Grave Upheaval & Sylvan Reclamation - A Magic the Gathering Commander 2016 Card Reviews

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

With the 4-color decks of Commander 2016, Wizards decided to print new cards with the basic landcycling ability. These include Grave Upheaval and Sylvan Reclamation. In addition to their regular effect, you can use to pay 2 colorless mana to discard it and search out a basic land card from your deck to add to your hand.
 
Grave Upheaval is a nice little reanimation card. While most cards like this usually cost 5 mana, it's costed higher due to having this cycling ability. In Commander, paying 6 mana for this effect is OK, especially since the creature you get can be from any graveyard and it gains haste. It's a card I could see myself playing.
 
Sylvan Reclamation is a slightly over-costed Return to Dust. But having the flexibility in the early game to cycle it for a land you need makes it worth the trade-off of paying an extra mana later. It's also nice that it always removes two cards, because Return to Dust only hits one card unless you play it during your own main phase. It's definitely a card that can see a strong amount of play in a variety of Commander decks.
 
Overall, I like Grave Upheaval more than Sylvan Reclamation, but both are playable cards.