Before you read today's installment of the Garage, I suggest you go to YouTube, look up the best sea shanty you know of, and have it playing in the background as you read this. I recommend "Billy Peddle" by Great Big Sea-- it'll set the mood nicely, and it's mostly an instrumental, in case you have trouble focusing on what you're reading when there's music with lyrics playing.

 It happened one day that as I was sorting through a pile of commons from M10, my gaze fell upon a Serpent of the Endless Sea. Immediately, I was transported from my cozy living room into an ocean of raging whitecaps and driving rain. Just as suddenly, I heard the shouts of panicked sailors rise above the din of the crashing waves. However, their cries were cut short by the thunderous roar of a mighty sea serpent!

Needless to say, I was sold. I grabbed 26 islands off my shelf faster than you can say "Leviathan" and got busy making a deck themed around the swirling waters of the deep and some of the fearsome beasts that inhabit them.

Creatures (of the deep):
4x Dandan
3x Veiled Serpent (technically not a creature, but turns into one fast enough)
4x Serpent of the Endless Sea (RAAAWR!)
1x Lorthos, the Tidemaker (Nothing says "you're being attacked by a sea monster" quite like a giant squid... or Octopus, as the case may be.)

Everything else:
4x Spreading Seas
2x Flood
2x High Tide (Does it get any more thematic than this?)
4x Into the Roil
2x Careful Consideration
3x Rewind
1x Walk the Aeons
4x Wayfarer's Bauble

Lands
26x Island (It really does feel like you're adrift in a vast, stormy sea when you've got 7 or 8 islands in play and you're keeping the opponent at bay with gigantic serpents and a Flood.)

While I have a great time slapping down serpents and sloshing around with my islands with this deck, it's not without its problems.  For one, I'm puzzled by the fact that I always seem to be running out of cards; despite my cantrips and card draw. Obviously this is one of my more casual decks, so it doesn't need to perform like a tournament powerhouse; but all the same, do you have any suggestions that might help it do a little less sinking and a little more swimming?

I'll tread water until you get back to me,
Keith

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Have no fear, Keith, I'm here to throw you a life raft. My only regret is that I'm writing this on Guy Fawkes Day instead of Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Now, how to make the oceans themselves rise up and serve your needs? Well, the moon controls the tides, so it couldn't hurt to throw in some Moonfolk. Soratami Savant and Uyo, Silent Prophet are among the best ones.

But the Soratami are aloof cloud dwellers that aren't at their best in combat and don't really suggest the ocean, so we can do better. Zendikar has given us an excellent choice: Living Tsunami! What better way to make your opponent feel like's adrift in a hostile sea than to summon a living tsunami to wash him away?

You can evoke that same idea with Kamigawa card Genju of the Falls. If a tsunami didn't get the point across, use your ACTUAL ISLANDS to attack for an unblockable three damage a turn. When your opponent is literally under attack by the land (or should I say ocean) underneath him, he'll get the idea pretty quick.

Another card, or pair of cards, that feel pretty at home in this deck would be Mana Drain and the card it later inspired, Draining Whelk.  After all, you can't have a body of water witout some sort of drainage, can you?

Also, I think you should replace Careful Consideration with the much more on-theme Gush. Gush is more powerful, mainly because you can tap all your lands for other cards, then at end of turn use Gush's alternate cost to draw two more.

Of course, between the Tsunami, Gush, and any Moonfolk you may want to add, you'll be returning a lot of Islands to your hand. How to make up for it? Well, to answer that, we can take an example from the idea man himself, Magic's premier monoblue mage, Jace Beleren. In the Jace vs. Chandra Duel Decks, Jace runs Gush among other cards, and counterbalances the drawback (not literally, or course) with a singleton copy of Terrain Generator. Since you're running plenty of Islands, you can definitely afford to replace one of them for this land, and be able to increase the rate at which you put Islands onto the field. That should also let you replace Wayfarer's Bauble-- a good card, but your deck would liekly be better served by AEther Spellbomb, Conjurer's Bauble, or perhaps Ponder. Of course, there are very few blue decks that don't become better when you add Ponder.

And as for your deck's tendency to run low on cards, there can be only one card that I could suggest to solve that problem. That card, of course, is Flow of Ideas. No other card will work as well or fit the theme so well.

That's about all I can say for this deck, Keith. Now get out there and bring the nor'easter down on some unsuspecting landlubber's head!

Good luck!

~BMoor