Let's Kraken to this deck tech!
This is a deck built around Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle, he's a huge bruiser that also ramps you. Seems pretty sweet, and he seems that way because he is. This guy surprised me with how good a commander he is, I wasn't sure what direction to go when I first started building him but it came together pretty quickly. Let's go over what he does.
Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle is an awesome Kraken for a ridiculous 4 mana cost. You can play him out by turn 2 sometimes (Thanks Sol Ring) and he's just busted. Arixmethes comes in as a land and ramps you really well by tapping for Simic colors and you get a good payoff for ramping and playing spells. What's the payoff? Well when his slumber counters are removed you get a 12/12 creature. Very very nice. He's pretty self explanatory in what his card does, let's jump into this!
Our commander ramps us really well, but why stop there? We want to play really big dumb stuff as quickly as possible so let's go all in on ramp. Argothian Elder and Blossom Dryad will untap our lands (including our sleepy commander), and Beastcaller Savant provides a mana of any color for creature spells. Cloud Key and Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma will both give us cost reductions for all our big creatures. Coveted Jewel ramps us with 3 on color and also draws us 3 cards. Awakening Zone and From Beyond both provide us with a lil' Eldrazi token every upkeep that can also provide us with colorless mana, passive ramp on a stick. Bounty of the Luxa will also ramp us and draw us cards every other turn. Mana rocks look like this: Thran Dynamo, Sol Ring, Simic Signet, and Sapphire Medallion. Energy Tap can provide us with a pretty good amount of mana depending on our board state. There's a couple equipment in here that also provide ramp Dowsing Dagger
and Prying Blade will both do good things for us if we can get attacks through, and as we'll see in this next section we will do that.
My first thoughts when I saw Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle were "Double Strike" and "Unblockable", turns out double strike isn't a super common key word on Simic colors, but "Unblockable" sure is! Our commander can end someone in two unblocked attacks, so it should be obvious why we'd want this effect in the deck, but also we're running a lot of big creatures, the more annoying and hard to deal with they are the better in my opinion. We'll start with a few creatures that have activated abilities that allow other creatures to be unblockbale: Amphin Pathmage, Cephalid Pathmage, Thassa, God of the Sea, and Departed Deckhand all do that. Deepchannel Mentor is a lord for all our blue creatures that makes it so they can't be blocked. Blighted Agent is one of my pet cards that I'll slot into a deck as an alternate win-con. Storm Scultor is unblockable and also gives us the option to bounce one of our creatures back to hand and play it again to remove an additional slumber counter from our commander. Deep-Sea Kraken is also unblockable and a 6/6 at that, you know who else is? Tidal Kraken, he's a bit more cut and dry than Deep-Sea Kraken but they're friends. Alongside creatures that have unblockable on their card, we also have other cards that will provide it to our commander or any of our other creatures we might want to do combat damage with. Hot Soup is a personal favorite of mine because it's so funny. Whispersilk Cloak is a staple in pretty much any deck that would want it (this one does). Aether Tunnel and Aqueous Form are cheap enchantments to make our stuff slippery. Protective Bubble is similar to Whispersilk Cloak. Canopy Cover gives us pseudo-unblockable as well as making our creature untargetable. Artful Dodge and Taigam's Strike are spells that can be cast twice to get some damage through, Taigam's will even bump the power by 2!
We're doing a lot to ramp, and we have ways to get damage across with creatures, but we want a steady supply of cards to make full use of our mana base. Abzan Beatsmaster rewards us for having creatures with high toughness, and we have a few of those in here. Consecrated Sphinx gives us a ludicrous amount of card draw. Edric, Spymaster of Trest draws us cards if we do damage to an opponent, essentially Coastal Piracy on a creature, and he also gives our opponents incentive to attack each other. Sphinx of Uthuun and Fact or Fiction give us a form of card draw. The aforementioned Coveted Jewel and Bounty of the Luxa also draw us cards. Colossal Majesty draws us cards passively as long as we have a big creature on the field, and I pray we do. Curious Obsession is a fun enchantment to throw on an unblockable creature. Concentrate is pretty straightforward, and Distant Memories is a bit more nuanced but both give us cards. Finally, Tezzeret, Artifice Master can draw us cards, but that's not really what we want him for.
We've covered all our bases until now, the moment you've all been waiting for. This is all pretty apparent by looking at the creatures, but I like covering all the themes in a deck. Let's start out with our Krakens and Leviathans, which is a subtheme in here because why not? Breaching Leviathan and Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep both give us ways to bounce our opponents creatures to the hand and swing for big damage. Shipbreaker Kraken can tap stuff down and make attacks easier. The aforementioned Deep-Sea Kraken and Tidal Kraken are unblockable bois, which we always appreciate. ALWAYS. Stormsurge Kraken is a cool Lieutenant and he can also draw us cards. Inkwell Leviathan is just a pain in the ass to deal with. Finally, Tromokratis is a really fun card that you hsoudl play with if you never have. We're done with Krakens and Leviathans but how about a squid? Chasm Skulker gets big when we draw cards (which we will be doing), and then makes us a squid army when he dies! Centaur Battlemaster becomes very big very fast, imagine targeting him with Taigam's Strike when you cast it and when it rebounds, and then maybe we cast Aether Tunnel on him the next turn. You see what I'm getting at. Speaking of enchantments entering the battlefield, Nylea's Colossus is a seriously sweet card that I'm very happy to slot in here. You know who else is a colossus that fits in here? Outland Colossus he's very silly with unblockable.
We've covered all the major over-arching themes of the deck. There are still a handful of cards that I think bear mentioning for how good they are in this deck. Grappling Hook gives our commander that double strike he so badly wants, and also we can use to to just get rid of problem creatures on our opponent's field. Fauna Shaman can help us grab creatures we might need circumstantially. Whelming Wave is a conditional board bounce, if you're not playing with creatures of the sea you're in for a surprise. Angel's Trumpet is a pet card of mine that I like a lot in here. Dragon Throne of Tarkir is busted when we'll reliably have a 12/12 on the field. Helm of the Host can be slotted into literally any commander deck and be good, but I think it's especially good with our commander because of the crazy board presence he brings and the fact that he taps for two mana. If you have a way to make Arixmethes, the Slumbering Isle unblockable Berserk can just allow you to take someone out. Tempt with Reflections is fun when we have huge creatures, who wouldn't want one? And finally, Tezzeret, Artifice Master does indeed have a use other than card draw, and that's grabbing any permanent for us from our deck and putting it onto the battlefield for free. I love this planeswalker.
Anyway guy, that's all there is to it. Ramp, play big bois, and win with stupid damage no matter how many blockers your opponents have out. I hope you like this deck as much as I do, and as always any feedback is appreicated. Upvotes are also nice :)
