Zendikar Rising Commander
Sep 2020
Two Commander decks accompanying Zendikar Rising — one powered by landfall and land animation, the other by Rogue tribal mill and card theft.
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Zendikar Rising Commander Precon Decks — click to analyze
Return to the Land of Adventure
Zendikar Rising marked the third return to Zendikar, the adventure plane defined by its living lands, ancient ruins, and the catastrophic presence of the Eldrazi — now thankfully expelled. The set brought back landfall as a central mechanic and introduced the Party mechanic, celebrating Zendikar's dungeon-delving adventure theme. The two Commander decks that accompanied the set each explored a different axis of Zendikar's mechanical identity.
Land's Wrath channeled the plane's most iconic mechanic — landfall — into a strategy of literal land animation, turning the terrain into an army of attackers. Sneak Attack represented the Rogues of Zendikar's underground, a secretive guild of thieves and spies who drain opponents' libraries while building their own resources through evasive combat.
Land's Wrath — When the Earth Rises to Fight
Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor grows a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two target creatures whenever a land enters under your control, and during your combat step animates a land you control into a creature with power and toughness equal to Obuun's own power. The combination creates a cascading synergy: each land drop grows Obuun, and each bigger Obuun animates a bigger land creature for combat.
The Naya deck doubles down on both effects with a full suite of landfall creatures, land-animation spells, and fetch effects. Games played with Land's Wrath often feature turns where multiple land drops grow Obuun to enormous size before animating a towering land-creature that represents all accumulated growth. The deck rewards land-heavy opening hands and punishes opponents who try to contain a threat that literally comes from the land itself.
Sneak Attack — Rogues of the Underground
Anowon, the Ruin Thief represents the Zendikar Rogues in a Dimir mill-and-value deck built around evasive Rogue creatures milling opponents while generating card advantage. Whenever a Rogue deals combat damage, each opponent mills two cards; whenever any opponent mills a nonland card, you may draw a card. The deck builds a fleet of flying and unblockable Rogues that slip through defenses while systematically excavating graveyards.
Sneak Attack plays at the intersection of combat damage and graveyard exploitation. The deck doesn't win through milling opponents to zero directly — though that remains a secondary path — but rather through the card advantage generated from each combat trigger. A three or four Rogue attack in a four-player game can draw three to eight cards in a single turn, generating enough resources to deploy additional threats and maintain the assault.