With the release of the Commander 2013 decks, Wizards of the Coasts apparently decided that the time was ripe to reprint a whole bunch of Portal: Three Kingdoms cards. They made some wise choices, such as Lu Xun and  Borrowing 100,000 Arrows. Hua Tuo, Honored Physician, however, is a fine reprint. He is included in the Power Hungry deck, which features the popular commander Prossh, Skyraider of Kher and a lot of underwhelming cards.

Basically, Hua Tuo allows you to recycle creatures from your graveyard by putting a target creature back on top of your deck. You must use this ability only on your turn and before attackers are declared. It’s still a great effect, as there are plenty of creatures that you’ll want to reuse during the course of a game, especially if you can grab that creature back without having to draw it for turn. The timing on this card is important, since it has to be on your turn, but there are ways to make it a valuable asset in some decks. No longer being a $60 card from Portal Three Kingdoms, Hua Tuo could now see far more Commander play. In fact, he's now become a bulk rare.

However, Hua Tuo's effect makes cards that manipulate the top card of your library much more powerful. Library of Leng, Scroll Rack, and Sensei's Divining Top are the first that come to mind. But there are some other crazy cards that benefit from top-deck manipulation as well, such as Elkin Bottle and Timesifter. The Enchantment Call of the Wild is especially good for putting creatures from the top of your library straight into play for 2GG.

This Hua Tuo Commander list from 2010 is a great list to glean ideas from, although plenty of cards that work well with the famous Chinese physician have been printed since then. Here's another list from 2013 based around a combo with Squirrel Nest. And if you're into Tiny Leaders, the Commander variant with only 3 CMC or less cards, here's a cool Hua Tuo Aggro list.

All told, Hua Tuo's cool ability may actually be pretty underrated, especially as a Commander. The Commander 2013 copies are probably never going to be worth much, so he's a fun cheap card that you can play with.

Today we’ll take a look a card specifically printed for Commander,  Surveyor’s Scope. The Commander 2013 decks introduced several cards that are really only playable in a multi-player Commander setting, and the Scope is certainly one of those cards. For two mana, you get to play an artifact that can tap as soon as it’s played. You exile it and search your library for up to X basic land cards, where X is the number of players who control at least two more lands than you. You get to put those lands directly onto the battlefield.

For decks that don’t have other ways to ramp up their mana, such as Cultivate  or Kodama’s Reach  or creatures that can grab lands like  Yavimaya Elder  or  Sakura-Tribe Elder, it’s not a terrible option. But it’s a bit too situational, in my opinion, to be reliable mana ramp. If you have two or three players at your table with two more lands than you – for example, in cases where you’re really getting mana screwed – then it’s a very good card. Having to exile it kind of stinks, but it’s understandable considering the very good value you can get out of this card.

Getting one basic land out of this honestly is perfectly fine. Two mana to put a basic land directly onto the field untapped is pretty solid. It’s worth playing, but to get full value out of it in multi-player, you have to time it just right. Even to ramp up with one untapped land to catch up to an opponent is easily worth the two mana to cast the Scope. It’s a pretty solid Commander card, if not the most consistent. Keeping up with land drops is even more important in Commander than other formats.

However, Surveyor’s Scope could now find a more consistent home, thanks to  Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient.