[Merfolk Top 4] at World's Collide

[pocari79]

Went to a legacy tournament on Saturday, July 30 at Worlds Collide. Got 21 players which was pretty decent considering there was a PTQ on the same day and it was also the long weekend. I wanted to play something different but didn't have the cards so I was stuck playing merfolk. Here's my list:

13 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
4 Aether Vial
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
3 Daze
2 Dismember

Sideboard:
1 Dismember
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Spell Pierce
3 Pithing Needle
3 Back to Basics
3 Submerge

Round 1 - Dave (U/R Painter)

This is not the usual painted stone that's been popular on the SCG opens. It runs accumulated knowledges to draw a huge number of cards and tries to grind out the win instead of trying to combo as fast as possible.

Game 1: The first turns were kinda funny as he was on the play and went volcanic island, go and I went wasteland, go. He just did a double take and was like i guess you're not playing burn today. I wonder how long I can go with people still thinking I'm still playing the burn deck. Anyways, he ended up missing a land drop on the 2nd turn and I was able to drop 2 mutavaults in play and started attacking with both. I was able to force his fire/ice on my mutavaults and dismembered his painter so he couldn't block and that was game 1.

Sideboard: -2 Umezawa's Jitte, -3 Daze, +3 Pithing Needle, +2 Spell Pierce

Game 2: This was kind of a grind as I had a bunch of reactive cards but no creatures. I drew 2 needles, one naming grindstone and the other naming academy ruins so I can try to dismember or counter the painters without him able to bring it back. I was able to get him down from 15 to 9 and then lethal next turn but then he was able to play an
engineered explosive for 1 to take out my needles at the end of my turn and then he comboed me out on his turn.

Sideboard: -2 Spell Pierce, +2 Daze

Game 3: He was able to turn 1 needle naming Wasteland when I had a wasteland in hand so that sucked. I tried a turn 1 vial but that was misstepped but was able to land a turn 2 needle on grindstone. From then on, I just cast an adept and started attacking and tried to keep my mana open representing spell pierce. Because my clock was so slow, he was able to AK for a total of 5 cards and brainstorm 3 times in the next few turns and I thought I was dead soon from all the cards he drew. Finally, i was able to get an adept and a lord in play so I can attack for 5 and i also had 2 dismembers, a force and a cursecatcher. He was at 12 so I attacked for 7 and he managed to kill both our needles with explosives. then he played another needle naming mutavault when I had 2 in play so I couldn't attack for lethal next turn. He then played a painter which I tried to force pitching a cursecatcher. He forced back to go down to 6. I then cast dismember at end of his turn and the painter died. I didn't draw a lord so I just
attacked for 5 putting him down to 1 and passed the turn. He played another painter during his turn and passed and I tried to dismember again and it resolved and he conceded. Turns out that with all the extra cards he drew, he never saw a REB or pyroblast. Better lucky than good!!!

1-0 (2-1)

Round 2 - Dejan (Hive mind)

Game 1: I really wasn't too sure what he was playing at first as all he did was play islands and just kept on pondering. I thought he could have been some sort of combo so I just tried to aggro out as fast as possible. He played an ancient tomb and then I realized he's on hive mind. He tried to show and tell and it resolved. He played a pact of the titans and I cursecatchered my copy. He tried to pay the 1 but I explained that since I controlled the pact spell, i'm countering my own spell. He didn't realize the interaction with cursecatcher and just died during his next upkeep as he couldn't pay for pact.

Sideboard: -2 Dismember, -1 Umezawa's Jitte, +3 Spell Pierce.
I wish i could have taken out the last jitte but there's literally nothing else to board in.

Game 2: I had a multiple counter hand but didn't have much of a threat other than a cursecatcher. I had a daze when he played his monolith but he had one mana up so I couldn't use it. Next turn I drew a spell pierce and then on his turn, he just cast show and tell leaving the monolith untapped so my spell pierce was incredibly useless. Show and tell resolved and he played an emrakul and that was it for me.

Game 3: Really nothing much to say about this game as he was land light the entire game as I was trying to misstep all of his ponders and he kept on trying to brainstorm but had no fetchlands in play so it was like he gave me several time walks. He actually intuitioned for three fetchlands at one point which was the first time I saw that. I was finally able to draw into some creatures and started to hit for 3 and then 5 and he died pretty fast as he wasn't able to resolve show and tell as I had a force, daze and spell pierce in hand.

2-0 (4-2)

Round 3 - Raymond (G/W Maverick w/Mangara)

Game 1: Nothing really to say about this game as he got down an early scryb ranger and that just totally stymied my offence as he has a permanent flying blocker. I didn't draw my dismembers and that was it.

Sideboard: - 2 Umezawa's Jitte, +1 Submerge, +1 Dismember

Game 2: I got lucky this game as he led off with a wasteland and karakas and cast a stoneforge. I wasted his karakas, dismembered his stoneforge and tried to punish him as much as I could while he didn't have any colored sources. It ended up being a close game too as he kept on topdecking lands and was able to plow all of my attackers. At the end, I barely took it as he had a stoneforge in play and a batterskull in hand with 1W open and I had a lord and 2 silvergill adepts in play. He was at 1 so I played a cursecatcher to tap down something and batterskull came in play. But since he only had batterskull to block, he would go up to 5 life but I can deal 5 damage as well so he died.

Game 3: Again, this game went really long as a scryb ranger came into play again early and I could only hope to draw. We went to extra turns but he ended up getting a batterskull equipped onto the scryb ranger and it was hitting me for 8 because he had 3 exalted triggers. I had one turn to draw the dismember i needed and it came one turn too late.

2-1 (5-4)

Round 4 - Seth (Junk Depths)

It sucks having to play a friend when winner gets into top 8 and loser doesn't.

Game 1: I thought he was just playing a normal rock deck as all i saw was a goyf but then he played a hexmage and the jig was up. Thank goodness I had a horde of lords with a reejerey and was able to cast another merfolk to tap down the goyf and came in for lethal.

Sideboard: - 3 Daze, -1 Jitte, +3 Pithing Needle, +1 Dismember

Game 2: I didn't really have a chance this game as he kept on playing bigger dudes than mine and then eventually landed a knight of reliquary that I couldn't kill and then living wished for a hexmage and that was the end of that.

Sideboard: -4 Mental Misstep, -1 Jitte, +3 Daze, +2 Submerge

Game 3: I kept an awful hand with no color mana sources and a submerge but I had a vial, mutavault, wasteland, pithing needle but I figured I had enough hate and if the vial could resolve I'd be in good shape. He didn't have a misstep for my vial and I was able to set needle on the hexmage after he living wished for a dark depths. I finally drew some islands so I could get submerge online but I saw that he never played a forest as he had 2 mox diamonds in play. After a while, I thought I had a pretty good board position as he was at 7 life with 2 bobs in play and I had a lord of atlantis, reejerey and a level 3 commander in play. He only had 2 cards in hand but white mana open so I was afraid of plows. I figured that since he was at such a low life, I could attack with just the commander and see if he'll die to his own bobs. So I just attacked with the commander to put him down to 2 and passed. His bobs revealed 2 lands and he drew a plow so he plowed my commander so I went to 24 life. I ended up playing another one
and decided it wasn't a good idea to attack into 2 bobs. His bobs revealed 2 lands again and he drew something else and I could tell it was something relevant as everybody else ooh and aahed. He ended up laying the hexmage, played dark depths and made a 20/20. I still had a submerge in hand and 3 lands in play but he still didn't play a forest. I drew another submerge and then just decided to level the commander up to lvl 3 and passed. His bob revealed a land and a thoughtseize to put him at 1 and i was like wow, i can't believe i just tossed away this game. He attacked with the 20/20 and then passed. I tried to level up to 4 and he plowed in response so I just lost my last blocker. I passed and he finally ended up flipping a goyf and the game finally ended.

After the game, our friends said that he could have just plowed his own 20/20 and then just made another one as he had a stronghold in play and loam in hand. thank goodness he didn't see that line of play or else I would have died but I shouldn't have relied on the bobs to kill him as the bobs just gave him too much advantage with the lands. It was definately a weird coincidence as he should have died to the bobs way earlier.

3-1 (7-5)

Round 5 - Alex (???) Intentional draw!!!

Top 8 was Affinity, Burn, BUG Control, U/B Control, Merfolk, Deadguy, G/W Maverick and ?? I got paired up with the person I drew with in round 5 unfortunately.

Quarterfinals - Alex (Deadguy)

Game 1: He mulled to 6 and then played a land, chrome mox tried a bob. I forced that and then that was it for him as he didn't play another spell or land for the next couple of turns and somehow his life went from 17 -> 6 in one turn and he just died next turn.

Sideboard: -3 Daze, +2 Pithing Needle, +1 Dismember

Game 2: I had to mull to 6 and he kept his 7. I had a 2 island, 2 mutavault hand with some other creatures and felt like I could keep it. He kept a god awful hand as he went turn 1 wasteland, top, turn 2 wasteland go. I felt like I should have tried to bait him to use his wastelands with my two mutavaults but I didn't have a vial and wanted to build up some threats before trying to bait him to use the wastelands. I ended up not playing any mutavaults at all as I just kept on drawing lords and he didn't draw a colored mana until the turn I killed him.

Sucks to have these type of games in the top 8 but what can you do. I'll take whatever i can get.

Top 4 ended up being BUG Control, U/B Control, Affinity and Merfolk. As it was a long day, we decided to split.

Afterthoughts:
- Today's the first time I've tried out Umezawa's Jitte in the deck and I didn't cast it once. I know it's a great card but it always seems like when I draw it, i wish it was something else.
- I'm using the needles so much, feels like I should have four in the sideboard.
- I felt like I wanted to play Standstill again in this deck at many points in the tournament but that was probably because I didn't see a whole lot of stoneforge mystics.
- This is probably the last time I'll play this deck. It feels so underpowered but then you just win out of nowhere. Every time I won it feels like I got lucky somehow. It's not what I expected from playing what's supposed to be a top tier deck.

[Julian23]

Sideboard: -2 Dismember, -1 Umezawa's Jitte, +3 Spell Pierce.
I wish i could have taken out the last jitte but there's literally nothing else to board in.

There is! You can always use Relic of Progenitus to cycle which is a quite common sb technique for this deck. Also, Pithing Needle can name his fetchlands.

[bakofried]

Actually, that wasn't a bad tournament run. You hit basically even to poor MU's throughout the tournament, with Hive Mind being you're only truly positive MU. So yeah, it would feel like it was pretty close.