So this is an effort to see if there's any chances for Merfolk to go competitive in Rivals of Ixalan standard against top tier decks such as the energy beasts, ramunap red, god pharao's gift or control.
The main goal is to flood the board with 1 drops that have some degree of value. I'm honestly not a huge fan of Jade Bearer and Mist-Cloaked Herald, but it's for the sake of having lots of 1 drops to improve tempo and somehow run the race. While the 1 drops aren't the most aggresive ones in the format, their potential increases considerably when backed up by the 2 drops, starting off with Merfolk Mistbinder which is fairly straightforward, there's also Deeproot Elite, which in my opinion feels like an improved merfolk-only version of Metallic Mimic, the former being able to pump only the creature that is entering the battlefield, while Deeproot lets us choose any, allowing us to repeatedly pump either an unblockable Mist-Cloaked or an unblockable Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca; and this one is another card that should dramatically improve the tribe's performance, being easily unblockable, drawing lots of cards or just pumping all the guys.
Flooding the board with fish gets even more favorable if we get
Deeproot Waters
into play, even granting us a chance to trigger crazy synergies with Deeproot Elite also in play, such as getting a 3/3 Kumena's Speaker plus a hexproof 2/2 token (i.e. 5 total value) for 1 mana. Now, while I'd love to run more copies of Deeproot Waters, it just doesn't feel right in this super low-cost curve, besides it doesn't really do anything the turn we play it. Anyway we should be drawing enough cards to hit one of them soon enough.
The deck's main issues though were always the lack of removal in these two colors, plus a defficient mana-base. Both of these problems in my opinion get kind of sorted out by splashing . This way we get more fast-lands and get to add Fatal Push, plus all 4 Duress on the sideboard. Also, given that our fish are prone to being removed, running 3 copies of Shaper's Sanctuary on the main deck seems fair: for each of my dead fish I'll be drawing another fish, and they'll most likely be 1 or 2 drops. I've also included a single card:Expel from Orazca as a means of removal/saving our own creatures. This is another way I think fish can mitigate the lack of removal, by somehow wasting our opponent's removals, with the also evident Blossoming Defense.
More of this can be found on the sideboard, 3 copies of Swift Warden which substantially protects our valuable fish while adding another 3/3 at instant speed for 3 mana. Pretty solid card in my opinion. The rest of the sideboard is just counterspell and more removal, plus a single Nissa, Steward of Elements for some clogged-up late games against control decks.
I'm truly open to all opinions here, they will be greatly appreciated.
