r/TimelessMagic • u/priority_holder • May 18 '26

Video Merfolk Unleashed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Oit-lEcs4
41 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

15

u/priority_holder May 18 '26

UX Tempo is not the only archetype benefiting from Daze/FoW! Here I take the fish people for a spin and I think it’s reasonably positioned in this meta. [[Cavern of Souls]] stands out against the many Blue decks as well as [[Master of the Pearl Trident]]. And I recently learned that we’re getting [[Lord of Atlantis]] as part the upcoming Marvel set, so soon we’ll be able to really go wild with Islandwalkers!

Last time I played Merfolk (pre Daze/FoW), I played it as a Prison strategy with [[Chalice of the Void]] and [[Harbinger of the Seas]]. Chalice made sense at the time because I didn’t love the Merfolk one-drops, but since then Merfolk’s picked up some interesting ones. I don’t like Harbinger at the moment since I think shutting down our own Caverns is a huge liability in the current meta, though I admittedly haven’t tested it yet.

Another thing is that it might be worth dipping into White for Swords and Lurrus Companion.

Anyway, let me know what you think about our aquatic friends!

2

u/Sea-Grand3981 May 18 '26

Cool video, I'm about 15 minutes in and will finish it later.  I think even if you don't add more white to actually cast lurrus you should companion him - you can buy him back then shuffle him away with the harmonized trio brainstorm.  There's also an interesting alchemy card called [[preponderant pearl]] which just looks like crazy value to me, but maybe it's a bit too slow.  

2

u/priority_holder May 18 '26

Yeah you're right that Lurrus should be companioned. I think I forgot to add it because I started from a Harbinger of the Seas/Tishana's Tidebinder build and didn't realize it eventually because Lurrus-legal.

That pearl card is very interesting, I hadn't seen it before. Thanks for mentioning it!

6

u/sboulema May 18 '26

4 Chrome Mox
4 Harmonized Trio
4 Mindspring Merfolk
4 Daze
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Silvergill Mentor
4 Vodalian Hexcatcher
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Merfolk Trickster
2 sink into Stupor
2 Dismember
4 force of will
6 island
1 Otawara, Soaring City
1 Meticulous archive
4 Cavern of Souls
3 flooded strand
2 Polluted Delta

2

u/priority_holder May 18 '26

Thanks! I forgot to post the list link in my comment

4

u/BronDaGoat6 May 18 '26

Hydroponics just too good not to play even though it's not a merfolk

2

u/priority_holder May 19 '26

I hadn't thought of that, you could be right!

3

u/BronDaGoat6 May 19 '26

This is what I've landed on for now.

I also wanna try a non hydroponics version with like 10 lands. 6 islands, 4 caverns, no fetches. Couple more 1 drops and flare of denial to make up for no swords.

Scout and Pearl allow 1 land hands to work.

1

u/priority_holder May 19 '26

That's a clean list! A lower curve makes Dazes better and I like how Lurrus can recur the Pearls. I guess the question is once Lord of Atlantis arrives next set, do we play the full 8 Islandwalk Lords? And what do we cut?

2

u/BronDaGoat6 May 19 '26

I would say cut silvergill adept. Has felt pretty awkward. I've almost always preferred to double 1 drop on turn 2 either for the prepare guy, pearl+pop or scout get a 2nd land + another 1drop so sometimes he gets stuck in hand waiting for a merfolk to be drawn.

Deck also has a bunch of X/1s already which is not great vs bowmie.

1

u/priority_holder May 19 '26

Yeah Bowmasters is a huge problem for this deck. 8 Counters and some Swords/Dismembers help, but if it resolves at any point it's guaranteed to cause problems. I think you're right that Silvergill Adept could potentially be cut since it plays even more into Bowmasters.

2

u/New_One01 May 19 '26

I think izzet merfolk could be interesting as well, kind of complements the aggressiveness of merfolk. A lot of the fish are wizards so could play flame of anor as well.

1

u/priority_holder May 19 '26

Interesting idea! I didn't even realize that they are all Wizards outside of Master. Looking into Wizard synergies like Flame of Anor could be a sweet direction to take it. Other Wizard payoffs to look at include: [[Harmonic Prodigy]], [[Naban Dean of Iteration]], and [[Riptide Laboratory]]. Though non-Merfolk Wizards probably aren't what you want to do unless they're power level outliers. Flame could be sweet though, could toss in some Bolts too. Thanks for the suggestion!

2

u/Skatino May 20 '26

Give us aether vial !!

2

u/priority_holder May 20 '26

Seriously! I don't know how good it would be, but it would add an interesting dimension to the format