Magic: The Gathering - Eluge, The Shoreless Sea Commander Deck Guide

Eluge, the Shoreless Sea is a mono-blue commander available for use in Magic: The Gathering's Commander format. Eluge is a Calamity Beast found on the plane of Bloomburrow, featured in the story of the set and brings flooding wherever it arrives (something that translates mechanically to putting flood counters on lands).

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While mono-colored decks have fewer options since they're confined to just one color, Eluge's effect makes it worth it to run in the command zone. You will be casting a ton of spells in an Eluge deck, making for one of the best spellslinger decks that can utilize cards with high mana costs.

Decklist

Commander: Eluge, the Shoreless Sea

Archaeomancer

Archmage Emeritus

Aven Courier

Baral, Chief of Compliance

Chasm Skulker

Chrome Host Seedshark

Deekah, Fractal Theorist

Displacer Kitten

Dour-Port Mage

Harbinger of the Seas

Haughty Djinn

Hullbreaker Horror

Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant

Kitsa, Otterball Elite

Murmuring Mystic

Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch // Temple of Cyclical Time

Solemn Simulacrum

Spark Double

Talrand, Sky Summoner

Thassa, Deep-Dwelling

The Flood of Mars

Thunderclap Drake

Wizards of Thay

Aquitect's Will

Capture of Jingzhou

Clone Legion

Flow of Ideas

Inundate

Irenicus's Vile Duplication

Mnemonic Deluge

Quantum Misalignment

Spectral Deluge

Splash Portal

Temporal Mastery

Temporal Trespass

Time Stretch

Time Warp

Walk the Aeons

An Offer You Can't Refuse

Arcane Denial

Blue Sun's Zenith

Brainstorm

Capsize

Counterspell

Essence Flux

Flow of Knowledge

Frantic Search

Ghostly Flicker

Long River's Pull

Nexus of Fate

Planar Incision

Pull from Tomorrow

Rewind

Siren's Ruse

Snap

Sublime Epiphany

Teferi's Time Twist

Three Steps Ahead

Arcane Signet

Midnight Clock

Mind Stone

Mindsplice Apparatus

Sapphire Medallion

Sol Ring

Thought Vessel

Castle Vantress

x25 Island

Myriad Landscape

Mystic Sanctuary

Reliquary Tower

Rivendell

Rogue's Passage

Sunken Palace

Terrain Generator

War Room

The decklist contains 23 creatures, 15 sorceries, 20 instants, seven artifacts, and 34 lands. Since Eluge, the Shoreless Sea discounts instants and sorceries, that's why there is such a high count of them.

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Key Cards

Eluge, the Shoreless Sea

The glue that holds the deck together, Eluge, the Shoreless Sea is the best part about the deck. It wants you to spread flood counters onto all your lands so that you can discount instant and sorcery spells each turn.

You put a flood counter on a land whenever Eluge attacks or enters the battlefield. You can easily re-trigger its ability by blinking it to exile it and return it to the battlefield. Alternatively, you can make copies of it to spread more flood counters even quicker.

Even if Eluge leaves the battlefield, the flood counters stay on the lands. This means once you re-cast it, the first instant and sorcery spell you cast that turn will still be discounted by however many flood counters you have.

The Flood Of Mars

The Flood of Mars is one of the few ways to spread flood counters outside of Eluge. Since it has islandwalk, if you choose to put a flood counter on an opponent's land, this guarantees The Flood of Mars can connect for damage.

The Flood of Mars quickly gets out of hand. If you put a flood counter on a creature it becomes The Flood of Mars. This allows you to put even more flood counters everywhere and make the discount Eluge offers even steeper.

Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant

Since you will be casting a lot of impactful spells, Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant is a great way to double up on them. Eluge gives you a big discount, and Jin-Gitaxias lets you cast two large spells for the (discounted) price of one.

Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant also offers a layer of protection, as it requires your opponents to cast two spells if they don't want it countered. They have to waste one since Jin-Gitaxias counters the first artifact, instant, or sorcery spell your opponent casts, which most removal spells fall under.

Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch // Temple Of Cyclical Time

Rebound is a very useful tool for casting extra spells for free. Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch gives all your instant spells cast from your hand rebound, which lets you double up on all of their effects.

This is particularly useful for blink effects, so you can trigger Eluge's effects multiple times to ramp up the number of flood counters you have on your lands.

If Ojer Pakpatiq ever gets removed, it is very easy to bring back as it transforms into a land that can transform back into a creature after three turns. This helps you keep rebounding your instant spells, and it is especially useful with some of the draw spells.

If you rebound an instant, it will be cast, making it the first instant or sorcery spell cast that turn. This means Eluge's effect will not affect any other spell when the rebound spell is cast.

Luckily, you have the option to not cast the spell with rebound, so if you have another card you'd rather cast discounted, it's better to ignore the rebound effect.

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How To Play The Deck

Eluge, the Shoreless Sea is all about getting as many flood counters as you can on your lands and casting big instant and sorcery spells for free. A lot of the sorceries have a particularly high casting cost, but the effects are fantastic, and with their discount, they can be game-winning.

The main attractions are the extra turn spells like Time Warp, Capture of Jingzhou, and Time Stretch, the last of which gives you two extra turns instead of just one. This helps to advance your board state even further while starting to swing in for damage.

Since you have so many expensive spells, you don't want to just rely on Eluge to discount them. Mindsplice Apparatus and Sapphire Medallion both give you discounts to spells you'll be casting, and when combined with Eluge, they can potentially help you cast spells for free.

There aren't too many ways to spread flood counters outside of Eluge. The only other options are Aquitect's Will, which just puts a flood counter on a land (and draws you a card if you control a Merfolk), and The Flood of Mars, which can transform creatures into copies of itself if you opt to put a flood counter on a creature.

The biggest weakness of Eluge is that it is a very passive deck. You aren't really going to be making aggressive plays until the late game once enough lands have flood counters on them to start giving yourself steep discounts.

As such, you will likely be defenseless early on. You can mitigate this somewhat with a suite of counterspells. If Eluge is on the battlefield early, these counterspells can be very cheap to cast, if not free entirely.

The strength of the deck comes from the ability to snowball once you are set for flood counters. Once you start taking extra turns, you can push your advantage even more. There are a lot of draw spells that help you draw into your extra turn spells quicker.

The main win condition of the deck is through combat. Once you get to the point where you have a lot of high-power attackers, you can start swinging in for damage on your extra turns.

Cards like Talrand, Sky Summoner, Chrome Host Seedshark, and Murmuring Mystic help give you more of a board presence, while Haughty Djinn and Chasm Skulker both grow in stats to become threatening attackers on their own.

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