“And those who land upon her shore.“
Art:Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea
by Zack Stella
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Callaphe is a very sweet commander who is a mono-blue powerhouse and in my opinion, should get way more love within the format. I think they are quite strong as well as fun and interesting, with only a handful of decks on Moxfield I am hoping to be the catalyst to get more and more Pauper EDH players to appreciate this absolutely sweet commander. We are a control-style deck that spends most of the game locking down the best of the best from our opponents and buffing up the devotion of Callaphe before we use our many unblockable effects and buffs to swing in for a sweet-commander damage one-shot. This deck is a blast and one of my favorites I’ve built in a while. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea Devotion!
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Why Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea?
Callaphe is a huge part of our deck, and while they are quite the removal magnet, they have a built-in ward 1 effect, and we have a ton of different ways to protect them like Keep Watch
and Turn Aside
. Callaphe is also pretty much our win condition while we do have other creatures the whole deck is focused on upping the devotion for Callaphe and swinging for that sweet, sweet commander damage one-shot. Callaphe is a very strong piece for this deck and should be protected no matter how many times our opponents try to remove 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 are pretty low on creatures but have a ton of impactful ones; while not true for all creatures, many of the creatures in our deck offer two additional devotions, and since some of them are decently cheap, we are able to make Callaphe huge. Armguard Familiar
is a very interesting piece of equipment that makes Callaphe very hard to kill and allows us to fully tap out safely. Neurok Invisimancer
is a card we can use to whittle down our opponents if we can’t keep Callaphe out, but if we can keep them out, this can be a strong early-game way to give them unblockable. Spiketail Drakeling
is a great two-devotion evasive creature that is effectively a second copy of Quench
, and having that on a stick is a great thing to have. Tandem Lookout
, as the name suggests, is a great pair with our commander, and more cards are always something we can take advantage of. Speaking of Soulbond, we are not done yet and also have the very cheap Wingcrafter
, which is a great way to make Callaphe more evasive, which can allow for even earlier commander damage kills.
Instants:
My two favorite instants in our deck is Turn Aside and Keep Watch because they are very cheap ways to protect our commander, and a ton of removal gets thrown at our commander so it’s very important to do this even when we are low on mana. Dive Down
and Shore Up
are two additional ways for just to fight through removal as well. We also have some counterspells both to protect ourselves and stop our opponents with some strong counters like Arcane Denial
, Dissolve
, and Counterspell
which are all inexpensive ways to stop our opponents.
Sorceries:
Ponder
and Preordain
are nothing more than very cheap sources of card draw for the deck which allows us to refill our hand and keep the casting going. Artful Dodge
and Slip Through Space
are two one-mana powerhouses that can allow us to get a guaranteed hit on our opponents, whether Callaphe is buffed up heavily or just getting started being able to guarantee and build up commander damage is awesome.
Artifacts:
The most important artifact in our deck is Altar of the Pantheon
which helps kick up that devotion count and make our commander just a little bit bigger, we also get a little bit of mana, and a little bit of life which is very nice. We also have some very strong pieces of equipment that make our commander even stronger, like Brass Knuckles
, which can make the commander damage one-shot very easy to do. We also have Vorrac Battlehorns
and Haunted Cloak
as a way to turn our commander into keyword soup and being more evasive and guarantee some damage even if our opponents can block. Goggles of Night
is a great card for the deck and ticks up our devotion and gets us some supplemental card draw which is always great.
Enchantments:
We have a ton of redundant lockdown effects, but some of my favorites in the deck are Witness Protection
and Kasmina's Transmutation
, which are both great ways to take out commanders/creatures that are problematic for us of have annoying abilities. We also have some more expensive lockdown effects, which in this deck is actually a pretty good thing since we get the extra devotion from cards like Frozen Solid
and Mesmerizing Dose
. We have some strong ways to make our commander unblockable, like Security Bypass
and Aqueous Form
as well as some other very strong auras like Arcane Flight
and One With the Wind
which provide the devotion buff and an additional buff which helps us maximize damage.
Land Base:
Being in mono-blue allows us to have a landbase that mostly consists of Islands, but we do have some pretty sweet non-basics like Skyline Cascade
which is another strong source of lockdown from the deck, and with all of our lockdowns our opponents probably won’t be happy when this land drops. We also have Mystic Sanctuary
, which in this deck is almost always able to return an instant or sorcery which can be a great way to get back high-value counterspells or cards like Artful Dodge or Slip Through Space. Beyond that, we have some strong sources of supplemental card draw within our landbase, which can be a great thing to have in the late-game. I think this landbase is perfect for the deck and has a strong ratio of basics and non-basics that are quite impactful.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We have a ton of ways to lock down our opponent’s creatures, which isn’t great against decks that swarm the board but can be very strong against decks that try to swing out with just a few creatures.
- We have quite a few sources of supplemental card draw within the deck, allowing us to consistently refill our hand.
- With just a few turns, we can make Callaphe absolutely huge; we tend to snowball quite hard with our devotion.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- While we do have some strong protection, we are quite reliant on our commander, which in certain games can leave us at a disadvantage.
- We have very little removal once a card hits the board. We are much better on the stack.
- We are not that great at blocking as we are low on creatures, decks that attack with a ton of creatures can be tough for us.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We are a combat deck through and through; primarily, we focus on locking down our opponent’s creatures, upping our devotion count, and swinging unblockable with our commander for a one-shot. We have a ton of ways to achieve this, like Security Bypass and Aqueous Form, as well as some very strong equipment like Vorrac Battlehorns and Brass Knuckles. We get better and better as the turns go on, and the built-in protection from our commander on top of all of the control elements we have sets us up for success.
Conclusion:
Collapse, Beloved of the Sea, is a very sweet commander who I have been having a blast with; I don’t think this commander gets nearly enough love. If you like mono-blue and huge commander damage kills I think this is the perfect deck to bring to the table; from flavor and art to general function of the card, Callaphe is strong and a blast to play, be warned you may get some hate from your opponents when you keep on locking down their board but hey, we can deal with it we are playing blue. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!