Is World Shaper good in Commander?

World Shaper

Creature — Merfolk Shaman

Whenever this creature attacks, you may mill three cards.
When this creature dies, return all land cards from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.

CMC: 4
Mana cost
Color identity: G
Rarity: rare
Set: Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander
Price: $7.00
EDHREC rank: #1304

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World Shaper is a three-mana 3/3 that returns every land from your graveyard to the battlefield when it dies — that's a full-board land refill stapled to a creature that wants to attack. Pair it with Squandered Resources to sacrifice your lands into the graveyard at will, and World Shaper turns a mana-burning desperation play into a setup move; Yuma, Proud Protector decks run it at over 71% inclusion precisely because those land-drop triggers off the return are the whole game plan.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

Yuma, Proud Protector

71.4% of decks · synergy 0.69

Yuma, Proud Protector draws a card and creates a token for each land that enters the battlefield, so World Shaper's death trigger — returning a full graveyard's worth of lands — can generate a lethal board state in a single end step.

Baba Lysaga, Night Witch

60.0% of decks · synergy 0.55

Baba Lysaga, Night Witch scores her life-drain ability by sacrificing permanents, and World Shaper supplies both a sacrifice outlet and a recovery mechanism — you spend lands aggressively, let World Shaper die, and recoup everything at once.

Six

48.4% of decks · synergy 0.46

Six mills cards as a cost and rewards graveyard depth, so World Shaper doubles as self-mill payoff and a land-recovery engine that keeps Six firing on consecutive turns.

The Mycotyrant

38.7% of decks · synergy 0.34

The Mycotyrant scales on creatures entering from the graveyard and from self-mill, and World Shaper's death trigger floods the battlefield with land-drops that can trigger additional fungus growth — it's not the centerpiece, but the incidental value is real.

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

37.7% of decks · synergy 0.33

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord wants lands in the graveyard for his own power calculation and needs them back to keep casting; World Shaper handles both sides of that equation when it dies.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

Format	Verdict
commander	legal
legacy	legal
modern	legal
pioneer	legal
standard	not legal
vintage	legal
pauper	not legal
oathbreaker	legal

Commander is where World Shaper earns its reputation — 100-card singleton games give you enough time to attack with it, enough graveyard-filling incidental to make the death trigger backbreaking, and the political cover to let it through combat. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but invisible; the formats are too fast for a three-mana 3/3 whose payoff requires dying in combat. Modern and Pioneer are similarly hostile — aggressive creatures and efficient removal punish the setup investment before you ever recoup the lands. World Shaper is, functionally, a Commander card that happens to be legal elsewhere.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

128 decks

Squandered ResourcesWorld ShaperChthonian Nightmare Dryad Arbor

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite self-mill; Infinite storm count; Infinite mana lands you control can produce; Infinite landfall triggers; Infinite energy counters; Put all land cards from your library and graveyard onto the battlefield

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61 decks

World ShaperTakenuma, Abandoned Mire Squandered Resources Phyrexian Altar Golgari Rot Farm

Infinite colored mana; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite landfall triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite self-mill; Infinite storm count; Put all land cards from your library and graveyard onto the battlefield

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52 decks

Emeria ShepherdWorld ShaperZuran Orb Ashnod's Altar

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite self-mill; Infinite colorless mana; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite landfall triggers; Return all nonland permanents from your graveyard to the battlefield

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37 decks

Emeria ShepherdWorld ShaperZuran Orb Altar of Dementia

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite mill; Infinite self-mill; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite landfall triggers; Return all nonland permanents from your graveyard to the battlefield

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34 decks

Emeria ShepherdWorld ShaperZuran Orb Phyrexian Altar

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite colored mana; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite self-mill; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite landfall triggers; Return all nonland permanents from your graveyard to the battlefield

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Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Groundskeeper and Crucible of Worlds both recur lands from the graveyard at a lower price point, but neither matches the explosive one-shot refill that World Shaper delivers — Crucible is incremental and land-drop-gated, Groundskeeper costs mana per land. If the goal is simply keeping land count high after sacrifice effects, Ramunap Excavator at roughly half the price is the closest functional substitute, though you lose the battlefield-wide bounce that makes World Shaper a win condition rather than a value piece.

Price Context

Current price

$7.00 mid tier

At $7, World Shaper sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough to justify in most graveyard-land builds. Given its 71%+ inclusion rate in Yuma, Proud Protector decks and steady demand across self-mill strategies, $7 is a fair price for what it does.

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Sources

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Updated 2026-05-30. Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.