I have gotten more and more obsessed with card draw as I've played this game. There is research that shows the person who spends the most mana and draws the most cards is most likely to win the game, and that's part of it. But honestly? I like doing stuff in a game. I hate being mana screwed and I hate being out of resources. The more cards I draw, the more things I can do, leading to more fun.

So, any time a new Commander says "draw a card" I am interested. It's a lot better when it says "draw two cards".

Let's start at the beginning. Here we have a five-mana 6/6. In addition to being above the power curve, they've also got three keywords, all of which are relevant: Reach, Trample, and Indestructible. They even grow! At the beginning of our first main phase, Sab-Sunen will put a counter on themself.

They also mess around with the rules: they can only attack or block if they have an even number of counters. That's fine, but they also draw us two cards if, after adding that first counter at the beginning of the first main phase, they have an odd number of counters. This creates a nifty tension: left to their own devices, the turn after they are cast they'll become a 7/7 and draw us two, then the following turn they'll be an 8/8 and attack, then a 9/9 and draw cards, and so on.

That's too fair, right? It's a lot more fun to have cake and eat it too so we're going to attempt to draw the cards and attack with her every turn. Let's take a look.

Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
• 1 Danny Pink
• 1 Evolution Sage
• 1 Evolution Witness
• 1 Fangs of Kalonia
• 1 Fathom Mage
• 1 Forgotten Ancient
• 1 Gyre Sage
• 1 Herald of Secret Streams
• 1 Kalonian Hydra
• 1 Kodama of the West Tree
• 1 Ornery Tumblewagg
• 1 Pollywog Prodigy
• 1 Quilled Greatwurm
• 1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1 Scythecat Cub
• 1 Twenty-Toed Toad
• 1 Vorel of the Hull Clade
• 1 Zameck Guildmage
• 1 Zimone, Paradox Sculptor

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Jace, Arcane Strategist
• 1 Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter

• Instants (12)
• 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Gift of the Viper
• 1 Growth Spiral
• 1 Inspiring Call
• 1 Mutational Advantage
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Repulsive Mutation
• 1 Ripples of Potential
• 1 Slip Out the Back
• 1 Snakeskin Veil

• Sorceries (12)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Explore
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Season of Gathering
• 1 Tezzeret's Gambit
• 1 Three Visits
• 1 Unnatural Restoration
• 1 Wave Goodbye

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Bred for the Hunt
• 1 Fight Rigging
• 1 Hadana's Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca
• 1 Innkeeper's Talent
• 1 Simic Ascendancy
• 1 Thickest in the Thicket
• 1 Wizard Class

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Bow of Nylea
• 1 Decanter of Endless Water
• 1 Power Conduit
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Thunderous Velocipede

• Lands (40)
• 12 Forest
• 8 Island
• 1 Alchemist's Refuge
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dreamroot Cascade
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Flooded Grove
• 1 Hedge Maze
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Nesting Grounds
• 1 Rejuvenating Springs
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Tangled Islet
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Thornwood Falls
• 1 Tyrite Sanctum
• 1 Vineglimmer Snarl
• 1 Waterlogged Grove
• 1 Willowrush Verge

Buy This Deck Export text

This could be wicked fun. Let's start, as ever, with the mana.

Our 40 Lands here, for once, may be unnecessary. As a rule, unless I'm 100% sure, I'll start the deck with 40 Lands, but this is a toss-up. The Commander, of course, is five mana, and we really want them out to enact our plan, so 40 Lands (which gives us a decent chance of getting to five mana on turn five) is a good place to start. Otherwise, however, the deck is reliably cheap, clocking in at an average Mana Value of 2.86. We might end up getting flooded some, but on the other hand, we have a number of things we might want to do as the game progresses, and the extra mana will come in handy when we need to activate Alchemist's Refuge, recast Sab-Sunen for the third time, and cast Repulsive Mutation all in the same turn.

It also wouldn't be a bad thing to get Sab-Sunen out a little early, so we have a few ways to get our mana flowing before it's supposed to. Rampant Growth and Farseek join Cultivate, Sol Ring, and Decanter of Endless Water as examples of what we've got - two- and three-mana ramp spells, both of the Land Fetch and Artifact variety. We draw enough cards to want Thought Vessel and Decanter here, and at this mana value, if we hit a single one, we get Sab-Sunen out at least one turn early.

Sab-Sunen is our obvious draw engine: two extra cards a turn is awesome. But it won't hurt to keep seeing more of our Library, so we have stuff like Danny Pink, which seems tailor-made for our deck. As you'll see, we have a bunch of ways to put counters on things, so Fathom Mage is another obvious option. Pollywog Prodigy is hilarious and again, likely to work well with our stuff. Zameck Guildmage and its ability to turn counters into cards is great - adding a counter is always better, but if it's this or not attacking, I'll take this. Rishkar's Expertise is our refill-our-entire-hand-plus-some-more option, Twenty-Toed Toad will often draw us a few (while it's also threatening to win the game out of nowhere), and Jace, Arcane Strategist sits there and draws every turn.

Which leads us nicely into our next thing. Our deck is, really, a Voltron deck - we're going to attempt to win with our Commander in the red zone. But we have the Attack limitation we need to contend with, so we're running a bunch of ways to add a counter to something. It's funny, because I actually avoided Hardened Scales effects; adding an extra counter actually kind of screws up our math, making it so Sab-Sunen always has even or odd. The easiest (and probably most common) method is: they add a counter to themselves at our first Main Phase. We see an odd number and draw our two cards. Then we add a counter in some way, making the number even and attacking. (We can also double, because doubling will always result in an even number.) We can do this with Unnatural Restoration, which will return a permanent from our 'yard to our hand and proliferate, allowing us to add a counter. We can use Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter's -1 ability and put a counter on them. We can play a Land with Scythecat Cub or Bristly Bill, Spine Sower on the 'field. We can activate Vorel of the Hull Clade. We can cast Snakeskin Veil. We can use Simic Ascendancy.

The goal is to end our turn with an even number so they'll make the number odd when they add their counter, but sometimes, the pattern might get off. This is where Repulsive Mutation, Ripples of Potential, and Zameck Guildmage come in handy: Instant-speed options to change the number of counters on Sab-Sunen by one (or an odd number, making their total even). They add their counter at the beginning of our main phase, we draw our cards, then we do something else to add another one and we're attacking again next turn.

I like Wave Goodbye as a sweeper effect here. Very often it'll mean we end up with a full board ourself and no one else will have anything, but even when it doesn't, it should be decently effective. Gift of the Viper and Inspiring Call both throw wrenches into the gears of our opponents, and a couple of Counterspell effects is all you need to keep the entire table on tilt for the whole game. Slip out the Back can be a great way to save Sab-Sunen from a Path to Exile.

As mentioned before, Twenty-Toed Toad could be a random alternate win-condition. So can Simic Ascendancy, for that matter. Otherwise, this deck is fairly tight - it draws a lot of cards and has a bunch of ways to add a single counter to a Creature. Part of this will be good play; make sure you don't just drop a bunch of ways to add counters and get confused. Keep your sequence clear in your own mind so you squeeze the most value out of your Commander you can.

It's possible this deck wants Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine. More activated ways to Proliferate wouldn't necessarily be bad, I just thought they seemed a bit much, because we have so many ways already.

I like this because it plays in the space of Vorel of the Hull Clade - the whole Simic +1/+1 counter theme - but does it in a more Bracket 2/Bracket 3 kind of way. This deck will play casual and is great for fun, longer games with big swings, while still being scary. Because of all the cards, it'll stay in the game and you'll always be able to threaten a counter (even if you don't have one), and Sab-Sunen is resilient enough to threaten some decent wins.

Thanks for reading.