MTG Modern Horizons 3’s OP Commander is one of the best Simic cards ever

Nadu, Winged Wisdom is an MTG Modern Horizons 3 Commander that stacks up land in the hand and on the field and provides so many reliable triggers for Landfall decks. 

Landfall is an ever-popular mechanic in MTG, foregrounding cards with effects that trigger whenever a Land enters the battlefield. They are usually backed up by a cornerstone of cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking that allow for additional Land cards to be played each turn beyond the normal limit. 

Landfall decks often utilize Land reanimation strategies with key components like Crucible of Worlds and The Gitrog Monster. Nadu, Winged Wisdom is all set to be a new crucial component of green and blue mana Landfall decks, thanks to cheating land directly onto the field as well as restocking your hand with new cards. 

WotC

Nadu, Winged Wisdom bestows your Creatures with a powerful effect that’s both protective and proactive. While Nadu is on the field, whenever your Creatures are targeted by a spell or ability, you can reveal the top card of your library. You can then put it directly onto the field if it’s a Land or add it to your hand if it’s any other card type. 

As a defensive ability, this works as an interesting take on Ward’s additional cost. The opposing player isn’t taxed with a negative additional cost for targeting your Creatures. Instead, they have to weigh up whether they want to potentially put you ahead in mana production and Landfall triggers or give you a free draw instead. 

Popular Simic Commanders like Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief also already have a huge variety of ways to target and boost your own Creatures, so Nadu decks can be stacked with ways to actively trigger the Commander’s effect without relying on opponents’ interaction. 

Nadu is also the first card in Modern Horizons 3 to show off an upgrade to the ‘once per turn’ limitation. Nadu’s effect can be triggered up to twice each turn, allowing for a greater number of triggers than similar effects have allowed in the past.  

MTG fans have quickly realized just how powerful this effect can be. As one Reddit user pointed out: “Good news, people who hate “once each turn”!  In fact, since it’s giving the creatures the ability, that means you can actually get this effect two times per turn for every creature you control. If you have an equipment that costs 0 to equip, you can just shuffle it around a bunch and get the maximum amount every time guaranteed.” 

Power Creep is inevitable in TCGs, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom sees the ‘once per turn’ cap relaxed for the first time, heralding a wave of increasingly strong triggered abilities in MTG’s future.