Nearly Identical - Hazezon, Shaper of Sand or Yuma, Proud Protector?
(Zuran Orb | Art by Ryan Pancoast)
May Thy Knife Chip and Shatter
Hello! Welcome to Nearly Identical, a series where I take a look at two commanders with similar designs and archetypes, find out what separates them, and help you find your next commander. Today, I'm taking a look at two Naya Lands commanders who care about Deserts: Hazezon, Shaper of Sand and Yuma, Proud Protector.
When it comes to Lands-matter decks, Simic is usually the most well-known color pairing for the theme, but Naya now has two Lands Matter commanders who both care about Deserts. Before, Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor was one of the only Naya commanders who cared about lands. But while Obuun focuses on making one land into a big Elemental, Hazezon and Yuma care about going wide with tokens.
Hazezon has Desertwalk, which could be more relevant now with the new Deserts coming out in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. He's also a Ramunap Excavator for Deserts, so after you've sacrificed Scavenger Grounds, you can bring it back and make two Sand Warriors. With Yuma, we need Deserts to go to the graveyard first if we want to make 4/2 Plant Warriors, but that includes discarding and milling lands too. On top of that, he can sacrifice the lands himself to draw a card. Both look to put Desert lands in and out of the graveyard to build their army and swing for the win.
For Hazezon, I'm leaning into the token synergies and using his landfall-esque ability to make even more tokens. And for Yuma, I'm going the self-mill route to grow as many 4/2 Plant Warriors as possible. But before we get into it, what cards are we looking to include in both lists?
Tectonic Reformation is a great enchantment to have down early. Giving our lands cycling for one red helps get Deserts into the graveyard while drawing deeper into our library. Dune Chanter smooths out the kinks in our strategy by turning each of our lands into Deserts and allowing them to tap for any mana, which is extremely useful in our three-color deck that's running colorless Deserts.
Zuran Orb can enable a lot of land shenanigans in these decks. We can sac our lands and then cast a Splendid Reclamation to bring them back, giving us tons of tokens with our commanders out. Another excellent piece of land tech is Spelunking to untap all of our Deserts that enter tapped.
Fierce Warriors
Let's see how we're building this Hazezon deck.
Akki Scrapchomper and Sprouting Goblin sac a land to draw a card. Early game, we can use these Goblins to get Deserts into our graveyard so we can play them again with Hazezon. Normally, we wouldn't want to sacrifice our lands, but with additional land drop effects like Mina and Denn, Wildborn, we can keep up our land count while drawing cards and making Sand Warriors.
Goblin Trenches also sacrifice lands and make two Goblin Soldiers, building up our army and putting Deserts in the graveyard. With these lands going to the graveyard, an Azusa, Lost but Seeking, or a Druid Class can help bring Deserts back into play with Hazezon. Let's take a look at how we're going to multiply our forces.
Felidar Retreat makes 2/2 Cat Beasts or gives out +1/+1 counters to each of creatures. If we have ways to play multiple lands a turn, Felidar Retreat will overrun the table. Maja, Bretagard Protector will create Human Warriors whenever a land enters and she's an anthem on top of that. And Queen Allenal of Ruadach will make an additional Solider each time we make a creature token. With each land drop potentially making +3 creatures a turn, how can we close out the game?
Knight of New Alara takes advantage of the fact that Hazezon makes red, green, and white Sand Warriors, turning each Warrior into 4/4s. Neyali, Suns' Vanguard can be card advantage and a wincon in this deck. With anthem effects like Inspiring Leader, Neyali's double strike anthem will help end the game quickly.
And of course, if we're going wide, Jetmir, Nexus of Revels will close out most games. It won't be hard to have more than six creatures on the board when Hazezon is making two Warriors with each Desert land drop.
Now let's check out the deck!
Protector of Nature
Let's move on to Yuma and see what we're running in this deck.
Yuma makes a Plant Warrior token whenever a Desert goes to the graveyard from anywhere. So if we use Shigeki, Jukai Visionary, we can mill the top four cards into your library and make a Plant Warrior for each land we mill. We can either choose to ramp with Shigeki or put the lands in the graveyard as it'll help reduce Yuma's casting cost.
We could also discard the Deserts with Greater Good. We can sacrifice the 4/2 Plant Warriors to draw four and then discard three cards–helping us fill our graveyard with lands. And Imposing Grandeur takes advantage of Yuma's eight mana value by discarding our hand and drawing eight cards. Now let's take about how we're planning to get those lands back.
Life from the Loam returns three lands from the graveyard to hand. Perfect if we're looking for land drops after we've cast Yuma and the Dredge 3 will put even more lands into the graveyard. Plus, with all the ways we can discard lands, Life from the Loam will be a great engine for making Plant Warriors.
Blossoming Tortoise will mill three when it enters or attacks, and ramp us by bringing back lands from the graveyard. It'll also reduce the activation cost of our Deserts like Scavenger Grounds, Cactus Preserve, and Shefet Dunes. Faith's Reward is a mass reanimator that'll bring back all of our permanents that went to the graveyard this turn. This works well with Zuran Orb and Brass's Tunnel-Grinder as they set us up with a ton of Plant Warrior tokens. Now let's go over how we plan to win with this deck.
With the ability to bring all these lands back, we can trigger multiple combat steps with Moraug, Fury of Akoum and swing in for one big turn. Warleader's Call will burn our opponents when we make tokens and then finish them off when we swing in with 5/3 Plant Warriors. And finally, Rumbleweed could be a one-mana overrun if we have ten lands in our graveyard. Even getting this down for less than five mana will be a solid rate for this finisher.
And here's the deck!
Finding Our Oasis
Hazezon, Shaper of Sand leads with nearly 6,000 decks. He was the Desert commander that players were looking for, and his ability allows you to reuse the Deserts that you've sacrificed. Making two tokens for each Desert you play can quickly build an overwhelming board state. Yuma, Proud Protector currently has 600 decks during the Outlaws of Thunder Junction Prerelease weekend. It'll take some time to see if Yuma will make the same impact that Hazezon did.
The cost reduction is fine, but it'll require more work upfront to get Yuma out on the battlefield. In contrast, Hazezon can come down early to start making Sand Warriors. Hazezon's ability is also easier to trigger with newer cards such as Map the Frontier or Dance of the Tumbleweeds. Yuma does sacrifice a land when he enters or attacks to draw cards, so maybe that value will separate him from Hazezon and have him come out on top.
Let me know your thoughts below! Which Desert commander do you prefer? Do you prefer to make Sand Warriors or Plant Warriors? Let me know in the comments below and I'll see you next time!
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Joshua Wood
Josh is a creative writer that started playing Magic when Throne of Eldraine was released. He loves entering combat and pressuring life totals, and to him, commander damage is always relevant. Outside of brewing many commander decks, he can be found prepping his D&D campaigns with a cat purring in his lap.
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