Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied made its debut in Magic: The Gathering’s Aetherdrift set, and very quickly made a name for itself as a strong simic (green/blue) commander. Sab-Sunen takes the simic route of playing with +1/+1 counters and drawing a ton of cards.
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Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied is unique in that its effects are determined by how many counters it has. As such, the deck plays a variety of ways to manipulate counters to ensure Sab-Sunen is always doing what you want it to do. If you love playing with +1/+1 counters and spreading them around your creatures, Sab-Sunen is the perfect commander for you.
Decklist
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Commander: Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied |
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Bristly Bill, Spine Sower |
Champion of Lambholt |
Chasm Skulker |
Danny Pink |
Devoted Druid |
Elvish Mystic |
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Evolution Sage |
Fanatic of Rhonas |
Forgotten Ancient |
Goldberry, River-Daughter |
Gyre Sage |
Herald of Secret Streams |
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Incubation Druid |
Kalonian Hydra |
Kami of Whispered Hopes |
Llanowar Elves |
Loyal Guardian |
Mossborn Hydra |
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Ornery Tumblewagg |
Pollywog Prodigy |
Quilled Greatwurm |
Railway Brawler |
Rishkar, Peema Renegade |
Scythecat Cub |
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Twenty-Toed Toad |
Vorel of the Hull Cade |
Zameck Guildmage |
Zimone, Paradox Sculptor |
Cultivate |
Farseek |
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Kodama’s Reach |
Nature’s Lore |
Rampant Growth |
Three Visits |
Wave Goodbye |
An Offer You Can’t Refuse |
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Arcane Denial |
Beast Within |
Counterspell |
Decisive Denial |
Growth Spiral |
Inspiring Call |
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Long River’s Pull |
Mutational Advantage |
Negate |
Reality Shift |
Ripples of Potential |
Stubborn Denial |
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Arcane Signet |
Decanter of Endless Water |
Ozolith, the Shattered Spire |
Power Conduit |
Power Fist |
Simic Signet |
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Sol Ring |
Talisman of Curiosity |
The Ozolith |
Thought Vessel |
Branching Evolution |
Court of Garrenbrig |
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Hadana’s Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca |
Hardened Scales |
Innkeeper’s Talent |
Simic Ascendancy |
Botanical Sanctum |
Command Tower |
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Dreamroot Cascade |
Exotic Orchard |
Flooded Grove |
x11 Forest |
Hinterland Harbor |
x9 Island |
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Karn’s Bastion |
Mystic Sanctuary |
Nesting Grounds |
Novjen, Heart of Progress |
Rejuvenating Springs |
Reliquary Tower |
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Waterlogged Grove |
Yavimaya Coast |
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The decklist contains 29 creatures, seven sorceries, 13 instants, ten artifacts, six enchantments, and 34 lands. The deck is primarily made up of creatures that benefit from having counters put on them, or can put counters on your creatures.
Key Cards
Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied
Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied is the commander of the deck, and a big part of what makes the deck so good. An odd number of counters draws you cards, while an even number lets you use it in combat. These effects aren’t ever locked in, so if the number of counters change, you can use both in one turn.
Sab-Sunen can’t put or remove counters from itself, so you’ll need other ways to get counters on it to use both of its effects.
Once Sab-Sunen hits the battlefield, it is likely to stay there. It hass indestructible, making it much harder to remove through traditional means. Only getting it exiled or countered before it hits the battlefield will remove it from play, letting you keep it around to keep generating value.
Zimone, Paradox Sculptor
You need ways to put +1/+1 counters on creatures, and Zimone, Paradox Sculptor is one of the best ways to do it. The counters are put on at the start of combat, allowing you to use Sab-Sunen at the main phase and then get counters on it to be able to attack.
Zimone can also double the number of counters on two creatures. This can be done at instant speed, so if your opponent doesn’t block certain creatures, you can give them big stat boosts to punish them for doing so.
Devoted Druid
Devoted Druid is one of the best mana dorks you can use in a Sab-Sunen deck, thanks to how many counters it can get. A +1/+1 counter negates a -1/-1 counter, so putting a -1/-1 counter on Devoted Druid to untap it turns into removing a +1/+1 counter to it.
This lets you greatly amplify your mana production once Devoted Druid has a lot of counters on it. It will die if its toughness ever hits zero, so make sure you don’t put too many -1/-1 counters on it when making mana.
Devoted Druid also has a combo with Bristly Bill, Spine Sower. It is as follows.
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Prerequisites: Bristly Bill and Devoted Druid (not summoning sick) are on the battlefield. Devoted Druid has at least five +1/+1 counters on it. Five mana available (not from Devoted Druid) |
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Step 1: Activate Bristly Bill for five mana, doubling the number of +1/+1 counters on your creatures. This will leave Devoted Druid with ten +1/+1 counters. |
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Step 2: Activate Devoted Druid, tapping it to add one green mana. |
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Step 3: Activate Devoted Druid to untap it by putting a -1/-1 counter on it. This will remove one of its +1/+1 counters. |
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Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have five green mana (which will remove the five counters Bristly Bill put on it in total). |
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Result: Infinite number of +1/+1 counters on all creatures that started the combo with at least one. If Devoted Druid had six or more +1/+1 counters on it at the start of the combo, this can also generate an infinite number of green mana. |
Power Conduit
Power Conduit is one of the best ways to manipulate counters on your creatures. There is nothing that benefits from a charge counter, so you’ll be putting the counter removed for its cost onto a different creature with its effect instead.
Power Conduit is the best card to pair with Sab-Sunen, as it’s the easiest way to either put or remove counters from it. Even if you’re not using it with Sab-Sunen, you can move around +1/+1 counters to whichever creature needs them the most at any given point.
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How To Play The Deck
A Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied Commander deck is all about drawing cards are putting a ton of +1/+1 counters on your creatures. The deck can turn even its weakest creatures into massive combat threats with how many counters they can amass in just one turn.
Most of the ways to put +1/+1 counters onto creatures come from the creatures themselves. Even if they are removed from play, you have The Ozolith to make sure those counters are disappearing and can be put on future creatures.
The deck has a soft control plan built into it. Thanks to the simic color identity, you have a suite of both counterspells and removal to take care of any problem spells. Counterspells are especially useful on spells that can remove Sab-Sunen as those are rare, and countering them will likely mean you won’t have to worry about removal for a while.
The primary win conditions of the deck are winning through combat with massively boosted creatures or with the alternate win conditions of Simic Ascendancy and Twenty-Toed Toad. Just having 20 counters put on a creature will give Simic Ascendancy the 20 needed counters to win the game at your upkeep. The same is true for Twenty-Toed Toad, which wins the game when it attacks with 20 or more counters on it.
The biggest downside of the deck is that it can be tough to get the engine going. A lot of cards benefit from counters, but you have to get to the point where counters are getting put on them. Due to this slow buildup, your opponents will likely start targeting you early before your board state gets out of hand, so expect to become public enemy rather quickly.
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