Duskmourn is here, as is Halloween season. I think Floodpits looks good, in conjunction with Silvergill Adept makes us weak to Bowmasters, however, I'd like to think the option to Flare the Bowmasters makes it something to more easily play around. Probably gonna want Stern Scolding anyways so that's all the more to cover the weakspot. Some of the lists I pulled from did not have the opportunity to play Floodpits Drowner, so I've replaced the 1 Trickster we would have had with it.
I made this list by doing some averaging of about 9 decklists piloted by people that managed to top 8 RCQ size events. I figure that's better data than using 5-0 lists, because how many Leagues are they NOT going 5-0? Probably plenty, Mtgo is fast and accessible. So with the pressure on IRL these players performed with their respective Merfolk lists, and I decided to put some respect on the tournament grinders by creating a Wisdom-of-the-crowd type of list. Just used basic rounding, 4 Flare and 2 Force was arrived by the average being 3.67 Flare to 2.33 Force.
All but 2 of the lists played 20 lands if you count Sink. But the average rounded numbers card for card brought me to a 61 card list with 21 lands. I cut a Vodalian Hexcatcher, so... pretty much I lied. Liberties were taken, numbers were rounded, and this has all been bad science. And trash math. But I had fun doing it so yeah. And I feel like 21 is great because we have 4 Sink, 2 Otawara, and some can-trips to more safely keep those 2 landers, and more frequently land them 3 drops.
I noticed Tishana's Tidebinder was a 2 of in the main of 7 of 9 of the decklists, every single list played a full 4 Lord, Master, and Harb of Seas. Only 1 of the lists played Spreading Seas, and it was only 2, and SS was a 2 of in 4 of 9 of the Sideboards. Rishadan Dockhand appeared in only 2 of the decks, it was nice to know I'm not the only one feeling meh on that card. If I figure out how to post my spreadsheet on here, I sure will but I am not seeing how rn...
The SB doesn't feel like a thing that this makes as much sense for, as your SB is dependent on your maindeck, your strategy, and ofc your personal preferences in general.
2 each of Chalice, Consign, Stern, and Subtlety averaged out, and often people did limit themselves to just 2 or 3 of these. But that is telling for what people are looking to do in game 2 or what matchups we are most worried about. I know I enjoy bringing in at 3 Subtlety on the Draw as long as I know there are early targets. It sort of steals the Play from Ragavan players, super useful in the mirror as well.
Just popular enough to average a rounded 1 of are Damping Sphere, Relic of Prog, Harbinger Tides, Kira, Spreading Seas. Which just means about half the people liked to play 2 so we got an average of 1.
