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Tarkir: Dragonstorm Set Review - Black/Sultai

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<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Damia, Sage of Stone" href="#" target="_blank">Damia, Sage of Stone</a> | Art by <a href="https://www.steveargyle.com/">Steve Argyle</a>)</h6>
<h1>Technically Playable - <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Damia, Sage of Stone" href="#" target="_blank">Damia, Sage of Stone</a></h1>
Welcome to Technically Playable, where our mission statement is "Every commander is Technically playable" (the best kind of playable).
The way this works is every article will have a commander generated using EDHREC's random button, I'll talk through the card and then write about how we can build around it!
This week's random commander is <div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Damia, Sage of Stone"></div></div>
<h2>Damia - 2011 Version</h2>
The year is 2011, Game of Thrones dominates pop culture, there is another royal wedding, and the <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/cmd">Commander 2011</a> product is released.
With it comes some of the formats all-time favorite commanders, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kaalia of the Vast" href="#" target="_blank">Kaalia of the Vast</a> (21,523 decks), <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Animar, Soul of Elements" href="#" target="_blank">Animar, Soul of Elements</a> (16,269 decks) and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zedruu the Greathearted" href="#" target="_blank">Zedruu the Greathearted</a> (7,551 decks).
Among these decks was <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Damia, Sage of Stone" href="#" target="_blank">Damia, Sage of Stone</a>, the topic of today's Technically Playable.
Damia was an interesting commander at the time, seven mana for a card with no immediate impact seems fairly weak in today's Commander landscape, but 14 years ago the ability to refill your hand every turn was incredibly powerful.
Games went longer and some colour combinations were not as versatile as they are now meaning you were able to keep Damia alive fairly easily until your next upkeep.
Then, you would draw into more ways to protect Damia and then rinse and repeat until you hit something like the <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Deadeye Navigator" href="#" target="_blank">Deadeye Navigator</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Palinchron" href="#" target="_blank">Palinchron</a> combo.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kaalia of the Vast"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Animar, Soul of Elements"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Zedruu the Greathearted"></div></div>
If you look at Damia's EDHREC page, now it's dominated by cards that were not around when she was first released, but there are still some powerhouses that would have been in early iterations of the deck.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Seedborn Muse" href="#" target="_blank">Seedborn Muse</a> is one of these, seeing a dip in usage around 2013 when <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Prophet of Kruphix" href="#" target="_blank">Prophet of Kruphix</a> was legal but becoming more popular after the power of the Prophet became so obvious.
You can even build your own <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Prophet of Kruphix" href="#" target="_blank">Prophet of Kruphix</a> using <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Seedborn Muse" href="#" target="_blank">Seedborn Muse</a> alongside cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Leyline of Anticipation" href="#" target="_blank">Leyline of Anticipation</a>
Back in 2011, Sultai was definitely one of the most popular, powerful and common colour combinations. It gave you immense access to ramp in the form of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama&#039;s Reach" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama&#039;s Reach</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Counterspell" href="#" target="_blank">Counterspell</a>'s for protection, powerful finishers like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Grave Titan" href="#" target="_blank">Grave Titan</a>, and post-2014 utility from the delve cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dig Through Time" href="#" target="_blank">Dig Through Time</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tasigur, the Golden Fang" href="#" target="_blank">Tasigur, the Golden Fang</a>.
Access to all of these tools meant you were able to get ahead of the table, protect yourself and easily close out games without much trouble.
But Damia wasn't just good with general utility cards, there were some that worked particularly well with her ability. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Forbid" href="#" target="_blank">Forbid</a> was an incredibly powerful counterspell, allowing you to discard cards for the buyback ability and then drawing back up to seven every turn with Damia, meaning that you could soft lock your opponents from casting spells as long as you had the mana to pay for <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Forbid" href="#" target="_blank">Forbid</a>.
This also played into the delve strategies to play incredibly powerful cards for cheap by discarding them and also allowing you to play expensive creatures like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur" href="#" target="_blank">Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sheoldred, Whispering One" href="#" target="_blank">Sheoldred, Whispering One</a> by discarding them and using <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Reanimate" href="#" target="_blank">Reanimate</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Animate Dead" href="#" target="_blank">Animate Dead</a> to get them into play ahead of curve.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Seedborn Muse"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tasigur, the Golden Fang"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur"></div></div>
<h2>Damia - 2025 Version</h2>
In 2025 Damia looks very different. The power level of cards now has almost eclipsed the majority of cards from when Damia was released.
There are a handful of cards that are still incredibly powerful like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mana Drain" href="#" target="_blank">Mana Drain</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Seedborn Muse" href="#" target="_blank">Seedborn Muse</a> since there haven't been cards printed that fill in the same niche, but in terms of general power level cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thassa&#039;s Oracle" href="#" target="_blank">Thassa&#039;s Oracle</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Muldrotha, the Gravetide" href="#" target="_blank">Muldrotha, the Gravetide</a> are just simply better than their counterparts.
While some win conditions remain the same such as using <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Forbid" href="#" target="_blank">Forbid</a> to fuel powerful reanimation spells like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Living Death" href="#" target="_blank">Living Death</a> the sheer card draw from Damia works very well with finding combo pieces to create a one-tun win with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thassa&#039;s Oracle" href="#" target="_blank">Thassa&#039;s Oracle</a> or even grinding a game out until you can win with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jace, Wielder of Mysteries" href="#" target="_blank">Jace, Wielder of Mysteries</a>.
If you're looking to reanimate creatures to win, while old powerhouses like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jin-Gitaxias, Core-Augur" href="#" target="_blank">Jin-Gitaxias, Core-Augur</a> are still totally viable, we can also use cards like Jin's newer version, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant" href="#" target="_blank">Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Koma, Cosmos Serpent" href="#" target="_blank">Koma, Cosmos Serpent</a> to end games very quickly.
But my choice of Sultai win condition will always be to make a ton of mana and drop a huge <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Villainous Wealth" href="#" target="_blank">Villainous Wealth</a>.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Thassa&#039;s Oracle"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Living Death"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Villainous Wealth"></div></div>
The biggest changes are in the utility cards. Damia not having an immediate impact is a huge downside and since she has to survive until your next upkeep you need to be able to protect here for an entire turn cycle.
If you play Damia as a control deck that looks to control the board until landing Damia and then refuelling your hand constantly you may be able to make it to the next turn.
One very powerful option for this is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hullbreaker Horror" href="#" target="_blank">Hullbreaker Horror</a>, which allows you to return both your opponents spells and any creatures they manage to resolve by casting something yourself.
This works amazingly with cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Force of Negation" href="#" target="_blank">Force of Negation</a> which you can cast for free to counter a spell and bounce a creature, or with buyback cards that you can cast repeatedly to keep your opponent's boards clear.
Even cards as recently as Bloomburrow are finding their way into Damia decks. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Glarb, Calamity&#039;s Augur" href="#" target="_blank">Glarb, Calamity&#039;s Augur</a> is an amazing way to get a ton of value out of a deck that plays a little slower and aims to grind out a win in the late game.
This kind of "4-cost matters" effect is fairly prevalent in some recent sets and even opens the door for using <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Keruga, the Macrosage" href="#" target="_blank">Keruga, the Macrosage</a> for a ton of value as the game progresses.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hullbreaker Horror"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Glarb, Calamity&#039;s Augur"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Keruga, the Macrosage"></div></div>
The beauty of a colour combination like Sultai is that it opens a lot of doors to different strategies and play styles to fit what you most enjoy.
Want to ramp into big creatures like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Koma, World-Eater" href="#" target="_blank">Koma, World-Eater</a>? Go ahead. Want to combo out with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thassa&#039;s Oracle" href="#" target="_blank">Thassa&#039;s Oracle</a>? You do you (but not in a pod with me, please).
If getting back into Warhammer has taught me anything, it's that while it may seem like the "meta" of a format may tell you what you should be playing it's important to focus on playing what you like and want to play and not necessarily what is "good".
As with all Technically Playable articles, this was a very quick look at <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Damia, Sage of Stone" href="#" target="_blank">Damia, Sage of Stone</a> as a commander, and a few of the cards that can really make a deck with Damia as the commander tick.
Let me know in the comments below if you play <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Damia, Sage of Stone" href="#" target="_blank">Damia, Sage of Stone</a>, if you want to build a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Damia, Sage of Stone" href="#" target="_blank">Damia, Sage of Stone</a> deck, or even if you just enjoyed this article!

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