Released in the Commander decks for the 2024 set Modern Horizons III, Tricky Terrain is one of the most unique preconstructed decks Wizards has come up with. While the other three decks highlighted established strategies, this deck explored new territory with one of Magic's most important card types.

Lands strategies have been featured in precons before. Examples include decks such as Nature's Vengeance from Commander 2018, Reap the Tides from Commander Legends, or World Shaper from the Edge of Eternities. These decks cared about the number of Lands already in play, Lands coming into play (Landfall), or Lands being sacrificed. These were well-established strategies when their decks were released.

No other Commander in Magic rewards or enables a deck that cares about the number of Land subtypes in play the way Tricky Terrain does. The complex lines and careful considerations necessary to pilot this deck to a win truly earn the title "tricky." To win, you will have to carefully consider which Lands you search for and play as you leverage your Commander's ability to turn on incredible mana generating abilities and powerful synergies.

An Overview of Tricky Terrain

Tricky Terrain is a deck built around amassing synergistic Lands. Lands like the Urza's Lands and Cloudpost are improved by the everything counters that Omo, Queen of Vesuva puts on our Lands. By combining these synergistic effects, we can accumulate massive amounts of mana to cast devastating spells, draw lots of cards, and hopefully ride a Simic value pile to victory.

The deck wins by casting huge beaters like Avenger of Zendikar, Rampaging Baloths, or Nissa, Steward of Elements. Unfortunately, the deck's biggest pain point is in these conditions. None of these effects are splashy enough to win out of nowhere, so every attempt to win will be choreographed and slow, allowing for your opponents to team up and shut you down. Your best way of winning is a huge Drown in Dreams, an X spell which in the very late game can take out two opponents at once if their decks get thin enough.

The Decklist

Tricky Terrain Precon | Commander | Wizards of the Coast

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Apex Devastator
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1 Elvish Rejuvenator
• 1 Floriferous Vinewall
• 1 Fog Bank
• 1 Hydra Broodmaster
• 1 Hydroid Krasis
• 1 Jyoti, Moag Ancient
• 1 Magus of the Candelabra
• 1 Poison Dart Frog
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Rampant Frogantua
• 1 Ramunap Excavator
• 1 Sage of the Maze
• 1 Satyr Wayfinder
• 1 Scute Swarm
• 1 Skullwinder
• 1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• 1 Terastodon
• 1 Ulvenwald Hydra
• 1 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
• 1 Wonderscape Sage

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Nissa, Steward of Elements
• 1 Vivien Reid

• Instants (8)
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Drown in Dreams
• 1 Eureka Moment
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Growth Spiral
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Summary Dismissal

• Sorceries (10)
• 1 Aggressive Biomancy
• 1 Curse of the Swine
• 1 Finale of Revelation
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Hour of Promise
• 1 March from Velis Vel
• 1 Replication Technique
• 1 Sylvan Scrying
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Urban Evolution

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Copy Land
• 1 Desert Warfare
• 1 Mana Reflection
• 1 Propaganda

• Artifacts (7)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Mirage Mirror
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Seer's Sundial
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (44)
• 1 Basilisk Gate
• 1 Blast Zone
• 1 Cloudpost
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dark Depths
• 1 Desert of the Indomitable
• 1 Desert of the Mindful
• 1 Dreamroot Cascade
• 1 Flooded Grove
• 4 Forest
• 1 Glimmerpost
• 1 Hashep Oasis
• 1 Hidden Cataract
• 1 Hidden Nursery
• 1 Horizon of Progress
• 3 Island
• 1 Lair of the Hydra
• 1 Lazotep Quarry
• 1 Lumbering Falls
• 1 Lush Oasis
• 1 Overflowing Basin
• 1 Planar Nexus
• 1 Quandrix Campus
• 1 Simic Growth Chamber
• 1 Simic Guildgate
• 1 Sunken Palace
• 1 Talon Gates of Madara
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Thornwood Falls
• 1 Trenchpost
• 1 Urza's Mine
• 1 Urza's Power Plant
• 1 Urza's Tower
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Vineglimmer Snarl
• 1 Volatile Fault
• 1 Yavimaya Coast
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

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Who are the Commanders in Tricky Terrain

The face Commander is Omo, Queen of Vesuva, an open-ended Simic Commander who puts an everything counter on a Creature and a Land when she enters. These counters do nothing on their own, but as long as Omo remains in play, she will grant each Creature with an everything counter each Creature type, and each Land each Land type. Omo is essential for this deck to function.

Jyoti, Moag Ancient is a 4-mana Simic Commander who puts token Land Creatures into play when he enters and then powers up all your Land Creatures each combat. As the Commander of their own deck, they are not bad, but in this deck, they're not really a great support piece for the strategies in the base list. A Jyoti deck will want to have many more ways to turn Lands into Creatures and to buff your Commander.

New Cards in Tricky Terrain

Tricky Terrain is unique in how it was the first Commander deck to introduce multiple new Lands. Land cards are generally not the most exciting cards for newer players, but for experienced players, the appeal of a powerful Land is undeniable. Tricky Terrain dedicated six of its 15 new cards to exciting Lands, most of which have a subtype making them interesting not only in Omo, but also in a deck dedicated to that Land type.

New Land Cards

Of these, the most impactful has been Talon Gates of Madara, a powerful Land which also serves as a four-mana protection or temporary removal. For , you can put this Land into play from your hand, which will trigger its enters trigger, Phasing out up to one Creature.

Additionally, Talon Gates is (unsurprisingly) a Gate, which is one of the most commonly built around Land subtypes thanks to the alt win condition Maze's End (which is unfortunately not included in this deck).

The most important Land in this deck is Planar Nexus. Planar Nexus is, in all zones, every Land subtype that is not Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, or Forest. What this means is that is will synergize with every Land subtype matters card in the deck. Often this will mean it turns on your Urza's Lands abilities to tap for multiple mana (as it is an Urza's Power-Plant Mine Factory).

Caves and Deserts are both Land subtypes which have been the focus of sets in recent years. Tricky Terrain provides a new cave in Sunken Palace and a new Desert in Lazotep Quarry. In this deck, neither Land is critical, but both provide utility as the game goes long.

Locus is a Land subtype associated with being broken, despite Trenchpost being only the third Locus printed. While you are unlikely to activate the ability of Trenchpost very often, it just being a Locus makes your Cloudpost much better.

The final Land is Horizon of Progress, a cheeky reference to the introduction of new "Horizon Lands" in the original Modern Horizons set. Horizon of Progress lacks a Land subtype, but is a fine card on its own.

New Nonland Cards

The new nonland cards introduced in this deck mostly either reward you for accumulating lots of mana, or having Lands with subtypes.

Desert Warfare is a Desert synergy card that rewards you for overcoming a challenging threshold of controlling five Deserts. If you do, this card will provide a wide board of 1/1 Sand Creature tokens. Since most of your Deserts will come from the everything counters Omo provides, this Enchantment will often do very little unless you can keep your Commander on the Battlefield. Notably, there are exactly six Deserts in the deck without Omo in play.

Sage of the Maze is possibly the best card ever printed for a Gates deck. On its own, it is a for a Creature which taps to add two mana in any combination of colors. This isn't bad, but where it really shines is its third activated ability - each Gate you control can be tapped to untap Sage of the Maze.

Effectively, you can read this ability as saying, "Gates you control can tap to add two mana in any combination of colors." Its second ability lets you turn Lands into large Creatures when you have enough Gates for it to matter, which is a nice bonus on an already great mana producer.

March from Velis Vel is one of the decks few win conditions, although it is very tricky to use. In this deck, we will have lots of Lands with different subtypes and only a few Lands with everything counters. March wants us to have lots of Lands all of one subtype so we can turn them all into the biggest Creature in play to swing for the win.

Wonderscape Sage is a utility Creature which will draw us cards for bouncing our Lands with subtypes. This is probably the least exciting new card in the deck, but it serves it's role well enough.

Other Notable New Cards

The remaining cards help us get Lands into play. Copy Land is a reference to the classic Copy Artifact style cards. Interestingly, it is a straightforward ramp spell in Blue - but otherwise it isn't a great card. It relies on you having other great Lands in play to be particularly impactful, and Tricky Terrain is already in the best color for mana acceleration, Green.

Rampant Frogantua, on the other hand, is a splashy and exciting Creature which grows by +10/+10 for each player who has lost the game. The big Frog has Trample and rewards you for hitting players with him by Milling yourself and putting all Milled Lands into play.

Aggressive Biomancy is the final new card in the deck. For , you create X copies of the best Creature in play and then those copies Fight your opponents' best Creatures.

Unfortunately, even in this deck which can generate a lot of mana, costs tend to be prohibitively expensive for cards which do not outright end the game on their own. This is more so true for situational Sorceries like Aggressive Biomancy.

Staple Cards in Tricky Terrain

Tricky Terrain, due to being such a niche strategy, has only a few valuable staple cards, and several cheap staples which are generically good. The two most notable Lands are Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dark Depths. Yavimaya turns all Lands in play into Forests. Mostly, this just allows our utility Lands, such as our Locus and Urza's Lands to tap for Green in a pinch. If this weren't such a pricy card, it would be something of a disappointing inclusion, as the everything counters provided by Omo solve the same issue.

On the other hand, thanks to several recent reprints, Dark Depths is no longer the expensive combo piece it once was. In combination with the Land Thespian's Stage (or 30 mana, which is not unachievable in this deck), you can sacrifice Dark Depths for Magic's original Lovecraftian horror, Marit Lage, a 20/20 Flying, Indestructible beater.

Lands-Matter Staples

Staples which support our Lands-matter game plan exist in the deck, though they do not specifically reward our focus on Land subtypes. Instead, each of these cards tends to be a staple in Landfall decks. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove provides a fine utility as it lets us play two Lands a turn and lets our colorless Lands tap for mana.

Scute Swarm is a terrifying 1/1 which copies itself when you trigger its Landfall ability. In a dedicated Landfall deck, this can get out of hand quickly. In this deck, I believe it is intended to simply buy time by creating 1/1 chump blockers, but a (healthy) learned fear of this card held by many Commander players may mean it draws you more attention than you want.

Tatyova, Benthic Druid draws cards and gains life when we make Landfall. Like Scute Swarm, it is a card that gets out of hand in a deck with many fetchlands, and so players are rightfully quick to take it off the board and swing at its controller. While it is by no means a bad inclusion, this is not the optimal deck for Tatyova.

Honorable Mention: Apex Devastator

Finally, a shout out to Apex Devastator. While it probably doesn't rise to the level of "Commander Staple," it is a splashy and fun card which Cascades four times if you can get the mana for it. It's also the fourth most expensive reprint in the deck, which makes it a nice inclusion. Unfortunately, the deck lacks a way to give it Trample, which is what would really make it shine.

Staple Utility Spells

Finally, there are a small handful of staple cards which, while not perfect or thematic inclusions in this list, provide necessary utilities. Propaganda will slow down attacks long enough that we can hope to get to our massive amounts of mana. Beast Within is one of the most important Green removal spells. Treasure Cruise is a 1 mana Draw three in many decks which fill their own Graveyards, though we may struggle to cast it for that low cost, as this is not really a deck which Mills very much.

Upgrade Options for Tricky Terrain

Given the niche strategy Tricky Terrain employs, upgrading it while maintaining the Land Subtypes matter strategy is not easy. There is, however, one standout card that feels like a major omission from the deck and it additionally helps to solve the biggest issue of the deck.

That card is Maze's End. Normally, Maze's End is a challenging but rewarding win condition, requiring a critical mass of not-so-great Gate Lands in play.

With Omo out, however, instead of needing ten of the possible 11 Gates that a Simic deck can run, any of our lands with everything counters on them can contribute to our Gate count. Maze's End represents a way for an Omo deck built around Land subtypes to win without needing combat.

Another way to improve on the winning-the-game issue is simply to add ways for our beaters to Trample over our opponent's board. The go-to here is Garruk's Uprising, as it not only grants Trample to our team, but it draws cards while doing so.

Ramp Package Upgrades

Improving our ramp is another synergistic way to speed up the deck. This comes in two flavors: ramp which puts nonbasics into play, and ramp which is good enough to be staples.

In the first category, the two best options are Open the Way and Tempt with Discovery. Both have the ability to put up to four of our best Lands from our deck onto the Battlefield. Open the Way is fine early and gets better as we have more mana to pump into it.

Tempt With Discovery rewards you for having greedy opponents, but even if they play smart, it is to put any land from our deck into play. Often, this will be Planar Nexus or a Land which taps for 2+ mana. In many cases, the Land(s) we get with Tempt will give more mana than what we spent on the spell.

Three Visits and Nature's Lore are two of the best ramp spells in the game. While we don't care as much about having Forests in play as some other decks might, they are a huge improvement over ramp spells like Poison Dart Frog.

Flicker Effects For More Everything Counters

Finally, the ability to put more everything counters on our Lands can be checked by opponents who all have 5+ Power blockers. To get around this, ways to flicker our Commander, such as Essence Flux, can be a boon. Instant-speed flicker effects have the added bonus of protecting our Commander from removal spells. Importantly, you don't want to overload on these effects, as they have little synergy with the rest of our strategy.

Land Recursion

Ways to recur our important Lands are also helpful. While the deck comes with Ramunap Excavator, better options have been printed since the release of Tricky Terrain. Chief among these is Icetill Explorer, from Edge of Eternities. Icetill combines the most important benefit of Dryad if the Ilysian Grove with the ability of Ramunap Excavator, all while filling our graveyard. Other Creatures which let us play Lands from our graveyard are available as well. Mole Man, Moloid Master is only a 1/1, but you probably aren't attacking with him anyway, and in exchange for a smaller Creature, you gain the ability to turn Landfalls into 1/1 blockers which can keep you alive until the late game.

If you are willing to lean more into traditional Simic Landfall strategies, cards which are staples in Tatyova decks will work well here. Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait is a second copy of Tatyova with upside for only one more mana, providing an additional way to reward our landfall with card draw.

Forsaking Lands-matter for Typal Strategies

Finally, one way many Omo decks have been built is to deviate entirely from the Lands matter themes. Since Omo rewards everywhere counters on Creatures as well, Omo decks which are built with many narrow Creature-type matters cards can take advantage of effects which would not normally apply to every Creature. As an example, with Omo out, Lord of the Unreal grants each Creature with an everything counter on it +1/+1 and Hexproof.

Modern Horizons III Overview

Modern Horizons III was the last set in the Modern Horizons line to date. Of the four Commander decks which were released alongside it, two (including Tricky Terrain) had little to do with the themes present in the main set. Those themes were Eldrazi, Modified, and Energy. Like the previous Modern Horizons sets, exciting and valuable reprints were included, and the set was made more powerful to appeal to both Modern and Commander players. Unlike the first two Horizons sets, Modern Horizons III had fewer stand-out individual cards, with the majority of the set being dedicated to its main themes.

Conclusion

Tricky Terrain might be one of the most unusual Commander preconstructed decks ever released, but it's unique deck design space makes it worth picking up to try for yourself.

While it takes more effort to pilot than most precons, the payoff is a one-of-a-kind Lands strategy unlike anything else in Commander. If you enjoy solving complex board states and making the most of every Land you play, Tricky Terrain is the deck for you.

Articles about Modern Horizons III: Tricky Terrain

Interested in learning more about Tricky Terrain? Read these articles after this one:

Omo, Queen of Vesuva in Commander by Stephen Johnson

Ranking the Modern Horizons 3 Commanders by Levi Perry