Chronmaster
02-22-2010, 12:53 AM
Meandeck Open, Feb 21st. - Report, Top 4 Split -
I'm back in the saddle again with Merfolk! Hadn't played Legacy since GenCon, I really should play in more of these cash tournaments, since I am randomly pretty good at this format.
Merfolk is really good, in my opinion. Easily Tier 1. I love the deck because it can deal with just about anything, and the clock is deceptively quick. Here's my list:
12 Island
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
3 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Aether Vial
4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Stifle
2 Echoing Truth
SB:
3 Relic of Progenitus (I don't negotiate with Pirates)
2 Tormod's Crypt (I don't negotiate with Pirates)
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Hydroblast
3 Spell Pierce
3 Sower of Temptation
Some notes on the list:
- I love it.
- I am thoroughly convinced that the landbase is correct.
- The Merfolk Sovereigns (first time I played them) were miles better than the Wake Thrashers. The ONLY con to the Sovereigns is the double-blue in the mana cost, which is by-and-large not a problem.
- Stifles are good. You'll randomly steal games with them + Wastelands, and they are invauable against decks like Goblins and Belcher.
- Echoing Truth is also awesome. I've seen lots of things in these slots, Kira, Jitte, etc. I love ET because you can use it as a tempo play or a random out to some dumb permanent that often find themselves into Legacy decks.
SIDEBOARD:
- I am realizing more and more than you don't want stupid cards in your sideboard. I define stupid cards as cards that are good "against a wide variety of things" or don't really do what you want them to do, among other reasons. Examples: Divert, Submerge, Hibernate, Pithing Needle, etc. I have a long reason why I hate those type of cards in Legacy, but I'll just say that having certain cards for certain types of decks is far better than having some cards that are mediocre against a wide range of decks, or narrow answers to fringe decks.
- Relic/Crypt I like having this much graveyard hate. There's quite a few decks that these are very good against (some blue Goyf decks, Stax, Aggro-Loam, Lands, Dredge, etc.) There's no reason to not have a lot of game vs. these decks.
- Jitte. The best thing to do against any creature deck.
- Hydroblast. These are like my 14-15th card that I put in. They're fine. I don't like over-loading on these things because they're actually somewhat narrow, and your Goblins matchup is horrendous enough to not want to over-board for it. But they're fine to have.
- Spell Pierce. Tried these out today, and was pretty impressed by them. I board them in against any creature-light deck (Counterbalance, Eva Green, etc.). It's a great spell against every non-creature deck, and replace Dazes on the draw very well.
- Sower of Temptation. Amazing. Nuts in the mirror, an out vs. Zoo, and shines against some of the same decks as Spell Pierce. Boarding in 3 Spell Pierce and 3 Sower vs. Tarmogoyfs is awesome.
To the action!! 37 people showed up to battle. (If any of my notes are wrong, please correct, I am going off of life totals, my memory, and random card names I wrote down)
Round 1
Bye! I'm a miser. What can I say? I spend my time watching the obviously epic Menendian vs. Mastriano, my friend James getting beaten to death by Iona out of Survival, and peeing out a Mountain Dew in two installments.
Round 2 vs. Mark Sun with UWR Landstill
Mark is a very nice guy who explains that the matchup for him is terrible.
Game 1: I win the roll and start of with Vial, Standstill, Daze your Force. I'm good at this game, what can I say. I waste his factory and vial in a Soverign eventually He swords it. I get another Lord into play, and another, and beat him
down to 10. He sticks a Humility. I simply play out a Cursecatcher and two of my guys eat a Swords. I try to EoT bounce the Humility (I didn't really care about it, but I had nothing else to do with ET), and that meets Spell Snare. It doesn't matter, as I just beat him to death with my 1/1s over the next two turns.
Game 2: I Force through a Standstill early, he breaks it with a Top. I play a Lord which eats a Helix, and a Sovereign which also eats a Helix. I stick a Vial and another Standstill, and get two Lords into play. He's low on cards, but finds a Fact or Fiction with his top which resolves on the end of my turn. He takes an Elspeth and an Academy Ruins over Tolaria West and two others. On my turn I smash him for 14 with two Lords, a Cursecatcher and a Mutavault. He has an Engineered Explosives for my Lords, but I still have Lethal on board.
2-0 (2-0)
Round 3 vs. Jonathan Benson with Goblins
Goblins? Shit.
Game 1: I have vial, he doesn't. He makes Turn 2 and turn 3 Mogg War Marshall, getting four tokens. I vial in a Silvergill and Echoing Truth four Goblin tokens (!). I Force his Ringleader. Sovereign and Reejerey join the fight with two Mutavaults, and a resolved Ringleader cant even get him out of that after I hit him for 14 on one turn.
Game 2: He has vial. I play a turn two Silvergill, drawing a second Stifle. I attack, and he activates Vial (on three). I consider Stifling, but I am fine with a trade. He has nothing, and takes two. I play a Lord. Same thing happens the next turn, but Ringleader comes in. I Stifle Ringleader. He trades Ringleader for my Lord. He's mana-flooded, apparently. I attack the next turn, and he still has no Goblins. I play Jitte post-combat. On my turn, he tries to Red Blast my Adept but I have the Force. Jitte gets counters, and it's a fore-gone conclusion.
Yup, 2-0'd goblins, never dropped below 18 life. Running good.
3-0 (4-0)
Round 4 vs. Mark Walker with Pox (I don't know what this deck is actually called)
Game 1: This was a fun one. He Thoughtseizes my Standstill and Sign in Bloods. I play and Adept, but that meets Innocent Blood. He sticks a Crucible, and Smallpoxes my next creature. I have Lords I can't play (short a blue), so I start the Mutavault beats. I get him to eight before he sticks a Tombstalker and Wastes my Mutavault. I find an Island, and play Lord, Lord. He finds a Bloodghast and hits me down to 7 in the meantime. He makes a misplay (I think) by attacking me to 2 with the Tombstalker, so that I can attack back for the win (he's at 5). So he plays Abyssal Persecutor. We have nice stand-off (I can't lose!). Luckily, I draw a Reejerey and then another Merfolk the next turn to tap one of his flyers and swing for the win.
Game 2: I waste his Misra's Factory after playing a Standstill. He breaks it with Engineered Plague. I play a Vial and a Lord. Lord dies to a Innocent Blood, and a second Engineered Plague comes down. I have Echoing Truth, and Three lords in my hand after that, and he has nothing in hand. So all I need is a Force! I draw one two turns later. I EoT bounce both Plagues. I vial in a Reejery, play another, untap Vial, and Vial in Sovereign, and play a Lord of Atlantis (!). I force the Engineered Plague. An Innocent Blood claims one of my Merfolk. I nail him for 12, and Spell Pierce the next Plague. He has mana to pay for it, but it taps him out, so he can't stop the still-lethal lord-force.
4-0 (6-0)
At this point, I am a lock for top 8. Even if I lose, my tiebreaks are insane because of the bye, and all of my opponents are doing well.
Round 5 vs Mark Larson with Zoo
Mark is a good friend of mine from Cincinnati. We're the last two undefeateds, so we ID into the top 8.
4-0-1
Round 6 vs. Lee Bower
Another guy I know. I do some math, and realize that the most likely people to get into the top 8 in 7th and 8th are Zoo and Goblins, so I scoop Lee into first place, putting me in third, which lets me avoid those decks in the quarters.
4-1-1
Top 8! Oh, snap!
One guy wants to play instead of split, so let's go!
Quarterfinals vs Joseph George with Survival
Game 1: Mull to 4. Not close. I Force two Tarmogoyfs, but the third one does me in quickly.
Game 2: It's his turn to mulligan. He keeps a land-light hand. He forces my early attempt at a Reejerey. I keep him locked down with two Wastelands and play Standstill. He breaks it, and I am easily able to beat him down with a Lord and Mutavault.
Game 3: I mull to six. He plays Heirarch turn 1. He Ponders T2, shuffles, and misses his land drop. I play two creatures which both get plowed. I drop a Standstill. He breaks it with a Tarmogoyf. I have Force, 2 Spell Pierce, Sower. I let the Goyf resolve and Sower his Tarmogoyf the following turn. I force his second Tarmogoyf (removing Merfolk Sovereign) the next turn, and beat for nine, Mutavault included. He tries Swords on my Sower. I Spell Pierce. He Forces. I Spell Pierce. And that's all she wrote.
5-1-1 (8-1)
Top 4 split for a cool $107 apiece. Ding!
Thanks for reading. If you want to know anything about the Merfolk deck, let me know. I think I have a pretty good feel for it.
I'm back in the saddle again with Merfolk! Hadn't played Legacy since GenCon, I really should play in more of these cash tournaments, since I am randomly pretty good at this format.
Merfolk is really good, in my opinion. Easily Tier 1. I love the deck because it can deal with just about anything, and the clock is deceptively quick. Here's my list:
12 Island
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
3 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Aether Vial
4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Stifle
2 Echoing Truth
SB:
3 Relic of Progenitus (I don't negotiate with Pirates)
2 Tormod's Crypt (I don't negotiate with Pirates)
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Hydroblast
3 Spell Pierce
3 Sower of Temptation
Some notes on the list:
- I love it.
- I am thoroughly convinced that the landbase is correct.
- The Merfolk Sovereigns (first time I played them) were miles better than the Wake Thrashers. The ONLY con to the Sovereigns is the double-blue in the mana cost, which is by-and-large not a problem.
- Stifles are good. You'll randomly steal games with them + Wastelands, and they are invauable against decks like Goblins and Belcher.
- Echoing Truth is also awesome. I've seen lots of things in these slots, Kira, Jitte, etc. I love ET because you can use it as a tempo play or a random out to some dumb permanent that often find themselves into Legacy decks.
SIDEBOARD:
- I am realizing more and more than you don't want stupid cards in your sideboard. I define stupid cards as cards that are good "against a wide variety of things" or don't really do what you want them to do, among other reasons. Examples: Divert, Submerge, Hibernate, Pithing Needle, etc. I have a long reason why I hate those type of cards in Legacy, but I'll just say that having certain cards for certain types of decks is far better than having some cards that are mediocre against a wide range of decks, or narrow answers to fringe decks.
- Relic/Crypt I like having this much graveyard hate. There's quite a few decks that these are very good against (some blue Goyf decks, Stax, Aggro-Loam, Lands, Dredge, etc.) There's no reason to not have a lot of game vs. these decks.
- Jitte. The best thing to do against any creature deck.
- Hydroblast. These are like my 14-15th card that I put in. They're fine. I don't like over-loading on these things because they're actually somewhat narrow, and your Goblins matchup is horrendous enough to not want to over-board for it. But they're fine to have.
- Spell Pierce. Tried these out today, and was pretty impressed by them. I board them in against any creature-light deck (Counterbalance, Eva Green, etc.). It's a great spell against every non-creature deck, and replace Dazes on the draw very well.
- Sower of Temptation. Amazing. Nuts in the mirror, an out vs. Zoo, and shines against some of the same decks as Spell Pierce. Boarding in 3 Spell Pierce and 3 Sower vs. Tarmogoyfs is awesome.
To the action!! 37 people showed up to battle. (If any of my notes are wrong, please correct, I am going off of life totals, my memory, and random card names I wrote down)
Round 1
Bye! I'm a miser. What can I say? I spend my time watching the obviously epic Menendian vs. Mastriano, my friend James getting beaten to death by Iona out of Survival, and peeing out a Mountain Dew in two installments.
Round 2 vs. Mark Sun with UWR Landstill
Mark is a very nice guy who explains that the matchup for him is terrible.
Game 1: I win the roll and start of with Vial, Standstill, Daze your Force. I'm good at this game, what can I say. I waste his factory and vial in a Soverign eventually He swords it. I get another Lord into play, and another, and beat him
down to 10. He sticks a Humility. I simply play out a Cursecatcher and two of my guys eat a Swords. I try to EoT bounce the Humility (I didn't really care about it, but I had nothing else to do with ET), and that meets Spell Snare. It doesn't matter, as I just beat him to death with my 1/1s over the next two turns.
Game 2: I Force through a Standstill early, he breaks it with a Top. I play a Lord which eats a Helix, and a Sovereign which also eats a Helix. I stick a Vial and another Standstill, and get two Lords into play. He's low on cards, but finds a Fact or Fiction with his top which resolves on the end of my turn. He takes an Elspeth and an Academy Ruins over Tolaria West and two others. On my turn I smash him for 14 with two Lords, a Cursecatcher and a Mutavault. He has an Engineered Explosives for my Lords, but I still have Lethal on board.
2-0 (2-0)
Round 3 vs. Jonathan Benson with Goblins
Goblins? Shit.
Game 1: I have vial, he doesn't. He makes Turn 2 and turn 3 Mogg War Marshall, getting four tokens. I vial in a Silvergill and Echoing Truth four Goblin tokens (!). I Force his Ringleader. Sovereign and Reejerey join the fight with two Mutavaults, and a resolved Ringleader cant even get him out of that after I hit him for 14 on one turn.
Game 2: He has vial. I play a turn two Silvergill, drawing a second Stifle. I attack, and he activates Vial (on three). I consider Stifling, but I am fine with a trade. He has nothing, and takes two. I play a Lord. Same thing happens the next turn, but Ringleader comes in. I Stifle Ringleader. He trades Ringleader for my Lord. He's mana-flooded, apparently. I attack the next turn, and he still has no Goblins. I play Jitte post-combat. On my turn, he tries to Red Blast my Adept but I have the Force. Jitte gets counters, and it's a fore-gone conclusion.
Yup, 2-0'd goblins, never dropped below 18 life. Running good.
3-0 (4-0)
Round 4 vs. Mark Walker with Pox (I don't know what this deck is actually called)
Game 1: This was a fun one. He Thoughtseizes my Standstill and Sign in Bloods. I play and Adept, but that meets Innocent Blood. He sticks a Crucible, and Smallpoxes my next creature. I have Lords I can't play (short a blue), so I start the Mutavault beats. I get him to eight before he sticks a Tombstalker and Wastes my Mutavault. I find an Island, and play Lord, Lord. He finds a Bloodghast and hits me down to 7 in the meantime. He makes a misplay (I think) by attacking me to 2 with the Tombstalker, so that I can attack back for the win (he's at 5). So he plays Abyssal Persecutor. We have nice stand-off (I can't lose!). Luckily, I draw a Reejerey and then another Merfolk the next turn to tap one of his flyers and swing for the win.
Game 2: I waste his Misra's Factory after playing a Standstill. He breaks it with Engineered Plague. I play a Vial and a Lord. Lord dies to a Innocent Blood, and a second Engineered Plague comes down. I have Echoing Truth, and Three lords in my hand after that, and he has nothing in hand. So all I need is a Force! I draw one two turns later. I EoT bounce both Plagues. I vial in a Reejery, play another, untap Vial, and Vial in Sovereign, and play a Lord of Atlantis (!). I force the Engineered Plague. An Innocent Blood claims one of my Merfolk. I nail him for 12, and Spell Pierce the next Plague. He has mana to pay for it, but it taps him out, so he can't stop the still-lethal lord-force.
4-0 (6-0)
At this point, I am a lock for top 8. Even if I lose, my tiebreaks are insane because of the bye, and all of my opponents are doing well.
Round 5 vs Mark Larson with Zoo
Mark is a good friend of mine from Cincinnati. We're the last two undefeateds, so we ID into the top 8.
4-0-1
Round 6 vs. Lee Bower
Another guy I know. I do some math, and realize that the most likely people to get into the top 8 in 7th and 8th are Zoo and Goblins, so I scoop Lee into first place, putting me in third, which lets me avoid those decks in the quarters.
4-1-1
Top 8! Oh, snap!
One guy wants to play instead of split, so let's go!
Quarterfinals vs Joseph George with Survival
Game 1: Mull to 4. Not close. I Force two Tarmogoyfs, but the third one does me in quickly.
Game 2: It's his turn to mulligan. He keeps a land-light hand. He forces my early attempt at a Reejerey. I keep him locked down with two Wastelands and play Standstill. He breaks it, and I am easily able to beat him down with a Lord and Mutavault.
Game 3: I mull to six. He plays Heirarch turn 1. He Ponders T2, shuffles, and misses his land drop. I play two creatures which both get plowed. I drop a Standstill. He breaks it with a Tarmogoyf. I have Force, 2 Spell Pierce, Sower. I let the Goyf resolve and Sower his Tarmogoyf the following turn. I force his second Tarmogoyf (removing Merfolk Sovereign) the next turn, and beat for nine, Mutavault included. He tries Swords on my Sower. I Spell Pierce. He Forces. I Spell Pierce. And that's all she wrote.
5-1-1 (8-1)
Top 4 split for a cool $107 apiece. Ding!
Thanks for reading. If you want to know anything about the Merfolk deck, let me know. I think I have a pretty good feel for it.