This week's column showcases some of the cards on sale that might inspire you to look beneath the surface to find something new. These lists will usually be Commander lists in Bracket 3, so you'll be able to play these in any Bracket 3 (or higher) pods.
If you want to play in lower pods, just swap out the Game Changers for other choices; if you want to compete with Bracket 4 and 5 pods, add more Game Changers along with some other competitive combos.
Keep in mind that the Game Changers in your deck aren't the only thing that moves you up and down a Bracket. Your intent with your deck; inclusions of other interactions, engines, and combos; and overall playgroup should all be factors in your bracket.
Remember that the weekly sale ends on Sunday night at 11:59 PM EST, so you have until then to get your cards ordered.
Sin, Spira's Punishment
This week's sale focuses on some of the denizens of the deep, ranging from Krakens to Serpents to Leviathans.
Final Fantasy's Sin helped us bridge the gap between some of the Simic ![]()
sea monsters like Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood or Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait and the Dimir ![]()
sea monsters like Wrexial, the Risen Deep and Gyruda, Doom of Depths.
This is because Sin, Spira's Punishment is in Sultai ![]()
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colors.



Sin also has a pretty fantastic triggered ability as well. It has the Magic 2011 Titan-esque clause where it triggers when it enters or attacks, which will Exile a Permanent card at random from your Graveyard, then create a token copy of the card.
This is a Green card too, so naturally it's got built-in ramp; if the Exiled card is a Land, you repeat the process.
Our list will focus on early game ramp to get us to our bigger sea monsters, along with a few cards that fill our Graveyard so that Sin can really get going on making tokens. Let's begin.
The Sea Monsters
Let's focus on our sea monsters first. Starting with the non-Blue ones, we've got Famished Worldsire from Edge of Eternities and Shark Shredder, Killer Clone from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Fun fact, that's all of the non-Blue ones. That's to be expected, though; throughout Magic's history, Krakens, Leviathans, Octopuses, and Serpents have traditionally lived in Blue.
Starting on the low end, we have Nadir Kraken for some early board presence, Aboleth Spawn to get value off of your opponents' Wood Elves (which we also play), and Runo Stromkirk, which will create tons of sea monster value later in the game.


Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle is just a ramp monster that will attack for tons later in the game, so it's great here. Eluge, the Shoreless Sea, also with an ability that triggers when it enters or attacks, will turn Lands into Islands, making your spells cheaper.
Tidal Barracuda gives you some utility reminiscent of Teferi, Time Raveler, and Marvo, Deep Operative lets you clash using a deck filled with high-cost sea monsters, so you'll get absolute value from it.
On the high end, we have the ramping serpent, Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait to help us cast some of our big friends, like Fleet Swallower (yes, we're targeting ourselves) the duo of Koma, Cosmos Serpent and Koma, World-Eater, or the leader of our attacking army, Serpent of Yawning Depths, making our team Unblockable.




Fun fact, there's an odd amount of one-sided board wipes in this archetype.
Summon: Leviathan is a wonderful Saga, also from Final Fantasy, that will bounce all but your board (minus your useful utility Creatures like Eternal Witness) to their owner's hands.
Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep has quite a steep cost, but will clear the way for your Creatures, like Whelming Wave.
Scourge of Fleets will get rid of Creatures based on the number of Islands you control, and we'll get extra of those from Eluge, the Shoreless Sea and Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood.
Our Friends Up in the Boat
If our army is under the sea, then we keep our utility friends and tools up in the boat above sea level.
We're hoping to fill our Graveyard while also ramping, so cards like Harrow fit that bill well. We don't mind Lands in the Graveyard either, since Sin will repeat if we hit the Land anyway.
Glarb, Calamity's Augur will fill our Graveyard by Surveiling, and Teval, the Balanced Scale will Mill cards for us while also giving us Zombie tokens.



Quest for Ula's Temple will let us put our big sea monsters into play once it's online and Lurking Predators will make our opponents scared to cast spells hopefully. Invasion of Segovia, flips into a sea monster that will make our spells easier to cast.
We also play all the recent Channel Lands from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, as discarding them is great for Sin's trigger to give us the value out of their abilities.
Boseiju, Who Endures is one of the most versatile Lands in Green, Otawara, Soaring City is a bounce spell that no one ever sees coming, and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire even gives us more cards in our Graveyard, fueling our Commander.
Change the Game
For our Game Changers this week, we've opted for the full three; we need the early game help to get us to the late game.



First up is Worldly Tutor, which thrives in a list with lots of Creatures and has synergy with cards like Marvo, Deep Operative and Timeless Witness.
Next is Cyclonic Rift, which doubles as both early protection and also as another late-game sweeper alongside the bouncing sea monsters we play.
Last is Crop Rotation, which is great in this list since we don't mind our Lands going into our Graveyard.
It can help color fix when we're short a color or it can help put lots of Lands in the Graveyard if we search up Lotus Field. Even just searching up a Surveil Land like Undercity Sewers can really help us when we're in a pinch for something specific.
We've also opted not to play one of the best Kraken's printed, Hullbreaker Horror.
This is because of its natural ability to combo with mana-positive rocks like the Sol Ring we're playing. If you want to include it, this format is all about personal preference, so go for it.
Another combo option that fits well in these colors is the combination of Food Chain and Misthollow Griffin for infinite Creature mana. Our Commander has an enters trigger, which means that we could infinitely use it with the infinite combo from Food Chain.
It doesn't hurt that Sin also Exiles the card it selects at random, so if it chooses Misthollow Griffin somehow, that's not even an issue for us, since we can recast it.
Here's the list decklist, so you can take it for a spin:
- Commander (1)
- 1 Sin, Spira's Punishment
- Creatures (42)
- 1 Aboleth Spawn
- 1 Adrix and Nev, Twincasters
- 1 Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
- 1 Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle
- 1 Brinelin, the Moon Kraken
- 1 Coiling Oracle
- 1 Deep-Sea Kraken
- 1 Eluge, the Shoreless Sea
- 1 Eternal Witness
- 1 Famished Worldsire
- 1 Fleet Swallower
- 1 Glarb, Calamity's Augur
- 1 Gyruda, Doom of Depths
- 1 Honest Rutstein
- 1 Hostage Taker
- 1 Kenessos, Priest of Thassa
- 1 Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep
- 1 Koma, Cosmos Serpent
- 1 Koma, World-Eater
- 1 Lochmere Serpent
- 1 Marvo, Deep Operative
- 1 Monstrosity of the Lake
- 1 Nadir Kraken
- 1 Runo Stromkirk
- 1 Scourge of Fleets
- 1 Serpent of Yawning Depths
- 1 Shark Shredder, Killer Clone
- 1 Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
- 1 Spawning Kraken
- 1 Starwinder
- 1 Stormtide Leviathan
- 1 Summon: Leviathan
- 1 Summon: Titan
- 1 Teval, the Balanced Scale
- 1 The Unagi of Kyoshi Island
- 1 The Watcher in the Water
- 1 Tidal Barracuda
- 1 Timeless Witness
- 1 Wood Elves
- 1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep
- 1 Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood
- 1 Yarok, the Desecrated
- Planeswalkers (1)
- 1 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
- Instants (6)
- 1 Crop Rotation
- 1 Cyclonic Rift
- 1 Frantic Search
- 1 Growth Spiral
- 1 Harrow
- 1 Worldly Tutor
- Sorceries (7)
- 1 Death Begets Life
- 1 Extract from Darkness
- 1 Farseek
- 1 Nature's Lore
- 1 Skyshroud Claim
- 1 Three Visits
- 1 Whelming Wave
- Enchantments (2)
- 1 Lurking Predators
- 1 Quest for Ula's Temple
- Artifacts (2)
- 1 Arcane Signet
- 1 Sol Ring
- Battles (1)
- 1 Invasion of Segovia
- Lands (38)
- 6 Forest
- 6 Swamp
- 8 Island
- 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
- 1 Breeding Pool
- 1 Drowned Catacomb
- 1 Hedge Maze
- 1 Hinterland Harbor
- 1 Lotus Field
- 1 Misty Rainforest
- 1 Otawara, Soaring City
- 1 Overgrown Tomb
- 1 Polluted Delta
- 1 Shifting Woodland
- 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
- 1 Undercity Sewers
- 1 Underground Mortuary
- 1 Verdant Catacombs
- 1 Watery Grave
- 1 Woodland Cemetery
- 1 Zagoth Triome
Final Thoughts
There are quite a lot of ways to build a sea monsters deck. You could use a card like Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep to fuel your Creatures. You could play Primal Surge and try to bring them all out at once. Sin, Spira's Punishment is a unique way to bring out your Creatures, since it uses your Graveyard while also doubling as ramp.





