Well Ten New Brews are a wrap for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, but we ain't done yet!

After building and playing my own ten new decks, I like to take a peek around and see what everyone else is doing, and hall of famer Frank Karsten had a really interesting take on Standard merfolk.

I called Deeproot Pilgrimage a trap card in my set review, because it's limited to only making one token per attack step no matter how many attacking merfolk you have, but Frank's list has a ton of other ways to tap your merfolk for both value as well as multiple triggers from Deeproot Pilgrimage. This gives the card a reasonable ceiling and makes it far more attractive!

Time Stamps:

02:46 - Match 1

07:22 - Match 2

14:05 - Match 3

19:25 - Match 4

Tap Dancing Merfolk | LCI Standard | Frank Karsten

• Creatures (28)
• 2 Deeproot Wayfinder
• 2 Inga and Esika
• 2 Jadelight Spelunker
• 2 Nicanzil, Current Conductor
• 2 Tishana's Tidebinder
• 2 Vodalian Mindsinger
• 4 Cenote Scout
• 4 Deepfathom Echo
• 4 Sentinel of the Nameless City
• 4 Vodalian Hexcatcher

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Deeproot Pilgrimage

• Artifacts (4)
• 2 Moonsnare Prototype
• 2 Subterranean Schooner

• Lands (24)
• 1 Forest
• 5 Island
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Dreamroot Cascade
• 2 Otawara, Soaring City
• 3 Restless Vinestalk
• 3 Sunken Citadel
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Yavimaya Coast

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This clever build by Frank is definitely a first draft, with a lot of two-ofs and cool ideas, but there's no doubt that as a proof concept a lot of these ideas worked very well. Being able to pump out tokens from Deeproot Pilgrimage allows the deck to work toward a critical mass which is crucial for this sort of synergy deck.

The only big concern is the lack of removal in Blue and Green, but there's a lot of sweet stuff happening here!