Standard Merfolk Tribal
Main Board (70)
Creature (21)
Enchantment (6)
Basic Land (28)
Artifact (1)
Instant (12)
Sorcery (2)
Creature (21)
Enchantment (6)
Basic Land (28)
Artifact (1)
Instant (12)
Sorcery (2)
Sideboard (15)
Creature (4)
Enchantment (2)
Artifact (1)
Instant (5)
Sorcery (3)
Quick Info
This is my first ever standard deck! I normally play commander, but I decided to shake things up a bit with the mentality of standard. In standard, gameplay is a lot quicker and has to do A LOT more with board presence than anything else. This deck is designed to make an early presence while simultaneously creating bigger and bigger creatures that eventually become unblockable due to cards like Herald of Secret Streams. Quick damage, upgrading, and destroying/countering essential cards your opponents case is the way to go with this deck!
Early Game
Early game for this deck is basically throwing out Merfolk that you will build later. Casting cards like Deeproot Champion, Deeproot Waters, and Merfolk Mistbinder are great ways to get an early board presence while beginning the act of building.
Search for Azcanta is a great card to play early game due to its eventual ability to transform into a top-four-card tutor for your counter spells and upgrade spells.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc is great for later mana ramp and also a way to search for a creature you need.
Mid Game
Mid Game is about development and dealing damage.
Herald of Secret Streams is a great card for this, and the new card from Rivals of Ixalan Kumena, Tyrant of Orzca is also very useful. The dynamic of adding +1/+1 counters to your Merfolk should be well in motion at this point maximizing Herald of Secret Streams' ability.
As just a general note, cards like Tempest Caller can provide an early win.
Development of your creatures is the key to this part of the game.
Late Game
At this point, you need to have dealt them substantial damage, and finishing them off with your upgraded Merfolk that are unblockable.
If things are going sour, cards like River's Rebuke and Baral's Expertise can be very helpful, but you need to win quickly.
General
Upgrade, make unblockable, and smash. That's this deck!
Remember, almost 23% of your deck is instants and sorceries that inhibit your opponent and upgrade your creatures. Primal Amulet is especially useful when it comes to either, particularly after it's transformed.
1) Why Ixalli's Diviner over Merfolk Branchwalker, you have merfolk synergy already, seems like you'd want to continue that trend (it's also a better card...unless your LGS plays mono-3 damage to creatures for removal).
2) Why no Botanical Sanctum? Early mana fixing is great
3) Why 70 cards main? This dilutes the decks potency, while 1's and 2's can be fine in a deck, the difference in drawing them when you have 70 cards vs 60 cards is quite significant.
4) Why not 4 Merfolk Mistbinder? I feel like you want to play as many of these as often as possible when playing merfolk tribal.
5) Why not Kumena's Speaker? This card is great if you are doing merfolk. 2/2 for 1 mana is very good (potentially a 3/3 if you play Merfolk Mistbinder!).
6) Why not Silvergill Adept? This card is great and everything merfolk tribal is looking for. Creature? Check. Draw? Check. This is 1 of the 2-4 cards that I think Rivals is providing that help push the tribe towards competitive.
Overall, I think it's a good start, but there are a handful of whys.
P.S. I've been playing merfolk tribal standard for a while now with mixed success (mostly I'm playing it for fun), the deck seems to be getting the pieces it needs with Rivals to be somewhat competitive, so keep up the deck building!
1) Cut your deck down to 60 cards.
2) Properly address your mana curve and mana ratio.
3) Don't play unplayable limited cards in your constructed deck.