Quest for Giant Fish

by JRE47 on 12 June 2013

Main Deck (61 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

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Deck Description

Questing after Ula's Temple...and the great big blue fatties within!

How to Play

This is a tricky balance.

Obviously the point is to get Quest for Ula's Temple in play (ideally right from the get-go), then quickly get three counters on it and play big blue beatsticks until the opponent succumbs. But the devil's in the details, because it's not quite that simple.

Fortunately, QfUT has a CMC of 1, so if you find it early, you can play it early. But what about after that? You can't just load your deck up with fatties or you'll likely lose out to damage before you ever get to pop off your own threats. You can't play a ton of counters and other trickery because QfUT requires a pretty steady flow of creatures in your library to get counters. But you can't really just load up on ALL creatures; you likely need some deck manipulation and drawing to keep things moving, and SOME countering can be critical to keep the big threats down and keep your own threats alive. So we need a goodly amount of creatures--a decent number of them fatties that can be dropped by a loaded QfUT--along with some card draw, deck manipulation (to get your good stuff to the top of the library), and ideally some defense in the form of defensive creatures and/or counters to keep you alive.

Like I said, it's a tricky balance. But there are cards that help in multiple areas:

Augury Owl and Sage of Epityr help with chump blocking, but of course they do much more than that by sorting around the top few cards of your deck. Combined with Serum Visions, Foresee, and Halimar Depths, they help you get creatures to the top to load up QfUT, and then pull fatties up to play for free later. Tezzeret's Gambit can then draw more cards out and give you a fresh top of the deck to work with.

Speaking of Tezzeret's Gambit, note that it also proliferates...your quest counters on Quest for Ula's Temple! So does Fuel for the Cause (while also countering key spells) and Clockspinning. Even just triggering one and getting QfUT triggered one turn early can be HUGE.

Then there's the fatties themselves. Inkwell Leviathan is almost enough to win the game by itself. It also happens to have the same CMC as Grozoth, which can dig for it a couple different ways. Deep-Sea Kraken isn't quite as huge, but it has an alternate way to sneak into play on the cheap thanks to suspend. On the other end of the spectrum, Stormtide Leviathan and Lorthos are all but game-enders if they resolve and live for a turn or two.

There's a couple other creatures too. Fog Bank is one of the best blockers in the game and can buy you critical time early on to get things in place. Ætherplasm presents an interesting alternate strategy for getting out a fattie if you're in a bind, and Quicksilver Amulet is a little slow, but perhaps more easily repeatable. Either one can greatly speed things up if you just can't get Quest going.

More of the same in the sideboard, with some more defense, control, deck manipulation, and of course, more fatties which can be brought in vs. certain decks. Also Mindshrieker is, at worst, a flying chump blocker that can get big with a little luck. At best, it's an alternate win con, allowing you to reveal your own massive creatures from your deck and swoop in with a flying beater. He's even better if your opponent plays a lot of expensive spells too!

How does this look? Any tips and tricks (or likes!) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Deck Tags

  • Modern
  • Mono Blue
  • Quest for Ula's Temple
  • Proliferate
  • Leviathan
  • Kraken
  • octopus

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

3
Likes

This deck has been viewed 1,585 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

061000

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Quest for Giant Fish

Because you do have a lot of fatties in the deck...and if you cannot get the quest to go off in sufficient time, a good creature to have out is Volrath's Shapeshifter. He allows you to dump out a fatty that is just sitting in your hand and essentially becomes that on the battlefield. Nothing like a turn 4 inkwell or Stormtide out!

OR...end of their turn discard braids...during your turn drop a fatty and discard another fatty to volrath declining them of use of braids on their turn

I actually made a similar type deck where i discarded a deep sea kraken...attacked unblocked and then discarded phage the untouchable to win it.

2
Posted 12 June 2013 at 22:12

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I really like the idea of Volrath's Shapeshifter in here.

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Posted 12 June 2013 at 22:36

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I do too, but I was going for something in Modern, since my playgroup is branching into that. If it works well enough I'll definitely look to Shapeshifter and Legacy. Thanks for the recommendation!

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Posted 13 June 2013 at 02:09

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I freaking love Leviathan decks. Which is why I run a very similar deck, with one difference in card choice that changed the entire shape of the deck:

Dream Halls.

Here's the link if you want to look at it:
http://www.mtgvault.com/vikingincarnate/decks/u-suddenly-leviathans/

With that adventure, I learned a few things that might help you out. Running Dream Halls is kind of a cop out, but it combos so nicely with Grozoth and Inkwells that it is silly. My deck is far from perfect, so I'm not suggesting that you cut out everything you have, it is just an alternate approach to a sea-creature deck. Above all, play the deck you want to play.

-Kracken Hatchlings are extremely flavorful and extremely cute. Almost as cute as Hedron Crabs, which are very flavorful, but not as good at blocking.
-Inkwells are silly good.
-Stormtide Leviathans demand removal when they hit the board.
-Brainstorm is great for topdeck fixing with Ula's Temple. T1 Ula, T2, untap, put Ula on the stack, Brainstorm with your open U, and put 2 creatures on top. Boom, 2/3 counters just like that.
-Spreading Seas. Works wonders because it ensures unblockability of your islandwalkers, draws you a card, and provides minor disruption. Definitely consider looking in to it.

1
Posted 12 June 2013 at 22:34

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Dream Halls is sweet! Hadn't ever even seen that card before. Like I told Ash above, though, I'm trying to do this in Modern, so Halls won't work. Same with Brainstorm, which was most definitely a card I wish I could toss in here. Those and Volrath's Shapeshifter are top of my list for a potential Legacy version of this now, that's for sure!

I had Hatchlings in there (they are cute) with their big blocker butts, but I just thought Fog Bank was better overall and the Hatchlings didn't make the final cut. They're still in mind for potential updates, though.

I've used Spreading Seas before (I have an Islandwalk Merfolk deck centered around it and Quicksilver Fountain, along with Stormtide Leviathan), but it just didn't seem like it did enough in this deck. I ended up needing the slots for other cards.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll keep those all in mind as I try this out and play around with it.

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Posted 13 June 2013 at 02:15

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I love this deck! If you have already put this deck together, I wonder how quick of a win do you average to with this deck?

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Posted 12 June 2013 at 23:05

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Haven't tried yet, so we'll find out!

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Posted 13 June 2013 at 02:15

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Hey all. Playtesting has been going very well in general...If I get Quest for Ula's Temple early, I almost always win. But if I don't, it's rough. I added in some more alternate fattie-droppers to compensate and give me some more options, and trimmed the fat in the sideboard. Let me know what you think for guaranteed points on constructive comments.

Thanks!

1
Posted 24 June 2013 at 04:13

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