Dear Azami – Octopus Prime

You had me at "Tidemaker." I have a fairly small stable of Commander decks right now, having just purged the ranks until I only had decks left that I was actively having fun playing. I have a very limited amount of time in a given week in which I can play Commander, so I wanted to make sure when I did get to play that I was actively having fun. Animar, Godo, Ob Nixilis, and Experiment Kraj were my prior builds, and I’ve culled these down to a newly built Prime Speaker Zegana deck and an old-favorite Vish Kal, the Blood Arbiter deck that has always been enjoyable. But lurking somewhere in the depths of my mind has always been the Octopus of my dreams, Lorthos, asking me why I haven’t made him into a deck yet.

I don’t have the Leviathan obsession that you’re sporting, but for as long as I’ve been playing Commander, I’ve had a nagging Octopus trying to wrap his tentacles around me and claim me as his own. So first let me commend you on your choice of commander, and then let’s get to tearing this deck to pieces.

Lorthos has a unique identity as a commander; he’s bit expensive to use repeatedly but very rewarding for doing so as he is single-handedly (or is that octo-tentacly?) able to suppress eight different threats of relevance on the table. Landing an Octopus and attacking each turn can prevent you from having to worry about him getting Maze of Ithed (tap all the Mazes and they’ll keep staying tapped!) or blocked (ditto: blockers!). He kills in three tentacle-chops about the head and shoulders, which is unusual for a blue commander, which we don’t usually think of as 8/8s but instead more like 0/2s (such as the lady this article series takes its name from, Azami, Lady of Scrolls, who probably has never attacked anyone to death despite being probably the most popular blue Commander of all time).

The problem with your deck to me seems to be one of focus rather than quality. You’re playing a stable of good stuff cards and there is a minimum threshold of fun to be had here—the good cards work, after all, and even without synergy they’ll let you play a reasonable game of Magic because they’re reasonably powerful. These cards don’t have a specific identity, however, and they don’t build on each other to strive towards a game state. They just build on what’s going on to build a board position. Countering, Cloning and stealing enemy creatures while applying 8/8 beats is a reasonable plan, even if it’s not one especially well fitted to the Leviathan deck of your dreams.

What does Lorthos want to do? He wants to beat down. He wants to clear the way and keep coming turn after turn, using his suppression effect to get himself and others through unblocked and beating down like it’s nobody’s business. So I concur that we want an active, reasonably aggressive plan of action here. Morphing back towards a control deck is unappealing to you just as it is unappealing to me, and while we may play a few control elements, it is turning that Octopus sideways and applying eight to the face that gets our interest.

The problem, however, is that you’re not really succeeding at doing that, so we need to streamline in order to get there. I think a part of the problem is the downsides on your creatures—it’s hard to tap eight for Lorthos when you’re losing lands at a steady pace to one deep-sea behemoth or another—so we’re going to have to build ways to bypass their downsides or work around their restrictions and give them a few friends that are better at beating down. And another part of the problem is your support spells, which don’t fit especially well with Lorthos and thus don’t complement him; they just sit over there doing their own thing like you do.

Lorthos taxes the opponents’ resource—tap eight things and keep ’em tapped—so aiming to include a few more things that tax these same resources in this same way will likely pay considerable dividends. Things that complement and build upon this instead of go off-script will help us build to a reasonable end game situation where your Leviathan army is doing what you wanted it to do and keep things enjoyable and interesting while you do it.

We begin with the lands. I will say upfront that I would build this two ways based on a budget. You say you have run with the Prismatic challenge and thus have a large pool of Commander decks to work with that might potentially be able to share cards with, and one key way to address the land-sacrifice aspect of the Leviathans would be to supplement the deck with Crucible of Worlds.

In that case, there are major benefits to be gained by adding Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta, Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Bant Panorama, Esper Panorama, and Grixis Panorama. This is a shockingly high price tag to add to this deck, however—something like $250 just for these lands that are basically replaceable with basic Islands and a Crucible of Worlds—so either you’ve got access to that resource and can build in that direction…or you can’t, as I’ll assume in building this deck from here on out.

Crucible + Fetchlands is a powerful option to build into any deck, even mono-colored ones, but I’ll shut up now because this is an obvious point, not an interesting one, and we’re going to talk about your Octopus deck now.

Having stared that question down, another one was raised to my mind as I looked more deeply at the way a game might expect to play out. I envisioned what a game you were winning looked like, then asked what might complement your position nicely to keep that winning situation working in your favor, and realized that Tentacle-slapping eight lands might be something you did when the game narrowed to fewer players just to keep that last opponent off-kilter and unable to stop your final offensive. But before that time, we’d have the option of using the many fine islands in your mana base in an asymmetrical fashion. Your deck is full of basics, while most other decks are quite clearly not, so playing Back to Basics might be an incredibly effective way to stunt opponents who rely on nonbasic lands—i.e., most of them.

If I were building this deck for my own playgroup, I would do it because this group throws some really hard elbows and takes it well. After all, this is an enchantment that stays in play, not an asymmetrical Armageddon effect, so you have three opponents who can point an appropriate piece of cardboard at one silly enchantment in order to unlock three players’ mana-generating capabilities. Thus, if that were all that was the issue, well, it can be wriggled out of pretty fairly. I don’t know your playgroup, however, and you’re trying to overcome a strict fun deficit in your games, so while I might go in one direction for myself, I am going to go in another as your advocate and not run the Back to Basics gambit, lest you be "that jerk who plays Back to Basics" and get killed repeatedly every time you flash your commander out of spite.

This means we can play a bit more nonbasic real estate, which finally clarified for my adjustments’ purposes what we were going to do here out of an array of possible options. Some of these additions are thematically flavorful. I don’t think Svyelunite Temple is especially awesome, but I do think it might be very enjoyable to have in play at your command and drips with the flavor of the dark, foreboding monsters rising from the deep—what part of Ia! Shub-Niggurath! do you not understand?

Out: 9x Island

Adding back in, we begin with the purely flavorful addition of Svyelunite Temple and pair it up with a companion that likewise won’t necessarily get the most use out of its ability by adding Moonring Island to your lineup as well. It won’t add much beyond flavor, but it will add flavor and thus potentially to your enjoyment. Our remaining additions are considerably more practical, however.

Blasted Landscape and Remote Isle contribute two more cycling lands to your mana base, allowing for a bit more self-regulation of your draws on the pretty cheap. There’s nothing quite like drawing your fourteenth land when you need to draw a spell, and these additions make it so that there are at least three lands you might "topdeck" in such a scenario and be able to try and turn back into a spell again. Adding these will help with the fact that this deck’s not very intensive in the card drawing effects; playing a few big spells that draw a lot of cards rather than ensuring a steady stream of cardboard will flow into your hand.

Thawing Glaciers may not be water themed or evocative of the nether-deeps from which your truly great Leviathans spring, but it does help build very effectively for a game in which these expensive monsters of the trenches come out to play without having a seriously negative impact. Jokulmordor’s "sacrifice five lands" clause is pretty hefty, after all, and it isn’t the only one trying to munch on this particular resource.

Winding Canyons is basically my favorite Commander land period, end of story, but as far as this explanation goes, it allows you to take one of your favorite situations—having Leyline of Anticipation in play—and staple it onto a land so that it is both harder for the opponents to remove from play and doesn’t cost you a spell slot. Most of what you were playing as an instant was your creatures, so this frees up a slot and is about the awesomest land ever to summon an instant speed Leviathan as I am sure you’ll find.

Temple of the False God and Coral Atoll both contribute two mana out of one land, which will likewise tag-team with Thawing Glaciers to help reach those more expensive mana costs with a light impact during deck construction. Coral Atoll’s reliance on basic Islands is covered by the fact that you still have 20+ of them in your deck and thus will reliably have one in your opening hand to go with your Karoo. Small benefits matter, and when it comes to getting an eight-mana commander into play beyond the first time, these small benefits have a greatly magnified impact.

Minamo, School at Water’s Edge doesn’t do particularly much in this deck besides untap Lorthos as a potential blocker, but it’s a free addition with a flavorfully evocative name. And if you EVER get to untap Lorthos to block and shout SURPRISE! OCTOPUS! Then it will all be worth it. It will end up having at least one more interaction in the deck which will actually be an on-plan beneficial interaction, so it will end up earning its keep after all.

After fleshing out your mana base, I did a routine count of your cards and came up with 95 instead of the anticipated 99. A few unexpected line gaps in your email suggested to me that a few might have gotten deleted, but without knowing what got cut I simply noted that there are four empty slots to fill here while I’m at it. Since I had a few cards in mind in the artifact section, I was comfortable dedicating those four slots to that section as I rebuilt and streamlined the deck.

Moving into the artifacts, I have two cuts before we start to add; Pristine Talisman just doesn’t impress, and Everflowing Chalice has a better option at any of its first three kicked levels, with Mind Stone, Thran Dynamo, or Dreamstone Hedron filling in with some benefit over what you can get at that level. Replacing back in, I make six additions:

Mind Stone – The cheap two-mana accelerant of choice when you don’t particularly care about colored mana and want it to consistently tap with no hassles every turn. You can get colored mana if you try or more than one if you want Grim Monolith, but the simple and consistent mana rock that you can later break open for a replacement card is the simple card of choice for this deck as it helps you moderate drawing too much mana later in the game, same as the cycling lands, while providing the acceleration you desire early on.

Gauntlet of Power – I don’t usually reach for these sorts of cards, and in fact I don’t even own one for my Commander box, which is self-selected of course according to my biases and predilections. Lorthos needs a lot of mana as does the rest of Team Leviathan, and if he were "just" eight to cast and that was all of your investment, that wouldn’t be a big deal…but in order to use Lorthos and actually cast other spells, this is the kind of effect you need to reach for.

Journeyer’s Kite – Gauntlets die. Mana rocks do too frequently. An active Journeyer’s Kite early in the game gives you an extra land every turn, helping you consistently make your land drops pretty much forever if you want it to since you have over twenty basics still to hunt up. It’s slow and a touch expensive to use, which helps keep it inoffensive and thus untouched while it does its job, and unlike mana artifacts, it doesn’t hinder your mana when inevitably it becomes collateral damage in a board wipe effect. Lands in play are a pretty reliable resource, and the Kite helps cultivate that resource on the surprisingly cheap.

Druidic Satchel – In this deck, the Satchel is meant to serve much the same role as the Kite, helping filter a few extra lands into play for you to work with. It does so cheaper—two mana for an activation cost is a world of difference compared to three—and better when it works at all because it doesn’t take your land drop to do it. It doesn’t always work, but it does always give you something to work with, be it a token or some life (or the resource you crave, more Island). Its most beneficial effect is the same one we’ve aimed to build in as much as we could here, in that late-game land drops shouldn’t happen as often since the Satchel filters your draw and pulls those dead late-game lands out of the way for you to draw real cards instead.

Icy Manipulator – This is exactly the sort of effect we’re going to aim to build around and capitalize upon, so we might as well include the original masterpiece at the task. It’s a small and subtle effect but one you get to use every turn and which you are going to end up with a lot of redundancy on, which makes every single one of them more powerful since they all will be working together in concert.

Sensei’s Divining Top – I didn’t notice at first that you were lacking a Divining Top and Sol Ring since most decks typically do include at least one if not both. Building on a reasonable budget, we can’t just jam them in willy-nilly, and I forced myself to pick between one and the other for the needs of this particular deck. You’re looking to improve your Quest for Ula’s Temple, and Sensei’s Divining Top will help you trigger it much more consistently to hit that sweet spot, which is why I had actually just assumed you must have one already and missed its absence.

With the fairly consistent presence of accelerants already included, I was more interested in working in the card filtering Top than forcing in a Sol Ring. This deck is playing for a longer game and benefits less from an early accelerant than most if that accelerant doesn’t get to stick around…leaving me to choose the card that will work so very well next to the Kite and Satchel over the tried-and-true Sol Ring if I could only let myself choose one.

Moving on to the spells, first we cull the slots that aren’t as on-point as we might like them to be, and then we add back in to build the themes of board control for strategic Octopus purposes.

Out:

Windfall – The card draw you’re using already helps just you; this one costs considerably less and thus is pretty efficient, but in so doing it can help a few other players out which ultimately only makes your job a little bit harder.

Leyline of Anticipation – This slot moved to your lands, freeing up a spell slot.

Volition Reins – Pure "good stuff," not really on-theme for what you’re trying to accomplish, just an effective way to steal the best permanent.

Wipe Away – I am a giant fan of Split Second in Commander, but the strategic option on your bounce spell isn’t as important to have in this deck.

Gather Specimens – A fun, good stuff addition that can be very swingy or just hard to deploy. I see it provides an angle of interaction that would otherwise be lacking, but I think a different card would be the better version of this slot for your deck.

Rewind, Scattering Stroke – Reducing the number of counters in this deck to the reasonable minimum, which in this case is the two that can tuck a commander and the creature that is a monster flier (and a crustacean to boot!). You’re going to proactively use your mana each turn, so leaving up time and time again for a counterspell is just not where this deck wants to be.

Blue Sun’s Zenith – Sure, it’s a good card. But we need a higher standard to include a card here, and you can get more bang for less mana if you try to (and don’t mind sorcery speed).

In:

Spin into Myth – Another way to deny your opponent the use of their commander, which is the more important strategic option to maintain than Split Second for this particular build. It’s a bit of mana for a removal spell, but that’s the disadvantage of blue—it’s not really a spot removal color like white or black is, so you’re going to pay retail. You could play Pongify and Rapid Hybridization if you wanted cheap removal; in this case, you really want to permanently solve a problem and don’t mind the additional cost.

Submerge – It’s strong on the water theme in name alone, and like Spin into Myth it can handle a commander for a good long time (if used in response to a shuffle effect, anyway). There’s a very high likelihood this will cost you no mana to use, which makes this a very important trick to have in hand while you’re trying to spend eight mana and attack with Lorthos.

Eel Umbra – Not quite a "counterspell," but more flexible at what we’re trying to do with that sort of slot anyway since it can "counter" not just a kill spell targeting Lorthos but also any generic effect, making it much more like a Voidslime in this particular context than the Rewind we’ve cut for the slot. Picking between this and Not of This World, I felt this to be the more flexible slot since it can save smaller creatures. "Free" is my favorite price, but seven is an atrocious price to pay for a narrow card, so I’ve settled for the always-palatable two instead.

Fathom Trawl – Sure, it doesn’t let you draw seven or more cards like Blue Sun’s Zenith does, but it does apply a fair bit of card filtering as you draw, digging you deep into gas to find you three spells at an attractive price. It also has a nautical flair to it, so it gets a thumbs-up for flavor.

Opposition – Icy Manipulator effects are where your deck wants to be, and Opposition staples that effect onto each and every creature you play. This is more commonly seen with token strategies that are trying to push this into the realm of overpowering the game, but "just" playing it with your stable of utility creatures like Spawnbroker and Mulldrifter will still let you get to do everything you want to do: just tap things.

Flood – "Not a card you see very often in Commander," and I’m not entirely sure why—it’s a cheap repeating effect that has a lot of utility to it, even if it can’t stop fliers. You’re able to Dizzy Spell for this, though I fear with a prior addition that you’re more likely to Transmute for the (admittedly somewhat bland and commonly seen) Sensei’s Divining Top. What we want to do the most with this deck is tap things and enable our attack step, and Flood will serve quite nicely in this role.

Mind Games – Buyback spells are hard to stop in general, and Mind Games gives you a reusable Icy Manipulator effect you can use as much as you want. It’s not as hard to stop as it sounds—you don’t need a counterspell to "counter" it, it doesn’t buy back if you remove the target—but with that in the forefront of your mind, you can otherwise get away with murder as the game goes long as this can maintain control over quite a few permanents without being something you can Disenchant to stop it.

Reins of Power – The card I feel your Gather Specimens really wants to be, Reins of Power lets you borrow a team that might just kill someone and pull off a tricky play or two with clever use. With your tapper-based suppression, this will punish an opponent who’s playing more and bigger threats into your non-removal removal effects, potentially taking them out entirely. You don’t even need to have a creature in play to give them, leaving this potentially quite a raw deal.

Moving on to the creature spells, I have marked thirteen cards for replacement, digging into the utility critters like Temporal Adept and Mist Raven in order to make room for cards that are more in keeping with your plan of action. The Sphinxes were in particular cards you noted were placeholders that you wished were something that fit with the theme of the deck—"good stuff" cards that were helping out by being powerful cards that did stuff on their own merits rather than anything that worked with Lorthos’ game plan.

Out: Guard Gomazoa, Gomazoa, Enclave Cryptologist, Temporal Adept, Aether Adept, Mist Raven, Jace’s Archivist, Sphinx of Lost Truths, Djinn of Wishes, Sphinx of Magosi, Phyrexian Ingester, Sphinx Ambassador

Out – Leviathan

For this one I do feel I have to apologize, because the downsides on the original Leviathan are just too severe to let you use—it takes you four lands just to get that first attack in. I am not cracking down on your number of Leviathan-like things, just stating the obvious that this one has too crippling a downside to work with. We’re actually going to significantly increase your sea-critter count, but I wanted to apologize for this cut personally since you did note the deck’s Leviathan focus. I felt that you’re not including Segovian Leviathan despite using its flavor text to catch my attention and that you’d understand if this fell to the cutting-room floor so long as the flavor of Leviathan goodness was still present at the end.

In:

Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor – Monsters coming out from under the sea is the flavor theme we’re reaching for, and this seafaring monster is a born Icy Manipulator effect with a second wave of abilities as well, able to release the Flood on all creatures at the same time, tapping everything on the table that doesn’t have flying. As far as mass suppression effects go, Aboshan may look a little goofy, but he can hold down everything at once with enough mana.

Merfolk Seastalkers – I’m not quite as enamored of the more-expensive Flood ability here, preferring to get that option at two colored mana rather than the (easier) two generic plus one colored mana, as this seriously cuts into how often we’ll be able to use the ability each turn. Redundancy is worth having, though, and the Seastalkers adds another piece to the tapper puzzle you are going to be presenting to your opponents.

Frost Titan – Now we’re talking about a creature that beats down! If the first two creatures mentioned didn’t impress with their size to cost ratio, Frost Titan is far above the curve as a 6/6 for six is not something blue gets very often and thus he is in a rarefied league. Just size alone doesn’t warrant a card for inclusion, however, and Frost Titan is a beater that is also a tapper, putting him right alongside Lorthos in their shared task at hand.

Somnophore – Not quite as aggressive as Frost Titan, a 2/2 for four is going to be included for its abilities, not because it beats down hard, and it taps things after combat instead of clearing the way to get through unblocked. The ability it offers, though, is quite unusual for a blue creature, as it is able to tap and keep tapped a creature every turn, potentially locking every threat of relevance under its sway. As part of Lorthos’s army, he does his part.

Telekinetic Sliver – Just a creature Icy Manipulator since Sliver is not a creature type you’re taking advantage of. But Icy Manipulator is the sweet spot of where you want to be, so this should be a useful role-player.

Sand Squid – Another built-in tap ability, this time on a creature able to hold that creature down as long as you need. If Giant Oyster was good enough to make the cut despite not being able to tap a creature by itself, Sand Squid should be about as good. It’s not able to kill a creature slowly over time, but it is able of throwing that first elbow to suppress a creature before it hurts you.

Riptide Shapeshifter – The first of two weird, contextual additions before we get to the Real Big Fish that we’re going to add as beatdown monsters from the ocean’s deeps. You have a lot of unique creature types among your supporting cast: Giant, Squid, Oyster, Jellyfish, Vedalken, and you can even use the Shapeshifter’s ability at instant speed naming Illusion and counter a spell reliably. We’re not really going to have a lot of options for tutoring with this deck, so being able to Tutor a fatty directly into play seemed like a worthwhile thing to build into the deck to try to increase your enjoyment of getting a deal on a mythical sea monster.

Meloku the Clouded Mirror – This one, I have to admit, is an "efficiency" addition, in that including one such creature as a major threat can end the game in an unexpected way very quickly if things go late. Meloku also happens to go very nicely with your Opposition to potentially take over the table very quickly in the middle stages of the game. It’s your first and only Moonfolk for the Shapeshifter to keep track of, and if it is a "good stuff" addition, it’s still one that’s not seen particularly frequently in Commander, having been the "good stuff" of 40- and 60-card decks rather than 99.

And then there were sea monsters.

Polar Kraken – We cut the Leviathan because it was too intensive on the land sacrifice, meaning you were never going to maximize it if you ever got to play it off of Quest for Ula’s Temple. Feeding it four lands just to attack (and probably die) is not a happy sensation, after all, especially when you know even if you do hit that you won’t be able to do this again anytime soon.

Polar Kraken hits harder and asks for fewer lands, eating just one on the first turn you get to attack and then another two the turn following. It may add up to an impressive feat to feed the Polar Kraken for the fourth or fifth time, but you can keep the Kraken in reserve until its massive might will actually kill someone in two or three swings, either accomplishing its objective or forcing a response from the opponents before the price to keep serving with the biggest fish you can find grows too hard to keep paying.

Benthic Behemoth – Not as impressive of a beater, but it does bear considerable size and has the right creature types for the Quest for Ula’s Temple. We want to make it easier to find and trigger the Temple, which also means we need to include more sea monsters that it can sneak into play.

Thing from the Deep – Yes, we had to dig into Portal sets for another good sea monster, but Thing from the Deep is a Leviathan for the Quest and a considerable attacker at 9/9. It may not have Trample like the original Leviathan does, but it makes up for that by only killing one land a turn as you beat down with it, a price we’ve already built the deck to be able to realistically afford for a fairly long time.

Marjhan – Another post-Oracle-update Leviathan, you don’t get more mythical Sea Monsters than the thing from the deep that would find a whale to be a light snack. Marjhan has restrictions, requiring an opponent to have an island in order to attack and needing to be fed a creature a turn in order to untap. These are a bit of a harsh downside, and Marjhan comes with an additional ability that will be useful on defense even if it’s not able to contribute to the beatdown parade just yet, helping take down small attackers for a couple of mana.

Island Fish Jasconius – Sadly, the Oracle updates were not as kind as to treat this would-be Leviathan with the dignity of that name, making it instead the biggest Fish ever printed. It suffers from the same attacking restriction Marjhan suffers, meaning that Spreading Seas and Vedalken Plotter are going to be very vital additions indeed to give an opponent an Island whether they like it or not, but its price to untap is fairly cheap and the flavor of beating down your opponent with a Fish so big it’s got an Island on its back makes it worthy of that last spot even if it isn’t actually a Quest-friendly creature type.

Just a big piece of cardboard to attack and block with is still a worthwhile addition to your deck so you can hit the sweet spot in the mid- to late-game when your aquatic team is attacking and life points are flying away twenty at a time. This Island Fish won’t seem quite as embarrassing then, I wager.

Putting it all together, we get the following decklist:

Lorthos, the Tidemaker

Sean McKeown

Pro Tour on 02-17-2013

Commander

Creatures (35)

• 1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
• 1 Island Fish Jasconius
• 1 Pirate Ship
• 1 Man-o'-War
• 1 Tidal Kraken
• 1 Silver Myr
• 1 Riptide Shapeshifter
• 1 Thing from the Deep
• 1 Marjhan
• 1 Giant Oyster
• 1 Polar Kraken
• 1 Benthic Behemoth
• 1 Sand Squid
• 1 Somnophore
• 1 Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor
• 1 Grozoth
• 1 Spawnbroker
• 1 Vedalken Plotter
• 1 Jokulmorder
• 1 Deep-Sea Kraken
• 1 Draining Whelk
• 1 Telekinetic Sliver
• 1 Guile
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Isleback Spawn
• 1 Kederekt Leviathan
• 1 Inkwell Leviathan
• 1 Lorthos, the Tidemaker
• 1 Merfolk Seastalkers
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 Frost Titan
• 1 Harbor Serpent
• 1 Stormtide Leviathan
• 1 Palladium Myr
• 1 Trench Gorger

Lands (38)

• 1 Thawing Glaciers
• 26 Island
• 1 Remote Isle
• 1 Svyelunite Temple
• 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Winding Canyons
• 1 Coral Atoll
• 1 Blasted Landscape
• 1 Moonring Island
• 1 Soaring Seacliff
• 1 Halimar Depths

Spells (27)

• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Icy Manipulator
• 1 Journeyer's Kite
• 1 Flood
• 1 Tidings
• 1 Opposition
• 1 Rush of Knowledge
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Reins of Power
• 1 Mind Games
• 1 Submerge
• 1 Repulse
• 1 Dizzy Spell
• 1 Flow of Ideas
• 1 Gauntlet of Power
• 1 Spin into Myth
• 1 Fathom Trawl
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Spreading Seas
• 1 Quest for Ula's Temple
• 1 Treasure Hunt
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Eel Umbra
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Spell Crumple
• 1 Druidic Satchel

As always, for your participation in this week’s Dear Azami, you will receive a $20 coupon to StarCityGames.com. Most of the additions we’re adding are quite cheap—with 36 card changes, the median card price is still $0.49—and if you already have a copy of the Commander staples added here (Sensei’s Divining Top, Gauntlet of Power, Thawing Glaciers) then this deck weighs in very lightly at just $33 to make all of the other additions.

Far, far cheaper than the avenue mentioned but not taken, with the ridiculously expensive fetchlands just to power a Crucible of Worlds package when Journeyer’s Kite will solve much the same problem at $1.39 total. Frugality is part of the order here at Dear Azami, after all, to the point where Cassidy and I are contemplating a "frugality challenge" in order to see who can make the best fixes to a deck on a very limited budget, embracing the fact that low price points for high fun is on our list of objectives!

Here are the additions with their associated prices at the online store:

May the newfound friends from the deep reaches of the sea please your Leviathan obsession while also catering to your desire to win the occasional game while you do so!

— Sean McKeown

Want to submit a deck for consideration to Dear Azami? We’re always accepting deck submissions to consider for use in a future article, like Brian’s Lazav, Dimir Mastermind deck or Kris’s Karona, False God deck. Only one deck submission will be chosen per article, but being selected for the next edition of Dear Azami includes not just deck advice but also a $20 coupon to StarCityGames.com!

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