I agree that the cards can be oppressive and they have a tendency to really throw dirt in the wheels of a lot of other strategies in the game, but I am okay with that
New Sets like Phantom Rage and Genesis Impact continue to release amazing new cards for Archetypes new and old
There are also plenty of straight-up merfolk tribal syenergies that round out the deck's ability to close out games, too
The Vanguard format came out back in 1997 (a lot of new things that year, apparently) and introduced a completely new way to play Magic and players complained about Magic dying back then, too
That changed once it was revealed that it would be reprinted in Quarter Century Stampede, and fans (and speculators) who had been priced out of the deck before started buying the other Fiendsmith staples knowing theyd be able to afford Engraver in the near future
Erika can be obtained from Genetic Apex: Charizard pack in the Genetic Apex set