Szarel, Genesis ShepherdSzarel, Genesis Shepherd | Art by Matt Stewart 

Hello fellow brewer, and welcome back to Brew For Your Buck, where we swap out the top 10 most expensive cards in a deck with 10 budget cards that add a unique twist.

We've been so caught up in deck techs for new commanders lately, so it's been a while since I wrote a BFYB article. In fact, we have yet to feature an Edge of Eternities (yes, remember that set?) commander in an article, so today we're finally getting around to that.

Long time readers of BFYB will know that we've previously covered every "CrucibleCrucible in the command zone" cards: Hazezon, Shaper of Sand, Zask, Skittering Swarmlord, and Titania, Nature's Force. Edge of Eternities (EOE) gives us a new entry in the list, so I feel obligated to cover it.

Szarel, Genesis ShepherdSzarel, Genesis Shepherd is the commander of the World Shaper precon, bringing us into Jund () for the new installment of land/graveyard-based shenanigans.

In conjunction with the lands theme, Szarel also promotes a +1/+1 counter theme that's enabled by sacrificing nontoken permanents (lands) during our turn. There are just under 3,300 decks on the site at time of writing, with an average list price of $301.64.

Here's the list of the most expensive nonland cards, which happens to be very top heavy.

Total Value of Cuts: $186.55

Well, if we want to cut the deck's cost by 33% we can simply remove Squandered ResourcesSquandered Resources and be done with it. While ending the article there would save me some time, it wouldn't make for great content, so let's keep going.

In general, three-color decks tend to have fairly expensive mana bases, and even more so with a lands deck. I'm pleasantly surprised to report that only five lands need to be removed and replaced with basics, leading to an additional $59.26 in savings for a total of $245.81.

Additions

Szarel's second ability has some interesting wording. It'll only trigger when we sacrifice a nontoken permanent, and only during our turn. However, it's not capped on the number of times we can trigger it. So if we can sacrifice a lot nontoken permanents, we get a lot of counters.

Szarel's CrucibleCrucible ability lets us fuel that with lands, but we have almost no way to take advantage of the counters besides just buffing our creatures. So, rather than focusing on more ways to add counters, I want to rely on our commander as the engine and focus on the payoffs for said counters.

Buzz 1/ Buzz 1 Counters

First up, Evolution WitnessEvolution Witness ($0.18) is the ultimate recursion piece for this deck. With Szarel deployed, each time we trigger its second ability, we can target Evolution Witness and get the permanent we sacrificed back to our hand.

Inspiring CallInspiring Call ($0.30) is a card velocity/protection spell combo, which can be particularly devastating in response to a board wipe. If we're the only player with a board and a fresh set of cards, suddenly we're very far ahead for only three mana. Just make sure to spread the counters around!

Speaking of, we'll look to the EOE main set and add Bioengineered FutureBioengineered Future ($0.32). This enchantment seems built for a Szarel deck, with the land synergies enabling our creatures to enter with at least one counter most of the time. I'm surprised this wasn't already in the list.

Retribution of the AncientsRetribution of the Ancients ($0.46) is a really cool card to put in a removal slot in the deck, kind of functioning as a repeatable Doom BladeDoom Blade that can kill indestructible (and black) creatures. We can also do some other sneaky stuff with this, like messing with combat to stop combat damage triggers, or changing combat math while opponents are attacking each other.

Iridescent HornbeetleIridescent Hornbeetle ($0.17) can poop out a ton of Insect tokens in this deck, and scales up extremely well as Szarel's power grows. It won't trigger Szarel when it's sacrificed, but that doesn't mean it can't attack, block, wear counters, etc. If we want to add Insect typal as a third theme for this deck, it's a must-have.

Another Insect to throw into the list is Duskshell CrawlerDuskshell Crawler ($0.13). It's not flashy, but giving all our counter-wearing creatures trample goes a long way to closing out the game. The ability for lands decks to durdle is a bit of a meme, and opponents will appreciate a swift conclusion rather than cracking a fetchland three times in a turn with no plan.

We can still do that, but we'll probably have just given a creature +6/+6 and trample; a pretty quick clock if I do say so myself.

Marketback WalkerMarketback Walker ($0.52) would be a perfect place to dump those counters. It stinks if it gets hit with an exile spell from an opponent, but otherwise we get the potential for a massive burst of cards.

PersistAnt

While I was doing research on the +1/+1 counter cards, I realized that Szarel has incredible synergy with persist. If we sacrifice a creature with persist, we can stack the triggers such that the persist trigger resolves first, putting the creature back on the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter. Then we resolve Szarel's trigger, putting the +1/+1 counters on the persist creature and annihilating the -1/-1 counter. Now we're ready to repeat the process again.

Of course, that means Murderous RedcapMurderous Redcap ($0.93) is a win condition, or if we want to be really mean, Woodfall PrimusWoodfall Primus ($0.25) can blow up everyone's lands. We don't have a repeatable sacrifice outlet for creatures in the deck, so we'll add Umbral Collar ZealotUmbral Collar Zealot ($0.60) to fill the graveyard with lands and fuel the persist shenanigans.

I'd recommend making a few more cuts to add more sacrifice outlets if I were leaning further into the combo aspect.

Wrap Up & Savings

Let's see what we saved:

80% is above average as a savings percentage, but don't forget that 33% of that is one card. The number to focus on in this case is the total amount for the new cards. For under $4 we powered up the +1/+1 counter aspect of the deck by quite a bit. In fact, there are so many sweet cards that can amp up the synergy in this deck that I couldn't add them all.

I actually do think the Insect typal aspect could also be a fun brewing restriction for the deck. ZaskZask does have some interesting cross-synergies with Szarel.

Anyways, if you enjoyed the list, want to suggest cards, or tell me you disagree with all my choices, drop a comment down below! We finally have a bit of a breather with spoilers (I think?) so coming up next will likely be a Spider-Man commander in the next article.

Until then, happy Monday, and I'll see you next time when we brew for your buck!

Szarel, Genesis Shepherd Budget Commander Deck List

If you want to send your personal deck through the Brew For Your Buck process, send an email to [email protected] with an Archidekt link and a few sentences about what your goals for the deck are, and your deck could be featured in a future article!

Please note: card prices listed in this article are accurate at the time of writing, but prices can vary over time and between locations.

Read More: