Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
Shifting Tempo Through Growth and Grit
Magic has a funny way of teaching us tempo. Some games scream early aggression, others drag on until a single card snaps the entire board into motion. Akawalli, the Seething Tower tugs the tempo rope in a deft, serpentine arc. This legendary Fungus from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (lci) isn’t just a beater; it’s a built-in tempo engine that rewards you for filling your graveyard with permanents. With a modest mana cost of {1}{B}{G}, this uncommon powerhouse looks like a quiet backfield menace, but when the thresholds kick in, Akawalli turns into a fearsome force that can swing the game decisively. 🧙🔥💎⚔️
The heart of the card: Descend and what it means for tempo
At its core, Akawalli asks you to think in layers. Its static ability—Descend 4—begins to shine once you’ve amassed four or more permanent cards in your graveyard. When that happens, Akawalli grows from a solid 3/3 into a 5/5 with trample. That’s not just a stat boost; it’s a shift in the blow-for-blow tempo of the game. Suddenly your midrange plan evolves into a formidable clock that opponents must respect, because a single swing now threatens a sizable chunk of life with trample pushing through under temporary board states. 🧙🔥
Push the threshold a little further—Descend 8—when there are eight or more permanent cards in your graveyard. Akawalli gains another +2/+2, becoming a 7/7, and it gains an important defensive trait: it can’t be blocked by more than one creature. That last line is a tempo revelation. In boards where your opponent has multiple blockers, you’ve found a way to punch through with a single, efficient attack that ignores massed walls. It’s a reminder that in Magic, tempo is often a dance between offense and defense, and Akawalli provides both steps in one. ⚔️🎨
Why the graveyard becomes a resource, not a liability
Black-green combinations have long fascinated players with graveyard-forward strategies, and Akawalli leans into that tradition with a pragmatic, midgame-first approach. Your graveyard isn’t a graveyard for the discarded; it’s a reservoir of potential permanents counting toward your thresholds. Each forest of turns—creatures that die, tokens that fade, or permanents that vanish from the battlefield—contributes to the pace of the game. This isn’t about flashy combos so much as it is about sustainable pressure: Akawalli grows with your capacity to convert lost permanents into board presence. The result is a tempo curve that accelerates as the game unfolds, turning a cautious early plan into a late-game onslaught. 🧙🔥💎
Consider the broader Ixalan flavor of Descend: it’s a mechanic that rewards memory and patience. Your deck leans into filling the graveyard with permanent cards—lands, creatures, and artifacts alike—that would otherwise be just resources spent. When the conditions are right, Akawalli’s aura of inevitability settles in. Your opponent can’t easily outrun a 7/7 threat that also wields trample and, later, a multi-creature-blocking limitation. The tempo win condition isn’t a single trick; it’s a ramped pressure cooker that builds across several turns. 🧙🔥
Practical lines of play: turning thresholds into turns on the clock
- Early game: Stabilize with removal and discard-light disruption while you sketch out a plan to populate your graveyard. Akawalli sits in your hand as a future threat, a reminder that your midgame will commit irreversible momentum once the thresholds land.
- Midgame (Descend 4 online): Start building toward four permanent cards in the graveyard. This is your window to drop Akawalli and watch it transform into a 5/5 with trample. That single attack can push through a few points of damage and begin snowballing pressure that your opponent must answer. 🧙🔥
- Late midgame (Descend 8 online): If you’ve continued to fill the graveyard, Akawalli becomes a 7/7 that can’t be blocked by more than one creature. That subtle, strategic detail matters in matchups with wide boards or decks that rely on multiple small blockers. Your one-big-threat swing may be the tempo moment that seals the game, letting you push through lethal damage before your opponent rebuilds. ⚔️
- Lategame insurance: With Akawalli applying heavy pressure, you can lean on additional black-green staples to reload your hand or reuse value from the graveyard. The card’s identity fits nicely into a shell that values attrition and recurring threats, giving you a reliable finisher as the field thins around you. 🎲
Deck-building considerations: making Akawalli sing
To maximize Akawalli’s tempo-shifting potential, you’ll want to sculpt a deck that encourages the growth of your graveyard without losing your current board position. Here are a few guiding ideas:
- Graveyard acceleration: Include inexpensive permanents and duplicates of early board presence that you don’t mind sacrificing to draws or removal. The more permanent cards you have in your graveyard, the more likely Descend 4 triggers become a reliable midgame engine.
- Green-black synergy: Leverage the power of green for ramp or card advantage while black delivers disruption and recursion. Akawalli rewards that combination with a scalable threat that your opponents will struggle to answer twice.
- Protection and removal: Since Akawalli can become a primary win condition, ensure you have ways to protect it and clear blockers. A lean suite of selective removal and disruption helps you keep the tempo rolling while you set up your late-game push.
- Graveyard-resilient threats: Consider cards that recur from the graveyard or that leverage a full graveyard for value. The more you can convert late-game inevitability into board presence, the more Akawalli’s thresholds matter in practice. 🎨
Lore and flavor: a Seething Tower in Ixalan’s underbelly
Akawalli, the Seething Tower embodies the Ixalan mythos of towering alchemical and fungal menace—an imposing presence beneath the jungle’s shadow. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan frame this creature as a cautionary tale about the power that builds when memory becomes material. Simon Dominic’s art captures a watchful, creeping intensity that mirrors the card’s arc from a modest 3/3 to a looming tempo engine. In the game, Akawalli is less about one dramatic play and more about a creeping, inevitable shift in momentum, a reminder that tempo isn’t always a sprint—it can be a calculated climb. 🧙🔥💎
“When the graveyard blooms, a tower rises.”
In a world where value is sometimes a function of your graveyard’s age, Akawalli offers a surprising, satisfying way to shift the tempo late in the game. Its two Descend thresholds give you a clear, scalable plan: hit four permanents in the graveyard for a solid midgame boost, then push through with a fearsome 7/7 that’s a nightmare to block if your opponent doesn’t answer promptly. That combination of tempo denial and unstoppable pressure is what makes the Seething Tower a memorable pivot in B/G strategy, a card that makes players lean into the midgame as a legitimate avenue to victory. 🧙🔥⚔️
As you mull over your next Commander showdown or Standard fling through Ixalan’s cavernous halls, keep Akawalli close. It’s a card that rewards patience, planning, and the willingness to let your graveyard do the talking. And if you’re chasing a tactile reminder of the game’s tactile joy, the neon glow of a mouse pad or another tactile upgrade can make the journey that much sweeter—speaking of which, consider this handy cross-promotional nudge to level up your table experience.