Hello! This is my first deck build ever in Commander, so any feedback is welcome and appreciated.
This deck is mainly a Sea Monster Tribal deck centered around Runo/Krothuss. While most of our creatures will be Sea Monsters, we run Arcane Adaptation (AA) to get the best out of our commander's ability. It is important that, when stating a creature type, we select Kraken, as this will allow us to get the most out of activated abilities.
Of course, the priority during the early game will be to flip Runo ASAP, so this deck includes a lot of top-deck library manipulation. Witch's Cottage, Mortuary Mire, and Halimar Depths are lands that allow us to do this, with Brainstorm, Consider, Otherworldly Gaze and Taigam's Scheming are our cheap spell options. Other cards like River Serpent have cheap cycling costs, and, for the later rounds, Liliana Vess can tutor for any of our fatties and Bolas's Citadel can allow us to look at the top card of our library at any time.
With Krothuss in play we have a wide variety of targets and options to make copies out of. Spark Double is a must, as it can enter as a non legendary copy of Krothuss and from there, OG Krothuss can copy it and we can therefore obtain multiple token makers. This not only helps against people spot removing our commander and having to re-cast and re-transform, but means we can either clone the same target creature a lot more, or make copies of different creatures on the same attack, widening our strategy options considerably.
STRATEGIES
- MANA RAMP: Creeping Tar Pit is a land that can transform into an unblockable creature until end of turn. Similarly, Dimir Keyrune is an artifact with that same effect. The unblockable is fantastic, and with AA in play, we can combo Creeping Tar Pit + Krothuss, Lord of the Deep
/Dimir Keyrune + Krothuss, Lord of the Deep
and immediately get 2 copies of either the land or the artifact, which will have to be removed then and there with an instant because they are unblockable, or in Creeping Tar Pit's case, they will revert back to a land at end of turn. Even with targeted land removal, as long as we still control one of them, we can just make more copies. With Mass Land Removal not as frequent (at least not in my playgroups), we should be safe.
Hullbreaker Horror (HH) is probably the most important card in this deck, as it enables us to do a lot of different things. Everflowing Chalice + Hullbreaker Horror + Sol Ring
allows us to generate infinite colourless mana like so:
- Play Sol Ring and tap for 2 mana (or just tap if already in play)
- Play Everflowing Chalice for 0 mana, HH triggers, bounce Sol Ring.
- Play Sol Ring again for 1 mana, HH triggers, bounce Everflowing Chalice. Tap for 2 mana (we now have 3 colourless mana floating, 4 from tapping Sol Ring - 1 from casting it.
- Repeat this cycle ad infinitum
This combo is nasty enough as is, but, if we have used Hullbreaker Horror + Krothuss, Lord of the Deep
to have 3 HH's in play, everytime we cast SR or EC as part of our infinite colourless mana cycle, we get to bounce 2 creatures from our opponents. Because that cycle is infinite, we can completely clean the board this way. Absolutely disgusting.
- EVASION: Attacking is an extremely important part of this deck, as it is required to trigger Krothuss's ability. And we don't want our nice big 9/9 Krakens getting cheese blocked by a 1/1 Zombie token do we? Also, several of our triggered abilities require damage to be dealt to a player, so getting through is important. Krothuss already has flying, which is nice, but having every creature you own fly is even nicer. Wonder does this nicely, as long as it's in our graveyard and we control an Island. Archetype of Imagination gives everything we have flying, whilst not letting anyone else have flying, and unless your opponent happens to have reach on everything they own, they're going to have a bad time blocking you. Harbor Serpent + Stormtide Leviathan
is a nice combo that combines islandwalk with all lands are islands. Similarly, Kraken of the Straits + Stormtide Leviathan
means that, with all lands being islands, Kraken of the Straits will be very hard to block. Tidal Kraken and Deep-Sea Kraken are both 6/6 unblockables, and Tromokratis can only be blocked by all creatures an opponent controls, freeing everything else to get through or, if they refuse to block him, is a minimum 8 damage to that player. And if that wasn't good enough, Deepchannel Mentor makes all blue creatures we control unblockable (that's basically all of them).
But wait, there's more: Elder Deep-Fiend, Icebreaker Kraken, Junk Winder, Mesmerizing Benthid and Shipbreaker Kraken all tap would-be blockers (if there are any left at this point).
-COST-REDUCTION: To help get our costly creatures onto the battlefield, we're running Thryx, the Sudden Storm for some cost reduction and Quicksilver Amulet to just pay 4 colourless (of which we can make as much as we want). Bolas's Citadel lets us pay life to cast off the top of our library, and Kraken's Eye can help us with some lifegain as most of our spells are blue, to offset some of the life lost this way. Finally Quest for Ula's Temple lets us put a Sea Monster for free onto the battlefield, and by combining Arcane Adaptation + Quest for Ula's Temple
, we can put whatever we want into play for free.
Liliana Vess can put everything from all graveyards onto the battlefield under our control, if we can get her ultimate off before being removed. Fleet Swallower and Nemesis of Reason will mill our opponents pretty hard, especially if copied with Krothuss, so this ability can be the ultimate payoff if allowed to resolve.
-DEFENSE
Aside from the usual counterspells like Negate or Counterspell, any instant comboed with HH will allow the HH trigger to bounce incoming threats. Propaganda and Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea tax our opponents when they attack or try to remove our creatures. Reaper of Sheoldred is a handy card to copy with Krothuss, as having infect blockers on hand serves as a deterrent to anyone who would attack with their important creatures, and because the Reapers put poison counters on anyone who tries to remove them by damage, opponents will have to make business decisions about boardwiping or targetting them. Admittedly a bit of a gimmick, but one I look forward to seeing unfold.
Archetype of Imagination + Stormtide Leviathan
makes it so that only opponent creatures with islandwalk can attack us.
Whelming Wave is an excellent mass removal option, with Ravenform being our spot removal go-to. Because bouncing opponents creatures is so easy with Hullbreaker Horror, our spot removal is very light. Mass removal can also be achieve using the mana loop explored above, or with Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep and Scourge of Fleets. Unfortunately, Slinn Voda's ETB only triggers when kicked, so it can't be multiplied by any token making shenaningans with Krothuss.
Ashiok, Dream Render will shut down enemy fetchlands or other library searching effects, reducing possible answers. Also, being able to exile enemy graveyards with the -1 is a great failsafe if Liliana can't get her ultimate off or you need a quick answer to graveyard strategies (I face a lot of Zombie decks).
Octopus Umbra will give take Krothuss from a 3/5 to an 8/8 with a totem armor.
-OFFENSIVE COMBOS:
Almost every single creature in this deck benefits from being copied. However, Krothuss, Lord of the Deep + Spawning Kraken
takes the cake as the strongest in terms of pure synergy and establishing the biggest board presence ASAP:
-Initial attack: 1 Krothuss (3/5) + 1 Spawning Kraken (6/6)
When declared attacking, Krothuss copies Spawning Kraken twice, resulting in 1 (3/5) and 3 (6/6)s. Now, assuming we hit with all 4 creatures, either because our opponent doesn't or can't block us, we will end up with a board presence of 1 Krothuss (3/5), 3 Spawning Krakens (6/6) and 12 Kraken tokens (9/9), as 4 Krakens dealt damage, resulting in 4 triggers x 3 Spawning Krakens. In one attack, we have made 14 creatures and gone from 9 attacking power to a combined 129 power.
This only gets better if we add Spark Double into the mix. We would first have attacked and made 3 Spark Double Krothuss's, which are non-legendary. This is our ideal starting point regardless of this combo as our strategy can't be derailed by spot removing our commander. Assuming we have this position, we could go all out with 1 Krothuss (3/5), 3 SD Krothuss's (4/6), and 1 Spawning Kraken (6/6). Each Krothuss will target Spawning Kraken, we make 8 more, and if everything goes through, not only will we hit for 69 damage, but we will have generated an incredible 72 (9/9) Krakens, which is completely over the top and will give us 648 power to attack with next turn. These numbers are the maximum and the outcome will of course depend on how your opponent can answer, but with the amount of evasion this deck runs, it should be at least feasible.
Twilight Prophet is included for flavour reasons, as I though it would be fitting that the only other vampire in this deck should be a cleric, a devoted follower of Runo and Krothuss. Gaining the city's blessing is a piece of cake, as our large board presence with all of our created copies will allow us to control 10 permanents in no time. The life drain and life gain from this card should not go unmentioned either, as we have a bit over 30% chance of hitting a card with CMC over 6. Icebreaker Kraken + Liliana Vess + Twilight Prophet
can allow us to tutor IK with Liliana on top of our library, for us to then reveal it and hit every opponent for 12 life, whilst gaining 12 in the process. The same effect can be achieved with other top-decking effects depending on if IK is in our hand, in play or in our graveyard. This also synergizes nicely with Bolas's Citadel. The most expensive card in this deck by a long shot and can absolutely be substituted if you don't have it or don't want to splash the cash, I happened to pack one and therefore it didn't affect my budget for this deck.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The process of putting this deck together has been extremely fun and challenging. I am aware that there are certain cards that need replacing, tweaks here and there, but ultimately I built this deck taking into account what I owned and what I could readily buy. Massacre Wurm is a much better fit than Reaper of Sheoldred, especially against decks that have a lot of weak creatures (like Zombie or cheap token decks), especially if they are making a lot of decayed zombies that will die without your intervention. Siren Stormtamer is amazing and I highly encourage adding it to this deck, as you can generate 1 drop counterspells that target you which will help enormously against boardwipes. I think this deck is a bit weak against removal in general, but spot removal isn't a pain when you can create 2 tokens each turn, wheareas a bad boardwipe can completely screw your game up. Lastly, if you are willing to splash the cash, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces is an auto-inclued in this deck if you have access to it. Definetly replace Twiglight Prophet with Sakashima if you want to buy one or the other.
