This is a joke casual EDH deck built around the obsolete Ship creature type.
My goal was to include as many cards depicting boats and ships in their art. Failing that, seas would have to do. (Incredibly, there are forests depicting either of these!)
A few cards (such as Kodama's Reach) that don't satisfy these requirements were included to keep up a semblance of playability. Cirdan the Shipwright was chosen as the commander simply because I love the Lord of the Rings and he's thematically fitting. If anything some voting might be a fun time, and that's a big ship in that art.
There are a few scrying cards in the deck, chief among them Thassa, God of the Sea and Netherese Puzzle-Ward for repeated scrying.
I added these mostly to fuel Lost Isle Calling, a card that is included almost exclusively for lore reasons regarding Cìrdan.
Terrible creatures, janky stax
Many older ships have Islandhome or similar restrictions, making them difficult to use. This is where the jank comes in.
A set of enchantments are included to turn your opponents' lands into islands.
These are Convincing Mirage, Lingering Mirage, Phantasmal Terrain, Sea's Claim, and Spreading Seas. Stormtide Leviathan and Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood serve similar purposes.
Lastly there are Aquitect's Will and Quicksilver Fountain.
While these cards are great to allow your various boats to attack by targeting your opponents' lands, Quicksilver Fountain can be problematic as it also converts your own lands to islands.
Converting everything to islands is most likely going to hinder your opponents more than it does yourself, but it may hurt your production if not carefully played around.
Ideally you play Fountain early in the game and let it put counters on opponents' lands, then let your opponents blow it up to minimize damage. One island per player is all you need in theory.
Fountain is anti-synergistic with Xolatoyac and Aquitect's Will, as it will remove their counters when every land has been converted.
Stormtide Leviathan will cause Fountain's end-of-turn effect to trigger every turn, effectively nullifying it (and Xolatoyac, too).
On the upside, Xolatoyac in combination with Fountain can slowly but surely ensure you will rarely be tapped out during an opponent's turn, and Leviathan will limit their attacking options. Have you ever seen Islandwalk in the past 10 years?
Even on its own, Fountain can be an absolutely miserable time for your opponents if cast in the early game. Anyone not playing blue quickly becomes color screwed, and as people try to keep playing lands to keep casting their spells the counters don't easily get cleared. Be careful though, the deck does not have the tempo to survive becoming the archenemy early game (if at all).
Vehicles and other artifacts
Ships will be crewing ships, because that is a dumb idea worthy of a chuckle. Cìrdan is also capable of crewing any vehicle in the deck, and will retrigger his council ability with Golden Argosy.
Argosy can also be crewed by Elvish Pioneer to repeatedly ramp for a land from hand. I like Raiders' Karve, and it's a drakkar, so into the deck it goes. Skyship Weatherlight and Weatherlight are the only tutors in this deck. They are limited, frail, janky, and they have no support. Don't rely on them. Predator, Flagship is here less for its overcosted removal and more to allow creatures to attack when Leviathan is on the field. It may lead to some politicking in your games. You decide who attacks and who doesn't. Brilliant.
But what about counterspe-
There aren't any counterspells here. There's also nothing to recycle or protect your cards. This is a joke deck. If Wizards prints a counterspell with a boat drawn on it, I will add it.
On a sidenote: please Wizards make Islandhome also auto-include Islandwalk. It'd make sense flavor-wise and be amazing! This deck's winrate might actually raise to double-digits.
Synergies, because these aren't that obvious
Ship is an obsolete creature type, so they all got errata'd to other types. Some ships will actually synergise with Aquitect's Will, The Indomitable, or Fell Flagship without appearing to.
A full list of the errata'd creature types can be found on https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Ship (why does hyperlinking not work?). Below are the ones relevant for synergies within the deck itself.
Metathran Aerostat allows you to flash creatures onto the board uncounterably, for only on top of their mana cost. Such value!
Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood will keep untapping Saprazzan Cove for lots of ramp, one more each round around the table! With one of Xolatoyac's counters on it, emptying out Cove doesn't stop this!
About Xolatoyac, don't expect to do much with those untapped lands on your opponents' turns. You don't have counterspells. It's all a bluff!
The Grey Havens is here because Lord of the Rings, that's why. Go ahead and cut it, you won't hurt my feelings.
A lot of the cards in this list are specific printings for art and type reasons. Obviously use what you want when building yourself.
If you happen to play this, let me know your experience.
I hope you have as much fun playing this as I did putting it together (which was surprisingly lots!).
To Valinor!
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97% Casual
Competitive
Date added
8 months
Last updated
7 months
Legality
This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)
5 - 0 Mythic Rares
24 - 0 Rares
17 - 0 Uncommons
30 - 0 Commons
Cards
100
Avg. CMC
3.32
Votes
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