Commander Guides
Nauctis First Look: Where the New Cards Go in Commander
The first seven Nauctis: The Sunken Realm cards were revealed on November 13, 2026, including a new Lotus. Here is where we would try each one first, the deck it belongs in, and the older cards that make it work.
The short answer
Our favorite of the first reveals is Tecton, Malignant Ruin, a mono-black commander that draws a card on every sacrifice. Abyssal Lotus is a self-mill card, not a staple, and belongs with The Ancient One. Each pick below names a home, what the deck does, and how it gets started.
- As the commander: Tecton (sacrifice), Salinae (copied creatures) and Goramou (lands as burn)
- In the 99: Abyssal Lotus with The Ancient One, Calmwater Mentor with Brago, King Eternal, and Ring of Unity with Old Gnawbone
What was revealed
Wizards showed the first Nauctis cards at the MagicCon Atlanta preview panel on November 13, 2026: Abyssal Lotus, four mythic or rare creatures, Ring of Unity and a dual land. The set releases February 5, 2027, with prerelease events from January 29 to February 4.
Two returning mechanics show up on these cards. Descend, from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, checks how many permanent cards are in your graveyard; Abyssal Lotus has descend 8 and Tecton has fathomless descent. Exhaust, an ability you can activate only once, is on Shimmering Citadel. The new keyword that replaces flying is called Dive, but no revealed card prints it yet, so we don't know its rules.
Abyssal Lotus is the set's headline card. Besides the regular version, it comes in a coral frame in Booster Packs and Collector Boosters, and as a textless raised foil headliner in Collector Boosters only, with about 500 printed.
We picked homes from the card text, looking for decks where each card does something no other card does for them, and leaning toward commanders fewer players run. The set isn't out, so there is no deck data yet, and the Commander decks may hold better homes than these.
Abyssal Lotus: turn on descend 8 with The Ancient One
Abyssal Lotus ↗
Zero mana, enters tapped. Tap and exile it for three mana of one color, with eight or more permanent cards in your graveyard.
The Ancient One ↗
Two mana. Can't attack or block until descend 8. {2}{U}{B}: loot, then a player mills cards equal to the discarded card's mana value.
Hedron Crab ↗
One mana. Landfall: target player mills three. That player can be you.
Stitcher's Supplier ↗
One mana. Mill three when it enters and three more when it dies.
Abyssal Lotus costs zero, enters tapped, and can only be used once you have eight or more permanent cards in your graveyard. Lands, creatures, artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers and battles count. Instants and sorceries don't. When you get there, you tap it and exile it for three mana of any one color.
That makes it a self-mill card, and the commander we would try first is The Ancient One. It has the same descend 8 condition: it can't attack or block until your graveyard holds eight permanent cards. A deck built to switch on The Ancient One switches on the Lotus at the same time. The Ancient One's own ability helps too: pay {2}{U}{B}, draw a card, discard a card, and a player you choose mills cards equal to the discarded card's mana value. Pick yourself early, and an opponent once your graveyard is full.
Most of a Commander deck is permanents, so a mill of three adds about two to the count on average. Hedron Crab mills three on every land drop when you target yourself, and Stitcher's Supplier mills three twice. Mesmeric Orb also works: every permanent that untaps mills its controller a card, so seven tapped permanents mill you seven in your untap step, and it does the same to everyone else. EDHREC lists about 3,700 decks for The Ancient One, so it's an uncommon commander, and this would be a new card for all of them.
How it starts: Play Hedron Crab or Stitcher's Supplier on turn one, The Ancient One on turn two, and point every Crab trigger at yourself. With a fetch land, the Crab mills six in one turn.
The catch: It's a one-shot Dark Ritual that does nothing until the graveyard is full, and it enters tapped, so you can't play it and use it the same turn. It's also exiled, not sacrificed, so you can't recur it. In a deck that doesn't mill itself, leave it out.
Tecton, Malignant Ruin: a mono-black commander that draws on every sacrifice
Tecton, Malignant Ruin ↗
Eight mana, {1} less per permanent card in your graveyard. Menace, deathtouch. Whenever you sacrifice another permanent, draw a card.
Pitiless Plunderer ↗
Four mana. Whenever another creature you control dies, create a Treasure.
Ashnod's Altar ↗
Three mana. Sacrifice a creature: add {C}{C}.
Bitterblossom ↗
Two mana. A 1/1 flying Faerie every upkeep, for 1 life.
Tecton is the reveal we would build around first. It's a 5/5 with menace and deathtouch, and whenever you sacrifice another permanent, you draw a card. Fathomless descent makes it cost {1} less for each permanent card in your graveyard. The reduction only takes off generic mana, so the floor is {B}{B}.
The deck is mono-black sacrifice where every sacrifice is a card. Pitiless Plunderer makes a Treasure whenever another creature you control dies, and sacrificing that Treasure for mana is another permanent sacrificed, so one creature you sacrifice draws two cards. Ashnod's Altar turns each creature into {C}{C} and a draw, plus the Plunderer's Treasure. Bitterblossom gives you a body to sacrifice every turn.
The sacrifices fill your graveyard with permanent cards, so Tecton gets cheaper as the game goes on. That also pays the commander tax: each time it dies and comes back, the graveyard has often grown by more than the {2} the tax adds.
How it starts: Play your sacrifice outlets and fodder first. With five permanent cards in your graveyard, Tecton costs three.
The catch: Tokens don't go to the graveyard as cards, so a token-heavy deck draws a lot but doesn't make Tecton cheaper. Graveyard hate such as Bojuka Bog puts it back at eight mana. Mono-black also has few answers to enchantments.
Salinae, the Ocean Mother: every creature you cast comes twice
Salinae, the Ocean Mother ↗
Eight mana, {X} less where X is your devotion to blue. Copies each artifact or creature spell you cast as a 1/1 Fish.
Agent of Treachery ↗
Seven mana. When it enters, gain control of target permanent. Draw three at end step with three you don't own.
Mulldrifter ↗
Five mana, a 2/2 flyer. Draw two cards when it enters.
Sol Ring ↗
One mana. {T}: Add {C}{C}.
Whenever you cast an artifact or creature spell, Salinae copies it, except the copy is a 1/1 Fish creature as well as its other types. The copy keeps its abilities, so every enters trigger happens twice. Salinae costs {X} less, where X is your devotion to blue (the {U} symbols in the mana costs of permanents you control), and she has trample.
Build mono-blue around creatures with big enters triggers. Agent of Treachery is the payoff: cast it and you steal two permanents, one for the Agent and one for its Fish copy. Control a third permanent you don't own and each Agent draws you three at your end step. Mulldrifter cast for five draws four cards, and evoked for three it still draws four, since the copy is evoked too.
Artifacts get copied too, and the copy becomes an artifact creature. A Fish copy of Sol Ring taps for {C}{C} once it has been under your control since the start of your turn. Even Abyssal Lotus gets a Fish copy, though the copy needs descend 8 too.
How it starts: Play permanents with {U}{U} or more in their cost. Agent of Treachery alone takes two off Salinae's cost, and a few blue creatures can bring her down to four or five mana.
The catch: The copies are 1/1s, so a single board wipe or a Pestilence clears them. The copy isn't cast, so it doesn't trigger Salinae again. A legendary creature's copy still gets its enters trigger before the legend rule makes you keep one. Salinae only copies spells, not abilities, so blinking a creature doesn't make a second Fish.
Goramou the Coral-Taken: Seismic Assault, and you keep the lands
Goramou the Coral-Taken ↗
Three mana, 3/4. Makes a Blood token. Discard lands and one comes back tapped at the next end step.
Seismic Assault ↗
Three mana. Discard a land card: 2 damage to any target.
Valakut Exploration ↗
Three mana. Landfall: exile the top card and you may play it. Unplayed cards deal damage at end step.
Omnath, Locus of Rage ↗
Seven mana. Landfall: a 5/5 Elemental. Elemental dies: 3 damage to any target.
Whenever you discard one or more land cards, Goramou lets you exile one of them from your graveyard and put it onto the battlefield tapped at the beginning of the next end step. It also makes a Blood token when it enters, which is a discard outlet: {1}, {T}, discard a card, sacrifice it, draw a card.
Seismic Assault is the card that makes this a deck. Each land you discard to it deals 2 damage, and because each activation is its own discard, each land comes back at end step. You get to burn with your lands and still make your land drops.
Every land that comes back is a landfall trigger. Valakut Exploration turns each one into an extra card, and its leftovers deal damage at your end step. Omnath, Locus of Rage turns each one into a 5/5 Elemental, and each Elemental that dies deals 3 more.
How it starts: Get Goramou down on turn three. Loot with the Blood token and anything like Faithless Looting until Seismic Assault shows up, then hold lands in hand instead of playing them.
The catch: Discarding two lands at once returns only one, so Faithless Looting throwing away two lands nets you one. The lands come back tapped and at end step, so they aren't mana the turn you discard them. Seismic Assault costs {R}{R}{R}.
Calmwater Mentor: two tutors every turn with Brago and Soulherder
Calmwater Mentor ↗
Four mana, 3/2. When it enters, search for up to two creature cards with power 2 or less.
Brago, King Eternal ↗
Four mana, 2/4 flyer. Combat damage to a player: blink any number of your nonland permanents.
Soulherder ↗
Three mana, 1/1. At your end step, blink another creature you control.
Mulldrifter ↗
Five mana, 2/2 flyer. Draw two cards when it enters.
Calmwater Mentor is a 3/2 Seal for four, and when it enters you search your library for up to two creature cards with power 2 or less. That's a tutor for two, and blink decks reuse enters triggers, so we would put it in Brago, King Eternal.
The first search should find Soulherder and Mulldrifter. Soulherder is a 1/1, and at the beginning of your end step it exiles another creature you control and returns it. Point it at the Mentor and you search for two more creatures every turn. Brago does the same to everything at once when he connects: the Mentor finds two, Mulldrifter draws two, and if you leave Soulherder in place it gets a +1/+1 counter for each creature exiled.
Power 2 or less covers most of what a blink deck wants. Mulldrifter, Soulherder and Spellseeker all qualify, and so do most of the small flyers that carry Brago's plan. Brago is a popular commander (EDHREC lists about 15,600 decks), so this is a new engine for a deck many players already own.
How it starts: Cast the Mentor for Soulherder and a second creature, play Soulherder, and the Mentor tutors again at your next end step.
The catch: The Mentor is a 3/2 for four and dies to almost anything, and the loop ends if Soulherder does. Searching for two isn't free either: you still have to cast what you find, so a turn of tutoring can leave you with a hand you can't use.
Ring of Unity: Old Gnawbone's Treasures become permanent mana rocks
Ring of Unity ↗
Seven mana. Artifacts you control have "{T}: Add {C}{C}."
Old Gnawbone ↗
Seven mana, 7/7 flyer. Combat damage to a player makes that many Treasures.
Genesis Wave ↗
{X}{G}{G}{G}. Put every permanent with mana value X or less from the top X cards onto the battlefield.
Ring of Unity gives every artifact you control "{T}: Add {C}{C}." The Ring is an artifact, so it taps for two itself. The best artifacts to give it are Treasures: a Treasure can now tap for {C}{C} every turn instead of being sacrificed once for one mana.
That's why we would put it in Old Gnawbone. When a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, Gnawbone makes that many Treasures, and one hit from Gnawbone alone is seven. With the Ring out, those seven Treasures are fourteen colorless mana every turn, and you can still sacrifice one for green when you need it.
Spend it on Genesis Wave. With X at 20 or more, you reveal the top X cards of your library and put every permanent with mana value X or less onto the battlefield. With X that high, that is every permanent card you revealed.
How it starts: This is a seven-drop next to a seven-drop, so the deck needs a lot of ramp. Cast Gnawbone first; the Ring is worth casting once you already hold several Treasures.
The catch: Outside a deck that makes a lot of artifacts, a seven-mana card that adds colorless mana is a poor topdeck. An artifact board wipe takes the Ring and every rock with it. Each artifact still taps once, so a Sol Ring makes {C}{C} either way, and an artifact creature can't tap for the Ring's mana the turn it arrives.
The seventh reveal
Shimmering Citadel enters tapped and taps for {W} or {U}. Once, you can pay {3}{W}{U} and tap it to draw two cards and gain 1 life. It's a fine land for any white-blue deck, Brago's included, but it doesn't build a deck by itself.
What we don't know yet
We don't know how Dive works, which colors and creature types each of the four Commander decks (Merfolk Regiment, Terrors of the Abyss, Blood in the Water and Seal the Deal) covers, or who leads them. Any of those could hand these cards a better home than the ones above. Prices before release don't mean much either, so we left them out. If you have a home we missed, tell us which one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Abyssal Lotus as good as Black Lotus?
No. Black Lotus adds three mana the turn you play it. Abyssal Lotus enters tapped, and you can only use it once you have eight or more permanent cards in your graveyard, so it does nothing early in the game. It's a strong card for self-mill decks and a weak one everywhere else.
What is the best commander for Abyssal Lotus?
Our first pick is The Ancient One, a two-mana blue-black legend with the same descend 8 condition, so building to turn on your commander turns on the Lotus too. Any deck that mills itself quickly will want it.
Is Tecton, Malignant Ruin a good commander?
We think it's the best commander of the first reveals. It's a mono-black sacrifice commander that draws a card whenever you sacrifice another permanent, and it gets cheaper for every permanent card in your graveyard, down to {B}{B}.
When does Nauctis: The Sunken Realm come out?
Nauctis releases on February 5, 2027. Prerelease events run from January 29 to February 4. It has four Commander decks: Merfolk Regiment, Terrors of the Abyss, Blood in the Water and Seal the Deal.
Will these commander picks change?
Probably. Only seven cards were revealed at the first preview panel, and the Commander decks will bring new legends of their own. These are first thoughts from the card text, and we will revisit them when the full set is out.
Brew your Nauctis deck before the prerelease.
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