I have a soft spot for Kiora. One of the first planeswalkers I ever opened was Kiora, Master of the Depths from Battle for Zendikar. I remember the card very distinctly because I either traded her in for store credit or traded her to another player and then regretted making the trade for months afterwards. I should have kept her and tried to "live the dream" of getting her emblem and building up an army of Octopus creature tokens.

That was many years ago and I've never seriously considered going back to pick up a copy of that Simic planeswalker, but when I opened another Kiora in a Foundations booster pack I knew I had to write about her. This incarnation is a creature, not a planeswalker, but her abilities definitely made me think about ways to make the most of what she brings to a game.

Kiora, the Rising Tide is a 3/2 Legendary Merfolk Noble from Foundations with a 3-mana casting cost and an enter the battlefield trigger that will have me draw two cards and discard two cards. I don't love discarding cards, but in this case it's going to be helpful. Whenever Kiora attacks, if there are seven or more cards in my graveyard, I'll get to create a legendary 8/8 Blue Octopus creature token named Scion of the Deep.

Creating 8/8 Octopus tokens is pretty sweet, but the tokens are legendary, so I'll have to sacrifice one of them to the legend rule. That's not so sweet, but there may be ways around that particular restriction.

Mirror, Mirror

The way I'd get around the "legend rule" would be to play ways to simply remove that rule from the game. That's one of the weirdest things about Magic - you play by a set of rules that apply to everything you do... until they don't. In this case I'll be running a few ways to get around the restriction that you can't have more than one legendary creature with the same name under your control at the same time.

Both Mirror Gallery and Mirror Box are artifacts that will let me ignore the "legend rule. The former just removes it from the game for everyone, which may or may not help my tablemates. The latter costs 2 less, will only apply to permanents I control, and will give me a couple of pump effects. Each legendary creature I control will get +1/+1. Each nontoken creature I control will get +1/+1 for each other creature I control with the same name as that creature. For this deck the main point of running these cards is to let me attack with Kiora and make additional Octopus tokens without having to sacrifice any.

Helm of the Host is another way I can make nonlegendary token copies of legendary creatures. If I equip it to Kiora, I'll get additional copies of Kiora that can attack and generate Octopus tokens. I'm more likely to attach it to my Scion of the Deep token, as those are the creatures I want to build my army with.

I'm pretty happy with this plan. If it works I'll be making a new 8/8 every turn, along with whatever other creatures I can play out. That's hardly game-breaking but it's not bad.

Merfolk Subtheme

Kiora, the Rising Tide is a Merfolk Noble so it made sense to me to lean into that creature type. There are a lot of very good Merfolk that can help support a lot of what this deck wants to do.

I want to get at least seven cards in my graveyard so I can make my Octopus tokens. I won't be too fixated on that until I've gotten Mirror Box or Mirror Gallery out, but it's still going to be a priority. Ambassador Laquatus can help me with that by letting me pay 3 mana to have target player mill three cards. Drowner of Secrets is also in the list and will let me tap an untapped Merfolk to have target player mill a card. I might occasionally remember to mill someone who tutored a card to the top of their library, but more often than not I'll be targeting myself.

Once I've milled at least seven cards I can try to build my army. If I'm able to tutor up one of those artifacts that doesn't mean I'll be able to keep it around. My tablemates may be able to figure out my clever plan, so artifact recursion is going to be important. Emry, Lurker of the Loch can tap to let me cast target artifact card in my graveyard.

If I'm able to get my Mirror Box or Gallery to stick and I'm able to start attacking with my commander I'll want ways to get past blockers. That's important to keep Kiora alive, but even more important if I want to actually win games through combat damage. Deepchannel Mentor is a Merfolk Rogue who will make my Blue creatures unblockable.

Harbinger of the Seas is one of the newest Merfolk and will definitely serve as a removal magnet. This Merfolk Wizard turns all nonbasic lands into Islands, punishing decks that are too greedy with their manabases - especially if they aren't in Blue. Few decks will get shut out entirely and if you find this staxy little Merfolk draws too much hate you can always swap it out for any of a ton of other Blue cards and still have a perfectly functional deck.

Most of this deck's stack interaction comes in the form of instants, but Tishana's Tidebinder is an exception. This Merfolk Wizard has flash and will counter up to one target activated or triggered ability when it enters the battlefield. It will also nerf that trigger's source pretty nicely. If an ability of an artifact, creature, or planeswalker is countered this way, that permanent loses all abilities for as long as Tishana's Tidebinder remains on the battlefield.

I've got a handful of Merfolk lords in the mix, most of which also provide some evasion. Merfolk Sovereign is a Merfolk Noble who gives other Merfolk +1/+1 and who can tap to make target Merfolk creature unblockable this turn. Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident are also in the list. Both give other Merfolk I control +1/+1 and Islandwalk. That pairs nicely with Harbinger of the Seas if I've been able to turn all nonbasic lands into islands.

My Merfolk team has a few other notable members. Seafloor Oracle will have me draw cards whenever a Merfolk I control deals combat damage to a player. Svyelun of Sea and Sky will give my Merfolk ward 1. I'm even running Thieving Skydiver, a Merfolk Rogue with a kicker cost that can be paid to steal an artifact from another player.

Playing Defense

This deck's main plan is going to be to survive for long enough to try to get my Octopus Army plan up and running. That means I'm running bounce spells like Aetherize, Aetherspouts, and the ever-popular Cyclonic Rift. I've also got a modest counterspell package to try to stop anyone from winning or from removing either of the artifacts I'm using to get around the legend rule.

My tutor package is pretty solid for a casual Blue Merfolk deck. I can use Mystical Tutor to get either Fabricate or Reshape. I can use Fabricate, Reshape, Inventors' Fair, or Tamiyo's Journal to get either Mirror Box or Mirror Gallery. I can also use Trophy Mage to get Mirror Box. I probably should have included Ring of Three Wishes, but I left that out of this first draft. I did include Arcum Dagsson, which can also tutor up an artifact to the battlefield by tapping and sacrificing an artifact.

I like that this deck knows what it's trying to do, and that it's not trying to do anything too broken. I'm not even running the most famous of Blue Merfolk, Thassa's Oracle. I thought about it though.

Kiora, the Rising Tide EDH | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Kiora, the Rising Tide

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Ambassador Laquatus
• 1 Archetype of Imagination
• 1 Arcum Dagsson
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Deepchannel Mentor
• 1 Drowner of Secrets
• 1 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
• 1 Faerie Mastermind
• 1 Harbinger of the Seas
• 1 Ledger Shredder
• 1 Lord of Atlantis
• 1 Master of the Pearl Trident
• 1 Merfolk Sovereign
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Pollywog Prodigy
• 1 Rimefeather Owl
• 1 Scourge of Fleets
• 1 Seafloor Oracle
• 1 Svyelun of Sea and Sky
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 Thieving Skydiver
• 1 Tishana's Tidebinder
• 1 Trophy Mage

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Reshape
• 1 Rite of Replication

• Instants (17)
• 1 AEtherize
• 1 Aetherspouts
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Echoing Truth
• 1 Fierce Guardianship
• 1 Force of Will
• 1 High Tide
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Resculpt
• 1 Strix Serenade
• 1 Stroke of Genius
• 1 Swan Song

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Dissipation Field
• 1 Mystic Remora
• 1 Rhystic Study

• Artifacts (13)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Extraplanar Lens
• 1 Glaring Spotlight
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mirror Box
• 1 Mirror Gallery
• 1 Sapphire Medallion
• 1 Tamiyo's Journal
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (40)
• 37 Snow-Covered Island
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage

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I considered adding flicker effects and running Thassa's Oracle just to see if I could ever win with her without using a one-card shortcut to get to the win. If this was going to be a higher powered build I could see adding Thassa's Oracle, but I just don't see Kiora, the Rising Tide as a natural fit for high-powered EDH. You could abandon the Merfolk theme and run more high powered Blue goodstuff, but then you'd find yourself asking why you aren't just running Arcum Dagsson, or something like Jin Gitaxias in the command zone.

Powering this list down is pretty easy. You'd drop out your pricier cards like Rhystic Study, Force of Will, Fierce Guardianship, Cyclonic Rift, Faerie Mastermind, and Consecrated Sphinx. You would probably move from a snow-covered manabase to regular islands. You'd also drop out Rimefeather Owl, a personal favorite of mine that has flying and a power and toughness equal to the number of snow-covered permanents in play. You might add in a few Krakens and Leviathans or maybe an Octopus if you felt like leaning into that as a subtheme.

Final Thoughts

Playing mono-Blue in lower powered EDH can be a challenge, as you don't generally want to lean into anything too oppressive, but Blue ends up compensating for its lack of big creatures with more control elements. I don't know if Kiora will reliably be able to make more than one 8/8 legendary Octopus token, but I think it could be a lot of fun to chase that dream of building up an eight-tentacled army.

It's worth noting that if you play in a meta where players are playing lots of token doublers, it might be worth running Mirage Mirror. That artifact can be turned into a copy of another permanent, so you too can have an Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives, or Doubling Season of your own, if only until end of turn. You'll also be pushing further into the Mirrors & Merfolk theme, which is fun. Getting an extra 8/8 Scion of the Deep might not seem like a big deal, but an 8/8 is an 8/8, and with enough of them you should be able to threaten a win.

I'd bet that most of this deck's wins will be thanks to careful play and a well timed instant to bounce an incoming alpha strike. If you play your cards right and you've been able to play and protect your Mirror Box or Mirror Gallery, the crackback is what will win you those games. Learning the ebb and flow of an EDH game and finding the right moment to try to push for the win takes practice, but I think this deck will be both fun and fulfilling to play when it's able to execute its gameplan.

I'm not sure what I'll be writing about next, but with Innistrad Remastered scheduled to hit us in late January, I'll probably bang out a few more Foundations decks in the coming weeks.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!