If you cast a spell "without paying its mana cost", you can't choose to cast it for any alternative costs
Sacrificing merfolk to prevent board wipes or removal spells from hitting key targets is well worth the investment
So insane that many of the developers thought it was best to just kill the card
Creatures (24) 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Cursecatcher 4 Coralhelm Commander 2 Phyrexian Metamorph Lands (21) Spells (15) Sideboard Hat tip to Stifle, by the way
I am unsure how many of each of these I would play in an Esper Control deck, since we have some lands to work with already and they are very weak when drawn later in the game
Category 6: Proliferate Subtheme 1 Healer's Hawk 2 Merfolk Skydiver 4 Pollenbright Druid 1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty When I was originally building this deck, I wanted lots of smaller creatures that would trigger Oketra in the late game