Welcome back to Bottom of the Barrel, where we pick a theme from EDHREC and look at the least played color combinations and pick a commander in those colors to brew a spicy new deck around.

Today's theme is a tremendously popular one: lands. Specifically, EDHREC labels this category as "lands matter." If you look at the most popular decks in this strategy, they all share one common denominator: the color green. Today's deck asks the question: what happens when you take green away?

The most popular color combination for "lands matter" decks, with a whopping 15,000 decks in the database, is Simic (blue and green). This isn't surprising, as Omo, Queen of VesuvaOmo, Queen of Vesuva was a recent precon commander, and Tatyova, Benthic DruidTatyova, Benthic Druid is one of the most cracked uncommons I've ever seen.

The least popular color combination, unsurprisingly, doesn't include green (or even blue!). With 40 decks in the database, Mardu (white, black, and red), has the fewest decks focused around the "lands matter" theme. As soon as I saw this color combination, I immediately thought of my favorite commander from Commander Legends: Toggo, Goblin WeaponsmithToggo, Goblin Weaponsmith.

Toggo makes Rocks, and that's hilarious.

In order to make Toggo work as our commander, we needed to add an Orzhov (black and white) partner. The most powerful choice would be Tymna the WeaverTymna the Weaver, a known powerhouse in cEDH, but I went for the safer option in Ravos, SoultenderRavos, Soultender.

Yes, Tymna is strictly better, so if you want to build with Tymna, go for it. Just be aware that you may be targeted first.

Category #1: Ramping Without Green

Wizards of the Coast has been printing a lot of cards in white lately that people lovingly call: "catch-up ramp." In order for us to get ahead with this deck, we must first be behind, and let's be honest, if we're playing against a green deck, we're already behind.

There are the usual suspects in white, like Archaeomancer's MapArchaeomancer's Map, Knight of the White OrchidKnight of the White Orchid, Keeper of the AccordKeeper of the Accord, and sad robotsad robot, but there is also the "new hotness" in Claim JumperClaim Jumper and Deep Gnome TerramancerDeep Gnome Terramancer.

Most of these cards search for a "PlainsPlains card," so I made sure the deck is stocked full of them.

As I previously mentioned, we need to be behind in some cases, and that's not always guaranteed. That brings us to our next category...

Category #2: Getting Behind

There are several ways to force ourselves onto the back foot, and I'll be focusing on two specific strategies.

Strategy #1: Bounce Lands

Three multi-color bounce lands are available in this color combination: Rakdos CarnariumRakdos Carnarium, Orzhov BasilicaOrzhov Basilica, and Boros GarrisonBoros Garrison. Outside of those, I've included Guildless CommonsGuildless Commons as an extra way to enable our "catch-up" ramp cards.

Strategy #2: Sacrificing Our Lands

Bounce lands are much safer than this, but a huge part of this deck's chemistry relies on our ability to sacrifice lands and profit from it. Nahiri's LithoformingNahiri's Lithoforming can potentially allow us to re-trigger Landfall effects. ReprocessReprocess, Pitiless CarnagePitiless Carnage, and God-Eternal BontuGod-Eternal Bontu all let us sacrifice any number of permanents to draw that many cards (between Toggo's Rocks and our lands, that's a ton of value!), and Braids, Arisen NightmareBraids, Arisen Nightmare allows us to control what we want to sacrifice, oftentimes putting our opponents in a difficult position.

Since we're sacrificing lands, we need ways to bring them back...

Category #3: Regrowing Our Lands

White has a really great ability to return permanents from our graveyard, and this can often include lands. Sevinne's ReclamationSevinne's Reclamation and Serra ParagonSerra Paragon both allow us to recur anything we want from our graveyard within reason. Second SunriseSecond Sunrise, Faith's RewardFaith's Reward, and Brought BackBrought Back allow us to bring back everything we sacrifice in a given turn (imagine casting ReprocessReprocess, sacrificing all of our lands, then getting them all back!). And outside of white, we have the most obvious inclusion in the deck: Crucible of WorldsCrucible of Worlds.

There's an extra special card to recur our lands, but I'm saving that one until later.

Category #4: Landfall

Landfall abilities are a bit scarce in Mardu colors, but the options that we do have are pretty crazy. Every time I've seen Felidar RetreatFelidar Retreat hit the board since it was printed, it has been an absolute house. Emeria ShepherdEmeria Shepherd is an insane "reanimation" effect. And Emeria AngelEmeria Angel creates 1/1 flying tokens, which are more relevant than you might think.

Category #5: The "Secret Spice"

The secret spice for this deck includes a relatively unpopular commander: Yomiji, Who Bars the WayYomiji, Who Bars the Way.

There aren't a whole lot of legendary lands in Mardu colors, but I had to include them when I thought of how cool all of our sacrifice effects would be with Yomiji. We can't combo off immediately with Yomiji, but sacrificing lands feels less bad when you just get them all back to your hand.

While all this "looping lands" stuff seems cool, I'm sure you're asking the question: "How does it win?" Well, outside of the token plan with Felidar RetreatFelidar Retreat or Emeria AngelEmeria Angel, there's an absolute heater I need to talk about: Valakut ExplorationValakut Exploration.

This card can provide us with extra card advantage, which is very good, but if we have one of those crazy turns where we're "looping lands," we could potentially kill the entire table with its second ability.

Closing Thoughts

This deck has been sitting in my drafts for a few months now, but I'm glad it finally gets to see the light of day. I hope you enjoyed my journey into "lands matter" today, and I hope you find inspiration in this article to build something wacky on your own!

Check out my decklist below: