Coral Barrier

Creature — Wall

Defender (This creature can't attack.)

When Coral Barrier enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 blue Squid creature token with islandwalk onto the battlefield. (It can't be blocked as long as defending player controls an Island.)

Tokens

• Squid 1/1 U

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (7)

Firstmiracle on Wall-I

5 years ago

Hey dude, thought I'd comment it on here.

So let's round out my observations before we move to my opinions.

Win Conditions you have included are: Rolling Stones , Assault Formation , Wakestone Gargoyle , Vent Sentinel and Dragonshift. Of those, Wakestone doesn't really have a way to go off unless another win con is already out. So Wakestone + 1 or Vent Sentinel and Dragonshift are the only current ways to win a game.

Subthemes Detected:

Lifegain- Jaddi Offshoot , Perimeter Captain , Wall of Essence. All decent lifegain, Jaddi is good early, Perimeter is good mid, and Wall of essence is good all game, but particularly mid.

Tokens- Coral Barrier , Hornet Nest , Golden Guardian  ^Flip , Sprouting Phytohydra , Dragon Fodder , Parallel Lives , Kiora, the Crashing Wave. Coral Barrier does provide an evasion creature, and 1/1's with evasion are often under-rated. Hornet nest is great if you can keep it alive, and okay if it dies. Golden Guardian is an okay card if you can get some tokens out of it, but it doesn't die to anything in your deck right now. Sprouting Hydra is probably the best token card in this deck as it lines up with all of your themes, it has serious potential for combos. Dragon fodder doesn't belong here. Swap it out for a late game threat like Vigor for wall wins, or Luminarch Ascension if you plan to keep the token theme. Parallel lives is at best okay in this deck, if you had more than 10 things that made tokens, I would say its definitely important. Kiora is an okay planeswalker but I'll talk about her in a second.

Ramp- Ok so there's not enough of it. Overgrown Battlement , Ulvenwald Captive  ^Flip , Sol Ring, Cryptolith Rite. Commander games are won by casting several cards in a turn. Firm believer that if you have green, you run green ramp. Period. Bonus, Ulvenwald Captive is terrible ramp.

Card Draw- You're covered here. I think you have enough card draw.

Planeswalkers- Special Note, I think Kiora is a fun planeswalker, but she's not amazing in this deck. It'd be better to see something like Ajani Goldmane , or Elspeth, Sun's Champion for added tokens, boardwipes, and counters, as well as their emblems enable your win conditions.

Ok so now I'll start by suggesting things you could add to this deck.

Wall of Denial - My favorite Wall.

Tree of Redemption - Can get ugly dude. 0/40 is kinda great in a lifegain deck.

Kodama's Reach - good solid ramp.

Cultivate - Same as above.

Comet Storm - You have ramp, play a ramp board clear.

Kindred Summons - Pick wall.

Fireball - Very versatile in rampy decks.

Vandalblast - You have red, you need good artifact hate.

Supreme Verdict - Favorite Board Wipe

Wrath of God - AKA the Reset Button

Azorius Signet - Ramp

Izzet Signet - Ramp

Aetherflux Reservoir - Can become a win condition (that can be fetched with fabricate) if you have a strong life gain game.

Ajani Goldmane - Can combo with some win cons, has good passive benefits from behind the army of walls.

Elspeth, Sun's Champion - Same reasons as Ajani, but can also board clear creatures with 3 or greater power, so not your walls.

Now we move on to cards I suggest removing.

Ludevic's Test Subject  ^Flip - Dead weight. You will never want to pay mana for this ability, and if you do you are definitely losing it to removal. Not worth the investment.

Murmuring Phantasm - It's not bad, it just doesn't provide an additional benefit. You could find a better card for sure.

Ulvenwald Captive  ^Flip - By the time you have 7 mana to pay for the ability you are already playing your better cards. Just put in a bigger late game threat.

Golden Guardian  ^Flip - Only remove this if you elect not to add several 4 power or greater creatures to the deck.

Abrade - Swap for better removal. I suggest Comet Storm, or Vandalblast.

Arcane Denial - I'd personally trade it for a dozen other draw spells. Opt or Brainstorm or Ancestral Vision if you got it.

Lightning Helix - Okay so IDK what this is in here for. Its a good card in a tempo deck. You can do bigger and better with 2 mana. Play the long game.

Tower Defense - I'll admit, this can rarely win a game. However, Vigor Will just win you the game.

Ghostway - Looks okay with EtB triggers. Is good against boardwipe, but honestly, you have walls. They probably won't die that often, and if they do, you won't be bouncing more than 2-3 back to your hand. Is that honestly worth holding up 3 mana?

Colfenor's Urn - Maybe I don't understand the benefit. Run something like Sun Titan.

Parallel Lives - Get to the 10+ token generators, and this card is waaaaaaay better. As it stands now you may get 2-4 extra tokens in a game, if you draw it.

Chasmolinker on Mardu Pyromancer (OLD)

5 years ago

Awesome! I love this deck and this write up. I keep coming back to Mardu and testing the waters. I haven't had anything that I really liked yet though. I might slap this together one day in the near future. It seems like we shared the same kick in the teeth welcoming into Modern. I got wrecked in 3 turns by a guy playing Grishoalbrand. Meanwhile, I was windmilling Coral Barriers and other such pieces of shit. It was a wake up call no doubt. I then faced a Jund player and fell in love with the deck as he ripped me a new one and turn by turn dismantled any plans I had of contributing to the match. After a year or two of screwing around with Mono Black and 8 Rack, I pulled up my bootstraps and put together a Jund build of my own. Anyway... This list looks really fun. My only suggestion is Path to Exile which you are probably already aware of. +1 I look forward to seeing the final build of this deck.

ShrimpImp on Skulker Tempo

5 years ago

thanks shroom_dude! i really like the Ideas Unbound, never seen that card before. i'll try cutting the Coral Barriers but i fear i'll have too few creatures then...

HAMMARE on

6 years ago

Martial Coup Mentor of the Meek Precinct Captain Militia's Pride at a glance. Perhaps anthem effects? My blue knowledge is lacking for tokens. Chasm Skulker Coral Barrier perhaps?

HOPMONSTER on Doom from the Deep

7 years ago

Some ideas from my deck: Lorthos, the Tidemaker, Empress Galina, Seasinger, Narwhal, Kraken of the Straits, Killer Whale, Dance of Many, Coral Barrier, Coastal Breach, Clinging Anemones, Coastal Piracy.

Optimator on The Rising Tide

7 years ago

Floodtide Serpent is soooo bad. Awesome picture, but a garbage card. Replace it with Brine Elemental or Coral Barrier or Colossal Whale or Serpent of the Endless Sea. Hell, even Killer Whale or Guard Gomazoa or Gomazoa would be better.

DillyPickleUnicorns on Squid Tribal/Islandwalk

8 years ago

Yeah so here is what I was thinking. I thought about Adaptive Automatons, and they definitely are better for the deck, but the one thing holding me back was the $5 cost xD. Well, I'll put in a play set. Also I was thinking that while it only had 8 creatures, the Coral Barriers spawned an extra creature and the Chasm Skulkers (hopefully) spawned a bunch more when they died. But I do see where you are coming from.

So Dictate of Kruphix is really good for the raw drawing power, especially late game because this deck costs so little mana-wise, but my sort of theme I was revolving around was "Get all the island-walk squids, buff them a little with Obelisk of Urd and now Adaptive Automaton then use Spreading Seas to get them unblock able due to their island walk, then swing for big + if you hit the opponent then you get to draw a card, buffing your Chasm Skulker. So, I'll sideboard the Dictate of Kruphixs

Also, I, personally LOVE Aqueous Form Its super cheap with a consistent scry, but due to the built in island-walk feature of the squids, Spreading Seas is the way to get unblock able things, but it would only be useful for my Chasm Skulker and Adaptive Automatons.

The only problem here is I'm not sure what to take out. Once Chasm Skulker dies, Stoneforge Masterwork will kick in, hopefully scaring the enemy into not killing it. Spreading Seas and all the creatures are pretty much the core of this deck. Curiosity is like an extra bident, and with Aura Finesse if you don't have Spreading Seas out then you can hop Curiosity over to a different squid to still get the trigger. The only thing holding me back for putting in Aqueous Form is that late game, if I already have Spreading Seas out and my Chasm Skulkers dead, then Aqueous Form's only place would be to make the Adaptive Automatons unblock able. I think I will sideboard a play set and substitute them for Stoneforge Masterwork if I feel the need.

Also sorry for this wall of text, I tried to space it appropriately, but I just like responding to your suggestions, please leave one!