After getting soundly pushed out of my modern FNM a few weeks prior for playing my Merfolk Deck I decided that it's time for a change or a pivot. I've got the idea of moving to Blue/White for adding in the new lord [[Deepchanel Duelist]] along with some early interaction like Path or Erode. I'm not quite the exact cuts I should make for this, or if I should keep on with mono blue and just shore it up.

I'm aware I'll get the question; "Why are you not on Vial?" and the answer is simple; I don't have enough 1 drops to validate it, A lot of the deck plays at instant speed anyways, and there's not enough countermagic to really need to play around it.

Commandeer is an old relic of the deck that I haven't had the time or need to cut out (was ring tech before that ban) but is an easy drop in my opinion. Same with needle, I think.

Looking to make a new Merfolk deck, but not set on Tropical Fish; the idea of Azorius seems nice to me, how does this fare in 2026?

which one do you run as a commander, and why? they're pretty similar in function, but what specific playstyle/patterns do they lend towards? is one strictly better, or just more preferred by you?

Hello fellow fish lovers!

I just wanted to share my little result with my beloved fish deck. Nothing fancy, I just took 8th place of a 18 people tournament. Nevertheless, I’ve also participated to 2 bigger tournaments throughout the weekend and the deck felt really nice to pilot in this meta.

All the cards felt nice but my MVPs were harbinger (who can completely shutdown games like vs Eldrazi for instance), Stifle and Tishana. It felt like people weren’t paying attention to stifle effect and they were a blast, not only at destroying lands but also at shutting down combos (doomsday, welder, fantasticar…). The drowners and tricksters were also key for having a chance at winning the aggro/tempo matchups.

The Boros and D&T MUs were pretty hard to handle, not sure those are winnable, I need to rework the list and SB to try to address that.

https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=88192&d=869170&f=LE

Fish powaaaaaaaa!

I want it to be more like tempo that fully token based, even if it's already a lot token based. I would like to know what to remove too, not just what to add

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https://moxfield.com/decks/M5z-99GL506BA9lUtyYq8Q

These will not be legal in anywhere except commander and legacy formats

Im new at MTG and in love the Merfolks, I build this deck from scratch with the cards that I found in the local stores, I wanna improve it, so what cards do I search to buy online and what I cut off?

Sorry if I'm breaking any rule or being too noob, I just want some advise.

deck: https://moxfield.com/decks/I_cme5MxXkKsr4Ze1OyEtA

While I’m in no way a big fan of UB sets I do like these two ALOT for a pio fish deck

Anyone going to try Jitte?

I just randomly found [[Stolen Uniform]], never seen the card before. It can attach [[Colossus Hammer]] to any creature you control at instant speed and [[Thieving Skydiver]] can also equip the hammer on enter. Has anyone ever tried something like that?

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Results:

1/2 vs gryxis reanimator.

2/0 vs jeskai control.

2/1 vs tron.

0/2 vs boros.

2/0 vs jeskai control.

2/0 vs dimir control.

1/2 vs izzet prowess.

1/2 vs affinity.

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/l7aDgpaxHUWXJOzUuuiaXA

I like to play with 4 copies of subtley in the main and also 4 copies of force of negation to have some responses, and then 8 merfolks of drawing to compensate the free spells.

All the deck is foild btw :)

Hey y'all,

Just joined the subreddit - great to see fellow fishmongers!

I used to play Modern Merfolk back from around 2014-2017 before I sold my collection to fund a move overseas (made about $4k for everything I had, so not bad. This was when Aether Vial wasn't $8 AUD). I won a few local tournaments and participated in a Melbourne GP in 2016 - I think I went 4-4, so.. not absolutely horrible considering Eldrazi were everywhere.

ANYWAY - safe to say I love Merfolk, and want to slowly build my modern deck back up, clearly plenty of new options for the deck, as well as it falling further down the ladder in terms of win-rate in competitive settings due to power creep.

I was looking at Callaphe, and she piqued my interest. Whilst not a merfolk, essentially giving your creatures a "ward 1" ability similar to Svyelun, and potentially being a big hitter, she seems interesting enough to try out.

I know Svyelun isn't expensive, and I'll be getting a playset of her (because why not), however Callaphe is basically free from my LGS bulk boxes and figured I'd give her a go. A pipe dream some may say.

Thoughts? Opinions?

It seem like the best strategy is turns 1-3 are play merfolk/your commander, then the next turn continue t play more merfolk.

It's green and you have access to good ramp spells and creatures, but when does it fit best in the curve? should I aim for bigger ramp pieces on turn 4 and 5, or ramp earlier and cast the commander later?

My prayers have been answered. Finally a non-blue Merfolk Legend. My Ixalan Merfolk babies are about to eat so good.

Love the fishies. Have 2 differernt decks with no repeats. Very different strategies. Which deck you like most? Any suggestions?