The main idea for this deck is to build an advantage on the board by getting 2-for-1s and 3-for-1s (snowball, Atlantean fate, etc.) and having powerful minions that are not so easily removed.

Mulligans:

Some of our toughest matchups are against aggro decks, so try to mulligan for a defensive site. Innsmouth dock, river rapids, and maelstrom are almost always useful to maneuver minions. This can be especially helpful in the long run with omphaloses, as they it enables them to attack next turn. If playing against a deathspeaker or imposter, mulligan hard for bureau, as it instantly makes the game much more difficult for them. If playing against flamecaller, archimago, or another avatar that deals with their own cemetery, do the same for mortuary. As for spells, it’s very important that you play something on turn three, so mulligan hard for that. Playing something on turn two is less significant, but if playing aggro I would recommend going for a winter nymph, as it is solid defense against their charge. You play it, and walk it over to a place where it doesn’t affect you.

Various ideas:

If you are in a situation where it is turn four, and you could draw a site to play something, or you could draw a spell, I would suggest taking the site. This deck likes to try to get high amounts of mana relatively quickly, or at least up to six (highest mana cost of a card). If you ever feel like you could have a nice play with snowball, ice lance, or something similar, go for it! As long as you stay in a body of water, it should turn out ok. If playing against a control deck, I would strongly advise you build up a small number of minions, and then all attack the same site. While this seems counterintuitive, if you then flood the site, it will make the removal of your minions much harder for your opponent. Of course if they are playing water then this is a bad play, but if not, it usually works. I would just like to note that while the above info is generally good advice, there are definitely times when you should not do these things, so make sure to think for yourself!

Not-so-frequently-asked-questions:

Q. Why ice lance, and not something like ice shards?

A. I find that they are pretty similar, but given the avatar you can usually make good use of it. It also is a death blow for ironclad, which shards is not.

Q. Why AoW for that matter?

A. Most water minions don’t actually have submerge, so waveshaper isn’t as good, but I really like the ability to flood a site. It makes pirate ships and stoor worm way better. Also, the teleporting ability makes getting death blows ridiculously easy. I’ll sometimes go a whole game without using it once, get the death blow with the avatar, and feel like “yep, that’s worth it.” I also find it fun to play an avatar that is slightly subpar, because winning is more satisfying.

Q. No aino or captain?

A. One of the main issues I was facing was the courts, so I tried to minimize the elites and uniques. That’s also the purpose of acid rain.

Q. What does aquaphile mean?

A. *sigh* Didn’t feel like taking two seconds to look that up, did you? It means a person who loves water.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and if you play the deck, I hope you enjoy!

Aquaphile - GenCon 2026

@TacoCat