TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: Why Play Modern Merfolk? 5

CHAPTER 2: Modern Merfolk History 10
CHAPTER 3: How the Deck is Built 15
CHAPTER 4: General Strategy 28
CHAPTER 5: Aether Vial Strategy 38
CHAPTER 6: Islandwalk Lord Strategy 42
CHAPTER 7: Vodalian Hexcatcher Strategy 44
CHAPTER 8: Merfolk Trickster Strategy 47
CHAPTER 9: Tishana’s Tidebinder Strategy 54
CHAPTER 10: Svyelun of Sea and Sky Strategy 64
CHAPTER 11: Deeproot Pilgrimage Strategy 66
CHAPTER 12: Lands Strategy 70
CHAPTER 13: Sideboarding Strategy 75
CHAPTER 14: Miscellaneous Tips and Tricks 83
CHAPTER 15: Other Mono-Blue Merfolk Variations 84
CHAPTER 16: To Splash or Not to Splash 90
CHAPTER 17: Modern Merfolk on a Budget 96
CHAPTER 18: Resources 97
CHAPTER 19: Acknowledgements 100
© Copyright 2024 by Joe Duignan ISBN: 978-1-4461-8976-4

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Cover illustration: "Calder" by Sylvia Strijk.

Follow the artist on Instagram @sylvia_strijk_art
Explore more at www.sylviastrijk.nl

2
Sylvia Strijk Artist
The cover of this book was illustrated by Dutch
artist, Sylvia Strijk. From her website:

I love being swept away to another world by myths

and fantasy stories. Within my work I'm seeking to
create an ethereal, magical world where you can
experience a sense of mystery and wonder. I seek
inspiration for my work in portraiture, flowers,
mythology and songs.

The artist frequently chooses merfolk as the

subjects of her striking illustrations. This page
features three such pieces: When She Falls
Asleep (above left), Breath (above), and Anahitha
(left). If you enjoy her work, please visit the
following pages to see more:

sylviastrijk.nl
instagram.com/sylvia_strijk_art
sylviastrijk.etsy.com
patreon.com/sylviastrijk

3
4
CHAPTER 1: Why Play Modern Merfolk?
WHY PLAY MODERN MERFOLK?
Modern is an extremely diverse and well-established format with countless viable competitive archetypes
created and honed over the past decade and more. With so many compelling decks on offer, why should you
choose Merfolk?

First and foremost, Modern Merfolk offers replayability! Unlike some other decks in the format, Merfolk has to
adjust its strategy in every single match; we do not simply repeat the same predictable patterns over and over
again. The ability to navigate individual matchups and board states is what differentiates experienced Merfolk
pilots from newer players. And in a format as deep as Modern, a player can train diligently for a long period and
still not reach the full potential that Merfolk, with its flexible play style, offers. This room to grow into the deck
rewards players for their efforts and sustains interest in the archetype even over the course of many years.

Modern Merfolk is somewhat unique as a blue deck, in that it plays a generally aggressive, creature-oriented
tribal strategy, but leverages this aggressive approach with all the trickiness the color blue allows. In this way,
Modern Merfolk offers consistently diverse gameplay, encompassing a wide swath of all that Magic: The
Gathering has to offer: interaction, permission (counterspells), intricate combat decisions, and a constant
reassessment of whether we should be more controlling or aggressive.

Modern Merfolk is competitive! Even though Modern is full of arguably “broken” (ie, exceedingly strong) cards
and decks, Merfolk has always been able to go toe-to-toe with nearly any opponent and come out on top. The
addition of newly-printed cards periodically increases the power of our tribal synergies; in 2022, Modern Merfolk
experienced a renaissance with the addition of Vodalian Hexcatcher and Svyelun of Sea and Sky. These two
cards allowed the deck to reach heights in the metagame it hadn’t attained in many years. Now, at the end of
2023, the deck has received two new cards that appear to have even greater potential: Tishana’s Tidebinder and
Deeproot Pilgrimage.

Modern Merfolk is also affordable! While most Modern decks exceed $1,000, Merfolk decks generally cost
significantly less, coming in around $800.

Another cost-related benefit of choosing Merfolk is that a budget version can still be very competitive! One can
buy the deck for only $200 or so (including the vast majority of the full-powered deck), then pick up the more
expensive cards as one’s budget allows, over time. Please see Chapter 17 for more information if this approach
is of interest to you!

Last, but certainly not least, Modern Merfolk enjoys an incredibly active and friendly community of players! This
point is discussed at greater length later in this chapter.

5
ASK THE PROS
But don’t take my opinion for it! Here are a few well-known Modern Merfolk players talking about why they love
the deck so much!

“I love counterspells, drawing cards, tricky artifacts/creatures and utility lands; Merfolk has them all! As a
mono-blue player at heart, I was drawn to Merfolk’s simple design yet complex gameplay. In a field of harsh
haymakers and banned combos/cards over the years, Merfolk still prevailed with the most honest and fragile
strategy: play creatures and attack for the win. Merfolk is not a powerful deck (and often it is pretty clunky),
hence it is a real challenge to pilot but incredibly rewarding to win with. Every matchup looks like David vs
Goliath, so if you win you know you earned it! Merfolk has just enough resources across all their cards to take
on the best decks in any given metagame, and I think that’s pretty magical.”

Nikachu
Streamer and Modern Merfolk Master
Top 8/Beta Draft Magic30 Las Vegas 2022, 2nd Place GP Vancouver 2017

“Around 2003, I used to play a lot against a friend who had Alex Bortah’s World Championship gold-bordered
deck (list here). It was mono-blue, and made a big impression on me; I found the deck building very
interesting, how it ran many full playsets of cards. A decade later, I finally put together my first mono-blue
deck: Legacy Merfolk. I managed to make Top 64 in a Legacy Championship event (the $100 prize allowed
me to buy my fourth Force of Will)! This encouraged me to pursue Merfolk in Legacy and, eventually, Modern.

“What I love about Modern Merfolk is how it can switch from playing aggro to control as needed,
depending on the game state (at least, the way I build my control-oriented lists, which use many playsets, just
like the old Alex Bortah deck). Though, to be honest, the main reason I've played it so much was that it was
basically the only mono-blue deck I could afford then. Eventually, budget stopped being a concern, but I
enjoyed the deck and continued winning with it, so I kept playing it!

“I hope we can help people find more enjoyment in this silly game, especially with everything going on in the
world right now, I don't think even a small amount of enjoyment in life is really trivial anymore.”

MHayashi
Modern Merfolk Innovator
Frequent MTGO Modern League Trophy Leader

I picked Modern Merfolk up because I loved its style of gameplay. It reminded me a lot of Mono-Blue
Devotion, the deck I had been playing in Standard, plus it was pretty budget-friendly (I even got to reuse
those Mutavaults and Masters of Waves)! I always really enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game against Standard
Blue-White Control, trying to whittle their life total down while not over-committing to the board. That matchup
knowledge against Blue-White definitely carried over into Modern. Plus, I really loved how Merfolk could
out-grind Jund, the supposed king of the grind!

Simon Slutsky
Modern Merfolk Champion
Winner of GP Los Angeles 2016

6
When I was first introduced to Magic back around 2004, I was given a mono-blue deck to play (thank you,
Stephen, rest in peace). It was full of nonsense but I loved playing with Counterspell, and the aesthetic of the
blue spells.

I've always been fascinated by the ocean, so the color of sea creatures was a natural fit for me. My very
first constructed deck was Merfolk. I went down to my LGS and bought up my sets of Lord of Atlantis and
various Rootwater fish, and was then ready to jam games every recess. Not long after, Lorwyn was released
and I was able to play Merfolk in tournament settings and, thanks to the inception of Modern, I got to continue
this for years.

Merfolk has incredible depth to it beyond the surface, and its greatest strength is its consistency paired
with its adaptability. Throughout Modern’s history, I’ve always felt Merfolk could compete if built correctly.
Within the archetype there are Aggro, Control, and Combo builds, and you can splash any of the four other
colors (and sometimes even play three-color variations). I’ve been playing Merfolk almost exclusively in
Modern for about ten years now, and this flexibility means I never get bored of playing it! If anything, I'm very
excited for each new set, to see what new blue cards can find their home within.

Play what you love for however you love to play the game!

David Bishop (Bishark)

Modern Merfolk Innovator
Creator of Modern Sprawlfolk, Flickerfolk, and Mono-Blue Devotion

7
PLAY STYLE SUMMARY
As mentioned above, Modern Merfolk is a blue tribal creature deck using tricky gameplay to gain an advantage.
This is a good, very general way to understand the deck.

Getting more specific, Modern Merfolk is a tempo deck. This means it looks to deploy one or more early threats
to present an early clock, while simultaneously disrupting the opponent’s game plan. In this way, Merfolk seeks to
end games quickly, before decks with bigger, scarier cards even have a chance to get their feet under them. Click
here for a video discussing the concept of tempo in greater depth.

Enhancing Merfolk’s aggressive tempo plan is the Islandwalk ability, which makes our creatures unblockable if
the opponent controls an Island.

Because Islandwalk is so central to Merfolk’s strategy, the deck plays cards such as Tide Shaper and Spreading
Seas to turn lands into Islands, providing access to Islandwalk while disrupting the opponent’s mana.

Aether Vial is another essential piece of the tempo puzzle. Vial is effectively part of our manabase, allowing us to
put our creatures into play. Modern Merfolk’s best turn one play is virtually always Aether Vial, in order to begin
adding counters to it as soon as possible. More than simply putting our creatures into play, Vial can do so at
instant speed, allowing us to respond flexibly to whatever the opponent does on their turn.

A final important point: Modern Merfolk can be built to compete in nearly any metagame. We have tools that
interact with creature-heavy metas as well as spell-heavy metas. With an informed understanding of what we
might expect to encounter at any tournament, we can do well!

MERFOLK AND THE MODERN METAGAME

As mentioned in the previous section, Merfolk has a very deep toolbox of spells that allows the main deck and
sideboard to be flexibly adapted to face fluctuations in the Modern metagame. However, despite this flexibility,
there are some types of matchups that will simply always tend to be positive or negative for Merfolk.

In a broad (but accurate) sense, Merfolk is usually stronger against spell-based decks, as we can simply stock up
on counterspells and other relevant interaction. The flip-side of this is that Merfolk is usually weaker against
creature-based decks, particularly ones that can deploy many threats very quickly (such as Hardened Scales or
Elves), or ones built around creature combos (such as Yawgmoth or Hammer). We also tend to scoop to a
resolved Ensnaring Bridge (though the addition of Otawara, Soaring City has helped address this weakness).
Below is a list showing how Merfolk lines up against other popular Modern archetypes:

Rhinos: Even Living End: Very Favored Scam: Favored

Yawgmoth: Unfavored Hardened Scales: Very Unfavored Omnath Control: Even
Mono-Green Tron: Favored Burn: Very Favored Death’s Shadow: Favored
Murktide: Favored Domain Zoo: Even Mill: Very Favored
Amulet Titan: Even Creativity: Even Grixis Control: Favored
Hammer Time: Very Unfavored Coffers: Unfavored UWx Control: Even

8
MODERN MERFOLK COMMUNITY
One of Modern Merfolk’s greatest strengths is its extremely active community of players. These days, this
community congregates primarily on Discord. As of this writing, the FishMTG server has nearly 3,000 members,
including many experienced players who are always happy to answer questions. There is daily conversation
about all things Merfolk, from card choices to sideboarding strategy to upcoming events and recent results.
There are frequent streams of Modern league gameplay, as well. If you are curious about Modern Merfolk, please
stop by!

9
CHAPTER 2: Modern Merfolk History
THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN MERFOLK
Modern Merfolk has existed in a panoply of forms since the format’s inception. Through the march of years, the
deck slowly evolved as new sets were printed and pilots proved new cards worthy with tournament success.

The Modern format was created in May 2011 (the closest previous analogue to the format was Extended). A few
months after the format’s inception, the first MTGO Modern Daily result for "Merfolk" appeared. It was a
fascinating blue-black approach including Dark Confidant and Agony Warp. A mono-blue list from the period
looked like this, much closer to familiar lists of today. Note the absence of Master of the Pearl Trident, which
wouldn't be printed until the following year (2012) in Magic 2013.

Here is a list from late 2012. Note the white splash, exploring using Path to Exile in the main deck and powerful
white spells in the sideboard. Also, note Spreading Seas in the sideboard - pilots had not yet reached a
consensus on the card's place in the deck, and its numbers varied wildly in the main and/or side. Some lists even
ran zero Spreading Seas in their 75, opting instead for just a pair of Sea's Claims in the main, as in this list (also
playing white - this splash was quite popular during this period).

Master of Waves was printed in September 2013 in Theros. Initially, there was a great deal of debate on whether
this powerful new card would make the cut; many argued that it was “not what Merfolk wants to be doing!” For
the first month or two after Theros was released, successful lists continued to appear without Master of Waves.
The doubters were proven wrong fairly quickly, however, as, by November, virtually every list ran a playset of the
big 4-drop creature, as seen in these three examples. Note that, by this time, Spreading Seas had become
ubiquitous, as a reliable way to gain access to Islandwalk that also provided devotion for Master of Waves.

The next major addition to the deck was Harbinger of the Tides in July
2015, with the release of Magic Origins. There was far less debate around
the inclusion of this new interactive Merfolk. A list from the month before
Fish Facts
Harbinger's release shows the inclusion of a playset of Vapor Snags. A list Harbinger of the Tides was
from the month after Harbinger's release shows a playset of Harbingers very strong at the time of its
printing, because one of the
neatly replacing those Vapor Snags.
top decks in Modern then
was Splinter Twin. They
Towards the end of 2017, the Ixalan block brought some new green toys would play their four-mana
in the form of Kumena's Speaker, Merfolk Branchwalker, and Merfolk enchantment and tap their
Mistbinder (there were many others, some of which even saw extensive creature. We would vial (or
testing, but these are the three cards that stuck to some extent in Modern flash) in Harbinger to bounce
Merfolk). This created an entire new branch in our deck's family tree, with it, interrupting the combo and
destroying the enchantment!
new, aggressive blue-green strategies beginning to take down tournaments.
(This also worked against
Simic Merfolk lists even managed to make Top 8 in consecutive SCG Open Kiki-Jiki, but the opponent
weekends in October 2017. While Branchwalker was eventually abandoned, could recast it the next turn.)
Speaker and Mistbinder continue to see play today in Simic lists.

In April 2018, Merfolk Trickster was printed in Dominaria. The text of the card was spoiled when the release
notes of the entire set were leaked nearly two months in advance. This new flash creature, with its unique ability,
ignited the Merfolk community and initiated a burst of brewing. Initial speculation was that Trickster would likely

10
be a 2-of or 3-of. But it very rapidly became clear that it should be a core 4-of, as seen in Nikachu's 5-0 list just a
few weeks after Trickster's printing. Merfolk Trickster has had a far deeper and more lasting effect on the deck
than Harbinger of the Tides or Master of Waves (or any of the green cards mentioned above) before it.

The first Modern Horizons set, printed in June 2019, introduced two blue “canopy” lands, Waterlogged Grove and
Fiery Islet, which were happily welcomed into Modern Merfolk’s manabase. Far more significant from this set,
however, was the printing of Force of Negation, which remains a core part of the deck today. As a “free”
counterspell, Force enhanced the deck’s tempo plan by allowing us to spend all our mana developing our board
while still being able to interact with the opponent. A list from July 2019 shows the quick inclusion of the canopy
lands as well as Force of Negation (though at only three copies - most lists today include a full playset).

Sadly, Modern Merfolk languished in the two years following the printing of Modern Horizons, as the format
came to be dominated by powerful cards from that set and subsequent sets. Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis from
Modern Horizons ruled over Modern for several months before it was finally banned in late August 2019. This
was followed by Oko, Thief of Crowns from Throne of Eldraine (October 2019) and, to a lesser extent, Uro, Titan
of Nature’s Wrath from Theros Beyond Death (January 2020) warping the metagame. Oko was banned in
January 2020, but Uro remained a problem for an entire year, receiving a ban only in January 2021.

In June 2021, Modern Horizons 2 was printed, and Merfolk finally got some love again. Tide Shaper was
effectively Spreading Seas on a body, allowing the deck to up its creature density while maintaining access to
Islandwalk. The deck also received Svyelun of Sea and Sky, objectively the highest-powered Merfolk ever printed
in Modern. This powerful creature provided something the deck had long lacked: an excellent late-game draw
that could single-handedly claw us back from losing positions. With these two additions, Merfolk began putting
up results once again, with lists such as this and this.

Another interesting printing in Modern Horizons 2 was Counterspell. Many people had long wondered why this
card had not been printed into Modern ages ago, while others were convinced it would destroy the format.
Suffice it to say, the format withstood the inclusion of Counterspell; as of this writing, it is the 13th most-played
non-creature spell in Modern - respectable, but far from dominating. Many Merfolk players have tested the card,
primarily as a sideboard choice. However, as our manabase now typically includes a full playset of Cavern of
Souls in addition to our playset of Mutavault, the UU casting cost makes Counterspell a liability. We look instead
to more easily-castable options such as Force of Negation, Mystical Dispute, Flusterstorm, and Spell Pierce.

Dominaria United was printed in September 2022, and, with it, Vodalian Hexcatcher was introduced to the world.
There was very little doubt that it was special and would certainly be included as a 4-of in the deck; a flash body
that makes all our creatures into potential counterspells appeared to be exactly what our tempo deck needed.
Indeed, the results began pouring in; here is one Merfolk list that won first place in a 64-player event only a week
after we gained access to the card.

In November 2023, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan gave Modern Merfolk two extraordinary cards: Tishana’s
Tidebinder and Deeproot Pilgrimage. The reach and flexibility of Tidebinder’s “stifle” ability was staggering to
consider. In fact, the card quickly proved itself so powerful that many other non-Merfolk decks in Modern began
playing with it, too! And Deeproot Pilgrimage’s hexproof tokens provided a much-needed source of virtual card
advantage following the departure of Silvergill Adept from the deck. Early results with these two cards showed a
great deal of experimentation, including a Simic list, an Izzet list, and several different Mono-Blue lists.

11
In December 2023, Fury and Up the Beanstalk were banned. Merfolk seems like it could be well-positioned in
the new, rapidly-developing metagame!

To learn about the history of Merfolk in the Extended format (before the existence of Modern), and for more on
Merfolk history in Standard, Legacy, and Vintage, check out this great video!

See Chapter 3, below, for current sample decklists to see what all this history has led up to today.

STATE OF THE DECK

With the December 2023 Fury and Beanstalk bans, the Modern metagame is in flux. In late November, just
before the bans, a Merfolk player made Top 8 in a large Japanese tournament. In early December, a week after
the bans, there was a huge Modern tournament in Barcelona. It was very exciting seeing decks vie to become the
new top dog in the format. Out of 702 players, 12 people registered to play Mono-Blue Merfolk, and 3 people were
on Izzet Merfolk. One Merfolk pilot made it to Day 2 (with a very unique Mono-Blue decklist), which puts
Mono-Blue’s Day 2 conversion rate at 8.33%, more than Mono-Green Tron, Burn, Creativity, 4c Rhinos, Hardened
Scales, or Mono-White Hammer! Our metagame share (as represented on various tracking websites) has been
steadily on the upswing, with Merfolk fighting other strong decks near the top of Tier 2, trying to crack into Tier 1.

12
As for the current composition of the deck itself, please see Chapter 3, below. But here are some big-picture
observations on the state of the deck:

● Islandwalk lords are still an essential part of the deck, but are beginning to be trimmed in order to make
space for more interactive and/or value-oriented cards.

● There has been a hard move towards excluding cards with one toughness from the deck. Most notably,
this includes a card previously believed by many to be the single-best card in the entire deck for many
years: Silvergill Adept. A string of new cards (Plague Engineer, Wrenn and Six, Orcish Bowmasters) that
punish x/1 creatures simply makes it too risky to play them any longer. (Note, some brave pilots still play
Silvergill Adept, but they are a small minority.)

● The relatively recent additions of Merfolk cards like Vodalian Hexcatcher and Tishana’s Tidebinder have,
in a general sense, pushed our non-Merfolk interactive cards to the sideboard. Whereas Dismember,
Force of Negation, and Subtlety could previously be found side-by-side in the Merfolk main deck a year
ago, our tribal deck can now have a far higher density of actual Merfolk in the main deck.

○ The blue “free” spells are still very powerful, but can be poor in some situations (whereas Merfolk
with situationally-irrelevant interaction stapled to them can still at least attack the opponent).
From the sideboard, Force of Negation can be brought in against spell-heavy decks like Burn,
Creativity, and Living End (and left out for creature-heavy matchups). Subtlety can be brought in
against creature and planeswalker decks like Titan, Omnath Control, and Tron. (For more on
sideboarding strategy, please see Chapter 13.)

○ Dismember is perhaps the least situational of these three cards, and is still seen in more main
decks than the other two. While a full playset in the main was very common to see in the past, it
is more often seen today as some split between main and side.

● Deeproot Pilgrimage is a contentious inclusion in the main deck. Results are fairly evenly split between
lists with the card, and lists without the card. Time will tell whether Pilgrimage will establish itself as a
“core” main deck inclusion, or not.
13
TIER ONE HISTORY
Merfolk has enjoyed periods in the past at the very top of the Modern format. According to mtgdecks.net,
Merfolk was tier one in November and December of 2022. Additionally, Merfolk was tier one for several months
in 2015 and 2016, according to the website Modern Nexus (now known as Quiet Speculation), which published
monthly analyses of metagame data. Links to the format discussion and data from these months are below.

Modern Merfolk was tier one for four months in 2015: July, August, September, and October
Modern Merfolk was tier one for three months in 2016: June, July, and August
Modern Merfolk was tier one for two months in 2022: November and December

HISTORIC PERFORMANCES
Modern Merfolk pilots have achieved some remarkable results, from the early days of Modern to today. Below
you will find a list of Merfolk’s significant results from top-level events, in chronological order. It is interesting to
observe how these winning decklists have evolved over the years (click the pilots’ names to see their lists). Many
of the events have links to videos - be sure to check them out!

DATE EVENT PLAYERS PILOT (LINKS TO LISTS) FINISH VIDEO

Oct 2012 Pro Tour Return to Ravnica 382 Satoshi Yamaguchi Top 16
Oct 2012 Pro Tour Return to Ravnica 382 Michael Majors Top 32
Feb 2014 Pro Tour Born of the Gods 393 Petr Sochurek Top 16
Jan 2015 Grand Prix Omaha 1168 Jon Paton Top 4 VIDEO

🔱 🔱
Jun 2015 SCG Invitational Columbus 663 Richard Adams Top 4 VIDEO
Jun 2015 Grand Prix Copenhagen 1345 Przemek Knocinski WINNER VIDEO
Jun 2015 Grand Prix Copenhagen 1345 Christoffer Larsen Top 4 VIDEO
Aug 2015 Modern Open Charlotte 509 Hunter Nance 2nd Place VIDEO

🔱 🔱
Sep 2015 Grand Prix Oklahoma City 1491 Paul Rietzl Top 8 VIDEO
May 2016 Grand Prix Los Angeles 2239 Simon Slutsky WINNER VIDEO
May 2016 Grand Prix Los Angeles 2239 Valerion Lee Top 16
Feb 2017 Grand Prix Vancouver 1645 Jonathon Zaczek (Nikachu) 2nd Place VIDEO
Jan 2018 SCG Classic Philadelphia 325 Roland Rivera Top 16
Apr 2019 MagicFest Yokohama 312 Shiota Akihiko Top 4

🔱 🔱
Sep 2019 SCG Open Dallas 500 Sherwin Lakhmani Top 32

🔱 🔱
Oct 2022 Magic30 Las Vegas 896 Jonathan Zaczek (Nikachu) Top 8 VIDEO
Oct 2022 Magic30 Las Vegas 896 Jon Paton Top 8
Dec 2022 Modern Main Event Bologna 484 Dario Casati Top 8
Dec 2022 Modern Main Event Bologna 484 Mike Boulinguiez Top 8
Jan 2023 Grand Open Qualifier Trieste 396 Michele Bandera 2nd place VIDEO
Mar 2023 BIG MAGIC Players Open 748 Yosuke Mochizuki Top 8
Nov 2023 The 25th God of Modern 181 Fujino Yoshitaka Top 8
Dec 2023 Grand Open Qualifier Barcelona 702 Lluis Restoy 17th place VIDEO

14
CHAPTER 3: How the Deck is Built
SAMPLE DECKLISTS
The two decklists below demonstrate the diversity of approaches that are possible in Modern Merfolk while still
maintaining the deck’s core components. These lists show off the power of our new cards: both feature
Tishana’s Tidebinder as a full playset, while only one is experimenting with Deeproot Pilgrimage. There has never
been a “definitive” Mono-Blue Modern Merfolk list, but these two are good starting points.

SomeborY
December 2023 (5th Place, Modern Challenge)

CREATURES (31) LANDS (20)

4 Rishadan Dockhand 11 Island
4 Tide Shaper 4 Mutavault
3 Lord of Atlantis 3 Cavern of Souls
4 Master of the Pearl Trident 2 Otawara, Soaring City
4 Vodalian Hexcatcher
4 Merfolk Trickster SIDEBOARD (15)
4 Svyelun of Sea and Sky 4 Cursed Totem
4 Tishana’s Tidebinder 3 Chalice of the Void
2 Spreading Seas
NON-CREATURE SPELLS (9) 2 Dismember
4 Aether Vial 2 Force of Negation
3 Deeproot Pilgrimage 2 Subtlety
2 Spreading Seas

Mooshack
December 2023 (Modern League 5-0)

CREATURES (34) LANDS (19)

2 Rishadan Dockhand 10 Island
4 Tide Shaper 4 Mutavault
4 Lord of Atlantis 3 Cavern of Souls
4 Master of the Pearl Trident 1 Otawara, Soaring City
4 Vodalian Hexcatcher 1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Silvergill Adept SIDEBOARD (15)
4 Svyelun of Sea and Sky 3 Cursed Totem
4 Tishana’s Tidebinder 3 Subtlety
2 Chalice of the Void
NON-CREATURE SPELLS (7) 2 Spreading Seas
4 Aether Vial 2 Dismember
3 Force of Negation 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Hurkyl’s Recall

15
CORE SPELLS
Modern Merfolk has a well-established, proven core made up of the cards listed below. These are cards that
should virtually always be included in the main deck, in any metagame. Most of these important cards have
dedicated chapters later in this primer to expand upon strategic considerations specific to each of them.

Lord of Atlantis Master of the

The original Merfolk Pearl Trident
“lord” from way back in Our second Islandwalk
Alpha! Note that this card lord (this time the ability
differs from Master of affects only creatures we
the Pearl Trident only in control). Growing our
that it gives all “other creatures and making
Merfolk” +1/+1 and them unblockable is a
Islandwalk; this includes core part of Modern
any Merfolk your Merfolk strategy, and
opponent may control, so these two creatures do
use caution! both those things.

Vodalian Hexcatcher Merfolk Trickster

The third lord, and the A very flexible creature in
most unique. In general, the deck, and deceptively
flash is a wildly valuable powerful; there are a
ability in Modern Merfolk, number of popular
letting us respond more creatures in Modern that
accurately to our Trickster simply
opponent. The counter dominates, such as
ability provides the deck Dragon’s Rage Channeler
powerful interaction and Construct Tokens.
without reducing our See Chapter 8 to learn
creature count. more about this tricky
card.

Svyelun of Sea and Sky Tishana’s Tidebinder

Svyelun attacks well, Tidebinder is one of the
blocks well, protects our best blue creatures ever
other creatures, and printed… and it happens
draws cards. Though to be a Merfolk! Its “stifle”
legendary, we run all four ability is relevant in nearly
copies to increase our every matchup, and can
odds of drawing the first often be devastating. The
copy; she can dominate 3/2 flash body can
games, and can claw us surprise opponents,
back from seemingly particularly alongside
unwinnable positions! Islandwalk lords.

16
 Tide Shaper Aether Vial
Merfolk’s best 1-drop This little artifact turbo
option by far. If playing charges Merfolk’s tempo
against an opponent with game plan! When played
Islands, Shaper is on turn one, Vial can
automatically a 2/2, essentially double the
which is excellent. In pace of our development.
addition to providing In addition, it allows us to
access to Islandwalk, play any of our creatures
Shaper’s ability can at instant speed, for
disrupt the opponent’s increased flexibility and
mana (and destroy Urza’s impact.
Sagas!).

CORE LANDS
As a mono-color deck, Modern Merfolk gets to play a robust and resilient manabase. We play more basic lands
than virtually any other competitive deck in the format, and take very little damage from our lands. A number of
powerful non-basics round out our land choices, as listed below.

Basic Island Mutavault

With simple blue and Mutavault has always
generic mana costs been excellent in Modern
throughout the deck, Merfolk, but, with some
Merfolk is able to run a of our newer synergies
great number of basic (Hexcatcher, Svyelun, and
lands. This has upsides, Deeproot Pilgrimage),
such as not costing us this strong manland has
life (like fetchlands and reached a new level of
shocklands would), and importance in the deck.
avoiding being punished Be sure to read Chapter
by cards like Blood Moon. 12 to learn more about
Mutavault!

Cavern of Souls Otawara, Soaring City

Tribal decks have always Bounce effects have long
had a hard time in the been relevant in tempo
Modern format, with all strategies; slowing down
its efficient removal the opponent as we
spells and sweepers. continue to attack is plan
Cavern of Souls is a A! The printing of
wonderful reward for Otawara (an untapped
playing a tribal strategy; it blue source that can be
is a huge trump card used as a bounce spell
against any deck with when needed) was a gift
countermagic. to Modern Merfolk.

17
 Minamo, School at Waterlogged Grove
Water’s Edge Though we enjoy our
This legendary land was mono-color, generally
originally included in painless manabase, the
Modern Merfolk simply inclusion of one or two
as a non-basic blue “canopy” lands such as
source, attempting to Waterlogged Grove
avoid getting blown out and/or Fiery Islet adds
by cards like Choke. much-needed card draw
However, Minamo can to the deck without
now be used to untap introducing an excessive
Svyelun to block after she amount of life loss.
attacks!

FLEX CARDS
Because our core cards do not make up a complete sixty-card main deck, the remaining slots have more
flexibility. These choices are generally made based upon a mixture of metagame considerations and personal
preference. Below is a list of top choices for these flex slots. All of these cards are common main deck
inclusions, but many can also frequently be found in the sideboard.

Deeproot Pilgrimage Rishadan Dockhand

Pilgrimage is a strong When played alongside
new card fighting for its Deeproot Pilgrimage,
spot in the core of Dockhand becomes
Modern Merfolk. It has massively more potent. A
many synergies with 1/2 Islandwalker that can
existing cards, and is tap a land is passable -
incredible against any but if it makes a 1/1
midrange or control deck. hexproof merfolk token
If this sounds like your while doing so, it
meta, Pilgrimage should transforms into a real
be a 4-of in your main menace for opponents!
deck.

Smuggler’s Copter Mothdust Changeling

As with Rishadan Yet another card whose
Dockhand, Smuggler’s stock has risen as a
Copter has suddenly result of Pilgrimage.
become much stronger Mothdust Changeling
with the introduction of plays a similar role to
Deeproot Pilgrimage. Copter: it allows us to tap
With Copter on board, all as many creatures as we
our non-token Merfolk want, whenever we want,
can be tapped (even with to make tokens. However,
summoning sickness) to it is a risky inclusion
crew and make a given its one point of
hexproof token. toughness.

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 Subtlety Force of Negation
“Free” spells fit the tempo As with Subtlety, Force
game plan perfectly. As derives its power from a
we deploy creatures with “free” casting cost. Prior
our mana, Subtlety can to its printing, we often
be Evoked (by pitching a had to choose between
blue card) to slow down leaving up mana for
the opponent. When cast countermagic or
for four mana later in the developing our board.
game, we also get a 3/3 Force of Negation allows
flying body to help close us to do both of these
the game. essential things at once.

Dismember Spreading Seas

As a mono-blue deck, we For Islandwalk to do
are fortunate to have anything, we need the
access to a great opponent to control at
removal spell like least one Island.
Dismember! It protects Spreading Seas was, for
against many dangerous many years, a core part
threats in Modern for the of Modern Merfolk for
low cost of just one this reason. Today,
mana (and four life). however, it sees more
Occasionally uncastable, play in sideboards as an
but still very much worth additional way to destroy
playing. Urza’s Sagas.

Fish Facts
During one of the darkest times in Modern’s history, Eldrazi Winter (Jan-Apr 2016), Merfolk actually did well
in the metagame… because of Spreading Seas! The Eldrazi Aggro decks dominating the format then relied
on their powerful lands, and we turned those lands to Islands. In fact, Spreading Seas was so strong that UW
Control began playing it - here is a UW list from then. Look at all the Eldrazi decks in the Top 8!

Harbinger of the Tides Kira, Great

Harbinger was once a Glass-Spinner
part of the Merfolk core, In years past, Modern
and saw a resurgence of was a slower format and
interest in 2022. Played in Kira provided reliable
the main deck or protection for our team. It
sideboard, it is primarily now sees far less play
included as a way to because (a) Svyelun
bounce large, scary provides some
creatures while protection, and (b)
increasing our Merfolk Svyelun and Hexcatcher
count. Far better when demand we play more
used with Aether Vial! Merfolk.

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 Glasspool Mimic Oboro, Palace
Glasspool Mimic is a in the Clouds
somewhat divisive card Like Minamo, Oboro was
among Merfolk players. mainly introduced to the
One side argues that deck as a hedge against
taplands are bad, and the Choke. Though it can do
other argues that extra some tricky things (like
creatures are good. One make two blue mana
thing that can be said with Mutavault), Oboro is
definitively is Mimic is now often excluded in
better in lists with more favor of the “core” lands
3-drops, to make better featured above.
use of Vial.

Sea Gate Restoration Lórien Revealed

This dual-faced card was Very similar to Sea Gate
not immediately on any Restoration in terms of
Merfolk players’ radars, why it might be played,
but eventually began but has advantages
seeing some play as an (doesn’t cost life; is
untapped land (for 3 life) cheaper to actually cast
that, as a blue card, can the spell side) and
be pitched to cast Force disadvantages (can’t be
or Subtlety. Pretty techy; played if it’s the only
most pilots just prefer to “land” in our opening
run another basic Island. hand; in effect it costs 1
to play as a land).

Phantasmal Image Sea’s Claim

Modern is full of strong A poor substitute for
creatures, many with Spreading Seas. But if
powerful ETB effects. your plan is to make as
Phantasmal Image is a many lands as possible
well-costed way to copy into Islands, this card can
an 8-drop on the other be played in addition to
side of the table, or just Spreading Seas. Sea’s
one of our own Merfolk. Claim used to be better
Image has gotten when Master of Waves
significantly worse since was playable, as it adds
the printing of Orcish blue devotion to the
Bowmasters. board.

SIDEBOARD CARDS
Below is a list of popular card choices that typically only see play in the sideboard, generally due to the
narrowness of their application. However, if the metagame ever shifts hard in a particular direction, many of
these cards can become clever main deck inclusions to gain an advantage against the field. This list is not
comprehensive; these are only some of the most popular choices.

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Thieving Skydiver Mistcaller
Since the minimum kicker is one, Once written off as unplayable,
this card needs to be cast for at Mistcaller has come to be
least three mana to get any respected in a Modern format
value - a tad clunky against the featuring an ever-increasing
aggressive artifact number of ways for players to
matchups we want it for. When cheat creatures into play. As a
the ETB works, though, it can 1-drop, it also helps us present
be incredible! an aggressive clock.

Orvar, the All-Form Brazen Borrower

Specific tech for playing against Petty Theft is a versatile effect,
Archon of Cruelty (most and the flying body is great.
commonly seen in the popular However, Borrower’s one point of
Creativity deck). When Archon toughness is very weak to many
makes us discard, we pitch threats. Additionally, with the
Orvar and copy the Archon. Oh printing of Hexcatcher, we want
how the tables have turned! to play more actual Merfolk
cards for synergy purposes.

Spell Pierce Counterspell

In the past, Pierce would have The original Counterspell from
been included in “Flex Cards;” it Alpha, finally playable in Modern
saw wide main deck play as an with the printing of Modern
efficient way to stop spells. Horizons 2 in 2021. Though very
Today, it has largely been strong, the UU casting cost is
replaced by Force of Negation, generally prohibitive in Modern
though it is still a very solid Merfolk due to playsets of
sideboard choice. Mutavault and Cavern of Souls.

Mystical Dispute Flusterstorm

Dispute is a hugely powerful Though narrow (only hitting
spell against blue decks. instants and sorceries), this
Additionally, it can be brought in card is strong against Cascade
against various non-blue decks strategies, where it will always
as a “bad Mana Leak,” just to make at least two copies (for a
have extra ways to fight against total tax of three mana). It also
big, important spells. plays through Chalice on 1, and
wins counterspell wars!

Mana Leak Annul

With every deck in Modern trying This excellent spell casts an
to use their mana as efficiently impressively wide net for such
as possible at all times, it is very a small casting cost. It hits
easy to catch opponents with enchantments like Leyline
Mana Leak. Effectively Binding and Fable of the
Counterspell with an easier Mirror-Breaker, as well as artifact
casting cost in most spots. spells in decks like Hardened
Scales, Hammer Time, and Tron.

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 Stern Scolding Unlicensed Hearse
An extremely versatile and Hearse is great against decks
well-costed counterspell, concerned with specific cards
Scolding hits creatures in a wide in the yard, such as Reanimator
variety of matchups, from and Scam, but also solid
Yawgmoth to Hammer Time to against any deck using the
Scales to Murktide, and more. graveyard in any way. It
Fool of a Took! synergizes with Pilgrimage, and
can become a big threat itself!

Relic of Progenitus Stone of Erech

A full playset of Relics was once This is an excellent, relatively
a very common starting point for new graveyard hate spell. If
our sideboards. It does a lot for a played turn 1 on the play, it can
little, and there will always be shut down Scam’s best line, and
decks in Modern looking to be a big problem for Living End.
abuse the graveyard. It even Its draw ability is more expensive
replaces itself by drawing a card! than Relic’s, and only exiles one
player’s graveyard.

Pithing Needle Phyrexian Revoker

Modern is full of cards with A similar effect to Pithing
powerful activated abilities, from Needle, but on a body. More
artifacts to planeswalkers to fragile, but can also attack! In
creatures to lands. For the low addition, Revoker can stop
price of one mana, Needle can mana abilities (but can’t name
shut off the most threatening lands)! Vialing in Revoker with
card in a matchup, making it a a planeswalker on the stack is
strong, versatile sideboard pick. a great feeling!

Chalice of the Void Void Mirror

Though typically played in the With “free” spells becoming
sideboard, some players enjoy more prevalent in Modern, Void
this card enough to run it in the Mirror is well-positioned. It
main. As the format becomes counters things like Evoke
ever more efficient with 0 and 1 elementals and Cascade spells,
mana spells, Chalice’s stock as well as any other spell cast
rises. Cavern of Souls helps us with only colorless mana (think:
play through it! Tron, artifact decks).

Cursed Totem Damping Sphere

Some decks, such as Yawgmoth This card targets a very clear
and Hardened Scales, lean subset of decks: those playing
heavily on activated abilities of lands making more than one
creatures. If you expect a lot of mana each, and those trying to
these kinds of matchups in your cast lots of spells. Bring Sphere
metagame, Totem is a perfect in against things like Tron,
sideboard choice. Amulet Titan, Breach, and any
Storm deck.

22
Ratchet Bomb Engineered Explosives
Ratchet Bomb is best at wiping Explosives kills tokens for the
away a board of tokens. This is same mana and tempo as
most relevant today against Ratchet Bomb. It has the upside
Rhinos and Creativity. It can also of being able to kill 1-drops right
deal with troublesome 1-drops, away (for three mana), but it can
but we have to wait a turn. It can never go higher than 1mv with
go higher, as well, but don’t wipe our mono-blue manabase.
your own board accidentally!

Spellskite Grafdigger’s Cage

A more popular choice in the Cage is a powerful card, but it is
past, but still a great card to important to know what it can
reach for when things like Bogles and can’t stop. For example, it
and Infect increase in the meta. stops things like Undying,
Spellskite is a solid blocker and Persist, and Chord of Calling,
provides protection for our but does nothing against Living
creatures. Like Revoker, it can be End and Creativity. Use it wisely!
a blowout with Aether Vial!

Fading Hope Slip Out the Back

As mentioned with Otawara, This card is In the same family
Harbinger, and Brazen Borrower, as Fading Hope - it can save one
bounce effects are always of our creatures or delay an
relevant. Fading Hope is a strong opponent’s. Slip Out the Back
choice, allowing us to bounce an has the benefit (or, in the case of
opposing creature or our own, using it against an opposing
often allowing us to scry 1 in the creature, the drawback) of not
process. requiring the controller to recast.

Hurkyl’s Recall Echoing Truth

Often the nuts against any This is such a versatile spell that
artifact deck, Recall ideally sets it is rarely a poor inclusion.
the opponent back several turns Capable of saving our creatures
for the low cost of just two (occasionally in multiples), or
mana. If the opponent happens bouncing troublesome opposing
to play artifact lands, this card permanents (occasionally in
pretty much wins on the spot. multiples). Great against tokens!

Gut Shot Surgical Extraction

Phyrexian mana is very powerful! If we counter a big combo spell,
Gut shot is narrow, but hits many Surgical Extraction can pick all
important early-game threats, the remaining copies out of the
from Ragavan to mana dorks, opponent’s graveyard, hand, and
without missing a beat, tempo- library. As it requires the spell to
wise. It can also finish an already be in the graveyard, this
opponent at one life! is generally not a card we look
to play.

23
MAYBEBOARD CARDS
Beyond all the cards listed in this chapter so far, there are many, many other solid cards that Modern Merfolk has
played in the past, and could possibly play again in the future. In general, there are good reasons these cards are
not currently seeing play. However, if one of these cards seems powerful and interesting to you, please bring it up
for discussion on the FishMTG Discord server!

Preordain Intruder Alarm

Unbanned in August 2023, This card can create infinite
Preordain was played extensively tokens alongside Deeproot
and to good initial results in Pilgrimage and Mutavault (or
Modern Merfolk. However, it can something like Smuggler’s
be a liability with Orcish Copter or Mothdust Changeling).
Bowmasters being one of the But it is very weak on its own,
top creatures in the format. and so is rather risky to include.

Merrow Reejerey Silvergill Adept

Once a frequent main deck Until only very recently, Silvergill
inclusion, Merrow Reejerey is was thought by most players to
generally considered too fragile be the best card in our deck. But
to risk three mana on, despite with many effects being
his unique ability being very introduced into Modern that
powerful. Reejerey is, however, a punish creatures with 1
core part of Simic Sprawlfolk toughness, most players
(see Chapter 16). consider Silvergill a bit too risky.

Umara Wizard Ghostly Flicker

Umara Wizard is one of the One of the signature cards of
signature cards of “Flickerfolk,” a “Flickerfolk,” a creative approach
creative approach to Merfolk. In to Merfolk. Ghostly Flicker
combination with Ghostly Flicker, targets cards like Umara Wizard
cards like Umara Wizard and and Glasspool Mimic after they
Glasspool Mimic can be played have been played as lands,
as lands, then flipped face up for flipping them face up for huge
huge value. value.

Thassa, God of the Sea Merfolk Assassin

The original Merfolk god before If Merfolk ever gets too popular
Svyelun, Thassa sadly suffers in the metagame, Merfolk
from not being an actual Assassin will take them down a
Merfolk. Though a great card in notch!
grindy matchups, Thassa has
simply been outclassed by
Svyelun.

24
Vendilion Clique Tidebinder Mage
Clique is a proactive way of As with virtually all Merfolk
attacking combo decks. creatures, this card appears
Typically cast during the weak at first glance. After all, it
opponent’s draw step, we look dies to removal, right? But
to take away a vital piece. Clique Tidebinder opens up paths to
has become significantly worse attack, and draws removal away
in Modern with the presence of from other significant Merfolk.
Orcish Bowmasters. Excellent in the right matchups.

Archmage’s Charm Remand

A wildly versatile spell with a An old favorite that still has
wildly prohibitive casting cost. some tricks up its sleeve,
For a time, some players cut Remand is solid against the
Mutavaults and Caverns to run popular Cascade decks; putting
this card, and did well! However, Living End or Crashing Footfalls
the consensus today is that back in the opponent’s hand is
those lands are simply too basically the same as
important to cut for one card. hard-countering it.

Nix Aether Gust

Nix is an interesting possibility if Aether Gust has generally been
you expect to see many free pushed out of the format by
spells in your metagame. Subtlety. It’s still a solid option,
Countering an Evoked Grief or however, if your meta is
Cascade spell for one mana is extremely heavy in red and/or
great value, maybe enough to green; being able to deal with
simply win a game. But Nix’s things on the stack or battlefield
narrowness makes it a hard sell. is rare versatility!

Repeal Vapor Snag

The text “draw a card” is always This was a very popular choice
strong in Magic. Repeal is a in Modern Merfolk for years.
flexible bounce spell that However, with the advent of
replaces itself, making it a very Harbinger and Trickster, the
enticing option. Though fantastic need for main deck bounce
in token metas, it gets clunky if spells was greatly reduced.
we have to pay a lot of mana. Today, Vapor Snag is basically
outclassed by Fading Hope.

Step Through Hibernation

A very interesting card that lets A card from a simpler time,
us tutor up any of our Wizards when big green creature decks
(Tide Shaper, Hexcatcher, existed in Modern. Hibernation
Trickster, Harbinger, Tidebinder) can be decent in a metagame
for two mana. In a pinch, it also full of Elves players, but, even
allows us to pay five mana to then, Elves can often rebuild in a
bounce two creatures. single turn with Heritage Druid.

25
 Dress Down Threads of Disloyalty
All of the creatures that Merfolk There are a number of options
Trickster wrecks (Territorial for stealing opponents’
Kavu, Construct tokens, creatures, but they are all
Tarmogoyf, etc) get hit by Dress slightly overcosted, including
Down, all at once. It also stops Threads of Disloyalty. Still,
ETBs from happening, but turns these effects are worth having
our lords off, as well. A tricky on one’s radar.
card worth close consideration.

Leyline of the Void Surgical Extraction

If graveyard strategies become If we counter a big combo spell,
Surgical Extraction can pick all
dominant in the metagame, this
the remaining copies out of the
is an extreme option that can opponent’s graveyard, hand, and
help us compete. However, it is library. As it requires the spell to
terrible to draw, and should be already be in the graveyard, this
avoided unless absolutely is generally not a card we look
necessary. to play.

RETIRED CARDS
Below are cards that experienced some amount of success in the past, but are no longer competitive choices
today. Given the evolution of the Modern format, it is unlikely (but not impossible!) that these cards will ever find
their way back into Modern Merfolk.

Master of Waves Sygg, River Cutthroat

Master of Waves used to be a Sygg is a very interesting card,
proud part of the core. However, as it lines up exceptionally well
removal spells have gotten so against Ragavan, one of the
diverse and powerful that scourges of the format.
Master’s protection from red is However, in most other
not sufficient for us to risk situations the 1/3 body and
getting blown out after spending conditional card draw can seem
4 mana. lackluster.

Benthic Biomancer Cursecatcher

Affectionately known as “Ben,” Though included for years as a
this card performs best in slow, playset in Modern Merfolk,
grindy matchups. The “Adapt” Cursecatcher has been rendered
ability can be activated at instant obsolete by several factors:
speed, which synergizes with our (a) Hexcatcher makes all our
other instant speed effects. Merfolk into Cursecatchers;
Sadly, Ben’s 1 toughness renders (b) 1 toughness is poor; and
him generally unplayable. (c) combo is not prevalent.

26
 Coralhelm Commander Cosi’s Trickster
This relatively old card saw a This card has never been good,
great deal of play in early but people have won with them
Modern decks. These days, in the past. It is a vanilla 1/1
paying a lot of mana to upgrade Merfolk that can grow (or not)
Coralhelm Commander is depending on how the opponent
viewed as too risky given the plays. We simply have far better
density of removal spells in choices for 1mv creatures now.
Modern.

Kopala, Warden of Waves Venser, Shaper Savant

Kopala will always be the “worse Venser was once playable in
Kira,” sadly; its protection ability Merfolk, but the casting cost just
is simply far less impactful. And seems astronomical today.
with Svyelun now providing main Flash is excellent, and the ability
deck protection, Kopala seems is fantastic (capable even of
further than ever from seeing bouncing uncounterable spells,
competitive play. like Supreme Verdict), but this
card simply can’t keep up now.

Fish Facts
In 2016, at Grand Prix Las Vegas (a huge tournament with over 2,200 players), Merfolk pilot Simon Slutsky
went the entire first day without dropping a single match (9-0)! He lost just one round on day two (5-1) for
a combined record of 14-1, finishing the Swiss portion of the tournament in first place! Simon entered the
Top 8 as top seed.

After defeating Melira Combo and Jund in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, Simon had to face
13-year-old Ethan Brown in the finals… playing Merfolk’s nemesis, Affinity! Fortunately, there is a video
(link) of this epic match, and Simon wrote a truly marvelous tournament report (link). Fish aficionados
must check out both the video and the report! (Don’t read ahead if you want to avoid spoilers!)

Simon mulliganed to six in game one, keeping one land and no Aether Vial on the play. He missed his
second land drop and was promptly overrun. The commentators were already set to crown Ethan the
youngest GP winner in history, but Simon wasn’t quite done yet.

The next games were two of the least likely victories ever seen in high-level Magic. Simon clawed his way
back to win game two after a Whipflare and Galvanic Blast roasted his first three creatures (prompting the
commentators to say “Ethan’s gonna win the tournament!”). In game three, Simon’s turn one Aether Vial
was Spell Pierced (see above), a crushing play. However, on the back of Hurkyl’s Recall and Merrow
Reejerey, Simon managed to find exactly lethal damage the turn before Ethan would have easily won!

27
CHAPTER 4: General Strategy
USING TEMPO TO OUR ADVANTAGE
As mentioned previously, Modern Merfolk is a tempo deck. In the game of Magic, this means we want to
establish some number of early attackers while simultaneously disrupting the opponent’s game plan. The
ultimate goal of this strategy is to win games relatively quickly. With spells that can disrupt creature strategies
(Merfolk Trickster, Harbinger of the Tides, Subtlety, Dismember), spell-based strategies (Vodalian Hexcatcher,
Subtlety, Force of Negation), and land-based strategies (Tide Shaper, Spreading Seas), Merfolk has the tools to
execute our tempo plan in virtually any matchup (note: Tishana’s Tidebinder can help against all of these)!.

In general, we want to disrupt the opponent with our creatures in the earliest part of the game, as this allows us
to begin attacking as quickly as possible. While deploying these creatures, we can make excellent use of
well-costed spells such as Dismember (for one mana) and Force of Negation (zero mana) to help gain control of
the game. Aether Vial is a tremendous asset alongside all of this, allowing us to play an extra creature every turn
cycle at instant speed, increasing our attacking power and our ability to interact with the opponent.

In the example above, Merfolk is on the draw, and the UR opponent has played a Ledger Shredder. On our second
turn, we have many options, but not all options are equal! Let’s examine the possibilities:

1. Playing an Islandwalk lord would almost certainly result in the opponent simply removing it on their next
turn, and likely casting a second spell to get value from their Ledger Shredder conniving and attacking.

2. Casting Silvergill seems like a solid enough option as we need to draw more lands, but that still leaves us
tapped out while the opponent merrily continues with their plan (as in option #1).

28
 3. Passing the turn and holding up Hexcatcher is an interesting possibility. However, the opponent will likely
have three mana available on their next turn - enough to pay the tax if we sacrifice Hexcatcher. And if we
cast Hexcatcher and choose to not sacrifice it, the opponent can once again remove it and cast a second
spell for Ledger Shredder value, as in the first two examples.

4. Passing the turn and casting Merfolk Trickster during the opponent’s upkeep is the superior option in this
situation. If it resolves, the Ledger Shredder will be unable to attack, and the opponent will be unable to
gain any value from it on their turn. At the same time, we are developing our board. With two Tricksters in
hand, we will likely want to repeat this play the following turn, as well, as it achieves exactly what we want
in the early part of the game. (If the opponent uses removal on any of the Merfolk Tricksters, this means
they will have one less removal spell to use on our lords once we begin casting them.)

WINNING WITH ISLANDWALK

One of the challenging aspects of playing Modern Merfolk well is accurately perceiving the correct moment to
pivot from a focus on interacting to a focus on attacking. When we decide it’s time to attack, our two Islandwalk
lords (Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident) let us really step on the gas pedal! With some number of
non-lord creatures established on the board and the opponent’s life total reduced, deploying a lord or two can
instantly balloon our attacking power, provide Islandwalk, and often win a game on the spot. This is particularly
true if the opponent has tapped out or is otherwise unable to interact with us. The flip side of this, however, is
that we need to be very careful with our attacking decisions if the opponent has mana up; losing a lord in combat
can lead to terrible blowouts, shifting winning positions to losses in an instant.

The screenshot above is a continuation from the game shown previously. The opponent played a fourth land,
then cast their third Ledger Shredder and a Lightning Bolt targeting our Master of the Pearl Trident. Svyelun’s
ability is forcing the opponent to pay ward 1 for the Lightning Bolt to resolve, which will tap them out. In this spot,
we let the opponent pay for ward, and allow all the Ledger Shredder triggers resolve. Then, the best option is to
29
flash in Vodalian Hexcatcher. With Hexcatcher on board, we can sacrifice Merfolk Trickster to counter the Bolt,
which would effectively win the game, as the opponent couldn’t attack for lethal in the air, and the Master of the
Pearl Trident would be a 3/3, able to eat Ragavan if it attacks (preventing them from getting a Treasure token and
any further counterplay). The opponent would know they have lost even if they leave back blockers, because
of the power of Islandwalk.

MAKING MULLIGAN DECISIONS

As with any deck in any format, smart mulligan decisions are essential for success. Let’s get started with some
basics. In choosing your opening hand, remember this above all:

RULE #1: DO NOT RUSH!

The entire game will be shaped by the opening hand you choose to keep, so it is critical to make sure the hand is
workable before coming to a decision. A few questions to ask yourself while thinking:

● Does this hand have a plan? (If not, or if the plan is very weak, mulligan!)

● Does this hand have the tools to win? (If not, consider mulliganing!)

● Will this hand rely heavily on drawing specific cards? (If yes, consider mulliganing!)

Remember, if you’re on the draw, you get to see an extra card. This fact makes it easier to keep some borderline
hands. When you’re on the draw, you also have the benefit of knowing whether your opponent is taking a
mulligan before making your own decision. If you’re on the play, you’d better have a solid plan from turn one with
the cards you choose to keep.

With these general considerations outlined, let’s address some concepts specific to opening hands in Merfolk:

● Aether Vial is by far our best turn one play! We have a greater chance of winning any given game when
we open with Vial. For this reason, we typically keep borderline hands if they have Vial. An opener with
two Vials is a bit awkward, but not terrible as long as we don’t have too many lands.

● Mutavaults have fantastic synergy in the deck, particularly with Hexcatcher, Svyelun, and Deeproot
Pilgrimage. However, their grey mana can make casting spells awkward. If an opening hand has
Mutavault, make sure you have an idea of how it will be used in the game.

● Though many who lack a deep understanding of Modern Merfolk think the Islandwalk lords are our best
and most important cards, they are actually not very useful in the early part of the game, and are easily
removed before we get any value out of them. We want to have interactive tools in our opening hand. For
this reason, a hand with only lands and Islandwalk lords will often be a mulligan.

With these concepts in mind, let’s explore fifteen sample hands! Think carefully about each hand and take
notes on whether you would keep or mulligan, and why. Consider four scenarios for each hand: (1) Opening 7 on
the play; (2) Opening 7 on the draw; (3) Mulligan to 6 on the play; (4) Mulligan to 6 on the draw. There will be an
answer key afterwards with solutions and explanations.

30
HAND #1

HAND #2

HAND #3

HAND #4

HAND #5

31
HAND #6

HAND #7

HAND #8

HAND #9

HAND #10

32
HAND #11

HAND #12

HAND #13

HAND #14

HAND #15

33
MULLIGAN SOLUTIONS
The goal of this exercise is to get you thinking deeply about why we might keep or mulligan any given hand.
These solutions are provided by a Modern Merfolk pilot with a decade of experience with the deck, so you can
trust that the decisions are deeply informed.

HAND #1
Opening 7 on the play: Mulligan
Opening 7 on the draw: Mulligan
Mull to 6 on the play: Mulligan
Mull to 6 on the draw: Mulligan

Far too slow. A mulligan in all four scenarios. It lacks Aether Vial or a 1mv spell, and has far too many 3mv spells.

HAND #2
Opening 7 on the play: Keep
Opening 7 on the draw: Keep
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

This hand is an easy keep in all four scenarios. Double-Vial hands can be very strong. This one has nice lands,
and interactive creatures with lord effects. As a keep on 6 we would bottom the second Aether Vial.

HAND #3
Opening 7 on the play: Mulligan
Opening 7 on the draw: Mulligan
Mull to 6 on the play: Mulligan
Mull to 6 on the draw: Mulligan

While this hand also has two Vials, it lacks any kind of action. Easy mulligan in all four scenarios.

HAND #4
Opening 7 on the play: Mulligan
Opening 7 on the draw: Keep
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

While Aether Vial is great, this hand is land-heavy and lacks any significant action; as an opening 7 on the play we
could easily find ourselves with nothing to do after the second turn! But as a 7 on the draw we would at least see
an extra card, and this would become keepable. As a keep on 6 we would bottom an Island.

HAND #5
Opening 7 on the play: Keep
Opening 7 on the draw: Keep
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

Very similar to the previous hand with one key difference: it has a 1mv creature. This makes Vial and Hexcatcher
both better. This hand demonstrates an important idea: If a borderline opening 7 would be a keep as a mulligan to
6, we should often keep that 7. As a mulligan to 6 we would bottom an Island.
34
HAND #6
Opening 7 on the play: Keep
Opening 7 on the draw: Keep
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

This is the best opening hand shown so far. A snap keep in all four scenarios.

HAND #7
Opening 7 on the play: Mulligan
Opening 7 on the draw: Mulligan
Mull to 6 on the play: Mulligan
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

There are few set-in-stone rules regarding mulligans with Merfolk, but this hand demonstrates one of them:
NEVER keep a one-land non-Vial opening 7 in the blind. We can simply do better. However, as a mull to 6 on the
draw, we can consider keeping this hand; it can play Magic if it hits a second land, and we’ll draw two cards
before we need to make our second land drop. As a keep on 6 we would bottom the second Tidebinder.

HAND #8
Opening 7 on the play: Keep
Opening 7 on the draw: Mulligan
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

This looks like a mess but is actually quite solid. Mutavault is strong with Pilgrimage, and 2 Mutavaults are better.
The downside of this hand is that it is rather slow - but it is a keep in 3 out of our 4 scenarios as it is a solid hand
against any midrange or control matchup. We only mull this as an opening 7 on the draw, as it gets a bit too slow
and we can likely improve if we go to 6. As a keep on 6, we would bottom Otawara.

HAND #9
Opening 7 on the play: Keep
Opening 7 on the draw: Keep
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

An easy keep in all four scenarios. With Pilgrimage in hand, we want to run out Tide Shaper on turn 1 with hopes
of attacking and making a token with Pilgrimage on turn 2. Svyelun and Mutavault both have excellent synergy
with Pilgrimage, making this hand quite attractive.

HAND #10
Opening 7 on the play: Mulligan
Opening 7 on the draw: Mulligan
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

Earlier, I mentioned the idea: If a borderline opening 7 would be a keep as a mulligan to 6, we should often keep
that 7. This is an example of a hand that doesn’t follow that guideline; the hand is good enough as a keep on 6
(we wouldn’t want to go to 5), bottoming an Island, but it is slow and land-heavy. As an opening 7 we should mull.

35
HAND #11
Opening 7 on the play: Keep
Opening 7 on the draw: Mulligan
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

This hand is a keep in the same three scenarios as hand #8, for the same reasons (it’s a slow opening 7 on the
draw, but solid enough as a mull to 6, bottoming an Island). But this could be a justifiable keep as 7 on the draw,
following the guideline: If a borderline opening 7 would be a keep as a mulligan to 6, we should often keep that 7.

HAND #12
Opening 7 on the play: Mulligan
Opening 7 on the draw: Keep
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

This is the only 1-land + Vial opener in this quiz, and it’s a doozy. The reason I’ve chosen to mull at 7 on the play is
the hand needs a second land on the very first draw to not fall badly behind; if you whiff, you won’t have a
creature on board until turn 3! The hand is far less risky on the draw, as you get twice the odds to hit that second
land on time. As a keep on 6, we would bottom the third Hexcatcher.

HAND #13
Opening 7 on the play: Keep
Opening 7 on the draw: Keep
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

If a borderline opening 7 would be a keep as a mulligan to 6, we should often keep that 7. This hand is basically a
mulligan to 6 with a bonus Otawara. As an actual keep on 6, we would bottom the second Otawara.

HAND #14
Opening 7 on the play: Mulligan
Opening 7 on the draw: Mulligan
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

Yet another hand that violates the guideline mentioned above. As a mulligan to 6, we have three spells and three
lands (including a decent curve), and should keep and bottom an Island. However, as an opening 7, we’re looking
for more; this hand lacks not just Vial, but also doesn’t have a single 1mv or 2mv creature.

HAND #15
Opening 7 on the play: Keep
Opening 7 on the draw: Keep
Mull to 6 on the play: Keep
Mull to 6 on the draw: Keep

This is a perfectly acceptable (if slightly awkward) hand. The awkwardness is somewhat offset by the presence
of Minamo and Mutavault, both of which combine nicely with Svyelun.

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TYPICAL GAME SEQUENCING
Though every individual game we play is unique, there are some very typical, broad play patterns that our deck
follows. Here is a general outline of what to expect in any given game (after we settle on an opening hand):

Early Game: It’s typically best to begin by playing a blue source rather than Mutavault on turn one. Starting the
game with two blue sources lets us cast any of our 2-drops on turn two, and sets us up well to begin casting two
spells on turn three or four, and beyond (two or more Mutavaults can make this difficult). Note, however, that you
may want to play Mutavaults earlier in order to begin making tokens with Deeproot Pilgrimage. Looking beyond
considerations of land sequencing: play Aether Vial as early as possible if you have it, and interact in relevant
ways with the opponent during the early turns of the game.

Mid Game: Try to get Svyelun on the board as soon as possible and protect her (protecting her sometimes
means delaying playing her by a turn - circumstances can vary from matchup to matchup). Choose lines that let
you wait as long as possible before committing resources to the board in order to respond more accurately to
the opponent’s plays. This frequently includes things like keeping a lord in hand during our attack, even though
we could use Aether Vial to put it into play right away for more damage. This kind of line can happen for many
reasons: maybe waiting with Vial means being able to use Trickster on the opponent’s turn, or to vial in a surprise
Hexcatcher to counter an important spell the opponent felt safe casting, or just to flash any lord in on the
opponent’s turn. Many times, Vialing in a lord during combat won’t even change the number of attacks it will take
to win (referred to as our “clock”), and doing so is an especially poor way to play. Remember, Merfolk is not just
an aggro deck! Play intelligently!

Late Game: Look for ways to make your opponent tap out when you see a line for a lethal attack. Save
Islandwalk lords for a moment when they will do the most damage and/or be the safest. Maintain the ability to
interact as long as possible, but don’t be afraid to go for the win with your shields down if it’s your only viable
option.

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CHAPTER 5: Aether Vial Strategy
THE ROLE OF AETHER VIAL
To be clear: Aether Vial is the most powerful spell in Modern Merfolk. It’s the card that makes our dinky tribal
deck competitive. It all but invalidates opponents’ counterspells, and allows us to play more often at instant
speed. While it is possible for us to win games without Vial, we are far more likely to win when we do have it.

When played on turn one, Aether Vial creates a “parallel curve;” on turn two, we can cast a 2-drop and put a
1-drop into play with Aether Vial. This continues on turn three with casting a 3-drop/vialing in a 2-drop, and on
turn 4 with casting a 4-drop/vialing a 3-drop.

The measurement of the efficiency with which one uses mana is, in effect, a measurement of how one uses time,
or “tempo,” in a given game. Each turn presents a player with a certain amount of mana they can use. If they don’t
use all that mana, they are wasting resources (mana and time). Aether Vial is a massively powerful tempo
resource for creature decks.

The “parallel curve” phenomenon is illustrated in the graphic below (adapted from Merfolk Joe’s Guide to
Modern Merfolk). By turn four, an Aether Vial deck can deploy a full 50% more mana’s worth of creatures!

Aether Vial provides the deck with a vast flexibility in how it is able to respond to the opponent’s decisions. This
is because Vial can be activated at instant speed (any time we have priority, on our turn or the opponent’s).
Fundamentally, this allows us to play around all sorcery-speed effects such as Grist and Supreme Verdict. But,
more importantly, it enables us to keep information hidden until the very last moment, letting our opponent walk
into any number of traps we might be setting.

Speaking of traps: the game state below is a great example of how Aether Vial lets us compete even if we fall
behind on lands. Merfolk won this game, not just through the Ugin, but also through the Ulamog the opponent
fetched off of Sanctum (a top-decked Subtlety was a huge help!).
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TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Using Aether Vial optimally in every situation takes great skill, and the difficulty lies in timing. Is it more
important to put an extra lord down immediately for a fast clock, or to wait and leave Vial up to interact with the
opponent on their turn? Should we use Vial to put Hexcatcher into play to counter that spell, or put Trickster into
play to tap down that creature? And when should we do these things? During our turn? During the opponent’s
upkeep? At the start of their combat phase? In response to a spell being cast?

The answers to all these questions are not cut-and-dry. Knowing when and how to use Aether Vial takes not
just knowledge of our own deck, but a deep understanding of every other deck in the format.

For one example, if we know a particular deck plays Veil of Summer in their sideboard, we may want to use Vial
to put Trickster into play to tap down a potential attacker during the opponent’s upkeep step, before they have a
chance to draw a Veil that could prevent the Trickster’s ability from resolving.

For another example, if we know a particular deck plays an instant-speed combo (Violent Outburst in Living End
or Rhinos, for example), we would do well to use Vial to put Hexcatcher onto the board when the opponent is
tapped out (or, at least, when they don’t have enough mana to cast their combo spell). In this way, we can ensure
we get the Hexcatcher onto the board before they can cast their important spell. If, instead, we activate Aether
Vial while they have sufficient mana up, they can respond to our activation by casting their spell, and resolve it
before Hexcatcher ever enters the battlefield.

However, the flip side of this last example is if we know a particular deck plays a sorcery-speed combo
(Indomitable Creativity, for example), it is going to be better to hold back the Vial activation to try to bait their
important spell. In response, we can put Hexcatcher into play with Vial and counter the spell.

39
With all of this finicky instant-speed activation stuff, it can be easy to fall into the habit of always waiting until the
opponent’s turn to use Aether Vial. We often want to activate Vial on our main phase is to put Svyelun
immediately into play, to protect our other creatures with ward as soon as possible.

Remember, keeping information hidden for as long as possible is typically very beneficial, and Aether Vial helps
us achieve this. But there are times when waiting too long is poor, and occasionally even fatal. With patience and
observation, you will come to time your Aether Vial activations like a pro.

TO TICK UP, OR NOT TO TICK UP

In the past, we generally wanted to keep exactly two charge counters on Aether Vial, since we have so many
2-drops in the deck and want Vial to have the best chance of being relevant. However, with the relatively recent
additions of Svyelun and Tishana’s Tidebinder to the deck, we now have a significant number of 3-drops, as well.
As such, we need to think very carefully about whether to keep Vial on 2 or 3 at any given point in a game -
what top-decks would be most impactful? Would it be better to be able to Vial in a Tidebinder, or a lord? These
decisions can make or break a game.

It is correct to tick Aether Vial up to 3 or even 4 if the last creature in your hand is 3mv or 4mv, in order to
maximize Vial’s efficient use in the game. This can be an especially great choice if you can end the game quickly.

In the screenshot below, after vialing in the lord on our opponent’s end step, the plan for turn four is to tick Vial up
to three and play a fourth land, which will allow us to cast the first Subtlety. Then, on turn five, Vial will reach four
counters, allowing us to put two Subtleties into play in one turn, which should easily win the game.

40
TIPS AND TRICKS
In addition to the advice to simply pay close attention during your matches in order to improve with Aether Vial,
here are a few handy tips and tricks:

● If you have a 2-drop and a 4-drop in hand, you can activate Vial on your own upkeep, with Aether Vial’s
trigger on the stack. After putting your 2-drop into play, you can resolve Vial’s trigger and choose to add a
third counter. Then, on your very next turn, you can add the fourth counter and put the 4-drop into play.

● If you have no creatures in hand but an Aether Vial on board, it can be productive to activate it as a bluff,
just to see how the opponent responds. If they hesitate, it can indicate that they might have some effect
in hand. Conversely, a quick dismissal of your activation might mean they have no interaction.

● If you have two Vials (say, on two and three) and your only card in hand is a 2-drop, activate the Vial on
three first. If the opponent responds by casting a spell like Kolaghan’s Command or Vendilion Clique
(either of which would cause you to lose your creature), you can respond to their spell by activating the
Vial on two to put your 2-drop into play. Tricky!

● In most cases, if you don’t have an Aether Vial in your opening hand but draw one for your second turn, it
will still be correct to play the Vial on turn two, even though it doesn't make fully efficient use of your
mana on that turn. This is because Aether Vial will eventually make up this tempo discrepancy and,
hopefully, even pull you ahead.

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CHAPTER 6: Islandwalk Lord Strategy
THE ROLE OF ISLANDWALK LORDS
Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident, our two Islandwalk
lords, are central, defining cards in Modern Merfolk. However, there
is confusion among players unfamiliar with the deck as to the actual
role of these cards. Because they have long been the face of the
deck, and their effect gives our creatures +1/+1, the general
misconception is that Merfolk is a go-wide aggro deck, generally
similar in strategy to decks ranging from Prowess to 8-Whack to
Affinity to Elves. But nothing could be further from the truth! Modern
Merfolk is far more interactive than any of those decks, and our
approach is more nuanced.

Rather than something Modern Merfolk always expects to establish a critical mass of, Islandwalk lords are often
used surgically, with a single copy. After interacting with the opponent for several turns and reducing their life
total with non-lord creatures, we can often find a moment where playing one Islandwalk lord will very suddenly
swing a game in our favor, if not simply win immediately. The lord makes our creatures bigger, yes, but, more
importantly, it makes them unblockable!

More than the +1/+1 anthem effect, Islandwalk is the most fundamental strategic aspect of these lords. Yes, the
fact that they grow our Merfolk is extremely significant, and, sometimes, our big creatures win games without
ever actually using Islandwalk. But making our entire team unblockable is such a consistently powerful ability
that the deck and its play patterns are built around it.

For many years, Spreading Seas was a core part of Modern Merfolk, specifically to aid in achieving access to
Islandwalk. As of mid-2021, the deck has switched over to playing Tide Shaper, a Merfolk creature that performs
the same essential function of providing access to Islandwalk. Typically, when Spreading Seas was in the deck,
we would prioritize playing creatures out in the early game, before the enchantment, in order to begin applying
pressure as soon as possible. Tide Shaper has been a great addition to the deck because it allows both these
goals (pressure and access to Islandwalk) to be accomplished early and efficiently.

WHEN TO PUT ISLANDWALK LORDS INTO PLAY

There will always be opening hands where playing an Islandwalk lord on turn two is the best (or only) option.
However, our primary approach is to play interactive Merfolk (Tide Shaper, Vodalian Hexcatcher, Merfolk
Trickster, Harbinger of the Tides, Tishana’s Tidebinder) on turns two and three. This gets bodies on the battlefield
to begin attacking, while also achieving some sort of tempo advantage. Frequently, opponents need to use
removal spells on some of these early creatures in order to not take too much damage. As mentioned above, we
want to attack for a few turns to pressure the opponent’s life total and force them to interact with us as they also
try to execute their strategy. Once the opponent has expended resources and is less likely to have more removal
spells, we pounce with the Islandwalk lords and try to close out the game.

Apart from this very generalized strategic approach, there are countless specific scenarios where it is beneficial
for us to either cast or vial in an Islandwalk lord. See the section below for some helpful tips and tricks.

42
TIPS AND TRICKS
Rather than try to share every single possible scenario one might encounter, here is a list of helpful advice for
playing Islandwalk lords well (note - some of these suggestions apply to Vodalian Hexcatcher, too).

● Respect the blue-intensive casting costs of Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident (and other
creatures in the deck). This means making sure to play enough blue lands in the early part of the game,
and not keeping a hand too heavy with Mutavaults (unless the hand has Aether Vial and/or Deeproot
Pilgrimage, in which case keeping may be a possibility).

● Know what kind of damage-based removal you might expect to see in any matchup and do your best to
use lords to play around it. Against Burn, this means getting our creatures to four toughness if ever
possible, in order to make them immune to Searing Blaze and other spells that deal three damage. Decks
might play Wrenn and Six, whose one damage can kill our one-toughness creatures, or spells like Fire or
Stomp that deal two damage. Lords (and correct sequencing) are relevant in all these scenarios.

● Aether Vial makes lords into combat tricks. Buffing our team’s stats mid-combat can lead to very
favorable outcomes, whether on offense or defense. Just be sure to think through any interaction the
opponent might have before committing to combat decisions, particularly any time lords are involved, as
outcomes can be swingy when lords are removed without having considered that possibility beforehand.

● A blue opponent may start a game against us by playing non-basic lands to try to keep us off Islandwalk.
Keeping Islandwalk lords in hand into the later part of a game may lure such an opponent into a false
sense of security, such that they’ll finally play an Island, and we can often punish such a misstep swiftly
and mercilessly.

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CHAPTER 7: Vodalian Hexcatcher Strategy
THE ROLE OF HEXCATCHER
There are three things Modern Merfolk is always looking for more of:

1. +1/+1 “lord” effects

2. Flash creatures
3. Interaction stapled onto Merfolk

Vodalian Hexcatcher, miraculously, provides all three of these things in one

package. Modern Merfolk has improved dramatically since the addition of this
powerful card!

The heart of Hexcatcher is the flash ability. Being able to cast it at instant speed
makes its other two abilities far more impactful.

We have long benefitted from the ability to put Islandwalk lords into play at instant speed with Aether Vial, as a
combat trick or to save a creature from damage-based removal. The addition of Hexcatcher increases our ability
to deploy “lord” effects at instant speed, and to do so even twice (or more!) in one turn.

For years, Modern Merfolk played Cursecatcher, whose ability allowed us to sacrifice it to counter an instant or
sorcery unless the opponent paid one mana. It was a small effect for a small card, but it sometimes did work,
delaying our opponent from casting an important spell for a turn. And Cursecatcher lacked flash, so, without
Aether Vial, we always simply had to cast it on our main phase, making it easy for our opponent to play around.

Today, Hexcatcher makes all our Merfolk into better

Cursecatchers (being able to counter any non-creature spell,
not just instants and sorceries), and at instant speed! This
improves all our 1-drops significantly, because they can now
act as pseudo Force Spikes in combination with Hexcatcher.
Beyond that, it improves all our Merfolk for the same reason,
making cards like Harbinger of the Tides a better choice now
than a non-Merfolk like Brazen Borrower.

Hexcatcher’s casting cost also helps the deck! At 1U rather than UU, we’re able to use Mutavault’s mana to cast
Hexcatcher. Reducing our dependence on blue lands makes many more opening hands keepable, and makes
curving out during games far more manageable. Of course, as a 2-drop, Hexcatcher works well with our plan of
frequently having Aether Vial on two counters.

One final thing to note about Hexcatcher is that it is only a 1/1. This just means we need to be somewhat careful
with running it out in certain spots. For example, we would hate to get it killed by Wrenn and Six’s second ability.
But flash helps it play around many dangerous situations.

Deeproot Pilgrimage has excellent synergy with Hexcatcher, providing lots of Merfolk tokens to sacrifice to its
ability.

44
TIPS AND TRICKS
Vodalian Hexcatcher has greatly improved some of Modern Merfolk’s matchups, and has introduced some fun
and powerful lines to be aware of during your games.

● Flash Hexcatcher in as a third Merfolk to turn on Svyelun’s Indestructible ability.

● Mutavaults are often great for sacrificing to Hexcatcher’s ability. This is one of several compelling
reasons to include a full playset of Mutavaults in the deck.

● Hexcatcher has single-handedly improved our Living End matchup, and not merely because of its ability
to counter their payoff spell. No, the reason Hexcatcher is so excellent against Living End is rather
sneaky: its ability allows us to sacrifice our entire team of Merfolk, only to come back after Living End
resolves! However, we can only pull this maneuver off when the opponent casts Violent Outburst to
Cascade, not Shardless Agent; the idea is that we sacrifice our team targeting the Outburst, not the Living
End (see screenshot below: all the Hexcatcher triggers are targeting Violent Outburst - make sure to hold
priority by pressing the Ctrl key while playing on MTGO!).

In this way, the Living End will resolve, and all our sacrificed Merfolk will return to the battlefield. Another
way to play, if we have a creature advantage on board, is to simply sacrifice enough Merfolk to counter
the Living End. In this way, we still begin filling up our graveyard with creatures, but continue to maintain
our advantage on board. The best line will vary each game, so think carefully!

● Against black decks, play other lords ahead of Hexcatcher when possible to avoid getting blown out by
Orcish Bowmasters.

45
 ● A very tricky and fun line involves casting Hexcatcher and blocking with Mutavault, all for only three
mana. First, we activate Mutavault and choose to block an attacking creature. After that, we can tap
Mutavault for mana, along with a blue source, to cast Hexcatcher! Lines like this are very difficult for an
opponent to see, and so are very valuable for us to be aware of. This particular trick is excellent against
2-power creatures such as Ragavan and Goblin Guide, as Mutavault becomes a 3/3 with Hexcatcher on
the board, and can eat the attacker! (Note, Mutavault can’t make mana if it has summoning sickness!)

● Don’t hesitate to use Hexcatcher itself as a counterspell. For example, imagine a scenario where we’re on
the draw with no creatures on board yet, Hexcatcher in hand, and it’s the opponent’s third turn. If they cast
Teferi, Time Raveler, we are very happy to cast and sacrifice Hexcatcher to its own ability to counter the
Teferi. Such a play is tempo positive (we spent only two mana versus the opponent’s three mana), and
card neutral (we each spend a card). Perhaps most importantly, odds are their Teferi was much more
important to their plan than Hexcatcher was to ours - an excellent trade for us.

● Hexcatcher’s ability can be activated to counter our own non-creature spells! This can be relevant if an
opponent has an Ensnaring Bridge in play and we want to get Hexcatcher off the battlefield (to reduce the
power of our other creatures so they can attack). For example, we could cast Aether Vial then sacrifice
Hexcatcher using its ability to target the Vial on the stack.

46
CHAPTER 8: Merfolk Trickster Strategy
THE ROLE OF MERFOLK TRICKSTER
Merfolk Trickster is one of Modern Merfolk’s best cards in creature matchups. At
the very least, it taps down and removes all ability text from the opponent’s most
threatening creature for a turn. At its best, Trickster can ambush an attacker and
reduce its power and/or toughness, killing it immediately or allowing us to eat it
during blocks. In these cases, Trickster is effectively a removal spell on a 2-drop
Merfolk with flash.

Trickster is also pretty solid in non-creature matchups, as it has flash and can be
held up alongside counterspells. However, it is one of the first cards to board out in
these matchups, as its ability is not relevant.

In general, the more instant-speed effects we have, the more flexible we can be.

GENERAL USES FOR TRICKSTER

There are a few typical situations where Merfolk Trickster is very useful:

● The most common use of Trickster is to cast it during the opponent's beginning of combat step to tap
down their biggest creature, preventing it from attacking (and eliminating it as a blocker on our following
attack). For this reason, you should set a stop on MTGO at your opponent's beginning of combat step.

● However, there will be situations where we actually want the creature to attack, so we can block it. In
these cases, we want to cast Trickster during the opponent's declare attackers step, after attackers
have been declared but before blocks. In these instances, Trickster’s ability-removing text can make large
and/or previous unblockable creatures very blockable. Some specific examples are:

1. Taking away flying/evasion from creatures such as Dauthi Voidwalker, Inkmoth Nexus, Ledger
Shredder, Brazen Borrower, Mantis Rider, Ginger Brute, and Blighted Agent, to name a few. Casting
Trickster in these situations can easily lead to a 2-for-1 where we eat the opponent's attacker with one or
more of our bigger blockers, or simply allow us to trade 1-for-1 with an otherwise hard-to-deal-with
evasive threat.

2. Making creatures smaller and eating them, such as Dragon’s Rage Channeler (becomes a 1/1 without
flying) and Tarmogoyf (becomes a 0/1). Note, when blocking one of these now-tiny creatures, do so with
as many of your creatures as possible; if you only block with one creature, the opponent can remove your
blocker and their creature will live.

● There are some creatures we might want to target with Trickster during the opponent's upkeep. These
are ones that are typically more useful in their main phase, such as mana dorks (casting sorcery-speed
spells), Ledger Shredder (getting value when the second spell is cast), Omnath, Locus of Creation (getting
value on land drops), and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove (allowing an extra land drop).

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 ● Another very common use for Trickster is to simply cast it during our turn to tap down a potential
blocker. To interact with us the opponent needs to play at instant speed at any point during our turn, so
the timing here doesn't matter, as long as we cast Trickster before the Declare Blockers step.

● Trickster can be flashed in as a third Merfolk to turn on Svyelun’s Indestructible ability.

CREATURES THAT TRICKSTER PWNS

Merfolk Trickster dominates any creature whose ability text defines its power and/or toughness. In some cases,
Trickster’s ability can actually destroy a creature immediately! Here is a list of some creatures that Trickster
destroys:

And some creatures that Trickster shrinks:

SYNERGIES
● Merfolk Trickster and Harbinger of the Tides can act as a one-two punch: Trickster taps an opponent’s
creature, and Harbinger bounces it!

● As mentioned above, Trickster can be flashed in as the third Merfolk to turn on Svyelun’s Indestructible
ability. This can be timed in such a way that it will counter a removal spell on the stack targeting Svyelun!

● With Merrow Reejerey on the board, Trickster can be flashed in on the opponent’s upkeep to tap one of
their lands (or any other important permanent)! This can be used to great effect against Tron, or against
any deck to simply delay a big spell for a turn.

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THINGS TRICKSTER CAN’T DO
Though Merfolk Trickster is extremely versatile, there are some types of things it cannot do:

● Trickster cannot remove P/T modifying effects, with anything from Colossus Hammer to Groundswell
to Prowess (fortunately, this will almost always be irrelevant, since Trickster also taps the creature).

● For abilities gained through instants/sorceries/auras/equipment (cards that give abilities typically say
the creature "gains" or "has" the ability, which they can lose; cards that modify P/T say the creature "gets"
+X/+Y, which they cannot lose), time stamp order prevails: if Trickster's ability resolves after the ability
we're trying to remove, it will be removed. However, an opponent can play effects after Trickster's ability
has resolved, and the creature will gain and retain those abilities.

A great example of this is when an opponent targets their Fury with Undying Evil while we have Trickster
in hand, as shown in the screenshot below (Note: this explanation is still relevant with Grief).

If Trickster is cast with Undying Evil still on the stack, Trickster’s ETB will resolve (removing double
strike from Fury) before Undying Evil. Then, when Undying Evil resolves, Fury will gain and retain Undying.
When Fury’s Evoke trigger (which was under the Undying Evil on the stack) resolves, Fury will go to the
graveyard then return to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter. This is incorrect sequencing with Trickster!

The correct way to play this is to let the Undying Evil resolve, then cast Trickster targeting Fury. In this
way, Trickster’s ability will remove double strike and undying from Fury. When the Evoke trigger resolves,
Fury will stay in the graveyard!

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 ● Trickster's ability targets a creature, so we can't use it to tap and remove abilities from creatures with
hexproof, such as Slippery Bogle or Striped Riverwinder, or protection from blue, such as Goblin Piledriver
or Etched Champion. (Note: Trickster can target Emrakul, the Aeon’s Torn, as it has protection from
colored spells, and Trickster uses an ability, not a spell.)

● Trickster can not prevent the land-type abilities of Dryad of the Ilysian Grove or Magus of the Moon.
(This is a complicated ruling related to “layers;” it’s enough for you to know it simply doesn’t work.)

● Trickster can't prevent copying combos such as Kiki/Resto and Saheeli/Felidar, because even if a
creature has its abilities removed, a copy of that creature will have its original abilities as printed on the
card, enabling the combo to continue. (Note: Trickster can prevent Kiki/Exarch, as Kiki never leaves and
re-enters the battlefield in that case.)

● Trickster's ability can not "stifle" abilities as they're being activated or triggered. For example, if an
opponent activates Griselbrand's ability to draw seven cards, that ability goes on the stack and there's
nothing Trickster can do to stop it from resolving. Trickster can certainly target Griselbrand, but
Griselbrand won't be tapped and lose his abilities until the opponent is done resolving instant-speed
things on top of Trickster on the stack. When a creature with an ETB ability enters the battlefield, that
ability goes on the stack immediately; Trickster cannot stop it from triggering, nor from resolving.

● Because it can't "stifle" abilities, Trickster can never prevent upkeep abilities from going on the stack
with creatures such as Dark Confidant or Huntmaster of the Fells. Upkeep abilities are placed on the
stack before priority is received by either player.

● To explain this further: Trickster's text reads, "target creature... loses all abilities until end of turn.” This
language is confusingly similar but functionally very different from Flickerwisp's text, "at the beginning
of the next end step." If Flickerwisp enters the battlefield during the end step, the "beginning of the end
step" has already passed for the current turn, so the exiled permanent will remain in exile through the next
turn. If Trickster enters the battlefield during the end step, the "end of turn" hasn't happened yet - that
occurs at the cleanup step, which comes after the end step. So, if you target Dark Confidant during your
own end step with the hope that his upkeep trigger will remain turned off during the opponent's next turn,
Trickster’s effect will actually wear off before then, during our cleanup step.

● For the same reason, we also can't flash Trickster in on our opponent's end step to shut off one of their
creatures’ abilities for our next turn; Trickster's ability will have worn off by the time we untap. An example
where this would be relevant is against Humans, where the opponent controls a Meddling Mage naming
a card we want to cast. Normally, we want to flash in our creatures to have them as attackers the
following turn, but if we play Trickster on our opponent's turn, we can't cast the spell the Meddling Mage
is naming on our turn. We can choose between playing Trickster on the opponent's end step, tapping a
creature, and having the Trickster as an attacker on our turn; or waiting until our turn to play Trickster,
targeting Meddling Mage, and casting the spell it was naming (but Trickster will have summoning
sickness).

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MATCHUP-SPECIFIC USES FOR TRICKSTER
There are many unique interactions with Merfolk Trickster. Below is a list of some of the most impactful ones to
look out for in various matchups across the format (with particularly powerful interactions highlighted).

Rhinos
● Tap Rhinos and other creatures to gain time.

Yawgmoth
● Tap mana dorks during their upkeep to slow them down.
● Target creatures with undying after attacks are declared to remove undying, block, and keep them dead.
● Tap potential blockers to create favorable attacks at the opponent and/or at Grist, the Hunger Tide.

Mono-Green Tron
● Target a Wurmcoil Engine in response to a cracked Oblivion Stone to prevent the opponent from getting
tokens. (We lose Trickster in the process, but trading a 2/2 for two 3/3 tokens is a great deal.)
● Tap big creatures.

Blue/Red Murktide
● Target DRC after it attacks to remove flying, shrink it, and block it (double block if possible).
● Tap Ledger Shredder in the opponent’s upkeep to prevent them from conniving.
● Target Ledger Shredder after it attacks for favorable surprise blocks, if it’s small enough.
● Tap down Murktide to gain time (this idea applies to many creatures in many decks).

Amulet Titan
● Target Cultivator Colossus to kill it instantly.
● Target a Construct token to kill it instantly.
● Targeting Dryad of the Ilysian Grove will NOT stop it from giving the opponent’s lands all basic types!!
● Target Dryad during the opponent’s upkeep to prevent the extra land drop.
● Target Azusa, Lost but Seeking with a bounce land trigger on the stack to prevent extra land drops.
● Tap Primeval Titan at the beginning of combat to prevent its attack trigger.

Hammertime
● Target a Construct token to kill it instantly.
● Tap down any creature with Colossus Hammer equipped at the beginning of combat.
● With an equipment on the stack, target Puresteel Paladin to prevent card drawing and equipping.
● Target Giver of Runes to force an activation, then Dismember an important target with Giver’s ability on
the stack.
● Target Esper Sentinel before casting a non-creature spell to prevent drawing.
● Tap down Kaldra Compleat’s germ to gain time. If you want to trade with it, let it attack then target it with
Trickster. It will lose Indestructible, First Strike, Trample, and the rest of its text.

Living End
● Target Waker of Waves to make our creatures more powerful.
● Target Grief to remove menace.

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Hardened Scales
● Target a Construct token to kill it instantly.
● Target fliers for surprise blocks.
● Target Arcbound Ravager to force the opponent to act now (useful if we are holding up more interaction
to deal with whatever their Ravager plan ends up being).
● Target Walking Ballista to force the opponent to act now (useful if we have ways to stymie whatever they
might do with Ballista, like using Vial to put a lord into play).

Burn
● Tap down any creature at the beginning of combat to gain time.

Domain Zoo
● Target Territorial Kavu to kill it instantly.
● Target Wild Nacatl after it attacks to shrink
it and block/eat it.
● Target Nishoba Brawler after it attacks to
shrink it and block/eat it.
● Target Tarmogoyf after it attacks to shrink
it and block/eat it.
● Watch for green mana representing Veil of
Summer.

Right: This attacking Tarmogoyf is about

to be eaten by a Merfolk Trickster.

Creativity
● If there’s a Reflection of Kiki-Jiki token on board, tap it with Creativity or Archon on the stack to prevent
the Archon from being copied after it enters the battlefield..
● Tap a Goblin token to prevent the opponent from ramping.
● Tap Archon to lose more slowly.

Mono-Black Coffers
● Target Sheoldred in the opponent’s upkeep to prevent them from gaining life.
● Target Sheoldred in our upkeep to prevent us from losing life.

Scam
● After Undying Evil (or any similar spell) resolves, target the Undying creature with Trickster to take away
the undying text so the creature stays in the graveyard.
● Target Dauthi Voidwalker after it attacks to take away Shadow and block it.

Omnath Control
● Target Omnath in response to its ETB trigger to prevent landfall value.
● Target Omnath in response to the opponent cracking a fetchland to prevent landfall value.
● Target Solitude to remove lifelink.

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Death’s Shadow
● Tap their creatures to gain time.
● If you're going to target Death's Shadow, it will almost always be correct to do so at the beginning of
combat step to tap it down and prevent it from attacking; when Trickster removes Death's Shadow's
ability, it becomes a 13/13 until the end of turn.

Mill
● Target crabs during the opponent’s upkeep to prevent landfall value.

Grixis Control
● Play on the opponent’s end step to force counterspells.

UWx Control
● Target Solitude to remove lifelink.
● Play on the opponent’s end step to force counterspells.

Infect
● In this matchup, it is often best to declare no blocks, in order to bait out pump spells. Once the pump
spells resolve, we can then cast Trickster and remove infect from the pumped creature, making the
damage hit our life total rather than give us poison counters. Since the Infect deck doesn’t attack our life
total, this effectively counters their attack and pump spell(s).
● Another way to go about things is to cast Trickster targeting one of their Infect creatures after the
opponent declares attackers, threatening to block and eat the creature. If they spend a pump spell to save
their creature, we can often respond by Dismembering the creature (if not, it is still often reasonable to
just trade a Trickster for a pump spell).

Merfolk (Mirror)
● Creature interaction is crucial in the mirror. Think very carefully to get maximum value out of Trickster.
● Target the opponent’s Islandwalk lord to take away Islandwalk and block all their creatures.
● Target any lord to reduce the power and toughness of the opponent’s creatures.
● If we control Lord of Atlantis and the opponent’s attacker has Islandwalk from it, Trickster will remove
Islandwalk from the attacker. However, it will not remove the +1/+1 effect, as it isn’t an ability.
● Target Vodalian Hexcatcher (or Cursecatcher) before casting Dismember to avoid any taxes.
● Target Svyelun to prevent card draw and/or before casting Dismember on other Merfolk to avoid Ward 1.

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CHAPTER 9: Tishana’s Tidebinder Strategy
THE ROLE OF TISHANA’S TIDEBINDER
Merfolk players knew from the moment Tishana’s Tidebinder was unveiled that it
would be amazing in our deck; its “stifle” ability (countering activated or triggered
abilities) had many clear and obvious applications.

One common initial impression, however, was that the 3mv cost might make it too
clunky to include as a full playset alongside Svyelun. But as people tested and
thought more deeply about Tidebinder, more and more uses revealed themselves.
We soon realized we wanted as many copies as possible! It also became clear that
it would not just bring change to Modern Merfolk, but to the entire Modern format.

Simply put: Tidebinder can do almost anything we want it to do. It is a large flash
threat that counters and shuts down many of the most impactful cards in Modern.

STIFLE + EXTENDED TRICKSTER ABILITY + 3/2 FLASH BODY

To get to a basic appreciation of Tishana’s Tidebinder, one has to isolate its three components:

1. It is a 3/2 Merfolk with flash. Being able to play Tidebinder at instant speed synergizes very well with all
the other flash spells and effects in the deck. And its 3/2 base stats mean it can swing very hard in
combination with lords and Islandwalk.
2. It can counter (“stifle”) an activated or triggered ability. These types of abilities abound in Modern (see
“Matchup-Specific Uses” below), and countering an important one can easily swing a game in our favor.
3. It can shut down all abilities of an artifact, creature, or planeswalker when it counters one of their
abilities, for as long as Tidebinder remains on the battlefield. This effect can be compared to Merfolk
Trickster’s ability, but with the incredible potential to last for many turns.

No other card in the history of Magic has combined this kind of broad “stifle” effect with a permanent removal of
abilities - much less on a tribal flash body.

THE BANE OF FETCHLANDS

While many targets for Tidebinder’s ability are listed below, one case is more common than all the rest and
deserves special attention: Tidebinder can counter a fetchland activation! Fetchlands are all over Modern,
which makes countering one a sort of “floor,” or base case for Tidebinder’s ability. Having the equivalent of land
destruction stapled to a flash 3/2 Merfolk is rather extraordinary!

OTHER COMMON APPLICATIONS

Orcish Bowmasters, The One Ring, Cascade spells, Evoke Elementals, Channel lands, Urza’s Saga, Primeval Titan,
Engineered Explosives, and Dragon’s Rage Channeler are a few prevalent, high-value uses. See below for more!

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TIDEBINDER IN ACTION
Below are a few screenshots showing Tidebinder performing well in a wide variety of challenging circumstances.

Left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Tidebinder about to counter an Omnath’s ETB ability; Tidebinder countering a Cascade trigger
against Living End, allowing us to win the next turn; Tidebinder countering a Cascade trigger against Rhinos, allowing us to
win with Islandwalk the next turn; Tishana attacking for exactly lethal after countering an Ugin activation the previous turn.

THINGS TIDEBINDER CAN’T DO

Though Tishana’s Tidebinder is extremely versatile, there are some types of things it cannot do:

● If Tidebinder counters an ability that triggers as a permanent spell is cast, that permanent will still
enter the battlefield with all its abilities. One of the most prevalent examples of such a cast trigger in
Modern is Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger in Mono-Green Tron. If we counter its cast trigger (exile two
target permanents), Ulamog still enters with Indestructible and its attack triggered ability intact. This is
because Tidebinder’s ability checks to see if the source of the ability being countered is an artifact,
creature, or planeswalker as it resolves. When Tidebinder’s ability resolves, however, it sees Ulamog on
the stack as a spell, not as a creature. Here is a great video of a judge explaining the ruling. (Other
examples of cast triggers include: Bloodbraid Elf, Shardless Agent, Cityscape Leveler, and both Emrakuls.)

● Tidebinder only has a lasting effect on three permanent types: artifacts, creatures, and planeswalkers.
It is very easy to forget this, and to think we can remove all abilities from lands and enchantments. This
can lead to pretty bad misplays, so be careful!
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MATCHUP-SPECIFIC USES FOR TIDEBINDER
Because there are so many targets for Tidebinder’s ability in Modern, below is a simple list of all the cards in each
matchup that can be affected by Tidebinder. Remember - abilities of lands and enchantments (and spells) will
not be removed entirely; only the single trigger or activation will be countered! Examples where this limitation is
relevant are highlighted in red. This expansive list should simply show you how relevant and flexible Tidebinder is
in virtually every matchup. For specific interesting and tricky interactions (highlighted in blue), please see the
“Tips & Tricks” section below.

Rhinos
● CREATURES: Shardless Agent, Tishana’s Tidebinder, Subtlety,
● NON-CREATURES: Violent Outburst, Lorien Revealed, Crashing Footfalls
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Triomes, Boseiju, Otawara

Yawgmoth
● CREATURES: Gilded Goose, Young Wolf, Blood Artist, Hapatra, Orcish Bowmasters, Strangleroot Geist,
Sheoldred, Yawgmoth, Ignoble Hierarch
● NON-CREATURES: Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, Grist
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Nurturing Peatland, Takenuma, Boseiju, Pendelhaven

Mono-Green Tron
● CREATURES: Wurmcoil Engine, Walking Ballista, Haywire Mite, Ulamog
● NON-CREATURES: Karn(s), Ugin(s), Expedition Map, Oblivion Stone, The One Ring, Relic of Progenitus,
Liquimetal Coating, Cityscape Leveler, Sundering Titan, Portal to Phyrexia
● LANDS: Boseiju, Urza’s Saga, Blast Zone

Blue/Red Murktide
● CREATURES: Dragon’s Rage Channeler, Ragavan, Murktide Regent (the last ability), Subtlety,
● NON-CREATURES: Engineered Explosives, Mishra’s Bauble, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Otawara, Fiery Islet

Amulet Titan
● CREATURES: Primeval Titan, Arboreal Grazer, Cultivator Colossus
● NON-CREATURES: The One Ring, Expedition Map, , Spelunking, Amulet of Vigor,
● LANDS: Boseiju, Tolaria West, Urza’s Saga, Valakut, Radiant Fountain, Slayers’ Stronghold, Sunhome, The
Mycosynth Gardens

Hammertime
● CREATURES: Esper Sentinel, Gingerbrute, Giver of Runes, Puresteel Paladin, Stoneforge Mystic
● NON-CREATURES: Colossus Hammer, Shadowspear, Sigarda’s Aid, Forge Anew, Kaldra Compleat
● LANDS: Eiganjo, Urza’s Saga, Inkmoth Nexus

Living End
● CREATURES: Shardless Agent, Architects of Will, Curator of Mysteries, Street Wraith, Generous Ent,
Oliphaunt, Waker of Waves, Foundation Breaker, Grief, Subtlety
● NON-CREATURES: Violent Outburst
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Boseiju, Otawara

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Hardened Scales
● CREATURES: Hangarback Walker, Walking Ballista, Zabaz, Arcbound Ravager, Haywire Mite, Patchwork
Automaton
● NON-CREATURES: Welding Jar, Shadowspear, Ozolith(s), Agatha’s Soul Cauldron
● LANDS: Boseiju, Urza’s Saga, Inkmoth Nexus, Pendelhaven

Burn
● CREATURES: Monastery Swiftspear, Eidolon of the Great Revel
● NON-CREATURES: Roiling Vortex, Rift Bolt
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Sunbaked Canyon, Fiery Islet

Domain Zoo
● CREATURES: Ragavan, Orcish Bowmasters, Shardless Agent, Bloodbraid Elf, Territorial Kavu, General
Ferrous Rokiric, Solitude
● NON-CREATURES: Leyline Binding
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Triomes

Creativity
● CREATURES: Archon of Cruelty, Goblin Token, Reflection of Kiki-Jiki, Emrakul
● NON-CREATURES: Wrenn and Six, Teferi, Leyline Binding, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Boseiju, Triomes, Dwarven Mine

Mono-Black Coffers
● CREATURES: Orcish Bowmasters, Sheoldred, Troll of Khazad-dum, Archon of Cruelty, Cityscape Leveler,
Sundering Titan, Emrakul
● NON-CREATURES: Karn, The One Ring, Liquimetal Coating
● LANDS: Field of Ruin, Demolition Field

Scam
● CREATURES: Ragavan, Dauthi Voidwalker, Orcish Bowmasters, Sheoldred, Grief,
● NON-CREATURES: Not Dead After All, Undying Evil, Engineered Explosives, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker,
Hidetsugu Consumes All
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Takenuma, Mount Doom, Castle Locthwain

Omnath Control
● CREATURES: Shardless Agent, Omnath, Bloodbraid Elf, Solitude
● NON-CREATURES: Teferi, Jace, Lorien Revealed, Leyline Binding, The One Ring
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Triomes, Boseiju

Death’s Shadow
● CREATURES: Orcish Bowmasters, Snapcaster Mage, Murktide Regent, Ragavan, Dragon’s Rage
Channeler, Grief, Subtlety
● NON-CREATURES: Engineered Explosives, Mishra’s Bauble, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Otawara, Fiery Islet

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Mill
● CREATURES: Hedron Crab, Ruin Crab
● NON-CREATURES: Jace, Fractured Sanity, Gadwick’s First Duel
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Field of Ruin, Mikokoro, Oboro, Shelldock Isle

Grixis Control
● CREATURES: Ragavan, Orcish Bowmasters, Snapcaster Mage, Tishana’s Tidebinder, Sheoldred, Subtlety
● NON-CREATURES: Engineered Explosives
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Otawara,Triomes, Mutavault

UWx Control
● CREATURES: Solitude, Subtlety
● NON-CREATURES: Teferi, Leyline Binding, The One Ring, Lorien Revealed, Chalice of the Void
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Triomes

Infect
● CREATURES: Venerated Rotpriest, Spellskite, Subtlety, Noble Hierarch
● NON-CREATURES: Teferi
● LANDS: Fetchlands, Boseiju, Waterlogged Grove, Inkmoth Nexus, Pendelhaven

Merfolk (Mirror)
● CREATURES: Tide Shaper, Rishadan Dockhand, Merfolk Trickster, Harbinger of the Tides, Silvergill Adept,
Vodalian Hexcatcher, Tishana’s Tidebinder, Svyelun, Subtlety
● NON-CREATURES: Aether Vial, Lorien Revealed, Deeproot Pilgrimage, Spreading Seas
● LANDS: Mutavault, Otawara, Waterlogged Grove, Minamo, Oboro

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TIPS AND TRICKS
As you can see above, targets for Tidebinder’s ability abound. Many of them are relatively obvious, with clear,
intuitive interactions. However, many others are relatively obscure, counter-intuitive, and/or complicated. Below is
a fascinating list of some nonobvious interactions. But let’s start with some fundamentals:

● It is essential to understand (and remember in our matches) that triggered and activated abilities on
the stack are wholly separate from the permanent (or spell) from which they originated. When you
target an ability on the stack, you are not targeting the permanent (or spell).

○ An illuminating example of this is how Tidebinder interacts with Patchwork Automaton (PA) and
its abilities. PA actually has two triggered abilities: Ward 2, and the ability that grants it +1/+1
counters. (Though many protective effects like Hexproof, Indestructible, and Protection from
Color(s) are static abilities, Ward is a triggered ability and, as such, uses the stack.)

○ In a scenario where an opponent casts an artifact spell with PA on the battlefield, PA’s +1/+1
ability would trigger. If we target this ability with Tidebinder (to “stifle” it), PA’s Ward 2 ability would
not trigger! Remember: when you target an ability on the stack, you are not targeting the
permanent from which it originated. In this example, the +1/+1 ability would be countered by
Tidebinder, and all of PA’s abilities would be removed.

○ If we target the opponent’s PA (with Dismember or Trickster, for example), PA’s Ward 2 ability
would trigger and be put on the stack. We could then cast or Vial in Tidebinder to target the Ward
2 trigger. This would counter the trigger, all of PA’s abilities would be removed, and our interaction
(Dismember, Trickster, etc) would resolve without having to pay Ward 2.

○ Two other examples that demonstrate the separation of abilities on the stack from the
permanents from which they originated are General Ferrous Rokiric and Thrun, the Last Troll.
Though both these creatures have some form of Hexproof (a static ability that prevents
opponents from targeting that creature), Tidebinder can target and counter Rokiric’s triggered
ability or Thrun’s activated ability. Doing so would remove all abilities from the creature, including
Hexproof, making it targetable.

● Understanding the separation between abilities on the stack and the source from which they originated is
essential for the next card we’ll look at: Veil of Summer. It reads, “Draw a card if an opponent has cast a
blue or black spell this turn. Spells you control can't be countered this turn. You and permanents you
control gain hexproof from blue and from black until end of turn.” This is a spell that does so much for so
little that players have learned to instinctively cast it whenever a blue or black deck does anything
interactive against them. However, if they cast it in response to Tidebinder, it won’t help them much;
Tidebinder’s ability (a) does not target spells, (b) does not target opponents, and (c) does not target
permanents. If we cast a blue spell this turn, the opponent will draw a card off of Veil, but Veil will have
no effect on Tidebinder’s ability.

○ A similar example is Surge of Salvation in Hammer Time. Hammer players are used to snapping
off Surge whenever their opponent tries to interact with them. Again, this effect does nothing
against Tidebinder’s ability.

● As mentioned under “Things Tidebinder Can’t Do,” remember that countering a creature spell’s cast
trigger does not remove the abilities of the creature when it arrives on the battlefield.

59
 ● If Tidebinder is removed with its ETB ability on the stack targeting the ability of an artifact, creature, or
planeswalker, that source will not lose all its abilities at any point due to Tidebinder’s ETB ability.

● Reflexive triggers are triggers inside other spells or abilities. These can be hard to spot and/or hard to
understand how Tidebinder should be optimally timed to counter them.

○ Grist, the Hunger Tide’s -2 loyalty ability reads: “You may sacrifice a creature. When you do,
destroy target creature or planeswalker.” Because it is worded like this, nothing is targeted as the -2
ability is put on the stack; Grist’s controller is simply presented with an option to sacrifice a
creature. If they do, the loyalty ability finishes resolving and leaves the stack, and the reflexive
trigger is immediately put onto stack (and the opponent then chooses a target creature or
planeswalker). If we counter the -2 loyalty ability directly with Tidebinder, the opponent will never
have a chance to sacrifice a creature. As such, we virtually always want to wait until the reflexive
trigger is put on the stack (so the opponent will sacrifice one of their creatures), and target the
reflexive triggered ability with Tidebinder.

○ Calibrated Blast reads: “Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a nonland card.
Put the revealed cards on the bottom of your library in a random order. When you reveal a nonland
card this way, Calibrated Blast deals damage equal to that card's mana value to any target.” Note
the similarity to how Grist’s -2 ability is worded: after something happens in the first half, the
words “when you [do something]” appear in the second half, and targets are chosen in the second
half. When Calibrated Blast resolves and a nonland card is revealed, a trigger is placed on the
stack with a target to deal damage to. This trigger can be countered by Tidebinder.

● Creatures cast with Evoke costs have two separate triggers (which can be put on the stack in any order
by the controller of the creature): the trigger to sacrifice the creature because the Evoke cost had been
paid, and the ETB ability.

○ When an opponent casts an Evoked creature, we want to target the ETB trigger with Tidebinder’s
ability. For example, we would target Grief’s discard ability. This ability would be countered, and
the sacrifice ability would still resolve, putting the creature in the graveyard.

○ When we cast an Evoked creature, we want to target the sacrifice trigger with Tidebinder’s ability.
This way, the creature’s ETB ability would still resolve, and the creature would stay on the
battlefield. This scenario can be relevant for Merfolk while evoking Subtlety, if we could make use
of an extra vanilla 3/3 (remember, as long as we control Tidebinder, Subtlety would lose all
abilities, including flying, after we counter its sacrifice trigger).

● Some cards with cycling have abilities that trigger when they’re cycled. When the Cycle costs are paid
and the card is discarded, the Cycle activated ability is put on the stack (if it resolves, it will draw a card).
This causes the “When you cycle [this card]” triggered ability to be put on the stack, on top of the Cycle
activated ability. The important thing to understand here is that there are two separate abilities on the
stack, and countering one with Tidebinder does not affect the other one.

○ One example of such a card in Modern is Shark Typhoon. When the opponent cycles Shark
Typhoon, they pay X1U and discard Shark Typhoon, and the Cycle ability is put onto the stack (if it
resolves, it will draw a card). This causes the second ability, “When you cycle Shark Typhoon,
create an X/X blue Shark creature token with flying,” to be put on the stack above the Cycle ability.
We can choose to target either ability with Tidebinder’s ability

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 ○ Another example of such a card in Modern is Fractured Sanity. Again, when the opponent cycles
the card, we can choose to target EITHER the card draw OR the mill effect with Tidebinder’s
ability; they are two separate abilities on the stack.

● Kaldra Compleat, with the Living Weapon ability, has several interesting interactions with Tidebinder.
From the Comprehensive Rules: “Living weapon” means “When this Equipment enters the battlefield, create
a 0/0 black Phyrexian Germ creature token, then attach this Equipment to it.” Since Living Weapon is a
triggered ability, Tidebinder’s ability can counter it, preventing the 0/0 Germ from ever being made. This
leaves the big equipment unequipped on the battlefield.

○ Kaldra gives a different triggered ability to the equipped creature: “Whenever this creature deals
combat damage to a creature, exile that creature." If we block the equipped creature and combat
damage is dealt to our creature, we can counter this ability when it triggers. This would remove
First Strike, Trample, Indestructible, and Haste from the creature (note, however, that the +5/+5
granted by Kaldra Compleat to the creature would continue to apply, as it is not an ability and thus
would not be removed by Tidebinder’s ability). In this case, the source of the trigger that was
countered by Tidebinder was the equipped creature, and not Kaldra itself. So Kaldra would retain
all of its abilities, but they wouldn’t apply to the creature as long as Tidebinder remains on the
battlefield (timestamps would control the status of the creature’s abilities).

○ If the opponent activates Kaldra’s equip ability and we counter it with Tidebinder’s ability, Kaldra
will lose all its abilities as long as Tidebinder remains on the battlefield.

○ One other equipment with Living Weapon worth mentioning here is Batterskull. If we counter
Living Weapon and Batterskull’s abilities are all removed, we have to remain vigilant if the
opponent tries to bounce it back to hand later in the game! Point at Tidebinder and say “No!”

● Don’t be lured into casting Tidebinder in response to Dress Down’s ETB ability - Tidebinder will have no
abilities and won’t be able to counter anything!

● The One Ring can be a very difficult card for Merfolk to deal with, but Tidebinder makes it less daunting.
This legendary artifact has two abilities we would generally like to counter: (a) an ETB triggered ability
giving its controller protection from everything until their next turn, and (b) an activated ability that lets
them draw cards. Given Merfolk’s tempo gameplan, it is generally much better (if possible) to counter
the ETB protection ability, so we don’t miss an entire attack on our next turn. If we choose this path, the
opponent will still be able to activate the card draw ability to draw a single card before Tidebinder’s ability
resolves. But, once it does resolve, all of The One Ring’s abilities will be removed as long as Tidebinder
remains on the battlefield.

● Spells exiled with Suspend have two triggered abilities: the first removes a time counter during upkeep,
and the second casts the spell if there are no time counters remaining. We want to counter the second
triggered ability, to prevent the opponent from casting the spell. From the Comprehensive Rules: “If the
second triggered ability of Suspend is countered, the card can't be cast. It remains in the exile zone without
any time counters on it for the rest of the game, and it's no longer considered suspended.”

● As explained in the previous chapter on Merfolk Trickster, removing abilities from certain creatures can
actually kill the creature. The list of creatures that Tidebinder can kill in this way is shorter, because the
creature needs to have an ability that Tidebinder can target. If Tidebinder targets the ETB ability of
Cultivator Colossus it will die, and if Tidebinder targets the attack trigger of Territorial Kavu it will die.

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 ● Chalice of the Void triggers whenever a player casts a spell with mana value equal to the number of
charge counters on it. Tidebinder can counter such a trigger and turn the Chalice off.

● Storm is a triggered ability that reads, “When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this
turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.” Tidebinder can counter a Storm trigger (however, note
that the actual spell will resolve, it just won’t create the Storm copies).

● Mono-Green Tron plays both Chromatic Sphere and Chromatic Star. Both artifacts have mana abilities,
which can’t be targeted by Tidebinder’s ability, and both draw a card. While the card draw is embedded in
Chromatic Sphere’s mana ability and thus can’t be countered, Chromatic Star’s card draw trigger is
separate from its mana ability and can be countered by Tidebinder.

● Urza’s Saga is easily one of the most powerful lands in Modern, and, thankfully, Tidebinder can help us
interact with it. Urza’s Saga has three separate triggers, each of which occurs as a Chapter counter is
placed on it: (a) a trigger that gives it a mana ability, (b) a trigger that gives it the ability to make
constructs, and (c) a trigger that allows its controller to search their library for an artifact and put it onto
the battlefield. Tidebinder can target and counter any of these triggers (as well as the activated ability
making a construct, if the Saga has already gained that ability), but REMEMBER! - countering abilities of
lands (and enchantments, see below) does NOT remove all their abilities! As such, we have to choose
carefully from among Saga’s various abilities when we have Tidebinder in hand.

● As just mentioned above, countering abilities of enchantments with Tidebinder does not remove all their
abilities. I have repeated this several times in this chapter because it is absolutely critical to remember.
Roiling Vortex in Modern Burn is an example of a relevant enchantment. It deals 1 damage to us during
our upkeep, and 5 damage if we ever cast a spell without paying any mana (Force of Negation or
Subtlety). An example of a potential misplay with Tidebinder would be to flash it in during our upkeep to
counter the 1 damage, wrongly thinking that doing so would erase all of Vortex’s abilities. A potentially
better way to play would be to keep up Vial on 3, with Force and Tidebinder in hand, as we pass to the
opponent’s turn. If we cast Force by pitching a blue card (not spending mana), Roiling Vortex would
trigger and we could respond by Vialing in Tidebinder to counter the trigger, saving us 5 life. The exact
best play will always vary depending on particular circumstances, but the important thing to remember
here is that Tidebinder doesn’t remove abilities from enchantments.

● Inkmoth Nexus is an example of a land with an activated ability (turning it into a creature) we can counter
with Tidebinder.The majority of the time we counter this ability with Tidebinder, the land will retain all its
abilities (as, again, Tidebinder does not remove abilities from lands). However, there is a case where we
can remove this land’s abilities. The Hammer Time deck often activates Inkmoth’s ability, turning it into a
creature, then equips it with Colossus Hammer. The Hammer causes the Inkmoth to lose flying, but
activating Inkmoth’s ability a second time would cause it to regain flying. If we counter this second
activation, all of Inkmoth’s abilities (including its ability to tap for mana) will be removed, since it was a
creature when the ability was put on the stack. (Note that the Inkmoth will remain a 1/1 creature until the
end of the turn.)

● Against Creativity, we can counter the ETB trigger of Dwarven Mine with Tidebinder to prevent it from
creating a Dwarf. In general, keeping their board clear of creatures is a good way to stay in the game. If
the opponent cracks a fetchland later in the game, we might even consider allowing the fetch activation
to resolve so they find the Mine, then counter its ETB. While this passes up on the opportunity to counter
the fetchland, it might run them out of Dwarven Mines.

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● Noble Hierarch and Ignoble Hierarch are mana dorks with Exalted. Exalted is a triggered ability that
reads, “Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.” Though
mana abilities are normally untouchable by Tidebinder, the mana abilities of these creatures are removed
(along with the Exalted ability) if we counter an Exalted trigger with Tidebinder.

● Chandra, Torch of Defiance has a +1 loyalty ability that adds two red mana. Tidebinder can counter this,
as it is not a mana ability! From the Comprehensive Rules: “An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets
all of the following criteria: it doesn't require a target (see rule 115.6), it could add mana to a player's mana
pool when it resolves, and it's not a loyalty ability.”

● The manner in which Tidebinder interacts with Amulet of Vigor is somewhat counterintuitive but very
powerful, so it merits a mention here. When the opponent plays a tapped Karoo land (Selesnya Sanctuary,
for example) with Amulet on the battlefield, two triggers are put onto the stack: (a) the Karoo land’s ETB
trigger requiring them to return a land to their hand, and (b) the Amulet’s trigger to untap the Karoo land.
We want to counter the Amulet’s trigger. This will prevent the Karoo land from untapping, they’ll still have
to return a land to hand, and the Amulet will no longer trigger for subsequent tapped lands entering the
battlefield.

● If we are playing against Soul Warden, and Tidebinder enters the battlefield on the opponent’s turn,
Tidebinder will be able to prevent the life gain from the Warden trigger caused by the Tidebinder itself.
This is due to APNAP order: when more than one trigger occurs at the same time, the active player (the
opponent, in this case) has to put their trigger(s) on the stack first. Because of this, the Warden trigger
caused by Tidebinder entering the battlefield will be on the stack when it comes time to put Tidebinder’s
“stifle” ability on the stack. This doesn’t work on our own turn, as Tidebinder’s ability would be put on the
stack first (we are now the active player) and the Warden trigger wouldn’t yet be on the stack to target.

● If an opponent’s Tidebinder counters one of our creatures’ abilities while we have an Islandwalk lord out,
our creature will lose Islandwalk until we play another Islandwalk lord. Our creature will retain the +1/+1,
however, since that is not an ability.

● If an opponent’s Tidebinder counters Svyelun’s card draw trigger, she will lose all her abilities, and all our
other Merfolk will lose Ward 1. Play carefully!

● And, finally, if your opponent keeps shuffling their hand super loudly while you’re thinking you can use
your Tidebinder to make them stop.

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CHAPTER 10: Svyelun of Sea and Sky Strategy
THE ROLE OF SVYELUN
Svyelun is more capable of taking over a game than any other creature in Modern
Merfolk. The value that is packed into the card for three mana is exceptional.

In the past, we rued having to play a fragile 3-drop like Merrow Reejerey, which so
often got killed for one mana (Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push, or any other efficient
removal spell), putting us far behind on tempo. Svyelun, with her four toughness
and occasional indestructibility, however, is far harder for opponents to remove.

In addition to being hard to remove, Svyelun gives our other Merfolk ward 1, making
them all harder to remove. This is an effect the deck had always looked for, but
previously had to settle for options either outside the tribe (Kira, Great Glass-
Spinner) or outside mono-blue (Unsettled Mariner).

Finally, Svyelun draws a card every time she attacks. If we get to attack with her even once or twice, the value can
simply win games. All of these attributes in one well-costed package make Svyelun an incredible late-game
top-deck for Modern Merfolk; she is often able to single-handedly take over a game. This is something the deck,
historically made up entirely of tiny creatures dependent upon synergy, has lacked.

WHEN TO PUT SVYELUN INTO PLAY

We typically want to put Svyelun into play as soon as possible, for a number of reasons. First, she makes the
most efficient use of our mana on turn three. Second, the sooner we can get her on the battlefield, the sooner we
can begin attacking and drawing cards. Third, as a legendary creature we have four copies of in the deck, it isn’t
uncommon to draw multiple copies over the course of a game, and the first copy getting removed is typically not
much of a setback (at least, it’s worth the risk of playing her as soon as possible). Of course, we can look out for
situations where leading with other Merfolk would be beneficial, and following up with Svyelun would allow her to
be Indestructible as she enters the battlefield. However, as a guiding principle: play Svyelun as soon as possible!

SYNERGIES
● First, Minamo, School at Water’s Edge can untap Svyelun after she attacks and draws a card. Having
such a large, often Indestructible creature available as a blocker is excellent, and makes Minamo an
auto-include.

● Next, we clearly want to keep two other Merfolk on the board with Svyelun whenever possible, to keep
her Indestructible. Opponents will look to remove Svyelun when her “shields are down,” so to speak, and
there are a number of ways we can capitalize on this by responding at instant speed.

● If we only control one Merfolk other than Svyelun, we can cast either Trickster or Hexcatcher with flash
to make Svyelun Indestructible as necessary (whether in response to removal, or to make combat
favorable for us). Another way to get a Merfolk onto the battlefield at instant speed is with Aether Vial.

● Perhaps the trickiest way of all to establish a third Merfolk and make Svyelun Indestructible is by
activating Mutavault when necessary. For whatever reason, opponents very often miss this on-board
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 interaction. The fact that Mutavault can help protect Svyelun is a huge motivation for including a full
playset of the versatile manland.

The screenshot below on the left shows our opponent trying to kill Svyelun with Chandra. However, we
can flash in Trickster and activate Mutavault to make Svyelun Indestructible!

The screenshot above on the right shows Svyelun’s strong synergy with Deeproot Pilgrimage. Hexproof
tokens are very difficult for the opponent to remove, so they make Svyelun’s Indestructible hard to
remove!

TIPS AND TRICKS

● There is a lot of room for opponents to make
mistakes while playing against Svyelun. While we
shouldn’t expect mistakes, we should always be
aware of the possibility. This includes being
prepared to untap Svyelun with Minamo for
potential blowouts (screenshot at right).

● A tricky play is to tap Mutavault for mana on our

turn, but leave blue mana available on the
opponent’s turn. It’s possible for an opponent to not
consider Mutavault a threat when it’s tapped down,
but it can still become a Merfolk to help Svyelun.

● We can attack with Svyelun and draw cards off her

trigger that are immediately relevant in combat.
This is particularly strong with Aether Vial to put
non-flash Merfolk into play immediately. Trickster and lords are great for helping the attack, but, often,
just getting a third Merfolk onto the battlefield to make Svyelun Indestructible Iis fantastic.

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CHAPTER 11: Deeproot Pilgrimage Strategy
THE ROLE OF DEEPROOT PILGRIMAGE
In addition to Tishana’s Tidebinder, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan gave us Deeproot
Pilgrimage. As of this writing, with the set becoming available only a few weeks
ago, Pilgrimage is a far more contentious inclusion in the main deck compared to
Tidebinder. It introduces a new play style and new incentives to a deck that has
pretty much had the same plan for over a decade, and not everyone is on board.

What is absolutely clear from early testing is that Pilgrimage can easily win games
by itself in slow, grindy matchups. The jury is still out on its role in faster matchups.
Pilgrimage is easy to trigger, and makes some cards (like Mutavault and Rishadan
Dockhand) significantly more valuable. Its 1/1 Hexproof Merfolk tokens can be very
difficult for opponents to deal with, and these tokens have strong synergies with
many of our existing cards and tactics (discussed at greater length below).

REV YOUR ENGINES!

Deeproot Pilgrimage is an engine card - after committing resources (time and mana) to get it on the battlefield, it
immediately begins generating value (in the form of 1/1 Hexproof Merfolk tokens) and continues doing so as
long as it goes unanswered. And it is pretty hard to answer, being an enchantment!

TEMPO BEAST
The card has been described by some as “anti-tempo,” since, by itself, Pilgrimage has no immediate effect when
it enters the battlefield. However, this is quite a shortsighted take. Despite not having a literal ETB ability,
Pilgrimage most often makes at least one token the turn it is played, before an opponent has any opportunity to
remove it. Very often, it makes significantly more than one token over the course of a game.

Tempo decks are fundamentally obsessed with efficiency, and Pilgrimage’s mana-to-output ratio ranges from
good to truly exceptional. After the small initial investment of 1U, we are rewarded over and over again simply for
doing what the deck already wants to do. It’s a card that gets better and better the longer it sticks around.

In this sense, Deeproot Pilgrimage can be directly compared to the tempo cornerstone of Modern Merfolk:
Aether Vial. Aether Vial has no immediate effect when it enters the battlefield, but the tempo benefit snowballs
from that moment forward. The same can be said of Pilgrimage: while it is on the battlefield, resources we
commit to the board become stronger (Hexcatcher, Svyelun, Islandwalk lords) or more valuable for their
token-generating abilities (Mutavault, Rishadan Dockhand). As with Aether Vial, Pilgrimage is a single card that
allows us to use our resources far more effectively, and to grow our board more rapidly.

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DEEPROOT PILGRIMAGE IN ACTION
Below are a few screenshots of Deeproot Pilgrimage making things difficult for our opponents.

Left-to-right, top-to-bottom: 1-drop into Pilgrimage, start making tokens!; Pilgrimage and Mutavault in multiples are very
strong, and the tokens have great synergy with Hexcatcher; Pilgrimage obliges opponents to spend removal on lower-value
creatures; With Dockhand, Mutavault, and another non-token Merfolk, Pilgrimage can make three tokens per turn cycle!

SYNERGIES
As mentioned above, Deeproot Pilgrimage increases the potency of most of the creatures in our deck, as follows:

● Rishadan Dockhand’s activated ability (1, T: Tap target land) has generally been viewed as poor because
we want our Merfolk to be attacking, not tapping to do other stuff. But, in combination with Pilgrimage,
Dockhand’s ability taps a land and makes a 1/1 Hexproof Merfolk token. This elevates Dockhand from
passable to extraordinary!

● Rather than either being a creature or making mana, Pilgrimage now invites Mutavault to do both things
at once; if we activate Mutavault then tap it for mana, we get a 1/1 Hexproof Merfolk token!

● Outside of Dockhand’s ability and Mutavault tapping for mana, the third way Mono-Blue Merfolk makes
tokens with Pilgrimage is simply by attacking. So, with a Dockhand, a Mutavault, and one other non-token

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 Merfolk on board, we can generate three 1/1 Hexproof Merfolk tokens every single turn! With multiple
Pilgrimages, things can get crazy pretty quickly.

● Vodalian Hexcatcher synergizes incredibly with Pilgrimage, as every token can also be sacrificed to
Hexcatcher’s ability to counter spells.

● Svyelun has beautiful synergy with Pilgrimage: once there are two Hexproof tokens on the battlefield, she
effectively gains Indestructible permanently. And, remember, attacking with her makes a token! So our
board just becomes harder and harder for the opponent to deal with, as we continue drawing an extra
card and making more tokens each turn.

● Our Islandwalk lords love having tons of 1/1 Hexproof Merfolk tokens around to buff.

● The Flash ability on Trickster and Tidebinder becomes even more valuable, as casting surprise creatures
on our opponent’s end step is even more threatening, as they can attack and make tokens on our turn

TIPS AND TRICKS

Deeproot Pilgrimage can perform well in nearly any matchup, but it excels in some particular circumstances. See
the tips below to get the most out of this powerful enchantment!

● Pilgrimage is much stronger when on the play. Consider boarding some (or all) copies out on the draw
in very fast matchups.

● Pilgrimage says “Whenever one or more nontoken Merfolk you control become tapped…” Because of this,
attacking with any number of non-token Merfolk only makes one token, as all your attacking creatures
become tapped in a single instance. This applies equally to casting Convoke spells by tapping multiple
Merfolk, and to tapping three Merfolk for Kumena’s draw ability; only one token will be created.

● Pilgrimage triggers stack, so multiple copies of the enchantment are generally very strong, as long as
you have some means of generating tokens (Mutavault, Dockhand, other non-token Merfolk).

● We can “chain” Mutavault activations by using one’s mana to activate the next, making many tokens.

● It is generally wise to wait to play Pilgrimage until you have some means of generating at least one token
the same turn you play the enchantment, to guarantee value. This often means waiting until turn three or
later to cast it. However, if you’re playing against a counterspell deck, it’s best to play Pilgrimage
whenever the opponent taps out to ensure this important spell resolves.

● It is usually best to wait until our opponent’s end step to activate Mutavault to tap and make a token.
This is the best way to play around sorcery speed removal. Additionally, by waiting as long as possible,
you can potentially surprise an opponent by creating a token at instant speed (to sacrifice to Hexcatcher,
or to give Svyelun Indestructible, for example).

● When we have amassed numerous tokens, it is often best to attack with all of them, even if a couple get
eaten by larger creatures in combat. As long as we can keep generating tokens each turn, we can keep
crashing in and dealing damage.

● A neat Pilgrimage trick is to use Dockhand to tap a summoning-sick Mutavault to make two tokens!

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● Pilgrimage can go infinite in combination with Intruder Alarm and Mutavault (or Smuggler’s Copter or
Mothdust Changeling). When we activate Mutavault and tap it for mana, Pilgrimage will trigger and create
a token, which triggers Intruder Alarm to untap our Mutavault. We can repeat this loop as many times as
we want, to create as many tokens as we want (see the fun screenshot below!).

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CHAPTER 12: Lands Strategy
LANDS IN OPENING HANDS
Before getting into great detail with individual lands, it’s important to discuss general strategy with respect to
what kind of lands Modern Merfolk wants to see in its opening hands.

● Our ideal opening hand contains only two blue lands and an Aether Vial. This will allow us to deploy
two Merfolk per turn as early as turn two. Instead of two blue lands and Vial, we can gladly keep one blue
land, a Mutavault, and Vial. These lands will still allow us to cast Deeproot Pilgrimage or Hexcatcher on
turn two, and Mutavault can help cast Svyelun on turn three if we draw a second blue source.

● A hand with only one blue land and Aether Vial is still keepable on the play or draw, because even a
Mutavault off the top will allow us to start casting 2-drops (though a second blue source is typically
preferable). Being on the draw is generally better with these hands, so we have an extra chance to draw a
second land before our main phase on turn two.

● A hand with only Mutavault and Aether Vial is a mulligan. There are just too many ways for the hand to
develop in unfavorable ways. However, in extremely difficult matchups, we might be incentivized to keep a
high-variance hand like this if the hand has relevant interaction/sideboard cards, and all we need is to rip
a single blue source for the hand to be excellent. It is more reasonable to keep this kind of hand in a very
difficult matchup because our odds of hitting a blue source (16/53, or 30%) are better than our typical
odds of winning, and likely better than mulliganing to a more effective hand of six cards.

● As for hands without Aether Vial, our ideal draw is two blue sources and a Mutavault. This allows us to
cast spells in the early game, and have a great chance of drawing a fourth land by turn four in order to
cast two 2-drops per turn as soon as possible. Mutavault is also just a great card to have access to in
many matchups, provided we have sufficient blue sources, as well.

● Three blue sources is still great, though a single blue source and two Mutavaults gets dangerous.
Whether we can keep a hand like this will depend on the other cards and how blue-intensive their casting
costs are.

● Openers with four lands and three spells are also situationally keepable. Mutavaults are particularly
helpful in hands like these.

● Any opening seven-card hand with more than four lands should be mulliganed.

LANDS SEQUENCING
Additionally, there are a few aspects of correct lands sequencing in Modern Merfolk that will not be immediately
intuitive to newer players:

● We should virtually always lead on a blue source. Playing a Mutavault on turn one is pointless if we’re
just going to play a blue source on turn two to cast a spell anyway. And attacking with Mutavault is the
worst thing we can do on turn two; it does nothing to further our board, and risks getting killed and setting
us way back on our development.

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 ● We should typically play a second blue source on turn two when possible. As mentioned, attacking with
Mutavault on turn two is terrible; we must cast a spell with our mana on turn two. In general, the only
reason to play a Mutavault on turn two is if we have Deeproot Pilgrimage on turn two and want to make a
token with Mutavault on turn three, or potentially to attack with Mutavault on turn three (still often not the
best option).

● Wait as long as possible before playing Waterlogged Grove or Fiery Islet. This is only logical, as it saves
valuable points on our life total.

● If a blue opponent is tapped out, we should generally wait to play Cavern of Souls if possible. This is
because the opponent may choose to hold up countermagic at some point. Then, in the face of open
mana, we can slam Cavern and ruin their plans.

● Hold Otawara in hand unless you need the mana immediately. Being able to use its Channel ability later
can be extremely useful.

SIDEBOARDING OUT LANDS

Finally, one general point that is very much worth mentioning and understanding is the idea of sideboarding out
a land while on the draw. The idea is that, while on the draw, we get an entire extra card while making our land
drops, and this changes the math significantly on how many lands we want to run. Here is a quote from Frank
Karsten, Magic’s foremost mathematician (from a wonderful article here):

“Can you cut a land on the draw? For sure. Suppose that in a 60-card deck, you’d want to hit your 3rd land drop
with 90% certainty and your 4th land drop with 75% certainty. On the play, you need 26 lands to achieve this. On
the draw, you only need 23 lands. The extra draw step makes a big difference!”

Sideboarding out a land is a big deal, because it means we get to have an extra spell in the deck! It is an
advanced technique, and seems strange to newer players. But Magic is, in large part, a game of math, and the
more we understand and trust the math, the better we will do.

MUTAVAULT TIPS AND TRICKS

● Hold Mutavault up to help make Svyelun Indestructible.

● Hold Mutavault up to sacrifice to Hexcatcher.

● As a general rule, casting spells with Mutavault is better than attacking with it. However, always assess
your clock to know if it is time to begin going all-in with attacks.

● Mutavault can be activated then tapped for mana to make a token with Deeproot Pilgrimage.

● Mutavault can make mana the turn it enters the battlefield. However, if you activate it when it has
summoning sickness, it will not be able to tap, and will no longer be able to add mana.

● If you activate a summoning-sick Mutavault to block on the opponent’s turn, that Mutavault will not be
able to also tap for mana, as explained above.

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 ● These previous points are most relevant on MTGO, where
it is not only possible but very easy to accidentally activate
the wrong Mutavault. To avoid this, always right click
Mutavault first before activating. The one that is
summoning sick will say “Newly controlled” (in tiny blue
letters). This Mutavault should be tapped for mana to
activate another Mutavault without summoning sickness.

Right: Use care when activating Mutavault on MTGO;

the words “Newly controlled” appear In blue.

CAVERN OF SOULS TIPS AND TRICKS

● Cavern of Souls can name a creature type other than Merfolk if it is essential for us to resolve a
non-Merfolk creature spell such as Subtlety (Elemental Incarnation) or Phantasmal Image (Illusion).

● On MTGO, when you create colored mana using Cavern, it

puts that mana in its own little box (see right). Make sure to
click on this mana when you cast your Merfolk spell; if you
accidentally do not, and this mana remains floating, you will
not be able to use it for non-Merfolk spells, and you will not
be able to untap the Cavern.

Right: Use care when paying costs using Cavern

on MTGO; click the box as shown here.

● While playing in paper, it is not required for players to specify when they are using colored mana from
Cavern of Souls to make their spell uncounterable. Since having our spells be uncounterable is always to
our benefit, it is assumed that, anytime we use Cavern of Souls to cast a creature of the named type, we
are doing so with colored mana and that the spell will be uncounterable. It is up to our opponent to pay
attention to when we use Cavern of Souls, in order to not waste their counterspells.

OTAWARA TIPS AND TRICKS

● As mentioned previously, we should try to keep Otawara in hand unless we absolutely need the mana, as
it can be immensely useful as a bounce effect later in the game.

● Remember that Otawara can save our own creatures. This is particularly strong if we have Aether Vial to
immediately redeploy the bounced creature.

● Otawara’s effect does not specify “non-land,” as virtually all flexible bounce spells do. The effect is
inclusive rather than exclusive, which is to say it specifies what it can bounce rather than what it can’t. Its
text specifies “target artifact, creature, enchantment, or planeswalker.” As such, it is able to bounce some
lands, such as Urza’s Saga (an enchantment), any artifact land, or any activated manland.

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 ● Otawara’s most essential function is, perhaps, bouncing a resolved Ensnaring Bridge (see screenshot
below), against which Merfolk has traditionally had precious few answers. The fact that part of our
manabase can perform this critical task now is outstanding, and makes Otawara worth running two
copies, in the opinion of most Modern Merfolk players.

MINAMO TIPS AND TRICKS

● Minamo is in the deck for one reason: to untap Svyelun. We always want to attack with Svyelun to draw
cards and push damage, but we also enjoy having her as a big Indestructible blocker. Minamo allows us
to give Svyelun pseudo-vigilance and achieve both these things.

● Though virtually always used to untap Svyelun after attacking, Minamo’s ability can also untap her
anytime an opponent taps her. One way this would occur regularly in the past was with opponents
tapping our entire team with Cryptic Command. A more popular card today that frequently taps our
creatures is the “Ice” half of Fire // Ice. In the screenshot below, a Creativity opponent tapped Svyelun with
Ice at the beginning of combat step in an attempt to prevent her from attacking. However, Minamo easily
untapped her and she was able to attack normally. The Merfolk player won the game soon after.

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OBORO TIPS AND TRICKS
● Oboro is not widely played in Modern Merfolk today. We want a mix of basic Islands (to avoid losing to
Blood Moon) and utility lands, and we have so many great choices for utility lands that Oboro simply
doesn’t make the cut. However, it does have some tricky applications that are worth understanding.

● The primary interaction is between Oboro and Mutavault. If we have these two lands on the battlefield on
turn three and no further blue lands to play, we can float blue mana with Oboro then use Mutavault’s grey
mana to bounce Oboro back to our hand using Oboro’s ability. Oboro can then be replayed as our land
drop for the turn, netting two blue mana. (To do this effectively on MTGO, it has to be done in a very
precise sequence. First float blue mana from Oboro and grey mana from Mutavault. Next, click on Oboro.
You will be asked to pay for its ability, at which point you can select the grey mana to use from the menu.
If you simply tap Oboro to float blue and then click on the land, it will immediately use that blue mana to
pay for Oboro’s ability, and the land will be bounced to your hand.)

● Beyond this Mutavault trick, Oboro’s utility lies in bouncing it back to hand in situations where we have to
choose a card to discard. Two examples of this are Kolaghan’s Command and Liliana of the Veil’s +1
ability. If we want to keep the cards currently in our hand, we can bounce Oboro with either of these
effects on the stack, and discard the land instead.

● Oboro can also be useful against 8-Rack. In response to The Rack’s triggers on our upkeep, we can
bounce Oboro to hand to reduce the amount of damage we take from the trigger.

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CHAPTER 13: Sideboarding Strategy
GETTING STARTED WITH SIDEBOARDING
As mentioned earlier in this primer, the Modern Merfolk main deck flex slots and sideboard card choices are
completely up for grabs (though some choices are more popular/stronger than others). For the purpose of being
able to create a generalized sideboarding guide, I will use a generic Merfolk list (shown below), creating a sort of
average deck from among numerous successful examples. The intent is to give newer players a strong
understanding of the types of spells that come in and out for various types of matchups. Each of the matchups
below has sideboarding advice specific to this decklist, as well as strategic suggestions for the matchup. And,
because no single decklist can contain every possible card option, each matchup will include (in parentheses) a
short list of “Essential Cards,” including cards not in this specific list.

Because Deeproot Pilgrimage is still very new, and introduces a very different pattern of play, it is still unclear
precisely when it should be moved to the sideboard. The advice below is an educated guess.

I consider this deck’s 20 lands to be slightly too few on the play, and slightly too many on the draw. In a perfect
world, I would play 20.5 lands on the play and 19.5 lands on the draw. Because of this, I choose to not board out
a land while on the draw. In theory, 20 lands gives us a slightly higher chance of not drawing enough lands while
on the play, and a slightly higher chance of drawing too many lands while on the draw.

Generic Modern Merfolk (Full-Power/Non-Budget)

December 2023

CREATURES (30) LANDS (20)

4 Rishadan Dockhand 9 Island
4 Tide Shaper 4 Mutavault
2 Lord of Atlantis 4 Cavern of Souls
4 Master of the Pearl Trident 2 Otawara, Soaring City
4 Vodalian Hexcatcher 1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Svyelun of Sea and Sky SIDEBOARD (15)
4 Tishana’s Tidebinder 4 Force of Negation
3 Subtlety
NON-CREATURE SPELLS (10) 3 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Aether Vial 3 Chalice of the Void
3 Deeproot Pilgrimage 2 Spreading Seas
3 Dismember

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Rhinos (click on the deck name to see a sample decklist for each archetype)
● PLAY/DRAW: +4 Force +3 Chalice +3 Harbinger // -3 Dism -3 Pilgrimage -2 Svy -2 Shaper

● Essential Cards: Chalice, Force, Tidebinder, Hex, Harb (Truth, Bomb/EE, counters)

● Matchup Advice: The large majority of Rhinos decks are Temur, while a few will splash white for Leyline
Binding, Ardent Plea, Teferi, and occasionally other cards. Our sideboard plan is the same for both.

In general, don’t worry about their spot removal. Counter Rhinos, instead. Always be aware of the
possibility of Cascade, and play accordingly. Resolving a Chalice (X=0) and protecting it (from Leyline
Binding, Teferi, Brazen Borrower, Tishana’s Tidebinder and Force of Vigor) is a recipe for success (Rhinos
can’t resolve through X=0). Ratchet Bomb and Engineered Explosives are excellent for sweeping away
any Rhinos that make it to the battlefield (but be aware that it will also destroy your Chalice!). Remember
that Tidebinder can stifle Cascade. With a bit of well-timed interaction, we can often race in this matchup.
We rarely want to block, so get attacks in where you can.

Yawgmoth
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Sub +3 Harb +2 Seas // -4 Hex -4 Svy

● Essential Cards: Tidebinder, Dism, Sub, Seas (Totem, Cage, Needle, grave hate)

● Matchup Advice: Yawgmoth used to be a nearly-unwinnable matchup, but the addition of Tidebinder has
made it much more interesting. The best approach seems to be hitting their mana hard in the first few
turns: Dismember and tap mana dorks with Trickster, and hit their lands with Seas, Tide Shapers, and
Dockhand (Seas effects also let us punch through with Islandwalk). The hope in hitting their mana is to
prevent them from being able to cast Yawgmoth. Subtlety can also delay Yawgmoth. Tidebinder can hit
many high-value targets (Yawg, Grist, Cauldron, Undying creatures, Hapatra, Blood Artist/Cutthroat…), but
the choice depends completely on the board state.

Hexcatcher is an easy cut postboard; it’s a 1/1 that gets blown out by Orcish Bowmasters. Additionally,
Yawgmoth decks run very few non-creature spells that Hexcatcher’s ability can even target.

Cursed Totem is a very good card in this matchup, but I find it too weak in other matchups to want to
include it in my sideboard. This is a personal decision; Totems are a very defensible choice.

Mono-Green Tron
● PLAY/DRAW: +4 Force +3 Sub +2 Seas // -3 Dismember -3 Svy -3 Pilgrimage

● Essential Cards: Tidebinder, Force, Sub, Shaper, Seas, Hexcatcher (Sphere, Needle, counters)

● Matchup Advice: Tron is a very solid matchup for Merfolk. We have Seas effects to disrupt their Tron
lands; Force, Subtlety, Tidebinder, and Hexcatcher to stop their important spells; and a fast clock that they
have trouble interacting with. This is not a complicated matchup; turn their lands into Islands, counter a
spell or two, and attack with Merfolk.

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Blue/Red Murktide
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Chal +3 Harb // -3 Tidebinder -2 Dockhand -1 Pilgrimage

● Essential Cards: Chalice, Trickster, Harb Islandwalk lords, Dism, Otawara (Kira, grave hate)

● Matchup Advice: Chalice is fantastic in this matchup. Our general approach is to use Trickster to slow
down their attacks, build a board, and eventually play lords and mount an unblockable attack.
Dismembering their turn one creature is excellent (DRC is a more important target than Ragavan, but
both are good targets).

Tidebinder is relatively poor in the matchup. It can stifle a DRC or Ledger Shredder, but it costs three
mana and the opponent can always just kill the Tidebinder with all their removal. Pilgrimage can also be
poor if the opponent kills all our Merfolk, making it impossible to generate tokens. Harbinger is important
for bouncing Murktides (Otawara can also perform this function).

Amulet Titan
● PLAY/DRAW: +4 Force +3 Subtlety +2 Seas // -4 Svy -3 Pilgrimage -1 Dism -1 LoA

● Essential Cards: Subtlety, Tidebinder, Force, Tide Shaper, Seas, Dismember (Ashiok, Sphere)

● Matchup Advice: Subtlety is the all-star of this matchup. Amulet players will tap out as soon as possible
to play Primeval Titan, and Subtlety is basically Time Walk in that spot. Once we have four mana and can
actually cast Subtlety for its full cost (rather than its Evoke cost), we will virtually never lose. Tidebinder
was a hugely helpful addition in the matchup; stifling a Titan’s ETB ability turns it into a vanilla 6/6, which
is generally very easy for us to deal with.

Force of Negation is for Amulet and Summoner’s Pact. Shaper and Seas are primarily for destroying
Urza’s Sagas (which can grab Amulets), but also occasionally for Valakut. We can also take the off green
mana with Seas to make them unable to pay for Summoner’s Pact during their upkeep, winning us the
game on the spot. Dismember is for Dryad of the Ilysian Grove (without which they have a much harder
time winning).

Hammertime
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Force +3 Harb +2 Seas // -4 Svy -4 Dockhand

● Essential Cards: Tidebinder, Trickster, Harb, Shaper, Seas, Dism (Recall, Needle)

● Matchup Advice: As in most matchups, interaction is how we survive. The main target for Force is
Sigarda’s Aid, but there are other good situational targets, as well. Hit their Urza’s Sagas with Tide
Shapers and Spreading Seas to destroy them. Dismember creatures in response to equipment targeting
(though, if the opponent is tapped out and only controls a single creature, Dismember it on our turn to
avoid Blacksmith’s Skill). Use Trickster and Harbinger to slow them down. There are many possible
Tidebinder targets - choose carefully!

Pilgrimage can be very good in the matchup if we can keep them off of Shadowspear (for example, by
hitting a Shadowspear activation with Tidebinder).

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Living End
● PLAY/DRAW: +4 Force +3 Chalice +2 Sub // -3 Svy -3 Dism -3 Pilgrimage

● Essential Cards: Force, Chalice, Hexcatcher, Tidebinder (counters, grave hate)

● Matchup Advice: Living End is one of Merfolk’s best matchups. It has always been pretty solid, but the
additions of Hexcatcher and Tidebinder have helped it tremendously. A very cool interaction (discussed in
Chapter 7) is being able to sacrifice all our creatures to Hexcatcher’s ability (targeting Violent Outburst) so
they return when Living End resolves. Chalice of the Void and Force of Negation are also top-notch
interaction in the matchup. If we can draw a couple of these cards in the first few turns, we are very
favored to win the game.

I like bringing in two copies of Subtlety; Grief taking away our interaction is one of the few ways we can
lose to Living End, and Subtlety can protect against it.

Dockhand can be very useful to tap mana in the upkeep of their turn 3, when they would normally have
access to three mana to cast a Cascade spell.

Hardened Scales
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Force +3 Harb +2 Seas // -3 Svy -3 Pilgrimage -2 Dockhand

● Essential Cards: Tidebinder, Tide Shaper, Seas, Trickster, Harb, Dism, Force (Recall, Totem, Needle)

● Matchup Advice: This is a very difficult matchup. Their mana values are sufficiently diverse that bringing
in Chalice is not a winning strategy. We have to hope that they lean into the Urza’s Saga plan, and that we
happen to draw lots of Seas effects, to stand much of a chance. Use Trickster, Harbinger, Tidebinder, and
Dismember to slow them down as much as possible. Use Force to counter Hardened Scales.

Burn
● PLAY: +4 Force +3 Harb +2 Seas // -4 Tidebinder -3 Dism -2 Dockhand
DRAW: +4 Force +3 Harb // -4 Tidebinder -3 Dism

● Essential Cards: Force, Hexcatcher, Trickster (counters)

● Matchup Advice: Hexcatcher is excellent against Burn, as is Force of Negation. Trickster can slow down
their attacks and make it easy for us to stabilize. Aether Vial is excellent, as it plays smoothly around
Eidolon of the Great Revel (though Eidolon sees far less play these days… also, look out for Smash to
Smithereens in games two and three). Chalice of the Void is not great here; Burn’s mana values are very
evenly distributed between 1-drops and 2-drops (and even some 3-drops), and Chalice is another
potential target for Smash to Smithereens.

Tidebinder is not great against Burn. The casting cost is high, and there are not many abilities to stifle.

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Domain Zoo
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Harb +2 Force +2 Seas // -4 Dockhand -2 Tidebinder -1 Dism

● Essential Cards: Trickster, Harb, Dism (Tidebinder Mage)

● Matchup Advice: Our trump card in this matchup is Merfolk Trickster. Its ability kills Territorial Kavu
instantly, and makes Wild Nacatl and Nishoba Brawler (and Tarmogoyf, if they play it) tiny and easy to eat
in combat. Tribal Flames is a sorcery, and Domain Zoo plays a lot of non-creature spells, so a couple
Force of Negations can do a good job. Since they play a lot of burn spells, it’s wise to cut back on
Dismembers somewhat. Turning one or more of their lands into Islands can sometimes hinder their
Domain game plan.

Creativity
● PLAY/DRAW: +4 Force +2 Seas // -4 Trickster -2 Svy

● Essential Cards: Force, Dockhand, Hexcatcher, Dismember, Otawara (counters, Bomb/Explosives)

● Matchup Advice: This is a very tricky matchup. If not played with intelligence and care you will lose every
time. We do have the tools to win about half the time, but it is rarely easy. Force of Negation is far and
away our best spell. Counter Wrenn and Six, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, or Creativity/Transmogrify
without a second thought; these are all critical spells. We should virtually never waste counterspells on
spot removal like Lightning Bolt or Leyline Binding (unless we have lethal on board); we have tons of
Merfolk in the deck, but not tons of counterspells. Ratchet Bomb is another very impactful card for us,
blowing up any tokens the opponent has accumulated. Dismember or Otawara can destroy a token in
response to Creativity targeting it, effectively countering the spell (unless the Creativity is targeting more
than one token, in which case we are out of luck). If Wrenn and Six resolves, be very careful with any X/1s
you deploy so they don’t get picked off by Wrenn’s minus ability.

Messing with their mana (Shaper, Seas, Dockhand) can slow them down. Tidebinder is versatile in the
matchup, hitting a variety of potential targets - choose carefully! Pilgrimage has its place in the matchup,
and is at its absolute best while making many tokens to sacrifice to Hexcatcher.

As with 4c Omnath decks, Creativity decks vary widely in their composition. If you see blue, be sure to
play around Spell Pierce when possible, and look out for Teferi.

Mono-Black Coffers
● PLAY/DRAW: +4 Force +3 Subtlety +2 Seas // -4 Trickster -2 Shaper -2 Vial -1 Dism

● Essential Cards: Pilgrimage, Force, Sub, Seas, Svy (counters, Kira, Needle)

● Matchup Advice: This is a very difficult, grindy matchup. The Coffers deck is full of spot removal, board
wipes, and value engines. Pilgrimage is probably our single best card here, consistently generating
hexproof tokens that are hard for the opponent to interact with. Force a key spell (Karn, Ring, Damnation),
generate value with Pilgrimage, turn their Coffers into an Island, and you should have a pretty good
chance of winning.

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Scam
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Subtlety +3 Harb +2 Seas // -4 Hex -2 Shaper -2 Vial

● Essential Cards: Svyelun, Pilgrimage, Dismember, Subtlety (Kira, grave hate)

● Matchup Advice: Scam has some incredibly scary and frustrating openings, but, in general, the matchup
is not too unfavorable. If they get us with Undying Evil and Grief on turn one, we will have to rely on the
top of our deck for most of the game. However, we do have reasonable tools to fight back. Svyelun is
fantastic in the matchup, as her card draw can replenish our hand and help us pull ahead. Pilgrimage is
one of our best cards here, particularly in combination with Svy (a couple of hexproof tokens make her
virtually impossible to deal with).

As seen in the screenshot and discussion in Chapter 8, Merfolk Trickster is great in the matchup because
it can remove undying after it has been granted, and potentially trade with a Dauthi Voidwalker. This will
keep their creature in the graveyard after it dies. Harbinger is particularly solid as a top-deck against Grief;
it bounces their attacker, develops our board, and forces them to spend four mana to recast their
Elemental for no extra value (since we have no cards in hand to discard). Dismember is excellent,
particularly against Voidwalker.

Omnath Control
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Subtlety // -3 Trickster

● Essential Cards: Hex, Pilgrimage, Tidebinder, Mutavault (Needle)

● Matchup Advice: “Omnath Control” is a bit of a catch-all name for a variety of decks that play Omnath,
Solitude, Leyline Binding, and planeswalkers. Most lists don’t play Supreme Verdict, and, if they do, there
are not many copies. As such, we should aim to get as many bodies on the board as quickly as possible,
and do our best impersonation of an aggro deck. Use Tidebinder to stop a Binding or Omnath trigger, or a
Ring activation, and attack attack attack. Keep in mind that the longer the game goes on, the less likely
we are to win.

Death’s Shadow
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Chal +3 Harb // -3 Tidebinder -3 Shaper

● Essential Cards: Chalice, Trickster, Harb, Dism, Svy, Islandwalk Lords, Otawara (Kira, grave hate)

● Matchup Advice: Grixis Shadow is a very fun, generally even matchup for Merfolk. With 20+ 1-drops,
Chalice of the Void can be excellent here. In this respect and others, the Shadow matchup plays very
similarly to UR Murktide.

Since the opponent damages themself in order to play Death’s Shadow, we often don’t need too much of
a board to make a well-timed Islandwalk lord lethal with a single swing, so these creatures are essential in
the matchup. Svyelun lets us maintain card advantage against all their spot removal and hand disruption.
Pilgrimage can be solid in the matchup, as lists generally play few fliers, and hexproof tokens can clog up
ground combat.

Many Shadow lists these days actually play Murktide Regent. Harbinger and Otawara are excellent
against this big flying threat.

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Mill
● PLAY/DRAW: +4 Force +3 Chalice // -0 Cards (net +7 cards)

● Essential Cards: Force, Chalice, Dismember, Merfolk (Gaea’s Blessing/Eldrazi Titans, counters)

● Matchup Advice: Mill is a great matchup for Merfolk. We bring in a lot of useful cards and cut nothing,
netting us extra cards, making it harder for our opponent to mill us out. Do not cut a land on the draw in
this matchup; since we’re adding spells, our land count is already being diluted somewhat. As Mill doesn’t
attack our life total, we want to draw all our Dismembers to kill any crabs they play. Beware of the
possibility of Ensnaring Bridge (basically, don’t play Otawara as a land unless absolutely necessary). Crypt
Incursion can be a beating. Chalice of the Void is excellent, stopping crabs, Surgical Extraction, Fatal
Push, and Visions of Beyond.

Grixis Control
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Subtlety +2 Chalice // -3 Dism -2 Trickster

● Essential Cards: Pilgrimage, Tidebinder, Svy, Merfolk, Cavern, Vial (countermagic, Needle)

● Matchup Advice: This is a favorable matchup. We play through their counterspells with Cavern and Vial.
Lacking exile-based removal, it can be impossible for the opponent to deal with Pilgrimage and/or
Svyelun. They don’t run a lot of creatures, so Dismember and Trickster are not at their best. I bring
Subtlety in because the games go long, and Subtlety is simply a flash 3/3 flier (that can occasionally get
value with its ETB ability). I don’t bring in Force because card advantage is important, and we don’t want
to get into a counterspell battle with them.

I bring Chalice in here because this specific list (click “Grixis Control” in the blue banner above) is running
Ragavan. Grixis Control generally plays a lot of 1mv non-creature spells, but not quite enough to make
Chalice a slam dunk. But if you add a playset (or more) of 1mv creatures, Chalice is suddenly relevant
against 15+ cards and is definitely worth bringing in.

UWx Control
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Sub +2 Seas +2 Force // -4 Trickster -3 Dismember

● Essential Cards: Svyelun, Pilgrimage, Hex, Merfolk, Vial, Cavern, Muta (Kira)

● Matchup Advice: UW can be tricky because of all their exile-based removal and occasional board wipes.
But we are pretty well-situated out of the gate with Cavern of Souls playing neatly around their
counterspells (Vial helps here, as well). As with all grindy matchups, Pilgrimage is an all-star here (if it can
stick around). We want to aim to maintain a board of 1-2 creatures (3 creatures runs the risk of being
completely blown out by a Supreme Verdict). Keep the possibility of Solitude in mind at all times when
calculating your attacks. Spreading Seas can take them off Castle Vantress and/or Hall of Storm Giants,
while drawing us a card. This makes it an easy card to include post-board.

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 Infect
● PLAY/DRAW: +4 Force +3 Chalice +3 Harb +2 Seas // -4 Svy -3 Pilgrimage -3 Tidebinder -2 LoA

● Essential Cards: Force, Chalice, Trickster, Harb, Dism (counters)

● Matchup Advice: We have a solid matchup against Infect, with all our interaction. Chalice is sensational
here. In general, we never want to be the one to “blink first;” let the opponent cast their pump spell before
responding with our interaction. Be prepared to take one or two poison (even with Dismember and/or
other interaction in hand) if the opponent has mana up, to avoid being blown out by Vines of Vastwood,
Royal Treatment, or other similar effects.

Tidebinder is decent against Venerated Rotpriest and Spellskite, but rather slow in the matchup.

Merfolk (Mirror)
● PLAY/DRAW: +3 Harb +3 Sub // -3 Svy -3 Pilgrimage

● Essential Cards: Vial, Dismember, Trickster, Harb, Master of the Pearl Trident, Subtlety (bounce spells)

● Matchup Advice: Our mirror match is more than a little absurd, and very dependent upon luck. Winning
the die roll is a huge advantage. Playing Aether Vial on turn one is a huge advantage. Drawing Master of
the Pearl Trident instead of Lord of Atlantis (which gives our opponent’s Merfolk +1/+1 and Islandwalk, as
well) is a huge advantage. Drawing interactive cards like Tricksters and Harbingers and Dismembers is a
huge advantage. If you draw mostly these cards, you will likely win. If you don’t, you will likely lose. Playing
non-basics before Islands whenever possible gains a non-trivial advantage, though we are not often
looking to block in this matchup.

Click here to access the spreadsheet file (which you can copy and modify how you see fit) shown below:

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CHAPTER 14: Miscellaneous Tips and Tricks
GENERAL ADVICE
There has been a lot of very specific advice in this primer up to this point. This section will cover a few general
ideas that were not relevant in previous chapters.

● If you know you are going to draw a card, whether with Svyelun, Spreading Seas, or some other effect, it
is typically correct to wait to make your land drop until after you have drawn the extra card. Many times,
if you make your land drop too soon, you will find yourself drawing a better land later in the turn, and
regretting having been so hasty.

● In the blind, we often want to run out Tide Shaper on turn one as an attacker. Many decks in Modern play
Islands, so the Tide Shaper will often be a 2/2, which is excellent for us.

● Beware playing out Tide Shaper (kicked or not) into two open mana including black; even if Shaper is
kicked, it is still a 1/1 until its ability resolves, and is vulnerable to Orcish Bowmasters. This also applies
to Vodalian Hexcatcher, and any other 1-toughness creatures you might play.

● Rishadan Dockhand can be very useful against combo decks that need a specific amount of mana to
cast a critical spell, such as Creativity, Living End, or even Amulet Titan.

● Against Yawgmoth, you can bounce Agatha’s Soul Cauldron back to their hand (with Otawara, usually)
with its activation on the stack targeting a creature in the graveyard. The creature will still be exiled, and
one of their creatures will still get a +1/+1 counter, but their creatures will not gain the activated abilities
of the exiled card. This can be extremely helpful if they’re exiling something like Yawgmoth or Grist!

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CHAPTER 15: Other Mono-Blue Merfolk Variations
SEA AND SKY (HISTORY)
On June 19th, 2022, David Bishop (known as “Bishark” on MTGO and Discord), a well-known Modern Merfolk
player, made waves after winning first place in a 177-player Modern tournament at Face to Face Games in
Vancouver. However, he wasn’t playing Merfolk! Instead, he won with a previously-unknown blue deck featuring
many manlands, 3-drop and 4-drop creatures, counterspells, and other controlling spells. The only Merfolk in the
deck were a playset of Svyelun in the main and a playset of Tide Shapers in the sideboard (supporting the playset
of Spreading Seas in the main deck). But where did this mysterious blue deck come from?

Bishark had been impressed by the results of a Merfolk pilot on Discord named Zeigl, who had put up
back-to-back MTGO trophies (including one without a single game loss, as seen in the screenshot below at left) a
few days earlier with the deck, on June 16th. Bishark loved the look of the deck, and chose it for his Face to Face
event.

But the back story goes one step deeper. If we look at the top-left corner of Zeigl’s deck screenshot (below right),
we see it was titled “MonoU Mhayashi.” As it turned out, the deck was actually created by none other than
MHayashi, one of the most innovative and successful Modern Merfolk pilots. A couple weeks earlier, on June 1st,
MHayashi had posted a video entitled “It’s Alive! I Combined the Blue Control and Merfolk Decks!” in which he
came very close to going undefeated in an MTGO Modern league.

One of Zeigl’s 5-0s was published, Bishark’s tournament win made the rounds on Twitter, and the deck was
suddenly having a viral moment! On June 22nd, Andrea Mengucci streamed a league with the deck, going 4-1. In
a wild twist, the only loss was to another deck designed by MHayashi (Mono-Red Obosh)!

At this point, the Modern Merfolk channel on Discord was discussing this new deck as much as or more than
Merfolk. There was a vote on what the deck’s name should be. A majority liked the name “Sea and Sky,” after
Svyelun and the deck’s balance of Merfolk and flying creatures. Another significant portion preferred the very

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clever name “Merfolk Surprise,” after a skit by the YouTube channel LoadingReadyRun in which a player keeps
trimming Merfolk from their deck until it’s basically just a blue control deck.

SEA AND SKY (HOW THE DECK WORKS)

For a bit on how the deck actually functions, we have Zeigl, himself, here to explain (updated for 2024!):

Want a highly interactive, tempo-oriented deck that can out-grind anyone? Then Sea and Sky is for you!

While Sea and Sky doesn't run a lot of Merfolk, its tricky and tempo-based playstyle very much mimics
Modern Merfolk. The deck is hard to categorize, since it can play many roles between Tempo, Midrange and
even Control. I would call it a mono-blue Tempo/Midrange hybrid. In the past, we used cards like Vendilion
Clique, Ancestral Vision, and Faerie Conclave, which have now been outclassed by newer and more
resilient/impactful additions.

Since our threats are a bit clunky, we try to prevent everything our opponent does in the early game by:

● Gaining mana and/or tempo advantage with Petty Theft and Dismember, and by using
Force of Negation and Subtlety aggressively

● Disrupting with Chalice of the Void, Tishana’s Tidebinder, Spreading Seas, and Counterspell

On turn three we usually want to play a threat (either Svyelun or a flash creature on the opponent's turn),
protect it, and take over the game in a short amount of time. It’s often wise to not interact immediately, but
cast a creature on the opponent’s turn and deal with whatever they played on the following turn, once we have
a clock on board. Svyelun on turn three is best played with Force of Negation backup to protect her; if we
untap with her, it's usually game over!

Using Subtlety, Brazen Borrower and Tishana’s Tidebinder in the mid- to late-game, it often feels like we are
"timewalking" our opponent by preventing them from impacting the game, while advancing our own board
state. If games go very long, we often win with Faerie Conclave and/or Hall of Storm Giants.

Another card that defines Sea And Sky is Chalice of the Void, which wins games by itself when played with 1
or 0 counters. Chalice is a great way to negate the card disadvantage of our free spells, because it often
blanks multiple cards in our opponent's hand. The deck’s strength in the meta comes down to how well a
main deck Chalice is positioned.

In a deck where you seek to trade 1:1 or even 2:1 with the free spells, we need to get ahead somehow. For that
reason the manabase (brilliantly constructed by MHayashi) is actually the heart of the deck. Utility lands like
Blast Zone, Castle Vantress, Field of Ruin, and Otawara or manlands, namely Hall of Storm Giants and
Faerie Conclave, allow us to win any late game top-deck war, by getting tons of value out of our land drops.
Not all these lands can be played in the same list, but we should have at least 4x manlands, 4x Blast Zone,
and 1x Otawara in my opinion. The rest should be chosen according to metagame analysis and preference.

While discussing lands: making our first three land drops is absolutely crucial, so keeping two-land opening
hands is risky, unless you also have Lorien Revealed.

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 In my current decklist (see image below), Field of Ruin has replaced Faerie Conclave and Spreading Seas.
Also, Tishana’s Tidebinder is a natural addition to the deck, replacing Vendilion Clique. Lorien Revealed allows
us to cut down to 22 lands while being a late-game card advantage engine. The Watery Graves are for
Dismember and Engineered Explosives. Repeal and the fourth Svyelun (she can be clunky because of the
legend rule) are flex slots; in the past, I have tried replacing them with three copies of The One Ring, but the
card needs more testing.

After analyzing more than 150 MTGO league matches, Sea and Sky’s matchups are as follows:

● ‌Living End: Extremely favored (I am 13-0 against it!)

● ‌Murktide: Very favored
● ‌Rhinos: Slightly favored
● ‌Hammertime: Favored (if Spreading Seas is in the main)
● ‌Yawgmoth: Very unfavored
● ‌Creativity: Slightly favored
● Hardened Scales: Very unfavored
● ‌Burn: Even
● ‌Mono-Green Tron: Very favored (if Spreading Seas is in the main)
● UWx Control: Very unfavored
● ‌Affinity: Very unfavored
● ‌Scam: Even to slightly unfavored
● ‌Amulet Titan: Slightly favored
● ‌Death’s Shadow: Favored

Feel free to use my sideboard guide (link), which also contains detailed matchup advice.

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FLICKERFOLK
Another unique, powerful take on Mono-Blue Merfolk is “Flickerfolk.” This time, Bishark (from the Sea & Sky
history, above) was the visionary who brewed up the concept. The deck came about in 2020, and was similar to
other Merfolk lists of the time with three key additions: Glasspool Mimic, Umara Wizard, and Ghostly Flicker.

Flickerfolk’s games develop very similarly to normal Modern Merfolk, but with a few more tapped lands. However,
later in the game, these tapped lands can be “flickered” with Ghostly Flicker; when they are exiled and returned,
they enter the battlefield as their front sides, which are creatures. Umara Wizard is a beefy 4/3 that can be copied
by Glasspool Mimic as they enter the battlefield simultaneously. When combined with Islandwalk lords, such big
Merfolk can close out a game very quickly! Outside of its combo with the double-faced cards, Ghostly Flicker also
has great utility in protecting our creatures from removal and/or simply flickering some of them for ETB value
(such as Silvergill Adept and Merfolk Trickster). Merfolk Joe played a league with Flickerfolk in September 2020;
you can see it in action here. A decklist image is below.

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WITSNIPER COMBOFOLK
For a “Troll Tuesday” video in July 2019, Nikachu played a Modern Merfolk combo brew that his viewers cooked
up. Nikachu says at the start of the video that the build was inspired by Drakanar, one of his viewers (and an
immensely accomplished Modern Merfolk pilot), who wanted to build a Merfolk Mill deck. The combo involved
playing Cloudstone Curio and Merrow Witsniper alongside Merrow Reejerey. With Curio and Reejerey on the
board, we can play Witsniper to mill the opponent, then play another 1-drop (either another Witsniper or Benthic
Biomancer) to bounce the Witsniper back to our hand with Curio, and untap a land with Reejerey to rinse and
repeat, milling the opponent’s deck. It was a pretty sketchy combo requiring multiple parts to work, but the deck
had eight 1-drops and twelve lords, for a respectable simple beatdown plan if the combo didn’t come together.

In the very first game of the stream, against Eldrazi Tron, Nikachu assembled the combo. While trying to figure
out how to execute it on MTGO, he said “The combo plan looks bad!” because it involved far too many clicks.
Drakanar says today, “Even at max efficiency, it still takes like seven minutes!” Instead, Nikachu chose to recast
Silvergill Adept many times to simply draw enough lords to attack for the win.

Unfortunately, Nikachu went on to lose that first round. But he won the next four, against some of the top decks
in the format! Inspired by this, Drakanar began a quest to go 5-0 with Witsniper Combo. It took him exactly ten
leagues (with many 4-1s), but, eventually, he did it! You can see the winning list here!

Along the way, Drakanar ran into Jeff Hoogland, a well-known streamer, playing Jeskai Control. Despite being a
traditionally poor matchup even for normal Modern Merfolk, and in theory being even worse against a fragile
combo Merfolk build, Drakanar won in straight games. In the screenshots below, you can see the final stack of
the match from Hoogland’s perspective (left) and Drakanar’s perspective (right). Hoogland conceded when he
realized he forgot to Abrade Curio with Trickster on the stack (though Drakanar had Abrade covered!).

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PURESIGHT COMBOFOLK
Exactly one year after his stream with Witsniper Combo, Nikachu did another stream with a Mono-Blue Merfolk
combo deck. This time, the combo involved equipping Puresight Merrow with Paradise Mantle to mill our own
deck, then cast Thassa’s Oracle to win. During the league, as he assembled the combo against Goblins, Nikachu
remarked, “This is a hell of a lot better than the Cloudstone Curio combo!” referring to the far fewer number of
clicks required to pull the combo off. Despite being easier to execute, the combo appeared very fragile and easy
to disrupt with removal. Nikachu finished the league 2-3, but did get to combo off once (below right)!

Since that stream in 2020, the deck has gotten some solid additions. Urza’s Saga can make Constructs to attack
alongside our Merfolk, while also tutoring up Paradise Mantle. And Vodalian Hexcatcher’s ability can help
counter any removal spells trying to interrupt the combo. The updated decklist below is provided by Bishark, who
has some experience with the deck and thinks this would be a good build moving forward.

Remarkably, the Puresight Merrow/Paradise Mantle/Thassa’s Oracle package has featured in some published
results… in Hammertime lists! Here is an example of one list that made Top 16 of a large event in Japan in
February 2022.

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CHAPTER 16: To Splash or Not to Splash
THE BENEFITS OF BEING MONO-BLUE
There are always trade-offs involved when putting together a Magic deck. Running fewer lands means a higher
chance of drawing spells, but at the risk that you may be unable to cast them. The unpredictability of your deck’s
performance from one game to the next is referred to as “variance,” and is something that good players seek to
minimize by whatever means possible, while still achieving the desired aims of their deck. For example, in
five-color decks in Modern, variance is reduced by playing fetchlands, which, in combination with shocklands and
triomes, give players a great deal of freedom in which lands they choose to play. However, even with the flexibility
that fetchlands provide, it is still possible to not be able to get a very specific land one might need. For example,
one can’t fetch a Sacred Foundry (Mountain Plains) off a Misty Rainforest (only able to find Forests and Islands).

This concept of variance is discussed at length in this video from Merfolk Joe’s Guide to Modern Merfolk.

Mono-color decks, by their very nature, involve far less variance than multi-color decks. All of our lands (save
for Mutavault) only make blue mana, and all of our spells only require blue mana. As a result, we’re virtually
always able to cast our spells as long as we’re making land drops. It’s easy to take this for granted, but drawing
the wrong lands and being unable to cast your spells is a real risk in playing multi-color decks. Mono-color decks
avoid this risk almost entirely.

Another compelling reason to play a mono-color deck is to avoid taking damage from your lands. Damage from
fetchlands, shocklands, and canopy lands can really add up in multi-color decks. By running pain-free lands, we
gain an edge against any kind of aggressive strategy that wants to attack our life total. (Note, painful manabases
also increase variance; there will be games where one’s life total is too low to crack a fetchland, play a shockland,
or tap a canopy land, and one may lose such games because of this.)

Thus, mono-color decks will lose significantly fewer games to variance than multi-color decks, a clear benefit.
Another benefit of reducing variance is that player skill plays a more important role, more often. This requires
constant engagement and close consideration of one's plays, making gameplay and victories more rewarding.
This fact is understood and greatly valued by Modern Merfolk players!

WHY CONSIDER SPLASHING?

As mentioned in the first sentence above, every deck-building decision in Magic involves trade-offs. Even though
playing a mono-color deck reduces variance, which is great, it does limit our card pool to just one of Magic’s five
colors, which leaves a lot of power on the table. Many Merfolk players have tried adding secondary colors to the
deck to gain access to some of the powerful spells they offer.

While data shows that the overwhelming majority of successful Merfolk decks have been mono-blue, a subset of
players have managed to find success by adding a secondary color to the deck. Overall, Green has been the
most successful splash, by far, with Red having some success recently, White having some success in the
past, and Black having virtually no success.

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THE GREEN SPLASH
Since the first edition of this primer was published, Simic Merfolk has gotten a couple of new toys. The most
relevant has been Cenote Scout, from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. It has two solid modes: a 2/2 that scries for
one green mana about 66% of the time, and a 1/1 that draws a land the other 33%. The green splash has
generally gotten much lighter recently, with Cenote Scout replacing Kumena’s Speaker as our green one-drop,
rather than being played alongside Speaker (as seen in this decklist December 2023).

The other new card Simic Merfolk gained was Deeproot Wayfinder, from March of the Machines. Though it has
above-average stats at a cost of 1G, its ability doesn’t quite fit into any Modern Merfolk strategy; we don’t
typically put lands in the graveyard. The card has, interestingly, seen more experimentation and success in the
Legacy format, as seen in this decklist from September 2023.

Ixalan block, printed in September 2017, introduced green Merfolk for the first time. Included were Kumena’s
Speaker, a 1-drop that is virtually always a 2/2, and Merfolk Mistbinder, a blue-green generic Merfolk lord. It was
primarily these two new aggressive cards that inspired many to try splashing green in Modern Merfolk. This
created an entire new branch in our deck's family tree, and these new blue-green strategies quickly began to take
down tournaments. Simic Merfolk lists even managed to make Top 8 in consecutive SCG Open weekends in
October 2017 (only a month after Ixalan was released).

These types of builds remained very similar until the release of Svyelun in Modern Horizons 2, in June 2021.
Despite raising the curve, many pilots found it worthwhile to add Svyelun. She fixed an eternal problem with
Simic Merfolk: it regularly runs out of gas. One such updated Simic list looked like this.

On December 15th, 2021, Bishark told everyone in the Discord

that he was working on a Simic Build using Utopia Sprawl.
The idea was that Reejerey’s untap ability could potentially be
very powerful with a land enchanted with Utopia Sprawl,
letting us play as many 2-drops as we have in our hand.

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Two days later, on Friday, December 17th, Bishark achieved a
5-0 league with this new approach, dubbed “Sprawlfolk.” This
result did not make it to the mothership… but only because
another pilot, Drakanar, also got a 5-0 with the deck!

Drakanar’s result was published the following Tuesday,

December 21st. Incredibly, Drakanar had yet another 5-0
result with Sprawlfolk published the same week, on Friday,
December 24th. Drakanar had streamed this latter league live

in the Merfolk Discord, with many excited onlookers.

Having read Bishark’s posts on Twitter, pro Magic player, Jim

Davis, featured Sprawlfolk in an article and video.

Lord Majicus featured the deck in a stream on December

24th, which can be seen here. He also played the deck on two
other occasions, months later, here and here.

Bishark did eventually have a 5-0 result published with

Sprawlfolk, on February 4th, 2022.

Suffice it to say, Sprawlfolk is immensely fun and explosive.

It hasn’t seen nearly as much play or results as the previous
aggro-oriented Simic lists. However, it seems to have as much
if not more promise. And with the printing of the The One Ring, the deck now has an additional juicy target to
untap. We can hope more pilots will be drawn to this fun, experimental Merfolk variant in the near future.

THE RED SPLASH

Izzet Merfolk has gotten a huge boost with the printing of Tishana’s Tidebinder and Flame of Anor.

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Flame of Anor can get incredible value if we control a Wizard. As it turns out, most of our Merfolk are also
Wizards! And the printing of Tishana’s Tidebinder (a Wizard) made a new Blue-Red build seem very promising.

A FishMTG Discord user named RedLeader_91 piloted an innovative Izzet Merfolk/Wizards list to three
published 5-0 results in October and November 2023. The decklists can be seen here, here, and here.

RedLeader_91 shared some insights on his particular build in November 2023:

I have played with Flame of Anor since it came out and knew it was awesome in Merfolk. I got another 5-0 before
LCI came out with a similar list. Lightning Bolt and Flame are great against Scam and Yawgmoth; it’s good
interaction with their key pieces as well as early threats - looking at you Ragavan. Flame can also destroy artifacts,
which is handy against Titan, Hammer, Scales, and Tron (Ensnaring Bridge).

This deck doesn't need Cavern because we are playing at instant speed most of the time. I’m playing four basics
and six fetches so we can fetch out of Blood Moon if they decide to go for that. We have cut Lord of Atlantis - in
general, it's not very impactful and not interactive. You should know by now that Tishana’s Tidebinder is amazing,
and also happens to be a wizard. You could trade out Silvergill if you really wanted for another creature, but the
draw makes the deck more consistent.

In the sideboard: Stern Scolding is for Scam and Yawgmoth. Harbinger is for Rhinos, Murktide, and Hammer. Void
Mirror hits Rhinos, Living End… plus maybe Tron. The card has upside vs Chalice. Emrakul is for Mill - I have been
playing against that deck a lot on MTGO lately, and was losing until I put Emrakul in the sideboard.

Prior to 2023, before Tidebinder and Flame were printed, there was a rare Top 16 result for the red splash in
November 2022. The pilot included a singleton Magus of the Moon to the main deck to attack the greedy
manabases of the format. Between Cavern being able to name “Wizard,”, Fiery Islet providing red mana, and
Aether Vial frequently getting ticked up to three, the spicy singleton wouldn’t have been too difficult to get on the
table when it was drawn.

In general, Red provides access to the valuable Flame of Anor, Lightning Bolt (and other red removal spells), and
effects like Magus of the Moon and Blood Moon. Hopefully we will continue to see innovation with this splash!

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THE WHITE SPLASH
When people splash white in Modern Merfolk today, it’s typically for Unsettled Mariner, first and foremost. This
Shapeshifter has the “changeling” ability, which makes it all creature types in all zones. Thus, like an activated
Mutavault, Unsettled Mariner is a Merfolk! Its effect is similar to the “ward 1” that Svyelun gives all our Merfolk,
except, with Mariner, it applies to spells that target us, the player, as well!

In addition to Mariner, another pull towards white for Modern Merfolk is Wanderwine Hub, a Blue/White dual land
that enters the battlefield untapped if we reveal a Merfolk. This is about as close to actual Tundra as any Modern
land can be, and makes the white splash less painful for Merfolk players.

The final primary reason one might splash white is access to powerful white sideboard cards. These include
some of the most hateful spells in the game against artifacts (Stony Silence; Kataki, War’s Wage), red strategies
(Kor Firewalker; Burrenton Forge-Tender), and graveyards (Rest in Peace), as well as excellent removal options
(Prismatic Ending; Path to Exile).

With Lorwyn having been printed way back in 2007, the white splash in Modern Merfolk has been around a long
time! Here is a list that Michael Majors played at Pro Tour Return to Ravnica in October 2012, where he placed in
the Top 32. Note the playset of Wanderwine Hubs and Path to Exile in the main deck, and the white hatebears in
the sideboard (Thalia and Canonist). And here is a take, years later, from TheDogFish, going 5-0 in an MTGO
Modern League in January 2021.

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THE BLACK SPLASH
While Lurrus of the Dream Den was still legal in Modern, Bishark played many Merfolk variants using Lurrus as a
companion, with several published results (here, here, here, and here). Lurrus requires either white or black
mana, and all of Bishark’s published results were with the white splash. However, he did experiment a bit with an
innovative Blue/Black approach running Lurrus, as well.

Merfolk Windrobber acted as a pseudo Mishra’s Bauble on a body, in combination with Lurrus. Windrobber also
helped put cards in the opponent’s graveyard, which turned on Drown in the Loch as excellent countermagic and
removal in one card. The best Bishark managed to do with this black splash was a 4-1 league result.

In order for the black splash to have any hope of becoming attractive in Modern Merfolk, we would likely need to
see several strong new cards printed; existing options are not very exciting at all, unfortunately.

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CHAPTER 17: Modern Merfolk on a Budget
A GREAT WAY TO START
As mentioned in Chapter 1, one of the most compelling features of Modern Merfolk for newer players is that
even a budget-oriented build can be competitive! Below is a decklist that was assembled with a $200 budget in
mind to build Modern Merfolk in paper. The same list costs approximately $150 on Magic Online. The list, with
current prices, can be seen here. (Note: this budget list was updated in April 2024)

Budget Modern Merfolk

December 2023

CREATURES (32) LANDS (20)

4 Rishadan Dockhand 16 Island
4 Tide Shaper 4 Mutavault
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident SIDEBOARD (15)
4 Vodalian Hexcatcher 3 Mana Leak
4 Merfolk Trickster 3 Aether Gust
4 Svyelun of Sea and Sky 3 Cursed Totem
4 Tishana’s Tidebinder 2 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Relic of Progenitus
NON-CREATURE SPELLS (8) 2 Spreading Seas
4 Aether Vial
2 Spell Pierce
2 Dismember

Comparing this list to the “generic full-powered” one in Chapter 13, you’ll notice that nearly all the cards are the
same! Below are the cards missing from the budget list, and what they have been replaced with (in parentheses).
The order from top to bottom is the recommended order in which one should seek to upgrade the deck over
time.

● Otawara, Soaring City (Island) - Pricey but very functional

● Subtlety (Cursed Totem) - Pricey but very functional

● Force of Negation (Spell Pierce) - Quite pricey but extremely strong

● Cavern of Souls (Island) - Quite pricey but extremely strong

● Chalice of the Void (Void Mirror) - Very pricey and not strictly necessary

● Minamo, School at Water’s Edge (Island) - Quite pricey and not strictly necessary

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CHAPTER 18: Resources
CONTENT CREATORS
Modern Merfolk is fortunate to have a number of dedicated content creators! Below is a list of our creators and
their various channels.

NIKACHU
● Nikachu MTG Live - Live streaming gameplay (a variety of decks)
● Nikachu Plays MTG - Uploaded gameplay content
● Nikachu MTG - Fun, general interest MTG content

MHAYASHI
● Magic M Hayashi - His main channel, primarily featuring Mono-Red with occasional Merfolk videos
● MHayashi Media - His secondary channel for gameplay with other decks

LORD MAJICUS
● Lord Majicus - Modern and Legacy Merfolk streams and other MTG-related content

L0RDACEX
● L0rdAceX on Twitch - Modern Merfolk and other MTG live streams
● Sherwin Plays Merfolk - Uploads of L0rdAceX live stream gameplay

DRACO_WING
● Draco_Wing - Modern Merfolk gameplay and analysis, and other Merfolk-related videos

LORD OF FISH
● Lord of Fish - Educational, fun, and beautifully-edited Modern Merfolk content

MERFOLK JOE
● Merfolk Joe - Currently inactive but a huge library of deeply analytical gameplay and strategy videos

IMPORTANT SPECIFIC VIDEOS

The links below are to individual videos or playlists that are essential specific resources for learning more about
Modern Merfolk gameplay, history, and more.

MERFOLK JOE’S GUIDE TO MODERN MERFOLK

● Merfolk Joe’s Guide to Modern Merfolk - An in-depth video primer of Modern Merfolk from 2016. Nearly
all of the ideas are still relevant today. The series covers everything from general subjects such as “How
the Deck Wins” and “The Role of Consistency in Success,” to videos specifically focused on the deck’s
creatures, non-creature spells, and lands, respectively.

NIZZAHON MAGIC’S HISTORY OF MERFOLK

● Merfolk: Magic’s FIRST (and Best?) Tribal Deck - An excellent video that traces the tribe’s history all the
way back to Alpha, with the printing of Lord of Atlantis. Has great information about many formats,
including Extended, Standard, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage. A must-watch for all Merfolk fans!

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GENERAL RESOURCES OF INTEREST
Below are links to archived versions of some of the most important articles regarding the founding of the
Modern format, as well as Wizards’ constantly-evolving philosophy underpinning the format (note that the links
may take a long time to load). It is important for players investing time and money in Modern to understand its
history, and to know how Wizards regards the format. Further down are links to some very useful articles of
general interest.

EARLY ARTICLES ON THE ORIGINS OF THE MODERN FORMAT

● “A Modern Proposal” (May 27, 2011) - The very first article on the formation of the Modern format. It
explains that the Legacy format was growing in popularity, but, due to the Reserve List, many people
could not afford to buy into Legacy. The Modern format would include only cards from 8th Edition
onward, thus eliminating all cards from the Reserve List, and presumably lowering the cost of entry. The
article also laid out the first banned list, with rationales for all the bannings. (A particular point of interest
for us Merfolk players is they mention Aether Vial as a “very powerful card” that they chose not to include
on the initial ban list.) NOTE! These articles are not available anywhere on any active websites on the
internet! It took me quite a while to dig through the Internet Archive “Wayback Machine” to find these
archived versions. The links may take a long time to load!

● “Welcome to the Modern World” (August 12, 2011) - This article announced that the new Modern format
would replace the Extended format at that year’s Pro Tour. It also provided an expanded banned list for
the full, proper introduction of Modern to the world. In explaining their criteria used for the list, they cited a
rationale which would become an oft-referenced founding principle of Modern (but which would gradually
be abandoned over the years, as power creep would make decks faster and faster): “First, we have a rule
of thumb about Legacy that we don't like consistent turn-two combination decks, but that turn-three
combination decks are okay. We modified that rule for Modern by adding a turn to each side: we are going
to allow turn-four combination decks, but not decks that consistently win the game on turn three. We
banned enough additional cards that we think such decks no longer exist in this format.” Some notable
inclusions in Modern’s initial banned list (which have since been unbanned) were: Stoneforge Mystic;
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle; Bitterblossom; Jace, the Mind Sculptor; Ancestral Vision; and Sword of the
Meek. More than a quarter of the original banned list cards are now legal in the format!

● “The Modern Future” (November 4, 2011) - This third founding article about the Modern format opened
with a summary of Pro Tour Philadelphia, where the format proved “to be pretty broken,” with turn three
combos and explosive big-mana Cloudpost decks. Despite this, the format was extremely well-received.
It began being used in local events in Seattle and on MTGO. The banned list was expanded to include
Blazing Shoal (to slow Infect down), Rite of Flame (to slow Storm down), Cloudpost (to slow BreachPost
combo down), Green Sun’s Zenith (it was deemed to strong as both turn one ramp with Dryad Arbor and
as a late-game tutor), and Ponder and Preordain (which were included as full playsets in five of the Top 8
decks of the Pro Tour). For a fascinating look at Modern in its early days, check out these Top 8 decklists
from Pro Tour Philadelphia! The article wraps up with a nice statement regarding Wizards’ intentions
regarding Modern: “Modern will have the time and support it needs to grow into something big and
successful. Part of that will be running high-level tournaments using the format. Part of that will also be
making the format into something that we think people want to play. We have curated Legacy carefully over
time, and as we have gotten more experience with what its players want, the format has grown. I expect the
same thing will happen to Modern.”

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 ● “Developing Modern” (June 21, 2013) - This article by Sam Stoddard included the fascinating (if dubious)
claim that Wizards has Modern in mind while developing sets for Standard: “I've heard before… that we
don't really develop for… Modern, but that isn't quite true. While it is true that Standard and Limited make up
the majority of our sanctioned tournaments, and therefore get the majority of our attention and
development resources, we do make sure to look out for Modern… Our playtesting of the format is
minimal, but [we] are knowledgeable enough to keep an eye out while working on [new sets].”

● “Where Modern Goes From Here” (April 24, 2016) - This piece by Aaron Forsythe (Vice President of
Design at Wizards) opened by explaining why Modern would no longer be a Pro Tour format, after being
the marquee format of these events since Modern’s inception. (Note, the format would return to the Pro
Tour within a couple years of this article. For more on the very interesting history of Modern at the Pro
Tour, check out this 2013 article by Meghan Wolff.) Forsythe continues in the article to list his answers
to the question of “What we want Modern to be.” These kinds of statements are always interesting to
revisit years later, after many evolutions in the format:
“Modern should:
○ Be a fun way to play Magic (first, and easy to forget, but very important!)
○ Let you tap into your collection to expand upon established decks and familiar strategies from
Magic's recent past
○ Offer different types of decks and gameplay than what you typically see in Standard
○ Not rotate, allowing you to keep a deck for a long period of time
○ Consist of cards that we are willing and able to reprint
Those are the easy ones. Beyond those, Modern should:
○ Have a diverse top-tier metagame featuring over a dozen archetypes
○ Not be dominated by fast, non-interactive decks (consistent kills before turn four are a red flag)
○ Be at a power level that allows some newly printed Standard cards to affect the format (we don't
have other ways to introduce cards into the format, and we like it when cards or decks can
transition)
○ Have as small a banned list as possible that accomplishes all the previous goals”

OFFICIAL COLOR PIE ARTICLE

● “Mechanical Color Pie 2021” (October 18, 2021) - Mark Rosewater lays out in great detail which
mechanics are primary, secondary, and tertiary to the five colors of Magic.

FETCHLANDS IN MONO-COLORED DECKS?

● “Mathemagics: Onslaught Fetchlands” (October 18, 2021) - A very thorough mathematical analysis
explaining why mono-colored decks should not run fetchlands simply for a “deck-thinning” effect.

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CHAPTER 19: Acknowledgements
THANK YOU TO MERFOLK PLAYERS
I would like to thank all the wonderful, talented Modern Merfolk players who have tirelessly championed the deck
for so many years. In particular, I would like thank the following inspirational players, many of whom have not
only consistently put up great results, but have contributed to the community by producing Merfolk content
and/or by helping newer players on Discord:

Nikachu, MHayashi, Polaski, Simon Slutsky, Dario Casati, TheDogFish, Bishark, Drakanar, FANAttIC,
SomeborY, tuxdev, Lord Majicus, L0rdAceX, PixelTamer, Draco_Wing, Zeigl, Rothgar13,
kaktusowysmok, mashmalovsky, RedLeader91, Motown111, KoalaDolphin, Skelodude2, Ultimateo,
Tabo, Andrea Mengucci, YungDingo, Aspiringspike

THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS PRIMER

I received a great deal of help from some wonderful members of the FishMTG Discord.

Thank you to the following individuals for helping me with the 2023 primer:

Nikachu, MHayashi, Bishark, Simon Slutsky, Drakanar, Ultimateo, bobandy, Pixeltamer, tuxdev, Lord
Majicus, Kris Schnell, Qualia, Zeigl, Corzalan, L0rdAceX

In addition to those mentioned above, I would like to thank the following individuals for helping me with the 2024
update to the primer:

Mattymumbles, PixelTamer, Fencerkid, Silver Sylph, Thalarctos, fylkir, R-Lo Trickster, BuioPesto,
Latti-J, Fruitkid, gtenagli, Sir_T, Imperios, Jolliano, bondsinclair

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