This deck feature today has been doing a moderate finish in the recent major online tournaments and that in our local metagame in MTG Iloilo, I have not seen play in the past two weeks. The Izzet Phoenix deck that was a Modern favorite before seemed to have also lost its touch to be among the favorite Standard decks. That does not mean that its efficiency has declined since the changes in the top decks again had forced its adaptation on its build.

Here is the decklist below I got from the recent MTGO Standard MCQ where it finished in 5^th place.

21 LANDS
6 Island
6 Mountain
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
1 Temple of Epiphany

12 CREATURES
4 Arclight Phoenix
4 Crackling Drake
4 Goblin Electromancer

27 INSTANTS and SORC.
1 Beacon Bolt
4 Chart a Course
3 Finale of Promise
3 Lava Coil
2 Lightning Strike
4 Opt
3 Radical Idea
4 Shock
3 Tormenting Voice

SIDEBOARD
3 Alpine Moon
2 Augur of Bolas
1 Beacon Bolt
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Entrancing Melody
3 Fry
2 Negate
1 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Merfolks tribe has been in the Standard support in the Ixalan block both in card components and the set’s storyline and folklore. They were eventually fallen out of flavor in the metagame as the Simic shifted into infinite turns via Nexus of Fate and the recent Simic Ramp deck. Today we look at how this deck archetype can adopt new cards from Core Set 2020. Here below is an example decklist (sourced from MTG Goldfish):

4 Benthic Biomancer
4 Deeproot Elite
4 Kumena’s Speaker
4 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Silvergill Adept

2 Spell Pierce
4 Deeproot Waters
4 Incubation/Incongruity

6 Forest
4 Hinterland Harbor
6 Island
2 Simic Guildgate
4 Unclaimed Territory

The list looks to be stable already but we will try to have a few edits. Here are some M20 cards that are our option for the main deck.

Unsummon – I am wishing for a Vapor Snag comeback but this is okay. The iconic Blue bounce card is very suited for Blue tempo decks and for this tribe, it is quite essential just to bounce off blockers and attack for huge chunks of damage. This is also useful to save your dudes from spot removals and also to utilize another ETB effect.

Dungeon Geists – This card reprint reminded me of the Spirits deck in Innistrad Standard days. Those builds were very powerful because of Hexproof Spirit lords and Phantasmal Image. For the current meta, this can be your sideboard for Green Stompy or Gruul Aggro decks. I’d have one main deck just to spice up my list.

Bride born Cutthroat – This is a good Flashy two drop but it won’t get counters unless you adjust your build to be playing mostly on opponents’ turns, and having more counterspells. That is already the current Mono-Blue tempo route instead of the Merfolk tribal.

Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer – Her plus 1 loyalty ability is more of gaining your board if you curved from the first turn. it is quite situational though, as you might just drop her on the later turns as you’d prefer to have another Merfolk to expand your board position.

I looked on the Green spoiler list for Core set 2020 but most are four your sideboard options which I think don’t need much explanation. These notables are Veil of Summer, Nightpack Ambusher, Shifting Ceratops and Loaming Shaman.

Going back into the main deck posted above, I would change some of the cards specifically Deeproot Waters and the split card Incubation/Incongruity. I am looking to protect more of my early critters so as to deal damage as much as possible. Here is the breakdown of the new spell lineup:

2 Dive Down
2 Icon of Ancestry
4 Unsummon
2 Spell Pierce

I am also cutting a Kumena for Dungeon Geists as the efficiency is lessened with the Deeproot Waters removed. I would also edit the lands to have Breeding Pool instead of 4 basics and Temple of Mystery for the guildgates. The new land list is:

4 Breeding Pool
4 Forest
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Island
2 Temple of Mystery
4 Unclaimed Territory

Do you have a current build of Merfolks that you would like to share and discuss? Just comment them on the box below.

That is a wrap for this deck tech. Until the next blog post.

Back for some quick Magic 2020 Standard deck brew, here is a quick decklist I made for the deck theme of Orzhov lifegain in which most of the components were from the upcoming Magic 2020 Coreset. I came up with this list because I noticed the support and interaction of the new cards, specifically Bloodthirsty Aerialist which is the Black flyer version of Ajani’s Pridemate.

Do take note that no playtest has been done online or on paper for this deck build so your comments and suggestions are very much welcome. See the list below.

2 Angel of Vitality
4 Ajani’s Pridemate
4 Bloodthirsty Aerialist
2 Bishop of Wings
2 Knight of Malice
3 Resplendent Angel
3 Lyra Dawnbringer
1 Seraph of the Scales
1 Sephara, Sky’s Blade

3 Ajani, Strength of the Pride
2 Gideon Blackblade

4 Legion’s Landing
2 Cast Down
1 Ixalan’s Binding
2 Mortify

4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Scoured Barrens
8 Plains
4 Swamp