The backup commander in the deck is Azlask, the Swelling Scourge, a slightly more manageable 3-colorless-mana 2/2 that gives you an experience counter whenever it or another colorless creautre you control dies
In EDH youll frequently steal some mana rocks, equipment, Blood tokens, Food, or Clue tokens
The tiny opportunity cost means you may not need a heavy defender theme to make Coral Colony viable, but it obviously helps and also provides another way to kill opponents using Axebane Guardian + High Alert untap loops
I personally really like Thoughtseize because it always feels great to be in control and trade your one-mana spell against some big threat of your counterpart
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Its death triggers, while middling, are still a tangible bonus to Kura