MTG Top 10: Sea Monsters | Krakens, Leviathans, Octopuses, and Serpents | Magic: the Gathering

[@NizzahonMagic]

SPOILERS: I'm wrong about Cephalid Illusionist and Shuko. You don't actually need another creature for the combo!

[@cax1175]

I run a commander deck called "Seahorsemanship", with Sun Quan, Lord of Wu as the commander, leading an army of unblockable sea monsters.

[@geinerelizondo2019]

I wanna see a historical movie about that!

[@cole10002002]

I would love to see this list! Sounds so fun❤

[@stephleobisson]

Searchable on moxfield?

[@timbawden2577]

Now we need the bottom 10 so we can see all our forgotten Leviathan bros

[@Cloudy573]

Leviathan was my favorite card as a kid and I don't think I ever successfully dealt damage with it even once

[@nate1004]

5:43. One thing about illusionist and Shuko. You don’t need two creatures in play. You can activate Shuko targeting illusionist even if Shuko is already attached to it. Nothing in the rules forbids an equipment from targeting or attaching to a creature to which it is already equipped.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Yes, that is why Shuko is preferred over Lightning Greaves, despite Lightning Greaves being better. Lightning Greaves gives the creature Shroud, which prevents you from equipping Cephalid Illusionist (and for that matter Nadu, Winged Wisdom) over and over again without another creature.

[@olafthemoose9413]

​@@schwarzerritter5724Also 1 cmc > 2 cmc with urzas saga in the format

[@NizzahonMagic]

This must be what my brain was remembering about that combo.

[@darthrevan4493]

The channel that keeps me coming back to magic when wizards of the coast (Hasbro)doesn’t.

[@guilhermesouza4933]

Did you mean Hasbro?

[@UnitedStateOfMetal]

Same. I don't play Magic for 8 years, but I still like to watch these lists.

[@mylespine7731]

​@@UnitedStateOfMetal same

[@jeremya446]

Nothing helps with the 'ahh there's work tomorrow ' feeling than a Nizzahon midnight drop!

[@sethzard]

Marit Lage/Dark Depths may be an avatar, but they're a leviathan in my heart.

[@devin5201]

I have NEVER seen a creature with rules design as cool as that Bladecoil Serpent, the amount of flexibility for how you want to use it is nuts and the fact that it has an X cost just to allow you to make it even nastier, I need to play with it.

[@sallomon2357]

There's also its Selesnya counterpart in the same set if you're interested

[@DeDunking]

Came here on my 'real' channel to tell you that you're better than that other channel. You're obviously familiar with the game, and they say stuff that is... often just wrong, and I don't mean "didn't play in 1997" wrong, I mean "what's an Island do?" levels of wrong. OK, that's hyperbole, but my point is true, that channel seems to rely on peeling info from other sources and not actually filtering it through the lens of a player. They said Serrated Arrows was only good because of the 5 cards from each set rule during Homelands. But you got that right, it was a factor, but Pump Knights were the #1 reason it was played so heavily. Just one example. If you don't have many audio-only listeners, perhaps putting the way you rank cards on screen and not saying it aloud would save a few seconds off the intro portion, when people are most likely to click away, I dunno your metrics. I don't mind it at all, but I'm always trying to trim mine (non-MtG, not a plug) in those first couple minutes. One more thing: I am part of a fairly large group of people who will never play competitive MtG again, but spent many years doing so. When you cover modern sets, I don't click, but anything that should include some old stuff gets me every time. The 'How Good Was It... Really?' series is awesome, even cards like Bosium Strip, Rainbow Efreet, Recycle or the like, there's a ton of high ranking competitive decks from the early days that never get spoken of today. And guys like me would be lined up to watch them. Anyway, keep it up, don't be discouraged, make more vids, and turn the light down, I gotta watch this Nizzahon vid.

[@crawdaddy2004]

Cephalids that don’t live in water aren’t awkward, they’re aqua-weird.

[@sallomon2357]

Nah, they're aquard

[@bluedestiny2710]

"The pool of Sea Monsters" ... nyehe XD I see what you did there... For Hullbreaker Horror... is it a "counterspell" effect like Remand or does the spell go through? Also, OG Leviathan didnt make it? TwT

[@azazelmorningstar5631]

More like remand though funny thing, hullbreaker doesn't say counter target spell, it just says return to hand, so it works even on spells that can't be countered as it technically isn't countering the spell

[@Sauvenil]

@@azazelmorningstar5631 Came here to say this, haha. Hullbreaker Horror/Unsubstantiate/Divide By Zero/Commandeer and similar cards all get around the "uncounterable" problem.

[@JustaSmilingHedgehog]

The thought how the thing in the ice has become hullbreaker horror is honestly great.

[@jchadwick4918]

Super surprised not to see Thassa Bests the Sea God! Cool list, neat to see all the cephalids.

[@bobfranklin2572]

I have a kiora Sovereign of the deep edh deck that's just sea monster tribal. This new cephalid rulling is news to me, thank you!

[@Poower]

Same!!!

[@aliastheabnormal]

Together these creatures become an all you can eat buffet in the local Ponderosa.

[@MtnDewVoltage456]

I loved that buffet but it left my town years ago I think the last one in the state is in Wisconsin dells

[@RomanNitsche]

I recently rewatched your "Best" and "Worst" creature types lists from five years ago, and I would be super stoked to see those revisited. Serpents were THE worst back then, but judging by this list they certainly no longer are. And for the Best, a ton of Gods have been printed since then, so I wonder if they were able to keep the top spot that seemed cemented in stone.

[@a_speeder1728]

Part of my Thassa EDH deck that I’ve had for years: low cost merfolk into big unblockable sea creatures

[@DaveyDAKFAE]

Ikoria also had a flying jellyfish (though that's more common in mtg) so the use of an oceanic creature type seems apt for Yorion

[@melenynder7136]

Leviathan? Kraken has Gyruda, Octopus has a bunch, Serpent has Tolarian Terror and Bladecoil off the top of my head. All the Leviathans are overcosted and mire geared to tabletop magic

[@jesok3761]

I'm honestly surprised stormtide leviathan, aethersqall ancient, and denizen of the deep didn't make it among others.

[@caseywellington4761]

​I was surprised not to see Lorthos the Tidemaker on this list

[@isaiahjones7289]

Whoa didn’t know about that octopus change , had an sea monster deck for as long as I been playing 8 years and didn’t know quest for ur as temple existed

[@andrewsparkes6275]

Iirc, Thing In The Ice isn't just "another Kraken after Hullbreaker Horror". It is literally THE SAME KRAKEN HORROR, lore-wise!

[@mantissaPuc]

Koma is Verdant Force's big brother 😝 (Never thought about that before 🤔)

[@VitorFaccio]

Kenessos is my pet EDH deck, feels so good to suddenly explode the table with the most awesome creatures ever... and even on EDH, hullbreaker horror is able to be a win condition

[@makenshao9886]

Striped riverwinder has no pauper points? I'm surprised, I thought that was the other reanimation target used a lot in pauper. Maybe I'm confusing it with Tolarian Terror 😅

[@aronb.1273]

Hullbreaker horror 4831 games as commander? Isn't it non-legendary?

[@caseywellington4761]

No, it's in that many decks. It's not a commander

[@aronb.1273]

@@caseywellington4761right. Go to 8:59, Nizzahon has stats “as commander” listed which (without rule 0) is impossible.

[@Fritzgar]

​@@aronb.1273 Look at Koma a few seconds earlier, she has the exact same numbers for edh (and is legendary). He just forgot to delete it/copied it by accident.

[@boots4snootin571]

Awesome video idea Nizzahon, very inspired! :D

[@jesok3761]

I'm surprised stormtide leviathan isn't heavily played in pro play when I started playing it was one of the scariest cards to play against I thought in the right deck it would still be very strong.

[@holotori_senior_admin_teno]

I mean, I was thinking of making a sea monster Commander deck; Cephalids being Octopi now is definitely a bonus.

[@Crunchatize_Me_Senpai]

My guess is Serpent didn’t make the list. Cephalids being octopi now means those qualify because of Cephalid Breakfast. Iirc there was an artifact creature Leviathan that saw play, but I could be wrong there. And I seem to remember a real low cost Kraken seeing some play. Maybe Thing in the Ice? Was that a Kraken on the back?

[@mantissaPuc]

There are 13 "aerial sea monsters", like Sky Swallower Try search (t:kraken or t:Leviathan or t:octopus or t:serpent) o:flying On scryfall 😉

[@Sauvenil]

LOL Sky Swallower, love the bizarro creature. Never found an awesome use for it but now that I think about it, it does a mass Donate effect that might be fun to abuse. Simic Sky Swallower was a thing in standard for a while, but I guess not enough to make it to this list. (I remember forcing someone to sac it after I sacced a Mindlash Sliver with Grave Pact on the board and he got SALTY.)

[@mantissaPuc]

Simic Sky Swallower probably have some points. Some control decks used it at the time.

[@Sauvenil]

@@mantissaPuc There wasn't nearly as much board wipe at the time as there seems to be now, haha. There were probably some Edicts around too but those are always so iffy that people rarely used them unless they gained synergy from them. I used Grave Pact only because with the combo the deck ran, it equated to a board wipe every time. (The combo was Enduring Renewal, Mindlash Silver, and Basal Sliver to get infinite black mana, and Consume Spirit to win with it... so synergistically Grave Pact was a board wipe.)

[@jonothanthrace1530]

There are a couple of sea monsters in my (largely untouched from the precon) Captain N'ghathrod Commander deck, which is Horror typal mill. I would like to see a Top 10 Horrors and a Top 10 Mill episode!

[@NizzahonMagic]

I've done both of those.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

@@NizzahonMagic I've probably watched both of them, too! 😅 Good work anticipating my requests.

[@andyspendlove1019]

Based on your earlier Worst Creature Types list, I’m pretty confident Serpents are the one creature type with no cards on this list.

[@littlemrdoom5997]

Serpent totally has to be the one left off the list, I can't think of a single good one

[@littlemrdoom5997]

I was wrong

[@littlemrdoom5997]

I just think about bulk draft chaff when I think about serpents

[@TheSandwhichman108]

Who’s your favorite sea monster commander? Mine is arixmethy’s the slumbering isle. Mainly cause of the art work and how funny it is to give it flying and just smack someone for 12 commander damage and they can’t do crap about it. XD

[@foiltarmogoyf6203]

I'm going with Leviathan.

[@robertsweeney7040]

When you next do MDFCs - Weird thought - I seem to remember a card that allowed you to turn over an opponents card… …can you use that card to negate the spell side of MDFCs? Or inversely, Mana “Screw” someone by turning over their MDFC? (Say it was their only source or red - turning it over might stop Anger? Or a spell on the stack?)

[@NizzahonMagic]

No, because they aren't face down. They have two faces.

[@destroyahdestroyah9584]

I actually fell in love with Magic because of the card Stormtide Leviathan and Inkwell Leviathan. I lost my monsters 😁

[@Reddresspress]

I've been wanting to make a Runo Stromkirk deck with sea monsters but I've been struggling a little on how to make it efficient enough to keep up with my friends' decks

[@AkukAkuku]

My guess is Leviathan. Cephalids cover Octopuses. Kraken has that new shiny card from Innistrad. Serpent has the "costs less for each spell in yard" commons that get points in Pauper. Leaving Leviathans by the process of elimination. EDIT: I guessed right. :-D Now I have to ask, does any Leviathan have any points? EDIT: I forgot, Inkwell Leviathan must have some points it was one of the premium reanimation targets. Let me then change my question: What's the highest score of a Leviathan card?

[@dbzwrestleingfan]

Great video as always sir!!! Please please do a updated creature/man lands video!!!

[@venkelos6996]

I have a Terrors of the Deep deck, but I recall it having an okay number of Leviathans in it, so it does feel weird that none made this list. I wonder what the best Leviathan in MtG is, that it doesn't even get to 10, and how different this list might've been even just six months ago, before Cephalids got rolled into Octopuses, for example?

[@baconsir1159]

Hullbreaker Horror also combos with two pieces of fast mana

[@marcoottina654]

the "grouping" mechanic should be both formalized and standardized: -) Cleric, Shaman, WIzard and Druid -> "magicians" -) Beast, Bird, Cat, kavu, Ape, Dog, Horse (,?) -> "animals" -) Viashino, snake, crocodile, dinosaur -> reptilians -) Crab, fish, shark (,?) -> sea .. hum, IDK -) Elf, Human, Goblin, Orc, Vampire, zombie, cephalids -> humanoid -) Soldier, Warrior, Knight, Mercenary -> Manowar -) Spirit, Illusion, Angel, Demon, Devil, Horror -> esoteric there might be some overlaps, but it could be ... nice, anyway

[@Schlaym]

I love my Thing in the Ice deck with Heartless Act.

[@OneOfDisease]

Release the kraken! Hullbreaker with a blue/black revival theme would be my constructed deck. Never played with it but I love the idea of cheating it into play then abusing the hell out of its spell trigger.

[@derekcline950]

Are there significantly more points per year now than in, say, 1999? I would love to see a graph of points available vs time. A sort of meta analysis of these videos could be really interesting

[@yawg691]

I wonder where Inkwell Leviathan landed outside the top 10

[@astuteanansi4935]

My guess is that Leviathan is probably the type that didn't make it. Obviously at least one Kraken is in going by the thumbnail, there have been competitive Cephalids, and between Serpents and Leviathans, I think it's probably the former... but Serpent would definitely be my second guess . . EDIT: I was right, but I *severely* underestimated Serpents. I completely forgot that Yorion is a Serpent too

[@TeaHauss]

My favorite archetype, my first precon was 2015 Teferi that got upgraded into Arixmethes. Edit: i just found that scryfall doesn't have an otag for sea monsters, I'm disappointed

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

This is the sort of tribal I can get behind. Give me some glorious underwater homies! But here's what you might not know, they're all working with me to help get "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)" by sinking random ships in the Atlantic ocean.

[@Crunchatize_Me_Senpai]

If the list also included giant lobsters, you would’ve been #1. What do we call giant lobsters though? Dire lobsters? Lobsterviathans? Biggy wiggy pinchy winchy lobby wobbies? Lobbos?

[@highlycaffeinated998]

You may want to look at your information cards in regards to Commander, you have two creatures with stats as commanders despite them being non legendary.

[@Icious82]

@nizzahonMagic with another banger of a Top 10

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

A group of creature types that have Protection from Ice Cream.

[@hitmangfx7162]

Posting before watching...I think you had mentioned Serpents were the worst creature type in an earlier video, which is completely believable.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Now that Cephalids are Octopi, are we finally going to see Octopus tribal decks?

[@enlongjones2394]

This sea monster grouping makes me think of the type groupings that Yugioh does. For the longest time they had Fish, Aqua, and Sea Serpent monsters grouped together with support cards like Surface. Later on, they combined Beast, Beast-Warrior, and Winged-Beast with the Tri-brigade cards. They mixed Plant, Insect, and Reptile with the Ragnaraika cards And then they recently made support that ties Psychic, Machine, and Cyberse together. It is neat to me to see themes mixed together like that.

[@oberlin27]

My dibs are on the land that makes Marit Lage when you get rid of all the counters being #1

[@theEevee098]

Marit Lage's creature type is "Avatar"

[@mantissaPuc]

Do you really need two creatures to activate Shuko's equip ability infinitely? I thought you could activate to re-equip the same creature (the ability will just do nothing when it resolves...) 🤔

[@MegatronTarantulas]

guess pre-video is leviathan. can't think of any of those that are playable

[@travisrose2277]

Woohoo! I was right about which tribe (creature type) of the four had no entries on this list.

[@theEevee098]

How can Hullbreaker Horror be a Commander, and how can there be over 4k decks with it as Commander?

[@FlawlessRythym]

Lemme guess... No Leviathans? Idk. It's a tough one but they're all like 7+ mana and I don't remember one being a popular reanimation target.

[@MtnDewVoltage456]

I have a foil yorion, sky nomad pulled it in a pack

[@mathieubrebouillet714]

hullbreaker is in 4831 decks as a commander?

[@luciushilliard6352]

So what was the best Leviathan?

[@douglasgoodwon8227]

I'm guessing the next time we see this meta-tribe, it'll be given a collective name the same way Outlaws were. Certainly frees up space in the text box.

[@ceulgai2817]

I sure hope not!

[@dtnuh]

How does Hullbreaker Horror have EDHREC statistics as a commander when it can't be a commander? 🤔

[@beloved-child]

Quest for ulas temple lol....imagine your opponent turn 1s it and by 7th turn reveals his 3rd 9/9 enters the battlefield board wipes then you shuffle your soul back into your library lol

[@genius11433]

Guessing before watching the rest of the video: I think that Serpent is the creature type that is going to be left off.

[@prosfilaes]

So can we errata humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. to apes?

[@NoelQuo]

I think you shouldve gave the best leviathan an honorable mention since you have it in the video name. Just felt a little misleading

[@personalthesus]

I’m gonna guess Serpent cuz they didn’t even make limited-playable serpents until like 2016

[@kaydenchapman3094]

Im guessing serpents (I was so wrong)

[@jackvogel701]

I feel like it’s probably serpents but maybe I’m missing one that was actually playable Edit: Wow I forgot about a lot I was super wrong

[@jakeelephant006]

Which Leviathan was closest?

[@NizzahonMagic]

Inkkwell Leviathan

[@ceulgai2817]

Nah, it doesn't mean TITI and Hullbreaker are likely the same. Also not weird for Cephalids to be sea monsters that don't live in the sea, given that as far as MtG is concerned, "Sea Monsters" don't exist.

[@PokeBattlerJaze]

Thing in the Ice? Edit: Ngl, I forgot that thing was a Serpent.

[@John_Doe974]

I'm guessing Serpent didn't make it. Feel like there must be enough Leviathans that at least one got past the "9 mana and sac 4 islands every turn you want it to attack" design they used to get Dang, wrong immediately. Changing my guess to Leviathan, they never got past that old design

[@jasongates3039]

Great video!

[@Reluxthelegend]

9:35 How are 4831 people running this non-legendary creature as a commander?

[@stepniak18]

Title: Top See Monsters No.1: Sky Monster Almost poetic😅

[@philj9491]

Got to be Leviathians

[@Rupert3434]

Going to guess kraken and that any kraken on this list gets called an octopus in the type box.

[@Rupert3434]

Ah boo, I guess it's Leviathan.

[@Dommi8450]

Serpents are going to be left out!

[@jonothanthrace1530]

They should change "Human" to "Ape", it'll be hilarious.

[@supertrouperJC02]

The plural of octopus is octopii

[@NizzahonMagic]

Octopuses is correct as well, and it's what's use on Magic cards (Take a look at Whelming Wave), so it's the one I went with.

[@arbit4468]

Leviathan?

[@darianm9741]

Gonna guess Leviathan is the one that didn't make the list.

[@connormohs6046]

Definitely leviathan, don’t even need to look ahead

[@rpriske]

Octopi

[@NizzahonMagic]

Both are correct, and WotC uses octopuses, so I did too -- after all, it's what appears on the cards I'm talking about in this very video.

[@rpriske]

@@NizzahonMagic I was just taking the piss, but I WILL say that every time I heard octopuses it was like nails on the chalkboard for me. :)

[@edhorseman2237]

Leviathans probably won't show up, they've historically been horrible....

[@EbonAvatar]

"They decided to simply things" If by simplify you mean "make it so the plain, printed text on dozens of cards is now wrong, requiring people to look up cards in the middle of games even more often than they do now." Thanks Wizards, I hate it! Stop changing creature types there's no point to it.

[@abranlucero7246]

Know what there are before hand

[@EbonAvatar]

@abranlucero7246 so by your logic we should just have all cards be textless full-arts then. After all we can just memorize what they do right? 🙄🙄

[@Happytremereinc]

Poor leviathans....

[@starmanda88]

Koma really is a disgusting magic card my god 😂😂

[@benaroundtheworld7847]

octupi

[@fontainelefunk]

In other words, In other words, just say it right the first time.

[@elmmmmmmmmmmm]

I think the plural of "octopus" is "octos pu", it's like "districts attorney".

[@woodysmith2681]

HOMARIDS. Like usual, The Dark does not exist unless MTG wants to reprint something or upgrade something from the set.

[@ElPanadero18]

Gotta be leviathans that didn’t make the list.

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

Ursula, Deceiver of All... oops the Universe Beyond Lorcana MTG set doesn't yet exist!!