Deep beneath the surface,
Lurks a mighty beast.
A reptile of the ocean.
A viper unleashed.
This creature is enormous,
With fangs as tall as trees.
The wretched spawn of Loki,
That was banished to the seas.
Fear Koma, the Cosmos Serpent, bane of Limited players, neigh-unstoppable value engine.
*Maniacal Laughter*
As a tribute to a friend, this deck-tech (and by extension, this decklist), is created with a few constraints in mind.
The deck must make use of a Spark Double and creature token generator bypass which allows the deck to create multiple, non-legendary tokens of Koma.
Other cards that will be excluded from the total cost of the deck is Helm of the Host, Sakashima, the Impostor and Mirror Gallery in the maybe-board.
Other than the cards stated above, the deck must cost under $100.
A budget Koma deck that’s potent enough to stand its ground against aggressive commanders like Winota, Joiner of Forces and Queen Marchesa while being able to out-value Commanders like Omnath, Locus of Rage in the late game is a tall order, especially within such a tight budget.
But wherever there’s a Will, there’s a Way.
Beginning Phase: Setting Up Our Engine.
Koma, Cosmos Serpent costs 7 mana.
That’s 7 mana we could easily use to cast 2 other spells, like a Tatyova, Benthic Druid and a Llanowar Scout or Ezuri, Claw of Progress and a Sage of Hours.
This is 7 mana that we DO NOT want to spend 7 turns accumulating slowly. If we slow down for even a second, it’ll give our opponents enough time to catch up and disrupt our might, serpent-based plans.
Thankfully, Simic colours (blue and green) gives us access to the best of the best in ramp spells and Land payoffs.
Barkchannel Pathway, Flooded Grove and Yavimaya Coast offers us the cheap flexibility of Dual Lands without busting our budget. (Can you believe that Breeding Pool is $20 now?)
Vivid Creek offers us a chance to produce both Green or Blue mana, depending on the circumstance, and Littjara Mirrorlake gives us a budget way to create a token copy of our Commander in a pinch, especially if we’ve already copied him through an effect like Spark Double. Rimewood Falls is simply there as a fetchable option for Farseek to pull out, and makes a great addition to our deck.
Easy picks for ramp sorceries include Rampant Growth, Cultivate and Skyshroud Claim. We’ll supplement these with more utility-based ramp spells with Growth Spiral and Migration Path, which can help us get some cards when we’re in a pinch. Search for Tomorrow can help us plan out a ramp strategy as early as turn one.
We’ll continue to double our ramping efforts using other creatures like Gyre Engineer, Ilysan Caryatid and Wood Elves, supporting them with the likes of Simic Signet and a generic Artifact ramp package.
But with all this mana ramp, what are we going to do with it?
Pre-Combat Main Phase: Doubled Koma Commander
What’s better than one Koma?
TWO KOMAS!
But to be frank, given the restrictions on his card typing and the few ways we have to circumvent the Legend rule, we have to be selective with the cards we used to copy and double Koma’s triggers.
As such, we’ll be looking to exploit copy triggers from Sakashima, the Impostor and Spark Double in tandem with effects like Archetype of Endurance and Archetype of Imagination which can help our 3/3 Koma’s Coils swing in for massive damage while leaving our main Commander up to keep producing these coils.
Simultaneously, we want to increase our Koma count with cards like Progenitor Mimic or Quasiduplicate targeting Spark Double, allowing us to create more than 1 serpent each upkeep, making our deck even harder to deal with.
But 3/3 Serpents each turn don’t do much other than poke our opponents and draw their ire. We need something that hits harder, better, faster and stronger.
Enter Birthing Boughs and Maskwood Nexus. Both token-producers can spit out small changeling tokens that we can sacrifice to Koma to activate its effect, allowing us to conserve our Koma’s Coils to smash our opponents’ faces in.
Simultaneously, we can give our tokens pseudo-vigilance with cards like Sphinx of the Second Sun, which gives us an additional Untap and Upkeep step post-combat, and allows us to get double the number of 3/3 Serpents during our turn. We can also increase our card drawing capabilities using Garruk’s Packleader and Elemental Bond.
Finally, to maximise the potency of our attacking creatures, we will add in Overwhelming Stampede and Return of the Wildspeaker which can also double as a draw outlet when we’re in a tight spot. As a miniature combo piece, if we can get sufficient Koma Coils on the battlefield, we can also consider using Second Harvest to double the number of tokens we already have to further fuel our Commander and our shenanigans.
And If all else fails, our backup plan involves Rampaging Baloths and Scourge of Fleets, which can help us set up a board of 4/4s and offers us an alternative if Koma becomes too hard to cast or when most of our combo pieces get removed or milled out. Scourge can help us double down when our opponents have an open battlefield, and also helps us clear out problematic creatures on our opponent’s battlefield.
Combat Phase: Payoff City!
Just as a refresher, Koma has two main activated abilities when you sacrifice a serpent.
Either:
You tap down target permanent and its activated abilities can’t be activated this turn,
or
Koma gains indestructible until the end of turn.
Though the second ability is pretty amazing, it’s the first ability that we are looking to exploit to our advantage, either by tapping down our opponents’ boards for a clean and open attack or by restricting their use of their cards by limiting their mana and colour sources.
As such, we’ll be opting to use cards like our MVP, Willbreaker, which can allow us to gain control of opponents’ creatures once we’ve used Koma’s ability to tap them down. Verity Circle offers us a bonus when we tap down our opponent’s cards by giving us a card every time we do so.
If Lands and buffing Creatures are what we need, then Path of Discovery makes a great pick, as it allows our Creature to either give us free Lands when they enter, or they can help us filter the top few cards of our library, and gain +1/+1 as a bonus. And just for good measure, we’ll throw in In Search of Greatness to help us against early game drag and relieve pressure off our high Mana Value, late-game plays.
Polymorph offers us a way to transform our mana dorks into useful creatures late game. It’s a gamble, being a coin toss between cards we want and those that we don’t, but 4 Mana to bring out a Stormtide Leviathan seems pretty decent. Plus, it gives further utility to our 3/3 tokens when Koma meets his Anguished Unmaking, or simply just falls into a hole because of a Tragic Slip.
Post-Combat Main Phase: Protect the Serpent!
We also need a way to reliably cast Koma and Protect him from board wipes and spot removal like Path to Exile. Though Koma can give himself Indestructible through his tokens, that’s not enough to save him when we’re out of 3/3 Serpents to sacrifice, or when we lack the mana to cast a counter spell. As such, grabbing a few pieces of equipment to grant him Hexproof will certainly go the long mile. Giant’s Amulet offers some pretty good protection for our big snake, while Swiftfoot Boots can give him both Hexproof and Haste, making him a potent threat straight out of the gate. Another excellent piece of equipment is Mirror Shield, which develops him as a Hexproof-y, “Deathtouch doesn’t scare me” kind of Commander.
But if we’re going defensive, we have to arm ourselves with a suite of counter spells too, right?
So I opted for easy-on-the-wallet Arcane Denial, Foil, Negate, Daze and Saw it Coming. Five counter spells, 2 with alternative free casting costs, (as long as you’re willing to bear the burden of losing 1 or 2 Islands), with low Mana Values that we can easily slip in while we’re casting our Commander. Simic Charm offers us some flexibility as a defensive Hexproof-ing tool, or as a bounce spell if an opponent’s creature is becoming too annoying.
Pongify and Beast Within are our stock removal spells, but they are aided by the likes of Ravenform, Krosan Grip, Return to Nature and Reality Shift to remove any problematic threat standing in the way of our army of serpents. Whelming Wave and Wash Out help us deal with problematic creatures or enchantments, while Flood of Tears is a blue-centric board wipe capable of disrupting multiple combos while allowing us to recast our commander for free onto a barren battlefield.
End Step: Upgrades, Upgrades!
Simply put, the cards in the “considering” section of the deck list are designed to be added in either if you already own them, or if you are planning on taking the deck to the next level and can afford to spend a bit more.
The most important upgrade involves the deck’s consistency with its token generation sub theme.
Sakashima, the Impostor and Sakashima of a Thousand faces provides the deck with a much easier way to create token copies of Koma. Helm of the Host does the same thing, and synergises extremely well with Sphinx of the Second Sun, since its ability triggers post-combat.
I suggest replacing Mirror Shield for the Helm, and either Fated Infatuation, Polymorph or Cackling Counterpart for the Sakashima.
Primal Vigor and its counterpart Parallel Lives give the deck a reliable way to spit out multiple Koma’s Coils each Upkeep. With its bigger brother Doubling Season on the battlefield, the deck can easily go out of control and steal a game within a single turn rotation.
Also, once Strixhaven releases, adding in the face commander of the Quandrix Commander deck, Adrix and Niv, will greatly boost the deck’s productive power. Be careful not to add too many of these, as they become highly redundant if you lack sufficient token-generating outputs.
Consider swapping out cards like Birthing Boughs, Maskwood Nexus or Second Harvest for these powerful Enchantments.
Next, simple card draw boosters like Rishkar’s Expertise and Garruk Wildspeaker give your deck the added oomph it needs to go from 2 cards in hand to 20. Remove Garruk’s Packleader or Verity Circle for these cards.
Finally, swapping out an Ilysan Caryatid for something like Three Visits or The Great Henge can increase the deck’s Mana output by leaps and bounds.
As of the 31st of March 2021, this deck weighs in at a hearty $96.14 according to Moxfield, keeping within our $100 budget, but take note that this will not survive the onslaught of well-tuned, and much more refined decks with higher budgets.
Well, that’s the entirety of the primer and deck tech for this deck! As always, leave a comment on any future deck techs you’d like seen or made, and I’ll see you when I see you!
