<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hearthhull, the Worldseed" href="#" target="_blank">Hearthhull, the Worldseed</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CDaniel+Ljunggren%E2%80%9D&amp;unique=art" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel Ljunggren</a></em></p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hearthhull, the Worldseed" href="#" target="_blank">Hearthhull, the Worldseed</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has overtaken <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Korvold, Fae-Cursed King" href="#" target="_blank">Korvold, Fae-Cursed King</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> as the top Jund (<span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-b" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-r" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-g" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span>) commander <a href="https://edhrec.com/commanders">on EDHREC</a>.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hearthhull, the Worldseed"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Korvold, Fae-Cursed King"></div></div>
<p>We projected Hearthhull and its over 18,000 decks (or should we say, fleets?) to dethrone Korvold back in January. However, Korvold proved persistent up until this moment. But why is a card that, on its surface, defies so many Jund stereotypes such a popular Jund commander? Read on, and we will examine the popularity of this awesome Spacecraft!</p>
<h2>The Rise of Lands-Matter Strategies</h2>
<p>The simple answer to the question is that Hearthhull, the Worldseed is a fantastic <a href="https://edhrec.com/tags/lands-matter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lands-Matter commander</a>. Several years ago, while I hate to admit the length of it, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lord Windgrace" href="#" target="_blank">Lord Windgrace</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> was an extremely popular Jund commander. Another card that seemingly defied Jund norms, the planeswalker card lent itself well to land decks.</p>
<p>From my own experience, people often even <em>maligned</em> the play styles that Lord Windgrace offered.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Lord Windgrace"></div></div>
<p>Now, why am I discussing an older planeswalker commander when I need to talk about this Spacecraft? Simply put, both are cut from the same cloth of Jund Lands-Matters commanders. Put another way, Windgrace walked so that Hearthhull could run.</p>
<p>It's also interesting to note, as a slight aside, that Windgrace has just under 10,000 decks at its command (9,989 as of the time of writing) and a rank of #174 in terms of popularity. Thus, I stand by this particular assessment. I'd even go so far as to say that because of Hearthhull, Lord Windgrace's continued popularity was stunted.</p>
<p>However, based on the timeframe of all of this, there's no way to 100% confirm that.</p>
<h2>Jund Archetypes and Stereotypes</h2>
<p>Many people seem to want to view Jund decks as aggressive, swing first/talk later sort of decks. It comes with the territory of the Gruul (<span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-r" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-g" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span>) color identity, paired with the cruelty of monoblack decks. This is a stereotype, likely rooted in color pie philosophy and the upswing of Gruul-style decks thanks to the Ravnica guild.</p>
<p>Be that as it may, I'm here to say that Gruul, while being rather one-note, <em>isn't</em> Jund, and that's rather important as a distinction here. On the one hand, Jund Aggro most certainly exists, especially thanks to the proliferation of <em>very</em> strong decks in the history of <em>Magic</em>'s other formats, like Modern and even Standard.</p>
<p>However, three-color archetypes can be more diverse than this, as evidenced by cards like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hearthhull, the Worldseed" href="#" target="_blank">Hearthhull, the Worldseed</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and (perhaps as a stretch, admittedly) <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Xira, the Golden Sting" href="#" target="_blank">Xira, the Golden Sting</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. Both lend themselves to very different playstyles than simply "point and smash." Xira can be a Control deck, while our lovely Worldseed can lend itself either to Control or Combo in addition to holding its own in Aggro builds.</p>
<p>With all of this in mind, Hearthhull is versatile enough to land in a good spot as the now-most popular Jund commander.</p>


Hearthhull Dethrones Korvold as Top Jund Commander

<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fire Lord Azula" href="#" target="_blank">Fire Lord Azula</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Illustrated by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/mangamie">Fahmi Fauzi</a></em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Fans of <em>Avatar: The Last Airbender</em>, this news is for you! <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fire Lord Azula" href="#" target="_blank">Fire Lord Azula</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, one of the primary antagonists of the beloved animated Nickelodeon series, has breached the <a href="https://edhrec.com/commanders">Top 100 Commanders</a> list on EDHREC! More specifically, at the time of writing, Azula is at spot #96 and is poised to climb even higher. How did Azula get this popular? Read on, and perhaps we can shed some light on this "lightning-fast" rise to dominance!</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Fire Lord Azula"></div></div>
<h2>What Does Fire Lord Azula Do?</h2>
<p>Fire Lord Azula is a blue-black-red (or Grixis, using colloquial <em>Magic</em> terminology) commander. She specializes in casting spells during combat, which all of her abilities allow her to capitalize upon. She has firebending 2, allowing her to generate <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-r" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-r" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> when you declare her as an attacker. Furthermore, she copies any spell you cast during combat, provided she is attacking at the time.</p>
<p>What this suite of abilities does is shocking, if you'll pardon the continued use of electric puns (as Azula can also bend lightning). Put simply, many spells are easy to exploit with Fire Lord Azula's copying ability. This includes spells like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Narset&#039;s Reversal" href="#" target="_blank">Narset&#039;s Reversal</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Snap" href="#" target="_blank">Snap</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and many spells with additional costs, like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thrill of Possibility" href="#" target="_blank">Thrill of Possibility</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> or <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Big Score" href="#" target="_blank">Big Score</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. These spells only need you to pay the additional cost once, on cast; copies need not apply.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Narset&#039;s Reversal"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Big Score"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Snap"></div></div>
<p>There are also plenty of support cards in this deck's top cards that will soup up what Azula is manipulating. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="High Fae Trickster" href="#" target="_blank">High Fae Trickster</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Leyline of Anticipation" href="#" target="_blank">Leyline of Anticipation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> are fantastic additions to a Fire Lord Azula deck, since they facilitate any non-instant, non-flash spells cast to have instant-speed interactivity. For Azula, this means more copies of whatever you cast while she's attacking. Suddenly, your opponents are facing so many more threats than they're generally prepared to deal with. Victory ends up trivial for Azula; she can annihilate an entire pod in this way, completely and utterly.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="High Fae Trickster"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Thrill of Possibility"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Leyline of Anticipation"></div></div>
<h2>Where is Azula Now?</h2>
<p>At this time, as mentioned earlier in this article, Fire Lord Azula is trending at rank #96 in the Top 100 Most Popular Commanders of the past 2 years. <em>Avatar: The Last Airbender</em> came out only a couple of weeks ago, meaning that Azula will probably remain on this list for that long unless, in the next 2 years, some extremely dynamic commanders come out that depose her. She currently outranks the following four commanders on the Top 100 list:</p>
<ul>
<li>#97. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Magus Lucea Kane" href="#" target="_blank">Magus Lucea Kane</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></li>
<li>#98. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Morophon, the Boundless" href="#" target="_blank">Morophon, the Boundless</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></li>
<li>#99. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Anikthea, Hand of Erebos" href="#" target="_blank">Anikthea, Hand of Erebos</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></li>
<li>#100. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Etali, Primal Conqueror" href="#" target="_blank">Etali, Primal Conqueror</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></li>
</ul>
<p>As for her competition (of which I mean the current commanders that outrank Azula), none seem to pose a great threat to her climb until you reach rank #85, held by <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hearthhull, the Worldseed" href="#" target="_blank">Hearthhull, the Worldseed</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This is because, unless any of these commanders get some special attention or cards that utterly break them, the commanders above Azula to Hearthhull's rank are pretty much old hat. They were released long enough ago to be out of the limelight, which can give Azula the chance to outrank them at basically any time before <em>Lorwyn Eclipsed</em> begins any serious preview season.</p>
<p>For whatever it's worth, the next obstacle in Azula's climb is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fynn, the Fangbearer" href="#" target="_blank">Fynn, the Fangbearer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, an uncommon commander from <em>Kaldheim</em> that deals with the much-maligned niche of poison counters. This legendary creature currently commands fewer than 60 more decks than Azula, and that measure is certainly going to drop as Azula gains more of a player base.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Magus Lucea Kane"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Fynn, the Fangbearer"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hearthhull, the Worldseed"></div></div>
<h2>Other <em>Avatar</em>-Themed Success</h2>
<p>In related news, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Toph, the First Metalbender" href="#" target="_blank">Toph, the First Metalbender</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, is potentially going to breach the Top 100 list as well. However, it'll be a bit longer before we can confirm that , since right now she's only at a rank of #124. This puts her just above <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Marrow-Gnawer" href="#" target="_blank">Marrow-Gnawer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and just under <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kibo, Uktabi Prince" href="#" target="_blank">Kibo, Uktabi Prince</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kibo, Uktabi Prince"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Toph, the First Metalbender"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Marrow-Gnawer"></div></div>
<p>It's entirely possible that Toph doesn't break 100. But, we must consider the current trajectory that Fire Lord Azula possesses and the relative age of the <em>Avatar: The Last Airbender</em> set. With that information on hand, it doesn't seem at all unlikely that Toph will also get there soon.</p>
<p>Now, we'd like to open the floor to you, dear readers! How far do you see Fire Lord Azula (or Toph, the First Metalbender) getting on EDHREC's Top 100 Commanders list? Do you have these commander decks at this time? How do you like them, and are there any hidden gems you're using in either? Sound off in the comments below!</p>


edhrec top commanders

Hearthhull Dethrones Korvold as Top Jund Commander

Fire Lord Azula Breaches "Top 100 Commanders" List

The Top 40 Two-Colored Commanders