Mystery Booster: Commander Edition (MBC) brings us another callback Legendary Creature. Homarids are Lobster Creatures that inhabit the cold dark depths of Dominaria. They first appeared in the Fallen Empires (FEM) set going to war with the Merfolk inhabiting the plane.

Unfortunately, if you find yourself a fan of these odd critters, you are out of luck for building a deck around them since there are only eight cards in existence with this Creature type. However, they are popular enough for Wizards of the Coast to make the Legendary General, Rikala, Homarid King in this brand-new Mystery Booster product.

Rock Lobster

While there is no information on who exactly Rikala, Homarid King is, we can assume that he leads the Homarids in their battle against the Merfolk. Christopher Burdett's depiction of Rikala shows the sheer scale of how large Homarids can be and how terrifying one would be to go up against in combat. Rikala looks like a boss straight out of a Dark Souls game.

Rikala provides a very unique strategy for the Simic () guild to lean into, by combining powerful cards like Tidal Influence and High Tide. Now one of these cards is much more powerful than the others, but Rikala's pump effect has been changed to reflect modern Magic power levels over the old design of Tidal Influence.

Having access to an anthem effect in the Command Zone as well as a huge mana doubler should make winning games a breeze.

What is Rikala's Wave?

This decklist is perfect for Bracket Two gameplay. It has a consistent game plan that is easy to naturally curve into, while being a consistent threat during the heat of battle. While there are no Homarids present in this list, there are a lot of Creatures with Flying and other evasive keywords that help damage your opponents with ease. They will hit even harder thanks to Rikala's power anthem.

Proliferate effects also work perfectly with Rikala, allowing you to manipulate the tides. Instead of waiting around to get more counters on your Commander you can force the waters to get fiercer immediately and wash away your opponents all at once.

Rikala's Wave | Commander | Nigel Kurtz

• Commander (1)
• 1 Rikala, Homarid King

• Creatures (40)
• 1 Bloated Contaminator
• 1 Brazen Borrower
• 1 Cankerbloom
• 1 Canoptek Scarab Swarm
• 1 Colossal Skyturtle
• 1 Cynette, Jelly Drover
• 1 Dreamtide Whale
• 1 Enduring Curiosity
• 1 Esior, Wardwing Familiar
• 1 Evolution Sage
• 1 Ezuri, Claw of Progress
• 1 Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres
• 1 Faerie Mastermind
• 1 Fangren Firstborn
• 1 Flitterwing Nuisance
• 1 Ghostly Pilferer
• 1 Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy
• 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
• 1 Kitesail Larcenist
• 1 Leatherhead, Iron Gator
• 1 Ledger Shredder
• 1 Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel
• 1 Marang River Regent
• 1 Mausoleum Wanderer
• 1 Merfolk Skydiver
• 1 Nightveil Sprite
• 1 Ouroboroid
• 1 Quilled Greatwurm
• 1 Ray Fillet, Wave Warrior
• 1 Spectral Sailor
• 1 Tainted Observer
• 1 Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus
• 1 The Goose Mother
• 1 The Lord of the Eagles
• 1 Thieving Skydiver
• 1 Thrummingbird
• 1 Timin, Youthful Geist
• 1 Trygon Predator
• 1 Vanguard Suppressor
• 1 Wan Shi Tong, Librarian

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

• Instants (4)
• 1 Biomass Mutation
• 1 Desculpting Blast
• 1 Ripples of Potential
• 1 Winged Portent

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Epic Fight
• 1 Expansion Algorithm
• 1 Germination Practicum
• 1 Notorious Throng
• 1 Pest Infestation
• 1 Primal Might
• 1 Scale Up
• 1 Tezzeret's Gambit
• 1 Wave Goodbye

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Amphibian Downpour
• 1 Beastmaster Ascension
• 1 Bottomless Pool
• 1 Coastal Piracy
• 1 Curse of Predation
• 1 Kenrith's Transformation
• 1 Reconnaissance Mission
• 1 Tale of Katara and Toph
• 1 Waterbender Ascension

• Artifacts (2)
• 1 Anduril, Narsil Reforged
• 1 Bident of Thassa

• Lands (34)
• 10 Forest
• 15 Island
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dreamroot Cascade
• 1 Flooded Grove
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Rejuvenating Springs
• 1 Sodden Verdure
• 1 Vineglimmer Snarl
• 1 Yavimaya Coast

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Let's dive into the rest of the decklist and check out what the oceans have to offer in forms of interesting Creatures.

Flying Fish

This deck contains no Ramp. No Sol Ring, not even a Rampant Growth. The goal is to be very aggressive and get down an evasive Creature as early as turn one or two. Spectral Sailor, Flitterwing Nuisance, and Mausoleum Wanderer are all evasive Creatures for . They also provide some card draw or disruption for our opponents as well.

Two mana is where most of the Flying Creatures sit. That way you can cast one the turn before Rikala enters play. Rikala will pump its power over the next few turns. Esior, Wardwing Familiar, Faerie Mastermind, and Ledger Shredder are perfect cards to get down early.

Esior will protect Rikala by giving him a Ward cost. Faerie Mastermind and Ledger Shredder will hopefully get you some cards by the next time you untap as players are establishing their early game engines.

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel fits a few roles in one card. It is evasive and comes down before Rikala at . It helps fix your hand with a Looting effect. Finally, it deals with a specific type of counter called Chorus Counters. When he four or more Chorus Counters, you can cast the card you discarded for free.

Thanks to the bonus Proliferate effects that are roaming around in your decklist, you should have no problem getting that number of Chorus Counters on Malcolm.

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian is a pretty great top-end or low-end Flying Creature. Playing it on turn two before your Commander might draw you some cards off your opponent's ramp spells like Rampant Growth.

Later in the game, however, Wan Shi can be used with Rikala's High Tide effect to draw you a massive amount of cards and leave you with a huge Flying Creature. Don't forget Wan Shi Tong also has Vigilance, making it a great defender as well.

There are 28 Creatures with Flying in the decklist. Some of them fill the slots of being removal or card draw spells while also being able to get in for damage easily. Timin, Youthful Geist is more of a disruption piece. Tapping down troublesome Creatures your opponents' might want to use to retaliate against your assault on them.

Cynette, Jelly Drover is another Anthem-like effect and comes with a Jellyfish friend when she enters or leaves play. The Lord of the Eagles is a really awesome top-end card from The Hobbit (HOB) set. Having a massive Flying Creature to one-shot opponents with low life totals is a great way to end out a game.

There are a lot of small Creatures in this deck, but we need to pump them up with counters to make them a little scarier.

+1/+1 Counters

Putting a +1/+1 Counter on each of your Creatures is the route you want to go, especially with all the Proliferation effects present. There are 10 cards that serve this role included. Germination Practicum from Secrets of Strixhaven (SOS) is the most powerful of these effects.

This effect will continue on each of your upkeeps, continuing to pump all of your Creatures turn after turn.

The Tale of Katara and Toph does a similar thing for whenever one or more of your Creatures become tapped. Curse of Predation, Fangreen, Firstborn, Quilled Greatwurm, and Leatherhead, Iron Gator all trigger whenever you attack with your Creatures. This deck is always wanting to turn Creatures sideways, so these cards will always be triggering to grow your army's power.

Ezuri, Claw of Progress is an old-school Legend that has Experience Counters. These counters can be Proliferated as well, which will cause Ezuri to put more counters on your Creatures.

Ouroboroid pushes the envelope of power since it triggers the turn it comes into play and will snowball into a win if not dealt with. If you can land an Ouraboroid on curve and keep it in play, you are almost guaranteed victory.

Proliferate Effects

Proliferate is a powerful keyword, allowing you to put a counter on each permanent or player that already has a counter on it. You can do this with your Creatures with +1/+1 Counters or with Rikala's Tide Counters to make your Creatures larger than life.

Thrummingbird is one of the poster children for this mechanic and works perfectly with our game plan of evasive Creatures coming down on turn two. Bloated Contaminator, Dreamtide Whale, Evolution Sage, and Tainted Observer are all three mana to play but can Proliferate each turn reliably.

Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres and Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus are the strongest Proliferate engines in the deck. Ezuri draws cards whenever you Proliferate, while Tekuthal will double the work that Proliferate accomplishes.

Most of the time these effects combined with the counter synergies will be enough to win the game on their own, but just in case there are a couple cards that will just win the game when you cast them.

Finishers

Rikala, Homarid King has the ability to make large amounts of mana. You can use this mana in a number of ways, but the classic thing to use it on is a big spell. Biomass Mutation and Expansion Algorithm are examples of spells that end the game.

Biomass Mutation will make all of your Creatures have base power X/X where X is what you pay into the spell. The +1/+1 Counters that are already on your Creatures will be added on top of this X/X base power. Biomass is also an Instant, meaning you can cast it after blockers are declared for a huge surprise.

The Expansion Algorithm does a very similar thing except it Proliferates X times. You can put a ton of Tide Counters on Rikala to pump your Creatures, as well as Proliferate all the +1/+1 Counters for even larger Creatures.

Scale Up and Beastmaster Ascension are more well-known, classic Green finishers for Commander, but they still are reliable at closing out games. Both of them are present in the decklist for this reason.

Conclusion

Rikala, Homarid King is a card over 20 years in the making. Many players have been crying out for a Homarid Commander, and this one might scratch that itch, combining flavor and power to make a truly unique specimen. Enjoy washing away your opponents board states and tears with this brand-new Legendary Lobster.