Tropical Fish Merfolk
UG fish that school up and slide by you into your life total.
Lords
Lord of Atlantis - better hope your opponent isn't playing the mirror
Master of the Pearl Trident - this guy don't give a shit about the mirror
Merrow Reejerey - why yes i would love to tap down all your blockers
Fish
Silvergill Adept & Merfolk Branchwalker - card advantage on a 2/1 beater
Kumena's Speaker - tribal 2/2 for 1, what more would you want
Harbinger of the Tides - yo wanna hella tilt that nahiri player, right before the combat where emrakul crashes into you and has a nice fish dinner, if you have a reejerey out flash this yung 'binger in, stack reejerey to trigger first tapping emrakul then bounce her back with the 'binger trigger
Kopala, Warden of Waves - gotta pay extra if y'all wanna eat that premium fish
Not Fish
Aether Vial - ooh do you hear that tempo coming from that metronome
Phantasmal Image - ooh girl where'd you get that trident from, lemme cop one
Spreading Seas - hey man sorry i flooded your power plant with water
Spell Pierce - sit down, be humble
Collected Company - look man i get it you just boardwiped and that's cool and all but i'mma stabilize real quick
Lands
Flooded Strand/Scalding Tarn - look man ya boy couldn't afford four mistys yet he'll get there eventually
Cavern of Souls - screw your chalice i drink from my own cup
Botanical Sanctum - do you understand how long it took for me to get a playset of these goddamn fastlands like i traded away hella baubles for this playset
Breeding Pool - in this pool we only breed fish and sometimes illusions and spirits but we don't talk about those
Mutavault - you're probably wondering why these lands are fish, believe me we're just as stumped as you are
Island - pls nerf
Sideboard
Natural State - you ain't plating nothing to no craniums today my b
Ceremonious Rejection - put your turn 3 karn away so help me god
Dispel - feels good hitting a collected company or cryptic command
Hurkyl's Recall - i see you with your lantern shenanigans you ain't slick (real talk tho these probs gonna be Echoing Truth in a few weeks)
Dismember - sometimes nothing feels better than a good old fashioned 'no'
Relic of Progenitus - it's getting a little stormy out
Comments
My go on Tropical Fish. I have Cursecatchers coming in the mail, so I've been playing around with a build that I could take to tournament without Cursecatchers, and overall honestly I've been pretty satisfied even without the cursecatching. There are a few decisions that I think I could use some consultation on, so let me know what you think.
- I find the nature of this deck and its low curve makes it hard to play spells higher than 2CMC. Because of this, I have Reejereys down from 4 to 3.
- Collected Company is a fun-of; I've found it to be very strong post-boardwipe and can allow for quick stabilizations and insane blowouts due to the high probability of topping a lord. 4CMC is super steep for this deck; I initially had 2 mainboard, but I was seeing it earlier and more often than I liked, so I've relegated it to a one of.
- Phantasmal Image is soooo flexible. I can make another lord, draw/explore, Harbinger bounce, just have another beater down, whatever I need. I can't seem to make space for more than two, though, but I think that's the right number.
- I've been considering Kira, Great Glass-Spinner over Kopala. While the tax is super good, I like the thought of an opponent actually having to waste a spell to get through Kira's ability and then waste another one just to remove Kira. Though on the flipside, with Kopala out in the mid to late game, Spell Pierce stays relevant for much longer as that tax is super relevant. It's gonna be something to test more later.
- Three Spell Pierces feels like a sweet spot. Four is gonna be too many especially with how quickly the card's utility diminishes, but it's a spell I feel I want to see as early as possible.
When the Catchers arrive, I think I'm gonna be cutting one Reejerey and one Speaker for sure. I'm considering dropping down to two Reejereys just to keep the curve super low, but in the event that Collected Company ends up disappointing me, I'll cut it over Reejerey for a Catcher.
Any advice or thoughts would be extremely helpful. Thanks!
