Morska, Undersea Sleuth Investigation

Commander Overview

Morska is the general of a very fun and decently strong bracket two deck that looks to draw a ton of cards as well as create a bunch of clues, clues and investigating are the name of the game here and with Morska giving us at least one clue a turn and no maximum hand size is powerful, I’m also a huge fan of how easy it is to buff up, Morska and commander damage are a true win condition. At the same time, it is not the primary, but it is a great option for the deck that I have won many games with. Morska is more of a support role on the deck; while they can be used as a primary, we typically use them as a good combat option and to support the overall clue game plan. Morska is an amazing general, and I am very excited to showcase this one today!

How to Play the Deck

Playing the deck is very straightforward; it’s all about investigating and getting clues. We have a ton of clue generation throughout the deck, as well as some payoffs like Displaced Dinosaurs, which can turn our measly clues into huge creatures that can beat up on our opponents easily. We do have a bit of a control package in the deck, including counters and some removal. This isn’t something we rely heavily on, but it is great to have in the deck. This deck is perfect for a player of any skill level.

Synergy’s in the deck

our deck is really all about clues, we are great at creating them since we have cards like James, Wandering Dad where we can use the Adventure side to generate a crazy amount of clues, one of the biggest benefits of being able to create so many clues is that we can draw so many cards, there is no shortage of card advantage in this deck and our hand is almost always full. One of my favorite cards in the deck is Lonis, Cryptozoologist. Stealing our opponents’ stuff always feels good.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: We go pretty slow in the early game, and we are perfectly fine with that. We do have some ramp, but it’s not something that matters much. We do try to get Morska on the field as quickly as we can. They are a good early-game card, and early clues are always good. We don’t do a lot of exciting stuff during the early game.

Mid-Game: We get a lot stronger in the mid-game, being able to drop awesome support cards like Graf Mole, which positions us very nicely against aggressive strategies, and three life per clue is quite a bit and can get our life total very high quickly.

Late-Game: We go from just being the player who is making a ton of clues to a player who is making big waves in the game. Kappa Cannoneer is an easy source of unblockable damage for the deck, and since it triggers on ETB, we can get Kappa big very quickly. I’ve already mentioned it a couple of times, but Displaced Dinosaurs is one of the best creatures in the deck, turning our clues into 7/7s. These two cards are a big part of our late-game.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

Since we have a control package and overall a decently slow game plan, we are perfectly ok with not ramping a ton. We do have Cultivate as well as Sol Ring/Arcane Signet and cheap and easy ways to get our mana up. Still, we don’t rely on it; we are more than ok with taking it slow and just taking what comes to us. I do want to mention Farseek. It is a cheap card that lets us grab any shock or Spara’s Headquarters. Getting these out for only two is very strong, especially if we need color fixing.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

We don’t have a lot of spells that draw us cards, but since we are a clue-focused deck, card draw is constant in this deck. There were very few times when I was testing that I was even under five cards during any given turn. While we don’t have a ton of direct benefits, cards are arguably the best thing in the game, and more access to everything in our deck is always good.

Removal

Our removal package is pretty small but effective, we don’t need a ton of removal in this deck, we are pretty selfish in a lot of ways we really dont care about what our opponents are doing, if they start getting really out of hand we do have both Generous Gift and Beast Within, being able to remove problematic permanents is excellent for our deck and prevents combos or stops opponents for getting out of hand.

Protection

We have Counterspell and Dovin’s Veto, which are great ways to stop problematic spells or even commanders. Being able to use these as protection are great because Morska or some of our big creatures can make opponents target us. We don’t have a big control package, but it can be invaluable.

Utility / Support

Since clues are the name of our game we have many ways to produce a ton of them, my personal favorite is Officious Interrogation with the prevalence of creature decks in EDH/Bracket 2 this card can allow us to make a crazy amount of clues, it works with Mechanized Production amazingly as well. Also works crazy good with Kappa Cannoneer and in my testing games i pulled off a one-shot with both of these.

Investigating is good, and it’s something that we want to do a lot; we have many ways to investigate a ton of times. I love Erdwal Illuminator, which gives us two clues at our upkeep a lot of the time, or really anytime we create a clue. This is a true win for the deck with no downsides, and putting it on a cheap creature that’s good at blocking is strong at all stages of the game. Piper Wright, Publick Reporter is another card that is super strong and supports the overall gameplan very well. I love playing this card early because we sacrifice so many clues throughout the game, and if an opponent doesn’t leave up any blockers, Piper can investigate an insane amount of times. Piper is good on her own, but combining her with Senator Peacock guarantees we investigate a ton of times, and she’s also powerful when going for the Mechanized Production win.

Since we have so many clues, you may think the only thing we can do with them is draw cards, but you would be wrong! We have Armed with Proof, which is a great way to produce more clues, and in the late-game, when we have quite a bit of mana floating around, we can use our clues turned equipment with Morska or any of our creatures to do a ton of damage. Lastly, I want to highlight a card that has won me a ton of games. Tangletrove Kelp is pricey, but devastating when dropped. Being able to turn all of our clues into 6/6’s allows us to output a ridiculous amount of damage.

Mana Base

Reliquary Tower is the only interesting land we have, i initially didnt have this in here but Morska does get targeted quite a bit so being able to have an additional copy of her effect is good for the deck, having this as a backup if Morska gets killed can prevent us from having to discard a ton of cards. Other than that, we just have on-color fetches/shocks and bond lands, which allow us to establish our colors very easily.

Win Conditions

Our primary win condition is through combat. With a combination of our creatures and Morska, we can dish out a decent amount of damage, especially if we have a card like Displaced Dinosaurs, allowing our newly created clues to be formidable attackers. The only other win condition is Mechanized Production, an artifact that allows us to get the win very easily. All we need are eight clues, and we will win the game. Getting that many clues is shockingly easy.

Strengths of the Deck

We never have a shortage of card draw.

We have multiple different ways to end the game, both in combat and non-combat.

Weaknesses of the Deck

Artifact hate like Vandalblast can be very tough for us to play through.

Since we have a slower game plan, we can get beaten up on by stompy or aggressive strategies.

Deck Testing/Matchups

I tested this deck against three different decks

Game 1: Vs Nekusar, the Mindrazer. Matchup Record: 1-3

Nekusar is a tough matchup for us; they can ping us down a ton, and overall are a lot faster than we are. Killing their commander is the only recourse we have. I had a very tough time in this matchup.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Beast Within, Supreme Verdict and Counterspell

Game 2: Vs Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice. Matchup Record: 4-2

I had a lot of success with this matchup. Trostani can be a little overwhelming if they have a strong start, and their populate can be nasty, but if we stick to our control package and are a bit aggressive towards them, you shouldn’t have very much trouble.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Academy Manufactor, Armed with Proof and Hydroid Krasis

Game 3: Vs Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait. Matchup Record: 0-3

I had a ton of trouble with this matchup. Aesi is super strong against us; we don’t have many ways to stop them, and they ramp so quickly. I got run over and couldn’t handle all of their ramping. This was an extremely rough matchup.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Beast Within, Swords to Plowshares and An Offer you Can’t Refuse.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed this one. I fell in love with Morska after playing them when the MKM precons released, and while this includes a lot of the same cards as the precon, buffing it up to bracket 2 made it a lot more enjoyable and quite powerful.