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Kruphix Lands Matter *Primer*

Commander / EDH Combo GU (Simic) Infinite Combo Landfall Lands Primer

LeonSpires

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Land (40)

Sorcery (9)

Creature (19)

Enchantment (10)

Commander (1)

Commander: Kruphix, God of Horizons

Instant (17)

Artifact (4)

I am always looking to improve my list and welcome all constructive criticism, questions, and suggestions. I try to get back to all comments as quickly as I am able. Thank you for viewing my Kruphix Lands Matter Primer.

“Kruphix is the eldest of the gods. The enigmatic god has dominion over the potential, the distant, and the unseen. Thus, he is seen as an oracle of dreams. He also governs navigation, mystery, and the cycles of time and is the keeper of mysteries that no others are meant to learn.” (Source)

A good general helps the player win but a good deck should be able to function and win without the general. Not only does Kruphix, God of Horizons act like a second Reliquary Tower but he also stores all the extra mana the deck produces for larger spells that help you win. Once Kruphix, God of Horizons is out he is incredibly hard to remove. Anything that destroys enchantments or creatures doesn't work on him. Furthermore most of the time things that exile creatures won't affect him either as he is only a creature when your devotion to green and blue is seven or more. Kruphix, God of Horizons might not quite fit the theme of lands matter but he is a great support general.

You may enjoy lands matter Kruphix if:

  • You are a Johnny player and like the intricate interactions of cards.
  • You like winning out of nowhere with dumping all your mana into Genesis Wave.
  • You like decks that focus on utility early game.
  • You like interacting with your opponents.

You may not enjoy lands matter Kruphix if:

  • You are a Timmy player and prefer the normal big creature eldrazi builds of Kruphix.
  • You find having 20 plus cards on board confusing.
  • You like faster combo decks that go off sooner (read: you are a cEDH player).
  • If all your friends are new players and are running Precons.
Other lands matter generals you might want to consider.
The Gitrog Monster: Unless you are running this deck at full power against other cEDH decks I would recommend away from The Gitrog Monster. That being said The Gitrog Monster, when built right, is the most powerful commander around the theme of lands matter. The reason for this is The Gitrog Monster offers consistent extra card draw and a way to play extra lands. The deck then wins by looping the land Dakmor Salvage. If you want to build this deck I recommend looking up the current list on the cEDH Database. Also be sure you understand the Dakmor Salvage combo lines as it isn't very intuitive.
Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait: Two very good alternative generals to Kruphix. Both of them give you tons of card draw with the downside of making Planar Portal, Tooth and Nail, Genesis Wave, and Finale of Devastation harder to pull off. I personally prefer them in the 99.
Yarok, the Desecrated: A commander all about ETB triggers. This even includes lands. I have tried running Yarok in the past and like him on paper a lot better then in practice. The problem is you want to run a lot more ETB cards that fetch lands into play. This leads to running suboptimal cards that provide insane value when Yarok is in play and are lackluster when he isn't. The black color identity does give access to better tutors however.
Lord Windgrace: Lands matter utilizing the graveyard. This deck tends to uses mass land destruction to set everyone back to the stone age. Lord Windgrace is used to reestablish a board presence afterwards.
Omnath, Locus of Rage: Most people's go to general for lands matter. Omnath, Locus of Rage provides a landfall payoff sitting in the command zone. Furthermore Gruul give access to red and with it mass haste enablers like Fervor and Fires of Yavimaya. However missing out on having access to counter magic is the big downside of running Omnath, Locus of Rage over another lands matter commander.
Karametra, God of Harvests: Without blue you lose counterspells and card draw. However you do get the trade off of having better removal in white. You also get Knight of the Reliquary.

Lands matter started becoming popular in the Zendikar block with the introduction of the keyword landfall. It has also become popular in modern with Titanshift and now Amulet Titan. The strategy is very much so viable in EDH as well.

A friend of mine in college (around 6 years ago) came up with the rough draft of this deck. He ran Edric, Spymaster of Trest as the general and used that general as card draw and a deterrent from early attacks. He was also the one who suggested changing the general to Kruphix, God of Horizons a few years after I bought the deck from him. I have made many changes to his list over time. The big one being that the deck was originally mostly moonfolk tribal. However over time the moonfolk I run got whittled down to only the best two for more consistent land bounce like Cloudstone Curio and Sunder. I also added in more player interaction in the form of counterspells and removal.

Step 1: Play early game ramp like Sakura-Tribe Scout, Exploration, and Cultivate.

Step 2 (Optional): Cast Kruphix, God of Horizons and start saving your mana.

Step 3 (Optional): Cast Genesis Wave for all the mana you have available or cast Tooth and Nail entwined.

Step 4 (Optional): Set up a counter lock with Soratami Savant.

Step 5: Get Avenger of Zendikar or Rampaging Baloths into play.

Step 6 (Optional): Rite of Replication kicked on Avenger of Zendikar or Rampaging Baloths.

Step 7: Ramp more. Win off of the tokens from Avenger of Zendikar or Rampaging Baloths.

Step 1: Play Walking Atlas or Sakura-Tribe Scout.

Step 2: Give your Walking Atlas or Sakura-Tribe Scout haste or wait for summoning sickness to go away.

Step 3: Play Retreat to Coralhelm.

Sep 4: Activate Walking Atlas or Sakura-Tribe Scout to put a land into play.

Step 5: Retreat to Coralhelm will trigger off the landfall. Use that trigger to Walking Atlas or Sakura-Tribe Scout.

Step 6 (Optional): Repeat this loop to put all lands in your hand into play.

Step 7: Use Simic Growth Chamber (targeting itself) or Ghost Town (on an opponent's turn), or Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, or Cloudstone Curio, or Meloku the Clouded Mirror to keep this loop going infinitely.

Step 8: Win off of Meloku's 1/1 tokens or another landfall trigger discussed in the 'How To Win' section.

Several people have suggested cutting Planar Portal for Planar Bridge both in person and online. I would be inclined to agree if I wasn't running Seedborn Muse, Alchemist's Refuge, and Leyline of Anticipation. This deck plays more like a combo deck then your normal Simic big creature Timmy deck. Being able to fetch any response to any situation on your opponent's turn is a dream come true. If they don't force you to answer something you can fetch a combo piece and play it. Now you might think getting Planar Portal, Seedborn Muse, and Alchemist's Refuge / Leyline of Anticipation into play at the same time might be a bit challenging. However thanks to Genesis Wave this is not as hard as you think. As long as you hit Planar Portal and one other piece Genesis Wave typically gives you enough lands to fetch and play the last part of the combo.
There are a few small differences in the current list and this section. I spent hours typing this section and formatting it a few years ago. I am not redoing that work anytime soon unless major changes are made to the deck.
  • Exploration / Burgeoning: The best turn one play in this deck. They allow this deck's lands to quickly get out of hand.
  • Gaea's Touch: Worse Exploration that only lets me play an additional forests in hand. The sac effect is sometimes relevant and once there are no more lands in hand it is sometimes the right thing to do.
  • Azusa, Lost but Seeking / Oracle of Mul Daya: More play extra lands a turn this time in creature form.
  • Walking Atlas / Sakura-Tribe Scout: Part of our infinite combo but they also help with ramp and landfall when not going infinite.
  • Fertilid: Fetches lands into play when activated.
  • Cultivate / Kodama's Reach: Land to play, land to hand, the best value this deck can get for three mana.
  • Sol Ring: Not land ramp... Still the best value any deck can get for .
  • Mystic Remora: The best blue one drop this deck runs. The amount of card draw this simple blue enchantment gives is insane.
  • Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm one cantrips
  • Sylvan Library: Amazing card selection / advantage you have the option of paying life to get cards you need and if worse comes to worse fetch lands can be utilized to get rid of bad card draws you know are coming up.
  • Yavimaya Elder: Puts two lands into hand when he dies. Can be sacrificed for to draw a card.
  • Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath repeatable card draw, life gain, and landfall. Fits everything this deck is trying to do.
  • Gush: Normally the two islands are available to bounce without messing up this deck's mana base and the free draw two is really good mid to late game.
  • Soratami Savant: With or without Training Grounds and a lot of lands / mana locks the game down. Also you get style points for using a card no one knows about to create one of the harshest counter locks that for the most part can only be played around using uncounterable spells, split second, and/or cards with storm. With Soratami Savant at full power you can counter anything the opponents play. They pay the counter it again. Soratami Savant has won me a lot of games but honestly Soratami Savant is a stall tactic to get one of the other win cons.
  • Pact of Negation: “Free” counterspell, I mean if I win the turn I play it I don't have to pay the upkeep cost. Although don't be afraid to play this card to stop someone else.
  • Swan Song: Cheep CMC counter that stops a variety if things. Most of the time the 2/2 bird is irrelevant.
  • Flusterstorm: One CMC counter magic that can be used as protection on explosive turns
  • Counterspell: Classic. Seriously that's all I'm going to say about this card. It's good run it.
  • Delay: Cheap CMC counterspell sometimes the game ends before the three turns sometimes in three turns the spell doesn't do anything.
  • Voidslime: Counterspell that counters extra things.
  • Rewind / Unwind: Normally there are better counter spells but with Kruphix the mana from the lands they untap can be floated using Kruphix.
  • Krosan Grip: Destroys an artifact or enchantment and can't be responded to.
  • Beast Within: Destroys a permanent and most of the time the 3/3 beast is irrelevant.
  • Acidic Slime: Destroys an artifact, enchantment, or land and gives a deathtoucher body to deter attacks.
  • Cyclonic Rift: Blue staple. It can make it so I win and/or stop my opponents from winning. Don't forget it can be cast for two to bounce one permanent if the situation calls for it.
  • Sunder: An evil card that should have never been printed. But if it's not banned I suppose I should run it. Sunder should be played only when able to play more then one land a turn. Ideally I have Burgeoning out when I cast it.
  • Mana Breach: The perfect balance of a stax card that this deck can easily play around.
  • All the alters in this deck are done by myself.
  • The alters are hand painted physical alters on real Magic: The Gathering cards.
  • Each alter is a reproduction of another artist work.
  • I have only used artwork where the original artist is dead.
  • I limited the numbers of artworks from any given artist to two or less.
  • The commander Kruphix, God of Horizons is the only exception. I used a photo of the artist Bob Ross as reference for this alter.
  • I have altering all 60 non land cards in this deck.
  • I have zero plans to alter the land cards in this deck as I have no inspiration to do so.
  • A list of the cards with the artist and artwork that I referenced can be found here.

deck chart

Kruphix Lands Matter $100 Budget

Commander / EDH LeonSpires

SCORE: 6 | 620 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

*$100 At time of creation

The true strength of this deck is that it runs so much land utility early game that it is a very resilient deck in the mid to late game.

Even when it comes to land destruction which is a perceived weakness of lands matter decks that don't use the graveyard. It is able to recover. I was playing against a Lord Windgrace deck with this deck in a four player pod. Lord Windgrace played a turn two Smallpox and turn three Noxious Revival to recast Smallpox. I managed to keep dumping lands into play and win that game. Granted I had a very good opening hand. But Kruphix can certainly play around land destruction. Even when it comes to mass land destruction this deck is typically able to recover before it's opponent's are able.

One weakness of this deck is that it has to hit it's early game utility and then refill it's hand. Some games I've played I either kept a bad hand or had key utility interrupted and had to sit around waiting for my hand to refill.

Another weakness I've noticed is when Kruphix, God of Horizons keeps being exiled or countered. As stated in the section “Why Kruphix” I do not need Kruphix to win. However because of the utility he provides it slows the deck down when he is continually answered.

Luckily for me the biggest weaknesses of this deck aren't commonly run in EDH. And that weakness is anything that punishes life totals for lands entering play or tapping. Some examples of these cards are Manabarbs, Polluted Bonds, and Zo-Zu the Punisher. If this deck stands any chance of winning cards like these must be answered.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Swapped a few cards. — May 29, 2022
Edit

Scute Swarm, and Tireless Provisioner have both proven their worth in testing and are here to stay. I still defend Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, and Temple of the False God as having a home in this list. Look back at my last update made on June 28th, 2021 for my rational. Three major card swaps were just made today and are as follows:

Cuts

  1. Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath: I have felt for a while that this card has always under-performed for me. I'm never excited to draw it and rarely have the cards in graveyard to pay the escape cost. By the time I have the graveyard to pay the escape cost there are more impactful plays I would rather be making.

  2. Sunder: This is a good card and has won me games. The problem is it normally sits in my hand and does nothing. Sometimes when I draw Sunder I am not set up enough to benefit significantly from casting it. Other times it would benefit me however I am not able to win in one to two turns. I don't cast it because I don't want to be a jerk to the other players. Therefore I am cutting it to add a card I will actually use.

  3. Krosan Grip: The times that Split Second matters is outweighed by the fact there is much more efficient CMC artifact / enchantment removal.

Additions

  1. Drift of Phantasms: Sometimes a 0/5 blocker with flying is relevant however most of the time this card is used as a tutor by paying the Transmute cost. Most of the important cards in this deck are 3 CMC the most important being one of the deck's wincons Genesis Wave. Simic can have a hard time tutoring enchantments and artifacts. Drift of Phantasms can fetch Retreat to Coralhelm and Cloudstone Curio parts of the back up infinite combo. Additionally it can also tutor card draw, counterspells, removal, recursion, and a creature that wins games.

  2. Pull from Tomorrow: I know there are other similar cards like Blue Sun's Zenith and Stroke of Genius however I only want to run the one pay X mana draw X cards. These type of cards can be game ending however if too many game ending spells are run it takes away deck slots that help set up the cards to be game ending. I chose Pull from Tomorrow for two reasons (1) it is Instant speed and can be cast on the opponent's end phase before starting turn (2) it is two CMC and thus can be tutored with Spellseeker.

  3. Nature's Claim: Simple swap in as it is CMC less than Krosan Grip. I don't think I have every won a game with this deck that I would have lost if an opponent had just 4 more life.

List is now back to being updated! — June 28, 2021
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Revision 25 See all

(1 year ago)

-1 Dark Depths maybe
-1 Glacial Chasm maybe
-1 Thespian's Stage maybe
Top Ranked
Date added 6 years
Last updated 11 months
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

4 - 0 Mythic Rares

50 - 0 Rares

15 - 0 Uncommons

15 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.87
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Beast 4/4 G, Bird 2/2 U, Clue, Copy Clone, Food, Illusion 1/1 U w/ Flying, Insect 1/1 G, Plant 0/1 G, Treasure
Folders Ideas, Deck Ideas, Commander, Merfolk, EDH, Xmage, Ref Decks, Cool Decks, Some Stuff, Commander
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