Land decks in Magic: The Gathering are a special kind of obsession. Some players want to counter everything, others want to turn creatures sideways, but then there’s us. We want to play with dirt. We want to loop Evolving Wilds until the table groans. When Soul of Windgrace dropped in Dominaria United, it didn't just give us another Jund commander; it gave us a toolbox that basically functions as a Swiss Army knife made of soil and spite. It's a massive upgrade from the original Lord Windgrace planeswalker in many ways, mostly because it can actually get into the red zone and crack some skulls while generating insane value.
The card is a powerhouse. For those who need a refresher, it's a 5/4 Legendary Creature — Cat Avatar. It costs one black, one red, one green, and a generic. When it enters or attacks, you put a land card from any graveyard onto the battlefield tapped under your control. That "any graveyard" clause is what separates the pros from the casuals. You aren't just limited to your own fetch lands; you're sniping your opponent's discarded utility lands too.
The Versatility Most People Miss
People see the land recursion and stop there. Big mistake. Honestly, the activated abilities are where the real skill ceiling lives. You can pay a green and discard a land to gain 3 life. Sounds mediocre? Tell that to the Burn player who realized they can’t finish you off because you’ve discarded three forests in response to their bolts.
Then you have the red ability. Pay a red and a generic, discard a land, and draw a card. This is your engine. In a Jund (Black-Red-Green) shell, your graveyard is essentially a second hand. If you have a Life from the Loam in your deck, you’ve basically won the long game. You discard a land to draw, then use the Soul of Windgrace's attack trigger to bring that land back. It’s a closed loop. It’s beautiful.
Lastly, the black ability offers Indestructible for a black and two generic. This makes him sticky. Really sticky. He dodges most board wipes like Wrath of God or Blasphemous Act. You just pitch a land, and he stands tall while the rest of the board turns to ash. You’ve probably noticed a theme here: you need a lot of lands in your hand. This creates a weird tension where you want them on the field to cast spells, but you need them in your grip to fuel your Cat Avatar's god-tier powers.
Building Around Soul of Windgrace Without Being Obvious
Don't just jam every "Landfall" card you own into a pile and call it a day. That’s how you end up with a deck that’s slow and predictable.
You need to think about the "discard" as a feature, not a bug. Cards like The Gitrog Monster are mandatory. When you discard a land to Soul of Windgrace’s draw ability, Gitrog triggers, and you draw another card. It’s a snowball effect that gets out of control by turn five.
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Then there's the spice. Real experts are looking at Titania, Voice of Gaea. Since Soul of Windgrace is pulling lands back from the bin constantly, you can flip Titania into her melded form, Titania, Gaea Incarnate, much faster than most people expect. It’s a secondary win condition that shares the same DNA as your commander.
Let's talk about the mana base. You’re playing Jund. You need fetches. Not just because they fix your colors, but because they are the fuel for your commander’s "enters or attacks" trigger. If you don't have the budget for Verdant Catacombs or Misty Rainforest, use the "slow" fetches like Mountain Valley or even the New Capenna sacrifice lands like Riveteers Overlook. They work just fine because Soul of Windgrace brings them back untapped... wait, no, they come back tapped. But still, you get the double trigger on Landfall.
Speaking of Landfall, Scute Swarm is the elephant in the room. Or the bug in the room. It’s obnoxious. It’s effective. If you resolve a Soul of Windgrace with a Scute Swarm on the board and a few fetch lands in the graveyard, you are going to create a geometric progression of insects that will crash your local game store’s table space.
Why Jund Beats Straight Lands-Matter
Traditionally, "Lands" was a Selesny (Green-White) or Simic (Green-Blue) affair. Tatyova and Aesi are great, sure. They draw cards. They’re "value engines." But they lack teeth. They’re passive.
Soul of Windgrace is aggressive.
Red gives you access to seismic shifts. Vandalblast destroys the artifacts that might be slowing you down, like Cursed Totem (which kills your commander's activated abilities). Black gives you the best tutors and recursion in the game. If your Soul of Windgrace gets exiled—which is the only real way to deal with him permanently—you have ways to get your pieces back.
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One major misconception is that you should run "Worldly Tutor" to find him. Honestly? You don't need to. He’s in the command zone. Use your tutors for the secret MVPs like Squandered Resources. That card is terrifying in this deck. You sacrifice all your lands for mana, float it, cast a huge spell, and then use Windgrace and things like Splendid Reclamation to bring every single one of them back. It’s a high-risk, high-reward playstyle that feels incredibly rewarding when it lands.
Handling the Graveyard Hate
If you're playing Soul of Windgrace, your opponents are going to bring the heat. They’ll pack Bojuka Bog, Rest in Peace, or Leyline of the Void. This is the "hard counter" to your strategy.
What do you do? You pivot.
This is why you run Haywire Mite and Boseiju, Who Endures. You need a suite of interaction that doesn't rely on your graveyard to function. If a Rest in Peace is on the board, Soul of Windgrace becomes a vanilla 5/4 that can’t use its triggers effectively. You have to be prepared to blow up those enchantments immediately.
Also, don't over-extend your graveyard. Just because you can dump ten lands into the bin with a Hermit Druid doesn't mean you should if you suspect a Tormod's Crypt is lurking. Play it cool. Keep just enough fuel in the graveyard to get your triggers, and keep the rest in your hand or library.
Nuance in the Combat Phase
The attack trigger is a "may." Don't forget that. Sometimes you don't want to bring back a land if it messes up your timing or if you're holding out for a specific target later. But usually, you're taking the land.
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The real pro tip? Look at your opponents' graveyards. Did the blue player discard a Command Tower? Take it. Did the mono-black player lose a Cabal Coffers to a mill effect? That’s yours now. Soul of Windgrace doesn't care who owned the land originally. Stealing a Gaea's Cradle or a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx from an opponent is one of the most satisfying feelings in Magic. It’s basically a moral victory as much as a tactical one.
Tactical Insights for Your Next Session
If you're sitting down with a Soul of Windgrace deck, your priority is turn-one and turn-two acceleration. You want your commander out by turn three or four at the latest.
- Focus on Discard Outlets: Cards like Faithless Looting or Cathartic Reunion aren't just for card draw; they set up your graveyard so that when Windgrace hits the board, he immediately nets you a land.
- The "Channel" Lands: Takenuma, Abandoned Mire and Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance are incredible here. You channel them for their effect, they go to the graveyard, and Soul of Windgrace brings them back to use as actual lands. It’s a recursive loop that provides constant utility.
- Protect the Engine: Use Sylvan Safekeeper. It lets you sacrifice a land to give a creature Shroud. Since you’re Soul of Windgrace, you don't care about sacrificing lands—you’re just going to put them back on the battlefield anyway. It makes your board state nearly untouchable.
- Winning the Game: Don't just durdle. Use your massive mana advantage to cast "X" spells like Torment of Hailfire or Crackle with Power. Or, if you prefer the creature route, Avenger of Zendikar is the classic finisher for a reason.
Soul of Windgrace is a commander that rewards deep knowledge of the game's mechanics. It’s not just about playing lands; it’s about managing a resource—the graveyard—that most players treat as a trash heap. In your hands, that trash heap is a gold mine.
Stop thinking of lands as just the things that let you play the game. With this commander, the lands are the game. Every time a land hits your graveyard, you should be smiling, because you know it's coming back, and it's bringing a whole lot of trouble with it.
The next step for any aspiring Windgrace player is to refine the balance between "Landfall" payoffs and "Lands in Graveyard" enablers. Start by swapping out three of your generic "good stuff" Jund cards for more specific utility lands like Glacial Chasm or Constant Mists. These allow you to stall the game until your land-based value engine becomes an unstoppable force that simply out-resources everyone else at the table. Check your local meta; if it’s heavy on graveyard exile, prioritize adding more enchantment removal like Cankerbloom to ensure your Soul of Windgrace always has a full bin to work with.