I was just writing how I think ‘Folk decks should sideboard against Monkey. In the article I state that most of them don’t side this way and the matchup becomes very easy for me as a result. This article is more about theory and the ‘Folk thing was just an example; it’s not a Merfolk vs. Monkey Grow primer.

Luckily, you don’t have to:

“In this article, I use Aggro-Control hybrid archetypes (Tempo and Midrange) to explore the many options these decks have, and omit Combo decks, which frequently inhabit another axis entirely.”

I also explained that Combo was on a different wheel in my last article.

I would disagree with your notion that Kite is bad, because even if artifact hate comes in, anything that targets it usually can’t take Chalice or AEther Vial along with it. A Kite dying to hate in place of those isn’t a terrible outcome, and it combos well with Kira. Pyroclasm also isn’t too concerning as a Merfolk deck, since it’s quite easy to hold Cursecatchers up for it and/or get your Lords to the point where 2 damage only kills Kira. All in all, I’ve never really had problems with any deck that runs Islands as Merfolk, and Delver is no exception.

REMOVE 4 Spreading Seas + 2 Spell Pierce + 2 Reejerey. Seas doesn’t do enough as Roland mentioned, since you already run Islands. Spell Pierce really only cares about removal and dispel is better for that anyway. Reejerey just usually gets cut to make room for better stuff.

ADD 3 Tidebinder + 2 Relic, + 1 Dismemeber + 2 Dispel. Tidebinder is just an auto include against any deck looking to swing with green or red creatures, as it’s a classic 2 for 1 if not removed. Relic goes in against pretty much any deck it’s relevant against it because it can have an impact and be easily cycled. Dismember hits all your creatures (including the dreaded hunt master) and dispel is great at protecting high value creatures (usually lords).

So really the deck just cuts chaff to become more responsive, the goal being to kill or bounce the opponent’s creatures and counter the odd threat to buy yourself time to build a board state and swing for lethal. Honestly, the preboard Merfolk is already pretty aggro so it’s very difficult to go even further down that path.

I might be missing something here though. Would you consider that sideboard more aggro? Is that how you would sideboard as fish?

Actually, I don’t think they side properly against me, as I said in the article. If they moved closer to the red dot by increasing their threat density (with Harbingers, Tidebinders, etc.) the post-board matchup wouldn’t be such a cakewalk for my Huntmasters. I’m just saying that that’s how they SHOULD side in the matchup.

I usually see a lot of Skite and Kira from them, which matches the description of how you’d board. This sideboard plan never works against Monkey Grow. We have plenty of artifact removal post-board, so Skite is horrible, and Kira opens Merfolk up to Pyroclasm blowouts (unless I need to, I’ll save Pyro for her). Chalice also doesn’t bother us much since we have interaction for it and it gives us more time to get Huntmaster online. Plus, we run significantly less one-drops post-board.