Is That an Island??

Commander / EDH GU (Simic) Tribal

Legoman18

Threat (17)

• 1x Aethersquall Ancient
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Breaching Leviathan
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Colossal Whale
• 1x Inkwell Leviathan
• 1x Kederekt Leviathan
• 1x Lorthos, the Tidemaker
• 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1x Nimbus Swimmer
• 1x Scourge of Fleets
• 1x Shipbreaker Kraken
• 1x Simic Sky Swallower
• 1x Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
• 1x Stormsurge Kraken
• 1x Stormtide Leviathan
• 1x Tromokratis

Board Wipe (9)

• 1x Aethersquall Ancient
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Crush of Tentacles
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Devastation Tide
• 1x Kederekt Leviathan
• 1x Scourge of Fleets
• 1x Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
• 1x Whelming Wave

Enabler (4)

• 1x Archetype of Imagination
• 1x Breaching Leviathan
• 1x Quest for Ula's Temple
• 1x Tooth and Nail

Targeted Removal (1)

• 1x Colossal Whale

Land (43)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 13x Forest
• 17x Island
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Ramp (10)

• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Search for Tomorrow
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Whisperer of the Wilds

Enhancer (3)

• 1x Mind's Dilation
• 1x Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Kiora, Master of the Depths
• 1x Kiora, the Crashing Wave

Commander (1)

Card Draw (13)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1x Opt
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Sleight of Hand
• 1x Stormsurge Kraken
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Wall of Blossoms

Protection (6)

• 1x Archetype of Endurance
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Simic Charm
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

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Maybeboard

Other (4)

• 1x Cryptic Command *list*
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Pemmin's Aura
• 1x Thespian's Stage

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As soon as I saw Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle, I knew I had to build a commander deck around him. And not just any commander deck, a sea creature tribal deck.

Why Arixmethes? and Game Plan

Having a consitent 4-mana ramp spell available every game ensures you can cast just about anything in your deck by turn 5-6. Subsequently, the goal is to ramp out Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle turn 3, and then start dropping you bombs turn 4. Arixmethes himself is a 12/12, meaning he is difficult to get rid of, and only needs two hits to kill an opponent with commander damage.

Ramp

Coiling Oracle: Either draws a card or ramps out a land. He is slightly better as later game ramp, when it is not as essential that you ramp out a land

Farseek: Can grab Tropical Island, Breeding Pool or just a basic Island

Kiora's Follower: Nets you 2 extra mana once Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle is out, and can be used to untap after the attack phase to keep up larger blockers

Nature's Lore: Finds Tropical Island, Breeding Pool or a basic Forest

Rampant Growth: A standard 2-mana ramp spell

Sakura-Tribe Elder: Same as rampant growth, but can also be a one-time blocker if needed

Search for Tomorrow: One of two turn 1 ramp spells, gets you to 4-lands by turn 3

Sol Ring: A turn 1 Sol Ring is the only way in this deck to get Arixmethes out turn 2

Though Vessel: Ramp, with the added bonus of increasing your hand size for a large Blue Sun's Zenith

Whisperer of the Wilds: Early game taps for 1, but once you start playing your big leviathans and krakens, it taps for additional mana.

Card Draw

Blue Sun's Zenith: Can quickly refill your hand, and has the added bonus of being shuffled back into your librarya after

Mulldrifter: 99% evoked for the card draw, can be cast normally if a flying blocker is needed

Nezahal, Primal Tide: An overall amazing commander card, has the potential to quickly fill your hand find answers. It's ability to flicker til end of turn by discarding 3 cards is very helpful and because of his card draw you can usually just pitch a few lands or late-game even ramp spells

Stormsurge Kraken: He will almost always have his lieutenant active, making a 7/7 hexproof that draws 2 cards if he's blocked, making him a fairly large threat

Sylvan Library: Just overall powerful at sifting through your deck and filling your hand, especially considering you start with 40 life.

Wall of Blossoms: A solid blocker that nets you a card

The rest of the card draw spells I have included are 1-mana cantrips. This cheap spells replace themselves in your hand and help take slumber counters off Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle faster while leaving as much mana as possible for big threats.

Board Wipes

This deck runs a rather high amount of board wipes. This is because there are quite a few large sea creatures that have built in board wipes, as well as a few board wipes that are oriented around large sea creatures.

Aethersquall Ancient: A board-wipe on a stick that is a 6/6 body with flying is pretty good. Although it takes several turns to build-up the energy required to use the board-wipe ability, Aethersqaull Ancient is still good for politics and slowing down your opponents as they try to find an answer and usually commit less to the board.

Bane of Progress: Wipes all the artifacts and enchantments off the field, of which we have very little. Excellent for setting your opponents back and creating a large creature.

Crush of Tentacles: Pairs well with a cantrip to both wipe the board and leave yourself with an 8/8

Cyclonic Rift: The perfect boardwipe in blue, removes all your opponents permanents without damaging your own board.

Devastation Tide: A generic board-wipe that has the advantage of costing next-to-nothing if you draw it for turn.

Kederekt Leviathan: One of my all time favourite sea creatures. Wipes the board and leaves you with a 5/5. and if your opponents manage to get rid of him, there is the nifty unearth ability to wipe the board all over again later in the game.

Scourge of Fleets: Great against token decks, although it has variable effectiveness depending on how many islands you have. Stormtide Leviathan makes scourge much stronger.

Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep: An 8/8 body for 8, or and 8/8 body and board-wipe for 10. 90% of the time, Slinn Voda is cast with it's kicker.

Whelming Wave: For the low cost of 4, you can return all your opponents creatures and leave your board intact.

Enhancers and Enablers

Archetype of Imagination: This card has won me more games than any other card. Building up a sizable ground force then dropping Archetype of Imagination can usually close out a game.

Breaching Leviathan: A pseudo-board-wipe, playing Breaching Leviathan to tap down all non-blue creatures can help close out games.

Tooth and Nail: Lets you go grab any two creatures and then put any two creatures from you hand onto the battlefield. Just an overall excellent inclusion.

Quest for Ula's Temple: An amazing turn 1 play, can help get the big sea creatures out much faster once it hits 3 counters.

Mind's Dilation: Honestly one of the most powerful cards in the deck, dropping mind's dilation turn 4 can usually gain you a lot of value, stealing creatures, planeswalkers, and other assorted spells from your opponents every time they choose to cast their first spell during ANY turn. As well, each card cast with Mind's Dilation also can take slumber counters off Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle

Rashmi, Eternities Crafter: I'm still testing out Rashmi, but so far she is really good. dropping her turn 4, or even turn 3 if your opponents aren't putting a lot of pressure, can gain so much value.

Rishkar's Expertise: Another card I'm currently testing. Usually it draws you at least 6 cards, but can draw up to 12. There are enough cards with cmc 5 or less that it almost always hits. As a bonus, the extra card cast also takes a counter off Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle.

Planewalkers

I have included both Kioras, Kiora, Master of the Depths and Kiora, the Crashing Wave, because it's diffcult to build sea creature tribal and not include everyone's favourite kraken planeswalker

Protection

Archetype of Endurance: The wonderful effect of "your creatures have hexproof, your opponents don't" is all that needs to be said about this card.

Heroic Intervention: Perfect for protecting against most board-wipes, and can be used to protect against targeted removal if need be.

Lightning Greaves: 2 mana for an equipment that can be equipped for zero means you can cast a creature, give it haste, and after combat put it onto another creature without spending any extra mana.

Simic Charm: Great multipurpose card, mostly used to give your permanents hexproof. Also sometimes used to return something like Ghostly Prison so you can attack in without the mana tax.

Swiftfoot Boots: The strictly worse version of Lightning Greaves, can still get the job done. The one advantage is that it gives hexproof instead of shroud, meaning that you can still target the creature with your own spells.

Mana Drain: An excellent counterspell that definitely helps ramp the on your next turn if you manage to stop a large spell.

Targeted Removal

Colossal Whale: The only targeted removal in the deck. I've chosen to have less targeted removal in favor of the large amount of board-wipes. It can be very useful for removing troublesome blockers, and it combos well with Stormtide Leviathan to remove possible flying attackers from your opponents.

Threats

This is all the big creatures that aren't included in any of the above categories

Chasm Skulker: A great early play, it gets increasingly larger as the game continues. Paired with Sylvan Library, it can gain 3 or more counters every turn. Additionally, it is pseudo-protection from board-wipes, filling your board with 1/1 islandwalkers when it dies. Dropping a Stormtide Leviathan is even more powerful with a sizable islandwalk force.

Inkwell Leviathan: Just being a 7/11 means inkwell can block most creatures swinging it's direction. It has the additional bonuses of islandwalk and trample, meaning it is good at pushing damage through. Oh, and it also can't be targeted by anything due to shroud meaning it's extremely difficult to get rid of

Lorthos, the Tidemaker: Has the ability to either tap down 8 blockers, lock someone out of the game by tapping their lands, or a combination of both. Just an extremely powerful card.

Nimbus Swimmer: Scales very well as the game continues, can be deployed earlier as a small flyer or late-game as a large threat

Shipbreaker Kraken: Grants the ability to tap down up to 4 creatures as long as it stays around at the same time turning itself into a 10/10. Great for keeping deathtouch or extremely large creatures in check for more consistent attacks.

Simic Sky Swallower: Another highly evasive threat, flying and trample makes it good at pushing through damage and having shroud makes it difficult to deal with.

Stormtide Leviathan: Another one of my favourite cards, Stormtide combos well with several different cards in the deck, including Scourge of Fleets and Archetype of Imagination. It is also very good at keeping most opposing creatures from attacking until you can find the right pieces to secure a win.

Tromokratis: One of the best ways to push through damage, as your opponent must block it with all creatures they control, even tapped ones, in order to actually stop it. Meaning if at least one creature is tapped from, let's say Lorthos, the Tidemaker, Breaching Leviathan or Shipbreaker Kraken, it can't be blocked. Tromokratis loses hexproof whenever it attacks or blocks, which is it's one weakness.

Lands

Arcane Lighthouse: More of a negotiation card in this deck, considering the lack target spells.

Dark Depths: Mainly a mana-sink, and a decoy for land hate so Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle is more likely to stay on the board.

Reliquary Tower: A way to ensure you don't have to discard after a large Blue Sun's Zenith or from Nezahal, Primal Tide's draw.

Rogue's Passage: A way to push damage through, especially commander damage with Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle

Strip Mine: Mainly used to remove powerful lands such as Gaea's Cradle or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Wasteland: Same as Strip Mine

The rest of the lands are Forest, Island, dual-colour or ramp/colour-fixing lands like Evolving Wilds and Myriad Landscape.

I built this deck from scratch, and have been playtesting and tweaking it for a while now. Any and all suggestion are welcome! I am trying to mostly stay with the sea creature theme, except for a few exceptions.

Top Ranked	Achieved #42 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 28 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.05
Tokens	Emblem Kiora, Master of the Depths, Emblem Kiora, the Crashing Wave, Energy Reserve, Kraken 9/9 U, Marit Lage, Octopus 8/8 U, Squid 1/1 U
Folders	Commander, Commander, Budget Decks I like, Neat decks to watch, New Commander, Decks I like, cool ideas, Arix, OMG Is-land