Thassa, Deep-Dwelling

Spoilers are done, the hype is here, prerelease is this weekend. We’re going to keep the deck techs going with Thassa, Deep-Dwelling. Theros Thassa Tuesday? Anyways, we’re going to play around with a fun but still powerful version of her and we’ll be adding in those value options throughout. This is a wizard devotion and blink version of Thassa which can definitely win games but may irritate some opponents along the way. Then again, this is a blue deck. What else would they expect? Let’s get to it.

Synergies

Combos are included later on in this article, but for more info on how to break her, feel free to check out the Thassa Combo post.

Thassa has one of the few abilities that will exile creatures and bring them back under your control rather than the owner. This gives you permanent control of the creature barring outside forces ( Homeward Path ). The most efficient would be using Vedalken Shackles, letting you repeatedly take control, blink the creature, and untap Vedalken Shackles.

Other control options include: Reins of Power, Ray of Command, Chamber of Manipulation, Roil Elemental, Willbreaker, Sower of Temptation. If you’re going more than mono-blue Dragonlord Silumgar, Merieke Ri Berit, and Rubinia Soulsinger.

Combos

Now that’s it for little synergies. Going for combos, let’s start with Conjurer’s Closet, Archaeomancer, and Temporal Mastery. Thassa is another Conjurer’s Closet, but I kept the spell recursion and extra turns to just the one. You can also use Salvager of Secrets, Mnemonic Wall, and Scholar of the Ages, or with other colours Izzet Chronarch, Eternal Witness, Greenwarden of Murasa. Point is: there are a lot of ways to recur spells from the graveyard.

More extra turn options: Capture of Jingzhou, Time Warp, Walk the Aeons and Time Stretch.

Still more ways to take extra turns though. God-Eternal Kefnet with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Temporal Manipulation it also all the extra turns you want. By repeatedly using Jace’s 0 Brainstorm ability to put Temporal Manipulation on top of your deck you’ll be able to trigger Kefnet to cast a copy and net cards in the process.

Alternative options for this is using Cavalier of Gales with Thassa/Closet or Scroll Rack but that won’t net you extra cards like Jace and Cavalier. You could always try to punch in with your Flying 4/5 each turn though. Kefnet extra turns also does not care about the spell exiling letting you use extra turn spells such as Karn’s Temporal Sundering and Temporal Mastery.

Wizards

Now to justify why I picked to go in a wizard tribal direction for the deck. Really it’s because there is nothing more blue to me than draw spells, counterspells, and wizards.

The Chroma on most of the higher cost wizards is 2 or 3 making Thassa a creature typically with 2 or 3 wizards. Many of the wizards have Flash, which turns into a fun trick turning Thassa online as a blocker when your opponent doesn’t expect it. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir himself can typically do that, but giving all your other creatures Flash while preventing most interruptions from your opponent is pretty strong. I will direct you to Teferi, Time Reveler to prove how irritating it is to only be able to cast spells at sorcery speed, rendering pretty much all opposing counterspells useless.

As most decks I plan to build and test it only really takes a handful of cards to really get my deckbuilding flow going. In this case it was my favourite annoying card I don’t get to play often enough: Patron Wizard. Suddenly all your wizards have Tap: Force Spike. Not only does it get absolutely ridiculous but you can destroy an opponent’s line of play with a few strategic taps, letting certain spells through only after they pay the tax. If you think Rhystic Study “Do you pay the 1?” get’s tiring, you’re not going to like this on top of that. If you like doing it to other people, then you’ll love it.

There is one very neat thing to me and it’s being able to swap commanders without interrupting a decks synergy or how it was built. The “true” wizard tribal Commander is Azami, Lady of Scrolls. While added to the deck for value and devotion purposes you could very well switch to play her as the Commander and have an entirely different game with the same deck. Wizards, with a few Gods trickled in, functions just as well as Thassa with a bit of blink value. I find it interesting and it could adjust power levels and play styles for a playgroup by doing so.

Remember: a wizard is never late, nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.

Blink Targets

Well, it’s not all combos and wizards here. There are plenty of targets for Thassa to blink…so in no particular order, let’s name a few.

Mulldrifter a classic Elemental which you can Evoke to Divination or pay the 5 mana to also have a 2/2 Flying creature. Some other draw and card avantage options include Fblthp, the Lost, Merchant of Secrets, Cloudkin Seer, Tome Raider,Skyscanner, Augur of Bolas, and Sea Gate Oracle. Some of these are wizards but they did not make the cut.

Sphinx of Uthuun the 5/7 Flying Sphinx with an enter the battlefield Fact or Fiction effect. Being able to repeat can create a lot of card advantage.

Chancellor of the Spire which lets you play an Instant and Sorcery cards from an opponent’s graveyard without paying its mana cost. With Thassa, if your opponents play any extra turn effects that don’t exile, you can also have unlimited extra turns. There is also Diluvian Primordial which hits each opponent, though it exiles the spells afterwards. This may not actually be a bad thing in some scenarios. I’ve accidentally had a Cackling Counterpart in my graveyard and had an army of Chancellor of the Spires be created by my opponent. To a lesser extent, I would include Jace’s Mindseeker in this grouping.

Torrential Gearhulk is probably better to play than blink but the extra value is enough. I will add Duplicant, Myr Battlesphere, and maybe Phyrexian Metamorph to this selection as artifacts that can make a valuable repeated impact on the board.

Champion of Wits from the Amonkhet block draws cards equal to its power then has you discard two cards. A decent card for filtering your hand and filling your grave with the added bonus of being able to Eternalize it back. If you are going for a graveyard strategy, you could also try Bazaar Trader for some deep hand filtering.

Agent of Treachery is a recent but amazing card for taking permanents. It’s not limited to any kind either and it turns into a draw engine if you’ve taken enough stuff. Landing it is even more threatening to your opponents as with Thassa blinking it they could take 2 key cards in one turn and just keep going from there. While I did mention theft synergies before, this card stands out as a staple even as a 7 drop 2/3. Unfortunately, it’s neither a wizard or a God for this themed decklist, but anyone who’s seen it in action knows how dangerous it is.

More Combos

I didn’t want to spend the whole page just on combos but I ramble so here’s a few other things that I didn’t run in this decklist but certainly could!

Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter + mana rocks: Infinite mana. I don’t think I have to explain dramatic scepter but in mono-blue we tutor Isochron Scepter with things like Tribute Mage, Whir of Invention, Reshape, Transmute Artifact, Inventors’ Fair, and Fabricate while Dramatic Reversal can be tutored for with Spellseeker, Mystical Tutor, Merchant Scroll. Both can be tutored for by transmuting Muddle the Mixture.

Deadeye Navigator + Great Whale/Palinchron/Peregrine Drake: for infinite mana and flickering enter the battlefield effects because Deadeye Navigator can be a little broken. If you’ve ever Soulbonded to Venser, Shaper Savant I think you’ll understand. Palinchron is probably too much of a pet card of mine but with Caged Sun it can also infinite mana on its own.

Anything that draws or mills you out, I’m thinking Azami, Lady of Scrolls and Mind Over Matter. Whatever works for Laboratory Maniac and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. Most of them are pretty good for Devotion if you’re going that route as well.

Last one!

Thassa + Fatestitcher + Stasis: and hear me out on this one…Tap Fatestitcher to untap a blue source to pay for Stasis, Thassa or Conjurer’s Closet blinks Fatestitcher untapped so it can do it again next turn. No more untap steps. The blink can even replace the Unearth exile from Fatestitcher so it could even be in your graveyard to start.

Summary

Playing mono-blue gives you a ton of value but we’re relying on a bit of a combo finish. While Thassa is one of the stronger powered Gods at 6/5, we can out value our opponents by policing and controlling the board. An Indestructible Conjurer’s Closet is also something that will be considered as one of the ninety-nine cards in several decks. Have fun with it, take all the turns, flicker all the things, and play that Verity Circle!