maybe Call to the Kindred over AEther Vial as a means of not having to worry about the CMC of the creature and alows you to dig 5 deep in your library every upkeep... maybe even Paradox Haze if you go that route... reguardless +1 from me

Thanks a heap for the +1, Icbrgr! I worry about Call to the Kindred's speed (it would come out fairly late game), but if it doesn't get removed it could cause quite a stir in the board state. I'll be sure to try it out! Paradox Haze works very well with it, but doesn't have synergy with any other card in the deck, so I don't think I'll be able to run it. Thanks for the suggestions!

I'd consider Aquitect's Will over Spreading Seas. Sure the draw is conditional, but on a condition that you'll meet nine times out of ten, and it's cheaper.

Thanks for the feedback, slaftergames! I've been having a hard time choosing between Aquitect's Will, Spreading Seas, and Sea's Claim. Each seems to have two of the following three: mana cost of , card draw, or mana disruption. I've decided that mana disruption is really really good against many decks (especially if it comes down in the first two or three turns), so I've generally valued the cards with that over Aquitect's Will. Being able to replace itself is pretty big as well, which is why I'm running Spreading Seas over Sea's Claim.

Anyway, I'll try playtesting it a bit, but I suspect that I'll end up keeping what I have now. Thank you for the suggestion though!

Cool decklist. I've been playing modern merfolk for a few years now and I would recommend running Cursecatcher or Cosi's Trickster over Merfolk Spy. Spy is okay but its ability doesn't do enough in my opinion, and once you get a Lord out on the battlefield its islandwalk ability just becomes redundant. Also I'd try to up your Merrow Reejerey count up to four by moving Kira, Great Glass-Spinner to your sideboard or cutting it since you have one sideboarded already. I know it's expensive too but a playset of Aether Vial will really turn your deck into a tempo powerhouse. Until you can get that though, I would cut your Sea's Claim entirely and replace it with counterspells like Mana Leak, Spell Snare, or Spell Pierce.

Hey, thank you calvinwarning for all of the suggestions! I'm definitely planning on upgrading to Cursecatchers and adding more Aether Vials, but as you said they are quite expensive.

I'm curious what you think of Cosi's Trickster vs Merfolk Spy vs Triton Shorestalker, the three budget one-drops I've been trying to pick from. I figure with the added land disruption of the Sea's Claims then Merfolk Spy is basically generally unblockable, but with Cosi's Trickster you need one of the lords around and with the removed Sea's Claims you'll probably need one of only four land disruptors. Perhaps it would make sense to side in Merfolk Spys against blue decks?

Also, what do you think of Spell Pierce vs Spell Snare for mainboard?

Thank you for all of you help!

Honestly my go to for a budget one drop is Cosi's Trickster, because fetchlands are prominent in modern especially in multicolored decks which allows Trickster to get big very fast. I never really have an issue with getting a lord out for islandwalk either because generally having eight of them in the deck makes it an incredibly likely and consistent chance of pulling one as long as you have a reliable draw engine. Triton Shorestalker is just a better version of Merfolk Spy in my opinion since it's a guaranteed unblockable and Spy's reveal ability doesn't have anything to do with your general game plan because it's not like you're running any sort of hand disruption either. Cursecatcher just offers such great utility but until you can get it, run Cosi's Trickster.

As for counterspells, you can't really go wrong with either of them. I personally use Spell Pierce in my deck, but Spell Snare is useful since it can almost always cancel someone's turn two play. I would cut Sea's Claim and add in two to three Spell Pierce and one to two Spell Snare.

I really liked your suggestion of Cosi's Trickster and used it in tonight's modern, but then immediately afterwards I did some nice trades for a playset of Cursecatchers and a pair of Mutavaults, so that's pretty nice and deals with that issue. I also adjusted the mainboard/sideboard a little per some of your instructions, and that worked out fairly well, so thank you! That said, land disruption seems to be very effective in this meta, so I'll be trying to keep Sea's Claims around as well as Spreading Seas, although in lesser quantity.

All you really need is a playset of Aether Vial now. Looks good. I personally would take Kira out of the mainboard and replace it with a Merrow Reejerey and a Phantasmal Image. It's also important to note that Kira, Great Glass-Spinner cannot save Phantasmal Image because once it gets targeted if they are both on the battlefield, both abilities will trigger, and the spell will be countered but the PI will still be sacrificed. I love Kira as a sideboard option with a bunch of Spellskites because they synergize so well.

Thanks calvinwarning! I got an excellent offer for the remaining Aether Vials and one more Mutavault, so I'll be getting those soon to replace... something. Not sure what yet.

The main reason I'm keeping 2x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner in is because my meta has a lot of grixis/jund death's shadow running around, which is really full of removal. I need to playtest it all a little more, but the added control seems to be doing work. Also, I'm kinda shaky on the whole Phantasmal Image thing - how often do its drawbacks become a real problem?

I love the Kira, Great Glass-Spinner/Spellskite synergy, great idea! I'll see about getting some for the sideboard! Two, you think? Three? I'm also considering Surgical Extraction, but I'm not quite sure how to get good enough targets into the graveyard...

If your meta has a lot of removal, then yes it would be a good idea to keep two copies of Kira, Great Glass-Spinner.

Issues do arise occasionally with Phantasmal Image, but not as often as you would think. I personally mainboard two of them because I feel as if it offers a lot of versatility by being able to copy an extra creature on the battlefield, you can even copy a Master of Waves on turn four with Aether Vial so Phantasmal Image has protection from red to avoid those Lightning Bolts. The way I look at the drawback too is if someone is willing to target it, they'll most likely target it with removal anyways. The only real problem you'll see with playing it is against burn, but by game two you can pull it out for counterspells or even Spellskites now that you're considering it.

As far as Surgical Extraction goes, I've personally never used it but in mono-blue it can offer great utility as a sideboard option. If you want some removal I'd recommend Dismember because that's the best removal you have access to.

Glad to see you're getting more components that you need, my decklist looked a lot like yours while it was developing and I always enjoy helping fish players out with suggestions and watching their decks evolve. Keep me updated and I'll be able to assist you with questions or concerns that you may have whenever.

Thank you so much calvinwarning! Your advice has been invaluable towards the development of this deck!

I've gotten the final 3 Aether Vials and have added them, but now I need to figure out what to cut.

I did some research and I'm considering having the deck be closer to an '8seas' variant, as the local meta seems to have a lot of 3-color and/or low land decks running around. I still think I'll leave 2x Sea's Claim on the side, though. Or would it make sense to go all in? Moving to this variant would probably result in the removal of my Spell Pierces, which don't care about what color is being paid. Vapor Snag seems fairly strong in this build as well, as it could allow me to bounce a creature and then get rid of the lands required to cast it. As far as I can tell, the only prominent deck in the local meta that doesn't care about Spreading Seas is a few other Merfolk decks running around, in which case Spell Pierce wouldn't be too effective anyways. If I do go with this build, I'd probably do the following:

Alternatively, I could go with the standard Merfolk build, trading life for more permanent removal and saving some extra land disruption in the sideboard.

What do you (and anyone else who happens to look at this) think? I have a game night coming up tomorrow, so I'm going to try and pick one and see how it goes.

Haha thank you, I've played merfolk for several years now so I understand the mechanics of the deck very well. I've never seen 8seas played in say a pro tour meta, but in yours it might work well. Otherwise if you run with the standard build for Merfolk, it would prove to be extremely versatile. Mono-blue Merfolk is generally more consistent at winning than any other variation I've seen, and that's mainly because it doesn't suffer lifeloss from fetches and shocks, and that's the direction I would go with this.

Oh I also forgot to include more suggestions regarding your land. Since you're mono-blue, you should run a Minamo, School at Water's Edge and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds. The reason being is that they won't be hit by stuff like Choke and they offer a little extra utility. For example, you can bounce back Oboro with Mutavault after tapping it first to add another blue mana to your mana pool as long as you haven't played a land on that turn. Minamo can be used to protect Kira from non-target removal as well. You should also consider cards like Tectonic Edge or Ghost Quarter, which one you decide on is really just dependent on your meta. I wouldn't necessarily mainboard them, but land hate is helpful. If you're thinking about the 8seas route, then those cards have a lot more value and can disrupt your opponent's manabase even further, especially with Tectonic Edge.

I think that I'm going to go ahead and try the 8seas variant tonight, as I think that the meta is land oriented enough for it to shine.

I've been wanting to add Minamo and Oboro, but for ~$20 each they seem like a pretty large investment for some minor utility. I'll definitely grab them if I can get a trade or a good deal, but otherwise I won't be adding them for a while.

In terms of the land destruction lands you mentioned, it seems like those cards will be pretty taxing on my own mana as well. With so many creatures and spells it seems like that combined with Mutavault could cause some issues if I'm not careful. Also I'm not sure where I'd fir them into the sideboard :\ Any suggestions?

The tournament starts in two hours! Here goes nothing.

Updated the deck and archived previous discussion. Considering testing out Pongify/Rapid Hybridization and/or Smuggler's Copter, although if I do go this route then I would probably move Sea's Claim to the sideboard. calvinwarning, do you have any advice on running either of these?

Great stuff, I adore merfolk tribal.

Deeptread Merrow + Streambed Aquitects is a nice combination.

And I'll take any excuse to suggest Curse of the Swine.