So, You Wanna Play Merfolk Yea? (Budget)

Modern Aggro Budget Competitive Island Landwalk Merfolk Primer Tempo Theme/Gimmick UB (Dimir)

Chasmolinker

Creature (33)

• 2x Cursecatcher
• 4x Lord of Atlantis
• 4x Master of the Pearl Trident
• 4x Merfolk Trickster
• 4x Silvergill Adept
• 3x Subtlety
• 4x Svyelun of Sea and Sky
• 4x Tide Shaper
• 4x Vodalian Hexcatcher

Land (20)

• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 5x Island
• 1x Island
• 5x Island
• 4x Mutavault
• 2x Otawara, Soaring City
• 2x Waterlogged Grove

Instant (3)

• 3x Dismember

Artifact (4)

• 4x Aether Vial

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Sideboard

Instant (6)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Dismember
• 4x Disrupting Shoal

Artifact (1)

• 1x Relic of Progenitus

Creature (4)

• 2x Harbinger of the Tides
• 1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
• 1x Subtlety

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Spreading Seas

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Maybeboard

Instant (1)

• 1x Force of Negation

Artifact (1)

• 1x Chalice of the Void

Land (1)

• 1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

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"In an ocean full of fish, be a mermaid." - Unknown

If you've ever played Modern, you've probably come across a devout Merfolk player or two willing this deck to victory. A creature-centric beatdown deck, Merfolk is favorably positioned in the current meta. As such, you may find yourself wanting to play the deck at your LGS's next Modern night.

This is NOT a BUDGET deck! GRRRR!

For a "TCG LOW" Budget of +/- $250, I will attempt to offer a competitive decklist that provides the onslaught of fish to hurl in your opponent's general direction until someone is victorious.

Typically I steer away from expensive Mana Sources for a Modern budget build, but with only so many options in a Mono color deck, there is more freedom in this build for more "splashy" lands.

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Comments and Suggestions are greatly appreciated as always.

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Islands

Cavern of Souls

With a heavy representation of {U} decks in the current Modern Meta, this powerful land is worth it's weight in Platinum. (Literally) Unfortunately this high price tag limits us to 1 copy.

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Otawara, Soaring City

An un-counterable bounce spell on a land is hard to not include. This land is still a reasonable price and offers the deck an added utility with which to steal victory. Play it untapped as a {U} source, pitch it to bounce a permanent for soft removal, or bounce your own permanent for protection. Keep in mind that this hits artifact creature and enchantment lands if needed.

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Mutavault

While not an island, an honorary merfolk that can receive a boost from your Lords and provide a threat that can be tough to interact with against certain decks.

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Waterlogged Grove / Fiery Islet

Running out of gas in an aggressive deck is the worst thing you can have happen. With an empty board and an empty hand, the top of your library is your last resource in Merfolk. The ability to double dip in a pinch makes this untapped land a welcome addition to the archetype. Be careful with the pain taken from this land as it can add up against other aggro decks.

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Lords and Ladies

Lord of Atlantis

There's a reason "Lord" is used to describe tribal creatures that buff their respective tribe. As the meta becomes more {U}, the added bonus of giving Islandwalk to all becomes more and more powerful. Be aware of the symmetrical nature of giving your opponent's Merfolk the same added benefits.

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Master of the Pearl Trident

Lords 5-8!! Buffs the team without the downside of "ALL MERFOLK" from the OG.

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Vodalian Hexcatcher

Lords/Ladies 9-12!!! The latest edition and part of the reason Merfolk is so good right now, having a ritical mass of Lords gives Merfolk a huge power buff especially when they all hit at 2 MV, Aether Vial can dump a Lord at instant speed giving you a nice combat trick. An even biger part of this cards contribution to the overall success of Merfolk is it's versatility as a counterspell in tapped out situations.

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Svyelun of Sea and Sky

A Lords/Ladies 13-16* While Svyelun doesn't buff the board, Ward {1} for everyone and an easy indestructible clause makes this Lord/Lady a powerful asset against spot removal.

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Non-Merfolk Spells

Aether Vial

The best way to fill the board with creatures is to put them in play. Vial gets around counter magic and can be done at instant speed. Set it and forget it at 2 counters as most of the decks key creatures live at 2 MV.

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Dismember

The most versatile 1-mana hard removal spell in the game. Efficient removal that gets around indestructible and hits most early to midgame creatures, this card gets the job done where most blue removal spells don't.

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Disrupting Shoal

Out of the sideboard, FREE counter magic is great against any 2 MV threat. Wrenn and Six, Expressive Iteration, Counterspell. While we can hit 1 MV spells, it's a little trickier to do just with the mana curve we have to work with. You really want Force of Negation here for Indomitable Creativity and Teferi, as we don't have anything to pitch for more than 4 MV and our 3/4 drops are so crucial to stabilizing. But with the established budget, 3/4 MV+ win-cons might just be games we can't win for now. If you have Force of Negation I would run it in place of Shoal.

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Spreading Seas

Out of the sideboard, turn off Tron Lands, Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, or just any mana producing land. This former MB staple sits in the SB with the heavy {U} representation. The added card draw means you strip away a resource without losing one of your own. This also enables islandwalk once it's brought online by the Lords/Ladies.

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Utility Creatures

"Sometimes you have options, but no choice."

Subtlety

This card is not meant to be cast as a creature 9 out of 10 times. It's also not a Merfolk 10 out of 10 times. What it IS though, is a FREE Time Walk/Condemn against some powerful early threats. Return a creature or planeswalker to the top or bottom of their owner's library (their choice). If they put it on top, Time Walk, if they put it on the bottom, Condemn. The few times you are able to keep this in play as a creature, it has OK stats plus evasion.

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Cursecatcher

A nice removal magnet and can keep a spell like Indomitable Creativity from landing.

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Merfolk Trickster

Surprise the opponent by tapping down their threat before it can get in for damage, or just block a Monkey at instant speed.

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Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

Out of the sideboard, Attrition based decks do not like this card. Turn every spot removal spell into a 1-for-2. This card adds value in grindy match-ups like GBx and Orzhov.

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Notable Budget Upgrades

Cavern of Souls

Cavern should be a 4 of in almost every build of the deck. Go scrap some platinum and get some of these if you can spare it.

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Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

Here's an excerpt from Reddit explaining the multiple fringe uses.

"Discarding to Raven's Crime or Liliana of the Veil plus can be useful, or giving you a card to discard to Reality Smasher when you hit it with Dismember. You can also turn Mutavault into blue mana, if you haven't played a land for the turn. You can return it to hand to prevent The Rack and Shrieking Affliction from doing as much damage and to prevent your card drawn for turn being discarded to K Command or Funeral Charm in a topdeck war. Lastly, the mirror match has minor applications. There's the occasional instance where you won't have an island for their lords to walk on, but you still have blue mana." - Oboro on r/FishMTG

So there's that.

TL;DR: Oboro is a highly skill intensive card. In short, it can be bounced for 8-Rack or various discard effects, used to get {U}{U} with Mutavault and a whole host of other applications.

The reason it's not in this list is purely price v usefulness. In most games it's an Island so that's what we're running in it's place. ;)

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Chalice of the Void

This card hoses so many combo/attrition decks and thanks to Aether Vial, we can navigate around it with minimal issue.

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Force of Negation

A must have against combo decks like Indomitable Creativity. If you have them, play them. Disrupting Shoal can be OK against most decks but this match-up in particular it is clear why Negation is the price that it is.

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Shoutout to Balaam__ for inspiring me to make better deck descriptions. I always enjoy reading theirs and appreciate the effort that goes into writing them. I had a lot of fun making this one.

This deck was inspired by Qui-Gon-Chi-Ching's search for an affordable deck to get back into magic with. Hope you find this helpful.

Join in his search HERE

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See the rest of the decks in the Budget Modern series : So, You Wanna Play Modern Yea?

Date added	1 year
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 1 Mythic Rares 17 - 7 Rares 21 - 3 Uncommons 0 - 4 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.08
Folders	So, You Wanna Play Modern Yea? (Budget), Modern Decks I Did Not Make