Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir!

Jolrael is a four mana 3/3 that at the beginning of combat on your turn, up to one target land you control becomes an X/X green and blue Bird creature with flying and haste until end of turn where X is the number of cards in your hand while still being a land and whenever a land creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.

Turning our lands into creatures can be an interesting way to play, while also being a bit risky if we manage to get our lands destroyed. Luckily for us we should be able to plan around that and get our lands to do a decent bit of damage.

The name of the game is to get some solid lands in play that provide a benefit if they become land creatures, ways for us to draw a bunch of cards so that our lands can deal a big mess of damage, while having the support for making sure our lands don’t get completely destroyed.

The first thing we need is to set up our land suite so we can get them to be as effective as possible.

Restless Vinestalk is an ideal land to have because at base it can become a 5/5 Plant creature with trample and when it attacks we can give another target creature we control base power and toughness of 3/3, and the best part is that this particular ability activates without having to turn it into a land creature with its own ability first.

Frostwalk Bastion is a pretty solid creature because it can become a land creature for one and a snow mana, but it also has when it deals combat damage to a creature we tap that creature and prevent it from untapping at the beginning of the next end step, which again doesn’t need to have the Bastion turn into a creature with its own ability to activate that effect.

Stalking Stones is interesting because while it could normally tap for colorless mana, it can for six mana become a 3/3 creature permanently, which also means that we can have a one time cost land creature that can in a pinch become a bigger creature with Jolrael.

As for some of the other land creatures, ideally we want to have them become their land creature selves first in order for them to have access to their abilities. Lumbering Falls for a land creature with hexproof, Hall of Storm Giants for a land creature with ward 3, and if you have access to it Inkmoth Nexus for a land creature with flying and infect as a way to win us the game.

The next thing we need are ways for us to protect and buff our lands and to draw a bunch of cards, and if we can do both than that would be ideal.

Darksteel Garrison is one of two cards that are Fortifications and it acts as basically an Equipment for a land and this particular one gives the fortified land indestructible and whenever the fortified land is tapped it gives a target creature +1/+1.

Wind Zendikon, Nissa’s Zendikon, and Vastwood Zendikon are Aura’s that turn a land into a land creature, a 2/2 with flying, a 4/4 with reach and haste, and a 6/4 respectively, but more importantly if the enchanted land dies, it returns back to our hand.

While not directly protecting our lands, we can play something like Glacierwood Siege, which if we choose Temur we can have a player mill a card whenever we cast an instant or sorcery or ideally we play Sultai, which let’s us play lands from our graveyard.

We can also play a little bit on the group hug side of things and use Rites of Flourishing, which lets each player draw an additional card at the beginning of their draw steps and allows each player an additional land drop as well, which in our deck with a decently high land count will let us get more and more lands into play.

As far as ways for us to draw cards, we have a plethora of options to choose from. Coastal Discovery is an interesting spell because it draws us two cards, but we can pay its Awaken cost in order to put four +1/+1 counters on a land we control and turn it into an Elemental creature as well.

If we want pure, rote card draw then Teferi’s Ageless Insight is pretty good because whenever we would draw a card instead of the first card we would draw from our draw step, then we draw two cards instead, which considering cards in hand become power, then the more the merrier.

There is also a way for us to make even more use out of having a massive creature while also drawing cards and that is with Rishkar’s Expertise, which let’s us draw cards equal to the greatest power among creatures we control and then we can cast a spell with mana value five or less from our hand without paying its mana cost.

The last thing we need are ways to win, not just having an Inkmoth Nexus in the deck and calling it a day.

For us, we need to make sure that when we swing, we are able to make the land that Jolrael animates even bigger, while still being able to attack without too much worry. Nissa, Vital Force can help us in that regard because we can untap a land and turn it into a 5/5 Elemental with haste until our next turn, and then on that next turn we can have an emblem that makes it so whenever a land we control enters we draw a card.

We can also have a lot more of our lands become creatures by using Nature’s Revolt, which turn all lands into 2/2 creatures that are still lands, which can make it awkward for our opponents to deal with, especially if we have indestructible lands like Darksteel Citadel or Tanglepool Bridge.

Combine that with something like Nature’s Will, which has so when one or more creatures we control deals combat damage to a player we tap all lands that player controls while we also untap the lands we control, which is extremely helpful to help us prevent a crack back from hurting us too badly.

Even if all of our lands become destroyed, we can play Splendid Reclamation as a way to bring all of our lands back from the graveyard or if our opponents want to target our lands while we present lethal, we can play Skyshroud Blessing which gives our lands shroud until end of turn and even draws us a card.

Jolrael is an attrition sort of deck, not built to win quickly but built to win once we accumulate the resources we need in order to make a massive land creature and win us the game over a period of a few turns.

It is because we are a slower deck that while we won’t necessarily fall behind, we do need to be mindful of the resources we have. We are turning our lands into creatures after all, and that means that they are subjected to a lot more removal.

While we won’t deal with a lot of mass exile based removal since Jolrael’s ability lasts for a turn, if we turn a bunch of our lands into creatures and our opponent’s destroy or exile them with targeted removal or the occasional surprise instant board wipe, then we can fall behind pretty significantly.

Luckily for us, in our colors we have access to some of the best ramp in the game and we can get back to having our lands attacking our opponents in no time.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual