Monstrosity of the Lake
Legendary Creature — Kraken
When Monstrosity of the Lake enters, you may pay 
. If you do, tap all creatures your opponents control, then put a stun counter on each of those creatures. (If a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove one from it instead.)
Islandcycling 
(, Discard this card: Search your library for an Island card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Tales of Middle-earth Commander
- Price
- $0.34
- EDHREC rank
- #5537
Monstrosity of the Lake hits the table as a massive flying blocker that immediately kills a creature or planeswalker on entry — all for a steep but payable eight mana. Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep can cheat it into play for free off a Kraken or Leviathan trigger, which is where the cost stops mattering.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep
Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep puts Monstrosity of the Lake into play for free whenever a Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent enters under your control — the death trigger and flash stapling make it a recursive threat engine rather than just a one-shot threat.
Kenessos, Priest of Thassa
Kenessos, Priest of Thassa can cheat Monstrosity of the Lake directly onto the battlefield at instant speed, bypassing the eight-mana cost entirely and letting the death trigger do work the moment it hits.
The Watcher in the Water
The Watcher in the Water is itself a massive Kraken that rewards you for going wide with tentacles, and Monstrosity of the Lake fits cleanly as another enormous sea creature that pulls its weight through both its enter-the-battlefield removal and its sacrifice-for-Flash recursion.
Sauron, Lord of the Rings
Sauron, Lord of the Rings leans on amassing an army and putting big threats on the board, and Monstrosity of the Lake serves as a removal spell stapled to a massive flying body that keeps pace with the deck's power-level expectations.
Runo Stromkirk
Runo Stromkirk wants the graveyard full of sea monsters to flip and copy, and Monstrosity of the Lake is exactly the kind of high-CMC Kraken that triggers his ability while offering a built-in flash-back threat once it hits the bin.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Monstrosity of the Lake is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but Commander is where it actually sees play — the singleton format's tolerance for expensive, splashy threats and the prevalence of sea-creature tribal commanders give it a home. In Legacy and Vintage, eight mana for a creature that doesn't immediately win the game is a non-starter; those formats kill you before you get there, and more efficient threats dominate the card-selection space. Oathbreaker is a functional format for it in the same sense Commander is — a big creature with an enters trigger can close games — but the smaller deck size and lower starting life total make the eight-mana ask harder to justify outside dedicated cheat-into-play shells.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.34 bulk tier
At $0.34, Monstrosity of the Lake is bulk, and that price reflects its narrow playability — it's a strong card in the right tribal shell but has almost no crossover appeal outside sea-creature decks. Don't expect movement; it will stay in the bulk bin unless a new Kraken commander dramatically spikes demand.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.