Strategy

This deck is a control list (at this point heavily derivative of the work represented by Drown in the Deep because I wanted to retool it for more competitive play ahead of a local Cornerstone). We end the game by stabilizing and establishing inevitability. We want to grind out a long game.

Strengths

Most good decks right now are midrange lists. They tend to be fast midrange lists, but they focus more on card quality than raw speed or building card advantage. We excel at removing strong cards to clear the way for our own. We win on card quality.
This list leans way into forced and free movement. It is a challenge for our opponent to keep threats in a position where they can attack from an advantage, and it is easy for us to do the same.

Weaknesses

A fast enough aggro deck gets us on the back foot before we can stabilize.
Our own big expensive threats also die to removal, so there is a danger of getting blown out if we aren't mindful of what resources our opponent has.
Control decks can be difficult to pilot in unfamiliar metagame environments; it's hard to know what threats are serious enough to need immediate answering without knowing which worse threats might be coming.
Submerge threats can be challenging to answer.
We do not have significant aura removal.
A deck that can kill us without a substantial board presence attacks on an axis we basically don't answer.
[[Drought]] is brutal and some mono-fire Pathfinder decks run two or three.

Card Packages

Surviving Until the Late Game

Drowns Stuff

[[Mariner's Curse]] is extremely deadly with forced movement on our turn, defends our sites on the opponent's turn, and every time it drowns something it draws you a [[Mariner's Curse]].
[[Atlantean Fate]] turns off nasty sites and mass drowns. It's a staple for a reason.
[[Nelly Longarms]] reaches out and grabs stuff, then forces it to move, then can drown it. She can move friendly units without submerging them!
[[Stormy Seas]] drowns everything on one site. Force some movement to pile the opponent's guys up and send them to the deeps!
[[Call of the Sea]] makes a bunch of guys move and then makes them submerge.
[[Thin Ice]] is a site that repeatedly drowns stuff!

Forced (And Compelled) Movement

[[Meat Hook]] makes anyone do [[Nelly Longarms]] (or, well, [[Pudge Butcher]]) stuff!
[[Coy Nixie]] is best-in-class at the "park her on a [[Thin Ice]] and just watch stuff drown itself" role. She can move avatars.
[[Guile Sirens]] has one more power than [[Coy Nixie]] but has to trigger at the start of the turn and can only move minions, so they need to be on the surface instead of submerged during the opponent's turn.
[[Nelly Longarms]] definitely does do the movement part.
[[Abaddon Succubus]] does the [[Coy Nixie]] thing except she damages whatever moves and heals us, only affects adjacent enemy minions, and can't submerge safely but that's still pretty dang useful.
[[Unland Angler]] parked under a [[Thin Ice]] is pretty much a [[Call of the Sea]] on repeat every turn.
[[Riptide]] cantrips and scoots something. Can move an avatar!
[[Swap]] is extremely powerful and moves TWO things!
[[Innsmouth Dock]] does weaker [[Coy Nixie]] stuff but as a site.
[[Maelström]] can move many minions at the start of each turn.
[[River Rapids]] can push a minion from any connected river once a turn.
[[Undertow]] can move any unit, including an avatar when it enters the realm!

Doesn't Drown But Still Mitigates Threats

[[Hyperparasite]] disables a minion and then can attack it for free!
[[Giant Shark]] is 5 mana, 5 power, and moves itself for free to fight anything that moves in the water. Shuts down movement on close to the whole board for entire turns on its own. It'd be a shame if we forced some movement in that water.
[[Lord of Lies]] makes enemy threats remove other enemy threats.
[[Plague of Frogs]] can stop as many as seven attacks for one mana. Bonkers.
[[Mesmerism]] if we can't handle the threat another way we can just take it for ourselves!
[[Babbling Brook]] disables minions on the surface nearby for a turn. Notably does not disable submerged minions!
[[Tadpole Pool]] makes THREE blockers!
[[Troll Bridge]] is either card advantage or a strike for three when an enemy steps onto it. Hey, you know what makes enemies step onto things? Half our deck!

Recovering After Damage

[[Ring of Morrigan]] heals a little, can handle some things on its own, and can kill an opponent on door.
[[Orm Infestor]] heals a bit and the chip damage can add up.
[[Abaddon Succubus]] heals us.
[[Maiden, Mother, Crone]] heals a little when cast, drains the opponent on death, and if she lives for a turn we probably get a card or two out of her to boot.

Card Advantage

Actually Drawing

[[Deep-Sea Mermaids]] rip a card off the bottom of your deck. Get something you mulligan and decide you wanted! Use with [[Return to Nature]] to reuse [[Return to Nature]]! Lots of stuff can loop to and from the bottom of the spellbook with these. Very useful component of something like a repeating draw engine, which is hard to build in Sorcery. Probably the most important thing to plan to reuse is [[Toolbox]] just to keep one available.
[[Captain Baldassare]] doesn't draw from our deck but does grab three a turn until he dies.
[[Maiden, Mother, Crone]] is a one-card repeating draw engine. Which is why she's a removal magnet. If they let her live you probably win.
[[Return to Nature]] is an extremely powerful recursion engine. It replaces itself, lets you reuse [[Toolboxes]], lets you reuse [[Return to Nature]], and can hose decks that care about keeping stuff in cemeteries.
[[Riptide]] replaces itself and can draw a site if you need to keep your avatar's flood-and-tap ability available this turn.
[[Overflow]] draws a site and lets you play an extra one. This deck runs 6+ drops so ramping into those is prudent.

Sort Of Drawing

[[Toolbox]] is so good that I don't like the effect it has on the game as a whole or on deckbuilding specifically. But I built this deck to try to win games so here it is. Run more [[Legion of Gall]]. Print more [[Bureau of Occult Control]] effects. Make [[Toolbox]] bad. I know it solves problems inherent to a best-of-one game but it's just too versatile.

Yes I Know Card Selection Isn't Card Advantage But It's Still Good

[[Kelp Cavern]] can get you something back immediately from [[Return to Nature]] so that's cute.
[[Spring River]] or [[Summer River]] let us set up a draw with [[Deep-Sea Mermaids]].

Threats

The Opponent's Threats Can Be Our Threats Too

[[Captain Baldassare]] dies to removal, including our own removal, but "when this guy attacks, draw three cards you can cast while ignoring threshold" is nuts.
[[Lilith]] flips one card before the opponent can remove her, and 5 mana for two bodies (one of which needs to be removed as quickly as possible) is a pretty likely outcome and worth the mana.
[[Lord of Lies]] lets us use our opponent's threats without even needing to control them! Can kill an opponent on death's door, a six power body is dangerous on its own, free movement lets us get him nearby, and he can even choose himself as a target for a sort-of charge effect.
[[Mesmerism]] is game-endingly good if you target the right thing and gaining permanent control for four mana is buck wild.

Fear the Waters

[[Anui Undine]] turns flooding into murder. Easily 5 mana for 10 or more power.
[[Giant Shark]] with something forcing the opponent's avatar to move can door or kill someone quickly.
[[Great Old One]] floods everything and 8 mana for 16 power is terrifying. The whole point of the game plan is to go long, so 8 mana is resolutely achievable.
[[Island Leviathan]] is great if we can get to eight water affinity. We want to play a long game, so that's pretty doable.
[[Watery Grave]] gives us free value for drowning guys, and jeez do we ever want to be drowning guys.

The Other Stuff

It's Just Super Good And I Have One Okay

[[Mirror Realm]] is just another copy of whatever the best site is. It's outstanding.

The Collection

[[Blizzard]]'s symmetry is broken by [[Giant Shark]] because the "move and fight" thing isn't an attack. It does buy you a turn pretty reliably, though!
[[Just a Rock]] banishes an opposing [[Ring of Morrigan]] for one mana (plus a [[Toolbox]]).
[[Grievous Insult]] replaces itself and turns off an [[Old Salt Anchorman]] to make things drownable again.
[[Instigator Imp]]'s genesis ability is almost as good as a one-off [[Lord of Lies]].
[[Return to Nature]] just in case we need to get something out of a cemetery or set up a [[Deep-Sea Mermaids]] draw to reuse something.
[[Sleep]] also turns off an [[Old Salt Anchorman]] or any threat we don't have another answer for.
[[Extinguish]] answers a [[Drought]] or banishes a few minions at once. This is the only answer we have for any aura. It's precious.
[[Ice Lance]] is here as a door finisher.
[[Makeshift Barricade]] prevents a lot of door finishers from killing us, sometimes even more than once!
[[Overflow]] drawing and playing a site can let us tap to flood without falling behind on available mana, or if we play a site and cast it puts us ahead a turn. It's good.

Mulligans

Changes

Rework 2026-06-18: dropped the frog theme to refocus back on strict control and especially drowning-based removal in line with some of the ideas exemplified by the Drown in the Deep list by @ZenatheShadow
Revision 2026-04-26: made the deck worse on purpose to focus more on frog stuff.
Revision 2026-04-22: updated primer to more usable format.

Updates Under Consideration

[[Font of Life]] because if we're going long we might need more sustain than [[Ring of Morrigan]] and [[Orm Infestor]] can provide.
[[Meat Hook]] might deserve a third copy.
[[Anui Undine]] might deserve a third copy.
[[The Flood]] is a huge board wipe. Board wipes might be important if matches get grindy enough in a midrange-heavy metagame. This one unavoidably kills [[Maiden, Mother, Crone]] and the value of "flood the entire realm" redundancy probably isn't very high.
[[The Great Drowning of Men]] destroys four sites and drowns everything on them on a one-turn delay.
[[Wrath of the Sea]] is another enormous board wipe.

Waveshaper Control

@Anathema