Sultai Merfolk/ Counters

Standard BUG (Sultai)

WintersWrath

Creature (21)

• 1x Deadeye Tracker
• 1x Herald of Secret Streams
• 1x Hostage Taker
• 4x Merfolk Branchwalker
• 3x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 4x River Sneak
• 1x The Scarab God
• 2x Verdurous Gearhulk
• 4x Winding Constrictor

Artifact (1)

• 1x Aethersphere Harvester

Land (22)

• 3x Blooming Marsh
• 4x Botanical Sanctum
• 4x Drowned Catacomb
• 2x Evolving Wilds
• 5x Forest
• 2x Island
• 2x Swamp

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Attune with Aether
• 1x Duress

Instant (10)

• 3x Blossoming Defense
• 2x Fatal Push
• 4x Spell Pierce
• 1x Unsummon

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Shapers' Sanctuary
• 1x Sixth Sense

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Nissa, Steward of Elements

---

Sideboard

Artifact (3)

• 1x Ghirapur Orrery
• 1x Heart of Kiran
• 1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Kefnet's Last Word
• 1x River's Rebuke

Instant (5)

• 2x Negate
• 2x Unsummon
• 1x Vraska's Contempt

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Vraska, Relic Seeker

Creature (2)

• 1x Gifted Aetherborn
• 1x Walking Ballista

---

Maybeboard

Land (2)

• 1x Aether Hub
• 1x Hashep Oasis

Instant (1)

• 1x Lifecrafter's Gift

Creature (1)

• 1x Deeproot Champion

Artifact (1)

• 1x Rhonas's Monument

---

I've been playing Simic Merfolk since Ixalan came out. Merfolk tribal is not taken very seriously in competitive magic and not for nothing.

The Metallic Mimic, Herald of Secret Streams combo takes too long to set up and is extremely vulnerable to removal. The Simic deck usually includes a playset of Blossoming Defense to defend against removal. Even if you have managed to go wide within the first 5 to 8 turns, your army of merfolk will usually get swept.

But playing merfolk usually ends up being reactive. You need to be able to play a particular creature at the right time, and if that creature spell is countered, it can mean losing the game. For merfolk to work, it needs to put the opponent on their back foot immediately. I am attempting here to create a shell for merfolk that includes removal and defense against sweepers, which have become a format staple.

We have 3 copies of Fatal Push and 2 copies of unsummon to deal with the meta. Fatal push can take care of a Long Tusk Cub or a Bristling Hydra. You can also unsummon either of them after your opponent has boosted them with counters. Duress is in there to proactively take care of sweepers.

This is more of a counters deck than a merfolk deck. (It included 2 copies of metallic mimic, but I took them out.) More important to the deck is Rishkar and Verdurous Gearhulk: ideally you will put counters on the unblockable River Sneak.

Search for Azcanta and Nissa allow you to draw the cards you need. Being able to just drop a Scarab God or Gearhulk off of Nissa's 0 ability would be huge.

I'm playing 23 lands in this deck, including field of ruin. Even if you don't draw Herald of Secret Streams, your creatures with counters will still be pretty big.

I'm thinking maybe a Vizier of the Menagerie would also fit in this deck.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 3 Mythic Rares 19 - 5 Rares 18 - 1 Uncommons 9 - 4 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.05
Tokens	Copy Clone, Energy Reserve, Pirate 2/2 B, Treasure