Arixmetheses, Bouncy Smackdown Combo *Primer*

Commander / EDH GU (Simic) Infinite Combo Primer Ramp

Naximandr

Ramp (19)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Explore
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Into the North
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Sanctum Weaver
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Curiosity
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Traverse the Outlands
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Voyaging Satyr

Card Draw (6)

• 1x Nissa, Vital Force
• 1x Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip
• 1x Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• 1x Thrasios, Triton Hero

Utility (6)

• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Kiora, Master of the Depths
• 1x Rancor
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Timeless Witness

Land (35)

• 1x Alchemist's Refuge
• 1x Barkchannel Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Castle Vantress
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rejuvenating Springs
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 10x Snow-Covered Forest
• 9x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Waterlogged Grove

Monsters (13)

• 1x Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
• 1x Breaching Leviathan
• 1x Kederekt Leviathan
• 1x Kiora Bests the Sea God
• 1x Koma, Cosmos Serpent
• 1x Lorthos, the Tidemaker
• 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Serpent of Yawning Depths
• 1x Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
• 1x Spawning Kraken
• 1x Stormsurge Kraken
• 1x Tromokratis

Commander (1)

Interaction (14)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Coastal Breach
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Crush of Tentacles
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Delay
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Flood of Tears
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Whelming Wave

Combo (4)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Freed from the Real
• 1x Pemmin's Aura
• 1x Stroke of Genius

Tutors (2)

• 1x Drift of Phantasms
• 1x Mystical Tutor

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Deck Philosophy

The sea boiled. More krakens emerged, propelled from seas all over Theros, answering Thassa's call. In the distance, Arixmethes himself breached the water, his black bulk both beautifully sleek and impossibly massive. Even the largest of the other krakens were minnows beside him. He crashed back down, and the sea shuddered. He was perfect.

Kelly Digges, "Drop for Drop"

I personally love edh decks that take on the unique qualities of their commander. This deck is built to maximize the specific things that Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle brings to the table:

1. Guaranteed 4 mana ramp from the command zone
2. Mana dork that produces UG mana per activation
3. Massive 12/12 beater
4. Creature type Kraken

The deck has been constructed with some self-imposed constraints for flavor and budget. It is "sea monsters" tribal with only a couple of important exceptions, and the maximum card value is in the neighborhood of $20 (at the time of posting). As a result, not every card choice is optimized, but the deck still plays quite strongly in a 75% meta. For additional budget considerations, as much as $100 or more could be shaved from the total cost of the deck without impacting performance significantly by merely substituting out the more expensive cards, like Minamo, School at Water's Edge , Prismatic Vista , Gemstone Caverns , and Cryptic Command . In particular, the advantage playing Minamo and Vista is extremely marginal.

With a wealth of ramp, numerous bounce spells, aggressive creatures, and a potential combo finish, the deck plays somewhat like a tempo deck where the goal is to keep the board unstable long enough to carry out your plans. At the same time, it has a strong late-game punch as well. The deck can easily produce kills through combat, including commander damage. However, it is also capable of drawing massive numbers of cards, generating infinite mana, and comboing your opponents out.

Win Conditions

Beat Sticks

The most direct way to win is through combat damage. The deck has a number of difficult to handle creatures . Arixmethes himself can make short work of an opponent through commander damage, but a host of other giant creatures also present strong threats . There are several forms of evasion to get your fatties in for damage - from the classic Rogue's Passage and trample effects like Shadowspear , to the tap down effects of cards like Lorthos, the Tidemaker and Cryptic Command , to asymmetrical bounce effects unique to the sea monsters tribe .

Combo

By attaching Pemmin's Aura or Freed from the Real to Arixmethes, the deck is able to generate infinite mana, which can then be used with one of the deck's card draw spells to kill an opponent by forcing them to draw out their deck. With Eternal Witness , you can recur it from the graveyard and then bounce EWit to do it again.

Play Pattern

Early Game

Turns 1 through 3 are for ramping. Since we have a guaranteed 4 mana ramp spell from the command zone, the deck has been constructed with a premium placed on 1 and 2 mana ramp. Your goal should always be to cast Arixmethes on Turn 3. You should only keep opening hands that have at least two lands and one 1 or 2 mana ramp spell. If you're not casting Arixmethes on Turn 3, then you're behind. If you curve out normally, then you should almost always be able to go into Turn 4 with 6 or 7 mana, which is enough to cast all but a handfull of the spells in the deck.

Mid Game

The next few turns should prioritize getting a threat on the table and/or setting up a draw engine, all while continuing to play out your ramp spells and potentially popping off a mass bounce spell if you feel that your opponents are setting up threatening board states. You want to get as many lands out as you can in case you get set back by an opponent removing your commander. Getting a large threat down serves a dual purpose. One is that it can draw out removal spells from your opponents, making it more likely that Arixmethes can survive once he transforms. Two is that your threats are themselves the basis of a powerful draw engine. Cards like Rishkar's Expertise and Prime Speaker Zegana allow you to draw a massive amount of cards in a single turn. This means that your large creatures with Hexproof are particularly valuable.

Late Game

Generally you want to wait to remove the last counter from Arixmethes until you have a specific strategic reason to do so and/or you can protect him. If your opponents are tapped out and you can safely pull off a Return of the Wildspeaker to draw 12 cards, go for it. If you've ramped into a large amount of resources and it won't set you back that much to have to recast him, go for it. Otherwise, wait for your moment and lean more on your other threats. Generally when you finally decide to transform Arixmethes, you should be planning to swing with him and/or go for the infinite mana combo.

The Combo

The easiest way to generate infinite mana is by attaching Freed from the Real or Pemmin's Aura to Arixmethes once he has transformed into a creature. However, there are other ways to get there as well. If you have a land in play that can tap for more than one mana - Arixmethes himself, Simic Growth Chamber , or a land that has been enchanted with Utopia Sprawl - then you can play one of the auras on an untapping dork instead.

With the ability to generate infinite mana, the way that you win is by casting a draw spell to force your opponents to draw out their decks. To do this you'll need to assemble a few components. Having a Thrasios, Triton Hero in play is perhaps the easiest way to do this as it allows you to draw into all the pieces that you need. Alternatively, you can cast the first draw spell on yourself to put the majority of your library into hand. Once you've done so, use Eternal Witness to recur the Stroke and then bounce or copy the E-Witt to do it again.

Under most conditions, the infinite mana that you will be generating will be green mana (because the blue generated will be used to activate the untap ability of the aura). The lone exception is if you manage to get Utopia Sprawl on your Breeding Pool with an untapping dork enchanted with one of the auras. This will allow you to tap for UU, but under most circumstances you will be tapping for UG. As a result, blue mana will be your bottleneck on the combo turn. This means that your default priority when fetching from ramp spells should be to get Islands. It also means that you should be attentive to how much U you have available and be conservative in using it on your combo turn. At a bare minimum, you will need at least as much U as you have opponents so that you can cast Stroke of Genius for each one. However, it is likely that you'll need more so that you can cast needed supplementary spells to keep the combo going - spells to bounce Eternal Witness being a typical example.

There are multiple ways to generate more blue mana mid-combo, and you should familiarize yourself with all of them. Explore will let you put an additional Island into play. If Breeding Pool is still in your library, Skyshroud Claim lets you tutor it out untapped. You can play Nissa, Vital Force and use its plus ability to untap a blue source as well. Mana rocks will do the job. However, a sneaky useful spell is Rishkar's Expertise , which lets you cast a number of your blue spells without having to use up your blue sources. The key is to always be vigilantly aware of how you're using it and calculate how much you need available to get the job done.

Individual Card Choices

The Mana Base

The ratio of blue to green mana sources might seem odd given that the spells in the deck tilt heavily toward blue. However, a critical mass of green mana is essential to be able to cast our ramp spells reliably in the early turns. Nevertheless, given the dominance of blue payoff spells, you should prioritize fetching out Islands by default from your ramp spells. Once you have ~4 or so green sources, the benefit of any additional ones is pretty marginal.

Snow Covered Lands : the benefit of playing snow-covered lands is pretty negligible, but they do let us play Into the North , which is why I've included them. You could replace them with regular basics without much impact to deck performance.

Breeding Pool : As of the writing of this primer, Breeding Pool is up to $20. If you're on a budget you might be tempted to replace it with a cheaper land, but I'll say that this is one of the more important expensive cards in the deck. The fact that you can fetch Breeding Pool with your forest-specific ramp spells is big.

Alchemist's Refuge : I'm not convinced this card is very important. There are no doubt times when the ability can be very useful, and the opportunity cost to including it is small. Still, you probably won't end up activating it nearly as often as you think you might.

Castle Vantress : I don't know why this land isn't more popular. The ability is incredibly useful when you're top-decking. With all the ramp in this deck you will often have plenty of mana to activate it. There is a risk that it comes into play tapped on an early turn, but this seems pretty negligible for the upside.

Gemstone Caverns : One of the pricier cards in the deck. Turn 0 ramp is very powerful. It does come at the cost of a card, but the deck is more focused on card quality and situational usefulness rather than total card quantity. If you're on a budget, cutting this card makes sense.

Minamo, School at Water's Edge : Should be one of your first cuts if you're on a budget. The advantage is very marginal. It gives you some funny gotcha moments when you can untap one of your fatties, but usually it's just an Island that's vulnerable to Blood Moon.

Simic Growth Chamber : This land can be very annoying at times, especially if it's the second land in your opener. However, it's an enabler for the infinite mana combo, so it gets an include.

The Ramp

While there are a couple of ramp spells higher on the curve, this list heavily prioritizes 2 mana ramp spells. The reason is that we have guaranteed 4 mana ramp in our command zone, and we always want to be casting it by Turn 3. And while ramp spells that get lands into play are generally more reliable for a stable board state, the deck does include a couple of artifact and enchantment ramp spells as well. This is partly to reach a critical mass of cheap ramp, but it's also because they have some utility in enabling our combo wins. The biggest downside is that things like Mana Rocks get bounced by some of our own spells . However, this problem is mitigated by a couple of factors: 1) we have enough lands to replay them without much difficulty, and 2) recasting them can help us remove counters from Arixmethes.

Skyshroud Claim : In the early game you'll almost always prioritize casting Arixmethes over this spell, but it's good enough that there are some occasions where you might not. The big reason to play this card is that it brings your lands into play untapped, which can be very useful if you can fetch a Breeding Pool on your combo turn in order to get an extra blue source. If you're lucky enough to own a Tropical Island , then it's even better.

Traverse the Outlands : This can be an absurd midgame or early late game bomb. It can also be used just to clean your deck out of basics to make your draws better. If you get to play Tromokratis on Turn 4, then you can ramp out 8 lands on Turn 5 with this card! Keep in mind that this spell doesn't target, so it's less vulnerable to opponent removal, but you generally should only cast it if you either have multiple fatties in play, your single fatty has Hexproof or Shroud, or you have some other way of protecting it.

The Creature Suite

This list leans heavily into a Sea Monster tribal theme, so one could take issue with sub-optimal creature choices. For example, given the fact that the deck is somewhat light on consistent sources of card draw, I'm somewhat tempted to add Consecrated Sphinx . However, Sea Monsters have great flavor and have a decently moderate amount of tribal support spells. I am fairly confident that I have selected the strongest Sea Monsters that are available, but the exact number that should be in the deck could go up or down based on your preference.

All of the Sea Monsters that I have included serve one of the following purposes:

1. Disrupt our opponents' board states: this includes Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep and Scourge of Fleets , where our creatures have ETB effects that bounce opponent permanents.
2. Enable some sort of evasion for our attackers: monsters like Breaching Leviathan can tap our opponents' creatures down, while Inkwell Leviathan has built-in evasion in the form of Islandwalk and Trample.
3. Protection from removal: a number of our creatures, like Tromokratis and Simic Sky Swallower can't be targeted, which by itself makes them great threats, but it also makes them great enablers for our card draw spells .

Lorthos, the Tidemaker : This is probably the monster that I'm least confident in. Its cast cost is already on the more expensive side. It lacks protection, and the activation cost for the ability is not insigificant. At the same time, it clears out blockers for two turns on a single activation. Plus, it has great flavor. It stays for now, but if I decide that the deck has too many big dudes, it might be the first to get cut. The other options are probably Breaching Leviathan and Shipbreaker Kraken .

The Interaction

Beyond the myriad bouncy board wipes, there are a handful of counterspells and forms of targetted removal. This may or may not be the right balance. It feels close to the floor that I'd want, but you may decide based on your meta that you want more interaction. The priority with these spells is resource efficiency. Many of them - for example, Pongify - leave our opponent with a gift, but they are not generally a problem for us to deal with. One form of interaction the deck is lacking is any way of dealing with our opponents' graveyards. It may be worth cutting something to put in a piece of graveyard hate or two .

Whirlwind Denial : I am currently testing this card. I am not super confident in it. It could easily be the case that this should be a different counterspell. The idea is that it can maybe help against storm decks, cascade abilites, in counter wars, and as a stifle effect.

Cryptic Command : While expensive as a counterspell given the many alternatives that are available, Cryptic gets an include because it can also be a win enabler by tapping our opponents blockers down and letting us swing in for lethal combat damage.

The Combo

Since the combo is described in detail above I'm not going to use much space here going through all of the card decisions, but a few things are noteworthy.

Pemmin's Aura : In addition to enabling the combo, this aura is great utility. It can protect your creature, and the 4th ability can enable a one-hit commander damage kill.

Blue Sun's Zenith : Since it shuffles back into your deck you shouldn't hesitate to fire this spell off on yourself in the mid-game if you need to refill your hand. BSZ is less desirable as a combo piece than Stroke of Genius anyway. The fact that it shuffles back in makes it more difficult to recur (unless you set up a draw loop with Thrasios), and the heavy blue mana requirement is less resource efficient.

Drift of Phantasms : This little guy may seem like an odd include for the deck, but it is a brilliant tutor that can fetch out literally any piece of the combo. If you decide that you want to include Fireshrieker in the list for easier commander damage kills, Drift can even tutor for that.

Eternal Witness : It's possible that the deck might want some redundancy on this effect, but the options are limited for efficient alternatives. You would likely want a creature-based ETB effect so that you can benefit from the deck's numerous bounce spells. Skullwinder is a possibility, but it comes with the obvious downside of helping your opponent find an answer to disrupt you. Greenwarden of Murasa is another option. It does have a much higher CMC, but this wouldn't necessarily be a problem when you can generate infinite green mana.

Card Draw

Beyond the mass card draw spells (including the creature synergy spells like Prime Speaker Zegana , the deck is somewhat light on sources of consistent card draw. However, there are a couple of powerful inclusions.

Tatyova, Benthic Druid : This card is great. It turns your lands into redraws and your ramp spells into cantrips. There's a reason it is one of the most popular Simic commanders. It's a lightning rod for removal, but this isn't all bad because that means there's one less removal spell out there for Arixmethes.

Nissa, Vital Force : Basically another copy of Tatyova. You'll usually be looking to ult this planeswalker as soon as possible, which fortunately is crazy easy to do. It is extremely useful for the combo, either untapping a scarce blue mana source or recurring a key piece from your graveyard.

Thrasios, Triton Hero : Another simic commander all-star. While it has obvious synergy with the infinite mana combo, you shouldn't underestimate the utility of just getting in value activations of Thrasios on your opponent's end step. It's card draw. It's ramp. It's great.

Other Utility Cards

Clever Impersonator : Obviously great all round card that can take advantage of opponent plays, but it has specific utility in this deck. It can function as an extra Eternal Witness, mana rock, or planeswalker activation when comboing. And you can also make your opponents hate you by creating an "infinite" cycle with Kederekt Leviathan . Cast the Leviathan on one turn. Copy it with Clever Impersonator on your next turn, which bounces Leviathan back to hand. Rinse and repeat on your following turns.

Kiora, Master of the Depths : I'm not terribly convinced this card is good enough (the ult is nigh impossible to reach), but it does have some good utility and the flavor is spot on. The plus can be good ramp, especially if you have a Kiora's Follower effect in play. The minus is solid card selection. I could see there being better uses for this spot.

Shadowspear : Great utility equipment. Enables our fatties to get past chump blockers. The lifelink is also not inconsequential when you're swinging in with such large creatures. And it helps deal with problematic opponent permanents.

Rancor : Another trample effect. Might not be good enough, but pseudo-recursion is great.

Key to the City : This is an underrated card that feels like it should see more commander play. Giving our creatures evasion is great, but it's also a pseudo-loot that can help us with card selection. Maybe it's not good enough, but I'm giving it an include for now.

Maybeboard / Notable Exclusions

Fireshrieker : Turns Arixmethes into a one-hit kill. Tutorable with Drift of Phantasms. Could definitely be a strong addition.

Homeward Path : Nothing is worse than getting pounded by one of your own creatures. The large number of bounce spells in the deck is one check against sneaky Treachery effects from our opponents, but it might be worth tossing in a Homeward Path as well.

Swiftfoot Boots : Probably a better option than Lightning Greaves despite the extra equip cost because Greaves can create some timing nonbos with the untap auras. Creature protection is nice, but maybe a little less necessary here since a number of our creatures have built-in protection. Arixmethes already has a form of pseudo-haste because you'll always be able to swing on the turn that you remove the last counter. Could warrant a spot, but spending an entire card just to get Hexproof doesn't seem great. I think I'd rather have more ways to get through damage or other utility cards.

Bident of Thassa : Great flavor, but otherwise meh. We're rarely swinging with the quantity of creatures to make the draw effect worth it. I guess the goad(ish) ability creates a kinda sorta form of evasion for your creatures to get in. Seems too low impact.

Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner : I could be wrong, but this card has felt awkward in my testing. We don't have a ton of creatures to trigger the static ability enough to get much value (and Arixmethes himself doesn't even trigger it at all). The untap ability is nice, but as I noted above we really want the majority of our ramp to be 1 and 2 drops. You won't want to play her on Turn 3 because you won't be able to protect her, and you want to be casting Arixmethes on that turn anyway. Then you probably don't want to cast her later because you can be doing more powerful things with your mana.

Walking Ballista : The premier infinite mana payoff. There's probably a decent argument that room should be made for a copy, but ... I don't want to. It feels like a flavor fail, and the Stroke combo is way more fun. Plus, and maybe this is just a rationalization, I do think that Ballista is not a terrifically strong card in this deck outside of the combo, whereas the card draw spells can always be cast targetting yourself for massive value.

Rite of Replication : This could be fun. 9 mana is not hard to reach, and getting 5 copies of one of our fatties could be great fun. Unfortunately, there are a couple of hitches. A good chunk of the creatures we might want to copy are legendary, a couple more have shroud and can't be targetted by the spell, and then you have the silliness of multiple Kederekt Leviathan triggers.

Thassa, God of the Sea : Another big flavor win. I don't think this would be a bad include. The evasion ability is very useful, and scry is an underrated mechanic. I don't know how often she would be active as a creature, but if you're more into the combat aspect of the deck then Thassa seems pretty good.

Nadir Kraken : I haven't tested this card much, but it seems too low impact. It takes a while to build up counters, and the deck doesn't really get much from going wide with tokens.

Stormtide Leviathan : A very strong sea monster. If you find yourself playing in a meta with lots of aggressive creatures or go-wide token decks, then this could definitely justify consideration. The problem is that the Island Sanctuary effect is symmetrical, which can prevent many of our creatures, including Arixmethes, from being able to swing in.

Quest for Ula's Temple : Too many hoops to jump through. We don't have the creature density to consistently get a reveal. Even if we do, it's a bare minimum of 3 turns before it turns on (math says the average would be 15 turns). Then we have to have a need to use the ability instead of just casting the creature the normal way.

Overwhelming Stampede : I'm not excited by single use pump spells unless you have a way to abuse them. Stampede is best when you have a wide board full of creatures that you can pump up massive amounts. Honestly, I'd probably rather play Berserk than Stampede because it's instant speed and way more mana efficient.

Archetype of Imagination : Very weak creature on its own. Very low impact without other creatures to take advantage of it. There are better ways to get evasion. On the bright side, it does synergize nicely with Stormtide Leviathan .

Rewind : Might be a better option than Whirlwind Denial . On the costly side for a counterspell, but it would have some utility while comboing off. Given that blue mana is the bottleneck when you can generate infinite green mana, I could imagine a scenario where you cast a green spell and hold priority to counter with Rewind so that you can untap a couple of additional Islands.

Soul's Majesty : Strictly worse than Return of the Wildspeaker . You want to avoid these type of effects that require you to target your own creatures. Your opponents can much more easily fizzle the effects with spot removal. Plus, a couple of our creatures have shroud and can't be targetted anyway.

Wild Growth and Fertile Ground : I'm on the fence with these cards. I want to keep to a minimum the number of ramp spells that aren't getting more lands into play. However, these cards are very efficiently costed, and they are additional enablers for the infinite mana combo. In particular, Fertile Ground can fix the blue mana bottleneck if it's attached to a land capable of producing U.

Beast Within : Great all purpose removal. I could definitely be wrong by not having a copy in the list. I have a couple of reasons that I decided to go with other alternatives. I like the mana efficiency of Pongify and Rapid Hybridization . I like the exiling effect of Reality Shift . However, these cards only target target creatures, whereas Beast Within can target any permanent. I ultimately justify the decision because of the multitude of effects in the deck that bounce the board of all permanents. Talk to me next week and I may feel differently.

Elder Deep-Fiend : Cool card. Strong ability. If I were looking to add more fatties to the deck, I would probably take a long hard look at this one.

Thing in the Ice  : Strong ability. Could be good, but requires more careful timing than most of the other creatures in the deck. A transformed TiTi is a Kraken, so it wouldn't get bounced by our other tribal spells. However, none of our other creatures are Horrors, so they would all get bounced by its ability - even Arixmethes. The other big problem is figuring out when you would cast it. You'll want to be doing other things on Turns 2 and 3. Then on Turn 4 you should have enough mana to just cast a bomb that doesn't take any additional work to transform.

Bane of Progress : This card was in the initial builds of the deck, but I took it out as I started including a few more enchantment and artifact spells. If you don't play mana rocks or equipment, it might be worth it. It doesn't fit the theme, but that's not a huge deal. It's nice to have a permanent solution to problematic permanents (see what I did there?), but all the bounce effects provide nice tempo-based disruption already.

Upgrades

It's honestly kind of difficult to think of a ton of upgrades that could be made without the deck losing its core identity. You could always ramp into Consecrated Sphinx , Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur , or one of the Elrazi Titans , but then you wouldn't really be playing the same deck.

The biggest place where the deck could be improved is the mana and ramp. While the land base is currently quite strong, and I don't really find there to be any notable problems with it, there are a few powerful cards that could be obvious includes if budget were no concern. Tropical Island would be great, and fetch lands would be an option (though I suspect the addition of fetches might have very little impact). Remember that you want to keep your basic land count quite high because of all the land tutors that you're running.

There are a few pricier ramp spells that could also merit inclusion, but it's hard to justify the pricetag for a deck of this calibre. Mana Crypt is super powerful. As are Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox . Three Visits would be great because it brings the land into play untapped. Exploration and Burgeoning might justify consideration, but honestly probably wouldn't add much. Maybe a Sapphire Medallion ?

One other possible area for upgrades is the suite of counterspells. Mana Drain would be excellent in the deck. There might also be justification for including one of the zero CMC counterspells like Force of Will or Pact of Negation .

Budget Cuts and Alternatives

Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 38 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.65
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Boar 2/2 G, Emblem Kiora, Master of the Depths, Emblem Nissa, Vital Force, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Koma's Coil 3/3 U, Kraken 8/8 U w/ Hexproof, Kraken 9/9 U, Octopus 8/8 U, Timeless Witness 4/4 B