Since the dawn ofMagic: The Gathering, Merfolk have had a consistent, and often competitive, presence in the game. Players have grown to love their sleek designs and aggressive, tempo-based playstyle, leading to many attempts to build Merfolk-centric decks in all formats, from Modern to Commander.
The type has seen more success in the latter, with a number of potent legendary Merfolk proving themselves worthy candidates for command in recent sets. Hakbal of the Surging Soul is one such Merfolk, presenting a powerful engine for exploration and card advantage alike. If you’re impressed with the cut of his Commander jib, then the following cards are well worth considering for the 99.
The Man Himself - Hakbal Of The Surging Soul
Hakbal of the Surging Soul
Two generic, one green, one blue mana legendary creature - Merfolk Scout - 3/3 - Mythic Rare
At the beginning of combat on your turn, each Merfolk creature you control explores.(Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it’s a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on the exploring creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.)
Whenever Hakbal of the Surging Soul attacks, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield. If you don’t, draw a card.
Hakbal is a fairly straightforward commander that rewards two things: having a lot of Merfolk in play, and having a lot of lands in your hand. Before each of your combats, all of your Merfolk, himself included, get to explore, resulting in either more lands in hand or more power in play.
Beyond this, Hakbal can also cheat lands from your hand into play, or just draw you cards, each time he attacks, making him relevant both early for ramp and late for card advantage. His stats may be underwhelming at 3/3 for four, but his abilities more than make up for it.
10Svyelun of Sea and Sky
What’s A Lord To A God?
Perhaps the defining feature of Merfolks as a creature type is the abundance of cheap Lord effects they have access to. Svyelun isn’t a Lord in the traditional, ‘Gain +1/+1’ sense, but it still provides several welcome advantages to the go-wide Merfolk strategies that Hakbal encourages.
A blanket ward one for all of your other Merfolk helps to keep Hakbal, and other Lords, alive, while card advantage on attack helps to replace those that do happen to fall in battle. Throw in easily-attainable indestructibility, and you have a resilient creature that boosts the resilience of your entire game plan.
9Merfolk Cave-Diver
Slip-Sliding To Staggering Damage
Hakbal’s ability to let each of your Merfolk, himself included, explore every single turn is his most enticing aspect, and there are a few cards that really let you take advantage of it. Merfolk Cave-Diver is one of them, transforming from an underwhelming 2/4 for three into a huge, unblockable menace with Hakbal in play.
With a wide board of exploring Merfolk, Cave-Diver can easily rack up multiple triggers per turn, before swinging in for upwards of 10 guaranteed damage. This can lead to some sneaky early wins, particularly when paired withpoison effects and the like.
8Aquatic Incursion
A Tailor-Made Support Piece
Aquatic Incursion is so perfectly suited for a Hakbal Commander deck that it’s frankly surprising they weren’t released in the same set. Hakbal needs two things to thrive: a lot of Merfolk in play, and a means of attacking each turn without fear of death. Aquatic Incursion helps with both of those.
When it enters play, you get two 1/1 Merfolk with hexproof, establishing an immediate board presence that will grant two explore triggers a turn when Hakbal joins later. In addition, Incursion also offers the chance to make a Merfolk unblockable for four mana, letting you slip Hakbal through unharmed and get value off of his attack trigger.
7Emperor Mihail II
Peer Into The Waters Of Your Future
It’s unclear whether an Emperor ranks above a Lord in the Merfolk hierarchy, but it is clear that Mihail II is an incredibly powerful option for a Hakbal deck. You’ll want to run as many Merfolk as possible to capitalize on his explore ability, meaning Mihail can often‘draw’ you multiple extra cardseach turn.
As if that wasn’t enough, Mihail can also create extra Merfolk tokens at a very reasonable cost, granting you more explore triggers, more lands, and more mana to cast more Merfolk. Long live the Emperor, indeed.
6Twists And Turns//Mycoid Maze
Get More Out Of Each Explore
Given the sheer volume of explore triggers you’ll be adding to the stack in an average game with Hakbal, any card that can improve said triggers at all makes a great addition to the deck. Twists and Turns is one such card, adding scry one to each explore trigger you receive.
This sounds minor, but it actually gives you a lot more control over the outcome of each explore, letting you choose between extra lands and extra on-board power as needed. Later on, when it flips into Mycoid Maze, it also serves as a potent card advantage engine that keeps the Merfolk flowing late-game.
5Retreat To Coralhelm
A Scenic Retreat For Your Many, Many Merfolk
An upshot of exploring so many times a turn in a Hakbal deck is that you’ll have a lot more lands to work with than usual. Combined with effects that let you play or cheat extra lands into play, such as Hakbal’s own attack trigger, you can easily triggerthe landfall effectsof your cards multiple times per turn.
Retreat to Coralhelm is, therefore, a fantastic choice for the deck. As an enchantment, it can reliably stick around, and both of its effects, scry triggers and tapping down potential blockers, are very relevant for the Hakbal playstyle.
4Shadowed Caravel
Set Sail On The Good Ship Smackdown
In a deck where you’ll be exploring multiple times each turn, Shadowed Caravel’s ability to scale up each time you do so is a terrifying prospect for opponents to face. This sinister ship can easily hit double-digit stats after just a turn or two in play, opening up the doors for early knockouts when you factor in the number of unblockable effects available in blue.
The fact that Caravel isn’t a creature by default makes it much harder to interact with than most beefy beatsticks, giving it an edge over other explore-scalers like Wildgrowth Walker. It also costs very little mana, meaning it can come down early and start storing up power for its inevitable strike.
3Merfolk Sovereign
A Sovereign With A Knack For Smuggling
Though it costs one more mana than the usual going rate for a Merfolk Lord, Sovereign’s activated ability more than makes up for it. Simply by tapping, it can make any of your other Merfolk unblockable for the turn, allowing for some truly devious plays with the right setup.
Naturally, Hakbal himself is a great target for this, since his attack trigger will get more value over time if he lives to tell the tale, but you can also sneak through veteran Merfolk tokens that have accrued a good number of +1/+1 counters via explore for big damage as well.
2Topography Tracker
Double The Triggers, Double The Fun
You can pretty much ignore the Map token effect on Topography Tracker, we’re here for one thing and one thing only: the doubled explore triggers. Hakbal decks already explore far more than most, so doubling those triggers can result in both huge creatures and handsstuffed full of lands.
This plays magnificently with other cards on the list, such as Twists and Turns and Merfolk Cave-Diver, and can actually give you a lot of control over your future draws as well, thanks to explore’s nonland selection element. Tracker is also a Merfolk itself, which is a welcome final flourish.
1Nicanzil, Current Conductor
The Greatest Explorer On Ixalan
Both effects of explore, even when triggered multiple times per turn, are fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. But what if you could get a little bit of extra juice out of each of them? That’s what Nicanzil offers, and it’s enough to put a Hakbal Commander deck way over the top.
When you explore a land, Nicanzil lets you put it right into play, and when you explore a nonland, Nicanzil gets a counter in addition to the one placed on the creature exploring. This supercharges the entire Hakbal game plan, and for a bargain price at just two mana.
