[EDH] Let's Build A Deck: Thassa, God of the Sea

[Davran]

So I cracked a Thassa, God of the Sea during a FNM draft that's just begging to have a deck built around it. Not just any deck mind you, but a deck full of nautical nonsense. Ideally the resulting list will actually be playable...so let's see what we can do! Given the amount of traffic on this forum, try to suggest 4 cards so that we can actually build a complete list.

**Note: While Mana Drain would be excellent here (and on theme due to the art), it is well outside my budget at this time.

**Note #2: I'd like the deck to be flavorful, but I'm not going to exclude solid cards simply because they don't fit the flavor.

I'll get started by getting the staples out of the way, as well as my own inclusions:

Commander:
Thassa, God of the Sea

Creatures:
Sea Scryer
Reef Pirates
Ghost Ship
Colossal Whale
Stormtide Leviathan

Artifacts:
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Sensei's Divining Top
Sky Diamond
Bident of Thassa

Instants:
Capsize

Sorcery:

Enchantments:
Homarid Spawning Bed
Mystic Remora
Quest for Ula's Temple

Lands:

[Qige]

So I cracked a Thassa, God of the Sea during a FNM draft that's just begging to have a deck built around it. Not just any deck mind you, but a deck full of nautical nonsense. Ideally the resulting list will actually be playable...so let's see what we can do! Given the amount of traffic on this forum, try to suggest 4 cards so that we can actually build a complete list.

**Note: While Mana Drain would be excellent here (and on theme due to the art), it is well outside my budget at this time.

**Note #2: I'd like the deck to be flavorful, but I'm not going to exclude solid cards simply because they don't fit the flavor.

I'll get started by getting the staples out of the way, as well as my own inclusions:

Commander:
Thassa, God of the Sea

Creatures:
Sea Scryer

Artifacts:
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Sensei's Divining Top
Sky Diamond

Instants:
Capsize

Sorcery:

Enchantments:
Homarid Spawning Bed
Mystic Remora

Lands:

What do you want thassa to do? Do you want her to be an enchantment or do you want her to swing? Also sea scryer is terrible because you do not want to be ramping usually in blue unless your playing some bomby deck. I don't even know if you need top because of her scry 1 ability.

"Staples"
Counterspell
Spell Crumple
Hinder


Also what kind of deck is this? Most likely she seems to fit some mono blue combo deck.

[Aggro_zombies]

If it's nautical nonsense, it needs to be Krakens, Octopi, and Serpents. Two of those groups usually fall into the "six mana and up" category, so a little ramp may be in order.

That said, unless there's a strong Merfolk subtheme, mana rocks are preferable to an effect like Sea Scryer even taking Thassa into account.

[TsumiBand]

If it's nautical nonsense, it needs to be Krakens, Octopi, and Serpents. Two of those groups usually fall into the "six mana and up" category, so a little ramp may be in order.

That said, unless there's a strong Merfolk subtheme, mana rocks are preferable to an effect like Sea Scryer even taking Thassa into account.

Ooh ooh, are we building against Quest for Ula's Temple?? There's a whole carafe of stupid just waiting to be poured out over there...!

I was hoping to find a lot of cards that trigger on damage/on attacking/etc, but I feel like the vast majority of Blue ones aren't really great. And thematically the only one that occurs to me is Colossal Whale, which is... eeehhhhhh

[Ace/Homebrew]

I see Thassa as a beat down deck. Get 4 devotion, play her, protect and deal 21.

Couple different options.

Ships!
Merchant Ship
Reef Pirates
Ghost Ship
Coastal Piracy

Sea...
Sea Troll
Old Man of the Sea

**Devotion**
Patron Wizard
Invoke Prejudice
Leyline of Anticipation
Future Sight

[Davran]

What do you want thassa to do? Do you want her to be an enchantment or do you want her to swing? Also sea scryer is terrible because you do not want to be ramping usually in blue unless your playing some bomby deck. I don't even know if you need top because of her scry 1 ability.

"Staples"
Counterspell
Spell Crumple
Hinder


Also what kind of deck is this? Most likely she seems to fit some mono blue combo deck.

Being the god(dess) of the sea and all, the ideal Thassa deck is likely full of sea creatures and oceanic spells. I mean, she's obviously BFFs with Azami, Lady of Scrolls and friends for your typical mono-U combo nonsense, but we're not making Azami deck number 9,957,573,921.

Sea Scryer is a worse Sky Diamond...but Sky Diamond doesn't do anything for our devotion to our God.


Ooh ooh, are we building against Quest for Ula's Temple?? There's a whole carafe of stupid just waiting to be poured out over there...!

I was hoping to find a lot of cards that trigger on damage/on attacking/etc, but I feel like the vast majority of Blue ones aren't really great. And thematically the only one that occurs to me is Colossal Whale, which is... eeehhhhhh

Quest for Ula's Temple is exactly the kind of thing we're looking for here! Colossal Whale is on theme too...so I'll slot it in for now even though it's not the greatest ever.

In terms of leviathans, Stormtide Leviathan can be our first.


I see Thassa as a beat down deck. Get 4 devotion, play her, protect and deal 21.

Couple different options.

Ships!
Merchant Ship
Reef Pirates
Ghost Ship
Coastal Piracy

Sea...
Sea Troll
Old Man of the Sea

**Devotion**
Patron Wizard
Invoke Prejudice
Leyline of Anticipation
Future Sight

So apparently Merchant Ship is a human...I guess there's been a little mystery science going on during some of those Arabian Nights.

Reef Pirates and Ghost Ship seem like worthy inclusions. Old Man of the Sea is a good one too...if I can manage to track one down. Bident of Thassa is slightly more flavorful than Coastal Piracy, but it might be correct to just run both.

Sea Troll is one of those things I know I have kicking around from when I was a kid and thought Homelands was awesome...but now that I know better I don't think I can bring myself to actually play with a 3 mana 2/1...no matter how thematic it is. God damn that set was terrible...

[TsumiBand]

Should probably toss in all the Pirates then. Rishadan Airship is almost an undercosted beater, kind of?

Actually, what would be hilarious would be all those Pirates that force people to sac a permanent or pay X, plus Back to Basics. B2B is mean as hell against a budget guy like me; half my lands in ETB tapped already anyway. Use like Erratic Portal, Crystal Shard, etc. to replay Rishadan Brigand/Cutpurse/Footpad. With B2B in play, kind of a dick move.

[Kayradis]

IMHO,
Here's my build for Thassa. Let's simply say that I got a slightly diffenrent approach to EDH!

Commander:
Thassa, God Of The Sea

Creatures:
Sea Gate Oracle
Shipbreaker Kraken
Aetherling
Master Of The Wave
Enclave Cryptologist


Artifacts:
Bident Of Thassa
Sensei's Divining Top
Mana Vault
Sol Ring
Temple Bell

Instants:
Counterspell
Hinder
Spell Crumble
Force Of Will
Think Twice
Cancel
Dissolve
Dissipate
Opportunity


Sorcery:

Enchantments:
Fact Or Fiction
Rustic Stury
Dismiss Into Dream <-Combo W/ Thassa

Lands:
Polluted Delta
Misty Rainforest
Scalding Tarn
"the original karoo land from Visions"
Faerie Conclave
Mutavault
Tons of Island
Wasteland
Strip Mine
Dust Bowl

[luckme10]

Some suggestions:
Go well with unblockable and are water related:
Thassa's Emissary
Thada Adel, Acquisitor
Riptide Entrancer
Bident of Thassa

[AngryTroll]

I like it. Flavorful, potentially playable sea-creature cards include:
Man-o'-war
Sand Squid
Giant Oyster
Glowing Anemone
Sky-Eel School
Lorthos, the Tidemaker

and then there are some questionable sea monsters:
Dandan
Hammerhead Shark
Devouring Deep
Fylamarid
Killer Whale