Hakbal's beginning-of-combat trigger makes every Merfolk explore, so the deck floods the board with Merfolk to turn each combat into a burst of +1/+1 counters, land drops and card advantage. Counter doublers, explore doublers and proliferate multiply that growth, while Hakbal's attack trigger and landfall payoffs turn the lands it finds into extra mana and cards. The grown team then attacks through unblockability, islandwalk and flying, backed by lord anthems. How it wins: Oversized, counter-laden Merfolk swing past blockers with unblockable and evasion effects, with Simic Ascendancy's growth-counter alternate win as a backup closer. Key roles: - Merfolk density and token engines: Cheap Merfolk, cost reduction, casting from the top of the library and cast triggers that make extra Merfolk tokens all grow the number of explorers Hakbal triggers each combat (Deeproot Waters, Emperor Mihail II, Stonybrook Banneret). - Explore amplification: Cards that double each explore, reward every explore with evasion, counters or free land drops, and use explored lands for landfall card draw and proliferate (Topography Tracker, Nicanzil, Current Conductor, Merfolk Cave-Diver). - Counter multiplication: Doublers, proliferate and counter-doubling stack the counters from explore and enter triggers onto the team, and also feed growth counters toward the alternate win (Branching Evolution, Hardened Scales, Vorel of the Hull Clade). - Counter-based card advantage: Creatures with counters become a draw engine through looting, mass draw, death triggers and combat-damage draws, and big-power refills cash in the board (Inspiring Call, Benthic Biomancer, Prime Speaker Zegana). - Lords and evasion: Anthems pump the tribe, while unblockable, islandwalk, flying and trample effects get the counter-laden Merfolk through, with some granting evasion directly to creatures with counters (Herald of Secret Streams, Master of the Pearl Trident, Merfolk Sovereign). - Tribal protection and interaction: Ward, taxes, shield counters and flash shield the board, and counter-aware sweepers like bouncing every creature without a +1/+1 counter clear blockers while sparing the team (Svyelun of Sea and Sky, Kopala, Warden of Waves, Wave Goodbye).

Hakbal of the Surging Soul decklist

• Aetherize
• Alchemist's Refuge
• Arcane Signet
• Beast Within
• Benthic Biomancer
• Branching Evolution
• Bygone Marvels
• Cold-Eyed Selkie
• Command Tower
• Commander's Sphere
• Commit/Memory
• Coralhelm Commander
• Curse of the Swine
• Deeproot Elite
• Deeproot Historian
• Deeproot Waters
• Emperor Mihail II
• Evolution Sage
• Explore
• 7× Forest
• Growth Spiral
• Hardened Scales
• Herald of Secret Streams
• Hinterland Harbor
• Inspiring Call
• 13× Island
• Karn's Bastion
• Kindred Discovery
• Kiora's Follower
• Kodama's Reach
• Kopala, Warden of Waves
• Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
• Llanowar Reborn
• Master of the Pearl Trident
• Merfolk Cave-Diver
• Merfolk Mistbinder
• Merfolk Skydiver
• Merfolk Sovereign
• Merrow Reejerey
• Metallic Mimic
• Mist Dancer
• Mosswort Bridge
• Myriad Landscape
• Nicanzil, Current Conductor
• Path of Ancestry
• Prime Speaker Zegana
• Quandrix Command
• Rapid Hybridization
• Ravenform
• Realmwalker
• Reflections of Littjara
• Reliquary Tower
• Ripples of Potential
• Rogue's Passage
• Ruinous Intrusion
• Sage of Fables
• Seafloor Oracle
• Secluded Courtyard
• Simic Ascendancy
• Simic Growth Chamber
• Simic Signet
• Singer of Swift Rivers
• Sol Ring
• Stonybrook Banneret
• Surgespanner
• Svyelun of Sea and Sky
• Swiftfoot Boots
• Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• Temple of Mystery
• Temple of the False God
• Thassa, God of the Sea
• Thieving Skydiver
• Tishana, Voice of Thunder
• Topography Tracker
• Tributary Instructor
• Unclaimed Territory
• Vineglimmer Snarl
• Vorel of the Hull Clade
• Wave Goodbye
• Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood
• Zegana, Utopian Speaker