The first wave of the official previews of the set Rivals of Ixalan which is scheduled to be released this month has been posted at various websites since Monday. In this regard, the previewed cards so far revealed that the slithery Blue swimmers are back in Standard once again. The notable new Merfolks for this archetype are the following:

Merfolk Mistbinder – a two-drop Lord, nuff said.

Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca – the 2/4 body protects this legend from Lightning Strikes and given with three tap activation abilities, your options to maximize your turns gives you a lot of variance.

Seafloor Oracle – the cost might be a bit high but curving on the fourth turn and drawing tons of cards from damage dealt is very good.

Silvergill Adept – a decent two-drop and a cantrip in itself. It has already seen play way back in Lorwyn Standard and it is no surprise that it will be the same now.

Swift Warden – a 3/3 body with Flash is already a good deal and the bonus Hexproof is a blowout card advantage in most situations.

With these new additions given that there is a new Merfolk lord, it seems that the deck is almost 90% complete. For the lands, Botanical Sanctum and Unclaimed Territory can do the trick of fixing the mana base and for a consistent one-two-three curve. The possible spells to include are Blossoming Defense, the new Raid Counterspell, Admiral’s Order, Unsummon for tempo and maybe card draw spells like Chart a Course.

The deck has a lot of potential to become Tier 1 despite the dominance of Energy-based decks in the current metagame. I will come up with a final UG Merfolks decklist once the spoiler is complete.

That is a wrap for now. Until the next post.