Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca - Optimized Merfolk Tribal (EDH / Commander)

This deck is far and away my favorite of the many EDH decks that I've built. There have been at least a dozen iterations of this deck since I built it and this one seems to be the strongest. If you're the kind of player who enjoys having a response to every action your opponents take consider giving it a try and if you're a Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca player yourself I'd love to hear what you think.

It was originally inspired by the banning of Prophet of Kruphix. Basically the plan is to build your own Prophet of Kruphix and use it as a value engine while using Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca's card draw ability to keep your hand full. Since you're generating value on each player's turn you can quickly draw into your win conditions and build up a large enough board state to support them.

The Value Engine:
Part 1) Merfolk - You need to get 3 merfolk in play as quickly as possible to start drawing cards. 6 merfolk is usually where things start to get a little nuts. Keep in mind that your commander's abilities aren't effected by summoning sickness so it's usually best to have Kumena be the third merfolk that you drop.
Part 2) Untap synergy - You want to untap your merfolk as many times as you can per rotation so all of the following cards are great to get down early: Merrow Commerce, Intruder Alarm, Seedborn Muse, Murkfiend Liege and Quest for Renewal
Part 3) Flash - Playing at flash speed allows you go from tapping merfolk to draw cards on each of your opponent's turns to taking an entire turn on each of your opponent's turns. The following four cards are the flash package: Vedalken Orrery, Leyline of Anticipation, Winding Canyons, Alchemist's Refuge. Additionally, the following cards allow you to turn untapped creatures into mana; which is important because most of the untap synergy in the deck doesn't untap your lands: Earthcraft, Cryptolith Rite and Kiora's Follower.

Protection:
Once the value engine starts to snowball you will instantly become enemy number one at the table. A board wipe can be a real blowout to this deck so to mitigate that it runs the cheapest counterspell package available (Force of Will, Force of Negation, Pact of Negation, Fierce Guardianship, Swan Song, Muddle the Mixture). The card disadvantage from the forces is easily regained by your card draw engine. Free counterspells are extremely good in this deck because you're often tapping out 4 times per rotation, meaning that holding up a 2 drop counterspell would cost you 8 mana per rotation rather than the normal 2. Muddle the Mixture is an exception here because of its ability to tutor for Cyclonic Rift, Earthcraft or a merfolk combo piece. Lastly, you have a Heroic Intervention because the only thing better than countering a board wipe is dodging it while it hits everyone else.

Removal:
This deck is fairly light on removal in order to make room for the counterspells, tutors and enough cheap merfolk to make it consistent. Your spot removal includes Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, Nature's Claim, Harbinger of the Tides, Surgespanner and Strip Mine. For board wipes you have Cyclonic Rift, Evacuation and Inundate. With only 2 green creatures in the deck (Craterhoof Behemoth and Seedborn Muse) Inundate is very one sided.

Ramp:
One quick note - I like building my decks so that the tutors double as ramp. It's an easy way to crank up the power level.
0 Drop: Mana Crypt
1 Drop: Sol Ring, Carpet of Flowers, Expedition Map, Green Sun's Zenith) Carpet of Flowers is somewhat meta dependent but when it's good it's absurd. Expedition Map usually targets Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx so I count it as ramp but it can also be used later in the game to grab something from your toolbox of utility lands. Green Sun's Zenith targets Dryad Arbor in the first few turns and ends games later.
2 Drop: Earthcraft, Cryptolith Rite, Sylvan Scrying, Nature's Lore, Finale of Devastation, Kiora's Follower, Stonybrook Banneret, Thrasios, Triton Hero) Earthcraft and Cryptolith Rite are essential pieces to the value engine. Sylvan Scrying serves the same purpose as Expedition Map. Finale of Devastation ramps like a bad Green Sun's Zenith. Thrasios, Triton Hero is great when you're generating mana on each turn but not playing at instant speed, I.E - Seedborn Muse without Vedalken Orrery.
3 Drop: Growing Rites of Itlimoc, Harvest Season, Merrow Reejerey) Growing Rites of Itlimoc only making green mana is a little awkward but it's still good. Harvest Season requires some setup but 4-6 basics on turn 4 or 5 can win you the game.

Tutors:
The tutors in this deck are there to allow you to fill in the missing pieces once you start to develop your board. You have Worldly Tutor, Green Sun's Zenith, Finale of Devastation, Chord of Calling and Seahunter for creatures. Mystical Tutor and Muddle the Mixture are somewhat versatile but mostly they get Cyclonic Rift to make up for simic's lack of board wipes.

Lands:
There's nothing particularly complicated about the land setup, but a few quick notes. Since there're no enemy colored battlelands or cycle lands yet I would recommend not running off color fetches unless you have a Tropical Island. There are a huge amount of colored mana symbols in this deck so utility lands should be used sparingly. Also, the obvious missing card here is Gaea's Cradle. Like most people, I don't own one.

Win Conditions:
Craterhoof Behemoth - This is your go to win con that doesn't require an explanation. You can flash in Master of Waves right before you drop Craterhoof Behemoth for the surprise factor.

Wanderwine Prophets - Never cast Wanderwine Prophets on your turn. It will 100% get killed before you untap with it. It's one of the main win cons in this deck because you have tons of ways of flashing it in. Chord of Calling and Seahunter are the easy ones or you can just get it in your hand while playing at flash speed. You just need to set up your board so that it will have evasion. Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident for islandwalk, Merfolk Sovereign for unblockable or Caller of Gales for flying. Once you start taking turns with Wanderwine Prophets it's usually game over, in theory it can fizzle but it almost never does.

Intruder Alarm - This is probably the single most powerful card in the deck. It easily combos out with Earthcraft for the win. You can also do the same combo with Cryptolith Rite and a larger board. Getting this down with Lullmage Mentor will softlock the board. One quick tip, don't attempt the Lullmage Mentor lock if you can't deal with getting attacked by every creature in play.

Darting Merfolk - This is where things get complicated. There're a bunch of ways to set this combo up but the basic pieces are all the same. If you can generate more mana with a merfolk cast or ETB trigger then it costs to drop and pick up Darting Merfolk then you have infinite mana, infinite cast triggers and infinite ETB triggers. You can then use Surgespanner to bounce every permanent, Thrasios, Triton Hero to draw your deck or Deeproot Waters to make infinite merfolk. Specific setups are listed below.

1) Darting Merfolk + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx + Merrow Reejerey + 6 devotion to blue (5 for cast/ETB triggers)
2) Darting Merfolk + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx + Kiora's Follower + Intruder Alarm + 6 devotion to blue (5 for cast/ETB triggers)
3) Darting Merfolk + Earthcraft + Intruder Alarm + Island + 3 other creatures (if you're combing out with Earthcraft and Intruder Alarm just tutor for Darting Merfolk and end the game, otherwise it takes forever)
4) Darting Merfolk + Cryptolith Rite + Intruder Alarm + 4 creatures without summoning sickness

Conclusion:
My goal in building this was to create a highly interactive deck with as many decision points as possible that has the power level to play with the heavy hitters. In terms of its power, I would say that it's a solid 8/10, at least in comparison to my play group. The lines of play can be overwhelming at times because the skill cap of this build is very high, but an experienced player can handle it with a little practice. If you actually read all of this I'd love to hear what you think.

-Ratchet