Explosive Engineering - Thassa, Deep-Dwelling - High Power
“He is Thassa’s. I could not sway him.” — Kiora
Hey there! I'm Sydelio, an active EDH theorycrafter and player, most known for my Thassa deck that I've been playing almost exclusively since Theros Beyond Death pre-release. Backstory goes to opening her constellation version at a pre-release event, for which I built a golgari Thassa splash deck for. I fell in love with the value generation I did with blinking Acolyte of Affliction and Blight-Breath Catoblepas. The value-oozing control playstyle appealed to me instantly and I knew, that this was the commander I would build my first own deck for. I got a great bunch of cheap staples from my dear friend for the deck right after the prerelease, and I had the deck intact right at Theros Beyond Death release. Since then, the deck I've played has gone through numerous changes and upgrades, to being fully foiled out as it currently is. I have built higher power variants of Thassa as well, but I wholeheartedly believe that Thassa is best enjoyed at a more puzzle-solving / value centric build, compared to the higher power hyperefficient extra turns shell. Let's dive right in!
Decklist and full primer: Moxfield link - click here!
Go check the full primer out, like it if you enjoy what you see, comment if you have questions either on Moxfield or here!
Thassa, Deep-Dwelling is a 3U cost God. What are her pros and cons?
Pros
Resilient to removal (dodges most board wipes and single target removals; real answers lie in 'exile target permanent / enchantment' -effects
Strong over-time value generation at an easy mana cost of 3U.
Unique flicker effect of returning the flickered creature card under your control compared to the other popular flicker commanders - allows temporary steal effects to become permanent!
Secondary ability allows some protection against combat strategies and some trickery against tap ability commanders; forcing their ability to be used at a sub-optimal time (Obeka, Araumi, Mairsil etc.)
Cons
Hushbringer & friends can shut us out of the game for a fair bit of time if they stick to the table.
Heavy go-wide or go-tall strategies with sufficient protection can run over us or force us to do unfavorable blocks.
Being a mono blue list enchantments are difficult for us to deal with permanently.
Taking a glance at the afromentioned lists gives an idea how Thassa functions as a commander. Her power lies in repeatable ETB / LTB effects and dodging removal beneath the surface, being an indestructible enchantment. The deck works as a controlly, value-oozing shell with varying value pieces working as combo win conditions as well. If you enjoy puzzle-solving, piecing together win-conditions off of many lines, the challenges mono-color decks bring, enjoy ETB/LTB-centric gameplay and infinite combos / flicker effects as a win condition, this deck is for you.
Gameplan
"The wills of mortals shift as the tide ebbs and flows."
The gameplan of my list revolves around accumulating value over time with our repeatable ETB/LTB effects, while being able to hold up important interaction in hand and closing the game out with one of our many infinite combos when the opportunity comes. The strength of the deck comes from being able to repeat our strong effects with ease, having a resilient commander and being able to swim our way on the stack with different interesting ways to come out on top.
The way I pilot and have built the deck revolves purposively not hitting 5 devotion unless we're ready to answer any interaction pointed at Thassa - an indestructible enchantment is difficult to get rid of for some colors, so most often we only have to cast Thassa once or twice per game. The resiliency she provides is a valuable asset to the deck.
A typical game would look like ramping into Thassa, into playing our value engines out, while holding up interaction. I can't stress enough how important it is to either keep in-hand interaction up or even bluff it. There are naturally cases where you want to 'overextend' - risk evaluation and playing to your outs is the key.
With all that said, let’s dive in to card selection, and why they were included in the deck.
Full Steam Ahead
As our gameplan revolves around getting Thassa out as early as possible, we want to compliment our gameplan with the fastest mana rocks available. This includes the beautiful Moxen; Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox and Mox Opal. The two first ones have the requirement of pitching a card to get them online, but in this deck we are able to regain the card advantage back after deploying Thassa onto the battlefield. Our artifact count is high enough to justify running Mox Opal as well, which works in a similar manner compared to the first ones. The additional value the 0 mana rocks have, is deploying out a 2-CMC mana rock on turn 1; allowing us to ramp exceptionally fast to 4 mana by turn 2 which is the breakpoint of our deck.
2. Depth Deception
To be able to protect and deal with our opponents’ threats, we must have answers ready at hand to navigate fluidly to victory. Some of the varying exceptionally strong pieces in the deck are Familiar’s Ruse, Mystic Reflection and Resculpt.
Familiar’s Ruse is a perfect fit with our ETB creatures, especially Watcher for Tomorrow, Archaeomancer and Shipwreck Dowser.
Mystic Reflection can be used offensively as well as defensively.
Resculpt is a major upgrade to the deck: being a creature and artifact removal that Spellseeker can grab, it’s a must-have in the deck. A problematic Torpor Orb facing at us? Say no more.
3. The Price of Greed
My pet card trio, the Rishadan pirate cycle is an extremely potent group of cards, which punish tapping out severely. “Will you pay 1?” has never felt as good. The cleanest way to destroy lands is having your opponents do that themselves. Working as taxing pieces, we are able to often snipe some of our opponents permanents while they are tapped out and following that, either force our opponents to play off-curve to keep mana up to pay for the next-turn-flicker of Thassa’s, through which we will gain advantage and we are able to dictate the pace of the game: flickering something else instead of the Pirate, if our opponents keep their mana up, to further advance our lead. The Rishadan pirate cycle also functions as an infinite-flicker-outlet, which will leave our opponents without any permanents on the battlefield.
4. Master Manipulator
Due to Thassa’s unique ability and the construction of our creature palette, we are able to play some less-seen utility cards that work wonders in the deck. Pyre of Heroes is an absolute powerhouse in the deck, working as a Birthing Pod of sorts as we are mostly on Wizards and Humans in the deck. An errata regarding the Rishadan pirate cycle, them being now ‘Human Pirates’ pushed Pyre of Heroes from greatness to absolute god-tier, as we are able to freely ‘pod’ them and our wizards back and forth when needed. Looking to close the game out with Naru Meha? Make your Spellseeker a Rishadan Footpad. Looking to win with infinite turns? Turn that Rishadan Cutpurse into an Archaeomancer.
Scroll of Fate always gets some questioning looks and great reactions, when people realize how the interaction between Thassa and manifests work - essentially, you are able to ‘Show and Tell’ any permanent once a turn into play, by manifesting your desired card from hand onto the battlefield, and flickering the manifest with Thassa at the End Step. Uncounterable additional ramp, utility pieces, or perhaps an early Agent of Treachery? Count me in!
Chamber of Manipulation is a pet card of mine, that works wonders with Thassa. As Thassa’s ability states ‘return that card to the battlefield under your control’ we are able to turn temporary steal effects permanent, allowing us to steal our opponents most powerful creatures (and even commanders!) to us permanently for the price of a card from our hand.
5. Beware, Doppelgängers!
As the deck is loaded with powerful creatures, we are able to leverage our best ETB abilities by essentially doubling up on them. Glasspool Mimic is a perfect double-faced card for the deck, essentially replacing a land slot with a powerful clone spell that can clone our creatures when needed. Phyrexian Metamorph and Clever Impersonator allow us to clone the best creature or artifact on the field, or even any nonland permanent when needed. An opponent got out an early Dockside Extortionist, Smothering Tithe, or perhaps reanimated a Razaketh? I’ll have one too, thanks!
6. The Search for Greatness
Being a singleton format, tutor effects are exceptionally strong with the correct deck shell. Being able to repeat the effects with Thassa gives us access to immense power with Spellseeker, Trinket Mage and Tribute Mage. These are among the best creatures we want to see in our starting hand, as they have strong potential early which transitions well into the later stages of the game.
Spellseeker can find us whatever Instant we may need, ranging from our best counterspells, High Tide, Mystical Tutor to Pull from Tomorrow. Trinket Mage allows for explosive starts, especially when our hand consists of a mana rock we can deploy before Trinket Mage. Deploying Trinket Mage early alongside Thassa will allow us to dig our Moxen and other fast mana to our hand, and then fetch up Sensei’s Divining Top to give our Trinket Mage some more longevity, allowing us to fix our draws to find a payoff for all the mana we have. Tribute Mage works in a similar manner, finding us our strong 2-CMC rocks, and our utility artifacts: Strionic Resonator and Pyre of Heroes. After fetching up our mana rocks, we are able to use the Pyre of Heroes to turn our Tribute Mage to perhaps an Archaeomancer, Venser, Sower of Temptation, or even Rishadan Footpad.
7. Double Up!
What’s better than having a strong ability triggers once? having it trigger twice. As the deck mostly consists of Wizards, Naban, Dean of Iteration allows us to double up on all of our Wizard’s ETB triggers at a very cheap mana cost. Strionic Resonator allows us to double up on any of our triggered abilities, which includes Thassa’s End Step trigger (copy it, and flicker two different creatures) and our varying ETB / LTB triggers. Panharmonicon essentially doubles up on any of our ETB triggers, which allows for varying value plays and combo win-conditions.
Win Conditions
“I bring a flood that nothing can withstand.”
Now that we’ve went through card choices in the deck, let’s go into how we can win the game. Even if straight up value generation can win you some games, we pack different ways to either immediately win the game off of Thassa's Oracle or locking our opponents out of the game with leaving our opponents without any permanents, resulting in a win for us. Let us go over the different main categories of win lines.
Infinite Turns
Main line
Cards required: Thassa, Deep-Dwelling , Archaeomancer / Shipwreck Dowser , Walk the Aeons or a non-exiling extra turn of your choice.
How the combo works:
Have Thassa and Archaeomancer (or another similar creature out).
Cast your extra turn.
Move to End Step where Thassa’s trigger will target to flicker the Archaeomancer.
Archaeomancer will trigger on ETB, targetting Walk the Aeons to return to your hand.
Proceed to have infinite turns where you can draw your deck, close the game out in any given way.
Secondary Line
Cards required: Thassa, Deep-Dwelling , Venser, Shaper Savant , Mystic Sanctuary , Walk the Aeons or a non-exiling extra turn of your choice and at least 3 other islands on the board.
How the combo works:
On either of your main phases, cast your extra turn.
Play Mystic Sanctuary from hand, return the extra turn spell to the top of your deck.
Cast Venser, Shaper Savant. He will trigger on entering the battlefield.
Target Mystic Sanctuary and bounce it to your hand.
Proceed to have infinite turns with your turn draw always being the extra turn.
From here you can close the game out with Venser combat damage of 2 damage a turn by tapping creatures that could block with Thassa if you have 4 or more mana, or other outs if you have additional draws in hand etc.
There are also some additional lines you can take with infinite mana, flickers with Archaeomancer etc. to produce infinite turns but those are very rare cases. An ETB doubler ( Panharmonicon / Naban, Dean of Iteration ) with Naru Meha, Master Wizard , Walk the Aeons and a flicker spell, for example Ghostly Flicker you can cast them holding priority in a way, where you will create infinite Naru Meha ETBs and create infinite copies of extra turns.
Infinite Mana
We have varying ways of producing infinite mana:
Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake OR Palinchron:
Pre-requisites: At least 3 lands in play.
Activate Deadeye Navigator’s ability for 2 mana to flicker Peregrine Drake / Palinchron.
Peregrine Drake / Palinchron re-enters the battlefield from exile.
Float mana in response to Peregrine Drake / Palinchron’s trigger.
Lands will untap. You’ll have more net mana in pool from when you started. Continue the loop for infinite mana.
Archaeomancer, Ghostly Flicker and Peregrine Drake OR Palinchron:
Pre-requisites: Archaeomancer and either Peregrine Drake / Palinchron on field. Ghostly Flicker in hand. At least 4 lands in play.
Cast Ghostly Flicker targetting Archaeomancer and Peregrine Drake / Palinchron.
Both creatures then re-enter the battlefield from exile.
Float mana in response to Peregrine Drake / Palinchron’s trigger.
Lands will untap. You’ll have more net mana in pool from when you started. Continue the loop for infinite mana.
Palinchron and High Tide:
Pre-requisites: High Tide already cast. At least 7 lands in play that can produce 12 mana or more with High Tide active.
Cast High Tide if you have not done so already.
Play Palinchron from hand for 7 mana.
Float mana in response to Palinchron’s trigger.
Lands will untap
Activate Palinchron’s ability to return it to your hand.
Play Palinchron again, rinse and repeat.
At least 7 lands of yours must produce a total of 12 mana or more to go infinite (7 mana for Palinchron + 4 for Palinchron's activated ability).
Palinchron + Panharmonicon:
Pre-requisites: Panharmonicon on the battlefield. Palinchron in hand. At least 6 lands in play.
Cast Palinchron from your hand with Panharmonicon already in play.
Palinchron enters the battlefield. Two instances of it’s untap trigger go onto the stack.
Float at least 6 lands in response to the first untap trigger (Minimum mana floating: 6).
Let the first trigger resolve, lands untap.
Second untap trigger goes onto the stack.
Float at least 6 lands in response to the second untap trigger (Minimum mana floating: 12).
Let the second trigger resolve, lands untap.
Activate Palinchron’s ability to return it to your hand (Minimum mana floating: 8).
Cast Palinchron from your hand to repeat the loop (Minimum mana floating: 1).
Venser, Shaper Savant , Panharmonicon and Peregrine Drake OR Palinchron:
Pre-requisites: Panharmonicon on the battlefield. Venser, Shaper Savant and either Peregrine Drake/Palinchron in hand. At least 5 lands in play if generating infinite mana for Peregrine Drake. At least 6 lands in play if generating infinite mana with Palinchron.
Cast Peregrine Drake / Palinchron from your hand with Panharmonicon already in play.
Peregrine Drake / Palinchron enters the battlefield. Two instances of it’s untap trigger go onto the stack.
Float lands in response to the first untap trigger.
Let the first trigger resolve, lands untap.
Second untap trigger goes onto the stack.
Float lands in response to the second untap trigger.
Let the second trigger resolve, lands untap.
Cast Venser, Shaper Savant from your hand.
Venser, Shaper Savant enters the battlefield. Two instances of it’s untap trigger go onto the stack.
Target Peregrine Drake / Palinchron with the first trigger. Target Venser, Shaper Savant with the second trigger.
Let the triggers resolve, bouncing both creatures back to your hand.
Cast Palinchron from your hand to repeat the loop.
This also works as a win condition by first producing infinite mana, and then casting Venser with his two ETB triggers being an opponents permanent of choice + Venser. Repeating this loop will allow you to bounce all opponents' permanents to their hands.
Naru Meha, Master Wizard and Ghostly Flicker:
Pre-requisites: 7 mana available. At least 1 land or 1 artifact that can tap for mana in play.
Cast Ghostly Flicker from your hand and announce you would like to hold priority.
Whilst holding priority, in response to the Ghostly Flicker, Flash in Naru Meha.
Naru Meha enters the battlefield. Target Ghostly Flicker on the stack with it’s ETB Trigger.
Create a copy of Ghostly Flicker, which will target Naru Meha and either one of your lands or mana generating artifacts.
Float mana in response, then let the copied Ghostly Flicker resolve, which will flicker Naru Meha and the land/mana artifact.
Naru Meha and the land/mana artifact both re-enter the battlefield. Target the original Ghostly Flicker that’s still on the stack.
Continue the loop for infinite mana.
Many of these infinite mana loops turn into ways to close out the game as well. You might have another useful ETB creature on the field to flicker with any of the afromentioned flicker combos to close the game out, or play your hand out to accumulate a considerable lead. Also with Pull from Tomorrow we are able to draw our deck and close the game out with Thassa's Oracle on the spot. If we are required to be at our endstep for the infinite mana generation, we can resort to infinite flickers with Venser, Shaper Savant + Naru Meha + Ghostly Flicker, returning all of our opponents' permanents to their hands, and then closing the game out on the following turn cycle.
The Castle Vantress Lines
Castle Vantress, Naru Meha, Ghostly Flicker, any other creature and any singular draw outlet on the field
Pre-requisites: Ghostly Flicker and Naru Meha, Master Wizard in hand, Castle Vantress and an Island in play, enough mana to cast both Ghostly Flicker and Naru Meha and any source of card draw.
Cast Ghostly Flicker holding priority, targeting two of your lands.
Cast Naru Meha.
Upon Naru Meha resolving, Naru Meha's ETB ability triggers.
Target Ghostly Flicker with Naru Meha's ETB, creating a copy of Ghostly Flicker.
Target Naru Meha and a land of yours with the copied Ghostly Flicker.
Copy of Ghostly Flicker resolves, flickering Naru Meha and the land untapped onto the battlefield.
Naru Meha's ETB ability triggers, tap the now untapped land for mana in response, and repeat from step 4.
After generating infinite mana, switch to targeting Naru Meha and Castle Vantress with the copied Ghostly Flicker.
Keep flickering Naru Meha and Castle Vantress, activating the Tap: Scry 2 ability of Castle Vantress in between the flickers.
This allows us to essentially stack our deck in any way we want. From here the routes are:
A) Scry until Pull from Tomorrow is on the top of our library.
A1. Activate your draw effect (for example Cephalid Coliseum, Sensei's Divining Top, Lonely Sandbar, Mind Stone), drawing the Pull from Tomorrow.
A2. Cast Pull from Tomorrow with X being your deck, if Thassa's Oracle is still in the deck.
A3. Cast Thassa's Oracle, winning the game.
B) Scry until Archaeomancer / Shipwreck Dowser is on the top of our library if Pull from Tomorrow is in the graveyard.
B1. Activate your draw effect to draw the Archaeomancer / Shipwreck Dowser.
B2. Cast the afromentioned creature, on ETB targeting and returning Pull from Tomorrow to hand.
B3. Refer to A2 and A3.
C) Scry until we have Reality Shift on the top of our library and either a Rishadan Pirate / Venser, Shaper Savant, or any of our draw / pseudo-draw (Watcher for Tomorrow) creatures is on the top of our library after using our draw effect 4th from the top if Cephalid Coliseum, 2nd from the top if Lonely Sandbar and so on) and Archaeomancer, Shipwreck Dowser and Pull from Tomorrow are in our graveyard and we have an another creature on the battlefield. Note: instant speed draw effect required for this loop.
C1. Activate our draw effect in response to one of the Naru Meha ETB triggers, drawing Reality Shift into our hand and leaving the previously purposively chosen card on the top of our library.
C2. Cast Reality Shift in response to one of the Naru Meha ETB triggers, targeting our other creature on the battlefield.
C3. Upon Reality Shift resolving, our other creature gets exiled and we manifest the top card of our library (the previously chosen creature that we left on the top of our library).
C4. Let Naru Meha’s ETB trigger resolve.
C5. Target Naru Meha and the manifested card with Ghostly Flicker copy.
C6. Ghostly Flicker copy resolves, flickering Naru Meha and the manifested card face-up onto the battlefield.
C7. Naru Meha ETB ability and our chosen creatures ETB ability both trigger.
C8. Keep flickering both of the creatures, netting whatever effect you chose, either forcing our opponents to sacrifice all their permanents (Rishadan Pirate), bouncing all permanents to our opponents' hands (Venser, Shaper Savant), stealing all our opponents' permanents (Agent of Treachery) or drawing our deck and casting Thassa's Oracle for the win (Watcher for Tomorrow & Mulldrifter)
Infinite Flickers
Now that we have gone over the main ways of generating infinite mana, we can now translate those into defined win conditions as follows:
Infinite flickers + any draw ETB / LTB (for example Mulldrifter or Watcher for Tomorrow): Draw your deck, cast Thassa's Oracle with interaction in hand. Venser, Shaper Savant + Naru Meha + Ghostly Flicker if we're winning at instant speed.
Infinite flickers + Venser, Shaper Savant: Bounce all your opponents' permanents to their hands.
Infinite flickers + Rishadan Cutpurse / Rishadan Footpad / Rishadan Brigand: force your opponents to sacrifice all of their permanents.
Infinite flickers + Agent of Treachery: steal all of your opponents' permanents.
Infinite flickers + Master of Waves: create an infinite 1/0 elemental army, kept alive by the Master of Waves.
Infinite land flickers (Ghostly Flicker) + War Room: draw our deck, play Thassa's Oracle for the win. Do note, War Room costs 1 life per activation so this is not “infinite” but you’ll likely draw into something infinite.
Note that these can be done with either Deadeye Navigator flickers, Archaeomancer + flicker spell flickers, or Naru Meha flickers. Out of these the most compact one is Naru Meha + flicker spell.
Additional Combo Lines
Certain cards unlock new potential under certain conditions. I will go over the ones that I have applied in my gameplay, winning me the game. Due to running many clones and Mirage Mirror we can also piece a win together with our opponents' cards, so keep an eye out for them if you are given the chance. An opponent has a Dockside Extortionist out? Count me in!
Naban, Dean of Iteration / Panharmonicon out: cast Ghostly Flicker or similar, hold priority, cast Reality Shift, hold priority, cast Naru Meha, Master Wizard. Naru Meha enters the battlefield, triggering her ETB ability two times. First trigger to resolve will target Reality Shift, second targets our flicker spell. We exile our opponents creature, and they manifest their library's top card as a creature. We flicker Naru Meha, having two ETB triggers again. We Reality Shift their manifested card, "milling" them for one more card. We repeat this process until we have milled our opponents' libraries out.
Naban, Dean of Iteration / Panharmonicon out, have Archaeomancer or similar creature, a flicker spell (for example Ghostly Flicker), Reality Shift and access to infinite mana: similar to the afromentioned Naru Meha Reality Shift line, we do the same but in this line we have two Archaeomancer (or similar) triggers, out of which one will return us Reality Shift back to our hand and the second will be a flicker spell, which we use to flicker the Archaeomancer to then produce two additional ETB triggers, returning both of the instants to our hand. Keep looping and mill your opponents out.
Either of the afromentioned lines, but instead of Reality Shift we use Swan Song and another counterable target: Cast any spell that Swan Song can hit, holding priority. Cast Swan Song to counter the spell, giving you a 2/2 Bird. Flicker Archaeomancer, return the countered spell and the flicker spell to your hand. Recast the flicker spell, this time returning Swan Song + the flicker spell to your hand. Then cast the spell Swan Song can hit + Swan Song, giving you another Bird, and keep repeating the process for infinite birds. With Naru Meha, Master Wizard this line goes as such with Naban / Panharmonicon on the field:
Cast spell X Swan Song can target, hold priority.
Cast Ghostly Flicker, hold priority.
Cast Swan Song, targeting either, hold priority.
Cast Naru Meha.
Naru Meha enters the battlefield, triggering her ETB twice.
On the first ETB trigger (second one to resolve) target your spell X.
On the second ETB trigger (first one to resolve) target your Ghostly Flicker.
Let the second trigger resolve, flickering Naru Meha.
Naru Meha ETBs, triggering twice.
On the first ETB trigger (second one to resolve) target your Ghostly Flicker.
On the second ETB trigger (first one to resolve) target your Swan Song.
Target the copied spell X with Swan Song copy, countering the copy and giving you a 2/2 Bird.
Let the copied Ghostly Flicker (from 10) resolve, flickering Naru Meha.
Repeat steps 5-13 infinitely, giving you an infinite amount of 2/2 Birds.
Individual Card Discussion
“I can see why this appeals to Thassa.” —Kiora
Planeswalkers
3 CMC
Narset, Parter of Veils: an extremely potent Planeswalker, stops our opponents' extra draws, especially potent when coupled up with a wheel effect such as Windfall which I'm currently trying to find room for in the list. The less-combat-heavy pod, the stronger the effect gets. Minus ability can be used when favorable for us, statistically netting us a 'draw' of sorts.
4 CMC
Teferi, Master of Time: a fantastic, fast Planeswalker that's pretty much kill-on-sight. Allows us to filter our hand efficiently, with the ultimate being the icing on the cake. A great card from early to late game, especially strong with fast mana starts.
Creatures
2 CMC
Naban, Dean of Iteration: Pretty much a tutorable* Panharmonicon in our deck. Vastly increases the value of our ETB Wizards and also works as a possible combo piece. (*Vedalken Aethermage)
Thassa's Oracle: Our most defined win condition, allows us to win the game on the spot after drawing / milling our library. Also playable as a value piece, if looking at a non-oracle win condition.
Vedalken Aethermage: Technically a 2 CMC card, but works as a 3-mana tutor in our deck. Most common targets are: Watcher for Tomorrow, Spellseeker, Archaeomancer and Naru Meha, Master Wizard.
Watcher for Tomorrow: Insanely strong card selection engine in our deck. Allows you to technically scry 4, draw 1 for 2 mana.
3 CMC
Glasspool Mimic: a 3 CMC clone on a land drop, absolutely perfect. Upside of turning it from a land into a clone with Ghostly Flicker.
Hullbreacher: one of the newer additions to the deck. An absolute monster of a card, even if not running wheels yourself. Low opportunity cost for massive potential.
Rishadan Cutpurse: a removal / tax effect on a blinkable body. Punishes tapping out and can work as a softlock / win condition. Allows you to get ahead of the mana curve by forcing opponents to keep up mana, while you can decide to flicker something else at your endstep.
Spellseeker: one of the best creatures in the deck. Allows us to tutor for whatever we need, ranging from our counterspell selection, removal, Mystic Reflection, High Tide, to our Mystical Tutor if trying to close the game out.
Tribute Mage: allows us to find our Sapphire Medallion and other mana rocks, can afterwards tutor for more value with Strionic Resonator and after fulfilling its purpose we can upscale the body with our newest addition, Pyre of Heroes.
Trinket Mage: allows us to tutor for Sol Ring, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, our Moxen and Seat of the Synod if needed. Usual playlines go as: Turn 2 mana rock, turn 3 Trinket Mage (tutor for Jeweled Lotus), cast Lotus, crack it + tap your last mana for Thassa. Endstep flicker Trinket Mage and tutor up Sol Ring.
4 CMC
Amphin Mutineer: a cheaper replacement for Duplicant which I previously ran. The 4/3 Salamander is a neglible downside, compared to the cheaper mana cost of the Mutineer when comparing with Duplicant. Has the upside of Encore possibility as well.
Archaeomancer: a value engine and combo piece in one. Allows us to return a Mana Drain, Pongify or Mystical Tutor etc. over and over again, and enables our infinite turn wins.
Clever Impersonator: the broadest clone in the deck, allows us to clone any nonland permanent on the battlefield. Can be 'refreshed' with Thassa if copying a creature. A tough to deal with Smothering Tithe, Mirari's Wake or something else on the board? Can't beat them? Join them!
Glen Elendra Archmage: a sticky reusable counterspell on a body. Normally allows for two counters in one card, has the upside of being refreshed with a flicker effect.
Master of Waves: an army in one card - due to state based actions being checked only after our flicker effect has resolved, our previously made Elementals will stick to the board. Gets out of hand with Mystic Reflection when used in response to Master's ETB trigger.
Naru Meha, Master Wizard: pretty much a dedicated combo piece, can back you up in a fatal counter war in a pinch.
Phyrexian Metamorph: our second flexible clone for 3 generic mana and 2 life. Can clone any creature or artifact on the field. Can be refreshed with a flicker, if cloning a creature (or using Ghostly Flicker).
Rishadan Footpad: a stronger Rishadan Cutpurse. Allows for early game softlocks with a turn 2 Footpad into Thassa. Works as a tax effect and a combo piece.
Solemn Simulacrum: a great ramp piece in our deck even at 4 mana.
Sower of Temptation: one of our temporary steal effects. On the turn it comes down, you can steal a creature, and at your endstep flicker the stolen creature (even commanders) to disjoint it from the Sower's ability, and thus steal it permanently. Next turn flicker the Sower, rinse and repeat. Very powerful for 4 mana.
Venser, Shaper Savant: a pseudo-counter, removal, and combo piece in one. Absolute powerhouse in our deck. Gets very exciting with Riptide Laboratory.
5 CMC
Ixidron: a monstrous 'boardwipe' for us. As long as Thassa is at 4 or less devotion before casting Ixidron, Thassa will stay face up. Great way to deal with problematic commanders or other creatures. Allows us to flicker our face-down creatures back up with Thassa, breaking parity in our favor.
Mulldrifter: an extremely strong ETB coupled with Thassa's flicker. Has the upside of being a Divination in a pinch. Most commonly hardcasted for 5 mana.
Peregrine Drake: a great flicker target, allows us to spend mana and pass turn holding all the interaction, works as one of our main win conditions as well. Perfect!
Rishadan Brigand: refer back to Rishadan Cutpurse and Rishadan Footpad. Tax, removal, and win condition in one.
Shipwreck Dowser: a secondary Archaeomancer at 5 CMC for redundancy and cases where you use Pyre of Heroes on a 4-drop.
6 CMC
Deadeye Navigator: an expensive combo / value piece, but does its job unlike other. Refer to Win Conditions -section for more.
7 CMC
Agent of Treachery: one of our two 7-drops, has a low floor and an extremely high ceiling. A value and combo piece in one. Cloning / flickering Agent can get out of hand quickly, end step draw is an icing on the cake. Rite of Replication anyone?
Palinchron: refer to Peregrine Drake. Value and a win condition in one. Absolutely beautiful in foil!
Sorceries
3 CMC
Windfall: wheel effect at an easy mana cost, especially strong with an explosive mana rock start (blurt out hand, cast Windfall to refill our hand and be at a significant advantage) or alongside Narset, Parter of Veils and Hullbreacher to hand-strip our opponents and put us at a significant advantage. Noteworthy though that casting a wheel always requires you to be very aware of the gamestate as well as reading your opponents: if someone tutored something up after you tutored Windfall to the top of your deck and are holding up 3 mana; maybe stepping into the Hullbreacher trap isn't the best idea. Alternatively just casting Windfall for the sake of it while your hand is empty, with no access to big mana, and someone else is staring at the table with 0 cards in hand and a Smothering Tithe in play - not the best idea either. Wheel cautiously.
4 CMC
Rite of Replication: a flexible copycat-sorcery that can copy any creature on the battlefield. Can be used on one of our or our opponents' value engines or later on use it with kicker to accumulate insane value or even win on the spot. Most wanted kicked targets would be Archaeomancer, Master of Waves, Rishadan Brigand, Peregrine Drake, Agent of Treachery and Palinchron. Notably goes infinite with Naru Meha, Master Wizard as well, producing infinite Naru Mehas and any of your other creatures on the battlefield (create 5 Naru Meha copies with Rite of Replication, let at least one of them copy the kicked Rite of Replication, others whatever you want. Create more Naru Meha copies, repeat the process. Do note that you'll only keep one of your Naru Mehas due to legend rule).
6 CMC
Walk the Aeons: my extra turn pet card. Works as a value generator of gaining an extra Thassa flicker / land drop / turn draw, as well as our extra turn for infinite turn loops. If looking for the most optimal card in this slot, look at Temporal Manipulation.
Instants
1 CMC
High Tide: mono blue ritual. Allows us to play bigger threats earlier and works as a combo piece with Peregrine Drake and Palinchron.
Mystical Tutor: allows us to tutor up whatever we might need in a given situation. Should most often be used before taking your turn or in your upkeep. Most common targets are Walk the Aeons, Cyclonic Rift, Mana Drain, Ghostly Flicker.
Pongify: top tier creature removal at a cheap cost of 1 MV. Only downside not hitting indestructible targets. Giving an ape token is very neglible.
Swan Song: an amazing counterspell for EDH for only. Giving an opponent a 2/2 is very neglible. Also works as a rare win condition in combos. Refer to Win Conditions section for more.
2 CMC
Counterspell: Good old universal counter. Not the best 2 mana counter out there, but it does its job.
Cyclonic Rift: one of the strongest board wipes out there. Instant speed, flexible, tutorable with Spellseeker and on top of all that, it is asymmetric. Can turn the game around in your favor very easily. Get the timing right and thrive!
Delay: an extremely potent counter in EDH. 3 turn cycles are an eternity. Let's us disrupt our opponents' combos well, denying them access to their combo piece and allows the table to prepare for the telegraphed combo piece cast on the later turn if the game continues that far.
Familiar's Ruse: the perfect counter for this deck. Allows us to save one of our creatures or net an extra use of the ETB purposively, while being a universal counter. Also note, that returning the creature to your hand is an additional cost of casting Familiar's Ruse, so there's no way for your opponents to react with you returning a creature to your hand. Gets extra spicy with an Archaeomancer out!
Mana Drain: in my opinion the best 2 CMC counterspell out there. Universal counter that allows us to ramp, sometimes even enable an early win due to the extra mana, on one card? Dream come true.
Mystic Reflection: the newest addition to my list alongside Pyre of Heroes. Works as a solid interaction piece towards your opponents but also enables for some nifty plays of our own. High value creature on the board? Have your weaker creature ETB as that thing, or even manifest a land from your hand with Scroll of Fate as a Restoration Angel reanimating your Agent of Treachery to steal your opponents highest value creature (happened in the first Mystic Reflection playtest game). As mentioned before, becomes terrifying with Master of Waves. Foretell is icing on the cake.
Narset's Reversal: an extremely versatile, high powered card. Allows you to protect and bounce perhaps a Cyclonic Rift of your own, let's you get a free Harrow while your opponent pays for its cost, or navigate your way through a stack war with style.
Pull from Tomorrow: my favorite X-draw spell, with the difference of it being an instant compared to the sorcery variants like Braingeyser / Finale of Promise. Instant speed matters in our shell, as we're able to generate big amounts of mana when flickering a Peregrine Drake or Palinchron with Thassa. Tap your lands to float mana in response to the ETB trigger after flickering, tap them again, cast Pull from Tomorrow. Works as a win condition when paired with infinite mana, drawing our deck into our win condition(s).
Reality Shift: solid creature removal, being an instant speed exile at a cheap cost. Also has some combo potential tied to it (refer to Win Conditions section for more).
3 CMC
Displace: weaker Ghostly Flicker but still well worth running. Allows us to accumulate value of two ETB triggers for , possibly achieving the same while dodging targeted removal when done in response to the removal spell. Value engine with Archaeomancer and another creature on the field. Works as a combo piece, explained in Win Conditions section.
Ghostly Flicker: the strongest multi-target blue flicker spell. Allows us to flicker artifacts, creatures and/or lands under our control - temporarily stolen creatures are now ours to keep! Has some neat usage with some artifacts and lands (looking at you Scroll of Fate and Mystic Sanctuary) and a plethora of combos. Refer to Win Conditions section for detailed explanations.
Silundi Vision: a strong effect on a tap land. Has some additional synergy with Venser, Shaper Savant to recur the played land to our hand, allowing us to play the spell side.
Artifacts
0 CMC
Chrome Mox: top tier rock, allowing us to pitch a spell to have an early mana rock out. Especially good in starting hands that have a 2 CMC mana rock as well, allowing you to play the rock on turn 1.
Jeweled Lotus: Our main target among others for Trinket Mage to tutor. Common play lines go as: T2 mana rock, T3 Trinket Mage (tutor Jeweled Lotus), Jeweled Lotus, Thassa. Endstep tutor Sol Ring / Mana Vault / whatever you need.
Mox Diamond: top tier rock, allowing us to pitch a land to have an early mana rock out. Same principle as Chrome Mox; especially good in starting hands which have a 2 CMC rock alongside.
Mox Opal: we run enough artifacts to justify running Opal - free mana is always strong!
Mana Crypt: One of, if not the strongest mana rock out there for mono-color shells. A net positive 2 mana per activation from the get-go is very strong. Powering out an early Thassa, a turn one Trinket Mage, Spellseeker or a Rishadan Cutpurse? Count me in! Noteworthy that it's also one of our prime Tolaria West Transmute targets alongside our varying utility lands and Pact of Negation.
1 CMC
Mana Vault: a top tier 'ritual' type mana rock in our deck, allowing us to deploy an early Thassa or another strong piece early on.
Sensei's Divining Top: a draw-filtering powerhouse which can be tutored with Trinket Mage at 1 CMC; allows us to fix our draws and make our starting hands with an early Trinket Mage without a payoff turn into one by tutoring up the Top. Noteworthy that it has some solid synergy with Mystical Tutor, allowing us to essentially tutor our card to our hand by activating the draw ability of the Top.
Sol Ring: the poster child of EDH, mana positive mana rock unlike other. Allows for explosive starts. Tutorable with Trinket Mage.
2 CMC
Arcane Signet: one of the best 2 CMC mana rocks out there. Taps for and enters untapped.
Mind Stone: a mana rock that is good drawn early and late. Taps for colorless, which is fine as we are a mono-color list. Upside of being able to 'cycle' it when needed.
Pyre of Heroes: our newest addition alongside Mystic Reflection. With Kaldheim release mono blue now has access to their own Birthing Pod. Being a mostly-Wizards list, we are able to use it efficiently. From replacing your Watcher for Tomorrow with a Spellseeker, tutoring up Mystical Tutor, continuing to Archaeomancer to close the game out with infinite turn loops. Pyre of Heroes has great synergy with Tribute Mage, giving Tribute Mage more longevity with having a proper value target and gameplan for those starting hands where you keep Tribute Mage with no other payoffs. Also a deadly chain of Rishadan Cutpurse, Rishadan Footpad and Rishadan Brigand can be achieved with Pyre. Our strongest tutored targets for Pyre are Spellseeker, Archaeomancer, Master of Waves, Sower of Temptation, Shipwreck Dowser and the Rishadan pirate trio. Do note that the Rishadan pirate cycle has gotten an errata, making them 'Human Pirates' which allows us to flexibly alter between our Wizards and Pirates in our Pyre chains!
Sapphire Medallion: cost reducers are often better than straight up mana rocks; Sapphire Medallion is no exception to this. Often tutored as the first target of Tribute Mage. For example, turn 2 Sapphire Medallion allows us to go for a T3 Trinket Mage + Mana Crypt + Thassa, Deep-Dwelling.
Strionic Resonator: our secondary flexible Panharmonicon. Can be used to copy our triggered ETB / LTB abilities as well as copy Thassa's triggered flicker ability. Tutorable with Tribute Mage.
3 CMC
Mirage Mirror: a somewhat new addition to the deck, and has performed amazingly well in the deck. One of the most versatile cards in our list, allows for many different shenanigans ranging from having an additional Panharmonicon, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to anything on the board. Be mindful of Mirage Mirror activations and holding priority; you can sequence your activations in such way that on the first activation you make Mirage Mirror an infinite mana outlet, hold priority, and on second activation make Mirage Mirror into any given permanent that nets you infinite mana. Produce the infinite mana at instant speed before first Mirage Mirror activations resolves, let it resolve, and then use the produced infinite mana to the outlet of first Mirage Mirror activation.
Scroll of Fate: an absolute gem that I often see lacking in different Thassa lists. Allows us to cheat in any permanents for a one-time investment of mana, since flickering manifests returns them onto the battlefield face up. Gets around counters also. An early uncounterable Agent of Treachery, or sneak in a combo piece such as Peregrine Drake or Palinchron face-down? Yes please!
4 CMC
Panharmonicon: one of my first foils for the deck, this card has seen play since day 1. Allows our strongest ETB creature to go from 2 triggers per turn to 4 triggers (when Thassa is out), which can be backbreaking with Rishadan Cutpurse / Rishadan Footpad / Rishadan Brigand or any other strong ETB ability. Also enables a wide range of combo wins. Perfection.
Enchantments
4 CMC
Chamber of Manipulation: an old gem tailored for Thassa. Allows us to permanently steal any of our opponents' creatures for a price of one card, with the help of Thassa. Due to the originally stolen creature being considered a new object after Thassa's flicker, it is disjointed from the Chamber of Manipulation.
Lands
Ancient Tomb: the best 2 mana producing land, allows us to play a 2 CMC rock on turn 1 and in general ahead of the curve.
Castle Vantress: a utility land in the place of an Island, comes online later in the game and can fix our draws when hellbent.
Cephalid Coliseum: an amazing loot effect for a low opportunity cost. Allows us to filter our hand later on and in some cases do shenanigans in response to a Thassa's Oracle ETB.
Flooded Strand: fetch, allows us to shuffle our next draws if we have info of them, as well as tutors Mystic Sanctuary in addition to our basic Islands.
Glacial Chasm: our tech against damage, allowing us to get a turn or two extra in a pinch.
Halimar Depths: tapland which has the upside of setting up our future turns. In consideration of cutting in favor of an Island.
Lonely Sandbar: cantripping tapland. So far had more upside than downside in playtests.
Myriad Landscape: ramp in mono blue is somewhat scarce; especially good as a turn 1 drop with Chrome Mox or Mox Diamond or Sol Ring in hand, allowing us to crack it on turn 2 for two Islands.
Mystic Sanctuary: great fetchable utility land, can set us up with an extra turn with Walk the Aeons or even infinite turns with Venser, Shaper Savant in conjunction with the afromentioned extra turn spell.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: one of the best mono color lands, low opportunity cost of producing colorless and a high ceiling when ahead.
Polluted Delta: fetch, refer to Flooded Strand explanation.
Riptide Laboratory: an insanely powerful land in a Wizard shell. Allows you to save some key creatures in response to removal etc. as well as do some awesome trickery with Venser, Shaper Savant as well as Watcher for Tomorrow.
Seat of the Synod: tutorable land for Trinket Mage when needed.
Terrain Generator: same principle as Myriad Landscape, hold up interaction and endstep ramp when possible.
Tolaria West: a utility land, mainly played for its Transmute effect: allows us to find Glacial Chasm if facing threatening boardstates later in the game, Ancient Tomb if wanting to access higher mana, Mystic Sanctuary if we're looking to either turn loop with Venser, Shaper Savant or perhaps Riptide Laboratory for additional utility. Alternatively can be used to fetch a mana rock to our hand. I'm considering adding Pact of Negation to the list in the future, for additional utility with the land / combo protection.
War Room: 4 mana 1 life draw 1 isn't the best rate, but a worthwhile inclusion as it's on an untapped land. Similar principle as Castle Vantress, comes online later on and can break parity well when hellbent.
Future Additions
I will most probably be including a Soul-Guide Lantern into the list in the future, to have some grave-hate in the list. Alternatively looking into adding Scavenger Grounds to use a landslot for some fairly efficient grave hate; noteworthy that it's symmetrical, so we have to be smart with it. Blast Zone, Emergence Zone and Sunscorched Desert have all been in the consideration for quite some time; they might see play in the future. Resculpt will be the most significant instant addition once I get a foil on my hands - will most probably replace Pongify or Reality Shift in the list.
Closing Thoughts
I'm very thankful if you read all of the above and still stuck around - it means a lot to me! I hope this post has given some insight, perhaps inspiration, to dive into the wonders of Thassa and mono blue in general. If you have any questions regarding the decklist, single card choices, or the primer, please feel free to ask either on Moxfield or on the PlayEDH Discord. Thank you so much for reading!
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