Merfolk/Winter Orb

[toasterferret]

Hey guys, Ive ben tooling around with a merfolk deck lately, and for various reasons wanted to try the archetype with the inclusion of Winter Orb. It has great synergy with Aether Vial and rally lets me play a lot with tempo (which my drives my playgroup crazy i might add).

Anyhow, here is my preliminary decklist. I plan on dropping the unsummon's for FoW's when I can afford them, but other than that what tweaks would you guys make?




// Lands
20 [M10] Island (4)

// Creatures
4 [SHM] Cursecatcher
4 [7E] Lord of Atlantis
4 [SH] Tidal Warrior
3 [MM] Waterfront Bouncer
4 [ROE] Coralhelm Commander

// Spells
3 [DS] AEther Vial
4 [M11] Unsummon
3 [4E] Winter Orb
4 [NE] Daze
3 [TE] Propaganda
4 [OD] Standstill


I should also mention that since my playgroup doesn't play a large amount of nonbasics, I was going to include Back to Basics in the sideboard, rather than the maindeck..

[DownSyndromeKarl]

Merrow Reejerey and Silvergill Adept need to be in this list. Never under estimate Reejereys. They can help you drop multiple Merfolk in a turn, especially more than one. Plus throw in Silvergill? you can drop the 'folk all day long. Aside from that, Reejereys can tap down opposing blockers, which leads me to:

Do you really need Tidal Warrior and Waterfront Bouncer? They're 'neat', but not great. Reejerey's eliminate blockers. Merfolk Sovereigns does away with a need for Tidal Warrior.

I like the idea of Winter Orb. With Vials and Reejereys, it seems like a nice way to shut out your opponent.

This deck needs work, but it's a good start.

[toasterferret]

Interesting suggestions. The reason I had originally exluded Reejeray and Silvergill was that I would need to hardcast merfolk to take advantage of reejeray and I already had standstill for draw. I like the idea of Sovereign however. I'll give the deck a few test runs with those cards and see how it goes.

My only concern is splitting up the CMC of the creatures, I was trying to build it mostly at 2 for easier Vialing, but I'll give the new version a test and see how smooth it runs.

[DownSyndromeKarl]

If you run a fourth Vial, you should regularly see 2. have one set at 2 and one at 3. Also, Mutavault is great for this deck. Being colorless shouldn't hurt too bad with Vial. Plus it gets pumped by all the Lords, can be made unblockable by Sovereign and sneaks past an active Standstill.

[Nihlus]

Is there a reason behind excluding Force of Will?

[DownSyndromeKarl]

Is there a reason behind excluding Force of Will?

I plan on dropping the unsummon's for FoW's when I can afford them