Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper!

Noyan Dar is a five mana 4/4 with whenever you cast an instant or sorcery you may put three +1/+1 counters in target land you control and if you do then then that land becomes a 0/0 Elemental creature with haste that’s still a land.

Combining a spell slinger strategy along with a lands matter strategy is an unusual combination especially in white and blue, but there is some interesting directions we can take the deck, especially since we can play with a bunch of cards that would normally be a disadvantage to us in a way that benefits us.

The goal of the deck is to have a go wide land creatures deck that will serve as our primary source of creatures in the deck while also playing with cards that will effect nonland sources, which will also happen to make our lands even more effective in winning us the game.

The first thing we need is to make sure that we can get as many lands onto the battlefield as possible.

Dreamscape Artist is one of the very few ways for blue to ramp because for three mana, tap, discard a card, and sacrifice a land we can search our library for up to two basic land cards and we can put them onto the battlefield, notably untapped and also notably repeatable if we have the mana and a way to untap.

White is going to be our primary source of ramp, though a lot of will be catch up ramp which won’t be as effective if our opponents aren’t getting a lot of lands onto the battlefield. Sand Scout is one of our better options because even though an opponent needs to control more lands then us when it enters for us to search for a Desert, we can also gain the benefit of making a 1/1 Sand Warrior token whenever one or more lands we control go to the graveyard from anywhere once each turn.

More often then not our ramp package is going to be in line with something like Claim Jumper, which when it enters and is an opponent controls more lands than us then we can put a Plains card onto the battlefield tapped, and then we can repeat this process once if an opponent still controls more lands than us.

Deep Gnome Terramancer is probably one of the better ways for us to take advantage of our opponents getting a lot of lands onto the battlefield because whenever a land enters the battlefield under an opponents control without being played then we can get a Plains onto the battlefield tapped once each turn.

The next thing we need are ways to interact with nonland permanents while making sure our lands are unaffected in order to attack.

Devastation Tide is a solid mass bounce spell that returns all nonland permanents to their owners’ hands, but also has the benefit of having Miracle for two mana, meaning that if it is the first card we drew this turn, even if we drew the card on our opponents turn.

Flood of Tears is also a mass bounce spell, and if we return four or more nontoken permanents we control this way, we may put a permanent from our hand onto the battlefield, which is also a great way for us to put Noyan Dar back onto the battlefield so we can spend some more mana to turn more of our lands into creatures.

We can also use our land creatures as lands and still be able to attack by using cards like Frantic Search, which draws us two cards and then we discard two cards, but more importantly let’s us untap up to three lands, which we can use offensively or defensively as we need it.

Once our land become creatures, we also have access to ways to untap them because they are creatures with cards like To Arms! which untaps all creatures we control and draws us a card. Because of how timing works, Noyan Dar will turn one of our lands into a creature when we cast To Arms! and before it resolves, meaning we can tap our creature lands for mana as well as the land we intend to turn into a creature from Noyan Dar’s ability to have them all untap.

There is also a sneaky way for is to make sure any lands we get that are destroyed can come back by using Sacred Ground, which whenever a spell or ability an opponent controls would cause a land we control to go to the graveyard, we return that land to play. This means that if an opponent plays a board wipe that would normally destroy our lands, they just come back and we prevent ourselves from getting absolutely blown out.

The last thing we need is to make sure our lands can get in and deal the damage we need to win.

Halimar Tidecaller gives land creatures we control have flying, which becomes especially helpful when we have a bunch of land creatures, and the Tidecaller also return target card with awaken from our graveyard to our hand when it enters.

Awaken is an interesting mechanic that is an alternate casting cost that also puts a number of counters on a land and makes it an Elemental creature. Planar Outburst can be a solid way for us to make use of this because it destroys all nonland creatures, and with Halimar Tidecaller we can make use of this effect at least once more, maybe even being able to cast it with its awaken cost.

We can also protect our lands with cards like Tomik, Distinguished Advokist which gives lands on the battlefield and land cards in the graveyard unable to be targets of spells or abilities our opponents controls and our opponents can’t play land cards from the graveyard or even something as simple as Terra Eternal which turns all lands indestructible.

Tezzeret’s Gambit can be used as a way to draw cards and proliferate the +1/+1 counters on our creature lands, Contentious Plan to proliferate and draw a card, and View from Above can be used as a way to give target creature flying until end of turn and then if we control a white permanent then we can return View from Above to our hand as a repeatable way to turn our lands into creatures.

If we want to make sure that our land creatures can deal a lot of damage Sigarda’s Summons can have creatures we control with +1/+1 counters have base power and toughness 4/4, flying and turn them into Angels in addition to their other types and Brave the Sands can give creatures we control vigilance and can have each creature we control able to block an additional creature each combat.

Noyan Dar is an interesting engine Commander that combines spell slinger, lands matter, and a go wide strategy all into an interesting game plan that requires a bit of work in order to make effective.

The hardest part of playing this deck is that if we don’t have a way to protect our lands when they become creatures, then we risk losing our lands and falling way far behind. We don’t have a lot of land recursion pieces if this is the case, so play with some amount of caution.

Still, this deck is a fascinating puzzle that has some interesting twists and turns, especially for a white and blue deck that plays with lands and is definitely a deck I want to experiment with in the future.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual