The Ultimate Guide To Modern Merfolk: Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my Ultimate Guide to Modern Merfolk! You can find Part 1 here.

Metagaming

Now that you have a deeper understanding of the most common Merfolk cards, you’re ready to metagame. If you know what decks to expect in the metagame, I’m a huge fan of the Elephant Method. Otherwise, try running a recent successful list and swap cards in and out of the maindeck and sideboard based on what cards you have or what decks you see a lot of.

Here’s an example of a deck that was built by Jonathan “Nikachu” Zaczek for the online metagame in early May 2016. At that time, the format was overrun by aggressive decks, and midrange and combo were rare.

Here’s an example of a deck you might take to an FNM where you see a lot of Affinity and R/G Tron players:

Sideboarding

Because Merfolk is such a flexible deck and should be changed as the metagame evolves, traditional sideboard guides with exact numbers would quickly fall out of date. A general understanding of the format can help you make sideboarding decisions on the fly during matches.

For the more common matchups, here’s a list of the Merfolk cards that are better and worse against each deck. If you have more detailed questions about any of the matchups, or if you want to know how to sideboard for a matchup I didn’t talk about here, come talk to me on stream at twitch.tv/Mrs_Mulligan! Even if I’m playing a different deck, I always love to talk about Merfolk.

Jund

Good:

Bad:

Burn

Good:

Bad:

Infect

Good:

Bad:

G/R Tron

Good:

Bad:

Affinity

Good:

Bad:

Jeskai Control (With Nahiri)

Good:

Bad:

Temur Scapeshift

Good:

Bad:

Abzan Company

Good:

Bad:

Zoo

Good:

Bad:

Eldrazi and Taxes

Good:

Bad:

Kiki Chord

Good:

Bad:

Abzan Midrange

Good:

Bad:

Merfolk

Good:

Bad:

Scapeshift

Good:

Bad:

Elves

Good:

Bad:

Grixis Control

Good:

Bad:

Ad Nauseam

Good:

Bad:

Bant Eldrazi

Good:

Bad:

How to Beat Us

If you don’t play Merfolk and you’ve made it this far, you deserve something special. How about some secret tech on how to beat us? Sorry, Merfolk friends!

Staying mono-blue means Merfolk has great consistency, but it does leave us with some gaps. Blue struggles with resolved permanents, and unless your Merfolk opponent is running Echoing Truth, there are some cards that will cause us serious headaches. An unanswered Worship or Ensnaring Bridge means we cannot win. A Ghostly Prison can make us slower than you and buy you the time you need to close the game.

Wrath effects are also great against our synergistic swarm strategy. An Anger of the Gods, Damnation, or Wrath of God timed to dodge counterspells can be backbreaking. And if you can run Supreme Verdict, you don’t even need to worry about playing around counterspells. Engineered Explosives and Ratchet Bomb can also be pretty effective, as many of our threats cost exactly two mana.

If you feel more comfortable on the other side of the metagame clock, Merfolk struggles against any deck that’s quicker. Zoo builds that run Goblin Bushwhacker and Reckless Bushwhacker overwhelm us before we can build a big board. Affinity and Elves flood the battlefield without fear of Wraths and bash us in the face before we can stabilize.

Conclusion

Merfolk is a wonderfully intricate and complex archetype that allows you to metagame very effectively. It’s a great deck for somebody just getting into Modern, and it performs consistently well at larger tournaments. Its low Day 1 metagame share means it gets fewer Top 8 showings than a deck like Abzan Company, but it performs beautifully in the right hands.

Many of Merfolk’s decisions seem obvious while playing the deck, but subtle sequencing choices reward skillful players. More importantly, Merfolk is an archetype that rewards you for knowing the format. A wide range of cards can be included in your deck, providing you to shift from aggro to aggro-control. You gain a huge edge if you build the appropriate deck for the metagame before you arrive at the tournament.

Have a wonderful week, and as always: happy gaming!