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 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.
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.
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.