Thassa, Deep-Dwelling Combos

The last of the Mono Colored Gods spoiled in Theros: Beyond Death was Thassa, Deep-Dwelling. As with the rest of the Theros God series, it’s an indestructible enchantment that’s a creature when you have the appropriate amount of devotion.

Thassa’s ability is an end of turn creature flicker ability but it’s the specific type of flicker effects that states “return that card to the battlefield under your control“. This means that the creatures you take from your opponents with temporary control effects can be replaced with permanent control effects. Now you could use and abuse this ability for your own creatures but let’s have some fun taking your opponent’s stuff.

The amount of flicker cards with “return that card to the battlefield under your control” is only a handful with many of them either instant spells or difficult to set up scenarios. The best comparison would be Conjurer’s Closet which is an effective redundant card to play in a deck running Thassa, Deep-Dwelling but maybe replaced in blue decks for the cheaper cost and indestructible nature.

For the combo itself, we will be using Vedalken Shackles as another reusable effect. This seems to be the best example as well for the format and makes for a solid staple card when Thassa is your Commander. Let’s run through just how the combo works.

• With Thassa, Deep-Dwelling and Vedalken Shackles on board activate Vedalken Shackles to gain control of a creature.
• At the beginning of your end step Thassa triggers and you’ll blink the creature and return it to the battlefield under your control.
• The control effect is no longer linked to Vedalken Shackles and you will be able to untap Vedalken Shackles and use it to gain control of another creature.

An effective way to gain repeated value and while taking control of your opponents’ utility creatures. Even a simple Act of Treason effect can lead you to permanent control. Now I prefer to go over combos with as few colour requirements as possible so let’s take a look at what other blue control effects you can run.

Well, that’s.a good number of options, some quite better than others. WIllbreaker in particular looks like it’d do well with Thassa’s tap ability. In addition to taking away your opponents’ resources, you’d be perfectly fine if they choose not to play any creatures to prevent them from being taken. Thassa’s alternative to dealing with opposing creatures is her aforementioned tap ability but you’ll want some utility to deal with the creatures with Hexproof or Shroud. I am all for the controlling of other people’s creatures but I’m preferable to strategies that will win the game so let’s take some time and go through the other combo.

A standard blue tactic of taking infinite turns generally leads to winning the game. I do hope you can figure out a way to win since you’re playing solitaire at that point. There are chances that you’d be out of game-ending threats but assuming that’s not the case let’s run through the combo. We’ll start from the top when there’s only Thassa on board.

• Thassa, Deep-Dweller on board, cast Temporal Manipulation
• Cast Archaeomancer and return Temporal Manipulation to hand.
• Move to extra turn, Cast Temporal Manipulation again.
• At the end of your turn trigger Thassa and blink Archaeomancer to return Temporal Manipulation to hand.
• Move to extra turn and repeat.

Each of the pieces in this combo have a redundant card as an alternative option so it can function using any mix of them. If you are fitting all the options into other decks with different colour combinations you’ll have further options for redundancy such as Eternal Witness or Anarchist.

So what do you think? Let me know what you think in the comments if you’d run these combos or run Thassa as a Commander.