“Fear the ocean’s weight.”
Art:Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep
by Chris Rallis
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep, is the perfect commander for one of magic’s biggest creature types in sea monsters, which encompasses whales, Krakens, Serpents, and Leviathans, which have a surprising amount of support but are definitely not the most popular creature type. We are in Simic, so we have a lot of sources of ramp that allow us to cast our huge creatures early and take over the board. Kiora is hard to remove and a huge threat when they are on the field because they let us get more free sea monsters. We are not heavy on counters but have a decent amount to protect ourselves or stop opponents. I had a ton of fun with this deck. While it may not be the most powerful in the world, it’s a ton of fun! Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep Sea Monsters!
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Why Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep?
Kiora is an awesome commander. They only cost five, which is quite attainable pretty quickly in this deck. In addition, Kiora has Vigilance and Ward 3, which makes her quite hard to remove. But for the purposes of our deck, we care about Kiora’s second ability. This lets us get a free sea monster when I cast a sea monster, this can get out of hand very quickly, and we are racing to cast Kiora and, subsequently, a sea monster to get her triggers rolling. Kiora is a huge part of our deck and one of our best ways to get some free creatures and increase our board presence.
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:
To start off, we have our mana dorks like Bloom Tender
, Birds of Paradise
, and Ilysian Caryatid
, which are strong ways to get ahead and cast Kiora early. Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
is a great piece of “ramp” for the deck since it discounts a large majority of our deck and can provide them a buff and trample. Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty
is a very strong card, but it gets pretty crazy in our deck when we can cascade into huge creatures and fill our board quickly. Speaking of free creatures, one of the best for that in our deck is Kenessos, Priest of Thassa
, which, in many ways, halves the cost of our sea monsters. And lets highlight some of the best sea monsters in the deck, with my personal favorite being Serpent of Yawning Depths
, which makes nearly all of our creatures unblockable unless we are up against a mirror match! Spawning Kraken
is a crazy card that gives us huge creature production and makes us very hard to stop. Kraken of the Straits
is an awesome creature that also gives us pseudo unblockable. Breaching Leviathan
is an awesome card that is a pile of stats, and if we do hardcast, it is a great way to shut down our opponent’s board.
Planeswalkers:
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
is an awesome card that is a great engine for card draw, and untapping a permanent can be a strong effect whether we untap a creature for blocking or untap a mana dork so we can keep on casting.
Instants:
We have some countermagic like Arcane Denial
and Counterspell
, which are great ways to protect our board and threaten our opponents. We also have Essence Scatter
which is a little narrow but still very strong. Engulf the Shore
is the perfect board clear for when we are behind and is extremely strong in the deck. Entish Restoration
is an awesome card we can use to get a ton of land, especially since we can easily get the four power required.
Sorceries:
Our sorcery package is where most of our ramp lies with key ramp spells like Farseek
, Nature's Lore
, and Skyshroud Claim
. We have a ton more, but they all have the same purpose: get us more lands on the field. We have Ponder
and Preordain
, which allows us to manipulate the top of our deck and get some card draw. See the Unwritten
is an awesome card that we can ramp into that lets us get a creature onto the field pretty early and can swing the game in our favor. Last March of the Ents
is another wild spell that can be nearly game-ending, often drawing us 8-10 cards and then letting us dump our hand of all creatures, which can be a huge momentum swing for us.
Artifacts:
We have some artifact ramp like Sol Ring
, Arcane Signet
, Simic Signet
, and Firemind Vessel
not a ton too say about these just great rocks that lead us to more sea monsters quicker. We have Monster Manual // Zoological Study, an underrated artifact that can help cheat huge creatures into play. It also can be used as a great way to cycle through the top of our deck and grab an important creature. The Skullspore Nexus
is a crazy brand-new card that we can cast for cheap. Make our creatures much more threatening by doubling their power and getting a token of their P/T when they die. Skullspore Nexus does a lot for a bit of mana investment and is an awesome card.
Enchantments:
We have two enchantments that are big card draw engines for the deck in Up the Beanstalk
and Elemental Bond
, which can both trigger an absolute ton and refill our hand with ease. Quest for Ula's Temple
is an amazing card. Even though we don’t have a ton of ways to manipulate the top of our deck, it does not take long to turn on, and when it does, we can get a ton of free sea monsters on the field. Reflections of Littjara
is a very cool card that can be a great way to get two of the big sea monsters that we cast. While this card doesn’t work well with legendary creatures, it is strong with many of the cards in our deck. Tribute to the World Tree
is a card I love and I think belongs in every green deck for our small mana dorks. It can be a huge buff for them, and for the most part, it is an additional draw engine for the deck.
Land Base:
We have a strong typical Simic landbase, full of a bunch of strong Simic duals like Breeding Pool
, Barkchannel Pathway // Tidechannel Pathway
, and Waterlogged Grove
. We also have some lands that care about creature type, like Cavern of Souls
, which is a toss of what kind of sea creature you want to name; this card is likely a tech card, depending on your meta. Path of Ancestry
is another strong card that can be a great way to get some scry’s in. We also have Otawara, Soaring City
, which has the channel ability that can be strong offensively and defensively and is just all-around strong and often discounted by at least one or two ability. Beyond that, we have some more Simic duals and basics; I have had a ton of success with this land base and find it fits perfectly within the deck. We are a heavy ramp list with expensive creatures, so that’s why we are at thirty-seven lands.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Ton of ramp
- Kiora can put many huge creatures onto the field for free
- A decent amount of ways to clear the board
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- If we don’t hit some ramp we can have a slow start
- Weak to creature hate
- A decent amount of counterspells but not a ton of ways to deal with established threats
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We end games through combat and casting our huge sea monsters as early as possible. Whether we ramp into them or use Kiora to cast them for free, we have a ton of ways to get up to 6-8 mana, which is the sweet spot for getting big Kiora triggers and being able to hard cast our sea monsters if we have to. We aren’t the quickest deck in the world, but once we have a few sea monsters out, we are quite strong in combat.
Conclusion:
Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep, is an awesome commander who is the perfect leader for a sea monsters deck. Since Kiora was in March of the Machine: Aftermath, I think this card gets overlooked a lot in favor of more mana-focused commanders, and in all honestly, sea monsters are not the most popular archetype within commander, but in my experience, it is a ton of fun. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!