Explorers of the Deep Precon: Decklist, Value, and Verdict

Hakbal of the Surging Soul

At the beginning of combat on your turn, each Merfolk creature you control explores. (Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on the exploring creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.) Whenever Hakbal attacks, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield. If you don't, draw a card.

Singles value

$95.62

TCGplayer market, 80 cards, basic lands counted at $0

Sealed price

$97.16

TCGplayer price for the box · singles are 1.0× that

New cards

10 / 100

First printings in this deck

Bracket

Core, out of the box

Is Explorers of the Deep worth buying?

from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander Decks: Are They Worth It? by Timothy Zaccagnino

My honest opinion is that this is the least exciting of the precons, though I think it excels in enough categories to still be worthwhile. This is the first merfolk precon, but merfolk decks aren’t exactly fresh and exciting, and they didn’t commit very hard to the explore tie-in to make it feel distinct enough from the merfolk decks that have been swimming around for years now. I also don’t get too jazzed for +1/+1 counter decks, though I know those strategies have plenty of supporters out there. You’re still looking at an excellent Commander precon here, just one that’s not, ironically, exploring too much new territory.

We’ve also got a full guide to upgrading the deck!

How Explorers of the Deep plays

primer from Explorers of the Deep Upgrade Guide: 10 Easy Changes You Can Make by Timothy Zaccagnino

Merfolk lovers sound off! We’ve had merfolk commanders in the past, but never an actual merfolk-themed Commander deck. Explorers of the Deep dives below Ixalan’s surface to put everyone’s favorite fish-people front and center with a mechanic tie-in to LCI’s explore/Map token mechanics. I found the explore theme to be minor at best, but it plays into the +1/+1 counter synergies that are also emphasized here.

Hakbal of the Surging Soul will be your underwater guide for this deck. It’ll give you a strong merfolk payoff and a good card-advantage engine in the command zone. I’m not convinced it’ll supplant Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca as the go-to best merfolk commander, but I’m sure wherever you see one, you’re bound to see the other (Kumena’s actually in the precon!). The alternate commander is Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood, which is slightly off-theme here, but it has already captured the hearts of many (I mean, look at that smile).

The strategy is simple: Play merfolk and use +1/+1 counter effects to pump them up. It’s nothing that exploratory for a merfolk deck, and I wish they’d leaned just a little more into the explore ability here. There’s an unnecessary amount of +1/+1 counter support, but that means your counter decks will get some generally good cards if you’re just planning on scrapping the deck. It has the same strength/weakness as Ahoy Mateys as the deck only has one primary play pattern, however, merfolk have substantially more existing support cards than pirates.