{"ops":[{"insert":"This is Merfolk typal deck for the EDHREC September 2026 deckbuilding contest.\n\nThe Deck"},{"attributes":{"header":1},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Overview"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"It leans into the merfolk sub-theme of wanting your creatures tapped, primarily explored in Lorwyn. Kilo, as the commander, acts as a booster for the deck since it also likes to be tapped, and pulls together the other theme for the deck which is counters. An ideal play pattern is to play out merfolk and use station or crew abilities to tap them for value when you can, then to turn the little merfolk into lethal threats, either using a mass +1/+1 counter effect and proliferate with Kilo or use a damage doubler to pump up the damage.\n\n\nWinning strategies"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Besides fairly playing out merfolk and putting counters on them to swing out for lethal, the deck has a couple of other ways to take advantage of tap abilities. \n \n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mind Over Matter"}},{"insert":" "},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"This older card lets you untap or tap a creature (artifact or land), by discarding a card, so with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Fallowsage"}},{"insert":" we can quite easily draw through our entire deck, then we can win with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thassa's Oracle"}},{"insert":" , which is a merfolk! Notably, you will need a tapper to fully enable this; any of the station cards will work, the vehicles will let you do this at instant speed, and one creature "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Drowner of Secrets"}},{"insert":" which will let us move through the deck even faster. This also gives us tap/untapping triggers for each card in our library, that can combo with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Deeproot Pilgrimage"}},{"insert":" for an army of 1/1 tokens, or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Hawkeye's Bow"}},{"insert":" to shoot down our opponents with pings.\n\nMind Over Matter also works as a great tool to just get some extra taps if we need them. If we get counters on our team, we can turn all the cards in our hand into untap triggers for Kilo to grow our board to lethal, or turn them into mana with the "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Eternity Elevator"}},{"insert":" or another mana rock or land.\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Benthic Biomancer"}},{"insert":" "},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"One of the strongest +1/+1 counters synergy pieces in the deck, this works as another way to draw through our deck in combination with a fully leveled-up "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Wizard Class"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Vodalian Wave-Knight"}},{"insert":" . The latter of which will grow our board into a bunch of big boys, however *CAUTION* comboing with Vodalian Wave-Knight will kill you unless you have a way to interrupt the draw, this can be things like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Clever Concealment"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Spider-Sense"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Disruptor of Currents"}},{"insert":" which will each interrupt it in different ways.\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Wanderwine Prophets"}},{"insert":" "},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"This is our way of chaining extra turns but, I'd recommend only going for it in emergencies or if you have evasion support alongside something like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Deeproot Pilgrimage"}},{"insert":" to give you consistent sac fodder. In that way it turns more into an infinite extra combats where you can just attack down whoever you need to.\n\nGeneral Philosophy"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"This is a typal deck that focuses on Merfolk. It aims to be around bracket 3, usually building up a board slowly with some multi-card combos that could run away with things, including potential extra turn chaining. However, I included no fast mana so the deck does take some time to get online, and the only game changer is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thassa's Oracle"}},{"insert":" because it's also a merfolk so it gets a bit of pass. The deck can be a bit dirdly with the untapping shenanigans but hopefully it floods the board relatively quickly once it gets going to close out the game.\n\nI generally made choices to focus on the typal and tapping synergies over including generically good cards. I wasn't necessarily considering budget, and there's room in the manabase to shave off a lot of the cost and some of power downgrades I suggest below would also remove a number of more expensive cards.\n\nCard choices"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The merfolk in the deck are those that like to tap or untap themselves or other things as well as a couple of solid support merfolk.\n\nSince we had Kilo at the helm we also aim to take advantage of counter synergies, with spacecraft like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Eternity Elevator"}},{"insert":" getting charge counters and things like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Door of Destinies"}},{"insert":" and"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Fated Firepower"}},{"insert":" getting stronger the more counters they have on them.\n\nConvoke is our other tapping synergy that works great with what we want to do with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Collective Inferno"}},{"insert":" as a damage doubler and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Clever Concealment"}},{"insert":" giving protection as well card draw from things like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Harmonized Crescendo"}},{"insert":" and finally a couple of utility spells.\n\nI've included a few non-merfolk creatures that are worth talking about, all in support of our tapping plan. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Captain America, Living Legend"}},{"insert":" gives us extra taps for everything on our turn, enabling double stationing and other double duties. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Cayth, Famed Mechanist"}},{"insert":" is our backup commander, serving a similar purpose to Kilo, but also providing counters for each new merfolk we play with Fabricate 1. Finally, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Unctus, Grand Metatect"}},{"insert":" gives most of merfolk (except the white ones) the ability to tap themselves on their own.\n\nMana Base"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The mana base doesn't have anything too interesting going on, but since we're so blue heavy we do forgo any red-white dual lands so that most of our lands tap for blue. We do rely heavily on some of the typal lands so you may need to name artificer to get kilo down on time. You generally only need one white source so you should prioritize picking up a couple of extra red sources to get down our pip heavy red cards. \n\nFor utility lands we have "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Adagia, Windswept Bastion"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Uthros, Titanic Godcore"}},{"insert":" to serve as free tapping sources (the red station land isn't really worth it) alongside "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Minamo, School at Water's Edge"}},{"insert":" which gives us an extra tap of any legends we have. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Abandoned Air Temple"}},{"insert":" is the other most notable land as it gives counters to our team which can then be proliferated.\n\nExclusions and other options"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"I've left a number of cards in the Maybeboard that adjust the deck's power level. \n\nIf you want to lean more into a stronger bracket 3, the biggest power add to the deck would be "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Intruder Alarm"}},{"insert":" , which I left out because it combos a little too easily and quickly with a number of token generators in the deck. Adding it back in will almost certainly give you more opportunities to win the game. And if you want to maximize on game changers I'd suggest "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The One Ring"}},{"insert":" , because it works great with some of our untap synergies and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Cyclonic Rift"}},{"insert":" since we'll often be in a state where if we clear the way we can swing in for lethal. Otherwise there's a couple of additional board wipe options which could be great to slot in over some of the damage doublers or the non-merfolk creatures. \n\nIf you wanted to power down the deck and push it more towards bracket 2, removing "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thassa's Oracle"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mind Over Matter"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Benthic Biomancer"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Wanderwine Prophets"}},{"insert":" will remove extra turn chaining and reduce the infinite combo potential of the deck. Those can be swapped out with some other good merfolk like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thieving Skydiver"}},{"insert":" ,"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Tishana's Tidebinder"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Svyelun of Sea and Sky"}},{"insert":" alongside something like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Winnowing"}},{"insert":" to continue supporting the tap synergies.\n"}]}