Table of Contents
Forget ramping — this deck’s about launching.
Welcome to the first Edges of Eternities Commander upgrade guide, featuring the land-hungry, value-stacking World Shaper deck.
product::magic-the-gathering-edge-of-eternities-world-shaper-commander-deck
My mission? Simple: help you power up your precon without powering down your bank account.
Like always, I’ve picked 10 upgrades for under £10 total (at time of writing). These aren’t just staples — they’re clever synergies and hidden gems that won’t break the budget or warp the meta. Let’s make your deck shine as bright as the cosmos it came from.
PS. All recommended budget upgrade card prices were under budget at the time of writing. Prices might have changed since.
The Commanders
Recent rules changes now let Legendary Vehicles and Spacecraft be your commanders, provided they have a power and toughness box. This opens up intriguing new strategies, such as our alternative commander:
Hearthhull, the Worldseed
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/1/hearthhull-the-worldseed
Hearthhull, the Worldseed becomes an artifact creature once it reaches 8+ charge counters. You add counters by using its Station ability—tapping a creature at sorcery speed. At 2+ counters, Hearthhull allows you to sacrifice lands for extra card draw and land plays. At 8+ counters, it becomes a powerful creature that drains your opponents whenever you sacrifice lands.
However, for this upgrade, we'll focus on the face commander:
Szarel, Genesis Shepherd
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/4/szarel-genesis-shepherd
Szarel combines the best elements of commanders like [[Korvold, Fae-Cursed King]] and [[Muldrotha, the Gravetide]]. You can play lands from your graveyard and distribute +1/+1 counters whenever you sacrifice a nontoken permanent. We'll lean into the sacrifice synergy, maximizing land-based triggers without relying heavily on counters, which are well-covered elsewhere.
Budget Upgrades
Upgrade 1
IN: The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride
https://scryfall.com/card/otj/206/the-gitrog-ravenous-ride
My first upgrade is The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride. I originally planned to slot in the classic [[The Gitrog Monster]], but Wizards beat me to it—he's already in the deck! Still, this newer version fits the build nicely. While it’s not quite as powerful as the original, having both Gitrogs gives the deck even more synergy.
Gitrog pairs especially well with [[Szarel, Genesis Shepherd]]. It plays into both the sacrifice theme and the +1/+1 counter strategy. You can load counters onto Gitrog itself or spread them to other creatures you plan to feed it. On top of that, Gitrog helps drop a pile of lands into play, keeping you stocked for all the land-sacrifice effects running through the deck.
OUT: Centaur Vinecrasher
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/94/centaur-vinecrasher
I’m cutting Centaur Vinecrasher. While it fills the role of a chunky trampler, [[The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride]] does that job better—and with more utility. Vinecrasher relies on lands in graveyards to be relevant, and although it can come back over and over, that’s not really what we want here.
If you’re leaning into [[Szarel, Genesis Shepherd]] as your commander, the goal is to minimize lands in your graveyard so you can replay them with Szarel’s ability. And while Vinecrasher checks all graveyards, in Bracket 2–3 pods it’s less likely that opponents are filling theirs with lands. That leaves too much pressure on your own graveyard to make it worthwhile.
Upgrade 2
IN: Wight of the Reliquary
https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/207/wight-of-the-reliquary
Wight of the Reliquary is a clever nod to [[Knight of the Reliquary]]—a card that would fit perfectly here if it weren’t for the green-white colour identity. Thankfully, Wight does just fine on its own.
While we miss out on replaying lands from the graveyard like we would with Knight, Wight still gives us valuable land sacrifice triggers. It also lets us fetch any land straight to the battlefield. So if you’re looking to upgrade the manabase with utility lands, Wight becomes even stronger. At its simplest, it’s a solid mana fixer and sacrifice enabler.
Even with the stock deck, grabbing something like [[Fabled Passage]] gives you another land to crack for Szarel triggers. It’s a great fit whether you’re running the deck out of the box or tweaking the mana base further.
OUT: Exploration Broodship
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/14/exploration-broodship
Exploration Broodship looks like the kind of Spacecraft I’d like to see more of—cheap to cast and only needs three charge counters to get going. The issue? It’s a worse version of [[Exploration]].
You have to Station three creatures just to match Exploration’s ability. And the so-called payoff at Station 8?
Once during each of your turns, you may cast a permanent spell from your graveyard by sacrificing a land in addition to paying its other costs.
It’s neat, but not worth the effort. This deck isn’t built to sit back and tap down creatures. It wants to attack, pressure the board, and use its creatures proactively. Broodship pulls in the opposite direction.
Upgrade 3/4
IN: Hew the Entwood + Nahiri’s Lithoforming
https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/136/hew-the-entwood
https://scryfall.com/card/znr/151/nahiris-lithoforming
These two cards go in as a pair — both let you sacrifice a bunch of lands, triggering [[Szarel, Genesis Shepherd]] to pile counters across your team. They also happen to work beautifully with [[The Gitrog Monster]], which I hinted at earlier.
Let’s start with Hew the Entwood. For 5 mana, you can sack as many lands as you want to dig for artifacts and more lands. It’s a high-risk, high-reward play — you might whiff and bin a bunch of non-hits to the bottom of your deck. But if you hit right, the value is huge. Thanks to Szarel’s ability to replay lands from the graveyard, the downside is softened — just don’t sack everything unless you're planning to end the game then and there.
This is great mid-game value or a potential late-game bomb. Either way, you’re pumping your team with every land sacrificed.
Nahiri’s Lithoforming is the more reliable of the two. Yes, it costs more upfront since it’s an X spell, but you draw that many cards and get to play that many additional lands this turn. In a deck that can replay lands from the yard, it’s all upside. It fills your hand, fuels Szarel, and sets up explosive turns with little downside. A genuine draw spell disguised as a land-sacrifice enabler.
OUT: Sprouting Goblin
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/90/sprouting-goblin
Sprouting Goblin just doesn’t cut it in Commander. Three-mana ramp that puts a land into your hand is too slow and clunky. At the very least, I’d expect the land to hit the battlefield. If you want this sort of effect, cards like [[Springbloom Druid]] or [[Cultivate]] are just better.
OUT: Groundskeeper
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/97/groundskeeper
Groundskeeper is another easy cut. If it returned any land, it’d be playable. But just basics? And only to hand? It’s way too limited, especially when you’re already restricted to one land drop a turn. Szarel can do this so much better — and Groundskeeper isn’t even close as a backup. It costs mana and offers very little upside in this shell.
Upgrade 5
IN: Zuran Orb
https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/300/zuran-orb
In World Shaper, Zuran Orb shines as a free, instant-speed sacrifice outlet for your lands—perfect fuel for [[Szarel, Genesis Shepherd]]. Sure, you’re technically going down a land, but if you’re using Szarel to replay them from the graveyard, you’ve basically bypassed the downside.
I could have added a more traditional sac outlet like [[Goblin Bombardment]], but this deck isn’t leaning into tokens or aristocrats. Zuran Orb fits the land-sacrifice theme I’m building around much better.
Bonus: you can use Zuran Orb in tandem with cards like [[Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx]] or [[Gaea’s Cradle]] to generate even more mana. Tap the land for a huge burst of mana, sac it to Orb, then replay it with Szarel and tap it again. Value city.
OUT: Uurg, Spawn of Turg
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/127/uurg-spawn-of-turg
Uurg, Spawn of Turg falls into the same trap as [[Centaur Vinecrasher]]—it needs lands in your graveyard to function, which is exactly what we’re trying to avoid. The whole point of this build is to sacrifice lands, get value, and then replay those lands. Uurg works against that plan.
Yes, the surveil 1 on upkeep is nice for filtering and marginal synergy, but it’s not enough. And the activated ability?
{B}{G}, Sacrifice a land: You gain 2 life.
That’s just bad. You’re spending two mana to trigger Szarel and gain 2 life. There are far more efficient ways to get those triggers.
Upgrade 6
IN: Nurturing Peatland
https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/243/nurturing-peatland
OUT: Rocky Tar Pit
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/173/rocky-tar-pit
Nurturing Peatland goes in as a placeholder for all the sacrifice lands that are currently missing from the deck. Ideally, you’d be running fetchlands — but those are out of budget. Still, Nurturing Peatland offers great synergy and utility, especially compared to slower options like Rocky Tar Pit.
Rocky Tar Pit belongs to the “slow fetchland” cycle — lands that come in tapped and only fetch a basic land the next turn. That delay hurts. In contrast, Nurturing Peatland enters untapped, taps for mana immediately, and gives you card draw when sacrificed. That flexibility is key in a deck built around land sacrifice and recursion.
There are already a few sac lands in the deck, but if you’re upgrading the mana base, the first lands to replace are anything that enters tapped with no upside — think [[Evolving Wilds]] or [[Cabaretti Courtyard]]. They’re fine as budget options, but they’re among the first cuts when you're ready to invest more.
Here’s a quick rundown of sacrifice land cycles you might want to look into if you’re upgrading further:
Fetchlands – e.g. [[Bloodstained Mire]]
These are the gold standard. Paired with shocklands ([[Blood Crypt]]) or original duals ([[Badlands]]), they offer incredible fixing. Fetchlands also have no color identity, so even something like [[Scalding Tarn]] is playable in a non-blue deck because it can fetch a Mountain.Sac-Draw Lands – e.g. [[Tramway Station]]
These sacrifice to draw a card but enter tapped. Great flood insurance, but tempo loss can be painful.Panoramas – e.g. [[Jund Panorama]]
Old-school and clunky. You pay mana to fetch a basic. Not ideal, but usable on a budget.Landscapes – e.g. [[Twisted Landscape]]
Strictly better than Panoramas: same fetch effect, but free to activate and has cycling as a bonus.Blighted Cycle – e.g. [[Blighted Woodland]]
These are mono-color utility lands. Woodland is one of the best, giving you ramp late-game.
And a few standalone lands that also play well with this deck’s theme:
[[Prismatic Vista]]
[[Warped Landscape]]
[[Shire Terrace]]
[[Promising Vein]]
[[Urza’s Cave]]
This upgrade is all about setting up smoother mana and more consistent sac triggers. If you can improve your land base, everything else in the deck will run more smoothly.
Upgrade 7
IN: Blackblade Reforged
https://scryfall.com/card/dom/211/blackblade-reforged
Yes, I know — I keep recommending Blackblade Reforged in upgrade guides. But that’s because they still haven’t printed a good budget alternative! Until they do, it’s going to keep showing up.
In this case, it’s here to pump up [[Szarel, Genesis Shepherd]]’s power. Szarel’s ability scales with how big she is — so boosting her with Blackblade means more counters spread across your board.
I did consider [[Strata Scythe]] for this slot, but in a three-color deck, we’re not likely to have enough of the same basic land to make it worthwhile.
Blackblade gives you a reliable way to go big and multiply the value of Szarel’s triggers.
OUT: Hammer of Purphoros
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/88/hammer-of-purphoros
Even back in 2013, Hammer of Purphoros wasn’t exactly a game-changer — and in 2025, it’s been completely outclassed. There are now far better options for granting haste to your creatures. [[Rising of the Day]] is one such upgrade, especially with its bonus for legendary creatures.
Hammer does offer a land-sacrifice outlet, which is probably why it made the cut for this precon. But at three mana, it’s not where I want to spend my early game. And even its synergy with Szarel is a bit awkward — because the sacrifice is part of the cost, Szarel’s trigger resolves before the Golem token even hits the battlefield. No extra counters there.
This slot is better used for something that multiplies Szarel’s impact more consistently.
Upgrade 8/9
IN: Ian the Reckless + Gau, Feral Youth
https://scryfall.com/card/pip/59/ian-the-reckless
https://scryfall.com/card/fic/55/gau-feral-youth
Ian the Reckless and Gau, Feral Youth are both payoffs for going big — and this deck is very good at going big.
Ian the Reckless rewards you for stacking counters tall. Sure, he deals damage to you equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on your modified creature — but he also fires that much damage at any target.
That means removing problematic creatures or sending it straight to someone’s face. And let’s be honest, making Ian modified is easy here — [[Szarel, Genesis Shepherd]] is tossing out counters like Halloween candy.
If you slap on something like [[Loxodon Warhammer]], giving Ian lifelink, you cancel out the self-damage and start gaining life while nuking threats.
Gau, Feral Youth is arguably the stronger card. He scales with each attack — building himself up turn after turn — but what we’re really here for is this:
At the beginning of each end step, if a card left your graveyard this turn, Gau deals damage equal to its power to each opponent.
With Szarel letting you play lands from the graveyard, this is trivially easy to trigger. Stack Gau with counters, swing in, and then torch the table at every end step. In a deck designed around constant recursion, this thing adds a terrifying clock.
OUT: Formless Genesis
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/96/formless-genesis
Formless Genesis is next on the chopping block. Like many other cuts I’ve made, it relies on lands staying in the graveyard — which is not where we want to be. The retrace ability does help keep lands in the yard, but the whole point of this deck is to use those lands again, not leave them rotting.
Sure, it offers repeatable 1/1 deathtouchers, and it’s a value engine if you’re planning to retrace over and over. But it costs three mana and your land drop to get that going. If you just want a steady deathtouch blocker, [[Ophiomancer]] does it better, and without eating up your mana and lands. Formless Genesis might make more sense in a grindier Hearthhull build — but not here.
OUT: Pest Infestation
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/103/pest-infestation
I usually hate cutting interaction, but Pest Infestation just isn’t doing enough here. {X}{X}{G} to remove artifacts or enchantments is a steep cost — and it only hits X targets. If you want to go wide and blow up a bunch of stuff, I’d rather just play [[Bane of Progress]] and call it a day.
The Pests themselves offer no real synergy. This isn’t an aristocrats deck. We don’t have the sac outlets or token payoff engines to make them relevant. If we did, and they could fuel Szarel triggers, I’d keep it — but that’s not what this deck is doing. Pest Infestation gets cut.
Upgrade 10
IN: Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
https://scryfall.com/card/ima/101/ob-nixilis-the-fallen
We’re ending on a high note — or rather, a massive one. Ob Nixilis, the Fallen is the kind of haymaker this deck loves. While World Shaper isn’t a dedicated Landfall deck, it plays like one often enough — and Ob slots right in.
Here’s the dream: get Ob Nixilis on the battlefield before casting [[Nahiri’s Lithoforming]]. Sacrifice all your lands, then replay them via [[Szarel, Genesis Shepherd]]. For each land, Ob grows and pings an opponent for 3. Stack this with a big enough land dump, and you’re launching a tactical nuke.
Ob gets huge from the counters, and Szarel follows suit with her own trigger. If even one opponent is open, you could easily burn out the other two, then swing in with an unstoppable Ob Nixilis to finish the job. Lethal damage and pure spectacle in one tidy package.
OUT: God-Eternal Bontu
https://scryfall.com/card/eoc/83/god-eternal-bontu
This one stings, but we need to make room. God-Eternal Bontu is a strong card, no doubt — but in this deck, it’s too risky. Sacrificing multiple lands without a clear way to replay them leaves you wide open, and if the draw doesn’t pay off, you’re stuck with no way to recover.
Yes, it can be a massive tempo swing when it works. But unlike [[Nahiri’s Lithoforming]], Bontu doesn’t let you play extra lands. If you’ve retooled the deck to be more aristocrats-focused, or if you’ve added cards like [[Azusa, Lost but Seeking]] to get extra land drops, then maybe Bontu earns a slot. But in the current list, it’s just too all-in for my liking.
Non-budget Upgrades
Looking for even more upgrades? Try these 10 cards that didn't meet our budget requirement, but synergise with this deck:
https://scryfall.com/card/fdn/107/mossborn-hydra
https://scryfall.com/card/vis/137/squandered-resources
https://scryfall.com/card/m19/201/scapeshift
https://scryfall.com/card/c18/116/retreat-to-hagra
https://scryfall.com/card/znr/203/scute-swarm
https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/287/sylvan-safekeeper
https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/163/entish-restoration
https://scryfall.com/card/sth/104/constant-mists
https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/169/six
https://scryfall.com/card/znr/175/valakut-exploration
Final Thoughts
World Shaper isn’t one of the busted Commander precons — and honestly, that’s a good thing. It’s solid, well-constructed, and led by two strong, synergistic commanders.
That said, I can't help but laugh: the deck might actually be strongest when you swap in the secret third option — [[Korvold, Fae-Cursed King]]. With him at the helm, you get a massive flying threat that turns every sacrifice into card draw. Hard to argue with that value.
I’m also excited to see the continued printing of the Tango lands like [[Vernal Fen]] and Bicycle lands like [[Festering Thicket]]. Gavin Verhey mentioned that the full cycles will be completed in upcoming precons, and that’s a win for mana base upgrades everywhere.
One last combo to keep in mind: [[Szarel, Genesis Shepherd]] can be a filthy engine in the right build. If you add two creatures with Persist and a free sac outlet, you can go infinite. Add [[Murderous Redcap]] to the mix and you’ve got infinite damage. Szarel puts +1/+1 counters on death, canceling the -1/-1 from Persist — just make sure you're targeting the other creature each time since she can't target the one that just returned.
Also, side note — it’s funny how [[Planetary Annihilation]] made it into this deck. That’s straight-up mass land destruction, usually considered a Bracket 4 tactic. But I guess it’s fine now? Looks like we're dropping Armageddons in Bracket 2 these days!
Shoot for the moon — even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. Good luck, and remember to have fun.
If you're picking up any Edge of Eternities products, booster boxes, commander decks or anything Magic: The Gathering we’ve got you covered here at Gathering Games.
