Fellow Merfolk enthusiasts, it is time to look ahead for the FIGHTING FISH! Currently, two to three versions of Merfolk seem to be popping up and holding their own in Standard. Here is how I see them in our current meta.
1. Traditional Tempo Simic Merfolk - 24-30 Merfolk creatures with 6-12 spots for spells. This version is typically only running Kumena's Speaker as a 1 drop among the creatures and heavy on the 2 drops like Merfolk Mistbinder, Deeproot Elite, Silvergill Adept, Merfolk Branchwalker and Merfolk Trickster and Kumena as the 3 drop. A mixture of Blossoming Defense and Spell Pierce make the list and a few flex spots to run either a couple more merfolk (Kopala, Seafloor Oracle or Tempest Caller) or Deeproot Waters, Hadana's Climb or a Lifecrafter's Beastiary.
2. Card Drawing Simic Merfolk - Similar to above but with the addition of unblockable merfolk, like Mist-Cloaked Herald and River Sneak. Add Seafloor Oracle and 4 x Curious Obsession and you are having some fun, especially if you can get out ahead of a control deck and out draw them.
3. Mono Blue Merfolk Wizards - Not very popular but I am happy to see some tinkering going on here to utilize many of the Merfolk Wizards out there. Add some of the staple wizard cars and you have a deck that can be a ton of fun.
With red decks still dominating the Standard fields at bigger tournaments, Goblin Chainwhirler will continue to be our bane of our existence. When trying to brew something new, I looked at trying to utilize lesser known merfolk with increased toughness and that is where I found Jace's Sentinel. For 1 and U, you get a nice 1/3 creature and his toughness alone makes him very valuable. One of the best things about Jace's Sentinel, is that fact that he not only becomes a 2/3 when you have Jace Planeswalker in play but it also becomes unblockable. While Jace's Sentinel was inlcuded in the Jace Planeswalker deck with Jace, Ingenious Mind Mage, it is a very expensive addition costing 4 and UU. Instead I looked at Jace, Cunning Castaway and fell in love. This card is written off by most and I get that but at 1 and UU for a 3 loyalty planeswalker that benefits from creatures attacking and doing damage to your opponent, seemed to fit the merfolk mold.
I used a bit more of the second of the three decks above as a model, relying on card drawing advantage with unblockable creatures and Seafloor Oracle to win games but switched to a mono-blue model. While to lack of using Green in the deck has certainly hurt the damage output of this deck, it has made it much more efficient. Efficiency is a must with deck because your main goal is to extend the game to turn 7 and deliver the first, of what you hope to be many, Nexus of Fate. Decks like Turbofog and a few other alternatives rely on drawing cards and taking multiple turns in a row, to win. While this deck may not be as reliable as some other decks to draw many cards per turn, this deck can be quite capable, if you can have at least one unblockable creature, a curious obsession and either both or one of either a Seafloor Oracle or Jace, Cunning Castaway can be enough to help you keep drawing more Nexus of Fate.
Besides being a super fun deck that merges merfolk and Nexus of Fate, this deck is entirely rotation proof and is proving to be quite effective for me this far. However, I am hoping that help from some of you all in the merfolk community, can give this deck a try and let me know what you think it needs. I appreciate everyone's time and efforts.
Fighting Fish Brewery
