IRL, I run a mono-red land destruction/control deck, focusing around Chandra, the Firebrand,
Roiling Terrain
, and
Magnivore
(I know, that makes me a terrible person by default). And, sometimes, my deck works very well, while others, it just isn't fast enough. I resigned myself to the fact that land destruction could not be made fast enough to be extremely effective, and decided to make something new. Not a land destruction deck, but a land control deck. And I wanted to make it on the cheap, so I actually stand a chance of getting it. At first, I wanted to build a combo around Blood Moon, but ultimately settled on this mess.
Strategy with this deck is simple: turn the opponent's lands into islands, and then beat them to death with Islandwalk creatures. Master of the Pearl Trident and
Merfolk Sovereign
boost all the other creatures. Grimoire Thief provides counterspell capabilities, while Cold-Eyed Selkie and
Merfolk Looter
increase draw power. Stonybrook Banneret helps cut costs on lots of the merfolk creatures. Drift of Phantasms serves two purposes: To serve as a blocker if things get hairy, or to transmute into a Quicksilver Fountain.
Quicksilver Fountain is, without a doubt, the nastiest card in this deck. It'll turn all your opponents lands into islands, but comes with an important catch: if everything is an island, then all the lands it converted get turned back to the way they were before. Use
Steel Sabotage
to fix that and return the fountain to your hand, so that its last ability never triggers. (You can always play it again, if need be).
Steel Sabotage
serves double duty here, also being used to counter/return to hand your opponents' artifacts as well. Finally,
Sea's Claim
and Spreading Seas help to provide more land control.
The maybeboard for this deck is my wish list; cards that are too expensive for me to get now, but would be useful in the future. Ideally, I'd cut the
Merfolk Sovereign
s for Lord of Atlantises, as they're just objectively better, but those are a bit pricey. Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, could be bounced every turn to prevent Quicksilver Fountain's last ability from triggering.
Overall, I think this is a wonderful deck with a lot of potential. But, I want to hear what you think. Let me know! Leave a comment! Please! I can't improve it if you don't help!
