Captain Howler, Sea Scourge is one of the legendary creatures available in Magic: The Gathering’s Aetherdrift set. It is the cornerstone of the Izzet (blue/red) archetype of Aetherdrift, making use of purposefully discarding cards for value.
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A Captain Howler, Sea Scourge commander deck is a more unique take on an Izzet deck, focusing on discarding and drawing cards as opposed to casting a ton of spells like Izzet Commander decks generally do. If you’re a fan of Sharks, Pirates, or just love discarding your cards, then look no further, because Captain Howler, Sea Scourge is the perfect commander for you.
Decklist
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Commander: Captain Howler, Sea Scourge |
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Alandra, Sky Dreamer |
Anger |
Blighted Agent |
Brallin, Skyshark Rider |
Chasm Skulker |
Containment Construct |
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Curator of Mysteries |
Evie Frye |
Forgotten Creation |
Ghostly Pilferer |
Glint-Horn Buccaneer |
Hommunculus Horde |
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Inti, Seneschal of the Sun |
Invisible Stalker |
Ivora, Insatiable Heir |
Jace’s Archivist |
Kitsa, Otterball Elite |
Magus of the Bazaar |
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Magus of the Wheel |
Marauding Mako |
Mary Read and Anne Bonny |
Merfolk Looter |
Oliphaunt |
Overlord of the Floodpits |
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Rhet-Tomb Mystic |
Scrounging Skyray |
Slither Blade |
Surly Badgersaur |
The Locust God |
Triton Shorestalker |
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Wonder |
Blasphemous Act |
Burning Inquiry |
Careful Study |
Faithless Looting |
Highway Robbery |
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Lorien Revealed |
Path of the Pyromancer |
Reforge the Soul |
Windfall |
Big Score |
Chaos Warp |
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Countervailing Winds |
Decaying Time Loop |
Demand Answers |
Faithless Salvaging |
Frantic Search |
Izzet Charm |
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Prismari Commande |
Thrill of Possibility |
Tolarian Winds |
Unexpected Windfall |
You Find the Villian’s Lair |
Arcane Signet |
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Boosted Sloop |
Currency Converted |
Izzet Signet |
Key to the City |
Monument to Endurance |
Pip-Boy 3000 |
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Sol Ring |
Talisman of Creativity |
Thought Vessel |
Drake Haven |
Ash Barrens |
Avishkar Raceway |
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Blasted Landscape |
Cascade Bluffs |
Command Tower |
Desert of the Fervent |
Desert of the Mindful |
Desolate Lighthouse |
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Exotic Orchard |
Fiery Islet |
Forgotten Cave |
Geier Reach Sanitarium |
x7 Island |
Lonely Sandbar |
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x7 Mountain |
Reliquary Tower |
Remote Isle |
Rogue’s Passage |
Shivan Reef |
Smoldering Crater |
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Stormcarved Coast |
Sulfur Falls |
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The decklist contains 31 creatures, ten sorceries, 13 instants, ten artifacts, one enchantment, and 34 lands. All of the creatures help to discard and draw cards, or benefit from doing one of the two.
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Key Cards
Captain Howler, Sea Scourge
The commander of the deck, Captain Howler, Sea Scourge is your main source of power. It has great protection with its ward, and a great statline to boot to make it a great attacker and blocker. The mana cost is rather cheap, letting you get it onto the battlefield and take advantage of its effect very quickly.
You want to spread out Captain Howler’s effect to multiple creatures in case an opponent has a removal spell if you are planning to use multiple discard effects in one turn.
The best targets for Captain Howler’s effect are creatures that can’t be blocked. If you’ve discarded a lot of cards, you can pump a creature up to massive stats. As such, creatures that can get in for guaranteed damage are the best options over something that can be chump blocked.
Monument To Endurance
With how much you’ll be discarding, Monument to Endurance is the perfect support card for your deck. Since you generally discard multiple times a turn you will draw a card, create a Treasure token, and burn your opponents for three life very consistently.
The burn is the least impactful, so that should always be saved for last. Drawing a card is better late-game, while making a Treasure is better early-game. Prioritize what’s best for your given gamestate when triggering Monument to Endurance.
While Monument to Endurance’s effects can only be done once each turn, there are a lot of ways to discard during your opponents’ turns. This allows you to keep getting value off of it before your turn comes back around.
The Locust God
The Locust God is a great commander in its own right, and in Captain Howler, it’s a great way to get a bigger battlefield presence. A lot of the cards in the deck discard and draw a card, and each card draw will give you a 1/1 token with flying. These give you more evasive creatures to attack with, as flying is harder for many decks to block.
The Locust God can be used to draw and discard with its own activated effect. Another benefit of Locust God is you can keep bringing it back to your hand whenever it dies. Short of getting exiled, if The Locust God ever gets removed, it’ll never leave the game.
Blighted Agent
There are a lot of options to pump with Captain Howler’s ability, but Blighted Agent is the best option by far. The primary reason is that it is an unblockable creature with infect. This can take someone out of the game with just one attack, as you only need it to have ten power to one-shot someone.
Creatures with infect do not deal combat damage, but instead give the attacked opponent poison counters equal to its power. If a player has ten poison counters they automatically lose the game once the tenth poison counter is put on them.
Even if you don’t defeat someone with one attack, you can keep pressuring them by attacking with Blighted Agent normally. This makes it easier to close out games later when you have more discard outlets to pump Blighted Agent to enough power to win through infect.
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How To Play The Deck
A Captain Howler, Sea Scourge Commander deck is all about discarding cards and pumping up your creatures with power. You want to apply this to cards like Blighted Agent, Triton Shorestalker, Slither Blade, and Invisible Stalker as they all cannot be blocked.
You have plenty of ways to discard cards. The best are wheels that discard entire hands such as Windfall, Reforge the Soul, and Tolarian Winds. Since these cards are a one-time use, cards that you can keep discarding with are great like Mary Read and Anne Bonny, Merfolk Looter, and Magus of the Bazaar.
There’s a sub-theme with creating creature tokens to make your battlefield larger and give you more blockers and attackers to work with. The Locust God, Drake Haven, and Homunculus Horde all generate extra creature tokens by drawing cards, something the deck does a ton of. These tokens are best used as chump blockers so you have expendable defenses.
Izzet struggles very hard with natural ramp, so you want to make sure you cast your mana rocks as quickly as possible so you always have mana available for your spells.
The primary win condition of the deck is winning through combat. Captain Howler’s stat boost can become massive to certain creatures to deal large chunks of damage. Depending on the creature getting boosted, you can win the game in just one combat. Chaining discard effects are particularly great for this, especially against an opponent with low defenses.
The biggest downside of the deck is the heavy reliance on your commander. Captain Howler, Sea Scourge’s effect is what pushes you to your win condition quickly, since it’s very explosive once it gets going. However, because of that, it becomes a prime target for removal. Its ward helps keep it somewhat protected, as it makes all removal spells targeting it cost two extra mana, Luckily, Captain Howler is fairly cheap to cast, making it easier to recast it.
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