Magic Monday: Callaphe, Tiny Leader

Like last week's post, this is a single-color Tiny Leaders deck built from scratch. Unlike last week, this was a consequence of trying (and failing) to build a 100-card Commander deck. For some reason, mono-blue is difficult for me. It's a great color for disrupting an opponent, but not so great when it comes to consistent win conditions, especially in a format with 40 life to whittle away. Tiny Leaders seems like a better proving ground, though, so I decided on a slightly more aggressive build based on unblockable creatures and a general who can hit harder as the game goes on.

Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea

My variant constellation card

This card inspired me to build around more enchantments as my main control theme instead of cancelling spells, because more devotion makes her more powerful.

I also have a sideboard to tweak the deck and exploit Coax from the Blind Eternities to drop some big Eldrazi cards. They cost more than 3, but the rules say cards from "outside the game" must be kept in the sideboard, and does not necessarily specify they must also be 3 CMC or less and legal for the main deck. I need to check other forums and see if this is really kosher, because it feels like cheating, but I haven't verified that it is expressly forbidden.

If I do need to swap out those big eldrazi and the card to cheat them into play, I may still add Eldrazi Skyspawner, Cryptolith Fragment, and Benthic Infiltrator instead, especially since the last would be another in my unblockable creature arsenal. As always, this deck may see changes over time as I test it out and verify that rule, but here's how it stands today.

This does feel a bit light on instant and sorcery spells, especially for a blue deck, but those enchantments add a lot of control with cards that don't leave the table right away, resulting in longer-term effects. I don't know if I will target Meletis Astronomer enough to trigger his ability reliably, and Ornithopter is unable to do any damage without enchantment or equipment support, but this deck does have a lot of that kind of support. Overall, this feels like a mystical, magical, mythical deck of mischief so far.

What would you add or remove to make it better? is the Eldrazi stunt better for a different deck, or just a bad mana waste? Chime in with a comment!