Having trouble building an effective Magic the Gathering deck? Well, I’m here to help you out a little bit! Here’s a quick way to create an unstoppable merfolk deck. The deck is a white/blue deck that gets you a ton of creatures and a ton of life. This deck has several combos in it and is just what you’re looking for if you want to crush an opponent. All the cards in this deck are legal (as of 12/6/08) in standard MTG tournaments except for one that is banned from standard, but allowed in all other tournament formats. Well, let’s get into the deck then!

First, what I recommend for any merfolk deck, not just this one is four Stonybrook Bannerets. These merfolk cost 1U to play and are 1/1’s with islandwalk. They are invaluable to a merfolk deck. Their effect is that “Merfolk and Wizard spells you play cost 1 less to play”. This speeds up your entire deck and makes it so you can play bigger merfolk that would usually take 4-5 turns to play in only 2-3. Also, Stonybrook Banneret speeds up the biggest and baddest merfolk combo which we’ll get to a little late.

Another card that is useful is Sygg, River Guide. This is a 2/2 islandwalk that costs WU to play. It has the ability: 1W Target merfolk you control gains protection from the color of your choice until the end of the turn. This is useful for when you want to protect something that is really helping you out (like Stonybrook Banneret, which opponents usually try to shoot down right away). You only want one or two of these in the deck and they aren’t necessary, though they can be tremendously helpful.

Here’s a great mini-combo that can kill off any creature (as long as it doesn’t have protection blue). This combo does however; use one card that is not legal in standard format, so if you want to be able to play in any tournament, you might have to leave this one out. The two cards you need are Merfolk Thaumaturgist and Silvergill Douser. Merfolk Thaumaturgist is the card that is banned from standard format (FYI). Silvergill Douser costs 1U and is a 1/1 with “tap: target creature gets -X/-0 until the end of the turn, where X is the number of merfolk and/or faeries you control”. This card, even without Merfolk Thaumaturgist is valuable in this deck, so definitely include it. With Silvergill Douser you don’t have to worry about those big creatures, because soon they’ll be nothing but wimps. Moving on, Merfolk Thaumaturgist costs 2U and is a 1/2 with “tap: Switch target creature’s power and toughness until the end of the turn”. With these two cards working together, first use Silvergill Douser’s ability to make their power zero, and then use Merfolk Tharmaturgist to switch power and toughness. This effectively snipes off any creatures your opponent has in play. Very awesome.

Alright, here it is. The big combo. I’m going to tell you about it now, and then talk about some cards that work well with this combo other than the essentials. A little bit of bonus stuff, just for you!

Summon The School is a 3W merfolk tribal sorcery. This is the card that will win you the game and ruin your opponent’s day. However, you need Merrow Of Commerce as well to do so. Merrow of Commerce is a 1U merfolk tribal enchantment. Summon The School puts two 1/1 blue merfolk creature tokens into play. Big deal, right? However, Summon The School’s other effect is “Tap four untapped merfolk you control: Return Summon The School from your graveyard to your hand”. This means every turn you can be pumping out merfolk with ease (especially if you have Stonybrook Banneret in play which will reduce this card’s mana cost!). Now let’s look at Merrow Of Commerce. This enchantment’s effect is that at the end of your turn you can untap all merfolk you control. That means each turn you can tap everyone you have to bring Summon The School back from your graveyard X times and not be defenseless! It is a brilliant strategy. After about 3 turns you have around 20 merfolk in play and the game is over. However, let’s make sure to seal the deal by adding a few extra cards to make this deck truly unbeatable.

Judge Of Currents is a great card for this combo. It costs 1W and is a 1/1 with “Whenever a merfolk you control becomes tapped, gain 1 life”. Every time you bring Summon The School back from the graveyard you’re gaining four life. I recommend at least 2 Judge of Currents in a deck. If you do this right, your life can be in the 200’s in no time. No joke.

Another good card to have is StonyBrook Schoolmaster. This costs 2W and is a 1/2 with “Whenever StonyBrook Schoolmaster becomes tapped, you may put a 1/1 blue merfolk wizard creature token into play”. Now you can put a creature token into play while bringing Summon the School back into play. This is just another way to get a ton of creatures out, as well as have additional merfolk to tap to bring Summon The School back to your hand.

Merrow Reejerey costs 2U and is a 2/2 with “Other merfolk creatures you control get+1/+1″ and “Whenever you play a merfolk spell, you may tap or untap target permanent”. This card is just awesome. It pumps up all your merfolk and also lets you untap stuff. This way you can untap land (or merfolk) after you play Summon The School so that you can play it again or return it from the graveyard sooner rather than later.

Grimoire Thief costs UU and is a 2/2 with a really incredible effect. Whenever you tap Grimoire Thief, you can remove the top 3 cards from your opponent’s library. You can also look at these cards. Also, for U, you can sacrifice Grimoire Thief and reveal the removed cards. Any spell that shares a name with those cards is countered. This card is great for milling an opponent’s library, as well as countering their best cards. You get to tap it every turn in this deck too!

Fallowsage costs 3U and is a 2/2 with “whenever Fallowsage becomes tapped, you may draw a card”. Another good merfolk for Summon The School to work with. The best part is that you aren’t forced to draw a card, it is optional. This way if your library is running low, you don’t mill yourself down to nothing. The cost is a little high, but don’t forget about StonyBrook Banneret! StonyBrook Banneret makes cards like this playable.

Veteran Of The Depths costs 3W and is a 2/2 with “Whenever Veteran Of The Depths becomes tapped, you may put a +1/+1 counter on it”. Once again, being able to tap this card every turn makes it get really big really fast. The mana cost is no problem either, since StonyBrook Banneret handles that part of the equation.

Well, that’s the merfolk deck, and that’s how you’ll win basically every game you play! As for the rest of the deck, feel free to throw in some counter spells and other cards you think would be useful. This article is meant to just outline the framework of a great merfolk deck. You have to fill in the missing pieces to make it flawless. There are plenty of other good merfolk out there! Thanks for reading, and here are the pictures of all the cards mentioned above. (All pictures came from http://magiccards.info/)