While drafting Ixalan, I got a Tishana. I like how Merfolk plays in draft, and Tishana seemed like a good Merfolk commander. Now that the Rivals of Ixalan prerelease is around the corner, I’m wondering what I want to get out of the set. The thing that keeps drawing my attention is probably Kumena, which is even more fitting for a Merfolk commander deck. He’s cheaper, does much of the same thing and is a bit of a swiss army knife. Add to this that there are a lot of “untap every players’ turn” effects in green, as well as Merrow Commerce in blue (which counts as a Merfolk itself for tapping) and Kumena could potentially make me live the dream of drawing a lot of cards and growing my merfolk to gigantic size. That, all without the downside of Tishana potentially entering the battlefield as a 0/0 once I get to .
Thanks to the recent Merfolk duel deck there are some cards to get started with. Mostly Master of Waves which seemed awesome with Tishani, but still doesn’t seem bad with Kumena.
Theros block had some other interesting Merfolk like Dakra Mystic and Kiora’s Follower.
Ixalan block offers a ton of tribal support as well. Deeproot Waters makes tokens. The tribe goes deeper with +1/+1 counter support, with Merfolk drawing cards of that as well, using Give // Take, Sage of Fables and Shapers of Nature. And ofcourse Herald of Secret Streams making the team unblockable.
All in all Kumena seems like the most fun new commanders out there, leading a tribe with lots of carddraw and fiddly counter and token stuff. Throw in a few counterspells agains the inevitable board wipes and yes, I want to make this deck ASAP.