Select Language:
About Tannuk, Steadfast Second
Tannuk, Steadfast Second is the first legendary Kavu to appear in Magic: The Gathering. He is a proud warrior who gives all your other red creatures haste, but he doesn’t get the benefit himself.
If Tannuk didn’t have a special ability, he wouldn’t be very memorable. But he does have a second ability: he grants every red creature and artifact in your hand the ability to warp, and sets the warp cost at two generic and one red mana.
Warp is an alternative spell casting method that has a drawback: when you warp a permanent, it is exiled at the start of your next end step. You can later cast those exile cards without any additional downside, but you must cast them normally.
Because warping counts as casting, your spell can be countered, but effects that reduce spell costs, like Ruby Medallion, can help lower the warp cost.
While Tannuk isn’t going to lead you to victory with commander damage, he can help you play powerful, Game-winning bombs early and often. This allows you to overwhelm opponents with huge threats you typically see in mono-green decks.
How To Build The Deck
Most mana acceleration in this deck comes from rituals or by cheating in expensive creatures with Tannuk for bonus value.
Neheb, the Eternal, passively generates mana at the start of your second main phase based on how much life your opponents have lost that turn. Warping it in before a big attack can give you enough mana to cast your big creatures from exile.
Creatures like Cavern-Hoard Dragon and Ancient Copper Dragon usually require an attack to generate Treasure tokens. If one opponent lacks flying creatures, they can make a lot of Treasures—Ancient Copper Dragon averages 10 to 11 Treasures after a hit, while Cavern-Hoard Dragon can produce up to six.
Rituals and Big Spenders
Mana Geyser and Jeska’s Will are powerful rituals that produce large amounts of mana. Mana Geyser generally gives more, especially with three opponents, but Jeska’s Will can produce a huge amount if an opponent has many cards in hand.
Special Cards and Tricks
The deck includes cards that help reduce spell costs, but Warped Space deserves special mention. It’s costly at six mana, but it allows you to cast a spell from exile for free, including previously warped spells. You can pay six, cast a big threat like Blightsteel Colossus, then trigger Warped Space to exile it immediately, enabling you to cast it again later on for free.
Drawing Cards & Managing Exile
The warp ability can also hide cards in exile, letting you play them later as if they’re in your hand. This makes “wheel” effects especially strong—forcing opponents to discard and draw new cards can give you several valuable cards in exile ready to cast later.
For example, Clive, Ifrit’s Dominant, puts a creature into exile when it enters, and it can be flipped into Ifrit, Warden of Inferno, becoming a new creature and making it unnecessary to exile again.
Sandstone Oracle is another useful card; it doesn’t require discarding your hand and allows you to catch up if opponents draw many cards. Hold this card when you expect others to draw heavily, and then capitalize on their plays.
Help with Exile & Re-Entry
Use cards like Conjurer’s Closet to get similar benefits. If your warped creature leaves and re-enters the battlefield, it’s considered a new creature, so you don’t need to exile it again.
Example of Big Threats
Cards such as Maelstrom Colossus, Wild-Magic Sorcerer, and others make huge game-changing plays possible. Since warp counts as casting, you can cascade off of warped spells—paying three mana for Maelstrom Colossus might let you find an Ancient Copper Dragon via cascade.
Wild-Magic Sorcerer is especially strong late in the game because it grants cascade when casting cards from exile, allowing you to cheat in expensive creatures and generate even more value at that stage.
Ramp and Mana Generation
Besides basic mana rocks, the deck relies on rituals and creatures that produce Treasure tokens, like Cavern-Hoard Dragon and Ancient Copper Dragon. Warping these in during combat can net you a surge of Treasure tokens.
Neheb, the Eternal, can generate large amounts of mana during your second main phase if you’ve lost a lot of life that turn. Combining warped creatures with rituals can help you cast your biggest threats.
Additional Tools
Cards like Sundial of the Infinite let you manipulate triggers—exiling a spell with Warp, then activating the sundial to skip the end step, prevents it from triggering again.
Extinguisher Battleship and Myojin of Roaring Blades are board control options. The Battleship can destroy a permanent and deal damage for just three mana when used with Tannuk, while Myojin is indestructible and can trade safely to deal damage to multiple creatures.
Backup Commander
If your main commander is removed, Sneak Attack offers an alternative way to cheat big threats into play at instant speed for just one mana. Though you must sacrifice the creatures at turn’s end, Tannuk’s abilities help keep your warped threats in play longer.
ChatGPT
Perplexity
Gemini AI
Grok AI
