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Koma, Cosmos Serpent - Risen From the Sea (v1.2)

Commander / EDH* GU (Simic) Landfall Tokens

KBK7101


Maybeboard


Updated - 1/25/25

There comes Fenris' twin

His jaws are open wide

The serpent rises from the waves

Jormungandr twists and turns

Mighty in his wrath

The eyes are full of primal hate

  • Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God, Twilight of the Thunder God (2008)

Hello and welcome to my world serpent deck featuring the amazing Koma, Cosmos Serpent! Kaldheim is one of my favorite planes and once I saw the art for Koma, I knew I had to build around him no matter his effect. His effects, as it turns out, are pretty great! Koma is extremely strong and can be pushed into unfair territory (like most Simic commanders) fairly easily, but this deck isn't out to be totally unfair. The main goal is to just make a lot of tokens and copy Koma as much as possible to make even more tokens! Using Simic's usual ramp and card draw strengths, casting Koma reliably isn't much of an issue!

Before we get into the deck itself, a little bit about me (feel free to skip this part if you want, I really don't mind!). I've been playing Magic since early 2019 and have been playing mostly Commander/EDH since around the release of Throne of Eldraine. My usual playgroup consists of my two brothers with the rare fourth player being my brother-in-law. My "meta" consists of all the decks that I have listed on here plus the ones I still have set to private. When I first started playing Magic, the idea of going to a FNM/some sort of LGS event seemed crazy to me and I was content to just play at home. Once I started playing EDH, though, the urge to play and meet new people started to grow. I was about to dive into my LGS scene right around the time the covid-19 pandemic started. Because of that, I still haven't played with anyone outside of my own house, so please keep that in mind when commenting. I'm an avid deck-builder and I build decks around themes, lore and/or characters rather than broken/infinite combos. I have a LOT of decks but I've only posted a few of them on here publicly but am in the middle of restructuring my deck folders and making more of them public. Most of the decks I build are based around commanders that aren't as common or popular as, say Yarok, the Desecrated or Chulane, Teller of Tales. While the term "budget" has a wide meaning, my decks do have one, so please do not recommend insanely overpriced cards such as Gaea's Cradle or Force of Will. They're much too expensive for me to justify putting in this deck, no matter how good they'd be. With all that said, let's get into the deck!!

***Note : All cards choices came from research using Scryfall, EDHREC and here on TappedOut.

KOMA IS LISTED TWICE AS THE COMMANDER BECAUSE I SWITCH BETWEEN BOTH VERSIONS BETWEEN GAMES. CUSTOM CATEGORIES FEATURES CARDS IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS. THEY ARE NOT DUPLICATES. DECK CONTAINS 100 CARDS.

The plane of Kaldheim has several creatures referred to as "Cosmos monsters". These mythic beasts are able to traverse the ten realms of Kaldheim at will through the space known as the "Cosmos", the aurora-like lights that can be seen in the sky from anywhere in the ten realms. The various peoples of Kaldheim believe that the Cosmos monsters are the first "fruits" of the World Tree, the giant, life giving tree that can be see across all the ten realms, and serve as it's protectors. Koma is the first and oldest of Cosmos monsters and was created at the birth of the world.

Long ago, most Cosmos monsters were free to travel to any of the ten realms that they wished. These visits were often the stuff of Sagas due to the chaos that tended to ensue upon their arrival. When the Skoti (the new gods such as Esika, Alrund and Halvar) overthrew the Einir (the Elven gods of old), they also prohibited Koma from entering any of the ten realms, leaving it stranded in the Cosmos. This was perhaps due to the fact that the elves worship Koma as a god and the Skoti feared that if Koma returned, it would enter the elven realm of Skemfar and try to free the imprisoned Einir elders they had just overthrown... or perhaps they feared that if Koma was left unchecked, it would grow to a size that would eventually be too large for the ten realms to hold. Either way, the elves of Skemfar still revere Koma and believe that his banishment actively harms the World Tree. As it grows more restless inside the Cosmos, Koma's increasing agitation is slowly causing the World Tree to destabilize, resulting in an increasing amount of events called "Doomskars", where two of the ten realms collide with one another for a time, causing mass chaos. The elves believe that unless Koma is freed to wander the ten realms unfettered, the Doomskars will increase and the World Tree will eventually collapse... taking all ten realms with it.

Koma is featured in two of the tie-in stories of Kaldheim on the official MTG site, namely the final chapter of the main story, "Episode 5 : The Battle for Kaldheim" and the final chapter of the side stories featuring the planeswalker Niko Aris, "Aim Through the Target". (Who, sadly, isn't even a planeswalker anymore...)

All of the Kaldheim stories were really good, in my opinion and I really recommend reading them if you're interested in the plane or characters!

When it was first spoiled, Koma, the Cosmos Serpent was a card that a lot of people looked at and said "Ah. Finally. A Simic commander that isn't stupidly broken". It didn't take long for people to realize that cards that make non-legendary clones were incredibly powerful with it and leads to lots of token-creating insanity. Regardless of it's power-level, Koma was a commander that I was INCREDIBLY excited to build when it came out. The cost of is a steep one for sure, but we have access to green, so ramping it out by turn five or six isn't too uncommon. He can't be countered, which is always good and creates a 3/3 Koma's Coil token at the beginning of EACH upkeep. If left alone for an entire turn cycle, you could potentially end up with FOUR 3/3 tokens just by having him be on the board. Insane value. You can also use the Koma Coil tokens for Koma's other abilities as well. Sacrificing a serpent (any serpent, not just a Coil) lets you either give Koma indestrucible until end of turn or the ability to tap down another permanent, removing all it's activated abilites until end of turn. The indestructible ability is insanely useful as it basically allows you to deny spot removal once each turn if you use a Coil and the tap down ability comes in handy more than you'd think.

Our gameplan is pretty simple, overall. It basically boils down to -

Most of this decks creatures can be broken down into three categories, ramp, tokens and clones.

  • Llanowar Elves, Cosima, God of the Voyage   and Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait are the ramping portion of our creatures. Each one helps us to get ahead, while both Cosima and Aesi care about landfall (a secondary theme of the deck) and can help draw us cards as well.

  • Avenger of Zendikar, Rampaging Baloths, Spawning Kraken, and Adrix and Nev, Twincasters are the tokens portion of our creatures. Avenger and Baloth are both infamous for their token creating potential. They also have strong Landfall synergies, which is good for us because of the amount of ramp we need to get Koma out (especially if it gets removed and we have to cast it again). Adrix and Nev and the Kraken are both standout cards from the Quantum Quandrix precon deck from Commander 2021. Adrix and Nev are basically Parallel Lives in creature form and the Kraken lets us make BIG 9/9 kraken tokens if a serpent of our hits for combat damage. The newest addition to this deck is the amazing Koma, World-Eater from Foundations. It can't be countered, has built-in protection and a combat damage trigger (with trample!) that makes even more Koma Coils. A must-include for the deck and an alternate commander to boot!

  • The third focus of our creatures is for cloning Koma. Spark Double and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature, namely Koma. Due to the legend rule, if we have two Koma's, one has to die. Double and Sakashima both get around that rule, however. Double comes in as a NON-legendary copy and Sakashima says "ignore the legend rule". With either of them on the board alongside Koma, the amount of Koma's Coil tokens we can make gets more and more ridiculous with each passing turn. A new card from Innistrad Crimson Vow, Mirrorhall Mimic   is in this deck because I pulled a foil copy from a pack and I thought it would fit well. It can also be cast from the graveyard as an enchantment called Ghastly Mimicry  , which is a nice two-for-one kind of deal. The Jumpstart 2022 card Pirated Copy gives us another clone but also adds in a really nice card draw effect!

The rest of our creatures all have varying uses. Seedborn Muse for untapping lands, Murkfiend Liege doubles on the Seedborn effect and also buffs our creatures, Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Titan of Littjara and Tatvoya, Benthic Druid are for card draw (Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait helps here, too), Keeper of Keys helps us draw cards with Monarch and gives our creatures unblockable if we are the Monarch (which we should be, we have a nearly limitless supply of blockers due to our token making shenanigans) and the staples Reclamation Sage and Eternal Witness for removal and recovery, respectively.

This deck only runs a handful of enchantments :

Parallel Lives is a card I'm glad I got back before it spiked to stupid heights. It doubles our tokens and is incredibly powerful (and incredibly in need of a reprint). Doubling Season, with it's recent reprint in Foundations, fell down into the "expensive but worth it" class of cards to me and I managed to grab a foil one before prices went back up. More tokens!

Khalni Heart Expedition for ramp. Synergizes really well with our Landfall theme, too.

Elemental Bond for more card draw.

Wilderness Reclamation for what's basically a third Seedborn Muse effect. Helps us to keep lands open for our handful of counterspells/instant ramp.

This deck runs five counterspells. Counters aren't my favorite, but I feel that this deck needs some. They're mostly cheap and inexpensive. Disdainful Stroke got Kaldheim art, so it's an auto-include. Arcane Denial and Swan Song counter spells, but offer something to our opponent in return. Narset's Reversal can be used to copy one of our spells or "counter" an opponent's. Keep Safe is very straightforward. It keeps our stuff safe from our opponents (likely trying to exile Koma or blow up a token doubler).

Removal is fairly light and probably needs some help. Only Ravenform, Reality Shift, Rapid Hybridization, Pongify, Beast Within and Return to Nature at the moment. Whelming Wave serves as a board wipe... but not for us (for the most part, anyway)!

Skyshroud Claim, Cultivate, Farseek and Growth Spiral are all for ramp. Pretty straightforward.

Regrowth is for recovering something like Rite of Replication or Return of the Wildspeaker. Can be used to get anything, though!

Sylvan Scrying helps us find Reliquary Tower if needed. It can grab something like Fabled Passage or Myriad Landscape, too, if we need the Landfall triggers.

Return of the Wildspeaker, Rishkar's Expertise, Distant Melody and Shamanic Revelation are all card draw spells that can draw us A LOT of cards.

Lazotep Plating and Snakeskin Veil are some cheap protection, which Koma may need if no Coils are out or if our opponents are trying to do something to him that the Coils can't cover.

Mystic Reflection, Rite of Replication and Echoing Equation   are all for token shenanigans. Reflection could also be used to turn an opponents creature into a something with basic token stats/abilities if needed! (I've done it on Arena. It's EVIL.)

Overwhelming Stampede is a potential game-ender with enough creatures on board. Same with Open Into Wonder.

Most are for ramp. Others include Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves for protection and Panharmonicon for it's double ETB trigger ability for even more token creating potential.

The most important artifact in our deck, however, is Helm of the Host. At the beginning of combat on our turn, it creates a NON-legendary copy of whatever it's equipped to. If Koma is equipped, it makes another Koma.... a nonlegendary one that we can clone with cards like Rite of Replication. More Koma = more Coils.

As always, I recommend using whatever lands you prefer. Lands like Fabled Passage, Myriad Landscape and Blighted Woodland work really well in this deck, though, due to our Landfall effects.

Littjara Mirrorlake is a land that can make a clone of something. It's also a Kaldheim land. Double win!

Basic land art for this deck is the non-snow Forest and Island from Kaldheim. The art for this island is some of my favorite Magic art of all time. I'd love to get a playmat of it.

Since this deck is all about tokens and cloning Koma, some of the key cards are :

This deck has been around since Kaldheim's release, so it's seen a few games. This category will be updated with future games!

Proxies - ///

Sleeves - Dragon Shield Dual Matte (Eucalyptus)

Deck Box - Ultimate Guard Boulder 100 (Malachite)

Playmat - Ultra Pro : Prismatic Bridge (signed Kickstarter edition)

That's everything for now! Koma is a really cool commander that isn't inherently "overpowered" like other recent Simic commanders, but can easily be taken advantage of when it comes to clones and tokens. I'd like some feedback on possibly adding some more/better removal and protection, though. Any recommendations would be nice.

Thanks for reading!!

Suggestions

Updates Add

OUT - Esix, Fractal Bloom, Inga and Esika, Coiling Oracle, Thunderous Snapper, Plasm Capture, Simic Charm, Sublime Epiphany, Naturalize

IN - Koma, World-Eater, Doubling Season, Keep Safe, Reality Shift, Rapid Hybridization, Pongify, Lazotep Plating, Lightning Greaves

It's been a while since I updated this deck but the recent release of Koma, World-Eater and reprint of Doubling Season got me to come back around and revisit it. I tweaked the deck slightly and added in more protection and removal, something the deck was lacking more of.

Hope everyone is well! :)

Comments

92% Casual

Competitive

Revision 17 See all

(4 weeks ago)

-1 Coiling Oracle main
+1 Doubling Season main
-1 Esix, Fractal Bloom main
-1 Inga and Esika main
+1 Keep Safe main
+1 Koma, World-Eater main
-1 Naturalize main
-1 Plasm Capture main
+1 Reality Shift main
-1 Simic Charm main
-1 Sublime Epiphany main
-1 Thunderous Snapper main
Top Ranked
Date added 3 years
Last updated 4 weeks
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

38 - 0 Rares

26 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons

Cards 101
Avg. CMC 3.52
Tokens Ape 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G, Beast 4/4 G, Bird 1/1 U, Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Foretell, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Koma's Coil 3/3 U, Kraken 9/9 U, Manifest 2/2 C, Plant 0/1 G, Monarch Emblem, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Folders All Decks, The Ten Realms of Kaldheim, Koma, Deck Examples, Inspire Me, EDH , Ideas, to play, Other Peoples decks to use for ideas, Future Deck Building Ideas
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