Those are some weird dogs...

I see a disturbing lack of actual fish :/

Looks fun ... I will try to build that and check how it's going to work on my local meta :D thanks for the list mate! :D

I dont think you have enough Noncreatures to justify playing Deeproot Champion as a 4 of. Maybe play a couple Chart a Course and a couple Opt would be good.

Athraithe, sorry to disappoint haha

BroskiScorpion, no problem. Hope it plays well for you!

nqyshe, you're not wrong about the low non creature count here. Mainly I chose him because he requires little work to get counters on him. Most others need a Mimic out, a Mystic, or a Tusker to put counters, but Champion does that himself and curves into Deeproot Waters nicely. I could definitely see substituting him for another 2 drop Merfolk but probably not Chart a Course. I'm already playing 4 Shaper's Sanctuary which should be more than enough card draw and I want as many Merfolk as possible for Deeproot Waters. Thanks for the suggestion and interest!

hey Mandalorian, i do actually agree with nqyshe about 1 thing. 2-4 Opt would be amazing, its instant speed and fixes your library to get more of your merfold up and out (into your hand). i would say -1 on the speaker, champion, and even one less land since your curve is 2.25 already (impressive!!). your curve would drop even more (not a ton, maybe by .12 or so) but it would still make up for the lack of 1 land for a "dig 2 on your opponents end step" cantrip

I honestly think Verdurous Gearhulk is better than Ridgescale Tusker, one reason being that Tusker is a more of a win more card. The only way Tusker is better is if you already have a full board, in which case you are well on your way to winning, and the Gearhulk can already make most of your team unblockable (including itself, making it a 5/5). Also, if you rip Gearhulk off the top after one of the many boardwipes in standard, Gearhulk is a massive 8/8 trampler. Think about it this way: which card is more likely to help you win games?

Hey, more Tempest Caller less Herald of Secret Streams and more Vineshaper Mystic less Ridgescale Tusker.

I suggest more Tempest over Herald because Tempest can swing the game in your favor just as well as Herald and doesn't require that you have +1/+1 counters on creatures. Both are being used for an alpha strike and Tempest gives you more opportunity to attack with more creatures safely. Tempest's ETB ability has to be countered or all opponent's creatures become tapped, can't block. Herald can just be killed during attack and then your creatures are very vulnerable to being blown out.

For instance in the Dino matchup Tempest can give you a large advantage because your opponent is not going to be able to counter Tempest's ETB. All Dinos including Carnage Tyrant since Tempest's ability doesn't target creatures only opponent will get tapped down. In contrast Lightning Strike,Savage Stomp or Abrade will kill Herald.

River Heralds' Boon is very good with Deeproot Champion, Kumena's Speaker and Shaper Apprentice.

multimedia I agree, and after testing, there is certainly a chance to get blown out with Herald and have loved Tempest Caller every time. I changed the deck to reflect that testing. It turns my alpha strike into a 1 card combo rather than a 2-4 card combo.

-2 Spell Pierce +2 Siren's Ruse. This will make it so that you don't have to recast your Vineshaper Mystic.

dthoreson813 Playing something like Ruse over Spell Pierce certainly has some value when it comes to my ETB creatures but I think Spell Pierce has a bit more utility here than that. Spell Pierce is an incredibly brutal card in aggressive blue strategies that can not only protect my creatures but counter enchantments, artifacts, planeswalkers etc... I don't think I could part of with the 2 copies I'm currently playing. Thanks for the suggestion and interest!

Hey, how has only 19x lands been with 6x four drops? 19x land is Elves manabase, but Elves have mana dorks to fall back on if you get land screwed, you don't have them. You might need to add some more land, Opt or Chart A Course to help to make land drops since they're important because Tempest is a vital card for the strategy and winning.

I'm not a fan of Metallic Mimic because it's only good turn two unless you're playing tribal lords who can pump it. Unfortunately in Standard Merfolk don't have any tribal lords who can pump other Merfork. Any turn after turn two Mimic is very lackluster. Here it doesn't trigger Deeproot Waters when cast and since you're relying more on Tempest now the counters are less needed.

multimedia I've played about 6-7 matches with 19 lands and havn't had a problem. In fact, in two games I got flooded. I think Sanctuary could certainly be replaced with actual cantrips but for now I'm on Sanctuary.

Mimic has been pretty okay so far, nothing crazy, but just okay. Like you said, if it's drawn late it's really meh and early it's great. While it doesn't trigger Deeproot Waters itself it does make it a lot better when it's on the battlefield. I've had Mimic out with Waters, and having all you hexproof tokens becomes bears instead of 1/1s is pretty awesome. Not to mention is synergizes with the low number of Heralds I have. For now I'm keeping it but there are certainly a lot of options for the Merfolk deck at 2CMC

Sounds good. I don't suggest cutting Sanctuary at all. I'm on 4 copies of it also main deck. I'm finding it to be one of the best cards for Standard in the set. Especially vs Mono Red because of all the ways to make my creatures unable to block as well as 8x or more burn spells.

As far as two drop options for the deck you're right there are a lot. I've taken a different approach with Merfolk. Non-tribal with a counters theme because I don't think Merfolk alone have enough good cards yet to be tribal. Deeproot Champion, Merfolk Branchwalker and Winding Constrictor are my two drops with River Heralds' Boon. Which is pretty powerful with Constrictor and Rishkar, Peema Renegade.

multimedia ya I've seen a lot of people gravitate towards BUG Snake utilizing some of the Merfolk cards without being Merfolk tribal. I do like that BUG gives the deck actual removal and perhaps this deck will become that until Rivals of Ixalan comes out and the tribe can get more support. I still want to see if its competitive enough as is before abandoning the tribal cards though.

Doesnt even have the fish Fleet Swallower

I would personally like to see more +1/+1 counters, with the Herald of Secret Streams the deck would essentially just be unblockable

I seriously don't think 19 lands is enough, especially if you're trying to consistently hit 4 drops on turn 4, as well as playing more than one spell per turn

TheWrongBunny, That's essentially what I started with but it can be easy to get blown out in combat if the Herald is killed before blocks. Plus it required me to play other cards like Verdurous Gearhulk which were increasing my curve and not triggering cards like Deeproot Waters. The deck has enough incidental counters that I think it's correct to play some number but not go all in on the strategy.

Luke_magic45 Honestly havn't had issues with it yet. You could def be right, but out of 20 or so matches played with this version, it hasn't been an issue.

You need like 21 lands not 19.

TepigAggro Still going to try as is with 19 for now. I just drew 50 random hands with the draw a hand button and 9 had only 1 land with no land on top. I havn't had a problem in my real life matches yet either. I will certainly change it though if it shows to be a problem with more testing.

Looks fun, +1

Fish. Fleet Swallower is a fish. Fraying Sanity is a good card.

Eh? See the combo? Just a reccomendation, +1 Upvote :D

I would personally use 1-2 more of Sorcerous Spyglass. It might be excessive, but I think The Scarab God is going to be the boogie man of the format, and spyglass is kind of the best method of dealing with him in blue green.

One other issue is that I'm not sure 19 lands is enough with your curve. It's kind of heavy on the three drops, so you might get screwed pretty frequently. I might drop some Shaper's Sanctuary for more lands, thought 19 might be just fine. I guess you'd just have to test it out.

I also prefer Crook of Condemnation over Sentinel Totem. Also good against The Scarab God as well as God-Pharaoh's Gift.

Cool deck otherwise, kind of hope the merfolk and vamps get some more love in Rivals. Feels like Dinos and Pirates got more good stuff in Ixalan. Guess we'll see.

Man a lot of people seem to have a problem with you only running 19 lands. It's almost as if they haven't read any of the other comments. >.>

I love the idea behind Merfolk in this set +1/+1 counters and unblockable, but I've had trouble coming up with my own list that works. Your deck seems like a great starting point for me, and I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't change that much. Upvote for sure, I'll let you know if I find anything that I think improves the deck.