Evasive Merfolk

Standard* Aggro Combo GU (Simic) Merfolk Tokens Tribal

-Arcanity-

Creature (27)

• 3x Herald of Secret Streams
• 2x Kopala, Warden of Waves
• 4x Kumena's Speaker
• 4x Merfolk Branchwalker
• 4x Metallic Mimic
• 2x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 2x River Sneak
• 2x Slither Blade
• 1x Verdurous Gearhulk
• 3x Vineshaper Mystic

Land (21)

• 4x Botanical Sanctum
• 7x Forest
• 6x Island
• 4x Unclaimed Territory

Artifact (3)

• 3x Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Nissa, Steward of Elements

Instant (4)

• 2x Blossoming Defense
• 2x Spell Pierce

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Deeproot Waters
• 2x Shapers' Sanctuary

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Sideboard

Enchantment (7)

• 3x Deeproot Waters
• 2x One With the Wind
• 2x Shapers' Sanctuary

Instant (5)

• 3x Heroic Intervention
• 2x River Heralds' Boon

Creature (3)

• 2x Tishana, Voice of Thunder
• 1x Verdurous Gearhulk

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 2x River Sneak

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Pro Thieves don't knock on doors.

They just come in, get out, and you're screwed.

Same with this deck.

I attack, you don't block cuz you can't, I steal your life, you're screwed.

Now how does that work?

Remember, smart people don't play by the rules...

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Early game:

• Lands (duh).

• Kumena's Speaker: Aggression is the path to glory...

• Metallic Mimic: The earlier the better. "An additional" means the +1/+1's will stack.

• Merfolk Branchwalker: Explore is god. Smooth advantage maker.

• River Sneak: This thing can end games. Good damage even it it can't. Usable with Dowsing Dagger  .

• Slither Blade: Play on turn 1 if able. Equip with Dowsing Dagger   on turn 3 & attack to ramp into a turn-3-Herald of Secret Streams and a turn-4-Verdurous Gearhulk. From there on, party time.

Disruption:

• Kopala, Warden of Waves: Self-explanatory. Once on the field, spell-removal becomes very painful for the opponent(s)

• Spell Pierce: In case you're not a creature, watch out!

• Blossoming Defense: Battle trick/anti spot-removal

• Shapers' Sanctuary: Oh, you wanna get rid of a card? Fine, I'll draw another one!

Bombing:

• Vineshaper Mystic: Straightforward. +1/+1's are always welcome.

• Rishkar, Peema Renegade: Almost the same as Vineshaper Mystic, except for the mana ability.

• Herald of Secret Streams: The win-con in most games, granting unblockability for all creatures with +1/+1's on them (not just merfolk)

• Verdurous Gearhulk: The hyperbomb to deploy when you feel like having a Timmy-eruption or when everything else fails. Great value (8/8 trample) for 3, if you want to evaluate it like a Johnny, but then again if you are a Johnny, chances are, you've already evaluated this card a long time ago. I'm talking too much.

• Deeproot Waters: 1 word: Tokens. 2 words: why not. Of course, you can switch this out for a second Verdurous Gearhulk if you want.

Ramp:

• Dowsing Dagger  : Details have been explained above.

Side/Maybeboard:

• Verdurous Gearhulk: For Timmies, or if you don't like Deeproot Waters.

• Deeproot Waters: For Johnnies that are token-y, or if you don't like Verdurous Gearhulk :P If you want to make this a token merfolk deck for an alternate strategy, you can play 3-4 copies of this (swap with Vineshaper Mystic's, Merfolk Branchwalker's, and Kumena's Speaker's) and use Tishana, Voice of Thunder instead of Verdurous Gearhulk.

• Tishana, Voice of Thunder: Play if you want to use the token variation, as explained above. With Slitherdagger you can ramp up pretty fast and get this by turn 5-6 if lucky. You will have a bunch of tokens on the battlefield (hopefully), so you can draw a bunch of cards and make her huge. Using this strategy will increase the mana cost of the deck and turn it slower, and in Ixalan, as you can probably see, aggression is the path to glory.

• Shapers' Sanctuary: In case you come across some control deck, 2 extra copies of this'll come in handy.

• Heroic Intervention: Kill board wipe.

• One With the Wind: Evasive Aura in Evasive merfolk deck.

• River Heralds' Boon aka Pepe's Boon: Possible sub for Blossoming Defense, more permanent but doesn't offer removal protection. Also the memer's choice XD

• River Sneak: For a quicker game against certain decks you have to race against.

Summary

This deck is pretty similar to Corbin Hosler's Ixalan Merfolk Deck, but has an alternate token strategy and a bit of ramp built in. Anyways, Merfolk is one of my favorite mtg tribe so this is of course the first Tribal Ixalan deck I made.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 3 Mythic Rares 20 - 5 Rares 16 - 3 Uncommons 8 - 4 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.13
Tokens	Merfolk 1/1 U w/ Hexproof, Plant 0/2 G
Folders	ideas