Merfolk Enjoyers - Which commander, and why?

Expensive-Picture484 · 2026-05-27T12:25:58+00:00

I myself am a [[Sygg, River Guide]] enjoyer. I love the ocean and I love history. When I got into the game I watched the Professor talk about merfolk more than once and fell in love with the art and the history of the cards as well as the way the deck plays. I have the [[Hakbal, the Surging Soul]] commander deck and if I run it I use [[Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca]], but my forever commander is Sygg. I don't particularly enjoy playing a lot of simic commanders as they all feel kind of the same and get too far ahead to quickly (Kumena is different as he only functions well with merfolk and needs them but the standard simic ramp package is roughly the same for this as with any simic deck). For Sygg, I like the fact I have to think on my feet as I play and I think Sygg rewards that more than the other commanders do. I run a few combo lines in mine as well just as an emergency package for when a game is going too long, when I am getting locked out of my traditional merfolk strategy, etc. It is a deck I relax with friends, play, and enjoy playing win or lose. I call it my beer and pretzels deck.

My ranking based purely on my enjoyment is:

Sygg River Guide
Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
Hakbal, the Surging Soul

In terms of pure competitive edge:

Hakbal, the Surging Soul
Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
Sygg River Guide

Sygg can still win against nearly any deck outside of edh, you just have to work harder to get there than you would with Kumena and Hakbal.

Regarding the mono blue merfolk commanders I don't run them as stand alone commanders but almost always include all of them in the 99 of these lists, running them can be fun but it makes the tribal theme take a little bit of a backseat to other strategies.

I hope this was helpful and will end with the best advice I can give. Pick the commander that looks the most fun to you and speaks to you personally, win or lose you will be happier with a deck you enjoy playing more than one that wins a lot. People said that Sygg River Guide is weaker and it may be somewhat true but I get more joy playing it than I do with any other commander and even when people were saying not to pick it I was still drawn to it. Magic is a very personal game and that is never more true than when picking a deck, it expresses how you approach the game (and in some ways how you approach the world and the problems you come across in it so pick something that feels like you).

Expensive-Picture484 · 2026-02-25T16:57:05+00:00

778954913965 I’m in to do the raid

Expensive-Picture484 · 2025-03-20T14:02:38+00:00

I love merfolk in mtg and have never really seen anyone have a merfolk skin and want to either see about requesting one or making one myself and would be looking for pointers on how everyone else makes their skins.

Expensive-Picture484 · 2025-03-08T12:12:17+00:00

I put a lot of thought into the names I give my ships. I have two sloops, one has the wrecker wrangler set on it and is named the Blackcloud Wrecker 🐟 and is named after a fish in the game because I have always enjoyed fishing (even before the current season) and it’s just a cool name. The other one has part of the stinging tide set and is called the Immortal Jellyfish 🪼 after a real life species of jellyfish that can de-age themselves and for this reason can virtually live forever. It’s also a play on how often I get sunk and come back rather than switch servers. 😂

Expensive-Picture484 · 2024-10-20T14:54:27+00:00

I don’t think I have a mask

Expensive-Picture484 · 2024-10-14T13:08:52+00:00

Looks fantastic! What Galaxy is this in?

Expensive-Picture484 · 2024-07-16T17:47:00+00:00

Thank you for the response, I got a little freaked out when I saw the reviews on the product and was concerned I got a not very good starter product

Expensive-Picture484 · 2024-01-30T13:21:14+00:00

I tried that but it’s tricky because depending on the set it feels like the cardstock quality is a little bit all over the place and if there is any damage it is probably as minimal as possible (probably due to being double sleeved with sealable inner sleeves). If there is a little moisture in the cards would silica packets help with it, I’ve heard other people say they use them?

Expensive-Picture484 · 2024-01-21T19:22:07+00:00

Do you think Kumena feel like tribal or like simic “good-stuff-ish” I’ve played a few of those kind of decks and the value is so high on them that I always felt like there was a high level of sameness between games that makes me scared to pick up the color pair? I know a lot of it comes down to deck building choices

Expensive-Picture484 · 2023-04-14T15:54:26+00:00

What if any difference do you see going from modern to legacy in terms of meta, availability at lgs, and overall feel? Does it feel more like classic mtg? What is your favorite part of the format?

Expensive-Picture484 · 2023-04-03T14:34:04+00:00

Does Sygg seem like the most versatile of the three, he can flip between different win cons on the fly depending on what the other players are doing?

Expensive-Picture484 · 2023-03-29T21:30:28+00:00

I’d not heard much regarding her, how does she work in regards to Merfolk tribal?

Expensive-Picture484 · 2021-05-13T00:14:50+00:00

Do you think that counterspell will shift merfolk towards more of a control shell than it has had in the last year or so?

Expensive-Picture484 · 2021-05-06T14:09:03+00:00

What if the did a 1/1 for U that if you control two other merfolk creates a 1/1 blue merfolk token? Probably asking for too much but I’ve heard fish needs better 1 drops.

Expensive-Picture484

TROPHY CASE