We’re nearly at the end of Bloomburrow spoiler season now, but that doesn’t mean things are slowing down. We’re still seeing new, exciting designs every day. Many of which have potential in one format or another. Just yesterday we saw another of Bloomburrow’s big villains, the Calamity Beasts, and this one’s a real doozy. The card is Eluge, the Shoreless Sea, and it brings back a type of counter we’ve seen very rarely in MTG. Not only that, but it also provides a huge threat and a mana cost reduction machine all in one package.
Eluge, The Shoreless Sea MTG
- Mana Value: 1UUU
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: */*
- Text: Eluge’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of Islands you control.
- Whenever Eluge enters or attacks, put a flood counter on target land. It’s an Island in addition to its other types for as long as it has a flood counter on it.
- The first instant or sorcery spell you cast each turn costs U (or 1 generic mana) less to cast for each land you control with a flood counter on it.
One look at Eluge’s intimidating artwork, in either version, should be enough to convince you of its raw power. The text does an even better job.
Eluge needs three blue mana to cast, which is a very steep color requirement. That makes it challenging to cast outside of Mono-Blue decks. That said, the Island-based stat scaling means you’ll likely only want to run it in such a deck anyway.
The really interesting parts of Eluge come further down its text box. Like a watery Titan, Eluge gets to impact the board whenever it enters or attacks. In this case, by placing a Flood counter on any land in play, thus making it an Island in addition to its other types. If you are somehow running this card in a multicolor deck, this can be a great way to fix your mana. Additionally, thanks to that final line of text, it can also give you a nice discount on your instants and sorceries.
Eluge may look fairly slow at first glance. It’s just a four mana 4/4 in most cases, which might save you some mana on spells later on. Granted, it probably is too slow for Standard. But in Commander, the format of grand plans and drawn-out games? It has a boatload of potential.
Opening The Floodgates
Eluge’s Commander potential comes down to two things. Firstly, the innate durdliness of Commander as a format. Secondly, the presence of other cards that produce Flood counters that you can run there. This isn’t a particularly common counter type. In fact, only five other cards in Magic produce it and, for our purposes, Bounty of the Luxa doesn’t really count. The more ways you have of making and spreading these counters, though, the better Eluge gets.
If you’re running Xolatayoc, the Smiling Flood as your Commander, you can start dishing out Flood counters before you even draw Eluge. You can then supplement those with counters from Aquitects Will and The Flood of Mars, to really get the board drenched. The Flood of Mars actually highlights another advantage of Flood counters: their synergy with Islandwalk. Placing a Flood counter on an opponent’s land will make all of your Islandwalk creatures unblockable against them, which, as you can imagine, is quite dangerous.
Of course, the real dream is casting big spells for nothing, and Eluge can certainly deliver on that. With the Flood cards above and some Proliferate, you can easily set all your lands up with counters. At which point you’ll be looking at a discount of around seven mana. Imagine casting Cyclonic Rift for just one, or grabbing whatever you want with Chord of Calling if you’re playing Xolatayoc? These are the kinds of shenanigans Commander is made for, which is why I think Eluge will do so well in the format.
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