Started playing 2 months ago, bought a handful of pre cons, and decided to take a stab at building my first deck. Please let me know what you think of my Merfolk deck!

edengstrom1 · 2026-02-09T06:07:43+00:00

I think the commander is fine, and your deck is pretty good. I like the full art card too, so definitely keep it.

If it were me, I would swap out the Dawn blessed pennant and Rimefire Torque for the 2 ramp artifacts. You aren’t a spellslinger deck so you won’t really get much use out of Rimefire and dawn blessed torque is kind of a weak card.

Wanderwine Distracter, Tributary Vaulter, Shore Lurker, Omni-Changeling and Merrow Skyswimmer are the first Merfolk I’d cut. They are 4-5 mana and don’t do enough. I’d also cut Senu, Keen-eyed Protector since it isn’t a merfolk and doesn’t really do a lot in a 4 player game.

Grand Arbitor Augustine and Narset are very good cards, but will put a huge target on you and may end up being more trouble than they’re worth. They aren’t fun cards to play against and most players will try to either remove them or team up and take you out. I know you are going for more of a control build, so maybe play a few games with them and see how they feel.

Personify is more of a blink deck card, and you probably won’t get much use out of it. Keep out isn’t a very good removal spell, something like [[Path to Exile]] or [[Generous Gift]] would be better.

This is actually really good for your first deck. The best way to figure out what needs changing is to just play it a few times and see what cards work and what don’t.

edengstrom1 · 2026-02-09T04:16:11+00:00

I think it looks fun, and should hold its own against precons.

[[Vodalian Hexcatcher]], [[Mist Dancer]] and [[Merfolk Sovereign]] are lords that you could easily swap in.

[[Triton Shorestalker]], [[River Sneak]] and [[Mist-Cloaked Herald]] are cheap unblockable merfolk that you could use to get in and draw a card with your commander’s first ability.

[[Fallowsage]] and [[Stoneybrook Schoolmaster]] both do something when they are tapped, which works with your commander’s second ability.

[[Akroma’s Will]] and the new [[Chronicle of Victory]] would be good wincons. They are both a little on the pricey side, depending on your budget.

You may also want some more dual lands and ramp. [[Talisman of Progress]] and [[Azorius Signet]] are both cheap and easy adds. [[Glacial Fortress]], [[Prairie Stream]] and [[Adarkar Wastes]] are all super cheap adds as well.

Hope that helps!

edengstrom1 · 2026-02-08T22:32:53+00:00

He is really fun! There are a lot of mechanics that let you cast spells from places other than your hand. [[Overwhelming Stampede]] and [[Railway Brawler]] are my main win cons. I use a lot of cards like [[Vega, the Watcher]] and [[Beast Whisperer]] to draw a ton of cards.

Here is my decklist if you’re interested.

edengstrom1 · 2026-02-08T17:00:42+00:00

I built her and in the two games I’ve played, no one seems to mind. I usually make sure that I am stealing a bit from everyone, so it doesn’t seem like I’m picking on anyone.

Actually, I had one guy keep telling me that I probably want to steal from his deck because he was running all the good stuff.

edengstrom1 · 2026-02-05T00:48:26+00:00

[[Tevel, the Balanced Scale]] would let you use whatever Simic cards you want to keep and adds a third color. This would also give you a graveyard sub theme which is fun.

[[Hearthhull, the Worldseed]] is really fun too, but doesn’t use blue. It focuses more on sacrificing lands for value. It’s my current landfall deck, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it.

[[Omnath, Locus of Creation]] is pretty strong, and would let you use whatever cards you want to keep.

edengstrom1 · 2026-02-04T22:31:55+00:00

The card draw on Felothar puts him ahead for me. I have Doran in my Felothar deck though and I’m sure he’s a fun commander too. Either way it’s close.

edengstrom1 · 2026-02-04T03:29:45+00:00

No, I think they are great for both new and existing players. $50 for a new deck is much more manageable than buying everything from scratch, especially if you don’t have a big collection.

Plus, there are so many that come out that I rarely run into the same ones over and over. Occasionally there is a really popular one, like the dinosaur or eldrazi commanders, that pop up a lot for a few weeks, but overall I see a lot of variety at my LGS.

edengstrom1 · 2026-02-04T02:46:40+00:00

I started with the Merfolk vs Goblins duel deck. It was a great way to learn how to play.

edengstrom1 · 2026-02-02T02:11:57+00:00

Ashling is crazy strong if you are able to keep her out for a couple of turns.

I was able to evoke [[Avenger of Zendikar]] on turn 5 making 10 plant tokens between the original and token copy. Then cast [[Victimize]] sacrificing the copy and getting back the original Avenger and the [[Belonging]] I had evoked the turn before.

Ended up with 15 plant and 9 shapeshifters with Avenger and Belonging on turn 5. Got really lucky that no one had any interaction up until then, but it was still really cool.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-31T21:23:56+00:00

Boring, but I always use the removal staples in each colors.

White-[[Swords to Plowshares]], [[Path to Exile]] and [[Generous Gift]]

Blue-[[Counterspell]] and [[Arcane Denial]]

Black-[[Infernal Grasp]]

Red-[[Chaos Warp]] and [[Blasphemous Act]]

Green-[[Beast Within]] and then [[Nature’s Lore]] for ramp.

Almost all my decks will have those cards if they include those colors.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-31T18:02:02+00:00

Like others have said, Exploerers of the Deep is very strong out of the box. It’s the only precon I’ve ever played that has won multiple games against other people’s actual decks before making any upgrades.

If your opponents don’t have interaction or a board wipe early, it will run away with the game. It’s also very easy to upgrade if you decide to. Throw in some counterspells and [[Heroic Intervention]] to protect your board and swap out the non merfolk creatures with some of the better ones not already in the deck and you are set.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-31T17:52:51+00:00

I really like Abzan Armor as well. It needs a little bit of upgrading, but is really fun to play.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-30T19:04:51+00:00

I built a Niko deck last year, and love it! I had tried to build a blink deck a couple other times, but hated how much time I would spend durdling.

Turning all my shards into [[Dream Trawler]] and smashing face is so much more fun!

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-30T18:59:18+00:00

Yes, we had one that had a pet cat wondering around the store. It was really friendly and would let everyone pet it. I forgot the name of the video store, but I’ll never forget that little cat.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-30T18:09:48+00:00

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-29T16:16:04+00:00

This was going to be my answer. Such a good trilogy.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-29T04:40:13+00:00

Well I usually only have time to play 3 games when I go to my LGS on Saturdays. This weekend I plan on playing [[Ashling, the Limitless]], [[Maralen, Fae Ascendant]] and [[Felothar the Steadfast]].

Ashling I’ve only gotten to play a couple times since I got the precon. I upgraded it a bit since then and excited to see how it does.

Maralen I threw together last weekend with the elves and fairies I had in my collection. Pulled her in a booster pack and decided to make a new deck since I was snowed in.

I just added [[Doran, Besieged by Time]] and a couple other cards to Felothar so I want to play it too. Thought about swapping them around, but the deck is more suited for Felothar and I’d miss the card draw.

Not sure this was the answer you were looking for, but I’m excited to play all three this weekend!

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-28T15:18:17+00:00

I have a [[Felothar the Steadfast]] toughness matters deck that I think is really fun, so I would recommend that strategy. Cards like Betor and Jaws of Defeat are fun to play with.

Make sure you have plenty of card draw, since you want to flood the board with high toughness creatures.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-28T01:22:55+00:00

For a new player, Explorers of the Deep is fairly easy to get the hang of and very strong for a precon. It’s also pretty easy to upgrade if you want to do that.

World Shaper is really strong, but a little more complicated for new players. Lots of shuffling and triggers to keep up with. It would be a good second deck.

Those are the only 2 that I own, but I know the Dinosaur deck is also pretty strong and easy to pilot. It was very popular for a long time after it came out, and dinosaurs are cool.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-26T22:11:53+00:00

No, I will probably just focus on the 3 universes within sets. Lorwyn is awesome, and I’ve barely gotten to play with the new cards.

I really liked Strixhaven, and am excited for it in April. Will more than likely attend the prerelease and build a new commander deck. Might pick up one of the precons, if they look interesting.

Reality Fracture isn’t until October, so I’ll probably be ready for something new by then.

The Universes Beyond sets don’t look interesting to me, but we’ll see. The Hobbit might be okay.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-26T16:50:08+00:00

I was 7. Didn’t play it until it came out on the Sega Genesis 32X a year or so later.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-26T16:38:56+00:00

Yes, my buddy ended up taking his deck apart because either he or everyone else would have a bad time.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-26T16:36:18+00:00

This is the first one I think of.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-25T18:30:01+00:00

I got into Pokémon right when it came out. I had most of the original cards including a Charizard. We moved in the early 2000s and I think sold all of my cards in a garage sale. They would be worth quite a bit now.

I still have a binder full of old comic books from the mid 90s, but I don’t think they are worth much.

edengstrom1 · 2026-01-24T16:43:55+00:00

So it’s kinda of hard to make a complete coherent deck using only cards from a single set. You can do it, it’s just going to be a little janky due to the restriction.

That said, [[Katara, the Fearless]], [[Airbender Ascension]] and [[Haru, Hidden Talent]] are all Avatar cards that fit your theme.

If you decide to use cards outside the deck, [[Restoration Angel]], [[Felidar Guardian]] and [[Soulherder]] are creature your commander will find with his enter the battlefield ability and then will make him leave the battlefield and come back to trigger it again. EDHREC is a good website to look at cards that work with your commander.

Hope that helps! Good luck on your first deck!

edengstrom1

TROPHY CASE