I’ve mentioned this deck in a couple of previous posts that looked at cards I was going to be using. Sadly for you I built the deck and played it.

I’ll put my usual disclaimer here about my decks, although I missed it with the recent Standard deck I shared on here. But still I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point, whether budget or money is no limit. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I proxy in expensive cards and produce them when I play. It helps keep costs down. I can’t afford multiple copies of expensive cards to put in decks. Commander is a casual format about having fun. And that is the ethos I hope I have when brewing the decks.

Disclaimer/rant over. Let’s look at the deck.

My Commander for this deck is from the 2018 Commander precons and is Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle. Not only does it turn into a 12/12, it taps for 2 mana, and only costs 4CMC to cast. Which means it can come out pretty early and help with the ramp.

This deck is all about big blue monsters from the depths of the ocean. It really is a deck built around that theme. It’s main tactic is about getting those big monsters out and stomping all over the place. However it has a plan B. It’s not much of a plan, but it’s taking extra turns. The blue version of my mono red plan B of taking extra combat phases. Unlike the green stompy deck there is no massive creatures here that go crazy with +1/+1 counters. However I do like some of the etb effects, to or abilities that mess with the opponents. You want to feel the hate of all the others play Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. It’s funny because all of a sudden the hand size is zero (unless they have an unlimited hand size).

I know it’s not 100% horrors from the deep, and that I have a handful of creatures that are there for their abilities. But this isn’t a tribal deck so I’m happier about having them in the deck despite them not being entirely on them.

Because my Commander gives me access to Green I’m using that side mainly for the ramp. Mana and lots of it. The main colour of this deck is blue. That gives me access to some classics for removal and countering spells. This isn’t a control deck. But it helps having the tools available to protect a key card, or stop that Planeswalker doing their ultimate.

There should also be a good chance I get to key cards fast. There are cards that allow me to filter my card draw and the classic Rhystic Study for lots of card draw.

I think my favourite card of the deck is Reef Worm. It’s like a Pokemon and keeps evolving! It starts life off so innocently as a 0/1 worm. Then when it dies, it transforms into a 3/3 blue fish. When the fish dies, it sheds it’s scales to become it’s inner 6/6 blue whale. Finally once the whale meets it’s doom it then releases it’s inner 9/9 kraken that has been hiding inside it along. It’s funny how your opponents are so reluctant to attack you with such a small unoffensive 0/1 creature in front of you.

Let’s look at the break down graphic.

I’m not surprised about the AMC being just over 4. Big creatures are not cheap to cast.

I always look at the price of the deck and think “when did that card get so expensive?” You can see why I proxy in the likes Rhystic Study. Who can afford that in every blue deck? It’s a shame that WotC don’t reprint cards like this more and get the price down for the majority of players.

Finally what you have been waiting for the actual deck list…

Creatures:26

1 Kraken Hatchling
1 Shore Keeper
1 Coralhelm Guide
1 Thing in the Ice
1 Timestream Navigator
1 Wall of Mist
1 Cold-Eyed Selkie
1 Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle
1 Reef Worm
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Segovian Leviathan
1 Stormsurge Kraken
1 Archetype of Imagination
1 Shipbreaker Kraken
1 Soul of New Phyrexia
1 Fleet Swallower
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
1 Scourge of Fleets
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Elder Deep-Fiend
1 Lorthos, the Tidemaker
1 Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Deep-Sea Kraken
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

Spells:38

1 Opt
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Stifle
1 Unbridled Growth
1 Anticipate
1 Call to Heel
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Fertile Ground
1 Ground Seal
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Negate
1 Plummet
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Cultivate
1 Disallow
1 Drag Under
1 Ever-Watching Threshold
1 Myth Unbound
1 Overgrowth
1 Regress
1 Rhystic Study
1 Vessel of Endless Rest
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Cryptic Command
1 Kiora, Master of the Depths
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Time of Ice
1 Whelming Wave
1 Octopus Umbra
1 Time Warp
1 Crush of Tentacles
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Nexus of Fate
1 Scour from Existence

Lands:36

1 Command Tower
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Desert of the Mindful
1 Evolving Wilds
11 Forest
1 Grixis Panorama
13 Island
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Rupture Spire
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Woodland Stream