cEDH Deck Tech: Lumra, Bellow of the Woods - Land Storm!

If you enjoy commanders like Yisan, Yeva, and Selvala, get ready for something slightly different that will still be right up your alley.

You won't have to protect Lumra at all costs to win. On the contrary, you actually want it to die as many times as possible. Yeah, really.

If we relied only on our opponents to do this, we'd obviously fail, as Lumra grows too much to be removed that easily, and they won't be too inclined to spend spells on it willy-nilly. So, we'll take the lead and make sure it dies as many times as it needs to.

This deck was inspired by members of the Discord server Build a Bear. If you'd like to know more about this type of list, consider joining! They're all Bear-experts over there.

Having a 50/50 Bear on your board might be fun, but our new plan is, actually, to use Lumra's ETB as many times as we can. Half of this deck are lands, many of them incredibly useful, to make sure we can get the most out of them.

Let's see why anyone would play Lumra, and, of course, face the truth - we'll also go over its flaws.

Oh, and before we continue, here's our list:

Resilient

If you play this strategy, you'll have many opportunities to try and win in a single game. Half of it is lands, so you'll certainly draw enough of them to keep trying to win. Furthermore, this list is also fast and flexible. It is often quite fast, depending on the opening hand, and the overall strategy works really well in grindy games thanks to cards like Field of the Dead and the commander itself.

It can also win at instant speed. Thanks to Emergence Zone and Mirrorpool, we can finish the game on another person's turn quite easily. Please note that Mirrorpool is also an important combo piece.

Furthermore, all of its win conditions are diverse and unpredictable, so you'll be able to win the game in many ways.

Cons

Now, let's go over the bad news.

Cards that exile yours are a natural weakness for this list. For instance, Dauthi Voidwalker and Rest in Peace are nightmares on the other side of the table. Seriously, you can't win with them on the board, so do whatever you can to get rid of them.

Furthermore, this is a Mono Green list, and everyone knows that type of list doesn't play lots of interaction. Sometimes, you can catch your opponent off-guard with this, but, most of the time, it will be a weakness.

Fast decks are this list's natural enemies. What you really want to face is Control lists.

Mulligans

There's no secret strategy here, and the plan is simple: put Lumra in play and kill it again and again. Ideally, you want to play it on turn 2, or turn 3 at most, with cards like Mana Vault, or even Lion's Eye Diamond.

You won't always be able to do this, though. If you can't, try to hold off the game and disrupt other players with Stax pieces like Collector Ouphe or Trinisphere.

It might seem odd, but this deck has great mulligans. You can easily go to 3 cards if you need to. Furthermore, because it plays so many lands, you'll most likely always have one to play.

However, you do need a few ways to kill Lumra. Either with Greater Good, to draw cards, Food Chain, to create more mana, or Sylvan Safekeeper, which sacrifices your lands and kills Lumra.

Main Combo

This is the most versatile combo in this list, and the one you'll play 99% of the time. Though it seems complex, with time, you'll easily be able to do it.

You'll need:

You can play Lumra and ignore the commander tax with Mirrorpool or Command Beacon.

You'll also need ways to sacrifice lands so you can kill Lumra as an answer to its ETB: Zuran Orb, Sylvan Safekeeper, Strip Mine, Wasteland, and Lotus Field are all great choices to do this.

Now, you need to create mana when lands enter your board. Nissa, Resurgent Animist, Lotus Cobra, Tiller Engine, Amulet of Vigor, and Spelunking are all great ways to do this.

If you have all of this, you can return the lands you sacrifice with Lumra's ETB and create positive mana loops. You can also do this multiple times to win the game, usually by looping Sunscorched Desert.

Other Combos

Besides the main combo, this list includes a few ways to win or play around other problems.

Ashaya, Soul of the Wild + Vesuva

This combo lets you activate Lumra's ability as many times as you want without casting it. Vesuva enters play, copies Lumra (which is a land thanks to Ashaya), dies by the legend rule, and returns to the board with Lumra's own ETB. You can keep this going until you find Lotus Field and Sunscorched Desert to win the game with infinite damage.

Aftermath Analyst + Shifting Woodland

With a way to untap cards and a sac outlet, this interaction will create mana loops so you can activate Lumra's ability without casting any spell. It is quite useful if someone exiles your Mirrorpool.

Springheart Nantuko + Lumra, Bellow of the Woods

With a Lotus Cobra or a way to untap cards, you can activate Lumra's ability again and again to create an absurd amount of value. Just pay 2, and copy it

And, as usual, before we finish, here's a budget list if you don't want to go bankrupt but still want to play this list. It is not completely optimal, even in its own price range, but I have personally played it and can say it is quite functional!

This deck is beautiful because of how flexible and unique it is. You can adapt many cards to fit your personal tables, or your own local metas. As long as you can cast a Lumra and kill it to reuse your lands, you're doing it right.

Once again, I'd like to thank Lumra's Discord server, Build a Bear, for all the help and support. They also let me use their list primer so I could study and write this article.

What did you think of this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below, or on the Discord server!

If you liked this list, check out this other Mono list, which once dominated cEDH!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!