Szarel wants a deck that fills its discard pile and plays cards back out of it. It also suits a deck that sacrifices its own creatures to drain opponents' life.
Mana cost
Black, Red, Green ()
Power / toughness2 / 5
RarityMythic
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.
Picked for what they do in Szarel's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Szarel's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how Szarel works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast25 Jul 2025
If Szarel leaves the battlefield at the same time as you sacrifice one or more other nontoken permanents during your turn (probably because you also sacrificed Szarel), its last ability triggers for each of those other nontoken permanents.
Wizards of the Coast25 Jul 2025
If Szarel leaves the battlefield before its last ability resolves, use its power as it last existed on the battlefield to determine how many +1/+1 counters to put on the target creature.
Wizards of the Coast25 Jul 2025
Szarel’s second ability doesn’t allow you to activate abilities (such as cycling) of land cards in your graveyard.
Wizards of the Coast25 Jul 2025
Szarel’s second ability doesn’t change the times when you can play those land cards. You can still play lands only during your main phase when you have priority and the stack is empty.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryBRGPlayers write colors as letters: B for black, R for red, G for green.Graveyard/Self-MillGraveyard decks fill their own graveyard on purpose, then play cards from it as if it were a second hand. Moving cards from the top of your own deck straight into the graveyard is called self-mill.Open the Graveyard/Self-Mill pageLand RecursionReturns land cards from your graveyard to your hand or to the battlefield, or lets you play lands from your graveyard. Lands-matter decks use it to hit a land drop every turn and to trigger Landfall again and again. Crucible of Worlds, Ramunap Excavator, Life from the LoamOpen the Land Recursion pageCast from GraveyardLets you cast spells or play lands straight from your graveyard, so the graveyard becomes a second hand. This is different from Reanimation, which puts a creature card onto the battlefield without casting it. Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Yawgmoth's WillOpen the Cast from Graveyard pageRecursionBrings cards back from the graveyard: to your hand, to the battlefield, or letting them be cast again from where they lie. Eternal Witness, Reanimate, VictimizeOpen the Recursion pageAristocratsAristocrats decks sacrifice their own creatures on purpose and profit every time one dies, often by draining life from each opponent. A sacrifice outlet, a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you like, decides when that happens.Open the Aristocrats pageSacrifice PayoffRewards you whenever something is sacrificed, meaning put into the graveyard on purpose. The reward might be a +1/+1 counter, a card, or a drained opponent, and it is the reason a deck sacrifices its own creatures. Compare Sacrifice Outlet, the card that lets you sacrifice, and Death Trigger, which fires when a creature dies for any reason. Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, Mayhem Devil, Savra, Queen of the GolgariOpen the Sacrifice Payoff pageCounter EngineAdds +1/+1 counters over and over rather than once. A counter here is a small permanent marker that raises a creature's power and toughness for good. It is not a counterspell, which is a different thing entirely. Something that adds them every turn makes your whole board bigger and keeps it that way. Hardened Scales, Corpsejack MenaceOpen the Counter Engine pageSacrificeSacrifice decks give up their own creatures, Treasures and other cards on purpose and get something back each time. A sacrifice outlet, a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you want, is the heart of the deck.Open the Sacrifice pageEvasionAn ability that makes a creature hard to block, so its attacks reach the player. Flying, menace, landwalk and plain 'can't be blocked' are the common kinds.Open the Evasion pageGame ChangerCards that warp the game disproportionately around themselves, requiring immediate answers.What the brackets mean
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