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Thread: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

  1. #61
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Bahra's Spicy Popcorn woke my interest for this deck again. Should we try Voice of Resurgence and/or Hallowed Spiritkeeper? The 2nd one is good with Fauna Shaman.

    Current list:
    4 Birds of Paradise
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Dryad Arbor
    2 Tradewind Rider
    1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
    4 Meddling Mage
    4 Fauna Shaman
    2 Merieke Ri Berit
    1 Qasali Pridemage
    1 Izzet Staticaster
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    2 Quirion Ranger
    2 Phantasmal Image
    3 Mother of Runes
    1 Samut, Voice of Dissent
    1 Peacekeeper
    1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
    1 Baleful Strix

    4 Green Sun's Zenith
    4 Force of Will
    3 Spell Pierce

    // 15 Land
    1 Forest
    2 Tropical Island
    2 Savannah
    1 Bayou
    1 Taiga
    2 Misty Rainforest
    2 Verdant Catacombs
    2 Windswept Heath
    2 Wooded Foothills


    // 15 Sideboard
    2 Faerie Macabre
    1 Containment Priest
    1 Izzet Staticaster
    1 Reclamation Sage
    1 Magus of the Moon
    1 Orzhov Pontiff
    1 Viashino Heretic
    1 Spellskite
    1 Phyrexian Revoker
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    2 Surgical Extraction
    1 Meekstone
    1 Negate

    Mostly a pretty clean list.
    Maybe Samut/Strix are too cute and Spellskite/Revoker should be in the main, but I kinda like this build.
    I want to give Tradewind/Force of Will a try, and to make Rider and Merieke good, I put in Samut, Voice of Dissident. I also thought about other haste enables, but wasn't satisfied with any of them.
    Phantasmal Image gives great flexibility, especially with the Mages.
    The sideboard is tailored to the meta: Viashino Heretic is a hedge for Steel Stompy, Tezzerator and D&T. 2 Surgical 2 Macabre 1 Priest to have a better reanimator/dredge matchup. Meekstone to help vs. Delver. Czech Pile should be an interesting and fine matchup.

    EDIT: I realized that I might have too few ETB creatures for 2 Phantasmal Image. Although I might want to copy opposing creatures or Mage most of the time...
    and I might need something for TurboDepths other than Magus.
    Last edited by Alexeezay; 04-20-2018 at 08:33 AM.

  2. #62
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    @Alexeezay: Very nice to see you revisit the deck! I'll just give a very quick answer now, since I should be working. :) Also I didn't test much lately, I try to work on a couple of other decks right now.

    I think we can definitely use Bahra's success to guide us in experiments. I don't like Samut much but it's not a bad card, you try it and let us know how you feel about it. I've been fiddling with different versions of the deck, like I've been writing this spring I've tried an Aluren version with more value creatures including Recruiter of the Guard, Baleful Strix etc and this is already getting close to Spicy Popcorn. I even wrote down a list with 4 Cabal Therapy and a Veteran Explorer the night before he posted, making it even closer. I don't like Hallowed Spiritkeeper, in theory, because it's kept in check by Deathrite Shaman. We don't overload the board with card advantage creatures like that list does, buuut we could go more in that direction (which I have been trying too). I have been talking about Hangarback Walker repeatedly lately, unfortunately not testing much, but that card does what Hallowed Spiritkeeper does without exposing itself to opposing Deathrites AND having great synergy with Scryb Ranger.

    Another topic, I would suggest you look at Demonic_Pact's list and work from that, since it seemed to be working well. I playtested it a bit and it seemed alright.

    Also, I watched Phil Gallagher's stream on RW taxes with Shalai and it came up once when I was looking and it could have been a real game winner, countering a Hymn and locking down the board. It will be very interesting to try it.

    Oh yeah, one more thing, try to always use the cards-tags since we have so many strange cards in our lists, making it easy for anyone to follow: [ cards ] [ / cards ]

  3. #63
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Hello again

    Another outing with the deck at GP Birmingham. Went 5-3 so unfortunately didn't make day 2. No Byes. Don't remember too much about the games as it is a while ago so I'll just post the results...

    Wins:
    2-0 vs. Grixis Delver
    2-1 vs. Burn
    2-0 vs. ANT
    2-0 vs. Slow Depths
    2-0 vs. Miracles
    Losses:
    1-2 vs. Grixis Delver
    1-2 vs. Czech Pile
    1-2 vs. Turbo Depths

    Decklist: I added Shalai to the maindeck, she performed really well. Card is sick in our deck. I put her in the Glen Elendra slot and moved Glen to the sideboard, making some changes there as well...

    1 Dryad Arbor
    3 Birds of Paradise
    3 Mother of Runes
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Fauna Shaman
    1 Qasali Pridemage
    2 Scryb Ranger
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    1 Phyrexian Revoker
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Spellstutter Sprite
    2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
    1 Sanctum Prelate
    1 Orzhov Pontiff
    1 Spell Queller
    1 Renegade Rallier
    1 True-Name Nemesis
    1 Vendilion Clique
    1 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
    1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
    4 Aether Vial
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Green Sun's Zenith
    2 Abrupt Decay
    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    4 Windswept Heath
    4 Misty Rainforest
    2 Bayou
    2 Tropical Island
    2 Savannah
    1 Tundra
    1 Forest

    SB:
    1 Ethersworn Canonist
    1 Meddling Mage
    1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    2 Sanctum Prelate
    2 Gilded Drake
    3 Faerie Macabre
    1 Thrun, the last Troll
    1 Glen Elendra Archmage
    1 Mirran Crusader
    1 Reclamation Sage
    1 Palace Jailer


    Played some side events too, doing reasonably well. Deck still is amazingly fun to play and the blowouts are soooo real ;)
    Spellstutter Sprite is probably getting cut, not sure what I'll put in there though. I might also trim one of the Prelates out of the sideboard. Double Gilded Drake is correct I think as it's key against Depths, Lands and S&T. The rest of the sideboard felt good, Palace Jailer standing out especially.

  4. #64

    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Good to hear you again and good results having no bye, i've would have loved a Day 2 Most =)
    In these weeks i'm testing a list very similar to yours:

    +1 Bop
    +1 Mother
    +1 Leovold (can cut one and go back to 2 easily)
    +1 Quirion
    +1 Glen Elendra

    -1 Revoker (SB)
    -1 Sprite
    -1 Nemesis
    -1 Pontiff (Sb)
    -1 Scryb

    And my sb is:

    2 Sanctum Prelate
    1 Orzhov Pontiff
    1 Phyrexian Revoker
    1 Tidehollow Sculler
    2 Gilded Drake (testing from your suggestion)
    1 Palace Jailer (as above)
    2 Rest in Peace
    2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
    3 Thoughtseize

    Probably i would love the 3° RiP.
    Gilded Drake is obv good against S&T, but against land and turbo depths it's harder. But i don't think this is the best meta for the fifth color and Magus of the Moon, so it's ok.
    Probably i'll add a Nemesis and i'll go down to 2 leovold again and see

  5. #65

    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    No more FoW I see, is this because FS ability to tutor/shuffle that this brainstorm becomes much more powerful?

  6. #66
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Quote Originally Posted by Xod View Post
    No more FoW I see, is this because FS ability to tutor/shuffle that this brainstorm becomes much more powerful?
    Just as a short answer, FoW is usually changing between maindeck, sideboard and exclusion. It is useful vs fast combo and sweepers, mostly, and there are different ways to fight both. It seems like perhaps combo decks are not very popular right now, compared to the last couple of years, which would further motivate not playing it right now. You see blue decks not playing FoW too sometimes, as a meta decision, to help build card advantage in grindy matchups.

    @ Demonic Pact: Thanks again for sharing! Always nice to read about your experiences. Hopefully I'll get back to testing soon, I've tried put a list together many times but get diverted by other interesting decks.. I however still think Aluren is a good way to go, since it is based on card advantage creatures which are useful vs Pile and since it offers a combo win, which is perhaps a bit hard for these fair decks to interact with. But it quickly turns into a challenge of choosing what creatures to keep and how to not play too many non-creatures spells.

  7. #67
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    @Memories of the Time: Those changes look very reasonable. I'm a strong advocate of Orzhov Pontiff as I think the card is amazing. Both my friends who day2-ed Birmingham with D&T were playing MD copies...but depending on your metagame SB might be better :)
    I'll be interested in how your testing with the non-creature SB cards goes, perhaps I'm just too tunnel visioned on having cards I can tutor up ;) also interested in how Tidehollow Sculler performs. I have previously played a SB copy of Sin Collector and not sure if this is better or worse, I guess it really depends. You having an extra MoR probably makes it better too...
    On the Gilded Drake topic, against Depths you generally can block at least once with a Birds or something and you can stall out the game indefinitely with a flyer and a MoR a lot. Obviously you'll need a way to beat Sejiri Steppe, multiple colors of flyers being the safest one. If they have the T1/T2 draw they'll often just win but we often look like a Wasteland deck since we open similar to Maverick builds quite a lot so they tend to waste time Needling Wasteland etc. Oh and beware that some of them board in Not of this World to counter Swords to Plowshares and it will also hit the Gilded Drake trigger (they may or may not know this ^^)
    Vs. Lands I find I lose to Tabernacle the most. Card is just absurdly good against us. Recurring Punishing Fires can also win them the game but are far easier to disrupt. The 20/20 out of lands usually isn't too scary as we have plenty of time to set up and Flyer+MoR tends to be fine (these matches are super intricate and if you have a lot of practice you'll do much better than if you don't. Luckily for me about 3 people show up on lands every week at my LGS and I've had plenty of practice). Vial helps sooo much in this matchup but you very often can find a way to police their graveyard or a Prelate on 2 to shut off the Loam/Fire engine. From there you want Flyer+MoR in play to stop Marit Lage and you really want to leave up a counter (Glen/Sprite/Queller) for a Crop Rotation since if you can keep them off Tabernacle the game is a LOT easier. They still can just naturally draw it though and they often also have Molten Vortex and/or Barbarian Ring for you to consider...so from here you want to win as quickly as possible. This is one of the stops TNN shines as it can get through Maze which otherwise is hard or even impossible if you're restricted to 3/4 creatures due to Tabernacle. Hard matchup, lots of thinking, with practice I think you're quite favored though.
    Palace Jailer is great. 4 mana exile removal, Monarch is superb in grindy games and many decks just can't get it back off you. Plus half the people at GPs don't know what the card does and just kill Jailer thinking they'll get their thing back ^^.


    Re: Force of Will:
    2 reasons I'm not running it atm. 1) There's not that much combo around and 2) the combo decks that are around can usually fight through a FoW anyway. Knowing your matchups and when you can/can't die, what to name with Meddling Mages/Sanctum Prelates and when to leave up mana for Spell Queller etc. or when to proactively play something like Teeg/Thalia makes or breaks your win percentages. I play this deck a lot and still make mistakes in these areas. But I believe all the combo matchups are winable without Force.

    In conclusion, play what you know and think will do well in your metagame. Your deckbuilding choices really matter as you will see singletons a lot more than in any other deck I've experienced. But knowing what's right/wrong is sometimes impossible as it depends on what you end up facing...

  8. #68

    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    @Demonic: totally agree, i've beaten 2 Lands yesterday confirming your words (Tabernace, Prelate, TNN against Maze).

    My biggest fear is BR reanimator, that's more common on mtgo. Probably i'll need a Faerie Macabre to have another source of hate, and your config with 3 of them and no RiP is obv better but loses a good card against many other decks like bgx. Still unsure

  9. #69
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Hello, all,

    Took the deck out for its first spin at the LGS Tuesday Night Legacy. Let's say the results were not fantastic. 3 match losses, one bye. One game actually won.

    I used Demonic Pact's list for my main deck, with some changes to the sideboard:

    1 Dryad Arbor
    3 Birds of Paradise
    3 Mother of Runes
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Fauna Shaman
    1 Qasali Pridemage
    2 Scryb Ranger
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    1 Phyrexian Revoker
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Spellstutter Sprite
    2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
    1 Sanctum Prelate
    1 Orzhov Pontiff
    1 Spell Queller
    1 Renegade Rallier
    1 True-Name Nemesis
    1 Vendilion Clique
    1 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
    1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
    4 Aether Vial
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Green Sun's Zenith
    2 Abrupt Decay
    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    4 Windswept Heath
    4 Misty Rainforest
    2 Bayou
    2 Tropical Island
    2 Savannah
    1 Tundra
    1 Forest

    SB:
    1 Ethersworn Canonist
    1 Meddling Mage
    1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    2 Sanctum Prelate
    1 Gilded Drake
    2 Faerie Macabre
    1 Thrun, the last Troll
    1 Glen Elendra Archmage
    1 Mirran Crusader
    1 Reclamation Sage
    1 Merieke Ri Berit
    1 Banewhip Punisher
    1 Hostage Taker

    I used one less Gilded Drake (because I only have one), and replaced it with Merieke Ri Berit; Banewhip Punisher got the nod over Palace Jailer; Hostage Taker came in as extra artifact and creature removal.


    Matchups were Grixis Delver (1-2), a UWR brew that combined Monastery Mentor, oodles of cantrips, and Grove of the Burnwillows with Punishing Fire (0-2), a bye (we were 21 players, and I got awarded the Bye; I would have preferred to play some games, though), and Abzan Death's Shadow (0-2). Despite lousy results

    Some particular points on the matches.
    1) Against Grixis Delver - the second game showed off what the deck is capable of. Hold off flipped Delvers with Scryb Ranger (Vialed in), tutor for Orzhov Prelate, and Vial it in to kill Pyromancer and three elementals, protect everything from lightning bolts with Mother of Runes (twice in a turn, after untapping her with Scryb Ranger) Tutor for Atraxa, get her into play, protect her with Mother of Runes, and win.
    The other two games were close.
    2) Against the Punishing Fire deck - I got Truename Nemesis down very fast,holding up Spell Queller. When I got my opponent to around 5 life, he fired off Council's Judgment, which I tried to Spell Queller, but my Queller got countered by Force of Will. Then he took over the game with Punishing Fire, and Mentor. Second game - Punishing Fire and Grove of the Burnwillows on turn two, thank you for playing.
    3) Abzan Death's Shadow. As it turns out, two Aether Vials by turn 2 amount to very little when you get Hymn'd a couple of times, and Thoughtseized the rest of the time. Then you get Liliana of the LAst Hope on the table, which keeps on ticking up, until ultimate. Which I don't think we can beat. Game 2, repeat, except substitute Liliana of the Veil for Liliana, the Last Hope.

    So, some lessons learned:
    Atraxa and Shalia are very, very good together. And separately. Hell, they should be put in Battlebond and allowed to partner up. Shalia and Mother of Runes - also pretty great.

    Several games I kept very dubious hands, with bad balances between lands, Aether Vials, and Fauna Shamans. I think this is due to lack of experience with this deck; when I play (not often), I tend to play Modern Toolbox decks, which run a higher land count. I also don't play Aether Vial decks all that often, and I forgot the upkeep trigger a couple of times when I really should not have.

    Very impressed by Scryb Ranger, and Mother of Runes.

    I was a bit underwhelmed by Deathrite Shaman in this deck. The mana fixing seems to be less of an issue, between Aether Vial and Birds of Paradise; and the other abilities were a bit "meh", but maybe the matchups were not great: the Delver Deck got its own Deathrite Shamans online to stop mine; the Punishing Fire deck used Grove of the Burnwillows to dodge my Scavenging Ooze and the Deathrite Shaman's abilitiy; and the Death's Shadow deck loved the life loss.

    I did not draw Renegade Rallier, but I've got a dubious feeling about him.

    So, anyhoo, of course I was wondering how I could fit some of my pet cards in this deck. Pretty sure that some of these were discussed and dismissed before, so indulge me.

    Eternal Witness instead of Renegade Rallier. While I see it can be used to get Aether Vial and Fauna Shaman back from the Graveyard, I did not really get into a situation where I needed that. What I did get a couple of times, was an overwhelming desire to get Truename, Leovold, or one of the Angel Twins back into my hand to vial them in again. The sample size of my experience is small, of course.

    Undertaker (Fauna Shaman's graveyard focused buddy) - for the same reason. The issue here might be the (B) activation cost. Bayou being the only black-producing land, and Legacy being a format where Wastelands are a dime a dozen, and lightning bolts hit Birds of Paradise with glee, it may not be the best idea.

    Vedalken Mastermind - sort of a Tradewind Rider "light", in that it only gets your own permanents back. Useful for re-buying ETB effects, counter a Wasteland activation, save a chump blocker, or re-set an Aether Vial.

    Stoneforge Mystic - Umezawa's Jitte is a great card (of course), but I would like to actually draw it. It is Truename Nemesis's best friend.

    I would be inclined to cut one Leovold (they can be tutored for, and two seem a bit much; especially since the card draw trigger does not play very nicely with Shalia's hexproof), and perhaps the Deathrite Shamans. On the other hand, Deathrite Shaman is as iconic a creature as they get.

  10. #70
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    First of all, very welcome here! So nice to see new posters try the deck as well as sharing their experiences here.. Sad to hear you made a 0-3, but it is a complicated deck to play and even with experience it can be hard to win. The starting hands can be hard to evaluate, I sometimes get these clunky hands that do nothing until t2 which feels bad, and considering how much ramp we tend to play. Some hands don't play out well. Also, changing 1-2 cards can drastically change your chances in certain matchups.

    Quote Originally Posted by Taramawn View Post
    2) Against the Punishing Fire deck - I got Truename Nemesis down very fast,holding up Spell Queller. When I got my opponent to around 5 life, he fired off Council's Judgment, which I tried to Spell Queller, but my Queller got countered by Force of Will. Then he took over the game with Punishing Fire, and Mentor. Second game - Punishing Fire and Grove of the Burnwillows on turn two, thank you for playing.
    Punishing Fire can be tough, getting Mother online is a possible answer, with Scryb Ranger, or getting Scavenging Ooze with some creatures in the graveyard and some mana available. You can vial it in when they try to fire some creature EOT to snipe it from the graveyard. Probably you realize these things but worth mentioning. Also Sanctum Prelate and Meddling Mage of course offer an answer. And I like to play 1-2 Leyline of the Void in the board, very helpful vs P.Fire-decks.

    3) Abzan Death's Shadow. As it turns out, two Aether Vials by turn 2 amount to very little when you get Hymn'd a couple of times, and Thoughtseized the rest of the time. Then you get Liliana of the LAst Hope on the table, which keeps on ticking up, until ultimate. Which I don't think we can beat. Game 2, repeat, except substitute Liliana of the Veil for Liliana, the Last Hope.
    For sure these planeswalkers coupled with removal (or equivalently discard) can be tough to beat. Aether Vial really helps vs them though, because you vial your creatures in EOT so they cannot use their planeswalkers vs them, maybe they don't save blockers or you put in a creature with evasion, and you get to get rid of them. Also Mother of Runes vialled in EOT often survives until the next turn, offering protection vs the Liliana. TNN obviously is great at that. Also Vial lets you put multiple creatures into play quickly, not to mention our often explosive starts, which help vs these planeswalkers. So we don't autolose to them, but sometimes they get the upper hand. If you meet these planeswalkers and removal heavy decks often it is definitely reason to consider changing the deck to adjust to it. Which I have been discussing in many posts over the last 4-5 months. Also, Meren is great at winning back loads of card disadvantage from Hymns etc, but you must be able to keep Deathrites away then and most answers are red.

    Eternal Witness instead of Renegade Rallier. While I see it can be used to get Aether Vial and Fauna Shaman back from the Graveyard, I did not really get into a situation where I needed that. What I did get a couple of times, was an overwhelming desire to get Truename, Leovold, or one of the Angel Twins back into my hand to vial them in again. The sample size of my experience is small, of course.
    There is no clear answer here, I think Meren of Clan Nel Toth is much better than these since it allows you to win back an otherwise lost game. On the other hand, both Witness and Rallier let you get lands back, which is sometimes crucial. If you want to play Eternal Witness, the Rallier is definitely one flex spot that you can feel very free to experiment with.

    Undertaker (Fauna Shaman's graveyard focused buddy) - for the same reason. The issue here might be the (B) activation cost. Bayou being the only black-producing land, and Legacy being a format where Wastelands are a dime a dozen, and lightning bolts hit Birds of Paradise with glee, it may not be the best idea.
    Well, Fauna Shaman finds any card in your deck while Undertaker requires you to have already found the card. So I'd say it doesn't replace Fauna Shaman. However, it does a similar thing to Meren, but Meren does it with card advantage and with a 3/4 body (and after a few turns it even starts generating mana kind of like Vial does by putting creatures straight into play). I say go for Meren over Undertaker, especially if you have Aether Vials (meaning you reach 4 mana very easily and get to vial in returned creaures). But, like with most things, if you like it - you try it! It's very hard to assess what is really better without playing it.

    Vedalken Mastermind - sort of a Tradewind Rider "light", in that it only gets your own permanents back. Useful for re-buying ETB effects, counter a Wasteland activation, save a chump blocker, or re-set an Aether Vial.
    I'd say this is too cute, you want to be able to interact with the opponent primarily, bouncing your own permanents can be good at times but more often you will be worrying about what the opponent is doing. If you are going to play this, you need to have some very strong ETB effects to use it with.

    Stoneforge Mystic - Umezawa's Jitte is a great card (of course), but I would like to actually draw it. It is Truename Nemesis's best friend.
    If you check my lists you'll see I've often been playing a Stoneforge to find the Jitte, sometimes a Batterskull too (vialling in stoneforge EOT lets you often untap and put the Batterskull into play undisturbed).

    I would be inclined to cut one Leovold (they can be tutored for, and two seem a bit much; especially since the card draw trigger does not play very nicely with Shalia's hexproof), and perhaps the Deathrite Shamans. On the other hand, Deathrite Shaman is as iconic a creature as they get.
    This is the second time I see the argument that Leovold and Shalia don't work well together, I think it is a strong misunderstanding. You don't want your opponent to destroy your Leovold, you'd much rather have it in play since it invalidates their card draw and much other interaction. It's an advantage, not a disadvantage, that Shalia protects Leovold. Also, Leovold can singlehandedly win in some matchups and provides very relevant interaction with some other, and the vial of Leovold in response to Brainstorm is backbreaking. If you want to play 1, you can do that, but it's a very good card and few decks get to play it with Ather Vial and Mother of Runes. You were talking about being hymned and losing to a Liliana the Last Hope, Leovold would be good in such a situation to prevent Liliana from being efficient and recovering lost cards from Hymn.
    Last edited by pettdan; 05-24-2018 at 09:08 AM.

  11. #71

    M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    I have to agree with Dan after playing Leo in several different deck. A deck with vial, mother and shalai sounds like the best, or one of the best, home for it.
    The strongest part if Leo's ability is preventing opponent of cantripping.
    Last edited by JackaBo; 05-26-2018 at 03:56 AM.

  12. #72
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Hi Taramawn, excellent to see you around, thanks for posting your experiences here :)

    First off I hope you had fun and won't get too disheartened by the results, pettdan is absolutely right when he says it's a complicated deck to pick up and you gain a lot of percentage points in basically every matchup by knowing it well ;)

    @everyone: She's called Shalai, not Shalia :P

    regarding the single cards that were mentioned, these are the more flexible slots we usually discuss and what ends up being or not being good can heavily depend on the meta/matchups so take everything with a grain of salt...regardless, these are my opinions:

    DRS:
    This not being a 100% reliable mana source definitely is a downside, especially if you want to use it multiple times with Scryb Ranger or vs. opposing Deathrites...still, the card is super strong (obviously) and being able to use its other abilities with Scryb Ranger or winning "deathrite wars" due to being able to activate twice a turn is very powerful. I think here's it's important to strike a balance where you leave yourself with enough reliable mana sources (Birds, Zenith for 0) and enough power to improve your average draw (DRS)...

    Renegade Rallier / Eternal Witness / Meren of Clan Nel Toth:
    First off, all of these are bad vs. opposing DRS...I play Rallier over Witness because i believe Witness is just too slow if you don't have an Aether Vial. Rallier is a tempo+value play, Witness is a solely value play. I could be wrong, I should try Witness again I can definitely see the upside.
    I still like the idea of Meren, but it just gets shut off by DRS and I want it in the slow, grindy matchups - all of which seem to have DRS :/ I currently have Thrun in that slot for matchups like Czech Pile...

    Undertaker:
    See pettdans reasoning

    Vedalken Mastermind:
    Bouncing my own stuff isn't really the main thing I'd be looking for in Tradewind Rider...it's soooo slow without Aether Vial even though it can save your things from removal. But the deck just doesn't play enough ETB creatures atm to make it worth it.

    Stoneforge Mystic:
    Definitely not wrong to play one. I've talked about this before, I don't feel the need to tutor for Jitte. Wanting Stoneforge in the deck assumes the following scenario: I have an active Fauna Shaman and I want one of the effects from Umezawa's Jitte. If I want the -1/-1 effect, I'll find Orzhov Pontiff instead. If I need the lifegain, I'll find something like Atraxa. If I want the pump effect to quickly close out the game/kill planeswalkers I'll find TNN/Atraxa...I play Jitte because it's really good, that's all. I don't necessarily need to find it in specific situations.

    Leovold:
    Card is great. I agree with pettdan, it's excellent with Shalai...they have to 2 for 1 themselves to get the Shalai off the table and then you've still got Leovold being there and being annoying. What's important here is that you often don't realise just how much work Leovold is doing, because it tends to shut off the cards your opponent therefore doesn't play, so you might not realise. Plus, when you said you wanted to Witness it back, having the 2nd available seems reasonable ;)

    vs. Punishing Fire:
    Shutting off Fire is often one of the most important things in these matchups. Meddling Mage and Prelate are usually the best, Ooze can work too and sometimes even DRS but unreliably.

    vs. LTLH / Hymn to Tourach:
    It happens. Sometimes there's little you can do...

    generally regarding Mulligans:
    Hands with no turn 1 play are almost always bad except in certain slower matchups if the rest of the hand is excellent. 1 land is very often keepable, depending on play/draw and whether you think you will just flat out lose to one removal spell/Daze and how well you'll do against Daze+Wasteland etc...Vial is the best card in any opening hand. Knowing your game plan vs. their game plan is obviously key so it's hard to generalize...

    my 2 cents as usual ;)

    I was at MKM Hamburg last weekend with the deck, I waited too long to post again so no detailed reports, results I remember:
    3-1 and 2-2 in trials, don't remember the matchups too well. 4-2-1 in the main event I think before we dropped for food.
    Main event: (order might be wrong)
    Bye
    0-2 Mono Red Prison (T1 Chalice, T2 Blood Moon and then T1 Chalice, T2 Volcanic Fallout, not a lot of Magic)
    2-0 Grixis Delver
    1-1 BUG Nic Fit (Remember throwing Game 2 where I attacked with a Prelate on 3 into a DRS and missed that he could fetch for Dryad Arbor to trade off the Prelate then lost to Toxic)
    2-1 Lands
    1-2 Grixis Delver (I remember a lot of mulligans)
    2-0 Lands

    I played the Meddling Mage MD and cut the Spellstutter Sprite. Felt good. Filled the sideboard slot with a Peacekeeper which I think should have been good but I didn't see it ever...

  13. #73
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Thanks for all the feedback, guys. I know that, like any Toolbox deck it's a tricky one to play, and going into the Tuesday night event, I did not expect to do all that well. And I did not :-), so it is nice to be right! I don't let a minor issue like 0-3 discourage me, or I'd quit Magic years ago. So, I'll make some changes to my deck list (I think I really do want a Peacekeeper in there), and get out there as soon as I get an opportunity.

    Potentially of interest; Jeff Hoogland playing a league on MTGO with the deck HERE

  14. #74
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Supersweet, Taramawn, the primer is updated with a link to that stream. I just checked the first 30 minutes and it's quite similar to my experience of playing vs Pile, some more card advantage is needed, perhaps, to keep up with that deck. Or better luck, of course.

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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Saw the video too. Tbh he actually played quite well considering he's never piloted the deck before.
    He also makes a point about needing to interact on T1 or play some degenerate combo yourself. I think this is part of the reason he doesn't really like the format and regarding the MTGO metagame he is probably correct...if I were to play the deck online I would play the SB set of FoWs since I have heard it is infested with BR Reanimator and similar decks...

    Tuning for czech pile makes you eant to be greedier and grindier, neither of which helps vs Delver decks and here there are a lot of those so I can't step too far in that direction...but the deck is flexible and tuneable and even changing 2-3 slots is super noticeable when playing. So in a different meta I could totally see playing more card advantage eg Tireless Tracker, Eternal Witness, Meren, ...

  16. #76
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Thank you @pettdan for putting together a new primer for this. I've been wanting to see this list revived for a while as it's a longtime secret love of mine.
    Whack lists currently playing:
    Rector Nic Fit
    Bizarro Stormy
    Rest In Pieces

  17. #77
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Quote Originally Posted by Kyle View Post
    Thank you @pettdan for putting together a new primer for this. I've been wanting to see this list revived for a while as it's a longtime secret love of mine.
    You're welcome Kyle! Hopefully the primer helps attract some new eyes on this deck so it can improve and spread. We've seen recently it can still do well at large events so there's plenty of opportunity for testing and development. So.. How did you find the deck, to start with? Have you played it? Any feedback and ideas you bring are, of course, welcome and appreciated.

    @Alexeeezay: did you test the popcorn inspired list? How did it go?

  18. #78
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Not much time to test atm since I'm trying various Lands builds, but Hallowed Spiritkeeper is great vs. Pile.

  19. #79
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    more match reports :)

    played a local tournament on Sunday, sadly didn't top8 so list isn't gonna be on mtgtop8 again, which sucks because my last one has fallen out of last 2 months now ;)
    Was 4-1 looking to ID the last round, but i got hit with the pairdown and lost. It happens...

    There was a stream and i played on camera twice, here are the links:
    sadly the twitch vods are now no longer availble
    notes: life totals aren't working for G1 of the Maverick match, also seems to have no sound for a while. And yes, I have habit of overly flicking my card sin my hand, somehow moving my hands seems to help me think, sorry in advance if it annoys anyone ;)

    list: The usual, might be a few cards different in the board, i don't really know
    decklist

    R1: 2-0 vs. BUG Control
    Seems like he was rather control heavy, didn't see any TNNs which is probably worse for us since I'd rather be racing TNN than playing against MORE removal spells...plus them not having that ups the chance they have Toxic but maybe he just didn't draw them.
    G1 I straight up outvalued him. Scryb Ranger protected me from Wasteland, Pontiff killed 2 Strixes, a Rallier got back a Mother that he had to kill again...eventually I ended up sticking a Fauna Shaman and then a Leovold. Clique with Leovold was enough to prompt a concession.
    G2 I stuck a Jitte on a TNN which is still stupidly good. He could have maybe raced since he had 2 Snaps and 2 Strix in play with a Leovold so killing things was awkward, but I had Pontiff again which was an allstar this match and killed his board allowing me to use Jitte proactively to close the game.

    R2: 2-0 vs. Maverick
    I knew he was on Maverick so G1 I kept a rather low power hand with Scryb and Pontiff guessing that the Wasteland protection would be good and the Pontiff was obviously bound to be great. Was doing relatively little early on and he found a Jitte with SFM. I considered Pontiffing a Mother of Runes but decided to save it (had vial in play). Key turn was when he put the Jitte on SFM, at which point I had a non-active Mother in play and 2 Scryb Rangers so the Jitte connecting would have been lights out. However I had the Pontiff still which killed Mother and Thalia and also blanked the Jitte because the SFM had 0 power. Untapped with Mother+double Scryb and game was done.
    G2 he mulled to 6 and kept Knight+double Swords I think. I killed the Knight on T3 by having Scryb+DRS to exile both his lands and get enough mana to play and equip Jitte which connected and killed Knight. Then probably got too greedy the next turn when I went for Queller on his Swords and he had a second one. I thought connecting with the Jitte would be enough to make it impossible for him to turn the game around, but prob should have just let it resolve and gotten TNN to vial in endstep and put the Jitte on. Regardless, he was flooded and had no way back.

    R3: 0-2 vs. Lands
    This matchup still feels really close but super swingy...if they get a good start and especially if they draw Tabernacle you often can't play at all (i know, that's what lands does).
    G1 he had Waste+Quarter into T3 Marit Lage. I also drew the basic naturally which didn't help...I had a Scryb Ranger in play and a Vial and just GSZ for a Fauna Shaman, realising that if I got a second flyer I'd never be able to beat Marit Lage but just leaving myself dead to Fire this turn instead, so all I could do was hope. He had it. I died.
    G2 he drew triple Wasteland and double GQ. I had a Vial but quickly had no lands left. He also found a Krosan Grip for my Vial. I got rid of his Loam very early with a Faerie Macabre so nothing happened for quite a while but eventually he drew into another Loam and I had no way back vs. Tabernacle and more land destruction waiting to eat my lands and therefore my creatures.

    R4: 2-1 vs. Sneak and Show
    I guessed he was on sneak due to the T1 Tarn->Island->Preordain. I was on the play and went T1 Trop+Birds, with Trop being my only land. T2 I had a Meddling Mage in hand which I could have just played naming Show and Tell but I also had a Brainstorm and it felt like my hand wouldn't do enough if I missed my land drop and just played the Mage so went for BS first. Found a land but sadly it was a Bayou so could no longer follow up with Meddling Mage. He had T2 land, petal, Show, Omni, Emrakul so I lost. Perhaps I was too greedy holding the Mage. Finding a non-Bayou non-Forest land however would have meant going Mage into Prelate which would have probably won me the game. Played to win and not to not lose but not sure if I was wrong.
    G2 I had a Vial into T2 revoker naming Sneak, T3 vial in Mage on Pyroclasm and play Prelate on 3. This locks out most of his ways to do anything and I had a Glen Elendra the next turn which locked up the game.
    G3 he mulliganed to 6 and didn't seem to have an optimal draw. I remember Sin Collecter taking his Show and Tell and a Glen Elendra being around to cover me from anything bad he would draw. Game ended rather quickly.

    R5: 2-0 vs. UR Control
    He got a gameloss G1 as he got deckchecked and had an error in the list.
    G2 He played a Brainstorm, I played a T2 Prelate, he brainstormed in response but it resolved (naming 1). After that he played a TNN and conceded not long after with no plays through the Prelate (not attacking with it was key as he did have a Snapcaster that would have unlocked his hand by trading with the Prelate. Still, unfortunate draw for my opponent.

    was in 6th here I think so looking to ID the last round but unfortunately we were an odd number of X-1s and X-0-1s and the pairdown hit me (feels bad).

    R6: 1-2 vs. Sneak and Show
    Didn't know what he was playing. G1 I kept a hand that was decent but turned out to be bad in the matchup (no interaction with his combo at all). He Sneak attacked an Emrakul and a Griselbrand on T4 (maybe T5 not sure). I definitely misplayed here, I had 9 permanents and kept Vial, Atraxa, Mother of Runes and blocked Emrakul. I should have used Mother in response to the Annihilator trigger to give Atraxa Pro Black and kept Trop, Vial, Atraxa and then blocked the Griselbrand preventing his lifegain and keeping a clock alive. This would have given me outs to draw Revoker or Pridemage or even Brainstorm into Revoker. Alternatively he could have bricked. It didn't matter as I got Emrakuled again the next turn, but still was definitely bad play from me.
    G2 he had a Grim Lavamancer which was annoying but I had enough pieces to disrupt him and eventually ended up beating down with Teeg and Prelate on 3 backed up with Glen Elendra.
    G3 he had Grim Lavamancer again which did work. He resolved a Show and Tell but only had a Griselbrand to put in. I had Birds and Mother in play so he still needed to find more things to actually kill me but could draw pretty liberally vs. a non-threatening board. I had showed in a Prelate on 3, thus shutting off follow up Show and Tells and the Wishes, Kozileks Returns and Intuitions...but drawing so many he was always likely to find something that got around it and found a Sneak Attack and an Emrakul so I died.



    Thoughts:
    Deck is still fun and pretty great if you're experienced with it and your opponents are not ;)
    I lost the win and in to Sneak and Show but don't necessarily think it's a bad matchup, i actually think it's about 50/50. G1 feels pretty unfavorable, but post sideboard games feel slightly favored as you have multiple hate pieces to stop them from casting their things as well as things like Gilded Drake and Jailer which can do work even if something resolves. I probably should be playing a Containment Priest in the board. It does shut off Vial and GSZ, but against Sneak, Dredge or Reanimator it's just good enough to make it worth it I think.
    Let me know your thoughts. Hope this helps some people and let's you guys help me :)
    Last edited by Demonic Pact; 07-15-2018 at 02:07 PM.

  20. #80

    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    @Demonic Pact: First of all, i've to say that reading your reports it's always a pleasure, they're very insightful and detailed and i'm learning new ways of thinking =)

    Moreover, now we don't have DRS (not a huge change for us, compared to other decks) but we have to see how the meta will change (we hope for a further rising of Miracle without an explosion of Dredge/reanimator and so on) to adapt

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