Magic: The Gathering - Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied Commander Deck Guide

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

Commander: Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

Champion of Lambholt

Chasm Skulker

Danny Pink

Devoted Druid

Elvish Mystic

Evolution Sage

Fanatic of Rhonas

Forgotten Ancient

Goldberry, River-Daughter

Gyre Sage

Herald of Secret Streams

Incubation Druid

Kalonian Hydra

Kami of Whispered Hopes

Llanowar Elves

Loyal Guardian

Mossborn Hydra

Ornery Tumblewagg

Pollywog Prodigy

Quilled Greatwurm

Railway Brawler

Rishkar, Peema Renegade

Scythecat Cub

Twenty-Toed Toad

Vorel of the Hull Cade

Zameck Guildmage

Zimone, Paradox Sculptor

Cultivate

Farseek

Kodama's Reach

Nature's Lore

Rampant Growth

Three Visits

Wave Goodbye

An Offer You Can't Refuse

Arcane Denial

Beast Within

Counterspell

Decisive Denial

Growth Spiral

Inspiring Call

Long River's Pull

Mutational Advantage

Negate

Reality Shift

Ripples of Potential

Stubborn Denial

Arcane Signet

Decanter of Endless Water

Ozolith, the Shattered Spire

Power Conduit

Power Fist

Simic Signet

Sol Ring

Talisman of Curiosity

The Ozolith

Thought Vessel

Branching Evolution

Court of Garrenbrig

Hadana's Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca

Hardened Scales

Innkeeper's Talent

Simic Ascendancy

Botanical Sanctum

Command Tower

Dreamroot Cascade

Exotic Orchard

Flooded Grove

x11 Forest

Hinterland Harbor

x9 Island

Karn's Bastion

Mystic Sanctuary

Nesting Grounds

Novjen, Heart of Progress

Rejuvenating Springs

Reliquary Tower

Waterlogged Grove

Yavimaya Coast

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.

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)

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.

Step 2: Activate Devoted Druid, tapping it to add one green mana.

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.

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).

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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