(Runo Stromkirk | Art by Matt Stewart)

Knowledge from the Deeps

Good day, friends! Welcome back to Commander Fusion, the series where we scratch that ol’ Simic Biomancer itch and see if we can combine two random commanders into one (semi)coherent deck, using EDHREC data!

In my work as a mental health counselor, clients who present with actual, honest-to-goodness phobias are pretty rare. Despite this, phobias seem to get a lot of attention on the internet, probably because they have ridiculous-sounding names, and because the concept is unique.

Take, for example, thalassophobia, or the fear of the ocean/large bodies of water. The thought of a giant sea monster, or even something much more innocuous but still terrifyingly huge, like a whale, can completely paralyze some people from being able to swim or visit the beach. Ailurophobia is the fear of cats, causing someone to view what some see as a household pet as a dangerous threat.

The point I’m slowly getting to is this- if either of those fears applies to you, this may not be the fusion for you. In the spooky spirit of Innistrad Remastered, we’re taking Innistrad’s resident Kraken expert, Runo Stromkirk, and seeing if we can fuse his strategy with the noble Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse! Can we make these cats swim? Read on to find out!

We Don't Talk About Runo

Our first commander today, Runo Stromkirk is a vampire cleric who is also the progenitor of the Stromkirk line of vampires on Innistrad that shares his name. Unlike his fellow OG vamps like Edgar Markov or Olivia Voldaren, he trades high society living for cult life!

Serving as high priest of the ancient kraken horror Krothuss, last we saw Runo, he decided the whole “eternal night” shenanigans of Innistrad: Crimson Vow were the perfect time to summon his lord and liege. While most vampires of that set were focused on how many blood tokens they could create, Runo goes all in on sea creatures.

As a 1/4, he’s not hitting anyone too hard, but he comes in able to recur a creature from your graveyard to the top of your library. At your upkeep, if the top card of your library is big enough, Runo’s ritual is successful, and he transforms in Krothuss, who wants to attack and make copies of your creatures.

However, if that creature is a sea creature- Kraken, Octopus, Leviathan, or Serpent- you get two copies instead. How are brewers building Runo? Here’s the most synergistic cards from his EDHREC page:

1. Whelming Wave
2. Scourge of Fleets
3. Spawning Kraken
4. Stormtide Leviathan
5. Gyruda, Doom of Depths
6. Serpent of Yawning Depths
7. Wrexial, the Risen Deep
8. Deep-Sea Kraken
9. Hullbreaker Horror
10. Junk Winder

Runo shows he is not only the high priest of Krothuss, but the high priest of Dimir () sea creature kindred strategies in general.

In fact, Runo is the #2 Sea Creature Kindred commander currently listed on EDHREC, behind only Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep. Runo trades the easy ramp of green for the ability to play around in the graveyard and the sheer value of being able to make two copies of your attacking sea creatures, which, if you’ve never played or played against, are things that typically only one of can be tough to handle.

Just reading cards like Spawning Kraken and Stormtide Leviathan without seeing them in action can make it clear how making two copies of one of them on attack could quickly become problematic.

What Even is a Mwonvuli

Our next commander today is one of my all-time favorite cards. Jolrael is an ancient druid from Teferi’s home plan of Zhalfir, where she has decided to “nope” out of contact with people and live in the jungle with her cats.

While she’s had a few cards over the years, this version comes from Core Set 2021, where she was firmly on the Cats side of the Dogs vs. Cats sub-theme of that set. This version of Jolrael wants you to draw as many cards as you possibly can to fill your board with Cat tokens.

Once your hand is massively full, activate her second ability to make your Cat Squad into a massive threat. What kind of cards make this easy to do in the 99? Here are some of the most synergistic:

1. Feline Sovereign
2. Slippery Karst
3. Llanowar Visionary
4. Wilt
5. On the Trail
6. Tranquil Thicket
7. Explore
8. Keeper of Fables
9. Elvish Visionary
10. Desert of the Indomitable

We can see a good mix of strategies here. Cat Kindred all-star Feline Sovereign pumps your Cats and turns them into artifact and enchantment removal to boot, while Keeper of Fables is a kitty itself that draws you a card from all that cat combat damage you’ll be doing.

Cycling cards like the three lands above and Wilt can guarantee that second card even if you have no other draw engine online, and both creature and non-creature cantrips (cheap spells that replace themselves with a card) such as Explore, Llanowar Visionary, and Elvish Visionary all help Jolrael to both make more Cats and keep your hand full.

Jolrael doesn’t seem to be a very popular commander (at least not this version), and my guess is her color identity.

She lacks blue, the most useful color for drawing cards, and so more often than not shines in the 99 of other draw-based decks with blue in them- Ms. Bumbleflower, Zimone and Dina, and Morska, Undersea Sleuth are just three of the many great commanders utilizing Jolrael’s abilities.

Like any proud father, I have to shout out my own pet deck that includes Jolrael in the 99. Currently led by Mr. Foxglove, this is a hand-size-matters, or “wisdom” deck that began life as an Azami Wizard Kindred deck with Soramaro, First to Dream as a secret commander.

It’s full of cards like Jolrael and Alandra, Sky Dreamer, along with creatures like Psychosis Crawler, Tishana, Voice of Thunder, and Overbeing of Myth, plus fun alternate win cons like Triskaidekaphile, Atemsis, All-Seeing, and Twenty-Toed Toad. Check it out here!

Attack of the Cat Krakens

So, how can we mix sea creatures with a cantrip-style card draw deck? Taking Runo and Jolrael’s color identities gives us Sultai, the combination of black, green, and blue mana (). Let’s take a look at a few options.

Navigating to the Sea Creatures tag on EDHREC and specifying Sultai, we see it’s an area where not much exploration is happening. At the top of the list is a partner pairing- Brinelin, the Moon Kraken partnered with Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper.

Brinelin turns all our 6-mana + sea creatures into bounce removal on cast, while Ikra Shidiqi rewards us for swinging out with our sea creatures by giving us life in return; with the big power and toughness on most of our sea creatures, that life gain will likely be substantial too.

On the draw side, Zimone and Dina would be a great option. Rewarding our second draw with a “drain-and-gain” strategy, this duo also provides ramp in the form of a sacrifice outlet.

While I don’t think sacrificing our sea creatures needs to be our main strategy, I think Zimone and Dina would be excellent in the 99, taking advantage of the cards we’ll be drawing to drain our opponents and supplement Ikra Shidiqi’s lifegain strategy as well, in addition to providing some additional lands in a pinch, which will always be useful when trying to cast as many giant spells as possible.

Deep Waters

Our first commander fusion partner pairing! Let’s take a look, first, at the key synergies of the deck- sea creatures (Krakens, Leviathans, Octopuses, and Serpents) that can also draw us cards. Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait nets us a card for every land that comes into play, in addition to getting us an extra land every turn.

When your strategy revolves around 6 mana or greater spells, you never want to say no to a land. Lochmere Serpent comes in at instant-speed, and can sacrifice a swamp to draw us a card if need be. Be careful here- due to this deck being heavily blue-green, there is a resounding 1 basic swamp, meaning you’ll only want to activate the Serpent’s ability if you’re really in a pinch.

Tolarian Kraken can tap down an opponent’s creature or untap one of ours for each card we draw, making it much easier to swing in with our monsters and gain a bunch of life.

Other critters may not be big enough to trigger Brinelin, but are still part of the sea creature club and help us get more cards. Acquisition Octopus and Sea-Dasher Octopus are variations on the same theme, being able to be reconfigured or mutated, respectively, onto another creature to turn them into a card draw engine.

The new Kiora, the Rising Tide from Foundations draws two on entering, plus makes us a legendary Octopus beater if our graveyard is full enough. Marvo, Deep Operative, everyone’s favorite “just an octopus with a knife,” gets us a card and a free sea creature on board for every clash he wins, which will be more often than not with our massive spells.

No one wants to get hit with Stormsurge Kraken, which means it’ll likely be drawing us two cards every attack, and The Watcher in the Water rewards us with Tentacles for drawing cards on opponents’ turns. And you can’t forget Nadir Kraken, who slowly gets bigger the more cards you draw.

We also have some non-creature cards with both sea creature and draw synergies. Kiora, the Crashing Wave can get us both a card and a free land, and has the potential to get us a massive Kraken on every end step if she can activate her ultimate ability. Ominous Seas gets a foreshadow counter for each card we draw; cash in eight for another free Kraken.

Fisher's Talent is a fun new-ish class enchantment that guarantees us an additional card on each upkeep; leveling it up to maximum can net us an Octopus for each land card we reveal of the top each turn.

Closing out a game should be relatively simple, provided you can keep both Brinelin and Ikra Shidiqi on board. Cast big sea creatures to trigger Brinelin and remove the most problematic pieces from your opponents’ boards, then turn your massive sea creatures sideways to deal massive damage, gaining a ton of life from Ikra Shidiqi in the meantime.

Throw down a Garruk's Uprising to give everything trample just to make sure you get through, and use Runo Stromkirk to double-copy a Spawning Kraken once or twice, and you’re golden.

Turn of the Tides

That’s it for this fusion! I’m hoping the salt breeze coming off these sea beasties is refreshing and gets you thinking about some other commanders in a new light. See you next time, and if you can think of a more iconic Snake Wizard/Kraken pairing, let me know down in the comments below!