Commander Spotlight: Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker

Bennie Smith • February 25, 2025

Deckbuilding
Nissa Worldsoul Speaker
(Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker
 || art by Magali Villeneuve)

Who Knew We Needed A Landfall Energy Deck?

Hello, my friends, and welcome to another Commander Spotlight! This regular column will feature one legendary creature, usually from the most recent Commander precons or Jumpstart products, and provide you with a deep dive into ideas that should help get you started brewing your own Commander deck around it.

Today I'm focusing on Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker

, a cool new legendary creature from one of the two precon decks from Aetherdrift Commander. In recent years, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has provided a fair number of options for multicolor energy commanders, and I have to admit for me personally it's a bit too much of a good thing. I find the idea of a mono-green energy commander is much more appealing, especially since Nissa's energy payoff is being able to potentially cast huge permanent spells for no mana. This is the very definition of big, swingy, haymaker Magic that I find so much fun in Commander. 

EDHREC High Synergy Cards

First, let's take a look at the high synergy cards for a Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker

deck as calculated by EDHREC. Architect of the Untamed
 is a perfect companion to Nissa, giving you an energy whenever a land enters the battlefield, and having the ability to create a sizeable 6/6 Beast if you don't have a permanent spell you want to cast with Nissa's ability.

Aetherworks Marvel

offers another way to cash in energy to cast the best spell from the top six cards of your library. Since a Nissa deck is going to be pretty heavy on permanent spells, the Marvel also pays you back with energy whenever those permanents inevitably get destroyed.

A Landfall deck is likely to run a lot of lands that sacrifice to find another land, and the Marvel will give you an extra energy for your troubles.

Then there's Decoction Module

, which gives you an energy whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control. The four-mana activated ability can be useful in returning a creature you control to its owner's hand, and if you're casting it with Nissa's ability you'll more easily have that four mana available. 

Primal Prayers

provides you with two extra energy, and it allows you to cast lower cost creatures at instant speed by paying energy. Fallout first shows up with HELIOS One
, a land that makes and uses energy in a Landfall energy deck seems perfect! I especially like it's potential for taking down a problematic creature in a mono-green deck that is often going to struggle with such. 

Playing extra lands each turn is incredibly helpful in a Landfall deck, so it's no surprising to see Azusa, Lost but Seeking

, Loot, Exuberant Explorer
, and Exploration
 in this list. I especially like Loot here since it provides a great mana sink once you've got six mana available. 

These two Landfall creatures work great here. Evolution Sage

's proliferate ability lets you increase your energy by a point for each trigger, while Tireless Provisioner
 will generate Treasures or, in a pinch, Food tokens.

Other Energy Cards

Looking for energy cards available in a mono-green deck shows a huge list of playable options. Aetherflux Conduit

and Aetheric Amplifier
 are incredibly powerful energy supporting artifacts from Aetherdrift Commander you're definitely going to want in the deck. The Amplifier's energy-doubling ability makes it quite feasible to get up to fifty energy for the Conduit's activated ability to have a huge turn, drawing seven cards and casting any number of spells from your hand for no mana cost.

Another new card Rampaging Aetherhood

offers a neat choice, giving you energy equal to its power, and then offering the choice of spending some or all of your energy to add +1/+1 counters on it. Since Aetherhood has trample and ward 2, rapidly increasing its size can really push through damage on the attack!

Peema Trailblazer

is a mild energy-generator without a boost to its size, but that exhaust ability to draw cards is very much appreciated in the deck, and then if it crashes through with damage cleanly it can recoup a lot of that energy. 

Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

is often seen in decks that care about +1/+1 counters or planeswalkers, but it also does a great job just passively doubling energy counters when you get them and seriously slowing various strategies your opponents might be relying on.

When Behemoth of Vault 0

dies, it gives another potential creature removal effect that can be clutch for mono-green. Stone Idol Generator
 provides a nice flow of energy assuming you can attack early and often, but I have to say I have a soft spot for its ability to make the super-cool 6/12 Construct token we first saw way back from Stone Idol Trap
. 

Lastly, here are a bunch of original energy cards from Kaladesh that are solid ways to round out the deck with ways to keep the energy flowing:

Landfall-Enablers

Green has no shortage of ways to leverage Landfall triggers, but I particularly like those that are permanents you can play for free with Nissa, such as Ancient Greenwarden, Ashaya, Soul of the Wild and especially Lumra, Bellow of the Woods. 

Cultivator Colossus can offer an explosive turn, assuming you're running enough lands in your deck and can have a couple in hand to start the ball rolling. I'd make sure I was running both Guildless Commons and Arid Archway to help keep your hand flush with lands. 

Even though they are not permanents, spells like Awaken the Woods, Traverse the Outlands, and Scapeshift are all strong considerations for a cascade of Landfall triggers. 

Landfall Payoffs

Outside of Nissa's energy generation, we should play other Landfall payoffs. Lotus Cobra isn't flashy but it will provide a nice rush of mana while it's on the battlefield. If you're not scared of working out the doubling potential of an army of Scute Swarms, you can definitely push your opponents to scramble for an answer. Mossborn Hydra is also terrifying if it's allowed to grow. While Rampaging Baloths isn't quite as terrifying as those other two, it will still generate a sizeable army of Beast tokens to press an attack or hold the fort if your life total is low.

I really like Tireless Tracker since the mana savings you get from Nissa's ability means you'll have the mana to sacrifice Clues to draw cards and have more permanents you can cast with energy. And don't forget, those sacrificed Clues will trigger Aetherworks Marvel, gaining you an energy each time. If you have a creature worth copying -- say, Mossborn Hydra -- Springheart Nantuko is excellent to bestow.

Avenger of Zendikar offers an interesting choice in this deck since you will often be able to deploy it with Nissa earlier than you normally would, but it's better the more lands you have in play. Figuring out whether to jam it down early or wait a while will take some practice.

Card Draw

Nissa's ability to cast permanent spells for no mana isn't particularly helpful if you don't have anything worthy of that in your hand, so make sure you are running plenty of green card draw, like Rishkar's Expertise and even Harmonize. There are plenty of potentially huge creatures in the deck, which makes Greater Good an excellent way to cash them in for an infusion of fresh cards.

Permanent Spells

I'll wrap things up by taking a look at permanent spells I'd strongly consider putting in the deck.

At four mana, the card draw potential of Guardian Project and Beast Whisperer are particularly nice since Nissa's ability will let you cast one of these and then hopefully cast another creature to draw a card. Helm of the Host is a powerful card but typically requires a whopping nine mana to get going, but Nissa's ability can let you cast it for energy instead, making it easier by just paying the equip cost.

At five mana I'd consider Unnatural Growth, especially if I was running a fair number of creatures with trample. Ohran Frostfang offers more card drawing, and making blocking awkward for your opponents. Casting Throne of Eldraine for no mana means you can often go ahead and pay the three mana to draw two cards right away.

At six mana, if you cast Disciple of Freyalise for no mana, that means you'll have all your mana available to cast any of the spells from among your freshly drawn cards. Caged Sun for no mana means all your green-producing lands will immediately be able to be tapped for extra mana. Surrak and Goreclaw is an excellent card to deploy for free and then cast another creature spell to take advantage of its trigger to crash into the red zone.

At seven mana we're really getting to high-impact spells, like Virtue of Strength; hopefully you were able to take advantage of the Adventure sorcery Garenbrig Growth first. How about deploying Old Gnawbone early and then attacking with creatures to generate a bunch of Treasure tokens for an explosive turn? Of course, the best card to cast for free is likely Zendikar Resurgent, doubling your lands' mana production and drawing you a card each time you cast a creature spell. Plus, you know Nissa would love to have a powerful enchantment from her home plane!

At eight mana there are some big boom booms! Use your mana to draw cards or generate energy, then cast Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, which will let you deploy any number of other creatures in your hand.

Terastodon is an all-star from the earliest days of EDH, but I love its utility and would consider it for this deck. The Skullspore Nexus is an excellent way to recoup battlefield presence if an opponent sweeps all creatures to the graveyard, and that activated ability can potentially kill an opponent by doubling a creature's power!

At the tippy-top of the curve, there's battlefield control in the form of Portal to Phyrexia, which will also start bringing back the best creature in a graveyard during each of your upkeeps. Casting big Eldrazi spells for no mana can be brutal, but I'd be most likely to run Kozilek, Butcher of Truth for the card-drawing power. Darksteel Colossus is another huge monster that's difficult to deal with. 

What other sorts of cards are you going to play in your Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker deck? What new legends from Aetherdrift Commander are you most excited to build decks around?

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