The World Shaper Edge of Eternities Commander deck contains the following:

• 1 Ready-to-play 100-card Commander deck
• 1 Traditional foil face commander with borderless art
• 1 Traditional foil featured commander with borderless art
• 98 Non-foil cards, including 10 new-to-Magic cards
• 10 Double-sided tokens or punch-out counters
• World Shaper contains 10 double-sided tokens
• 1 Deck box

Szarel, Genesis ShepherdSzarel, Genesis Shepherd

Hearthhull, the WorldseedHearthhull, the Worldseed

Baloth PrimeBaloth Prime

A 10/10 four only four mana, there's the drawback that Baloth Prime takes awhile to awaken from its stun counter-induced slumber. However, it still impacts the board significantly even before it wakes up, allowing for the creation of a 4/4 Beast for each land we sacrifice. It even comes with its own Zuran OrbZuran Orb-esque ability to allow for a sacrifice outlet.

Baloth Prime is never going to be a bad draw in this precon, and custom-made decks will make this card even more devastating.

Speaking of sacrificing lands, the World Shaper precon also gifts players a land that willingly jumps onto the altar. Eumidian Hatchery rewards repeated tapping, and the one life paid each time is a pittance when it's cashed in for an army of 1/1 bugs in the late game.

Commander rewards players for using cards that accrue passive value, and Eumidian Hatchery is a prime example of that.

Eumidian Wastewaker might seem like an annoyingly symmetrical resource drainer, but in the right deck, that symmetry will be easily exploited. World Shaper is in a lot of ways one such deck, but this Insect Cleric will be more at home in decks that lean more into the discard aspect. And the eight-mana encore ability is just gravy.

There are a few caveats with Evendo Brushrazer: it only counts nontoken permanents sacrificed, and the card advantage is in the form of the very red top-of-library exile instead of straight draw. But for three mana, there are worse things.

Especially since on top of all that, it's got a once-per-turn Squandered ResourcesSquandered Resources stapled to it.

Our first Spacecraft, Exploration Broodship lives up to its namesake by allowing for the doubling-up of land drops each turn, provided it's been stationed at 3+.

That's an additional hoop to jump through than just playing ExplorationExploration, but Exploration can't eventually turn into a 4/4 flyer that essentially gives all your permanents retrace.

If the rest of the new cards are dessert, Festering Thicket (and fellow new land Vernal FenVernal Fen) are eating our vegetables.

While not particularly exciting on their own, it's nice to see outstanding cycles of multicolor lands being completed, and a cycling land like Festering Thicket is particularly synergistic in World Shaper.

The line of text "Lands you control enter untapped" would have been even more exciting if it wasn't just used on The Wandering MinstrelThe Wandering Minstrel, but it's still very cool, nonetheless - especially in a deck like World Shaper that features so many lands that by default enter the battlefield tapped.

Also, getting upward of three Landers a turn, which are essentially Rampant GrowthRampant Growths that enable sacrifice triggers, makes Horizon Explorer a contender for best new card in Edge of Eternities Commander. 

Planetary Annihilation is essentially a worse WildfireWildfire/Burning of XinyeBurning of Xinye in the sense that it allows players to keep a minimum of six lands, instead of likely dropping them lower than that. But land destruction is still land destruction, and Planetary Annihilation will be the center of many Bracket and Rule Zero discussions when it comes to World Shaper.

At the end of the day, it's a good (but not great) card and perfectly fine in a precon/Bracket 2.

Scouring Swarm is very similar to Scute SwarmScute Swarm, a card that people either love or hate depending on their outlook re: exponential math. It's arguably worse, since it's harder in a vacuum to get lands into the graveyard than it is to simply put them onto the battlefield, but adding flying to the equation means the power level difference between the two swarms is a lot closer than it seems.

Like Festering Thicket is doing with the two-color cycling lands, Vernal Fen is doing with the "tango" lands. We're seeing the completion of a cycle, so players who were fans of this particular land group will be pleased that every color combination is finally represented.

With World Shaper, our goal is to move lands from zone to zone, accruing value with every step. We want triggers to go off when a land enters the battlefield, is sacrificed, is in the graveyard, or is exiled. Ideally all of the above with the same land.

To help with that goal, the precon includes a whopping 42 lands in the 99, likely more than most players are used to playing in their own custom decks that aren't Ashling the PilgrimAshling the Pilgrim and 99 MountainMountains.

Many of those 42 lands come with their own sacrifice abilities, like Fabled PassageFabled Passage, Myriad LandscapeMyriad Landscape, or Cabaretti CourtyardCabaretti Courtyard, which certainly helps out our strategy.

If there's one aspect of our aim to create a never-ending carousel of lands coming and going, it's adequate land-sacrifice outlets. We've got a few, but we could probably make due with more.

The land game is our central focus, so many of the cards that allow us to extract value from it do so passively, including our commander, Szarel, Genesis ShepherdSzarel, Genesis Shepherd. Cards like Baloth PrimeBaloth Prime, Juri, Master of the RevueJuri, Master of the Revue, and Korvold, Fae-Cursed KingKorvold, Fae-Cursed King act as the payoff of our land dance.

It might take a while to get our engine set up, which is why World Shaper plays more like a mid-range deck - our focus is on dominating turns 4+, which is why we've got plenty of removal, including multiple board wipes like Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act, Gaze of GraniteGaze of Granite, and Planetary AnnihilationPlanetary Annihilation.

Like most modern Commander precons, World Shaper's all about that synergy. A total of 41 out of 58 nonland cards care about lands in some way or another.

Unlike most modern Commander precons, however, this one technically includes an infinite combo, courtesy of the interaction between The Gitrog MonsterThe Gitrog Monster and Dakmor SalvageDakmor Salvage.

I'll let our friends at Commander Spellbook explain:

Admittedly, it's pretty niche as far as usefulness goes, but someone, somewhere will fire up the World Shaper precon and use this combo to tell a very memorable story.

As mentioned, almost half of World Shaper is lands. That said, surprisingly few provide utility outside of mana fixing. We've got our new bug-making land Eumidian HatcheryEumidian Hatchery, as well as old stalwarts Bojuka BogBojuka Bog and Escape TunnelEscape Tunnel, but every other land is here to either make mana or go find a different land that makes mana.

As for mana rocks, a deck with 42 lands isn't going to play a ton of artifact ramp, but as usual we've got Arcane SignetArcane Signet and Sol RingSol Ring to help out.

So you snagged a copy of World Shaper and want to soup it up a bit. Starting with five cards, what should be added? And how far can the power level be pushed?

First of all, cards can't be added before others are removed, so which five cards are on the chopping block?

These five cards are either redundant or are worse at their job than their replacements.

We're axing Worldsoul's RageWorldsoul's Rage and Escape to the WildsEscape to the Wilds due to the fact that they're costly sorceries that might not do enough to create a big swing at their mana value. Formless GenesisFormless Genesis is a good card, but much better in environments that can utilize the changeling tokens more than simply being bodies, and Uurg, Spawn of TurgUurg, Spawn of Turg, while fun to say, doesn't provide enough value to justify a slot in the deck.

And Arcane SignetArcane Signet, while a format staple, is worse than a land in a deck that cares so much about lands.

Five Additions on a Budget

Zuran OrbZuran Orb is likely self-explanatory, but it's probably one of the best land-sacrifice outlets there is, and a glaring omission in World Shaper. Same with Sakura-Tribe ElderSakura-Tribe Elder, which synergizes with our commander as well as several other cards in the list.

And yes, we're removing one X-spell and adding another in Nahiri's LithoformingNahiri's Lithoforming, but we're getting a ton more value out of the land sacrifice as well as the added land drops.

Five Additions with No Budget

Land-based strategies tend to be a bit impactful on the wallet, but if budget isn't a consideration, there are plenty of options to take World Shaper to the moon. If we want to lean into our commander's +1/+1 ability, we want to make sure the bug gets its share too, which is where Bristly Bill, Spine SowerBristly Bill, Spine Sower and OuroboroidOuroboroid come in.

As for the other three cards, Constant MistsConstant Mists and ScapeshiftScapeshift kick our land sacrifice into overdrive, though admittedly for the latter, for Scapeshift to truly be great, we'd need to improve our lands as well. And Crucible of WorldsCrucible of Worlds is exactly what it says on the tin, and enables a ton of combos as well, should we want to go that route.

Game Changers

There are plenty of generically powerful Game Changers to be added, but there are also a few that synergize with World Shaper very well: Crop RotationCrop Rotation, Field of the DeadField of the Dead, and Glacial ChasmGlacial Chasm all do exactly what the deck wants.

As for Braids, Cabal MinionBraids, Cabal Minion... why not?

Most of the World Shaper deck is geared toward lands. But there are plenty of interesting possibilities for strategies under the "lands" umbrella. With Szarel, there's an entirely different deck with a focus on +1/+1 counters, and one that will likely see plenty of interest as the precon makes its way into people's hands.

However, the deck also provides players with Hearthhull, the WorldseedHearthhull, the Worldseed. The legendary Spacecraft is much more laser-focused on lands and nothing else. It's that 8+ station ability that is most intriguing, forcing every opponent to lose two life for each land sacrificed. That might be worthy of a deck on its own:

It's a lot easier to sacrifice lands if they're also creatures thanks to Kormus BellKormus Bell, Living LandsLiving Lands, and the other spells. And if we're turning all lands into creatures, we might as well take advantage of that with plenty of ways to derail the game by virtue of mass land destruction.

That said, this deck is squarely Bracket 4, though it contains no Game Changers. It does, however, contain a ton of combos, including this one:

For both Edge of Eternities Commander decks, the MSRP is listed at $44.99.

World Shaper comes in at an estimated contained value of around $240. However, that estimate is inflated by prerelease hype centered around the 12 new cards. If we remove the new cards, the value of the reprints becomes around $90.

The most expensive reprints in World Shaper are:

• Korvold, Fae-Cursed KingKorvold, Fae-Cursed King
• Oracle of Mul DayaOracle of Mul Daya
• Moraug, Fury of AkoumMoraug, Fury of Akoum
• Fabled PassageFabled Passage
• and Braids, Arisen NightmareBraids, Arisen Nightmare.

Factoring in the deck's synergy, fun factor, value, and new cards, World Shaper is a very solid precon and one that won't disappoint when it comes to fun out of the box as well as upgrade potential.

World Shaper gets a B+.