Now that the spoilers are out I feel like there are two distinct ways to build the deck. A go wide strat with metallic mimic and merfolk mistbinder that tops out with the merfolk that taps everything an opponent controls to alpha strike in. Or a tall strat where you just suit up and protect unblockable stuff, which just looks like a variant of the UG pummeled builds.
I think the question is more can the deck keep up with decks like temur energy that have lots of interaction that leave a card behind glorybringer, chandra, torch of defiance, scarab god (if four color), etc. Can the go wide strat beat a T3 Chandra? Can the tall strat punch through glorybringer and hydra profitably? Can you still have answers up in hand to handle control mainboard.
Now that the spoilers are out I feel like there are two distinct ways to build the deck. A go wide strat with metallic mimic and merfolk mistbinder that tops out with the merfolk that taps everything an opponent controls to alpha strike in. Or a tall strat where you just suit up and protect unblockable stuff, which just looks like a variant of the UG pummeled builds.
I think the question is more can the deck keep up with decks like temur energy that have lots of interaction that leave a card behind glorybringer, chandra, torch of defiance, scarab god (if four color), etc. Can the go wide strat beat a T3 Chandra? Can the tall strat punch through glorybringer and hydra profitably? Can you still have answers up in hand to handle control mainboard.
Sultai is the best way to beat Glorlybringer or Plainswalkers. Vraska's Contempt and Fatal Push are so good.
This is pretty close to what I'm aiming for though I'd probably go with 2x more Unsummon and 2x Nissa over Siren Stormtamer and Kopala (can probably move to the SB with 4x Blossoming Defense on the mainboard). Mist-Cloaked Herald looks like a really good addition to the deck as the 2nd 1-drop that can help through board-stalls.
The lists i've seen posted so far seem to be overvaluing Kumena's Speaker drastically. He was a good play when UG merfolk was lacking 1-drops, but now we have Mist-Cloaked Herald and Jade Bearer which are both much much better imo.
Here is my list, designed to mimic Modern Merfolk's playstyle and using Nissa as our version of vial. It's stocked up on card advantage and go-wide, with plenty of value and utility.
I really like Expel from Orazca over Unsummon since it can be used to deal with anything of theirs bothering us (from chandra to hazoret) and also protect all our creatures and even let us recast Nissa. The city mode is obviously only rarely active because it's such a garbage tier mechanic, but thankfully the first mode is good enough to make it worth the include for me. That said, bouncing and denying them a draw is a sweet tempo advantage when you get it.
The rest is pretty self-explanatory. I think Kumena's Speaker isn't worth the slot anymore. At best it's a 2/2 for G, which is undercosted but not worth the slot over the other more versatile 1-drops. Jade Bearer can pump a lord out of shock/lightning strike range, or add a counter to an unblockable Mist-Cloaked Herald. It's also a wayyyyy better topdeck late game.
I suppose you could try a list with 4x Kumena's Speaker, 4x Jade Bearer, 4x Mist-Cloaked Herald, and then the 12 lords, but I feel like a list like that suffers from a lack of haste and would end up having semi-explosive starts only to fizzle out once they start tossing out the board wipes. This list is packed with redundancy and card advantage to keep your hand full and power out fish.
Nissa is awesome here, this really feels like the home for her in standard. She's a 3-drop here because casting her for x=1 and then upping to 3 counters means you can just continually 0 her for the rest of the game and almost always have a hit. She's also an incredible topdeck lategame and her ult is a real threat. Pick up your copies now while she's still not crazy expensive.
Anyway, the way the deck should win is just pump a creature enough and then either out value what they got from creature growth or power double some unblockable thingy. I think the base could be used to build a merfolk tribal type deck, just that I'm not sure the options are there. The other option is to just go strait merfolk lords, but looking at the competition I think that dinosaurs will over power an non-interactive strategy. It's possible I'm just not seeing something, but going Metallic Mimic with Deeproot Elite doesn't sound ideal. The elite is good because it can buff a one drop that is already there unlike the mimic, but I think that the Mistbinder is going to be superior to mimic in this case. Case in point, it can buff existing creatures unconditionally and hits all of them, where as mimic will only buff if the creature comes down after it. You still want room for a win condition and not just support cards such as River Sneak, which will break a stalemate situation unlike the mimic.
Edit: Also the branchwalker is more like Silvergill Adept 5-8 so I wouldn't go nuts on it. Also, I'm really feeling that the deck needs a way to interact or something with the opponent, but that's going to be more a wait and see with dinosaurs. It looks like they can do a pummeler style dino build with the new legendary 12/12 trampler.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Colt, just no. To all of that. To thinking dinos will be a deck (it isn't now and it won't when it gets a new unplayable 14-drop that requires they already be winning to be played), no to thinking Merfolk should be a voltron deck that pumps a single creature (removal is a thing and our best cards all die to fatal push, merfolk ALWAYS goes wide) and especially no to thinking that enter the unknown is a 4-of lol
The fact is that the most competitive form of merfolk for standard will be a tribal valuetown aggro deck. We make up for a lack of R or B removal spells with significant card advantage that turns 1-for-1 trades into favorable interactions for us. Our best interaction aside from blocking is bounce spells and combat tricks, which is fine if the deck works properly (modern merfolk survived with only vapor snag as a tier 1 deck for a long time using this same formula). Blossoming Defense isn't just a protection spell. It can also let you swing your 2/1 Silvergill into their 3/2 rogue refiner and come out on top, basically turning it into a spell that reads G: kill target blocking creature.
Bottom line is merfolk in modern wins off of value and unblockable creatures. We don't have access to spreading seas or islandwalk, so instead we need to up the value and find ways to go wider or get our damage through. One strong option is Herald of Secret Streams.
The critical mass of lords and cantrips is the key part. Playing a minimum of 10 lords means you are almost certainly going to see one in your opening 7. Metallic Mimic is the weakest lord, so I plan to run 2 of him and 4 of the other 2. Deeproot is fantastic because it lets you put the counter anywhere you want, i.e. where it's most useful.
I understand the temptation to include black for sneke and fatal push, and walking ballista and all that, but its just not good that way. If you want to play a deck that plays with sneke and ballista, you would be far far far better off just playing GB Sneke.
Expel from Orazca is basically Disperse which is just less mana-efficient than Unsummon, maybe it is better post-board for non-creatures
(though we have Naturalize now) but I don't want it in the maindeck.
I don't think that Jade Bearer is better than Kumena's Speaker, an aggrresive 1-drop is exactly what the deck needs. Jade Bearer has a slight advantage later in the game but is awkward earlier and can just get its target removed in response anyway and is equally bad on an empty board.
Colt, just no. To all of that. To thinking dinos will be a deck (it isn't now and it won't when it gets a new unplayable 14-drop that requires they already be winning to be played), no to thinking Merfolk should be a voltron deck that pumps a single creature (removal is a thing and our best cards all die to fatal push, merfolk ALWAYS goes wide) and especially no to thinking that enter the unknown is a 4-of lol
The fact is that the most competitive form of merfolk for standard will be a tribal valuetown aggro deck. We make up for a lack of R or B removal spells with significant card advantage that turns 1-for-1 trades into favorable interactions for us. Our best interaction aside from blocking is bounce spells and combat tricks, which is fine if the deck works properly (modern merfolk survived with only vapor snag as a tier 1 deck for a long time using this same formula). Blossoming Defense isn't just a protection spell. It can also let you swing your 2/1 Silvergill into their 3/2 rogue refiner and come out on top, basically turning it into a spell that reads G: kill target blocking creature.
Bottom line is merfolk in modern wins off of value and unblockable creatures. We don't have access to spreading seas or islandwalk, so instead we need to up the value and find ways to go wider or get our damage through. One strong option is Herald of Secret Streams.
The critical mass of lords and cantrips is the key part. Playing a minimum of 10 lords means you are almost certainly going to see one in your opening 7. Metallic Mimic is the weakest lord, so I plan to run 2 of him and 4 of the other 2. Deeproot is fantastic because it lets you put the counter anywhere you want, i.e. where it's most useful.
I understand the temptation to include black for sneke and fatal push, and walking ballista and all that, but its just not good that way. If you want to play a deck that plays with sneke and ballista, you would be far far far better off just playing GB Sneke.
I don't think Herald of Secret Streams is where the deck wants to end up personally. Tempest Caller, while uncommon because it's a one shot effect, is what you want vs a creature deck. Herald is going to be stronger vs someone who doesn't have an answer. His effect can be disastrous if they remove him during combat, especially if you've blown hexproof interaction earlier on and didnt' save any for him. Tempest Caller gives you the effect once, which should be enough to send a bunch of hexproof and/or now unblockable stuff unless it gets countered which is great against mid-range decks.
The issue is that the trick works once vs temur energy. At that point you're playing a deck that has no removal for a Whirler Virtuoso that can just resolve the ETB of tempest caller and spit out blockers, that unless you have pumps trade with your tokens. Herald opens you up to blow outs if you don't wait a turn or two, at which point he's probably going to die to a glorybringer, chandra, abrade, harnessed lightning or whatever. Playing herald t5 to hold up blossoming defense requires 5 lands, the herald, and defense and a board that actually matters if you connect with it. That's a very specific set of 11 cards if you're on the play for a maybe t6 kill?
I don't think that going tall is a bad thing at all. Getting blown out by sweepers (which there are a ton of right now) is not where I want to be and we have a paltry choice of flash threats so holding up counter mana isn't really an option most of the time in the first 4 turns where we need to develop our board. Wide strats will fold to: Bontu's Last Reckoning, the new -2/-2 sweeper, sweltering suns, hour of devestation, whatever that white board clear that ends up getting cheaper is called, Settle of the Wreckage, or Fumigate. That's 3-6 mana over 3 colors with options straight up the spectrum of what they need to handle...and the wide strat dies to ALL OF IT. Heroic intervention, spell pierce or negate are fine if you have a way of deploying threats opponent's EOT if your opponent isn't doing something you have to answer...we don't have that for UG merfolk unfortunately.
Many of these cards are already showing up in 2-6+ numbers in many 75s because they combat BW stockpile token strats, smaller decks like GBx snek that are full of 2 drops, and now our wide strat. I lose very little by just including 2-3 sweepers in my deck. The fact that none of our relevant threats have built in hexproof is even more irritating. Bristling Hydra is exactly the kind of card we want, but we can't make it unblockable easily and it just survives better in energy builds.
So I'm thinking of shells like the following:
A merfolk/pirate tempo build, probably UB that wants cheap creatures and more than likely caps out at CMC 3-4, with mostly 1-2 drops and interaction like spell pierce so you can deploy threats and stop your opponents 2+ for 1s.
A UGb build that is probably more mid-range esque with energy, snek and scarab god. Probably no merfolk synergies here, but the +1/+1 counter theme is a good layover. So the explore, explore 3 drop following a snek is solid. Ghalta, Primal Hunger or Rhonas the Indomitable maybe? I dunno.
A UB control build that focuses on some of the tokens to do work as they just trade removal 1v1 for our opponents stuff. This just feels like a worse wincon then Torrential Gearhulk or Scrab God.
A variant of the UG energy pummeler build.
Right now I can't see the deck putting up much of a fight against WB hidden stockpile, Temur Energy, or UW approach. Approach in particular looks rough as it can just sweep the board sooooo many times. When rebuilding we look silly with a bunch of 1/1s even if they are hexproof. The deck also looks like it can struggle against a vehicles deck if mardu or another variant comes back into the fray.
I'm bouncing between Tempest Caller and Aquatic Incursion as the four drop. In a lords build those two instant hexproof tokens are going to be 4 power at worse and possibly 8 additional power on the field if three lords are out, with 2 of that power distributed between whatever merfolk are on the field. Not to mention if someone is in a board stall they can make some merfolk unblockable with it and just swing with that to close the game.
I'm probably packing 2 negate main board at the very least or spell pierce. Everyone is going to be running guns against go wide strategies like merfolk and vampires because they are paint by numbers decks right now. Anyone not trying to play with oddball combinations of cards is going to just cram the lord build and call it a day, that is why I'm messing around with Walking Ballista to see if there is room somewhere. That and mono-red is still going to be a tough deck to take on.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Well Saydee I would recommend just moving over to the energy forum if the situation is so dire. I for one am up to the challenge of beating Energy. Anyway these are the creatures I thought were the most standard viable. The weakest creature by far is river sneak, however, I do believe this card gives us needed reach in dire situations. What else can you ask for from your worst creature. I do not think three colors are viable. You can not build a three color mana base for an aggro deck that will be consistent without aether hub and attune with aether. This deck will succeed by staying low to the ground, playing efficient creatures and backing them up with blossoming defense and counter spells. I think Nissa, steward of elements shines in this deck especially when keeping the creature curve at 3 or below. Lastly, I did not include any four drop merfolk creatures because I think they are too fragile, expensive and unnecessary. I also wanted to make nissa as consistent as possible.
Hadana's Climb when flipped actually gives creatures flying in addition to the doubling of power and toughness, btw. It can act as a way to sneak damage through in a stalemate all by itself and with the amount of +1/+1 counter synergy in this deck already it is probably worth considering. Not sure why people are jamming so many Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca in the deck, though. He's really not that great since he's mostly a 3 mana conditional unblockable guy. Kopala, Warden of Waves at least gives protection against removal.
Edit: Also, if I'm playing aggressively I'd rather have the higher potential ceiling of Jadelight Ranger than Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca. I think the later card is better if the game is going to run long, but if the game is running long his abilities do require being in a better board state. I mean, what is the play T4 with Kumena that is going to be better than Jadelight Ranger?
Opponent T3 -> Fiery Cannonade wipes the field and they swing
Your T3 -> Play Kumena
Their T4 -> Drop Hazoret
Your T4 -> ?? (Probably have to bounce something using unsummon or play a card like Watertrap weaver) then maybe swing in for 2?
Albeit that is a pretty unfavorable situation, but it's one that is going to happen and people are going to be running a LOT of board sweeps this coming season. We may not see Settle the Wreckage as much as we used to, but we will see Fiery cannonade out of the side, Bontu's Last Reckoning, etc.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
That's a fair point. I noticed that Kumena was underwhelming when behind. It's unbeatable when ahead though. Mediocre threshold, high ceiling.
I'm also a big fan of Hadana's Climb. I had crazy attacks in a Sultai Energy deck, so here the goal is to have a counter-centric build (maybe Sultai Merfolk as well, with Winding Constrictor as the only black staple). I haven't worked on a list yet, but my raw draft will start with :
Go all-in and see what happens. From there cut the bad cards if they didn't pull enough weight and replace them with better overall cards (Sivergill, Speaker, Kumena, etc...).
After that, compare it to an Energy version and see which is better.
Couple quick hits:
I've had some success with Curious Obsession. Have any of you tried it?
My current list is experimenting with Heart of Kiran. I kept having Branchwalkers, etc, with 3 power and no way to attack profitably. Also toying with Open Into Wonder. Oddly, I considered Paradoxical Outcome, but we haven't gotten that desperate. Yet.
That's a fair point. I noticed that Kumena was underwhelming when behind. It's unbeatable when ahead though. Mediocre threshold, high ceiling.
I'm also a big fan of Hadana's Climb. I had crazy attacks in a Sultai Energy deck, so here the goal is to have a counter-centric build (maybe Sultai Merfolk as well, with Winding Constrictor as the only black staple). I haven't worked on a list yet, but my raw draft will start with :
Go all-in and see what happens. From there cut the bad cards if they didn't pull enough weight and replace them with better overall cards (Sivergill, Speaker, Kumena, etc...).
After that, compare it to an Energy version and see which is better.
I'm playing with the deck tech right now, actually. (Home sick at the moment so might as well do something with the time). Winding Constrictor is hard to play with Merfolk Mistbinder since one requires a blue source turn 2 and the other a black source turn 2 and really there's an all in merfolk build and a few builds that just use certain merfolk (read: Explore). I'm working with more towards a 24/12 build and adjusting from there. A lot of the best interactive spells are kind of pricey right now and the math feels like Pirates and Dinosaurs have the ability to put more power down reliably by turn 3-4 than merfolk does. That's why there are people running around saying "Energy just beats merfolk", because they got cards that work more reliably. Jadelight Ranger is insane, but Rogue Refiner is more dependable and arguably equally insane, plus enables them to go three color with lands like Aetherhub that aren't locked to a card type.
I'm going to be frank: Wizards should have printed tribal Aether vial into this set. They sort of tried to do it with putting flash on a few creatures, but it would have been a lot better to just have that card, especially with abrade and all the hate they got for artifacts.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yeah Vial is like perfect for the set ! I thought about it last week, like they could've printed a fixed version.
I already edited the draft above, with 4 Blossoming Defenses, and cut the Bearer.
Indeed, if Constrictor is impossible to splash, another easy Merfolk can take the slot, or a noncreature spell, but I'm not sure whether diluting the all-in appproach is worth it. Waiting for your feedback.
One thing I'm pretty confident about is that 4-drops are garbage for an aggro version. It forces to play more lands while 20 should be sufficient (and not 22-24 like I see sometimes). Merfolk has no Hazoret-like card that is worth conceding spell slots for lands.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
This is probably what most people are thinking about with going wide on merfolk. It offers two ways to really swing in and break a stalemate and isn't dead if the board gets reset as the climb can potentially help push a little damage through. Jungleborn Pioneer is pretty good since it basically gives two bodies to pump at once with one of them being hexproof. The merfolk centric build can probably ditch the climb entirely and just put in some form of higher efficiency merfolk like Vineshaper Mystic or try to run in with an unblockable River Sneak.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Vineshaper Mystic is cool with Climb actually. The problem I have is that I can't beat Ram Red on the draw. On the play the race is close and I usually need Climb to win.
Wildgrowth Walker looks interesting in a GB Snek midrange deck, with an Explore theme. Don't know if there's enough support, but the key is about that 4cmc enchantment for sure, and maybe token generators like Tendershoot Dryad...
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
Vineshaper Mystic is cool with Climb actually. The problem I have is that I can't beat Ram Red on the draw. On the play the race is close and I usually need Climb to win.
Wildgrowth Walker looks interesting in a GB Snek midrange deck, with an Explore theme. Don't know if there's enough support, but the key is about that 4cmc enchantment for sure, and maybe token generators like Tendershoot Dryad...
There's a ton of tech involving counters besides just snake as well. Wily Bandar is an often forgotten gem that can also trigger climb in multiple ways, the first of which is basically just land climb turn 3 and it flips once combat phase hits. Deeproot Champion triggers off of simply playing enchantments so it has that going for it. The reason Enter the Unknown is good in the first deck is that it triggers both Deeproot Champion and Wildgrowth Walker, but in a pure merfolk build you're right that Jade Bearer would probably be more reliable.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Blazing Volley isn't going to beat anthems though. And many vamps are just immune to the card. If it's about lifelink, you better have Rampaging Ferocidon in Red: it prevents lifelink, is another attacker, doesn't kill your own guys (in case you were thinking of red wrath effects) and might even be good with Climb.
This is also why Climb is strong, it helps attacking for so much damage that even a lifelink strategy can lose to it.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
Personally I do not think splashing a third color is necessary. I also do not think our decks weakness is lifegain. It is not like we are a all in red aggro deck. We have a pretty decent long game plan with creatures that replenish our hand such as silvergill adept, merfolk branchwalker and kumena, tyrant of orazca while Nissa, steward of elements replenishes our board. We also do not have an easy way to splash a third color without completely diminishing the consistency of the deck. Aether hub only works in decks where you can consistently get more energy, which this deck is incapable of doing. I think Blue and Green has enough to offer in the sideboard where we are not forced to switch to a three color scheme.
11:15, restate my assumptions: 1. Mathematics is the language of nature. 2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. 3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge. Therefore: There are patterns everywhere in nature. - Maximillian Cohen.
The Merfolk seem to run pretty parallel to what everyone else is talking about. Rishkar is cool +1/+1 synergy, but his ramp is largely wasted and there's other, more synergistic, merfolk that would work better in that slot. Do you need the card draw from Chart a Course with Silvergill in the deck? We aren't really looking to feed our graveyard with discards either. Evolving Wilds should just be more forests/islands. Enter the Unknown seems terrible. Like, maybe limited playable. Maybe. Doubt it. Definitely not standard. Growing Rites also seems bad. You get one dig for a creature, which you're probably hit, and then it does nothing. Even the creature goes to your hand, so it doesn't affect the battlefield at all. When you flip it, it's a fun "get tons of mana" card but nothing in the deck does anything with that mana. There's no X casting cost cards that do cool stuff like an overrun effect.
2x Siren Stormtamer
4x Kumena's Speaker
4x Mist-Cloaked Herald
4x Merfolk Branchwalker
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Merfolk Mistbinder
4x Metallic Mimic
2x Kopala, Warden of Waves
2x Kumena, Tyrant of Orzca
2x Unsummon
4x Blossoming Defense
Enchantment (2)
2x Deeproot Waters
Land (22)
4x Botanical Sanctum
3x Unclaimed Territory
7x Island
5x Forest
3x Hashep Oasis
3x Negate
2x Heroic Intervention
3x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
2x Ambuscade
2x Naturalize
3x Spell Pierce
I think the question is more can the deck keep up with decks like temur energy that have lots of interaction that leave a card behind glorybringer, chandra, torch of defiance, scarab god (if four color), etc. Can the go wide strat beat a T3 Chandra? Can the tall strat punch through glorybringer and hydra profitably? Can you still have answers up in hand to handle control mainboard.
Sultai is the best way to beat Glorlybringer or Plainswalkers. Vraska's Contempt and Fatal Push are so good.
4 Blossoming Defense
4 Botanical Sanctum
2 Deeproot Waters
5 Forest
2 Hadana's Climb
7 Island
3 Jadelight Ranger
4 Kumena's Speaker
3 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Metallic Mimic
2 Nissa, Steward of Elements
4 Silvergill Adept
2 Swift Warden
4 Unclaimed Territory
2 Woodland Stream
2 Admiral's Order
2 Appetite for the Unnatural
2 Heroic Intervention
3 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
4 Negate
2 Nissa, Steward of Elements
[/deck]
Sorry for the messy formatting. This is my Attempt 1
This is pretty close to what I'm aiming for though I'd probably go with 2x more Unsummon and 2x Nissa over Siren Stormtamer and Kopala (can probably move to the SB with 4x Blossoming Defense on the mainboard).
Mist-Cloaked Herald looks like a really good addition to the deck as the 2nd 1-drop that can help through board-stalls.
I'm still not sure what is the best support card for the deck to generate card advantage between:
Deeproot Waters, Lifecrafter's Bestiary and Nissa, Steward of Elements.
Nissa seems to have the highest ceiling though.
Deeproot Elite also looks like a good option for the deck potentially better than Metallic Mimic as you get to choose where the counters go.
Here is my list, designed to mimic Modern Merfolk's playstyle and using Nissa as our version of vial. It's stocked up on card advantage and go-wide, with plenty of value and utility.
4 Mist Cloaked Herald
3 Jade Bearer
2-drops (18) :
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Deeproot Elite
2 Metallic Mimic
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Silvergill Adept
2 Jadelight Ranger
2 Jungleborn Pioneer
3 Nissa, Steward of Elements
Utility (7) :
4 Blossoming Defense
3 Expel from Orazca
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Unclaimed Territory
3 Hashep Oasis
6 Forest
4 Island
I really like Expel from Orazca over Unsummon since it can be used to deal with anything of theirs bothering us (from chandra to hazoret) and also protect all our creatures and even let us recast Nissa. The city mode is obviously only rarely active because it's such a garbage tier mechanic, but thankfully the first mode is good enough to make it worth the include for me. That said, bouncing and denying them a draw is a sweet tempo advantage when you get it.
The rest is pretty self-explanatory. I think Kumena's Speaker isn't worth the slot anymore. At best it's a 2/2 for G, which is undercosted but not worth the slot over the other more versatile 1-drops. Jade Bearer can pump a lord out of shock/lightning strike range, or add a counter to an unblockable Mist-Cloaked Herald. It's also a wayyyyy better topdeck late game.
I suppose you could try a list with 4x Kumena's Speaker, 4x Jade Bearer, 4x Mist-Cloaked Herald, and then the 12 lords, but I feel like a list like that suffers from a lack of haste and would end up having semi-explosive starts only to fizzle out once they start tossing out the board wipes. This list is packed with redundancy and card advantage to keep your hand full and power out fish.
Nissa is awesome here, this really feels like the home for her in standard. She's a 3-drop here because casting her for x=1 and then upping to 3 counters means you can just continually 0 her for the rest of the game and almost always have a hit. She's also an incredible topdeck lategame and her ult is a real threat. Pick up your copies now while she's still not crazy expensive.
Anyway, the way the deck should win is just pump a creature enough and then either out value what they got from creature growth or power double some unblockable thingy. I think the base could be used to build a merfolk tribal type deck, just that I'm not sure the options are there. The other option is to just go strait merfolk lords, but looking at the competition I think that dinosaurs will over power an non-interactive strategy. It's possible I'm just not seeing something, but going Metallic Mimic with Deeproot Elite doesn't sound ideal. The elite is good because it can buff a one drop that is already there unlike the mimic, but I think that the Mistbinder is going to be superior to mimic in this case. Case in point, it can buff existing creatures unconditionally and hits all of them, where as mimic will only buff if the creature comes down after it. You still want room for a win condition and not just support cards such as River Sneak, which will break a stalemate situation unlike the mimic.
Edit: Also the branchwalker is more like Silvergill Adept 5-8 so I wouldn't go nuts on it. Also, I'm really feeling that the deck needs a way to interact or something with the opponent, but that's going to be more a wait and see with dinosaurs. It looks like they can do a pummeler style dino build with the new legendary 12/12 trampler.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The fact is that the most competitive form of merfolk for standard will be a tribal valuetown aggro deck. We make up for a lack of R or B removal spells with significant card advantage that turns 1-for-1 trades into favorable interactions for us. Our best interaction aside from blocking is bounce spells and combat tricks, which is fine if the deck works properly (modern merfolk survived with only vapor snag as a tier 1 deck for a long time using this same formula). Blossoming Defense isn't just a protection spell. It can also let you swing your 2/1 Silvergill into their 3/2 rogue refiner and come out on top, basically turning it into a spell that reads G: kill target blocking creature.
Bottom line is merfolk in modern wins off of value and unblockable creatures. We don't have access to spreading seas or islandwalk, so instead we need to up the value and find ways to go wider or get our damage through. One strong option is Herald of Secret Streams.
The critical mass of lords and cantrips is the key part. Playing a minimum of 10 lords means you are almost certainly going to see one in your opening 7. Metallic Mimic is the weakest lord, so I plan to run 2 of him and 4 of the other 2. Deeproot is fantastic because it lets you put the counter anywhere you want, i.e. where it's most useful.
I understand the temptation to include black for sneke and fatal push, and walking ballista and all that, but its just not good that way. If you want to play a deck that plays with sneke and ballista, you would be far far far better off just playing GB Sneke.
(though we have Naturalize now) but I don't want it in the maindeck.
I don't think that Jade Bearer is better than Kumena's Speaker, an aggrresive 1-drop is exactly what the deck needs.
Jade Bearer has a slight advantage later in the game but is awkward earlier and can just get its target removed in response anyway and is equally bad on an empty board.
I don't think Herald of Secret Streams is where the deck wants to end up personally. Tempest Caller, while uncommon because it's a one shot effect, is what you want vs a creature deck. Herald is going to be stronger vs someone who doesn't have an answer. His effect can be disastrous if they remove him during combat, especially if you've blown hexproof interaction earlier on and didnt' save any for him. Tempest Caller gives you the effect once, which should be enough to send a bunch of hexproof and/or now unblockable stuff unless it gets countered which is great against mid-range decks.
The issue is that the trick works once vs temur energy. At that point you're playing a deck that has no removal for a Whirler Virtuoso that can just resolve the ETB of tempest caller and spit out blockers, that unless you have pumps trade with your tokens. Herald opens you up to blow outs if you don't wait a turn or two, at which point he's probably going to die to a glorybringer, chandra, abrade, harnessed lightning or whatever. Playing herald t5 to hold up blossoming defense requires 5 lands, the herald, and defense and a board that actually matters if you connect with it. That's a very specific set of 11 cards if you're on the play for a maybe t6 kill?
I don't think that going tall is a bad thing at all. Getting blown out by sweepers (which there are a ton of right now) is not where I want to be and we have a paltry choice of flash threats so holding up counter mana isn't really an option most of the time in the first 4 turns where we need to develop our board. Wide strats will fold to: Bontu's Last Reckoning, the new -2/-2 sweeper, sweltering suns, hour of devestation, whatever that white board clear that ends up getting cheaper is called, Settle of the Wreckage, or Fumigate. That's 3-6 mana over 3 colors with options straight up the spectrum of what they need to handle...and the wide strat dies to ALL OF IT. Heroic intervention, spell pierce or negate are fine if you have a way of deploying threats opponent's EOT if your opponent isn't doing something you have to answer...we don't have that for UG merfolk unfortunately.
Many of these cards are already showing up in 2-6+ numbers in many 75s because they combat BW stockpile token strats, smaller decks like GBx snek that are full of 2 drops, and now our wide strat. I lose very little by just including 2-3 sweepers in my deck. The fact that none of our relevant threats have built in hexproof is even more irritating. Bristling Hydra is exactly the kind of card we want, but we can't make it unblockable easily and it just survives better in energy builds.
So I'm thinking of shells like the following:
A merfolk/pirate tempo build, probably UB that wants cheap creatures and more than likely caps out at CMC 3-4, with mostly 1-2 drops and interaction like spell pierce so you can deploy threats and stop your opponents 2+ for 1s.
A UGb build that is probably more mid-range esque with energy, snek and scarab god. Probably no merfolk synergies here, but the +1/+1 counter theme is a good layover. So the explore, explore 3 drop following a snek is solid. Ghalta, Primal Hunger or Rhonas the Indomitable maybe? I dunno.
A UB control build that focuses on some of the tokens to do work as they just trade removal 1v1 for our opponents stuff. This just feels like a worse wincon then Torrential Gearhulk or Scrab God.
A variant of the UG energy pummeler build.
Right now I can't see the deck putting up much of a fight against WB hidden stockpile, Temur Energy, or UW approach. Approach in particular looks rough as it can just sweep the board sooooo many times. When rebuilding we look silly with a bunch of 1/1s even if they are hexproof. The deck also looks like it can struggle against a vehicles deck if mardu or another variant comes back into the fray.
I'm probably packing 2 negate main board at the very least or spell pierce. Everyone is going to be running guns against go wide strategies like merfolk and vampires because they are paint by numbers decks right now. Anyone not trying to play with oddball combinations of cards is going to just cram the lord build and call it a day, that is why I'm messing around with Walking Ballista to see if there is room somewhere. That and mono-red is still going to be a tough deck to take on.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
4 Kumena's Speaker
3 River Sneak
3 Deeproot Elite
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
3 Watertrap Weaver
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
7 Forest
7 Island
4 Botanical Sanctum
1 Hashep Oasis
4 Unclaimed Territory
Instant
4 Blossoming Defense
2 Unsummon
Planeswalker
3 Nissa, Steward of Elements
2 Kopala, Warden of Waves
1 Shapers' Sanctuary
3 Deeproot Waters
3 Essence Scatter
3 Negate
3 Naturalize
Well Saydee I would recommend just moving over to the energy forum if the situation is so dire. I for one am up to the challenge of beating Energy. Anyway these are the creatures I thought were the most standard viable. The weakest creature by far is river sneak, however, I do believe this card gives us needed reach in dire situations. What else can you ask for from your worst creature. I do not think three colors are viable. You can not build a three color mana base for an aggro deck that will be consistent without aether hub and attune with aether. This deck will succeed by staying low to the ground, playing efficient creatures and backing them up with blossoming defense and counter spells. I think Nissa, steward of elements shines in this deck especially when keeping the creature curve at 3 or below. Lastly, I did not include any four drop merfolk creatures because I think they are too fragile, expensive and unnecessary. I also wanted to make nissa as consistent as possible.
Edit: Also, if I'm playing aggressively I'd rather have the higher potential ceiling of Jadelight Ranger than Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca. I think the later card is better if the game is going to run long, but if the game is running long his abilities do require being in a better board state. I mean, what is the play T4 with Kumena that is going to be better than Jadelight Ranger?
Opponent T3 -> Fiery Cannonade wipes the field and they swing
Your T3 -> Play Kumena
Their T4 -> Drop Hazoret
Your T4 -> ?? (Probably have to bounce something using unsummon or play a card like Watertrap weaver) then maybe swing in for 2?
Albeit that is a pretty unfavorable situation, but it's one that is going to happen and people are going to be running a LOT of board sweeps this coming season. We may not see Settle the Wreckage as much as we used to, but we will see Fiery cannonade out of the side, Bontu's Last Reckoning, etc.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm also a big fan of Hadana's Climb. I had crazy attacks in a Sultai Energy deck, so here the goal is to have a counter-centric build (maybe Sultai Merfolk as well, with Winding Constrictor as the only black staple). I haven't worked on a list yet, but my raw draft will start with :
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Deeproot Elite
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Winding Constrictor
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Jadelight Ranger
4 Vineshaper Mystic
4 Hadana's Climb
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Fetid Pools
4 Unclaimed Territory
2 Island
2 Forest
Go all-in and see what happens. From there cut the bad cards if they didn't pull enough weight and replace them with better overall cards (Sivergill, Speaker, Kumena, etc...).
After that, compare it to an Energy version and see which is better.
I've had some success with Curious Obsession. Have any of you tried it?
My current list is experimenting with Heart of Kiran. I kept having Branchwalkers, etc, with 3 power and no way to attack profitably. Also toying with Open Into Wonder. Oddly, I considered Paradoxical Outcome, but we haven't gotten that desperate. Yet.
I'm playing with the deck tech right now, actually. (Home sick at the moment so might as well do something with the time). Winding Constrictor is hard to play with Merfolk Mistbinder since one requires a blue source turn 2 and the other a black source turn 2 and really there's an all in merfolk build and a few builds that just use certain merfolk (read: Explore). I'm working with more towards a 24/12 build and adjusting from there. A lot of the best interactive spells are kind of pricey right now and the math feels like Pirates and Dinosaurs have the ability to put more power down reliably by turn 3-4 than merfolk does. That's why there are people running around saying "Energy just beats merfolk", because they got cards that work more reliably. Jadelight Ranger is insane, but Rogue Refiner is more dependable and arguably equally insane, plus enables them to go three color with lands like Aetherhub that aren't locked to a card type.
I'm going to be frank: Wizards should have printed tribal Aether vial into this set. They sort of tried to do it with putting flash on a few creatures, but it would have been a lot better to just have that card, especially with abrade and all the hate they got for artifacts.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I already edited the draft above, with 4 Blossoming Defenses, and cut the Bearer.
Indeed, if Constrictor is impossible to splash, another easy Merfolk can take the slot, or a noncreature spell, but I'm not sure whether diluting the all-in appproach is worth it. Waiting for your feedback.
One thing I'm pretty confident about is that 4-drops are garbage for an aggro version. It forces to play more lands while 20 should be sufficient (and not 22-24 like I see sometimes). Merfolk has no Hazoret-like card that is worth conceding spell slots for lands.
4 Blossoming Defense
4 Deeproot Champion
4 Enter the Unknown
3 Hadana's Climb
4 Jadelight Ranger
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
3 Negate
4 Path to Discovery
4 Wildgrowth Walker
22 Land
Not sure how it will fair later but that life gain and token direction looks fun.
4 Blossoming Defense
4 Deeproot Elite
3 Hadana's Climb
4 Jungleborn Pioneer
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Metallic Mimic
3 Negate
4 Silvergill Adept
22 Land
This is probably what most people are thinking about with going wide on merfolk. It offers two ways to really swing in and break a stalemate and isn't dead if the board gets reset as the climb can potentially help push a little damage through. Jungleborn Pioneer is pretty good since it basically gives two bodies to pump at once with one of them being hexproof. The merfolk centric build can probably ditch the climb entirely and just put in some form of higher efficiency merfolk like Vineshaper Mystic or try to run in with an unblockable River Sneak.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Enter the Unknown is probably worse than Jade Bearer on average, which happens to be rather bad overall.
Wildgrowth Walker looks interesting in a GB Snek midrange deck, with an Explore theme. Don't know if there's enough support, but the key is about that 4cmc enchantment for sure, and maybe token generators like Tendershoot Dryad...
There's a ton of tech involving counters besides just snake as well. Wily Bandar is an often forgotten gem that can also trigger climb in multiple ways, the first of which is basically just land climb turn 3 and it flips once combat phase hits. Deeproot Champion triggers off of simply playing enchantments so it has that going for it. The reason Enter the Unknown is good in the first deck is that it triggers both Deeproot Champion and Wildgrowth Walker, but in a pure merfolk build you're right that Jade Bearer would probably be more reliable.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
This is also why Climb is strong, it helps attacking for so much damage that even a lifelink strategy can lose to it.
4 Kumena's Speaker
3 Deeproot Elite
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
3 Jungleborn Pioneer
Land
7 Forest
7 Island
4 Botanical Sanctum
1 Hashep Oasis
4 Unclaimed Territory
3 Metallic Mimic
Instant
4 Blossoming Defense
2 Unsummon
Planeswalker
3 Nissa, Steward of Elements
1 Shapers' Sanctuary
3 Deeproot Waters
2 Aethersphere Harvester
3 Essence Scatter
3 Negate
3 Naturalize
Personally I do not think splashing a third color is necessary. I also do not think our decks weakness is lifegain. It is not like we are a all in red aggro deck. We have a pretty decent long game plan with creatures that replenish our hand such as silvergill adept, merfolk branchwalker and kumena, tyrant of orazca while Nissa, steward of elements replenishes our board. We also do not have an easy way to splash a third color without completely diminishing the consistency of the deck. Aether hub only works in decks where you can consistently get more energy, which this deck is incapable of doing. I think Blue and Green has enough to offer in the sideboard where we are not forced to switch to a three color scheme.
4x Kumetra's Speaker
4x Mist-Cloaked Herald
4x Merfolk Branchwalker
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Metallic Mimic
4x Merfolk Mistbinder
4x Jadelight Ranger
2x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
4x Chart a Course
4x Enter the Unknown
2x Growning Rites of Itlimoc
Lands:
4x Botanical Sanctum
4x Unclaimed Territory
4x Evolving Wilds
4x Forest
4x Island
3x Negate
4x Spell Pierce
4x Wildgrowth Walker
4x Shaper's Sanctuary
Thoughts?
Standard: XDon't play.X
Legacy: BUReanimatorUB
Vintage: URBWGDBRU
The Merfolk seem to run pretty parallel to what everyone else is talking about. Rishkar is cool +1/+1 synergy, but his ramp is largely wasted and there's other, more synergistic, merfolk that would work better in that slot. Do you need the card draw from Chart a Course with Silvergill in the deck? We aren't really looking to feed our graveyard with discards either. Evolving Wilds should just be more forests/islands. Enter the Unknown seems terrible. Like, maybe limited playable. Maybe. Doubt it. Definitely not standard. Growing Rites also seems bad. You get one dig for a creature, which you're probably hit, and then it does nothing. Even the creature goes to your hand, so it doesn't affect the battlefield at all. When you flip it, it's a fun "get tons of mana" card but nothing in the deck does anything with that mana. There's no X casting cost cards that do cool stuff like an overrun effect.
I'd suggest dropping the spells you have in favor of combat tricks: Blossoming Defense, Unsummon.