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Friday, March 29, 2024

Release The Kraken! Mike’s Magic Reviews

This week those I have been handed a pretty Kraken Deck. hahahaha. ha.

MANIPULATIVE MONSTROSITIES

Deck list: (Taken from wizards.com)

Main Deck60 cards
16  Island
10  Mountain


26 lands

2  Archaeomancer
1  Burnished Hart
2  Coral Merfolk
2  Crackling Triton
2  Ill-Tempered Cyclops
2  Omenspeaker
2  Sealock Monster
1  Shipbreaker Kraken
2  Stoneshock Giant
1  Wall of Frost
1  Water Servant


1  Curse of the Swine
1  Disperse
1  Dissolve
2  Griptide
2  Lightning Strike
1  Lost in a Labyrinth
1  Magma Jet
1  Ordeal of Purphoros
2  Rage of Purphoros
1  Sea God’s Revenge
2  Shock
1  Volcanic Geyser

Initial thoughts:

Upon opening the box and having a nosey, It seems the main mechanic is to fox your opponent until you have enough mana to summon the Shipbreaker Kraken, hence the high land count. The amount of scry ability creatures also looks like it will be helpful in planning the next turn.

Kraken, ho!
Kraken, ho!

 

Play Test:

The mechanic works relatively well; being able to hit opponents early on with burn spells sets them on the back foot, the counterspells helping to waylay any threats pre-Kraken. As with any big monster, getting out the Kraken itself feels great, and the monstrosity ability allows you to essentially “level up”- really handy late game.This said, some of the deck filler is a little too expensive, meaning that you’ll be wasting too much mana when you should be spending it on hitting your opponent with spells.TO THE FACE.

Massive tentacaley messiness
Massive tentacaley messiness

Great Against:

This deck trumps anyone without a barrell-load of counter spells, the burn spells are really useful, and bringing them back with Archeomancer is a very neat trick. Any deck that dosen’t swarm or have many creatures will probably suffer early game.

Sucks against:

The milling. Oh God… The milling. Without the counter spells and burns to retort the cheeky miller, this deck falls apart like an X-factor hopeful’s singing career. Milling really messes with the mechanic of holding the opponent at bay until you have the mana to release a sea-beast.

Room For Improvement:

The focus here should be on getting out massive creatures, much like a Gruul deck. I would suggest throwing in a few more cheap counters, a few shocks and the deadly combination of a quicksilver amulet and Stormtide Leviathon for some devastating play around turns 5 or 6.The amulet will allow for a drop in land cards and an increase in other goodies, keeping your deck in the 60-65 region without suffering mana starvation.  The Stormtide Leviathon’s insta-island ability would double the effectiveness of the pre-existing  Sealock Monsters. Overall It’s a good deck, and with a few tweaks it can be great.

The_Dark_Mike
The_Dark_Mike
Hailing from Kent, England, Mike is a writer, editor and podcaster who has just finished his degree at CCCU. He also is a drummer of 11+years, plays in several bands, and is available for session work. His other interests are Batman, music which doesn't suck and pizza. Follow Mike @The_Dark_Mike

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