(Nature's Will | Art by Mitch Cotie)

In Brightest Day...

Welcome back to The Toolbox! Here we take a look at underplayed cards and evaluate where they ought to see more play. Today we’re taking a look at one of the more interesting Kamigawa enchantments, the one and only Nature's Will!

Nature's Will is a pretty sweet enchantment that untaps your lands and taps an opponent's lands when one of your creatures successfully hits an opponent. This can totally shut down Counterspells by depriving your enemies of their resources, while also allowing you to jam multiple spells in a single turn! So why does this card only see play in 1,476 decks?

To find out a bit more, let's start by checking out the enchantment's most popular commanders so far.

Starting off with the Snake lord himself, Seshiro the Anointed wants all your Snakes to deal combat damage, so it's pretty clear why a card like this would fit into his deck. It also helps that these cards originate from the same set. It's also pretty obvious why Najeela, the Blade-Blossom likes playing Nature's Will, since untapping your lands allows Najeela to create an infinite combo of combat steps!

There doesn't really need to be much more to it than that, but if you do want more, Kaseto, Orochi Archmage may be the choice for you! Nature's Will lets you beat in for massive pump damage or even unblockable Infect damage, and you can then hold up Counterspells to protect your creatures afterward!

That's a solid basis of play for Nature's Will, but what other options do we have out there?

Natural Synergy

Let's start off with mono-green. I'm thinking of something a little more flashy than normal. That's right, it's Yeva, Nature's Herald!

Yeva provides some fun synergy with our cool enchantment. When you attack, before damage, you can flash in a bunch of creatures. Then, after damage, you untap all your lands and hold up that mana to cast more creatures at the end of your opponents' turns. In this way, Nature's Will acts as another Wilderness Reclamation, just with an extra step or two. But let's be honest, you were gonna take those steps already anyway!

This also means that you can get more value out of nonbasic lands like Castle Garenbrig, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, or Temple of the False God. In addition, cycling through creatures with things like Guardian Project gets even better, allowing you to churn through your deck and build a massive board presence in the blink of an eye.

When we see the popularity of cards like Sword of Feast and Famine, we have to ask why enchantments like this, which have a pretty similar effect, are not played more often. Sure, it doesn't give you protection from any colors, but it does turn any of your creatures that make it through combat into a land-untapping menace. With a flash-mander at the helm, it seems like a natural fit. But that's enough from me. The decklist is here to speak for itself.

Have Some Fun, Guy

If you wanna have some fun, who better than the fun guy, Slimefoot, the Stowaway?

This is one commander that I am honestly shocked doesn't play Nature's Will more frequently. It encourages the entire deck's gameplan with such a small investment and an enormous payoff. All you have to do to make this card good is make some Saprolings.

Slimefoot decks can be defensive, but they actually do reward combat. Even if your tokens die, Slimefoot gives you a great death trigger. Plus, remember that only one Saproling has to make it through combat to untap your lands; whether your opponents block your Saprolings or not, you reap benefits. If you imagine this on a board with stuff like Tendershoot Dryad, Moldervine Reclamation, and Parallel Lives, it's not hard to see how quickly you can make combat a total nightmare for your opponents.

Not only that, but Nature's Will triggers multiple times if you attack multiple people. It doesn't trigger on a per-creature basis, but it does trigger per player. If you have a small bunch of Saprolings and multiple defenseless opponents, you can attack multiple players to untap your lands, sink that mana into Slimefoot's activated ability, then untap your lands again! Even just a few tokens can quickly spread out and take over.

I could go on about all the insane interactions with this deck and all the synergies available with Nature's Will, but I'll just give you the decklist instead:

Everybody Walk the Dinosaur

Is it just me, or am I the only one that would love to go for a walk with Zacama, Primal Calamity? Since we're throwing it all the way back to my first article (which you can find here) I have to mention that Liquimetal Coating is still not seeing play in Zacama decks! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go read that article, then continue with this one. Liquimetal Coating is seriously good for our Dino buddy.)

Untapping lands? Nature's Will seems like a slam dunk in this deck. Zacama has vigilance and reach, so it can attack and block with no problems. It makes short work of enemy artifacts and enchantments, especially those pesky Propagandas. It can also take out blockers by bolting them with a fantastic activated ability. Oh, and it's a 9/9 with trample. In other words, you can reliably trigger Nature's Will when you attack, because there's almost nothing Zacama can't do to make sure an opponent takes at least one point of damage.

There's also the fact that this effect gets pretty potent with mana doublers like Zendikar Resurgent, Regal Behemoth, and Mirari's Wake, all of which are extremely popular in Zacama decks. Attacking with your big baddies (Etali, Primal Storm, Regisaur Alpha, or even Gishath, Sun's Avatar, to name a few) doesn't just refund your mana, but can actually give you even more mana than you had before when you combine Nature's Will with Zacama's amazing mana-quadrupling enchantments.

I feel like there are a lot of other unexplored avenues with Zacama, but those are for a different time. Right now, it's time for the decklist!

...In Blackest Night

Thank you all for your continued support of the series! I hope that you all enjoyed reading this installment, and I hope that you’ve found a new home for Nature's Will. Do you think that these commanders pair well with Nature's Will? Do you think I’m over-evaluating this enchantment, or do you agree it’s highly underrated? What other decks do you think should have this card in their toolbox?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below, and as always, have a great day!

Elijah Klein

Elijah is a mildly obsessive EDH player from Georgia. He started playing during Battle for Zendikar with Green/Black Eldrazi Aristocrats and still pays tribute to the plane with his Omnath, Locus of Rage storm brew. He is always excited to innovate and try new things in Magic and Life. Elijah is currently a full time student looking to go into Computer Engineering but also has a bit of an artistic streak.