor this can be a liability in the face of creature removal, however it does also mean that you can sacrifice it to Natural Order as it is a green.
Sakura-Tribe Elder or also known as Steve can be a target for Green Sun's Zenith or Finale of Devastation if you are wanting early and safe tempo on land ramp.
Wood Elves is preferable over say other 3 mana land ramp spells like Cultivate simply because it is a creature that can be sacrifice/searched with a number of cards in the deck. It also has an untapped land and this just gives it a little more toolbox for the deck over sorcery/instant spells of the same type of cost and nature.
Mana ramp
Wild Growth alotugh not land ramp is another Turn 1 play you can make that gives you additional mana. Inherently a "mana doubler" for a land so you will benefit from Zacama untapping land ability.
Utopia Sprawl needs a Forest specifically to enchnt which is no problem for this deck.
Arbor Elf. I have played a version with more mana creatures, but I like to be resilient to board wipes in general. But this one is premium with the mana doublers as you get produce additional mana with lands over say a Birds of Paradise.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - Her ability to produce 8 mana using Zacama 9 power is a real mana boost. She also draws you a card each time you recast Zacama so another little draw engine. With unlimited Zacama casts from loops like Sanctum of Eternity you will of course be able to draw your deck.
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to play an extra land each turn which can be really good to get to the threshold of lands that you want to combo realistically. It also gives your lands a Forest type which means that you can use some of your non-Forest utility lands with particular mana doublers in Vernal Bloom, Keeper of Progenitus, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Caged Sun.
I often find that I play out a land pre starting to combo and this means that it doesn't matter how many cards you draw, if you want to put say Sanctum of Eternity to loop you normally can't. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to play out a utility land once you go off.
I often find that I play out a land pre starting to combo and this means that it doesn't matter how many cards you draw, if you want to put say Sanctum of Eternity to loop you normally can't. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to play out a utility land once you go off.
Artifact mana
Sol Ring - Ban this already, too good for the format.
Mana Crypt is an expensive card to buy. You know the drill, without the trinkets you will be less consistent with early tempo plays.
Mana Vault is just to really give you a burst of mana for some tight mana spots. Not essential to the deck so can be replaced.
Grim Monolith could easily be replaced by Basalt Monolith for budget considerations.
Interaction
Show
Hide
Instants
Creatures
Silence is normally used to make sure you can combo freely in your setup turn, although you can use it in a pinch to stop an opponent when they are looking to do a big turn themselves.
Pyroblast is an obviously a reflection of playing in a strong blue meta. I find that I almost always have a target and honestly if there are no blue decks at the table, you're very favorably positioned.
Veil of Summer stands out as ways to prevent blue or black players from countering or targeting your stuff. The additional draw is nice and sometimes you might just fire it off in an opponents turn to draw a card rather than using it for protection.
Tibalt's Trickery is nice to have at least one counterspell which can cause a big surprise to opponents' when you are not in blue.
Lapse of Certainty is one of my pet includes for any non-blue deck as it really catches opponents by surprise when often they hadn't thought about a counterspell. This allows you to push through big spells. It can be used to potentially stop opponents' from winning as well giving you another turn to go off yourself.
Oblation - Even though Zacama can remove most permanents that might be troubling you, it's important to have a couple of cards that don't use Zacama for removal in case of cards like Pithing Needle, Sorcerous Spyglass, Cursed Totem, Phyrexian Revoker, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, etc that prevent you using it in the first place.
The card draw could find you action cards in a pinch if you use it on your own permanents and it's an outlet for removing Zacama as well, if looking to recast for mana gain.
There are a number of removal options like this with Beast Within, Generous Gift, Chaos Warp in Naya and it doesn't make much difference which ones you choose for your own build.
The card draw could find you action cards in a pinch if you use it on your own permanents and it's an outlet for removing Zacama as well, if looking to recast for mana gain.
There are a number of removal options like this with Beast Within, Generous Gift, Chaos Warp in Naya and it doesn't make much difference which ones you choose for your own build.
Creatures
Grand Abolisher is perfect for making sure that you can combo freely in your turn.
Dosan the Falling Leaf means that all players can't cast spells outside of their turn, so it is wise to not just cast Dosan until you are ready to really cast important spells. The reason is that it does mean that your opponents' can also freely look to combo (or whatever) and without anybody else being able to stop them this can be a liability. It's a green creature for Green Sun's Zenith and even Natural Order. Yes I have searched for Dosan with Natural Order before, because sometimes you have all the setup and you just want to make sure that the coast is clear.
Tutors
Show
Hide
Crop Rotation main targets are Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth or maybe Sanctum of Eternity. You can use it as land ramp with either Krosan Verge or Blighted Woodland.
Enlightened Tutor - Because mana doublers are so important and most of them are enchantments or artifacts, you can use Enlightened Tutor to get you one of them. Also can be used for card draw getting Greater Good, Memory Jar, Sandstone Oracle.
Sterling Grove not only can be used to search for a mana doubler or draw enchantment, but can provide protection if necessary.
Academy Rector can get a mana doubler or for draw Greater Good. With Zacama ability to deal 3 damage to a creature this means you can guarantee that it dies if necessary. Of note Nyxbloom Ancient is an enchantment.
Natural Order is a way to "cheat in" some of your high impact mana doublers with Nyxbloom Ancient or Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger being the main targets. You can also get Grothama, All-Devouring if needing card draw.
A big reason that Dryad Arbor is in the deck is so that you can search for it with a Forest fetchland and then sacrifice it to Natural Order for a quick start.
A big reason that Dryad Arbor is in the deck is so that you can search for it with a Forest fetchland and then sacrifice it to Natural Order for a quick start.
Green Sun's Zenith is a great versatile creature tutor. You can get you early mana in Arbor Elf, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves. But also can be used to get a mana doubler with Keeper of Progenitus, Zhur-Taa Ancient, Regal Behemoth, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. For draw you can get Grothama, All-Devouring.
Finale of Devastation is similar to Green Sun's Zenith but costs one more green, but can search your library OR graveyard, meaning that it's also a reanimation card. You also can search for any creature and not just green colored. This means that you can get Sandstone Oracle and Grand Abolisher with it.
You can also use it as a win condition casting it for a large amount (literally hundreds of mana) and alpha strike your opponents', turning even your Dryad Arbor and Arbor Elf into lethal hits. Zacama of course clears the way of blockers.
You can also use it as a win condition casting it for a large amount (literally hundreds of mana) and alpha strike your opponents', turning even your Dryad Arbor and Arbor Elf into lethal hits. Zacama of course clears the way of blockers.
Lands
Show
Hide
Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth means that your non-Forest lands are able to be used with specific mana doublers in Vernal Bloom, Keeper of Progenitus, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Caged Sun.
There are not a lot of non-Forest lands in the deck, but as basically a free-roll in the deck you get more value out of some of the utility lands in the deck.
Of note you can tap fetchlands for mana if not wanting to sacrifice them for whatever reason.
There are not a lot of non-Forest lands in the deck, but as basically a free-roll in the deck you get more value out of some of the utility lands in the deck.
Of note you can tap fetchlands for mana if not wanting to sacrifice them for whatever reason.
Sanctum of Eternity can give you infinite mana with a mana doubler and only 7 lands in play. With this in mind you can use Crop Rotation to search for it if setup.
Taiga and Savannah are expensive to purchase so you can play Highland Forest and Arctic Treeline as tapped replacements. The important element of choosing dual lands in this deck is that most of them have Forest type.
Plateau and Sacred Foundry are the only non-Forest dual lands in the deck.
Stomping Ground and Temple Garden are the second best dual Forest lands you can play.
Sheltered Thicket and Scattered Groves come into play tapped but do have the upside of being able to be cycled when you are top decking.
Cinder Glade and Canopy Vista usually can be setup to come into play untapped just because there are so many basics in the deck.
Sheltered Thicket and Scattered Groves come into play tapped but do have the upside of being able to be cycled when you are top decking.
7x Forest, 1x Plains, 1x Mountain - The basics in the deck can be searched additionally with Search for Tomorrow, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Rampant Growth, Emergent Sequence, Blighted Woodland, Prismatic Vista.
There are is only one basic Plains and Mountain in the deck, but this is a reflection of wanting Forests and the fact that there is a heavy ratio of green spells. The Forest aspect is important for Vernal Bloom, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Caged Sun so only having one of each is enough to make sure you can color fix on red and white with the basic land searches.
There are is only one basic Plains and Mountain in the deck, but this is a reflection of wanting Forests and the fact that there is a heavy ratio of green spells. The Forest aspect is important for Vernal Bloom, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Caged Sun so only having one of each is enough to make sure you can color fix on red and white with the basic land searches.
Dryad Arbor can be searched into play with Green Sun's Zenith and Finale of Devastation. This means that you can land ramp on Turn 1 if you have Green Sun's Zenith. Dryad Arbor is also a green creature, so you can sacrifice it to Natural Order if need be. Because it's a Forest it can be searched with a number of cards including the fetchlands which means that you you should always have access to it as a sacrifice option for Natural Order.
Castle Garenbrig is notably not a Forest but being able to cast Zacama off it gives you an edge sometimes. Mana Reflection and Nyxbloom Ancient actually have the wording that that they literally double and triple what you land produces, so you'd get 12 mana with Mana Reflection and 18 mana with Nyxbloom Ancient.
Krosan Verge can search for two lands and ramping is a key element to the deck.
Blighted Woodland can only get basic lands but searching for two lands is good to ramp to get to a good land count threshold.
What possible combos can you do with Zacama? (not featured in deck)
Show
Hide
Creature Bounce
There are some cards that enable you to return a creature to hand. I'll start with the creature bouncers; Temur Sabertooth, Cloudstone Curio, Stormfront Riders and Aegis Automaton.
With enough mana you can cast Zacama, Primal Calamity and afford the bounce costs you can loop bouncing Zacama netting infinite mana from recasting.
Temur Sabertooth: You need 12 mana (produced from lands)
Stormfront Riders, Aegis Automaton: 15 mana (produced from lands)
Dust Elemental: 14 mana (produced from lands)
Cloudstone Curio requires that the creature you are costing will net you a mana. So for example you'd need 12 mana (produced from lands), if you were to use a 2 cmc creature for the infinite bouncing.
You can get Temur Sabertooth to combo with 6 lands in play with a mana doubler. With Stormfront Riders and Aegis Automaton you'll need 8 lands with a mana doubler.
Cloudstone Curio depends on the creature you are looping with, but at a minimum you'll need 6 lands with a mana doubler to combo with a 2 cmc creature.
As you can see the mana needs to be produced from lands. Artifact and creature mana will not help the combos. So with this in mind, the enablers in this deck are cards that let you produce at least double mana off your lands and land ramp.
Infinite Graveyard Bounce
My initial list played a graveyard recursion theme using the following: Enduring Renewal, Sigil of the New Dawn, Yomiji, Who Bars the Way or Conqueror's Galleon (transformed to Conqueror's Foothold) and a sacrifice outlet. The idea is to sacrifice Zacama, Primal Calamity with one these in play and let it go to graveyard so that it returns to hand.
The sacrifice outlets: Greater Good, High Market, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Thermopod, Goblin Bombardment. You need to be able to produce 10 mana (from lands) for Enduring Renewal, 12 mana (from lands) for Sigil of the New Dawn, 16 mana (from lands) for Conqueror's Foothold and 10 mana (from lands) for Yomiji, Who Bars the Way.
Further Bounce
With Panharmonicon or Flameshadow Conjuring in play, creatures that bounce creatures as ETB effect can be copied so that both Zacama and the bounce creature can be returned to hand. As long as you have 1 more mana to cast both the Zacama and the bounce creature, you'll gain infinite mana.
I've chosen bounce creatures that are 4 or less mana, and "flash" ability is a bonus: Whitemane Lion, Stonecloaker, Fleetfoot Panther, Horned Kavu, Sparkcaster.
Even without Panharmonicon or Flameshadow Conjuring these creatures can potentially net you mana one time if you have a mana doubler and use it just to bounce Zacama once.
Erratic Portal, Decoction Module or Obelisk of Undoing with Paradox Engine can go infinite.
Snow Hound is another bounce card, but requires haste (each time) to work.
Food Chain
Food Chain does not go infinite with Zacama by itself, but can net you 20 plus mana. For example if you had 9 lands in play then you can cast Zacama and use Food Chain netting 8 mana. Each time you recast and then Food Chain it, you'll net 2 mana less (commander tax), so you can do it a total time in this instance of recasting 4 times, for a total of 20 mana. If you have a mana doubler then you'll have 80 mana with 9 lands in play. The downside however is that your commander will have a massive commander tax, so if you don't finish the game that turn and it goes back to the command zone, you'll struggle to cast it again.
There are some cards that enable you to return a creature to hand. I'll start with the creature bouncers; Temur Sabertooth, Cloudstone Curio, Stormfront Riders and Aegis Automaton.
With enough mana you can cast Zacama, Primal Calamity and afford the bounce costs you can loop bouncing Zacama netting infinite mana from recasting.
Temur Sabertooth: You need 12 mana (produced from lands)
Stormfront Riders, Aegis Automaton: 15 mana (produced from lands)
Dust Elemental: 14 mana (produced from lands)
Cloudstone Curio requires that the creature you are costing will net you a mana. So for example you'd need 12 mana (produced from lands), if you were to use a 2 cmc creature for the infinite bouncing.
You can get Temur Sabertooth to combo with 6 lands in play with a mana doubler. With Stormfront Riders and Aegis Automaton you'll need 8 lands with a mana doubler.
Cloudstone Curio depends on the creature you are looping with, but at a minimum you'll need 6 lands with a mana doubler to combo with a 2 cmc creature.
As you can see the mana needs to be produced from lands. Artifact and creature mana will not help the combos. So with this in mind, the enablers in this deck are cards that let you produce at least double mana off your lands and land ramp.
Infinite Graveyard Bounce
My initial list played a graveyard recursion theme using the following: Enduring Renewal, Sigil of the New Dawn, Yomiji, Who Bars the Way or Conqueror's Galleon (transformed to Conqueror's Foothold) and a sacrifice outlet. The idea is to sacrifice Zacama, Primal Calamity with one these in play and let it go to graveyard so that it returns to hand.
The sacrifice outlets: Greater Good, High Market, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Thermopod, Goblin Bombardment. You need to be able to produce 10 mana (from lands) for Enduring Renewal, 12 mana (from lands) for Sigil of the New Dawn, 16 mana (from lands) for Conqueror's Foothold and 10 mana (from lands) for Yomiji, Who Bars the Way.
Further Bounce
With Panharmonicon or Flameshadow Conjuring in play, creatures that bounce creatures as ETB effect can be copied so that both Zacama and the bounce creature can be returned to hand. As long as you have 1 more mana to cast both the Zacama and the bounce creature, you'll gain infinite mana.
I've chosen bounce creatures that are 4 or less mana, and "flash" ability is a bonus: Whitemane Lion, Stonecloaker, Fleetfoot Panther, Horned Kavu, Sparkcaster.
Even without Panharmonicon or Flameshadow Conjuring these creatures can potentially net you mana one time if you have a mana doubler and use it just to bounce Zacama once.
Erratic Portal, Decoction Module or Obelisk of Undoing with Paradox Engine can go infinite.
Snow Hound is another bounce card, but requires haste (each time) to work.
Food Chain
Food Chain does not go infinite with Zacama by itself, but can net you 20 plus mana. For example if you had 9 lands in play then you can cast Zacama and use Food Chain netting 8 mana. Each time you recast and then Food Chain it, you'll net 2 mana less (commander tax), so you can do it a total time in this instance of recasting 4 times, for a total of 20 mana. If you have a mana doubler then you'll have 80 mana with 9 lands in play. The downside however is that your commander will have a massive commander tax, so if you don't finish the game that turn and it goes back to the command zone, you'll struggle to cast it again.
Show
Hide
Jan 9, 2018
Show
Hide
Jan 10, 2018
Show
Hide
Added:
Removed:
Jan 10, 2018
Show
Hide
Jan 11, 2018
Show
Hide
Jan 12, 2018
Show
Hide
Added:
Removed:
Jan 12, 2018
Show
Hide
Jan 13, 2018
Show
Hide
Jan 14, 2018
Show
Hide
Added:
Removed:
Jan 15, 2018
Show
Hide
Jan 17, 2018
Show
Hide
Added
Removed
Jan 18, 2018
Show
Hide
Jan 21, 2018
Show
Hide
Added
Removed
Jan 27, 2018
Show
Hide
Added
Removed
Jan 30, 2018
Show
Hide
Feb 3, 2018
Show
Hide
Feb 12, 2018
Show
Hide
Feb 15, 2018
Show
Hide
Added
Removed
Feb 18, 2018
Show
Hide
Added
Removed
Mar 2, 2018
Show
Hide
Added
Removed
Mar 22, 2018
Show
Hide
Added
Removed
Nov 3, 2018
Show
Hide
Added
+ Experimental Frenzy
+ Pir's Whim
+ Grothama, All-Devouring
+ Tooth and Nail
+ Seasons Past
Removed
- Carpet of Flowers
- Life from the Loam
- Basalt Monolith
- Dragonlord Dromoka
- Past in Flames
+ Experimental Frenzy
+ Pir's Whim
+ Grothama, All-Devouring
+ Tooth and Nail
+ Seasons Past
Removed
- Carpet of Flowers
- Life from the Loam
- Basalt Monolith
- Dragonlord Dromoka
- Past in Flames
March 23, 2019
Show
Hide
Added
+ Conflagrate
+ Blighted Woodland
+ Fire-lit Thicket
Removed
- Pir's Whim
- Rolling Earthquake
- Exploration
+ Conflagrate
+ Blighted Woodland
+ Fire-lit Thicket
Removed
- Pir's Whim
- Rolling Earthquake
- Exploration
April 29 2019
Show
Hide
April 30 2019
Show
Hide
Jan 1, 2020
Show
Hide
Feb 1, 2020
Show
Hide
Mar 1, 2020
Show
Hide
Apr 1, 2020
Show
Hide
May 1, 2020
Show
Hide
Aug 1, 2020
Show
Hide
Nov 1, 2020
Show
Hide