Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Kiora, the Rising Tide

Kiora, the Rising Tide

Legendary Creature — Merfolk Noble · {2}{U} · Blue commander

When Kiora enters, draw two cards, then discard two cards. Threshold — Whenever Kiora attacks, if there are seven or more cards in your graveyard, you may create Scion of the Deep, a legendary 8/8 blue Octopus creature token.

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What Kiora, the Rising Tide actually does

Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.

• Triggered ability · etbWhen Kiora enters, draw two cards, then discard two cards.
• Triggered ability · attackWhenever Kiora attacks, if there are seven or more cards in your graveyard, you may create Scion of the Deep, a legendary 8/8 blue Octopus creature token.

What a Kiora, the Rising Tide deck needs

Plays as combat trigger. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.

• blink and recursion aimed at the commander itself (its value is its own enter trigger)
• self-mill, discard and recursion (the graveyard is a resource its text reads)
• token payoffs — anthems, sacrifice outlets and go-wide finishers (it makes tokens on repeat)
• haste, evasion and protection for the commander, and extra combats (its own attack is the engine)

The Kiora, the Rising Tide deck plan

The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.

• 6× Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
• 6× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
• 8× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
• 4× Make the commander connect — a body that never deals combat damage never triggers
• 12× Make creature tokens — a static anthem or a go-wide commander needs a board to be wide
• 6× Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
• 4× A team pump that actually pumps tokens
• 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
• 9× Find the exact card the plan needs

Best cards for Kiora, the Rising Tide

Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.

Build this deck in the Arcane Forge →

Arcane Foundry is free to join and every tool is included: the Arcane Forge deck builder, the ARCANE Analyzer that scores a deck by simulating games rather than counting staples, a card scanner, a collection vault, and live webcam Commander tables. Read the guide · Browse all commanders · Pricing