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Thread: [Merfolk Top 4] at World's Collide and OMG Games, Double Report

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    [Merfolk Top 4] at World's Collide and OMG Games, Double Report

    We had 2 local events this weekend and I played Mono U Merfolk at both events. Saturday, June 25th was at World's Collide at Oshawa and Sunday, June 26th was at OMG Games at Barrie. This isn't going to be a very detailed report as the days kind of blurred together and I had some really long matches on the 2nd day.

    1st event

    Here's what I was playing:

    13 Island
    4 Mutavault
    4 Wasteland

    4 AEther Vial

    4 Cursecatcher
    4 Silvergill Adept
    4 Coralhelm Commander
    4 Lord of Atlantis
    4 Merrow Reejerey
    1 Merfolk Soverign
    1 Sower of Temptation

    4 Force of Will
    4 Mental Misstep
    3 Daze
    2 Dismember

    Sideboard:
    3 Energy Flux
    2 Pithing Needle
    1 Daze
    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    1 Echoing Truth
    3 Spell Pierce
    3 Relic of Progenitus
    1 Dismember

    The sideboard's a total mess as I figured the meta would be a lot of control but there's always someone playing something offbeat like affinity, 12 post and 43 lands. This was also the first time I played this deck at a tournament and there I didn't playtest so it was going to be an interesting day to say the least.

    We got 29 players which was pretty awesome, but that meant 5 rounds. ugh.

    Round 1 - Zane (RUG Fairies)

    Game 1: This game went pretty bad for me. Turn 1, I tried to aether vial, got missteped. A couple of turns later I land a silvergill and cursecatcher and he manages to Fire/Ice both and had mana up. I then play a LoA and he sowers it. I play another LoA fighting a losing battle and at the end he steal my other LoA with another sowers and we're on to the next game. What a great start.

    Sideboard: -1 Merfolk Soverign, -2 Dismember, -1 Sower of Temptation, +1 Umezawa's Jitte, +2 Spell Pierce, +1 Daze

    Game 2: He was pretty mana screwed this game. I had no vials this game but my entire hand was merfolk and a couple of spell pierces. I started playing my lords by turn 2 and he had only islands and tropicals out and I figured he was missing his red source pretty badly and he died pretty fast.

    Sideboard: -1 Daze, +1 Spell Pierce

    Game 3: I don't remember much about this match other than that he was land screwed again, I think he only had an island and a mutavault or wasteland and I just overwhelmed him in like 4 turns before he found a red source.

    After the game he showed me that he sided in 4 firesprouts, 6 blasts and was wondering how he lost. Well, no red sources would do that!!

    1-0 (2-1)

    Round 2 - "Harry" (Rock)

    Game 1: I think he was stuck on 1 land for around 4 turns and I missteped a couple of his tops and meanwhile I was establishing my board position. From my life totals, looks like i hit for 5, 4 then 8 and he was at 2 life afterwards. He must have blocked with a confidant somewhere in there.

    Sideboard: -1 Merfolk Soverign, -1 Sower of Temptation, -3 Daze, + 2 Pithing Needle, +3 Spell Pierce

    Game 2: I kept kind of a weird hand with just a lord of atlantis but 2 islands, 1 misstep, 2 needles. He goes first turn 1 thoughtseize and i was thinking if i should counter but decided not to and he took the lord. Next turn I needles naming deed and then turn 2 he just passed playing a top and no land. I then quickly played another needle
    naming top and that was pretty much it as he couldn't draw another land and I drew more creatures and started beating for 2s and 3s and that was it.

    Hey, playing merfolk isn't that hard if your opponents manascrew themselves!!!

    2-0 (4-1)

    Round 3 - Raymond (Green+Taxes or G/W Maverick)

    Game 1: Couldn't really do much in this matchup as he got the quick scryb ranger out which I had to dismember but not before he abused the untapping ability for a bit. He then played another ranger as a blocker and then played a stoneforge mystic got a batterskull and that was it. He was only down to 9 life and I only had 2 creatures in play.

    Sideboard: -1 Merfolk Soverign, -3 Daze, -1 Sower of Temptation, +2 Pithing Needle, +2 Energy Flux, +1 Echoing Truth
    Not sure if i'm sideboarding right but maybe i should have taken out the vials for more stuff?

    Game 2: This game was pretty close as we were both building up our forces. He was at 18 and I managed to get down 2 merrow reejereys and a cursecatcher to tap down his pridemage, stoneforge and attacked with 3 creatures dealing 10 damage. Next turn he hardcasts the jitte he found with the stoneforge but doesn't equip it and passes the turn and I realized then that he had a batterskull in his hand and was trying to figure out if i could swing for lethal on my turn. I drew something irrelevant and decided that if he had a batterskull in his hand and I didn't attack, it would go really bad for me anyways later on as he can just start attacking with it with a jitte equipped on it and
    if he's bluffing he's dead. I decided to swing with everybody and he makes the blocks I expected that he did and he did have the batterskull in hand as it was "vialed" in with stoneforge. I got him down to 3 after combat damage and then it was just a losing race as I kept on drawing cursecatchers and not lords and his batterskull had jitte
    counters on it and just kept on murdering the lords.

    It was really frustrating to draw all of my cursecatchers and only 2 reejereys. Even if one of the cursecatcher was a lord the game would have probably been over.

    2-1 (4-3)

    Round 4 - Nikola (BUG Landstill)

    Game 1: I thought he was playing team america initially as that's the deck he's been playing for a while but then he dropped a maindeck deed 4 turns into the game and i was like oh, landstill. He didn't really do anything against me as I had a hand just full of lords and he could only one for one me and he ran out of removal and I kept on
    missteping his brainstorms so he couldn't refill his hand. There was a weird play where I had 2 merfolk in play and on his turn he cast a deed to tap out so on my turn i decided to attack with both merfolk + my mutavault and he actually decided to sac the deed to kill the mutavault? Not sure why he did that but it was a costly mistake.

    Sideboard: -1 Sower of Temptation, -3 Daze, -2 Dismember, +2 Pithing Needle, +3 Spell Pierce, +1 Echoing Truth

    Game 2: Again, he didn't have any pressure on me although he did a good job keeping the board clear. I had a fast needle naming deed and then just started playing merfolk and again, he ran out of removal and when I killed him he showed me that he had a standstill in his hand and I just thought to myself wouldn't you board them out? oh well.

    3-1 (6-3)

    Round 5 - Draw.....
    Nope!! Couldn't draw in as there were a bunch of people playing U/W control who all drew with each other Round 1 so there were a bunch of 9 and 7 pointers and all the 9s had to play.

    Round 5 - Chris (U/W Stoneforge Control)

    Game 1: I think we both mulled but he came out with a fast stoneforge that got a batterskull and I dismembered it on the same turn. I tried to keep him off 5 lands as long as I could and thankfully drew enough creatures. Life totals saw him go from 17 to 12 to 10 and then to 1. I don't really remember what happened there but he got 5 lands and played the batterskull and went to 5 life but then he scooped as he only had the batterskull and I still had around 12 power worth of creatures next turn.

    Sideboard: - 1 Sower of Temptation, -1 Merfolk Soverign, -3 Daze, +3 Spell Pierce, +2 Pithing Needle

    Game 2: I mulled to 5 this time and it wasn't even close at all. He was at 15 after batterskull came into play and he attached a SoFI on it and that was it. On to game 3.

    Sideboard: -3 Spell Pierce, +3 Daze

    Game 3: I had a weird hand where it was some counters, mutavaults and islands. Didn't feel like mulling so I kept and it turned out he had a weird hand too and he didn't get a stoneforge mystic all game and he just kept on wastelanding every mutavault I drew. I managed to slip a vial somewhere in all of that and drew into a lord of atlantis and coralhelm commander while he drew and Elspeth v1.0. He was at 7 when he dropped the Elspeth and I was at 19 but he was able to attack me to 11 before I was able to level up the commander to lvl 3 and vialed in the lord of atlantis. He attacked me with the 4/4 flying soldier token and I had a dismember in my hand while he had 2 cards in hand. I was trying to figure out if he had a counterspell and a plow in hand as that would be his most likely out in this situation. I decided to fall to 7 life to try to dismember the soldier token and he did have a counterspell so I dropped to 3 after combat. He had one card left in hand and passed the turn so this was either a
    plow or that's it. I leveled up my commander to 4 to have 7 power and attacked and he didn't have the plow. phew.

    Man it seems like no matter what deck I play stoneforge + batterskull owns me. Definately felt like I got lucky there.

    4-1 (8-3)

    I made top 8 in first place along with another Merfolk, W/B/G Lands, Green + Taxes, 2 U/W Stoneforge Control, Burn and Dark Depths/Stiflenaught. I got paired up with the dark depths so on to top 8 we go.

    Top 8 - Chris (Dark Depths/Stiflenaught)

    Game 1: he mulled to 5 but had such a crazy hand where he made his land drops and was able to counter and kill all my merfolk and spells in the first 3 turns. He then ran out of gas while I kept on drawing dudes and I was able to attack for the win.

    Sideboard: -2 Dismember, -3 Daze, -1 Merfolk Soverign, +2 Pithing Needle, +3 Spell Pierce, +1 Echoing Truth

    Game 2: This time I mulled to 5 and was able to knock him down to 12 but then he got control and was able to land a dark depths and hexmage on the same turn. I didn't have a wasteland or needle or a bounce spell or sower and I died to the foiled marit lage token.

    Sideboard: -3 Spell Pierce, +3 Daze

    Game 3: This game I kept him off his white lands by wastelanding his Tundras and he was at 14 life when he played his dreadnaught and stifled it. I had no counters so it resolved. I did have a reejerey in play and another lord in my hand so I played my lord, tapped down his dreadnaught and attacked and blocked with a hexmage and took 7. His turn, he swung with the dreadnaught. Next turn I actually drew a land and just cast a sower for fun and attacked. That's game.

    Wow, couldn't believe I'm in top 4 with a deck that I've never really played before. Now I know why it's in the DTB forum!!!

    5-1 (10-4)

    It took a long time for the last match to finish as one of the matchups (lands vs G+T) were still in game 1 after an hour into top 8. Took a really long time to finish and the winner of that match agreed to split with the rest of us. Wohoo! I managed to get a Taiga, 3 fetchlands and a kira and still had some credit left to spend. Pretty good for a first time pilot of the deck. the top 4 ended up being 2 merfolk, lands and U/W Stoneforge control.

    2nd Event

    I was pretty displeased with the energy fluxes in my sideboard as I felt like they couldn't deal with batterskull immediately so I changed up my sideboard. I originally wanted to play Back to Basics in the sideboard and actually thought I had them but when I went back home, I couldn't find any and was hoped that I wouldn't face 43 Lands on Sunday. The only change to the maindeck was -1 Merfolk Soverign, +1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner. The sideboard became:

    3 Relic of Progenitus
    3 Pithing Needle
    3 Spell Pierce
    2 Echoing Truth
    1 Dismember
    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    1 Daze
    1 Hurykl's Recall

    I was trying to find what's a good replacement for back to basics and found Hurykl's recall and saw that the text actually says target player. I had originally thought that it's for both players but this looked good vs affinity as well so I tried one. Maybe it should have been 2 Hurykl's recall and 1 Echoing Truth.

    Round 1 - Andrew D (G/R/u Lands)

    Game 1: Initially I thought he was RUG control because he played a turn 1 tropical island but then turn 2 he played a port and I realized he was lands and all of a sudden my opening hand didn't look that great anymore. Thankfully, he didn't play an exploration this game and I was able to play a turn 1 vial. got enough dudes in play and I was able to waste the mazes that he did play.

    Sideboard: -2 Dismember, -1 Sower of Temptation, -3 Daze, +3 Relic of Progenitus, +3 Pithing Needle

    Game 2: I had a misstep and relic plus a couple of lands so I kept my hand. He didn't have a turn 1 exploration again this game and I was able to draw into some creatures and I played my relic early before he was able to get a card in his graveyard so I could try to slow him down with his dredges. He'd have to have cycling lands in hand if he actually wanted to dredge and that did slow him down a bit. Meanwhile, I just attacked with the few dudes I had and saw some dangerous lands in the graveyard so I popped the relic and just swung a couple more times to win.

    I was kind of sweating it there because I didn't have back to basics in the sideboard but thank goodness i didn't need it there.

    1-0 (2-0)

    Round 2 - Andrew vL (U/r countertop)

    Game 1: This game was horrendous as he kept on two for one-ing me with fire/ice and he was able to remove all my threats by my turn 3 and on his turn 4 he dropped jace 2.0 and soon dropped a shackles and I just gave up as i had nothing in play. Plus he played virtually all basics except for wastelands and factories.

    Sideboard: -2 Dismember, -3 Daze, -1 Sower of Temptation, +3 Pithing Needle, +1 Hurykl's Recall, +2 Echoing Truth
    I really don't know what to side for this matchup as it's just incredibly horrendous.

    Game 2: This game was a bit closer because he actually dealt 7 damage to himself via fetchlands and misstep and I started to attack with dudes when he was at 13. Everytime I played 2 creatures he had the firesprout ready and I felt like I needed to play 2 creatures for pressure because he always had a factory on blocking duty. I managed to get him down to 3 adn then I ran out of creatures and started drawing missteps while he started casting shackles and jace 2.0 and kept on brainstorming. He ended up playing clique end of my turn and then just swung for 3 for 7 turns to win. *sigh*.

    Again, if anybody has any ideas what exactly I can do in this matchup I'd love to know. apparently he sideboarded 13 cards in against merfolk. ugh.

    1-1 (2-2)

    Round 3 - Zane (RUG Fairies)

    Game 1: the epic rematch from saturday!! Unfortunately this game one goes exactly like how it went last event. I had no counters but all lords and he had the fire/ice again, bolts, and double sower and I just died miserable by my own stolen lords. *sigh*.

    Sideboard: -1 Sower of Temptation, -2 Dismember, +1 Daze, +2 Spell Pierce

    Game 2: He had 3 lands in play but they were mutavault, wasteland and island and I wasted the mutavault. I don't remember what happened exactly but life totals said 19, 15, 5, dead. Damn, merfolk kills fast.

    Sideboard: -1 Daze, +1 Spell Pierce

    Game 3: I had some counters and not a lot of creatures but i did have a wasteland as well and a lord. I played it slow because I had a spell pierce ready and saw that he played an island and a polluted delta. I wanted him to fetch a volcanic with the fetch so I led off with a lord of atlantis and he fetched a volcanic and bolted it. Went back to my turn again and I wasted the volcanic and played another merfolk and passed. He ended up not playing another land for a couple of turns and the next land he played was a mutavault. I attacked with around 3 guys and dismembered the mutavault before it was a blocker so i can push through more damage before he got more lands.
    Again, his life totals went from 19, 17, 12, 2, dead. Guess I drew a lot of lords.

    2-1 (4-2)

    Round 4 - Robert (G/B fauna shaman, vengevine, ooze thingie)

    Game 1: I saw this deck in action earlier and saw him play a necrotic ooze, discard gigatomancer and then made all of his dudes 7/7 and attacked. pretty vicious. We both has relatively slow starts and he was able to hardcast a vengevine with quirion ranger's ability on turn 3. He pounded me on it for 2 turns while i got my vial up to 4 so I could vial in a sower and take the vengevine. I stablized for a bit and then started casting a bunch of merfolk and lords to go against his army of rootwallas, memnites and putrid imp. I ate a couple of damage from the putrid imp and drew and cast some more lords and decided I needed to attack. He was at 19 and after combat, he lost a bunch of creatures and was at 12. He fetched and I added another lord using vial and attacked again to drop him down to 5 and he had no more creatures to block mine next turn. PHEW!!

    Sideboard: -1 Kira Great Glass Spinner, -1 Sower of Temptation, -3 Daze, +3 Pithing Needle, +2 Relic of Progenitus.

    Game 2: Again, I have this god awful start where I'm forced to use a dismember on an early putrid imp and then he plays a turn 3 Glissa 2.0 and just keeps on smashing me and there's no way to trade with her. He's able to take me all the way down to 7 and he's at 19 when I finally played enough guys and was able to start attacking with flying
    commanders. He went from 19 to 15 with one attack. I vialed in another commander at end of turn and then he attacked with glissa for another 3 to drop me to 4. I leveled up both my commanders and attacked with both to take him down to 5. He then fetched to go down to 4 and then played a necrotic ooze with a putrid imp in the yard with 2 cards left in hand and passed. Next turn I decided to attack with everything other than a cursecatcher and he blocked my lord of atlantis with glissa and i forgot about first strike damage so it made my dudes smaller but thank goodness both of my commanders were at lvl 4 so they were still 5/5 and he didn't have another flyer to block. Wow, i don't know how I managed to pull that out since I haven't done combat like that in like forever. that's what happens when you play only Burn for a year.

    3-1 (6-2)

    Round 5 - James

    I was hightest of all the 9 pointers and my opponent was right behind me so we were fairly confident that if we draw in, both of us should make top 8 and we did.

    3-1-1 (6-2-1)

    Top 8 consisted of merfolk, BUG landstill, 2 U/W Stoneforge control, Sneak/Show, U/r Countertop, G/R/u Lands, U/W Stonforge control w/ ancestral visions. so much control.......

    I got paired up with my round 1 opponent

    Top 8 - Andrew D (G/R/u Lands)

    Game 1: I had an opening hand with 3 lands, 1 cursecatcher and some 3cc creatures. I played this one pretty bad as all he did was lay down early ports and mazes and kept me off 3 open mana and all i could do was attack with the cursecatcher. I thought he might have been slow rolling the life from the loams so I wasted the mazes instead of
    the ports which was just a bad decision in general because I had a Kira in hand so all i needed to do was get 3 mana and get the kira in play and then he won't be able to maze me. I also countered a crucible of worlds along the way and he had an academy ruins but wasn't bringing it back for some reason. basically, I just sat there for around 40 min waiting for him to see if he can hit a loam or remember to bring back the crucible and he finally remembered to bring back the crucible and started to ghost quarter me and i gave up game one since there was no way I could deck him as he never cast one life from the loam.

    Sideboard: -3 Daze, -2 Dismember -1 Sower of Temptation, +3 Pithing Needle, +3 Relic of Progenitus

    Game 2: He tries a turn 2 exploration and i missteped that. Meanwhile i had an active vial so his ports weren't doing much and I overwhelmed him in around 3 turns

    Game 3: This game lasted a long time and I finally figured out from previous games that his only kill engines were recurring punishing fires and mishra's factories. I played and adept and a 2cc lord and only managed to attack once before he played engineered explosives for 2 and managed to wipe the board. I then played my relic of progenitus
    and pithing needle naming mishra's factory. I popped the relic after he tried to return some lands with his life from the loam and managed to waste his Grove of the Burnwillows with relic on the stack so it got removed as well. I then proceed to not draw another relic but managed to get another pithing needle and I named the academy ruins because I was ready to counter the crucible of worlds so he couldn't get free land drops from his graveyard. Meanwhile, I was attacking with a couple of creatures and he was aggressive loaming and managed to hit a bunch of mazes, a tabernacle and a glacial chasm when he was at 8 life. My life totals were around the high 20s by now
    because he was using his second Grove for green mana a lot. After the chasm came down, he stunted my mana a lot with ghost quarter recursion via loam and I was just waiting for a needle or a wasteland because I had a kira in my hand and i had a vial, cursecatcher and a level 4 coralhelm commander in play. He actually paid the upkeep once for chasm to go down to 6 and played a couple more maze of iths and passed and I kept on waiting until I could kill him on one turn. He then lets the chasm go during his upkeep and did a bunch of stuff and tapped a bunch of his lands. I then vialed out my kira at the end of his turn. Then paid the tabernacle upkeep, drew and tried to attack for the win. Punishing fired my Kira twice and i was like ugh, how did I not see that coming and not have force backup. and right after I put my Kira in the graveyard, I checked his lands and all of them were tapped and i was like OMG, i could have sacced the cursecatcher to counter the 2nd punishing fire and he would have had to maze the commander twice. So now my only ways to win was for him to deck himself as he's got around 13 cards in his library at this point and he's milled away all of his krosan grips so my needles were safe. I only have one out at this moment and it's the pithing needle. He has only one out as well and he needs to recur punishing fire to kill me but I was
    sitting at 22 life so I was going to see if i can deck him before he kills me. At this point, he can't recur anymore lands with the life as he didn't want to deck himself so no more ghost quarter and chasm recursion which was great because he actually ran me out of all my basics in my library before he stopped. I pretty much just played draw go while he kept on recuring 1 punishing fire at a time even though he had multiple red sources but I wasn't about to say anything cause that's extra 2 life i'm gaining per turn. I end up at around 14 life and he only has 4 cards left in his library and he tries to get me to concede because he's got punishing fire but there's no way I'm going to concede if because if i can draw a pithing needle he's dead and then he ends up conceding first as he thinks there's no way for him to win. His friends end up telling him after he concedes that he can return multiple punishing fires with 1 lifegain and pay multiple red mana.

    I think this match lasted around 80-90 minutes? It was ridiculously long and we both just made pretty bad play mistakes.

    Top 4 - Andrew vL (U/r Countertop)

    Ugh, I was hoping that he wouldn't be in my side of the bracket as his deck just crushes mine. Obviously he didn't want to split as it was really in his favour postboard. Really nothing much to say about both games other than I had to play 2 creatures at a time because he always had a factory out and I felt like I needed to have two creatures out to put him on some sort of pressure. Both games he sealed the deal with multiple shackles and Jace 2.0 in play and there really isn't much I can do. I really need to figure out a way to deal with shackles and Jace other than pithing needles.

    This report is long enough already, here's some props and slops

    Props:
    - This deck just wins out of nowhere. I love it.
    - Seth for lending me dismembers and going through different sideboarding scenarios with me.
    - The one Kira for being godlike every time i draw it.

    Slops:
    - Forgetting what cursecatcher does.
    - Forgetting to up the vial a couple of times
    - Wizards why did you print batterskull. It's like standard's invaded Legacy and there's a reason i don't play standard.

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    Re: [Merfolk Top 4] at World's Collide and OMG Games, Double Report

    Theres a reason why you have those spell pierces in your SB! Against firespout and bombs like shackles nothing is sweerer than spell pierce. If you dont play Standstills you definitely want 2 Kiras.

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    Re: [Merfolk Top 4] at World's Collide and OMG Games, Double Report

    Quote Originally Posted by dsck View Post
    Theres a reason why you have those spell pierces in your SB! Against firespout and bombs like shackles nothing is sweerer than spell pierce. If you dont play Standstills you definitely want 2 Kiras.
    I didn't bother boarding in the spell pierces because he always had at least 2 mana up when playing spells. It was very apparent that he was always playing around daze and spell pierce. And I agree with the the needing 2 kiras. Now i have to figure out what to cut.

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    Re: [Merfolk Top 4] at World's Collide and OMG Games, Double Report

    Hey Steve

    For what it's worth, I was the Lands player in the top-8 who's game 1 took over 1 hour. I cannot believe you didn't even mention me. I see how it is :).

    It's weird that the game took over 1 hour, most of my matches ended up quite quickly. Here's a QnD report for me:


    Round 1: Goblins (I forgot the name of the player) W 2-0

    This is a very old-school player who has not played in a decade and a half. He had mostly burn and some inefficient goblins + goblin grenade. Game 1 he gets me to 4 life with some burn and a grenade before I kill him with big Knight of the Reliquary. Game 2 is similar.


    Round 2: Seth with Dredge W 2-0

    He doesn't manage to get a turn 1 or 2 cabal therapy before I get a Knight active. Dredge can very rarely win through an active Knight.

    Game 2 is very scary actually. I manage to get Bojuka Bog to nail his Flame Kin Zealot (his only Dread Return target post-board) instead of Tabernacle and take some hits. Tabernacle and Wasteland clears his board, but he still have Ichorid action going. He casts a HUGE breakthrough and I breathe a sigh of relief as I remember his FKZ is gone.

    Even though I feel confident against Dredge, I hate playing against it, as it can just break you in half.


    Round 3: Chris with Dark Depths w/ StP, W 2-0

    Chris usually beats me pretty good, but I like my chances in this game.

    I do not remember much of game 1, as we both had active confidants, but I land a Knight that survives. He has Dark Depths and a Hexmage, but is worried about my wasteland. He lands another Hexmage, but I just Knight for a Wasteland and that's all she wrote.

    He was judicious about wasting my Maze of iths, which might not have been the best idea as it allowed me to delay him quite a bit.

    Game 2 he starts of very strong with Dual Dark Confidant and a Pithing Needle on Wasteland, but I luck into landing a Pernicious Deed to clear his board. Chris gets a Dark Depths down, then starts removing counters manually, while I use my Ghost Quarter (he cast another needle naming Wasteland)... only to run into his stifles (he also ran stifle-dreadnaught). Finally I get a Knight down, and I get Karakas as he finally removes the last counter. I had Mazes down, so it was unlikely he could do much anyway.

    Chris ends up at 3-2, and makes it in because a massive number of 3-0-1 decide to play it out.


    Round 4/5: ID


    Top-8 Round 6: Ray with GW Maverick W 2-0

    So usually, Ray and I play first round and he smokes me every time, at Worlds Collide, in any possible format we meet.

    I am excited to NOT meet him first round, but less exciting to meet him in the Top-8.

    Anyway, we start and he is quite aggressive, getting a couple Noble Hierarchs, a Gaddock Teeg and an Aether Vial down, and then a Karakas / Mangara of Corondor off the Vial, which then removes my Stirring Wildwood.

    I waste his Karakas as he bounces his Mangara, which i then Inquisition of Kozilek away. His Gaddock Teeg eats up at me, and I end up at 1 life, with a Life from the Loam in the graveyard.

    I have one top-deck, or a dredge for a Maze, to try and survive. I count my deck, count my outs, and I think that I am better serve by top-decking.

    Of course I get a Knight of the Reliquary, which is bigger than his only non-zero power creature, Gaddock Teeg. Thank god those stupid Noble Hierarchs weren't Llanowar Elves.

    Of course.

    I then get a Nomad Stadium to gain 8 life, and he StP-es the Knight, an 11/11, so I coincidentally end up at 20 life, with Mazes, Nomad Stadium and Cabal Pit to thin his herd. A Tabernacle also helps.

    This game takes forever, as he doesnt' give up, despite me having a great upper hand. I cannot blame him, as he does have outs, but between everything, he had very little mana to work with.

    Game 2, I get a first turn exploration, a second turn DOUBLE Dark Confidant, which actually races his Gaddock Teeg. That's all there was to the game.


    So, I went 4-0 in games, 8-0 total, and even defeated Ray, my nemesis who always beats me. I look at the top-4: Steve, as above, with Merfolk, Eugene Lo with UW and Josh Bates with... UW? Anyway, I was pretty sure that I could tear it up since none of those decks worry me in the slightest, but I like the other 3 guys and am pretty tired and have to go out... so we split :).

    Besides, Steve was probably itching to beat me, and I would have to play him, and despite his claims otherwise, he plays really well.

  5. #5
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    Apr 2011
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    Re: [Merfolk Top 4] at World's Collide and OMG Games, Double Report

    Any chance you know were to find that U/r Countertop list? Countertop crushing Merfolk, now that is something you don't see every day..

    In case you don't know it, Merfolk sb Energy Flux against Affinity, which can be a quite tough matchup otherwise. It is not really a weapon against Batterskull, as you found out yourself.

    (also, nice report btw)

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