It all started when I pulled a Whelming Wave in a pack of Born of the Gods. I saw that card and thought to myself, "WIN CONDITION!" When my buddy wanted to build theme decks, I had the perfect opportunity to make it happen. I wanted to build something fun, flavorful and powerful.
Who better to head up a water themed deck than Thassa, God of the Sea? She provides insane value throughout the game with the scry and unblockable abilities, not to mention can punch someone's face when they're getting out of line.
If you're feeling a bit more aggressive you can run Tromokratis or Lorthos, the Tidemaker as your general, both of which work nicely with the deck's namesake card. If you run Lorthos, you get the bonus of always having access to the lone octopus in the deck.
The goal of the deck is simple: control the pace of the game and finish with big "splashy" creatures. Over time some of the less effective, but more thematic, cards have been removed in favor of more focused and competitive build, but that goal remains the same.
I've always been a fan of bounce spells and with the water themes of cards like Whelming Wave, Capsize and Devastation Tide it all seemed like a perfect fit.
You could try to thematically justify the artifacts in the deck as treasure found at sea, but really they're here because this deck needs A LOT of mana, plus some are just very good and fit in with our gameplan. I also find it absolutely hilarious to imagine a giant sea creature wearing a pair of tiny flaming boots!
Our first few turns will be spent ramping and filtering our top of deck until we can drop
Thassa, God of the Sea. Once Thassa is out we can begin to shape our draws to fill the gaps in cards we need. Once we're stabilized with decent mana output we can start to put pressure on the board with a few big beaters while keeping our opponents off their game with bounce and counter magic.
If you're playing against heavy combo then you might just want to hold up some mana instead of windmill-slamming Thassa on T2 or T3, even if you don't have an answer in hand. Sometimes just a few untapped Islands are enough to deter an opponent.
This deck runs a heavy suite of removal via bounce, but make sure you're smart about how you use it! You'll usually want to keep it up to protect yourself (or someone else politically) or cast something big and asymmetrical like Cyclonic Rift EOT to swing a game in your favor.
Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor - Timing is everything with this creature, and if you tap everything down before your turn it should leave people open for big beats and leave mana up since you won't have to activate Thassa's ability!
Thada Adel, Acquisitor - The islandwalk is nice, but being able to just make her unblockable is so much better. I can has Sol Ringz?
Deadeye Navigator - Protecting VIPs and abusing ETBs since 2012.
Crystal Shard - Has so many uses like bouncing a creature when an opponent taps out, saving a dude from removal (even someone else's) and reusing stupid ETB effects like Scourge of Fleets or even just bouncing Mulldrifter in response to the evoke trigger (yes, evoke is a trigger).
Vedalken Shackles - With the number of islands in this deck, you'll usually have your pick of creatures on the battlefield.
Capsize - Not only is it on theme, it can be a win condition with enough mana.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Turnabout, Time Spiral, Great Whale - All ways to untap lands, usually involving Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or High Tide.
Riptide Shapeshifter - This card is neat and seems unassuming at first, until you see that most of our creatures can be directly tutored for. For those who don't feel like going through the creature types here they are:
Deadeye Navigator + Draining Whelk
- Repeatable counterspell that beats faces.
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds + Quicksilver Fountain
- Can soft lock opponents from colored mana production.
Man-o'-War + Tidespout Tyrant
- Repeatable bounce a permanent for when you have Man-o'-War bounce itself.
Archetype of Imagination + Stormtide Leviathan
- Only you can attack, and only creatures with reach (spiders and treefolk?!?) can block your stuff.
For those who want to crank up the sea theme knob to 11 and don't mind sacrificing a bit of power/efficiency, here are some other cards that may be worth running:
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