One of the cool things about Commander is that legends come in all shapes and sizes. While some Commanders appeal for their efficiency, others pay you off with raw power and unique abilities. Interestingly, though, The Watcher in the Water gives you the best of both worlds.
MTG The Watcher in the Water
While The Watcher in the Water has incredibly beefy stats, removing the Stun Counters naturally can take an age. Thankfully, cards like Moxite Refinery can convert these negative counters into positive ones. Even outside of that, however, sacrificing or chump blocking with tentacles you create can quickly speed up this process.
To get to this point, you’ll need plenty of instant speed card draw options like Brainstorm and Brainsurge that each create multiple tokens. Similarly, repeatable sources of card advantage such as Consecrated Sphinx or Mind’s Eye also work wonders. These cards also open up fantastic synergies with Nadir Kraken and Homunculus Horde, which also fuel Junk Winder and Opposition.
Once you’ve built out a big board, sacrifice outlets like Ashnod’s Altar become incredibly appealing. Not only can the excess mana fuel a big Pull from Tomorrow, but each sacrificed Tentacle helps keep opposing threats tapped down. This makes winning via combat and Commander damage surprisingly easy for the deck.
Drawing Your Deck
As strong as these general synergies are, what puts The Watcher in the Water over the top is its combo potential. With the help of the newly printed Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards, you can easily draw as many cards as you want in one go. So long as you can draw one card during an opponent’s turn, you’ll get a token, triggering Mister Fantastic, which can create another token.
Since this is a may ability, you can easily draw your entire deck and set up a Thassa’s Oracle win. Notably, this is far from the only card that creates this combo, too, as Kindred Discovery will do the same. Since this is a forced ability, however, you’ll want Laboratory Maniac to win, or a way to force close the loop.
Powerful Yet Underrated
Ultimately, whether you’re leaning on two-card combos or just trying to generate value, The Watcher in the Water makes for a potent Commander option. Despite its power, however, this Commander only accounts for 3,825 decks according to EDHREC.
The only real downside is that The Watcher in the Water is fairly simple to build around. This is hardly the worst problem in MTG, especially considering how fun this Commander can be to play. As such, it’s well worth considering for your next brew, especially since copies only sell for around $2.
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