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Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep

Legendary Creature — Vampire Cleric // Legendary Creature — Kraken Horror

Flying
When Runo enters, put up to one target creature card from your graveyard on top of your library.
At the beginning of your upkeep, look at the top card of your library. You may reveal that card. If a creature card with mana value 6 or greater is revealed this way, transform Runo.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{1}{U}{B}
Color identity
BU
Rarity
rare
Set
Innistrad: Crimson Vow
Price
$0.29
EDHREC rank
#9456
Buy on TCGplayer
Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep card art
Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep copies your attacking sea creatures — every swing with a Kraken or Leviathan threatens to snowball the board faster than opponents can answer. The cost is the flip condition: you need six or more power among your creatures at upkeep, which means the deck has to be built around large bodies from the start, not as an afterthought. Marvo, Deep Operative shows exactly how the payoff looks when the engine is properly supported.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Marvo, Deep Operative

Marvo, Deep Operative

38.5% of decks · synergy 0.37

Marvo, Deep Operative's manifest dread mechanic puts large creatures into play face-down and then flips them, generating a stream of sea monsters that feed directly into Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep's copy trigger — once Krothuss is online, every attack with a manifested Kraken or Leviathan doubles the threat without spending additional mana.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep does its best work — the 100-card singleton format gives you room to stack enough Krakens, Leviathans, and sea creatures to reliably flip Runo on curve, and the multiplayer table means copied attackers generate political and board-state pressure simultaneously. In competitive 60-card formats like Pioneer and Modern, the two-card flip condition is too slow and too dependent on battlefield permanence to compete; you're asking for a specific creature composition at upkeep before you get any value. Legacy and Vintage are legal but offer nothing this card wants — the powered formats reward faster, more resilient engines. Oathbreaker is a functional home if the sea-monster theme is your pairing, but the 58-card deck and faster game clock make Krothuss harder to protect long enough to matter.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.29 bulk tier

At $0.29, Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep sits firmly in bulk territory, which is surprising given how much the copy effect dominates a game once it's active. Bulk rares with a dedicated tribal theme tend to stay cheap unless something pushes the archetype into mainstream popularity, so there's no urgency — pick up copies whenever you're ready to build.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.