I've been playing around with a merfolk deck since zendikar first came out. I've never had great success with it, but with rise out it's looking much better. I've dropped all the counters, I leave them in my sideboard and bring them in if I need too. I had found that the speed of play for creatures along with the counters doesn't work very well when you need it. The path and o-ring will help you with that as they can deal with whats in the field. I instead opted for the coat of arms approach. lots of low drop creatures with 3 coat of arms, with my sideboard being mostly counters if I meet a faster tribal deck in which coat of arms would actually hurt me (goblin instigator :/ ) Cosi's trickster is decent in competitive play because of fetch lands, and would double with your paths. And if i notice i'm playing against someone who isn't running any fetch, I can always pull them for the counters in my sideboard. good luck to you, merfolk is fun to play.
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