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Terror Forming Terraforming [Primer]

Commander / EDH* Bracket 3 BRG (Jund) Counters Landfall Lands Midrange Multiplayer Primer Ramp Sacrifice Scapeshift

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Commander: Szarel, Genesis Shepherd

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Sorcery (11)

Artifact (3)

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The big name reprints in the pre-con and my decent stock of Lands Matter cards may have been my biggest influences for picking this deck up. My first couple of attempts at Lands Matter were a Zimone and Dina deck and a Lord Windgrace deck, both of which were more focused on combos and value. I played both decks a handful of times, but couldn't quite get them to click in a way that felt fun to me. Here's to hoping the third time is the charm?

In this new take on Jund Lands, Szarel, Genesis Shepherd offers an interesting new take on the design space; combining the value of a Crucible of Worlds and +1/+1 counter distribution sacrifice pay-off, all rolled into one in the command zone. Given this unique combination of abilities, Szarel can be built in a sliding scale of emphasis on +1/+1 counters, Sacrifice, and Lands Matter. The themes have varying degrees of overlap, and time will tell what directions call to me most.

I see this deck as a personal challenge to try out a couple of different strategies that I haven't played as much (+1/+1 counters and Lands Matter) and get a bit out of my comfort zone in that regard. I think Szarel offers an interesting means of turning some of the more typical "solitaire" and Value loop aspects of Lands Matter and turning them into more tangible means of generating aggro threats to close out games. Beyond the mechanical elements of the deck, I'm excited to add a more sci-fi flavored commander to my rotation, especially in a color combination that I've wanted to play for a while now.

For this initial take on Szarel, Lands Matter is the primary focus, with +1/+1 Counters taking a secondary support spot. The sacrifice elements in the deck are mostly focused on sacrificing Lands for value, and utilizing +1/+1 counter stacking effects to beef up a few threats at a time.

General game plan:

  • Set up a value loop of a Land Sacrificing engine with a Crucible of Worlds effect that can churn out value.

  • Utilize Szarel and other +1/+1 counters synergy to distribute counters and grow threats. Looking to go Tall in this regard, and less about going wide.

  • Primarily look to win through combat, and grind out value via Sac Outlets. The deck can be edited to fit in Lands focused combos with Bounce Lands (Golgari Rot Farm), Kodama of the East Tree, and Altar of the Brood.

Pros:

  • Lands Matter decks tend to be resilient and built for attrition.

  • +1/+1 counters strategies have a lot of support, especially in Green, so this could be a more feasible upgrade route.

  • Value engines and land sacrifice effects can make for explosive turns.

  • Deck is not dependent on the commander, instead Szarel is another value piece.

  • Most decks do not utilize much land destruction beyond Generous Gift type of effects, and may have a harder time interacting with so many value engines.

Cons:

  • Deck is built more for midrange and may be more vulnerable to early aggro threats.

  • Besides a couple of creature token generators, the deck doesn't really Go Wide, and is more vulnerable to getting swarmed.

  • Turn sequencing of sacrifice, extra land drops, and Landfall effects can be potentially overwhelming for newer players, and hard to keep track of.

  • Upgrades for this pre-con are more expensive compared to other strategies: Fetch Lands, Scythecat Cub, Squandered Resources, etc (Proxies are your friend).

  • Dialing in the ratio of spells to Lands can be personal preference and this also may be challenging for newer players to grasp.

  • Graveyard hate can set back momentum for mass land recursion.

Everyone's house rules are different in terms of friendly mulligans, but here are some things to consider when looking at opening hands:

Keepers

Mulligan away

  • Fewer than 2 lands
  • No ramp in the 1-3 cmc range
  • No recursion and sac enabling

Lands Matter strategies in part live and die by how quickly they can get off the ground, and their capability to drop extra lands each turn. While being able to drop extra lands each turn accelerates mana production, this isn't necessarily the same as early game ramp for a couple of reasons: you need to have a high enough of volume of Lands to drop them consistently, and you need to draw into those pieces consistently enough. For this section I am going to distinguish the varieties of ramp and mana acceleration available in this deck. The deck as of 8/1/25 is running 37 lands, if including 3 MDFCs, then 40 total.

Ramp

Ideally, these are the pieces that will help accelerate the deck off the ground in the first 1-3 turns. Beyond Birds of Paradise, the cards in this section aren't "dead draws" once we get into mid-late game, especially if any Landfall effects are active on board.

  • Birds of Paradisefoil - It's a classic mana dork. I opted to include this over Orcish Lumberjack (for now) for a couple of reasons: BoP can become an evasive aggro threat (lol) with the +1/+1 counter accumulation from Szarel and other pieces. Although Orcish Lumberjack can provide 3 mana in any combo of & , it is dependent on sacrificing a Forest to do so. This deck is majority , so consistency hopefully wouldn't be much of an issue.

  • Farseek, Nature's Lore, & Three Visits - It's the 2 cmc Ramp Siblings.

  • Lotus Cobra - This juiced up mana producing snake can be early game ramp when hitting land drops on curve, but can also turn into mid-late game mana acceleration, especially once any of the "Play an extra land" effects are on board.

  • Entish Restoration & Springbloom Druid - The Druid is just Harrow on an Elf.

Extra Land Drops

These are all cards that help with mana acceleration by allowing us to drop extra lands each turn, sometimes which enter tapped.

  • Exploration - This can be early game ramp, but is dependent on having enough extra Lands in hand, but that play pattern can also lead to over-extending on land drops before a Landfall piece is active.

  • Nahiri's Lithoforming - Technically a "break even" since you have to sacrifice lands for the effect, but is still helpful in setting up for both Landfall and Land Sac payoffs.

  • Azusa, Lost but Seeking - A potential swap with Oracle of Mul Daya (which is in the precon), depending on if I need the other upsides from the Oracle, more than I need the extra extra Land drops from Azusa.

  • Dryad of the Ilysian Grove - Stupid, sexy dryad. Also helps with color fixing.

  • Horizon Explorer - Helps find basics via Lander tokens, which then enter untapped because of Horizon Explorer.

  • Kodama of the West Tree - Helps give some extra Trample beef to creatures carrying counters, and finds our 9ish basic lands when those creatures connect. TBD if the current number of basics is worth including Kodama, but I think the Trample anthem should keep it relevant.

  • Wayward Swordtooth - Mostly here because I already had one in my binders, but could be an upgrade spot for something else like Six, Loot, Exuberant Explorer, or Traveling Chocobo (proxies are your friend).

  • Icetill Explorer - Self mill, Crucible of Worlds and extra land drops all rolled into one removal magnet of a value piece. Also 4 toughness for some beefy blocking???

  • The Gitrog Monster - The Frog opens up avenues for extra land drops to feed its voracious hunger.

Other Mana Acceleration

  • Evendo Brushrazer - I feel like this might get replaced after more play testing, but will keep testing before making that call. It's kind of like an Orcish Lumberjack with more upside at the cost of being slower to play. Time will tell if the trade-offs are worth it, or if Mr. Lumberjack will earn his spot here.

  • Tireless Provisioner - A solid mana accelerator in a deck like this, even if the Treasure production is slightly off-theme.

  • Culling Ritual - Ideal anti-token swarm tech that has lead to explosive turns in other decks that I've played it. In this deck it has the additional upside of turning a mass of Scute Swarm tokens into something even more productive.

If you're reading this, hopefully you're thinking "Wow, this is a really smooth transition from the Ramp & Extra Land Drops section". Because it is. Lands Matter decks need things to do with all those extra lands they're carying around - making the most of Landfall effects, and sacrificing lands for value.

Remember, terraforming is terror forming in this deck.

Landfall

Ideally, you want 1-2 Landfall effects on board when possible to risk over-extending, and to make it easier to keep track of game actions.

  • Bristly Bill, Spine Sower - I feel very lucky to have pulled this guy from a pack. The Infamous Bill does it all for this deck: distributes counters on Landfall triggers, and can use all that extra mana to juice up our counter holding creatures like BALCO-era MLB players.

  • Lotus Cobra - The mana snake turns Land drops into even more mana for explosive turns.

  • Scythecat Cub - Unless you're a money bags mf, proxy this card if you can. The innate Trample means this cat can juice itself up as much as it can another creature.

  • Tifa Lockhart - Another aggro threat with innate Trample that can kick the dog crap out of your opponents with a couple of Land drops and +1/+1 counters.

  • Horn of Greed - Although this doesn't say Landfall, it certainly makes use of all the "Play an extra land" effects in this deck.

  • Mightform Harmonizer - The Warp helps get this bug down sooner than expected. Yet another "Juice up an Aggro threat on Landfall" effect.

  • Retreat to Hagra - This slot was originally Tannuk, Memorial Ensign when I first put the deck together, but I opted for Retreat to Hagra for a couple of reasons: Single color casting cost made it more feasible to play, and Enchantment typing makes it a bit more resilient to removal and board wipes. Although we lost on Tannuk's draw, I figured the modal options for the Landfall effect were strong enough for inclusion.

  • Scute Swarm - A deterrent to wider board strategies once it pops off, and a potential token swarm win-con in some situations.

  • Tireless Provisioner - Kinda like Lotus Cobra, but different.

  • Icetill Explorer - Extra land drops, milling on Landfall to set up the graveyard for Szarel and itself.

Land Sacrifice

There are plenty of effects in this deck that can sacrifice lands for additional value and help Szarel pop off to distribute counters with his ability.

  • The deck currently (as of 8/1/25) runs 7 lands with some sort of utility self-sacrificing effect: Bloodstained Mire, Command Beacon, Nurturing Peatland, Prismatic Vista, Strip Mine, Verdant Catacombs, & Wooded Foothills.

  • Zuran Orb - It's 0 mana and can sacrifice lands for free to gain bits of life back. Not too shabby.

  • Crop Rotation - A Game Changer with added value in this deck for the sacrifice and tutoring.

  • Elvish Reclaimer - Another land tutor on a body, and can innately grow into a bigger threat or defensive body.

  • Need for Speed - An unassuming Haste anthem for 1 mana. Helps get those aggro threat off the ground and Szarel distributing counters for more pain all in one swoop.

  • Constant Mists - Infuriate the table for that Buyback cost, especially against decks with wider boards.

  • Nahiri's Lithoforming - Scaling land sac, drawing, and land drops.

  • Squandered Resources - Another "proxy this if you can" upgrade for the deck. This card is bonkers when combined with Szarel and all of the Landfall and extra land drops value.

  • Braids, Arisen Nightmare - I'm glad that she was included in the precon, as she is a pretty solid draw & interaction piece in sacrificed focused decks. In a deck like this, she can sac lands pretty easily to turn into draws, since non-lands matter strategies may be more apprehensive to sacrifice their own lands.

  • Entish Restoration - A nice upgrade over the Harrow in the precon, especially since the +1/+1 counter theme makes the 3 land drop a lot more feasible.

  • Evendo Brushrazer - TBD on how consistent this is, and if I'd rather had Orcish Lumberjack in this slot instead.

  • Price of Glory - Not sacrifice, but more so control that this deck has an easier time breaking parity with innately.

  • Springbloom Druid

  • Pitiless Carnage - Not exclusively land sacrifice, but Szarel cares about non-token permanents being sac'd.

  • Scapeshift - Another "Proxy this if you can" upgrade for this deck.

  • Korvold, Fae-Cursed King - Anyone who has played against the King of Jund knows how quickly he can get out of hand.

  • The Gitrog Monster - Still surprised that OG Gitrog and Korvold were both in the stock precon. Absolute value engine for this deck.

Mass Land Recursion*

Although Szarel allows us to play lands from the graveyard, there are a handful of effects here that either allow lands to be played from the graveyard, or recur them en masse.

  • Aftermath Analyst - A pleasant precon inclusion that mills a bit on ETB and can sacrifice itself for mass land recursion. The activated ability gives it more control on recursion timing compared to something like World Shaper, which is reliant on something else destroying or sacrificing it. Ultimately, I think Analyst vs Shaper for inclusion is more dependent on how much you value the need for repeated mill.

  • Icetill Explorer - Not mass recursion like the other cards in this category, but is welcome redundancy to Szarel's recursion effect.

  • Splendid Reclamation

  • Lumra, Bellow of the Woods - Big bear beats and recurs lands back.

All of the extra land drop effects in the world are useless without a hefty draw package in place to keep those engines fueled up.

Cantrip Lands

  • Festering Thicket & Sheltered Thicket - The Cycling lands offer some nice options in that they have the dual land typings, and Cycle themselves for a Cantrip draw. I considered also keeping in Canyon Slough, but wanted to cut back on the number of tapped lands. I figured I'd keep the Thicket siblings, and also both overlap on Green, the most dominant color in the deck.

  • Nurturing Peatland - A repeatable draw piece in this deck, given Szarel's innate Land recursion (and love of sacrifice).

  • Ziatora's Proving Ground - Another cycling land, but with the added upside of even more color fixing.

All other draw

  • Nahiri's Lithoforming - A draw piece that does just about everything else the deck wants to do: Sacs lands and drops extra to replenish what was sacrificed.

  • Life's Legacy - Trigger's Szarel's ability, and can repurpose a beefy creature. Kind of a shame it's not instant speed as a tempo response to targeted removal.

  • Braids, Arisen Nightmare - More often than not, Braids will be sac-ing lands in this deck. Idk why anyone would be surprised at that. I've typically played her in more Aristocrats focused decks that have plenty of creatures to feed her. Even in those builds she typically draws about 2 cards per activation.

  • Evendo Brushrazer - Given the higher volume of land sac effects in deck, this should be impulse drawing often enough, but can also activate its own impulse via its mana ability.

  • Horn of Greed - "See everyone, I'm not the bad guy. I'm letting everyone draw cards. I am benevolent. Ignore that I can play more lands per turn than you all."

  • Terrasymbiosis - A flavorful addition that is kinda feast or famine in this deck, depending on the +1/+1 counters synergies active. I think since Szarel is a baseline 2 power, drawing 2 cards per turn in conjunction with Szarel's distribution isn't too bad.

  • Valakut Awakening   - Helps to sculpt a (hopefully) more ideal hand, and has the added upside of being a land if needed.

  • Greater Good - Another means of repurposing beefy creatures and triggering Szarel. A potential tempo response to instant speed removal, and also helps fill up our yard with discard.

  • Korvold, Fae-Cursed King - The King of Jund himself. Anyone who has played against Korvold at any power/Bracket level will know what an absolute menace this dude is. There's nothing Korvold loves more than sacrificing things to get beefy and draw cards.

  • The Gitrog Monster - Much like Korvold, anyone who has played against this menace will know that his voracious hunger leads to card draw.

Tutors

The tutors for this deck are mostly land focused. It goes without saying that stuff like Demonic Tutor and Diabolic Intent would both work well here, especially if your take on Szarel is more combo focused. Diabolic Intent also has the additional sacrifice bonus for Szarel.

  • Crop Rotation - It's a Game Changer with even more upside here because of the sacrifice requirement.

  • Elvish Reclaimer - An aggro threat that can grow in size and also sacrifices lands to find more lands. What a tutor here.

  • Scapeshift - Very expensive and splashy spell that has all the more upside with Szarel.

These categories will get fine tuned the most as I get more play reps in with the deck. At first impression, I wish I could squeeze a bit more targeted removal into the deck, but time will tell how much of anything in this deck is actually needed.

Removal

As I mentioned earlier in the primer, this deck is fairly vulnerable to decks that prefer to go wide. To help counteract those strategies, I am running a couple more board wipes than I typically do.

  • Boseiju, Who Endures - Channel Boseiju to remove something, then play it from your GY with Szarel. Max value.

  • Assassin's Trophy - Versatile single-target removal.

  • Tear Asunder - Ditto as Assassin's Trophy, but a bit more expensive for the versatility. A great inclusion for the precon.

  • Beast Within - More versatile single-target removal. If our single-target options are going to be more limited, then they should be able to remove just about anything.

  • Braids, Arisen Nightmare - As mentioned in the Land Sac section, Braids will more often than not be used to Sacrifice lands to draw cards, but she does have the flexibility to sacrifice other permanent types to put opponents into a predicament of sacrificing their own resources to prevent drawing and chip loss of life.

  • Soul Shatter - Not quite a board wipe, but a "multiple birds, one stone" type of card. Ideally this will hit commanders or whatever big threats are around the board, and the sacrifice helps get around all those pesky effects like Ward, Hexproof, Shroud, and Indestructible.

  • Toxic Deluge - Since this board wipe can scale, this has the potential to be asymmetrical, given that our creatures will get juiced up with +1/+1 counters.

  • Culling Ritual - Wreaks havoc on token strats of all varieties, and typically hits smaller utility creatures that tend to be in the 1-2 cmc range. The times I've played this and wiped out some sizable token boards, I've had some kind of explosive turn from all the mana generated.

  • Fell the Profane   - The 4 cmc for targeted removal is not ideal, but that's essentially the trade off for the utility on hitting creatures or planeswalkers at instant speed, and having a land stapled on the back.

  • Chandra's Ignition - Similar line of thinking as with Toxic Deluge, except it has the potential to end games depending on life totals and how big the targeted creature is.

Protection

This deck isn't dependent on Szarel, Genesis Shepherd, but it certainly appreciates having some extra gas from him on board.

  • Plaza of Heroes - A bit unfortunate that it exiles for its protection effect, but I understand why they chose that. It would have had plenty of repeated usability in deck like this.

  • Swarmyard - Szarel is an Insect

  • Malakir Rebirth   - Instant speed recursion/regen with a land stapled on the back.

  • Sylvan Safekeeper - A free land sac ability that feeds into Szarel's ability and makes opponents second guess sending targeted removal our way.

  • Constant Mists - Another big deterrent against go-wide strategies. The Buyback ability is busted in this deck, and can keep opponents looking around the table until they figure out how to deal with you (or you run out of lands for Buyback).

  • Heroic Intervention - Green's staple board protection spell.

  • Deflecting Swat - A Game Changer that has flexibility to redirect spells around as needed.

  • Slippery Bogbonder - The 4 cmc is a bit rough, but has added utility to stack +1/+1 counters onto one really big threat.

  • Vigor - A solid curve topper that grows threats and lets our aggro board swing away.

This section of the deck will likely undergo more expansion and fine tuning with more play reps. The initial idea here is to focus on creatures that distribute counters in large quantities, or can hold +1/+1 well as aggro threats.

  • The Ozolith - Counters support piece that helps reduce on lost progress from taking removal.

  • Bristly Bill, Spine Sower - Counter distribution on Landfall and can quickly grow threats with his activated ability.

  • Scythecat Cub - Kinda like Bristly Bill, but can be an aggro threat due to its innate Trample.

  • Sphere Grid - Rewards our creatures for connecting on combat damage, and helps get the counters train rolling for those that don't already have counters on them. Gives some very relevant keywords in Trample and Reach, especially since Green adjacent strats tend to not fare well against flying creatures.

  • Kodama of the West Tree - Offers some slight redundancy as a Trample anthem with Sphere Grid, but also rewards combat damage connections and enables Landfall by grabbing basic lands.

  • Red XIII, Proud Warrior - As of 8/19/25, I'm play testing this over Mightform Harmonizer. Mightform was plenty of fun in play-testing, especially with any extra land drop effects, but I wanted to sneak in another anthem effect, especially one that can grant both Trample and Vigilance.

  • Terrasymbiosis - Feast or famine draw depending on consistency of counter distribution effects active. The "may" ability helps with selectivity on draw quantity.

  • Ouroboroid - Prime time target for Szarel to target with his counter distribution and start snow-balling the Ouroboroid's distribution.

  • Slippery Bogbonder - Instant speed protection that can also move +1/+1 counters en masse onto one aggro threat.

  • All Will Be One - Shoot damage around the table at creatures or faces. Can potentially be a Win con.

  • Vigor

Because some of the +1/+1 counters and land sacrificing value pieces may be more financially prohibitive for some players (proxies are your friend), some of these alternate builds can be more budget friendly means of playing Szarel. These lists are not intended to be exhaustive by any means, but are hopefully starting spots for consideration.

Aristocrats

Because Szarel, Genesis Shepherd cares about non-token permanents being sacrificed, this opens up avenues to instead lean into general Aristocrats synergies, and completely forgo Lands sacrificing as a primary focus.

The inclusion of cards like Juri, Master of the Revue and Mayhem Devil in the precon are signposts that this could still be a viable means of building this deck, especially if you prefer more creature based means of sacrifice.

+1/+1 Counters

Cards like Scythecat Cub and Bristly Bill are pretty expensive. If you want to go heavier into +1/+1 counters, there are tons of support cards that can be considered for this build variant. Here are a handful of cards in my collection that I'm considering for potential swaps. For more comprehensive options, enable tags on my deck and check out the Counters Synergy tag in the Considering Board:

Insect Kindred

Maybe Landfall and Aristocrats aren't really of primary interest to you. Szarel can certainly be the commander for a deck focused on Insects, and finding some of the fun and niche synergies there. Certain Insects like Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest are a fairly common inclusion for a lot of Szarel decks, given its precon inclusion, and Scute Swarm is a powerhouse for land focused decks.

Bracket considerations

The deck is currently (8/5/25) a Bracket 3 on paper, for the primary criteria of: 3 game changers (Field of the Dead, Crop Rotation, & Deflecting Swat), lack of Mass Land Destruction (besides my own lol), and no "Early game" 2-card combos.

I think based on the inherent strength of Lands Matter strategies, there is some argument that could be made that this deck is actually a Bracket 4, especially given the volume of free land sac outlets like Squandered Resources and other powerful synergy pieces like the Fetchlands and Strip Mine. I think "powering down" this deck would be pretty easy, and good start places would be more expensive cards that are north of $20, especially with how powerful they can be in this strat.

In terms of pushing this deck to Bracket 4, based solely on Game Changer quantity criteria, I think the next one or two Game Changers that make the most sense for inclusion would be Glacial Chasm and/or Seedborn Muse. Glacial Chasm is a fairly busted land in a deck like this, especially since Szarel has land recursion stapled onto him. This would encourage the play pattern of:

  1. Never pay Glacial Chasm's upkeep cost, allowing it to self-sac. Szarel sees this and distributes his counters.

  2. Go to combat and swing any relevant threats as needed.

  3. Post-combat/2nd main phase recur Glacial Chasm with Szarel and keep it pushing.

Seedborn Muse would act almost like a pseudo-Vigilance anthem for any of our bigger aggro threats, and would do a lot of work to keep copious amounts of mana open for any instant speed interaction or activated abilities.

It's possible you read through this entire primer and thought to yourself, "Nah, I'd rather still play Hearthhull, the World Seed". That's fine, but I think you're missing out an another fun Jund option. I took this deck list and swapped out pretty much all of the +1/+1 Counter support and swapped in more Lands Matter and Land Fall enablers/pay offs. All in all, the two decks have about 18 cards in difference, but are otherwise fairly identical.

If Hearthhull is of greater interest to you, then here is my quick take on a build for that commander (primer TBD).

Hull Is Where The Hearth Is

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