I’ve found some success by being ‘fair’ with them.

Notably Hokori, dust drinker and windborn muse in the main.
Remands, path, and vapor snag instead of the defunct aether vial (they don’t have that kind of mass=power, it’s a 2 for 1/tempo deck, not stomps)

Drogskol captain is utterly insane with these game changer spirits (read: kataki, windborn muse, Hokori, and Kira, great glass spinner)

Removal is basically turned off completely.

Path and vapor snag go a very long way to the Aggro matchup.

Here is my current (not final, lot of testing still)

4x mausoleum wanderer
4x path to exile
3x vapor snag
4x topplegeist
2 spell snare

4 rattlechains
4 remand

4 drogskol captain
2 Geist of st traft
4 spell queller
Kira, great glass spinner

Hokori, dust drinker
Windborn muse

23 lands, I haven’t figured out the right lands yet

Not a problem, happy to answer your questions.
1) Fish only has room for two Quellers. It’s at the top of the curve and competes with Merrow Reejerey and Kira, who are must includes, so even if we had a few more flex slots available (my list does not) I’d stick with two. A deck with a higher land count or less competition could and probably should run 3-4.

2) Queller is at its best dealing with spells that are contextually good, like Searing Blaze or Engineered Explosives, where the spell loses track of something important when if it gets played for free. After that, win the game cards like Past in Flames or Scapeshift are also great targets. Removal is tricky, sweepers are obviously great targets but you’re always at risk for getting blown out inconveniently. I never tested against Abzan, but for Jund you have to adjust how you play the card. It will normally be the last card out of your hand and used to answer the last card out of Jund’s hand, putting you in position to win the topdeck war and try to race. It’s been better for me in this matchup than Vendilion Clique was.

I noted that you are only running 2 spell quellers, I had attributed this to merfolk having limited flex slots and queller not being a fish itself, but is that actually the reason? I’m looking at running 3 or 4 of them and if they’re bad at those counts I’d like to know.

you mention queller being good against some of the format’s slower decks, and it as being bad against some of the faster linear decks, but you didn’t mention how well queller was performing against midrange decks. I feel less than enthusiastic about playing queller if it makes me softer to jund and abzan.

that covers everything that immediately comes to mind (that you’d be able to answer at least). Thanks for any advice and ‘grats on the victory!

Thanks! I intend to check the ruling with Judge of Judges Scott Marshall at next opportunity. Part of the reason I cut Seas is that in my deck I don’t have much to cut for Dredge and part is that by the time I could reliably cut off their mana they’ve probably done whatever it is they’re going to do. The cantrip is nice, but I don’t think I can cut Vials, removal or creatures for RiP.

The ruling sounds correct. Its the same reason that goryo’s works with the new ghost council – an effect that exiles the card satisfies flashback’s exile clause

Thanks