“Welcome to the deep end.”
Art:Kopala, Warden of Waves by Magali Villeneuve
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
![](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/b/0b018020-73e0-437c-a130-298b2f738c6f.jpg?1698988161)
Kopala, Warden of the Waves, is a very strong and very cool merfolk commander who has flown a little bit under the radar. Kopala only has one hundred decks on EDHREC, which is criminally low for one of the most popular creature types in the game. While Merfolk is certainly not as big as something as elves or goblins, they still have a ton of amazing cards and make up a very fun deck to play. Our deck does a lot of things that classic Merfolk decks do, including islandwalk and turning our opponent’s lands into islands, as well as general stat-buffing and being able to make our other creatures unblockable. Merfolk has been around for so long that we have an absolute ton of amazing support like Lord of Atlantis and Silvergill Douser
The Deck:
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Kopala, Warden of Waves Merfolk!
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Why Kopala, Warden of Waves?
Kopala is a very sweet commander; while there are some decks that don’t care about targeting or trying to remove our creatures, any decks that do struggle against us, especially in the early game. Kopala helps us keep the best of the best on our board and allows us to maintain a great board presence from the early game to the late game; combine that with a ton of damage buffs as well as ways to make our creatures more evasive and unblockable Kopala is super sweet and should be cast as soon as we possibly can!
Gameplan for the Deck:
The overall game plan for the deck is quite simple; for the most part, we like to keep hands that have one to three lands, as well as a couple of early-game creatures and at least one piece of interaction. Obviously, that is a perfect-world scenario, and pretty much any hand with castable cards/creatures is pretty effective. We like to cast our commander as soon as possible since the protection they provide is very strong for the deck; beyond that, just casting Merfolk and swinging hard, there is a lot of consideration within this deck about what to counter and when to counter, but in my opinion, establishing creatures early is almost always better than countering everything an opponent does.
Good and Bad Matchups for the Deck:
Since this is EDH, there are an absolute ton of things that can tip a game in your favor or out of it. While an archetype may seem favorable, there are absolutely good and bad commanders for our deck to go up against; I have included both these, which were all played among my testing groups using various decks, and I have included the sample size for clarity purposes. This is just meant to be a guide after testing a bunch of games with this deck!
Good Matchups for the Deck:
Aggressive Strategies.
We are pretty strong against aggressive strategies, we have an absolute ton of low-cost creatures in the deck that are decently good at blocking, and we typically don’t take a lot of early-game damage from these decks. This is not true for all aggressive decks, as we typically have trouble dealing with ones that deal a lot of non-combat damage like Purphoros, God of the Forge
Aggressive commanders that we have a favorable matchup against: Krenko, Mob Boss
I have tested probably around fifteen games against Krenko and won eleven of them; Krenko is an extremely favorable matchup for us, while there are occasionally games where they can drop cards like Goblin Lackey
I do have a little bit smaller sample size against Alesha, but overall, I still like the matchup a lot. I have tested against Alesha ten times and won eight of those games. Alesha is certainly a very strong deck that can get set up pretty early, but a lot of their value comes from their commander, and being able to counter her commander cheaply or just bounce them to our opponent’s hands can put us in a good position. The game plan is pretty simple for this matchup: counter the best of the best they have and swing and be aggressive as much as we can.
Aggressive commanders that we have a tough matchup against: Purphoros, God of the Forge
I don’t think its unfair to say that Purphoros is busted and is just overall very hard for a lot of decks to beat it. I have played fifteen games against Purphoros and won three of them. This is an extremely tough matchup for our deck and arguably one of the worst we have. We just can’t really prevent damage, and Purph doesn’t care about our commander’s ability at all. Countering their commander is basically our only recourse against them as it’s the best way to slow them down; we don’t often interact with them in combat and just take a ton of non-combat damage, so countering their commander is paramount to this matchup.
Isshin is another extremely heavy-value commander who relies on their commander; I have played against Isshin twelve times and won five of them. Once again, Isshin doesn’t really care about our commander ability and mostly focuses on snowballing, countering, or removing key cards like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
Bad Matchups for the Deck:
Big-Mana Strategies:
Big mana decks can be quite strong for us; while we are able to dominate the early-game in these games, they spend the early turns ramping like crazy, and when they start dropping huge creatures, it can be quite tough for us to stop. Big Mana has an absolute ton of commanders that don’t want to target anything, so they skip over our commander, and the mana production they have can just be very hard to stop. It is most certainly not all doom and gloom against all big-mana decks, as we do have some commanders that we wouldn’t mind seeing, and there are some that we don’t even want to start the game if we see.
Big-Mana commanders that we have a favorable matchup against: Jhoira of the Ghitu
Jhoira of the Ghitu is a deck that I actually love playing against; I played twenty games against Jhoira and won 14 of them. On top of the huge bombs they try to drop early, they also bring a lot of single-target removal, which often doesn’t affect our creatures because of our commander, so we are decently well-positioned against a large portion of their deck. If you or the table can stop Jhoira from hitting the field, there really isn’t much they can do. Even if they suspend some early bombs, we do have a little bit of time before they can come down, and that’s a great opportunity to do some huge damage!
Big-Mana commanders that we have a tough matchup against: The Ur-Dragon
The Ur-Dragon is a very tough matchup. Many of their best dragons can come down shockingly early and do a ton of damage to us. Even if we have cards like Deepchannel Mentor
Zhulodok is very similar to The Ur-Dragon but oh so much worse, with a ton of mana production from their mana rocks and all of their creatures being pretty nasty since a large majority of them have annihilator. This is just a dreadful matchup for the deck. In testing eight games I won two of them.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We have so many cool creatures in our deck, so I am just going to highlight some of my favorites! Lord of Atlantis
Instants:
Our instant package primarily focuses on counterspells, but we actually do have some single-target removal in Rapid Hybridization
Sorceries:
While many players regard Sleep
Artifacts:
We have a decently high density of card draw in the deck, which is why we are running cards like Thought Vessel
Enchantments:
I absolutely love Deeproot Waters
Land Base:
Being in mono-blue lends us to having a pretty simple landbase mostly consisting of islands, luckily there are a ton of amazing non-basics within the deck that provides a ton of utility, like Cavern of Souls
Strengths of the Deck:
- Our commander positions us very well against creatures that target our creatures and pretty much any form of single-target removal.
- We can establish a pretty fearsome board early.
- We have an absolute ton of buffs within the deck, allowing us to hit hard and fast.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak-to-board wipes, while single-target removal isn’t a problem, a deck-heavy on-board wipes can pose problems for us.
- While we can fill up the board in the early-game we cant usually counter much as we typically tap out to cast creatures.
Deck Stats:
![](https://tuesdaynighttakeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-83.png)
![](https://tuesdaynighttakeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-83.png)
![](https://tuesdaynighttakeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-84-1024x281.png)
![](https://tuesdaynighttakeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-84-1024x281.png)
![](https://tuesdaynighttakeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-85.png)
![](https://tuesdaynighttakeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-85.png)
Sample Hands:
![](https://tuesdaynighttakeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-86.png)
![](https://tuesdaynighttakeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-86.png)
![](https://tuesdaynighttakeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-87.png)
![](https://tuesdaynighttakeover.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-87.png)
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We are a combat deck through and through; we are greatly aided by a ton of amazing “lord” effects within the deck, like Lord of Atlantis
Conclusion:
Kopala, Warden of Waves, is a criminally underrated commander who deserves a lot more love. Mono-blue can be a little tough in EDH, just like any mono-color deck, but overall, I think it is quite strong and just a blast to pilot. Merfolk is cool and is only getting better as more and more sets come out, so I can see this deck getting upticked a lot in the future. While there are a plethora of amazing Merfolk commanders out there, I think that Kopala is way too underplayed. If you have a Kopala list, I would love to check it out! Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!