Modern Merfolk DESTROYS Meta With NEW Caverns of Ixalan Cards! (MTG Gameplay)

[@Transformers4444]

I got 4th place at a Modern RCQ with Modern Merfolk a month ago, and I can't wait to try Tishana's Tidebinder and Deeproot Pilgrimage. Thank you for the great gameplay videos that help fellow fish players!

[@Neon-Geco]

That card gon cost 50€

[@Transformers4444]

sadly lol, and they're hard to find right now which doesn't help@@Neon-Geco

[@theblart7535]

It's really different seeing such skill when piloting this archetype. I think many sreamers' losses are due to not knowing the deck enough. You really are the merfolk master in the end!

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

Merfolk is a deck that looks the most straight forward but in fact is the least straight forward. Unless you want to walk straight forward into losses.

[@ElGrandeFatso]

Been waiting to see you try those new cards, good to see them putting in the work.

[@economician]

I have tried Tishana in uw Spirits and it was great! Took out 4 skyclave apparition for 4 tishanas and suddenly alla my creature Cards had natural flying or flash and I was able to add Ghiada and Errant for some card advantage.

[@Clepto_and_Co]

I love how if mutavault is a creature tapping it for mana makes a merfolk with deeproot pilgrimage. Probably not practical though. Lmao, I didn't get to the part of the video where you did that. Apparently it gets you 4 2/2s and a resignation form your opponent

[@rapid0wn]

always a pleasure seeing you pilot the deck! grats on the trophy🎉

[@isambo400]

Hey Nikachu, thanks for all the Merfolk videos 🐠 🐟 🧜‍♀️

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

You're welcome!

[@zdenekmatura7288]

I want a shirt with that "Tribal Angry Bunny" on it.

[@rapid0wn]

2:03:24: here I think it would be the most optimal line to attack with both dockhands too and keep up otawara (also makes 1 token with muta). The only spot we can potentially lose on this board state is, if they find Yawg, otherwise we are ahead a lot. And Otawara can prevent them from going off. luckily they didnt find blood artist so it didnt matter anyways

[@Teknomahge]

I picked up a playset +1 of full art foil Tishana's Tidebinder for $11 each, right before the card spiked. Now to play it in all formats.

[@kauwgomboom]

Hi Nikachu, what do you think about splashing red for flame of anor? With the amount of wizards in Merfolk (including the tidebinder) you could often reliably get two modes and it’s a great card jn the current meta?

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

If Bowmasters gets banned, Flame might be more appealing. I don't think the card helps me anywhere I need help. Also, to play Flame you need to play weak cards like Silvergill Adept which I have put into retirement.

[@ShivaFamilyGaming]

The video I have been waiting for 😊. I tried a simic build w/ Tishina and Cenote Scout last FNM. You make a good point about Trickster and replacing them w/ Harbinger. I am going to make that change

[@NEKOYASHX]

always happy to hear your brother in the background

[@Pastree117]

Rishadan Dockhand is the hero we need in this Modern meta, and Tishana's Tidebinder is the hero we deserve! Didn't think about the synergy of Deeproot Pilgramage, I think in conjunction with R.D., that's pretty wild :O Seems like too much work for me to play IRL. Sticking with Spreading Seas for now, gonna enjoy Stone Rain mode with Tishana's on top of that I expect :D

[@psychophipps]

Nice to see a 5-0 despite the Punt-O-Rama. Once you get used to the new build it's gonna be a beast! Congrats on the 5-0!

[@danw.1250]

I can't wait to play some mtgo with Tishana's, but, the price, oh Svyelun-- THE PRICE!!

[@kaisersigma1]

Color me impressed to see you are actually a strong player. Well done.

[@johnhaskins1629]

Are there any vehicles you think you would slot in to get more triggers off of pilgrimage?

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

MAYBE Smuggler's Copter

[@benjaminkaye5119]

Great showing and wish I would have got my tishanas at prerelease prices lol.

[@widdiful434]

Hoping the price on TT goes down on MTGO so that I can add her to my deck! Thanks for the video, Nikachu

[@Masanian]

What do you think about putting in Aquitect's Will for a little card draw?

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

Too reliant on having a Merfolk in play and doesn't turn the land into an island. It turns it into an island in addition to its other types. I Dont like the card very much.

[@Masanian]

@nikachuplaysmtg Thanks for your insight on the card! I've been enjoying your videos since getting back into magic and updating my fish deck.

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

@@Masanian Spreading Seas and Tide Shaper are more than enough for islandwalk. If you want to play with 4x Spreading Seas, that's totally fine.

[@Erweenie]

😮‍💨💨 That’s me dusting off my plague engineers Awesome league!!! 🐳

[@lynnminmei7709]

loved this! enjoyed all the games. played like a boss as always

[@LSapio]

I find Deeproot very underwhelming. Tishana, on the other hand, it's like the BEST card in modern right now

[@demiurge2501]

It can be good situationally but it’s definitely not as powerful overall

[@rickygilbert7204]

Glad I ordered my foil set Tishana's Tidebinder 😏

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

I wish I was a smart as you

[@rickygilbert7204]

​@@nikachuplaysmtgJust finished with my local fnm. When 3-1 with Merfolk and got second. What I noticed * Tishana is really good and must have stable. * Deeproot Pilgramage is really underrated especially pair with haxcatcher. Only run 2 and will go up to 4. * You're absolutely 💯 correct about Trickster. She's basically didn't nothing and didn't have the outcome on what I expected against evoke elementals (fury, my only lost). I'm taking her out the deck. The deck is really good and I'm hoping tribal decks bound back after the ban on Monday.

[@paulbrooks2255]

Happy birthday 🎉 Ricky lol

[@mmastar25]

I have been waiting for this!!!

[@robertrichards9565]

Wow, Merfolk actually looks fun to play now.

[@pokedadsam9041]

39:22 it stops being a creature, the ability of tidebinder should fall off. It probably loses the ability to activate again once activated though?

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

I dunno. I need a judge!

[@kingginger3335]

Wait a minute. This video is 3 weeks old, and I'm just now finding out about this? Damn you, YT!

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

I guess all my thumbnails look the same :P

[@Hitzel]

I play mostly cEDH. I think Stifle is a great card in that format, I perceive it as an evergreen Magic card. I didn't even realize it wasn't Modern legal lol.

[@Wind_Ninja_Jubei]

Been waiting for you to test this

[@knackster9753]

The master is back! 🌊

[@bc8030]

Tapping the vult to pay for dockhand to get the extra 1/1 - I think the format has been solved

[@Bigredchat]

at the 18m mark would it have been worth it to activate mutavault before using the mana to get an additional merfolk token

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

That would have required me to use up 1 mana. Then I wouldn't have enough mana to activate Rishadan Dockhand twice. I got 2 triggers anyway.

[@mave6602]

Maybe with Tishana's Tidebinder now being an effect available to modern they already decided to add Stifle to MH3

[@truniq6422]

What is the Oboro Legendary Land for? I get running the other two legendary lands but I dont see why you would need Oboro. I cant see the big brain.

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

it's really niche. You can filter mutavault mana into blue mana, you can also bounce the card back to your hand to protect your better cards from a random discard effect.

[@el_pablodocus]

Hey, I'm halfway through the stream and I was wondering : what is the reason for Oboro's inclusion in this decklist ? Thanks a lot for the modern merfolk content, much appreciated ! Cheers from France

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

It can filter Mutavault mana into blue mana to cast UU creatures. Alternatively I can bounce it back to my hand to feed it to Smuggler's Copter.

[@el_pablodocus]

@@nikachuplaysmtg of course, now it makes sense ! Thanks for the answer

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

Oh sorry, ignore the Smuggler's Copter tech. I don't have Copter in this list!

[@zbaschtian]

MtG players: "we should have Stifle in Modern!" Also MtG players: "wHy Is BlUe StOnE rAiNinG mY FeTcHlAnDs!!!!!111!!"

[@PhillipPonchCoco]

Why not to try your Utopia Merfolk Deck with Kiora's follower, Merrow Reejerey, Deeproot Pilgrimage, coco etc ?

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

So many ideas, so little time.

[@deathspawn54]

Everyone forgets about trickbind and tales end

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

Trickbind by itself is not worth the card. Tidebinder is a 3/2 flash creature that has a Trickbind attached to it. So at worst it's a 3 power beater, Trickbind at worst is just dead in your hand.

[@CaptainWwowW]

After this, you think 4 Deeproot Pilgrimage? Or maybe cut down to 2?

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

I think 0. It's a fine card but it's not that important vs the toughest decks.

[@ManuChen-m2u]

Been waiting too for the master to try out the new cards ... I ve been trying myself in my local store modern event and i was super stoked about Mothdust changeling over rishadan dockhand to make ton of value ..did u try already or have opinion about it? In late game was my win condition when rishadan dockhand would have done nothing much

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

I'm not going to be playing any 1 toughness creatures, probably ever again. Hexcatcher being an exception. It's way too backbreaking of a liability in Modern.

[@ManuChen-m2u]

I get yes im always scared of bowmasters...i fact some times i ve hold it in my hand til the right moment but i guess i need more testing to see if is really worth it .. anyway super happy our fishes got such good updates! Let's go to tier 1 ❤

[@kjmergen]

Why does this deck's webpage have an EXPORT FOR MAGIC ARENA option when it isn't Arena-legal?? Bizarre.

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

You can play Standard on Magic Online so I guess that's to help people load decklists cross platform for that format.

[@Maxamillian6668]

When is you doing a new coaching video ??

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

When someone gives me a league to review :P

[@TheAlexbower]

I think Simic merfolk make better use of deeproot pilgrimage

[@pudgimelon]

I have been easily beating Merfolk with my EI homebrew.

[@paulbrooks2255]

WOW!

[@Erweenie]

Can you add time stamps to your matches for your videos?

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

I don't do it because this is a very low effort channel :P You'll just have to skip ahead.

[@BaldurtheImpious]

No music this stream?

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

whoops. There's no music? I had music playing personally the entire time XD

[@BaldurtheImpious]

@@nikachuplaysmtg XD

[@Thiago-wv8ef]

It's a lot better without the music!

[@kingofredlions8729]

I know hindsight is 20/20 but if you had been tapping down their tomb and filter land instead of the pendlehaven they wouldn't have had enough black to play Yawg

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

The Halfling can cast Yawgmoth

[@kingofredlions8729]

@@nikachuplaysmtg yeah but it would have kept them off of blood artist. Again hindsight 20/20. Plus it didn't even matter since they scooped

[@random-is-i1542]

@@kingofredlions8729 Actually at 2:10:50, it looks like the yawg player punted. If they truly had the artist they could have still won that game. It looks like they forgot they already used the Wall of Roots that turn, got frustrated and didn't think about what they had on board and scooped. From that spot they could have sacrificed Strangleroot, it comes back with a +1/+1 counter learns how to tap for mana, makes the other mana for artist. Win from 2 life. But that turn they missed an additional 3 mana from not doing that earlier since the Strangleroot has haste. So technically with optimal play it still wouldn't have mattered. But, the yawg player scooped so doesn't matter in the end anyways.

[@jkujawski16]

Me, about to suggest a 3-3 split of Pearl trident and LoA before round 2: 🤡

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

Hahaha, yeah LoA is the strictly worse lord. No need to split.

[@ibrahimmagic1377]

peace in the wolrd stop violence

[@OleOkGeo]

Soon merfolk ll be a no lord deck )))

[@nicholasfalasco8539]

Your brother is Caucasian? Surprising.

[@JesseRogers-vw6kr]

Pilgrimage is too slow for modern.

[@sleepywolf82]

Nice to see 5-0 despite the absolute badly done plays. If shoota was your opponent he would have hit you over the head. Why overthink things? Merfolk is the kind of deck where you have a certain window, the shorter it is the lower the chance your opponent has it? Why delay playing spells just because of overthinking? MAKE them have it!

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

Merfolk is not an aggro deck like this. I consider it more of a control deck where you need to be patient and play around blow outs. And in Modern, there are a million ways to blow Merfolk out.

[@sleepywolf82]

@@nikachuplaysmtg merfolk has and always been aggro control like ug madness, rhinos or faeries etc. You can't play it like a full on control deck like 4cc or uw control. You need to know how to shift gears and make them have it sometimes.

[@nikachuplaysmtg]

I will only force them them to have it if I have no alternative way to play for a win. Otherwise I will play around the maximum because that's what Magic is all about.