Greetings, old-time patriots! My, it seems to have been quite some time since I last spoke to you in this manner. You must forgive me, as to me, time is volatile; depending on where I find myself in the Manor, millennia can go by like days, and days can go by like minutes. Now I regret my meandering, for my clocks seem to have succumbed to time more than I, and have fallen into disrepair. As you know, it is my (and hopefully soon to be your) sacred duty to repair these clocks and bring them back as good as new!

But not today.

That’s right; there will be no clock-fixing in this escapade. Why you might ask? Quite simply, I'm doing something else. The moment Lorwyn hit the Magic scene, I was simply star-struck. For you see, I love Lorwyn, and even that cannot describe my feelings for it. It’s a classical world with a new age twist, and that’s what I’m all about. The landscape is beautiful and the creatures singularly extraordinary and vastly unique, from the humble and brave Goldmeadow Stalwart to the stunning and high-minded Imperious Perfect. I love it all, and I couldn’t resist the chance to get in “up close and in the action”, so to speak.

To this end I aided in the very popular First Impressions series by reviewing White. It was quite a thrilling experience, and I hope to make an appearance in the next set or two as well. However, this article was not enough for me. As such, I decided to write an article of Clockwork Manor solely for the purpose of enthusing my readers with the sumptuous midsummer joy of Lorwyn. I set to work immediately, both my heart and mind at full speed with nothing to stop me!

So, with all these old tribes getting a new look, how am I to best utilize my prowess of time? By talking about the oldest things in Lorwyn of course, and no, I don’t mean the wise, old Treefolk. I speak of a tribe of warriors whose legacy stretches back years into Magic history, and whose presence has been known since the very beginning. I feel this tribe has been underappreciated despite its tournament-worthy caliber, but now, maybe, just maybe, I can help this tribe by using this very article to show the world just what they are made of. That tribe? The Merfolk!

I have always loved Merfolk. Ever since I laid eyes on Lord of the Atlantis, I knew one day I would make a deck of Merfolk with him in it. To live where others dream, and to travel where no other species of Magic could travel before. They’re warriors. They’re wizards. They’re rogues, assassins, lords, and healers. As cunning as they are deadly, Merfolk are a tribe that has earned its respect in the world of Lorwyn. Many of my friends are truly excited by them, vying to see who can complete their playset of Silvergill Adepts first. Indeed, with more creatures than ever, additional instants, sorceries, and other assorted permanents, and even a second color for back up, it should finally seem that Merfolk will claim their true place in Magic history as a tribe to fear.

As well and good as all that is, what are we going to do about it? Well, I may have said I’m not fixing any clocks, but that doesn’t mean I won’t bring references back to the past in some other way. For you see, just as a deck can be fixed and remade, so can a deck’s concept. Don’t be fooled: concept and goal aren’t the same thing. A concept is what the deck is based around, a goal is what it’s supposed to do to win, or possibly even to lose (stop laughing Spikes, some people can enjoy a good loss). For example, the first clock we fixed, the original Sligh, had a concept and a goal. Sure, the goal is obvious: use fast creatures and burn to take the opponent to zero as quickly as possible. But the concept of Sligh however, was to build a deck utilizing the mana curve in a way so that it always used all mana available on a given turn. Coincidently enough, the concept and goal of a deck often accomplish the same thing in the end.

The concept I’m using is of the deck that most people associate with Merfolk: Merfolk Opposition. As you could guess, this deck would lay down small Merfolk to fill the field followed by the ridiculous enchantment Opposition to lock down the opponent and swing over with a bunch of Lord of Atlantis-pumped fishmen. That was the goal of the deck. The concept? Simple: to combine Merfolk with a powerful enchantment and fuse aggressive and controlling elements to form a fast and efficient Weenie-Control deck. Let’s generalize that a bit: use Merfolk and an enchantment in a deck using both aggro and control tools. I’ll be showing two decks today, each involving the marriage of effective Merfolk and powerful enchantments. I’ll start by showing you the enchantment, explain a few of the card choices I made, and then present the decks. Well, with two to go we don’t have time to waste!

Tally ho!

Merfolk+ Hoofprints of the Stag

Our first enchantment is Hoofprints of the Stag, an enchantment that gains “hoof” counters whenever you draw a card. Once you get to four counters, you can pay 2W to remove the counters and get a 4/4 Elemental token. By itself, this card is amazing, guaranteeing you’ll never run out of creatures so long as you don’t run out of cards. Combined with some fast Merfolk to clear the path and card-drawing tools, this thing could get monstrous, right, on to the card choices, starting with my suite of Blue men.

Silvergill Adept is an aggressively costed Blue warrior that speeds up my token army by one turn. Sounds like a bargain for two mana. Also on the two slot is Lord of Atlantis (I said he’d be in a deck and if it isn’t this one then by Karn I don’t know which one it is) and Sygg, River Guide, a creature that’s aggressive AND controlling; what more could you want? Higher up is our “lord”, Merfolk Reejerey, whose second ability has been rewritten for purposes of this deck to reread as “Merfolk spells cost one less to play.” Finally, our big finisher and advantage engine is Aeon Chronicler. Moving on to other spells we have our namesake enchantment along with a small suite of control in the form of Familiar’s Ruse (almost always getting back a Silvergill Adept) and Oblivion Ring. Finally, we have two card drawing sorceries in the form of Ancestral Vision (now with the added ability of “2W: make a token”) and Aquitect’s Will, as it’s no fun having all this Islandwalking madness and be playing the Green mage with the huge creatures that you can’t get around.

Normally, I would put the decks in my own Clockwork-format, but as today is built more for the common masses and not just my devoted readers, I’ll keep things easy.

This deck is a personal favorite of mine. Don’t be fooled into thinking that those 8 threat-stoppers aren’t enough; as long as you do your job as a player to use them at just the right times, (i.e. Planeswalkers, Tarmogoyfs, and other really big threats) the massive card drawing will take care of the rest. This deck has two main ways to win. The first is to use cards such as Merfolk Reejerey and Silvergill Adept to pump out as many little guys as you can as quickly as possible, then using Lord of the Atlantis along with an Aquitect’s Will, swing in for massive damage. The other way is to get out one or two Hoofprints of the Stag and start churning through the cards. One of this deck’s best openings is a turn one Ancestral Vision into turn two Hoofprints of the Stag into turn three Merfolk Reejerey, and oddly you can pull this or something very similar off quite often with this deck. If you want to go a bit more like control, I would suggest adding Cancels, Snapbacks, and Austere Commands. If the land base is a little too pricey for your liking, you can always spring for the cheap and efficient Shimmering Grotto and Vivid Creek / Meadow, though it will slow you down if you’re trying to play aggressively.

As I’m sure you could tell, that deck was much more aggressive than it was controlling. In light of that, let’s try flipping it around, eh?

Merfolk+ Merrow Commerce

You only have yourself to blame if you did not see this coming. I mean really, a powerful, cheap enchantment that’s also a Merfolk? How could I not try my hand at a deck like this? The object of this deck shall be to utilize tapping effects such as those of Drowner of Secrets and Summon the School combined with Merrow Commerce for full benefit. At heart this deck is a control-mill, though it can just as easily be aggressive if you need it to be, now onto the card selections.

Judge of Currents immediately comes to mind, as we wouldn’t want Mr. Red burn guy taking advantage of our tapped out state by swinging through with his weenie forces. The two Merfolk that carried through each deck are Merfolk Reejerey and Silvergill Adept, because I don’t care which Merfolk deck they’re in; they’re always good. Fallowsage can also get down with the tapping goodness, and he repays the favor by netting you some much appreciated cards. Oh yeah, and Drowner of Secrets; kinda just filler really, no clue what he’s supposed to be good for…

This deck’s control suite is a little more intense than the last: Austere Command to take care of those big creatures and save your little ones, Cryptic Command because this thing is the Rolls Royce of counterspells, and Broken Ambitions becau- what?! Oh, like you weren’t thinking of using it!! To push the mill theme of this deck, I also decided to add in Forced Fruition as a fun finisher. As it turns out, this piece of work has won me more games than I can easily count, not to mention it’s just so hilarious seeing your opponent read the card, get all happy, and then realize what it is you’re up to. It’s even funnier when they don’t quite get it until they’ve already tried to play numerous spells on a single turn. The final addition is Shelldock Isle, as you can’t imagine the kind of satisfaction you get when you Broken Ambitions a spell on your opponent’s turn, mill your opponent down to 18 or so cards, and then end of turn (or EOT as it is called) you pop a Forced Fruition out from under the shell for U in a manner they can’t counter with anything outside of Stifle or Trickbind. That, ladies and gentleman, is game over.

Well, the thing about this deck is… oh, wait, you already know that. Well then, I’m kinda out of things to say. The deck just speaks for itself. Ummm, okay then, ughhhh… MERFOLK RULE!!!

Well that’s all for now. But hold on, some of you might remember a contest. Yes, I held a contest way back before Future Sight to see which tribe I would make a deck with. Trust me, you’ll get a story about that, but you’ll have to wait until the next time we meet. Let’s say for right now that Goblins and Elves seemed to gain too much of a sudden advantage to make it fair. Now tell me, do you like Merfolk? Are you going to use them? Do you already use them? Did the article inspire you? Do you hate Merfolk and read the article anyway for some sick reason? Whatever your story may be, it’s your turn to write about it…

IN THE FORUMS!!! (or the blog…)

Sorry, Merfolk just have me so psyched.

-Death by Aggro

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Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.