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Szarel, Genesis Shepherd

Legendary Creature — Insect Druid

Flying
You may play lands from your graveyard.
Whenever you sacrifice another nontoken permanent during your turn, put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to Szarel's power on up to one other target creature.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{2}{B}{R}{G}
Color identity
BGR
Rarity
mythic
Set
Edge of Eternities Commander
Price
$0.46
EDHREC rank
#4595
Buy on TCGplayer
Szarel, Genesis Shepherd card art
Szarel, Genesis Shepherd puts a free land into play every time a creature enters from your graveyard — that's a repeatable Rampant Growth stapled to your reanimation engine. The catch is Glacial Chasm: Szarel's cumulative upkeep clause means you're paying life each turn to keep the lands, so you need a plan to sacrifice or bounce Glacial Chasm before the cost runs away from you.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Hearthhull, the Worldseed

Hearthhull, the Worldseed

80.6% of decks · synergy 0.67

Hearthhull, the Worldseed churns through creatures constantly, which means Szarel, Genesis Shepherd is generating a land drop on nearly every trigger — the two together build a mana engine that accelerates far faster than conventional ramp.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Szarel, Genesis Shepherd belongs — the 100-card singleton format gives it enough graveyard synergy density to fire repeatedly, and the longer game gives the cumulative upkeep cost time to matter, which makes it an interesting deckbuilding constraint rather than a liability. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but irrelevant; those formats move too fast for a five-mana creature that needs a graveyard loop to pay off. Commander and Oathbreaker are the only realistic homes, and Oathbreaker's smaller deck size and faster pace make Szarel a fringe consideration at best.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.46 bulk tier

At $0.46, Szarel, Genesis Shepherd is bulk — low enough to pick up as a throw-in without a second thought. Bulk rares with narrow combo requirements tend to stay cheap unless a breakout deck drags them up, so don't expect the price to move unless Hearthhull, the Worldseed decks spike in popularity.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.