mtg shalai and hallar commander deck Deck: Testing Starting Hands The Gathering Shalai and Hallar

This synergizes greatly with a ton of Rakdos cards, but even on its own it can prove itself as a force to be reckoned with

Whenever you play a land or cast a spell from among cards exiled with The Matrix of Time, that card's owner loses 3 life and exiles the top card of their library

But pain lands are actually incredibly powerful, because they can be used to fix your mana early in the game while also enabling powerful spells later on

Its not powerful on rate, only being a 2/2 for two, but it can have a big impact in very specific situations, from destroying a Heart of Kiran to stopping the Saheeli combo

When enchanted, every card you draw deals 1 damage, which then triggers Curiosity to draw again and creates a loop that can either draw your whole deck or deal lethal damage

Jamie Jones clearly understood this with his work on Progenitus which wisely obscures a large portion of the creatures body