Commander Deck Tech: Svyelun of the Sea and Sky
I'm back with another mono-color commander build. With new sets coming out all the time now it is quite a bit easier to develop these mono-color decks. I wanted to stick to the Modern Horizons 2 theme this week, but look forward to me transitioning over to something Dungeon & Dragons related in the coming weeks.
It is time to get into some aggro-control with Svyelun of Sea and Sky. This commander is relatively cheap and efficient at only 3 converted mana cost, but also provides a punch being a 3/4. If you had already played a Merfolk on turn 1 and turn 2, Svyelun will be indestructible once you play it, so it already has a type of built in self defense. Svyelun also has built in card advantage as you will draw cards once it attacks. Then we have the last ability which is a "Lord" type of ability, but instead of giving +1+1, it gives Ward 1 to all of your other Merfolk instead. I've briefly had some dealings with the ward ability in my Quantum Quandrix deck and so far I seem to like it. The main downfall of the ward ability is board wipes, but that can be easily overcome with counterspells.
There are quite a few counterspells to choose from and these may change depending on which way you go with your deck. The counterspells that made my final list are: Counterspell, Mana Drain, Archmage's Charm, Cryptic Command, Force of Negation, Force of Will, and Swan Song.
We also have multi-purpose counterspells in the deck that are not likely to make your opponents very happy. In some play groups you may want to remove one or all of these for more traditional counterspells. We can Stifle, Trickbind, Disallow, or Sublime Epiphany your opponents fetch lands or triggered abilities. This essentially is equivalent to instant speed land destruction with versatility. There are several other activated or triggered abilities that these will all come in handy with. I feel they add a certain edge in the deck, but are bound to make some opponents concede from being unprepared.
To add to the versatility of the deck we also have probably the most played blue card in commander with Cyclonic Rift. Really, in what instance would you not play this blue card? To add to the trickery we are also playing a slew of good enchantments in the deck. These are Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, Propaganda, and Back to Basics. Really Back to Basics? Trust me, it's not the best card in the deck, but something I felt like I wanted to play. It also helped influence me into running all but 3 lands as basic islands. Holy cow we are going to need to find some more John Avon full-arts!
Now onto the Merfolk creatures, which surprisingly includes Six lords with several other Merfolks that give your creatures some other type of buff. The lords consist of: Coralhelm Commander, Lord of Atlantis, Master of the Pearl Trident, Merfolk Sovereign, Merrow Reejerey, and Metallic Mimic. Speaking of Merfolk, if you are looking for a different type of sci-fi movie check out "Cold Skin," you will not regret it.
When building this deck I got to go over quite a few older cards which I had long forgotten about. I wanted to mention the two cards that I think go well in this deck and have an opportunity for future increases in value. Those two cards are Inundate from Eventide and Seahunter from Nemesis. Both of these cards you rarely see when foraging through boxes or binders, and at between $5.00 and $8.00 they are not too expensive currently. I do not really see much downside to them being from lower print run sets with unique abilities. At the same time they are either blue or Merfolk oriented, so they do not necessarily go into every deck.
I hope this gives you some fun ideas for a fish deck, and if you make one be sure to post a reply with a list!
