Hi, Shoku Have you considered putting herald of the secret streams in this deck? My friend runs it and it can be a really good game finisher. It also works well with the new Ravnica card you have and song of fraylese.

Hmm with rotation on the way simic explore might be a thing.

Have you considered Blink of an Eye instead of Expel from Orazca? If you have enough mana, you can not only bounce an annoying nonland permanent to its owner's hand but also draw a card, giving you a one card advantage, which IMO is better than giving your opponent a one card disadvantage.

Hey, Hexaflexagon.

Both would work just as well, I however am under the belief that you would be in a better position for your opponent to be down a card rather than you up one, similar to how decks like Stax play.

However Incubation and Incongruity will most likely be taking the place of Expel from Orazca anyways.

Hopefully when spoilers start to pick up speed we will have even more cards to speculate on.

Hi im running a similar deck. What do you think about the newcoming Growth Spiral? I think it can work well with the new shocklands. Sometimes it feels so slow to be holding back mana/creatures to make the most off deeproot elite//jade bearer//mist cloaked//waters combo. Im thinking of adding a few of them to ramp up/speed the combo a bit Ñ, maybe im removing branchwalkers or even silvergil's

Hi, juantxu

I'm excited to see what new merfolk we are going to e getting, and if they are oriented more towards late game. Currently, if the only merfolk we were getting was Zegena, I wouldn't run growth spiral.

While growth spiral is a cantrip that ramps, it is 2 mana, and the deck wants to be running fast by turn 2.

and what about times where you don't run fast by turn 2? You going to aggressively mulligan? I get you want to go hard by turn 2, but sometimes that doesn't always work out.

Hi, kysg

If you do get a hand without your 1 and 2 drops, which doesn't happen often(you're more likely to not get a 1 drop but that isn't always a problem), sometimes keeping a hand that has Deeproot Waters is still a good idea. That card is in the deck for the purpose of a slower game and out valuing your opponent with Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca.

Currently, I don't think adding in Growth Spiral to the current list will aid it in anyway, however if Ravnica Allegiance gives us more late game cards from the Simic Guild, then I can see the deck evolving(pun) to fit that play style.

hey Shoku, thx for the answering!

1) yeah im excited about what other merfolks we get too, if any. Hope they are not that mana expensive tho. I would like to still be playing quick, because i have been 50/50 losing to other aggro decks like vampires, zombies, knights and even dinosaurs. Shits getting old, im thinking about including Selective Snare for all the token bullshit.

2) Waters is turn 3 and its removed quite often, i usually play it by 4 if i got a Spell Pierce in my hand. Feels very slow tho. Same happens when i try to place Deeproot Elite on turn 2, ppl just try to remove it asap, which forces me to play it after some other 2mana creature to make a distraction.

3) Wouldnt be better to replace unclaimed territory with shocklands? Since you cant play sorceries/instants with it. Also i have found they always tap last when you cast something (unless using full control) which many times leaves me with no chances of playing spell pierce or even sleep (i use spell pierce and sleep instead of expel from orazca and tempest caller)

Shoku im a huge fan of your Merfolk deck and i need help with my Merfolk if you can give any ideas and tips

You mean Huatli, the Sun's Heart ?

Yeah, sorry but the article became somewhat retired during prerelease season for that set, getting litteraly no support for merfolk other than a hint at maybe being more spell based, and while I had hoped that merfolk would receive at least 1 card for them, I'm sad to say that, while still being completely standard legal, this list is not as good as it once was.

I'm sorry to anyone who has purchased cards for this deck since War of the Spark. I don't believe there will be another set after Coreset2020 where Ixalan block will be legal in standard. My current plans, if I am to continue playing standard, are to run a Yarok, the Desecrated deck, however I think that playing anything above 2 colours in Standard right now just isn't worth the investment, and I will probably use any money I would have spent on Standard on getting into Modern instead. With Modern Horizons, I'm excited to maybe try and get into that format with a fairly budget deck.

Currently my Heart is in EDH(my partner's favourite format, and mine too, although the amount of decks he's building recently is worrying me... anyways this is a tangent), and I currently only have 1 deck that started at $10 and now costs close to $300. Since I only have 1 deck and a bunch of Merfolk that aren't going to be doing me any good, I will probably build a merfolk deck both in EDH and Modern.

I've gotten quite off topic for responding to a translation error, but what I mainly want to say is that this article is closed for now, and I am extremely grateful for all of you who helped it get to #1(especially those of you at my local FNM that recognized me and bought me a pack when I was looking for that last foil copy of Tempest Caller )!

I Hope to make a new list for standard and get it to #1 very soon so I can help more players get into Magic, that has always been my goal with this list!

Thank you, Everyone :)

You do know that Modern exists, right?

@Skullblade248 I mentioned Modern, yes.

This is the exact reason why I got out of Standard. What's the point of buying a new deck every so often when the one you just bought can't be played anymore. I haven't played Arena seriously since last rotation and I'm probably going to quit entirely after this one. (I think Standard Plus or whatever it's called is going to flop)

My only complaint about Modern is that it's too fast and if you don't know how to make perfect decks, then you get left behind in the meta. (I can't even make a sideboard) I like the speed of Standard, but the selection of Modern. And currently, no such format exists.

Skullblade248 you could try Frontier. It's all the cards with the black on the bottom of the card with the collector number and stuff like that. I think it's from M15 to now in terms of card legality.

I've considered Frontier, but it has no banlist (unless that changed), my LGS won't support it and neither will WotC, and I don't think my friends would be interested in it.

But if it met this criteria... Well all of my decks are new bordered already.

Skullblade248 I felt the same a few years ago, but I don't think we're quite ready for another non rotating format yet.

If you're only running one counterspell, don't run counterspells. Counterspells are the kind of thing you have to have at the right time, and have enough of them in your deck to keep the opponent afraid of you popping one at any time. Just one counterspell won't do that.

Right now I'm in the process of testing the deck and the one copy of Spell Pierce is just a hedge. Spells that I would want to be countering are large creature spells and spells that target my own creatures. With other instants giving hexproof to potential targets of removal, the single spell pierce is acting as an answer for later in the game. Feel free to suggest what I should drop or change for more counters, I've essentially just packed some modern staples into a standard deck.

Okay... I'm going to suggest several things, so pick and choose what you like.

First, the cards you should remove. Silvergill Adept is easily the most underpowered card in this deck. Past that, it gets a little harder. I don't like Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca , because as good as she is when you have plenty of merfolk, you aren't going to have plenty of merfolk oftentimes, even with Deeproot Waters . Do some testing and see if Benthic Biomancer is really necessary. It's good for a one-drop since it can get you some more card filtering (something this deck will rely on), but you really need more room in the deck. Yavimaya Coast is a bad land for a two-color deck, so remove that for basics.

Things to add: Frilled Mystic gives you another counterspell as well as a 3/2. Two more Deeproot Waters are going to be key to this deck, because it combos with so many things (especially Deeproot Elite ). If your main fear is removal of your merfolk, maxing out Kopala, Warden of Waves will be great. If you max out Kopala, you'll be stressing your opponent for mana even more, which allows for such counterspells as Quench . Since this deck aims to win early, stalling the later turns to give you more time will help, so I'd go with a few Disdainful Stroke s. There are other counterspells out there, so just look for some you like.

How is a 2-mana 2/1 that draws you a card "easily the most underpowered card in this deck"? It's a staple in every Merfolk deck there is due to it giving you a decent body + it nets you a card, something any tempo-based aggro deck desires.

All I have to say about that is that is a really big description! (I also like the deck).

Eldritch_Morningstar

2/1 is "a decent body" now? Not in the Magic: the Gathering I play! Two mana 2/1s are rarely good, and the extra cost doesn't help. The fact that it cantrips doesn't help it much. Remember that this card itself takes a draw, so your overall card economy off this card is 0, not +1. There are much better things to do with two mana, especially in merfolk.

By the way, something I missed in my earlier comment, 4x Hinterland Harbor (to replace Yavimaya Coast ) would be good in this deck.

You can see why I said "I will be updating the description soon(™)"