The Kitchen Table #388 - Galina's Goodness

Back when I heard about the original EDH format, I immediately thought of Empress Galina. Surely, she’d be super powerful in this format, right? Then I built an Oros deck and began playing. The format was different, I moved on to other directions, and I never came back to the Empress. After all, how good is a tap ability on a five mana 1/3 creature? All she does is steal a small number of creatures, with very little else to recommend her.

I decided today to bring back my Galina desires with a new deck. I am building this deck around Empress Galina and all of the friends she has in the Fishy underworld of the Merfolk. Let’s go Galina!

After deciding to build around Galina, I felt it would be good to make it a Merfolk deck. I wanted good Merfolk and Fishies that would get me card advantage, but I wanted to steer clear of just every Merfolk around making the cut. Many of the cheap aggressive Merfolk are just not that good in a game where you have multiple foes, each with 40 life. How good is a River Merfolk in that situation?

The first place I went was to include all of the Merfolk Lords. Lord of Atlantis and new pal Master of the Pearl Trident both grant Islandwalk as well as a size increase. Merfolk Sovereign and Merrow Reejery both pump Fishies while also granting various abilities to the deck. Adaptive Automaton is a clear choice for any tribal deck. Finally, the powerful Coralhelm Commander can level up into a nice Lord while also becoming a bit of a problem.

Then I added those Merfolk that gave me some card replacement. Tidal Courier can get one or three Merfolk off a good reveal, so in it went. Similarly, Merfolk Wayfinder can grab a few Islands off the top of the deck as well. With thirty Islands in the deck, you should average one Island gained per Wayfinder. One of those Islands is going to be Moonring Island. It can reveal the top card of a library, so use it on yourself when you have a Courier or Wayfinder in hand and you can ensure that you get at least one Merfolk or Island when you play them. I didn’t have room for things like Sensei’s Divining Top, so Moonring Isle is one of the sneaky ways we can get it in.

It’s not a Merfolk, but Seahunter can tap to Tutor my deck for any Merfolk and put it right on to the battlefield. The sheer power in it is quite appealing. After you play it, you don’t need to play any more creatures, just use it until it dies. Â

After that, Merrow Harbinger was a good choice. While it’s not card advantage, it can Tutor your library for a Merfolk that best suits the situation and put it on top of the library. It stocks the deck nicely for the Courier. After that, I wanted the Fish that could play defense when needed but could also play offense by removing a blocker. Vodalian Illusionist will tap to phase out a creature. You can protect one of your guys from removal, block and then phase out a creature before damage, phase out an attacker or blocker, and so forth. You’ll find a lot of advantages with it. Joining it is Stonybrook Angler to tap down an attacker or blocker.

The next place I wanted to look at was the large beaters section of the Merfolk. Halimar Wavewatch is a great two-drop, as blocking other creatures early was needed. Then when you have spare mana, you can level it up until you have a potent 6/6 Merfolk rocking Islandwalk. Both Wake Thrasher and Cosi’s Trickster are good in the right situation. The Thrasher gets bigger as the game progresses and I have more permanents in play. The Trickster is the opposite, being the best on the first turn and getting pumped as people use fetchlands and Tutor their decks. Both of these can add beef to the Merfolk in clever ways.

A few powerful Merfolk that aren’t pure beaters also demanded attention. Thada Adel, Acquisitor is a fine addition to the deck. This Rogue is sneaky, and opponents will often smash her so they don’t have to lose an artifact from their deck to you. She’ll pull in those Murders and Swords to Plowshares and protect the team. And sometimes she works and you’ll get a nice trinket for the battlefield. Another is Talrand, Sky Summoner. Even with just twenty spells in the deck, he’s powerful. People know how good he is and will target him, when he’s not the focus of the deck. A cool trick is as you are about to Counterspell an opposing spell, tap the Seahunter to fetch Talrand to play and then counter. You can make the 2/2 Drake and get not only a powerful creature but a flying dork as well.

In terms of card drawing, Scroll Thief has potential, especially when swinging with evasion from Islandwalk or the tapping down of a blocker. I also adore Seasinger here. All of the later items that make Galina rock also enable the Seasinger. We have a few ways to make someone have an Island out if they are not kind enough to do it for you. When that happens, you can steal one of their creatures. One of the ways we turn a land into an Island is with Streambed Aquitects. If you don’t need to then you can tap it to pump a Merfolk. Either tap ability works well.

Once I had put in the Aquitects and Seasinger, it was time to finish the Merfolk section of the deck. I tossed in Shapesharer to give my deck some tricks, Wanderwine Prophets to give it some power potential, Surgespanner to give me a bit more of an ability to handle a blocker (in this case by bouncing it), Deepchannel Mentor to make all of my creatures unblockable, and Sage of Fables to draw some cards with my Wizards (I have a good number). Each of these guys gives us a powerful trick.

Finally, with an emphasis on Islands, I decided to toss in the non-Merfolk Serpent of the Endless Sea. In this deck, it should be really powerful, and again, we have ways of making land Islands.

This deck was crying out for Quicksilver Fountain, and I obliged. Each turn, someone has to make a land an Island, which exposes them to your Islandwalkers, Seasinger, and Serpent. Even if the Fountain is destroyed, lands with flood counters on them remain Islands. That makes this a very powerful artifact for multiplayer play. It can hurt opposing mana bases, and people often don’t want to destroy it so they can get all of their lands back once all lands are Islands. That hurts their mana base more and more. It’s awesome.

Merrow Commerce was an obvious trick. It won’t untap the Seahunter, Drake tokens, or Serpent, but it will untap everything else in the deck. You can untap after swinging to have a nice defense or to get another use from guys such as Vodalian Illusionist or Stonybrook Angler.

Since we are stealing things with Galina and Seasinger, Vedalken Shackles suggested additional power. With this deck’s obvious emphasis on Islands, it’s a potent card. Another card that cares about your Islands is Flow of Ideas. Since it costs six mana, drawing cards equal to your Island count is likely to give you at least five cards when you play it. It’s easily nine or thirteen cards later in the game.

Since we’re in blue, I also included some other powerful card drawing. Recurring Insight can refill your hand twice. Fact or Fiction has a long pedigree of awesome, and Tidings gives you a four set of cards for five mana. Finally, Mind Spring will give you a ton of cards.

Diviner’s Wand is a very interesting equipment for this deck. It will equip a new Wizard for free or you can spend a bit of mana to do so. Then, as you draw cards, the creature gets bigger and flying per card drawn. Imagine having equipped a simple Wake Thrasher, and then it gets +8/+8 due to its ability when you untap your stuff. Now it gets +6/+6 from a Recurring Insight and your draw. It gains flying, and you swing with a 15/15 flyer. You can also spend four mana to draw a card when the Wand is equipped, and that’s a lot of cards over time.

Another equipment that turns a small Fish into a beater is Strata Scythe. With such a large number of Islands in play at any one time, we can search the library for one, exile it, and then have a nasty equipment. Any equipped creature is likely to be a 7/7 or 10/10 with the Scythe. The Scythe is great in any mono-color deck that has a lot of the basic land type running around.

While discussing equipment, I also wanted some armor for Galina. I wanted to protect her and give her haste. If we can do both, then we can use her ability as soon as we play her to steal a legendary creature from a foe. The best options are Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots. Imagine that you play Galina, equip her with Boots or Greaves, tap two blue mana and steal a powerful legendary creature, move the Greaves/Boots to the newly stolen creature, swing (with haste), and then reequip Galina at the end!

Since haste is so important, I also included Sword of Vengeance and Strider Harness. The Harness can pump a creature and give it haste for just one mana to equip. It fits right in! The Sword is classily underplayed. Sure, it takes three mana to equip, but it also gives +3/+0, first strike, vigilance, and trample. Any creature thus equipped gets four powerful keywords and +3 on the frontâ€”that’s worth the price of admission every time! You can turn a normal Merfolk into a major player or you can give Galina the Sword, swing for four damage, and then tap her to steal a creature after she swings (vigilance keeps her untapped). All of these tricks work with Seasinger as well.

Finally, Champion’s Helm can protect Galina if it equips her, and it is designed to protect Galina (and give her +2/+2) or to just amp a normal Merfolk for +2/+2 as you need. I included all of these equipment pieces because the creatures in this deck are a bit smaller than the creature base in many other decks. But when you give your 2/2 Merfolk a Strata Scythe, Diviner’s Wand, or Sword of Vengeance, it can play with the big boys.

Moving away from equipment, the rest of my artifacts are obvious or powerful. Sol Ring makes mana, and its presence is a given. Caged Sun is downright awesome in this deck as a way to double my mana and to pump my creatures with another Lord effect. Armillary Sphere sacrifices to fetch two Islands from my deck. Finally, Vedalken Orrery gives all of my nonlands flash.

Similarly, Leyline of Anticipation helps out in this regard. Being able to drop a surprise Fish or sorcery can really help in combat. The other enchantment is Compulsion. I have some powerful raw card drawing in the deck, but I have little else. I didn’t have space for Merfolk Looter or other smaller card drawing effects. Compulsion can sit on the board for a long time and trade cards I don’t need to dig. There’s always a card or two that can’t be used in a certain situation that you want to trade for a draw.

I felt one planeswalker was good enough for the deck: Jace, Memory Adept. He draws you a card every turn, he can suck up some damage, and if people let him build counters, then he can go off in a massive fashion.

Due to my presence in blue anyway, this seemed like a good place to include counters. I wanted counters that had something special to offer. Forbid can be bought back to counter again, Counterspell counters for cheap, both Dissipate and Faerie Trickery exile a target spell, while Exclude and Dismiss draw me cards. That leaves a few counters to discuss in more detail.

Desertion will counter anything, and if it’s an artifact or creature it will give it to me. It’s another way to add some stealing to the deck and works very well here. Cryptic Command should make the cut in most mono-blue Commander decks, even those with little counters. It’s just too versatile not to run. Lost in the Mist is very expensive, but at the end you get a counter and tempo.

It’s another way to help clear out that path or to bounce a creature that can no longer be played with all of the Islands a person now has post-Fountain. You can use the Command or Lost to bounce a Fountain after your foes have most of their lands rocking flood counters. Summoner’s Bane makes a 2/2 dork in the countering of a creature. Finally, with very little land searching and a clear emphasis on Islands in the deck, Traumatic Visions can be used as either a land fetcher or as an admittedly expensive counter.

I felt that both Bribery and Acquire rolled into this deck very satisfyingly. Not only do they enhance the mini "I steal stuff" theme, but they also have a lot of sheer power. There’s always someone with a broken card such as Blightsteel Colossus or an Eldrazi in their deck.

I rounded the deck out with Mystical Tutor to grab a needed card, Pongify to slay a creature that gets out of hand, and Vow of Flight to send an opposing critter elsewhere while still keeping it as a threat for your enemies. While I would rarely recommend it, you can use the Vow on one of your own creatures when the situation requires.

After including the large number of Islands this deck requires, I added Academy Ruins. Although I only have one artifact that sacrifices to be recurring (Sphere), this deck does have a large number of really useful artifacts to bring back when they are destroyed. You can recur a piece of nice equipment or something downright unfair such as a Quicksilver Fountain taken before its time or an annoying Shackles or Caged Sun. Strip Mine and Wasteland can fight other powerful lands. Finally, I added both cycling lands to give my deck just a tad more card sifting when needed. If you play them early because you need the lands, then you will enjoy giving them a flood counter later and making them an Island for something such as Serpent of the Endless Sea or Strata Scythe.

Here’s the deck!!!

Galina Goodness

Abe Sargent

Test deck on 09-02-2012

Commander