Overview:

This mono-blue deck helmed by Eluge, the Shoreless Sea focuses on flooding lands with counters to create cost-reduction synergies for instants/sorceries while leveraging island synergies and spellcasting payoffs. The commander scales with Island count and enables explosive turns through its instant/sorcery cost reduction. The deck aims to win through incremental card advantage engines like Psychosis Crawler, combat with pumped creatures like Octavia, Living Thesis, and occasional big plays like Clone Legion or Mass Manipulation. While it contains strong control elements, it lacks definitive combo finishers.

Primer:

Core Strategy Execution:

1. Land Flooding (Turns 1-4): Prioritize casting Aquitect's Will and attacking with Eluge to spread flood counters. Use Rogue's Passage to ensure unblocked commander attacks. Activate High Tide when multiple Islands are flooded for mana bursts.
2. Cost Reduction Setup (Turns 3-5): Deploy Haughty Djinn and Baral, Chief of Compliance to stack cost reductions. Use Wizards of Thay to enable flash-sorcery plays. Protect key pieces with counters like Counterspell and Essence Capture.
3. Value Engine Activation (Turns 4-7): Chain cantrips (Preordain, Consider) and draw spells (Flow of Ideas, Blue Sun's Zenith) with Archmage Emeritus and Psychosis Crawler in play. Use Jin-Gitaxias's saga for mass bounce and free-cast turns.
4. Win Condition Execution:
   • Combat: Use Octavia, Living Thesis to create 8/8 attackers, Aqueous Form for evasion, or Clone Legion to copy opponent's threats.
   • Life Drain: Psychosis Crawler paired with massive draw spells like Drown in Dreams.
   • Control Lock: Hullbreaker Horror recursion engine with cheap instants.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 2-3 Islands and early interaction (Opt, Anticipate, Snap).
• Prioritize flood counter enablers (Eluge, Aquitect's Will) or cost reducers (Baral, Chief of Compliance).
• Ensure at least one counterspell or bounce effect (Unwind, Consuming Tide).
• Avoid hands with only high-CMC spells without setup pieces.

Key Tips:

• Sequence Flood Counters: Time Eluge's attacks with instant-speed land targeting to maximize Island count before big turns.
• Leverage Free Counters: Use Offer You Can't Refuse strategically against noncreature wincons despite giving Treasures.
• Octavia Timing: Cast Octavia, Living Thesis only after filling the graveyard with 8+ instants/sorceries to enable its cost reduction.
• Hullbreaker Synergy: Pair with low-cost cantrips like Opt for repeated bounce effects.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Lacks definitive win conditions - relies on slow combat/attrition against life totals.
• Overly dependent on commander for optimal spell cost reduction (vulnerable to repeated removal).
• Minimal artifact/enchantment removal (helpless against resolved Torpor Orb or Cursed Totem).

Moderate

• Flood counters benefit opponents with Islandwalk/Island synergies.
• High density of sorcery-speed plays conflicts with instant-speed control strategy.
• Limited permanent-based threats (easily answered by mass bounce/removal).

Minor

• Requires multiple setup pieces for explosive turns (cost reducers + flood counters + payoff).
• Winter Moon nonbo with flood counter strategy on nonbasic lands.

Most Important Cards:

• Eluge, the Shoreless Sea (Cost reduction engine/wincon)
• Psychosis Crawler (Primary damage engine)
• High Tide (Mana amplification)
• Hullbreaker Horror (Recursive control piece)
• Haughty Djinn (Cost reduction/pressure)
• Jin-Gitaxias // The Great Synthesis (Value engine/reset button)
• Mystical Tutor (Key spell selection)
• Mass Manipulation (Late-game threat theft)
• Octavia, Living Thesis (Combat finisher)
• Archmage Emeritus (Card advantage engine)

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 4/10

• Wins typically occur T8+ through gradual damage or stolen threats. No fast combos, though T6 Clone Legion on stacked boards is possible.

Resilience: 5/10

• Multiple counterspells and bounce effects protect the game plan, but creature-based engines (Psychosis Crawler, Octavia) are fragile to removal.

Consistency: 6/10

• Strong card selection (12 cantrips) and tutors like Mystical Tutor find key pieces, but lacks redundancy for critical noncreature payoffs.

Interaction: 7/10

• 14 counterspells/bounce spells with efficient options (Snap, Essence Capture), but limited permanent removal beyond Curse of the Swine.

Rating Justification:

This deck demonstrates focused casual play patterns with good interaction and card selection, but its slow win conditions and commander dependency cap its power. The T8-10 win potential through combat/theft aligns with Casual/Precon benchmarks, while its resilience against disruption lifts it slightly above base precon levels.

Power level: 4.0 - 4.5