[Deck] Merfolk

[chmoddity]

Played this again this past weekend. I lost in top 4 because I am a dumbass. In game three, facing ********, I pretty much had the game in hand. But then I decided to vial out a Seasinger with only two Rishadan Ports in play. The Islands I topdecked the next two turns made it burn that much harder as I got beat down by a Mongoose and a Tarmo.

It wasn't all bad though. I still went 4-2, and I am genuinely happy with my build. I had been toying with a white splash for Swords to plowshares, Sygg, and Mirror Entity. Ehh. Monoblue works better for me.

Excavations is a good idea.

[Jourdelune]

"It wasn't all bad though. I still went 4-2, and I am genuinely happy with my build. I had been toying with a white splash for Swords to plowshares, Sygg, and Mirror Entity. Ehh. Monoblue works better for me."

What have you remove to fit those?

ME is slow... slow... slow... my testing teach me that ME need some kind of outrageous mana for nothing. Merfolk pumps are good enough without him.

If you need some kind of pumping effect against big critters deck, think about the door of destinies (2x for late game used only)... a better Coat of arms (1 less mana, more pump just for you).

Jourdelune

[Kevdog]

My buddy (who admits she is a mediocre magic player) played all 5 color combos of merfolk post morningtide and the UB panned out to be the best with the UU and UG a close second. UW and UR were underpowered in comparison. The mix of free counters, vial, and 7 lords gives the deck a surprising amount of pressure vs. both aggro and control with the control match up being a little easier due to islandwalking.

Mono Blue Merfolk (61 cards)
Spells
4x force of will
4x ponder
3x daze
2x stifle

Enchantments
3x standstill

Artifacts
2x vedalkin shackles
4x aether vial

Creatures
4x mothdust changeling (synergies with grimoire thief and can fly)
4x silvergill adept
4x grimoire thief
4x lord of atlantis
3x merfolk rejery
2x tidal courier
2x rootwater thief

Lands
4x polluted delta
4x mutavault
8x island

Sideboard
3x chill
3x back to basics
3x nix (counters all 0 mana artifacts and opposing force of wills)
3x annul (counters artifacts and random enchantments- survival/humility...)
3x tormod's crypt

The black version:
-2x stifle
-2x vedalkin shackles
-1x tidal courier
-2x rootwater thief
-4x mothdust changeling
-4x island
+4x dark confidant
+3x shriekmaw
+4x nameless inversion
+4x underground sea

The green version:
-2x tidal courier
-2x rootwater thief
-4x mothdust changeling
-4x island
+4x gaea's skyfolk
+4x tarmogoyf
+4x tropical island

The white version:
-1x stifle
-2x vedalkin shackles
-2x tidal courier
-2x rootwater thief
-4x mothdust changeling
-4x polluted delta
-4x island
+4x galina's knight
+3x sygg, river guide
+4x swords to plowshares
+4x flooded strand
+4x tundra

The red version (only 1 tourney with this):
-1x stifle
-2x vedalkin shackles
-2x tidal courier
-2x rootwater thief
-4x mothdust changeling
-4x island
+4x lightning bolt
+3x fire//ice
+4x razorfin hunter
+4x volcanic island

The random one-of stifle in certain versions is present because she is the kind that sees the ones-ofs all the time and loves playing them. Overall the deck tends to hinge upon the vial or the lord of atlantis (depending on the match up) but can win without them, it just takes a little longer.

[Finn]

Does anyone know why so many people are putting Standstill in a deck that is not faster than most of the decks it is hoping to collect against?

Does this actually work?

[idraleo]

are Tidal Warrior really better than Reef Shaman for this deck? shaman chumpblocks as much Lakey as you want and basically don't die by a single Mogg Fanatic. I think that starts Island>Reef Shaman against Goblin is a great deal, and means that his Goblin Lackey won't be useful since he doesn't use a StP or a Pyrokinesis.

And do you really prefer run Stifles maindeck instead of Spell Snare? Snare is a great threat, why don't play it directly by main and set Stifles on sideboard?

[Elfrago]

Tidal Warrior actually -trades- with Lackey. And thats better than blocking it all day long with Reef Shaman.

IMHO stifle is better than snare, simply becouse this deck focuses on mana denial. And stifling a fetchland is good.

[Finn]

I have been fooling with Soldiers recently. But that is neither here nor there. The long and short of it is that I really friggin' like Nameless Inversion. My version right now -I'm actually going to a tournament tonight- has a black splash just for that card. But I am wondering, sort of 11th hour, what else I should alter with this change.

[electrolyze]

in the black splash try out vodalian zombie, hes kinda cool against tarmogoyf what's your new list with black?

[Finn]

Itty bitty tournament report.

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...414#post214414

[AngryTroll]

I've been following the deck since you posted it, Finn...I've got a soft spot for the Merfolk.

In the version running black, did you try Vodalian Zombie? His cost isn't reduced by the Bannerett, and he's only a 2/2 for 2, but when I played with him, his Pro Green was always amazing. Is Seasinger in the sideboard (or the main) just a stronger option than a Pro Green creature that is usually too small to kill Goyf?

[idraleo]

i look your decklist on your report, but mana leak don't seems to be the right card. I think you should run Annull, to get a cheap counterspell to put on Plagues, Moat and it is perfect for Counterbalance, cause he avoids at the same time Spell Snare and Daze if you start first. And moreover, it improves a lot against Stax-based and enchantress. Have you ever tryed it on your sb?

[Finn]

Mana Leak probably is not the right card. Spell Snare was in that spot long enough for me to hate it though. I am beginning to think it could stand to be a good old fashioned Counterspell. I mean, Cabal Therapy or Duress might be a fine choice, but I have ideas about what happens to a deck when only Daze and Force of Will are in it. The short explanation is that I believe it weakens it against particularly smart opponents.

Vodalian Zombie seems like righteous tech against Tarmos, especially Thresh, but that matchup is already very strong.

From your list, I really don't understand your SB. I don't think you need more disruption as you have MD (except the stifle, but it should be MD I think). But you need heavy answers to grave dependant decks, like leyline of planar void. I would also play anti aggro cards, the best one being propaganda, as you have a mana denial strategy. Eventually engineered explosives is also a very useful card in a lot of MUs. Rifter is still a bad MU. Jitte is quite good at winning it (it has to be effective quite early though).

This is at the heart of the matter. Even more than Threshold, the disruption for this deck is extremely narrow. My recent sb was particularly so - graveyard, creature, and combo hate only. So Rifter got the better of me. I'm not saying that the deck needs Rifter hate. Rather, I am complaining about the lack of Merfolk with useful abilities attached. Most of my Merfolk don't actually do anything except enable each other to swarm. We need a Tin-Street Merfolk and a Merfolk Fanatic or something. Nameless Inversion is as close as I can see, and it was oh, so bad. I only hope that night was a fluke.

[idraleo]

i don't think that ******** is a worst mu if they haven't a countertop on board. You got to do 2 or 3 critters, than swing throught blockers thanks to islandwalk ability. I don' think that if you need some cool ability or utility black is the best splash. White gives you plaowshares, Sygg and disenchant effects; and running white, you might think to Mirror Entity, and a more efficent sideboard, something looking like this:

4 tormod's crypt
3-4 Aegis of honor
2-3 disenchant effect like Seal of cleansing-disenchant
2-3 ghostly prison > better than propaganda, it avoids REB's


and some viable metaslot, like Galina's Knight, Tivadar's Crusade, Tempest of Light, Morningtide and more others.

[Maveric78f]

He never meant that threshold was a bad MU to my opinion. He compared the deck with threshold.

Aegis of honor => why would you play that as you are supposed to already race burn ?
Seal of cleansing-disenchant => I played a green splashed version and I never wanted disenchant effects, explosives is all that you need and far less anrrow.
ghostly prison > better than propaganda => wrong because propaganda pitches to FoW. But I would admit that having propaganda n°5-8 can be interesting in some MUs (goblins particularly but also ichorid if you can slow it down enough)
Galina's Knight => completely crappy as it can't block piledriver.
Tivadar's Crusade => you can't afford WW
Tempest of Light => way too narrow and inefficient againt enchentress
Morningtide => seriously ??? Don't you think that tormod is far better ?

From the list of Finn, I don't think that the black splash is worth. The best card for the deck in black is probably dark confidant (and planar void in SB), and in white, it's armageddon (for the SB). If you want to make a heavy merfolk deck, I would recommend to keep to monoblue versions and use bounces to get rid of annoying permanents (annul is also correct), tormod for the yard, and jitte and control magics for creatures (seasinger/mind harness/control magic). For lands, you still have wastelands and ports.

[Hightower]

I went T8 with Merfolk yesterday at a monthly Legacy event, we were 23 players I think..

[Lost to Belcher 1st opponent in T8, I beat him 2-1 earlier. But this time he went turn1 kill first game - he won dice roll - with me sitting with 2 Daze :p second game I had 1 FoW and I lead with Vial then he went went 2x Petal 2x Tinder Wall 3x Rite of Flame -> Empty the Warrens 18 tokens, no way to prevent it with only single FoW]

My conclusion from this tourney/meta: I probably needed to add Stifle.. lost to Deed 2 games and 1 ETW

[Maëlig]

A friend of mine and myself are currently testing a slightly different version. We've cut all the mana-denial aspect of the deck (I already see some people outraged...). The reason for this is that I had the impression it makes the deck more unstable (if you have no fetches to stifle, no non-basic to waste or even a vial on the other side what do you do?). Also, since blood moon is widely played (sometimes even 8x MD) the metagame has adapted to it and it's much harder to mana screw your opponent. Finally, you often don't need mana-denial AND counters, I'd rather cut one of these two for extra draw or tempo (and I'm not prepared to take the free counters out).
We've put the accent on an other aspect of the deck : the great synergy with mutavault / vial and standstill. I admit running standstill in a build with only vial is a bit risky, but with mutavault and a decent clock (faster than the mana-denial version for obvious reasons), it's quite nice.
Here's the list :

16 island
4 mutavault

4 tidal warrior (not so good as in the mana-denial version oc, but is still correct and can save mutavault from wasteland)
4 silvergill adept
4 lord of atlantis
4 merrow reejerey
3 seasinger (bit of a weak spot but haven't find smt better)

4 daze
4 fow
2 spellsnare
4 vial
4 standstill
3 aquitect's will

Side :
4 chill
4 beb
4 tormod's crypt
3 piracy charm

The side is still largely improvable I think, but at least this version is prepared to face goblins and dragon stompy.
Your opinion?

[Willoe]

Main: (60)

16 Island

4 Wasteland

4 Silvergill Adept

4 Tidal Warrior

4 Grimoire Thief

4 Stonybrook Banneret

4 Lord of Atlantis

4 Tidal Courier

4 Merrow Reejerey

4 Daze

4 Force of Will

4 AEther Vial

Sideboard: (15)

4 Tormod's Crypt

4 Back to Basics

2 Blue Elemental Blast

2 Hydroblast

3 Seasinger

This was a list that went top8 in a 23 man tourney. He went 3-1-1 in match (obv.)

What differs from Maëlig's list is Tidal Courier mainboard, which I'm a big fan of. Not that I play Merfolk myself, but I do have some insight. And he's a win condition against a resolves moat. Thumbs up. What do you think about the deck? (I don't know if he has an account here on the Source, as this list and report which can be found here if anyone understand Danish, but if he has, he could maybe explain about his card choices)
http://faraos.dk/magic/index.phtml?p...sub=3&news=476

[Hightower]

That's my list willoe =D I'm Hightower on faraos.dk aswell..

[Grollub]

That's my list willoe =D I'm Hightower on faraos.dk aswell..

Aww. Just read the report, you got really unlucky in the T8 against belcher. But very nice list, I love the "goblins with counters" approach. Have you considered Echoing Truth, it seems like it'd help immensely against the weak matchups - ie. troublesome tokens.

[KillemallCFH]

I've been testing Merfolk for the past couple of weeks now, and this is the list I've arrived on:

3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
13 Island

4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejery
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Tidal Warrior
1 Reef Shaman
2 Seasinger

4 Force of Will
4 Daze

4 Brainstorm
3 Sensei's Divining Top

2 Counterbalance
3 Back to Basics
2 Open*

The SB contains some mix of Threads of Disloyalty, Pithing Needle, Umezawa's Jitte, Stifle, Tormod's Crypt, and/or Counterbalance, depending on that open slot.

I really feel this list is pretty strong. The only thing I need to decide on is those 2 open slots. My current options are:

• 2 Pithing Needle (Mainly for Deed, which butchers this deck. Also great against a variety of other things: Manlands, Survival, Belcher, etc.)
• 2 Jitte (Helps a lot against Aggro, especially Goblins, which is a pretty poor matchup. Gives some form of removal in mono-blue.)
• 2 Bounce (Probably 1 Rushing River and 1 Wipe Away a la UGr Thrash. Most versatile of my choices. Only answer to troublesome enchantments like Moat, Humility, Confinement, etc. Allows me to bounce blockers and alpha strike. Hits opposing CBs.)
• 2 Psionic Blast (Gives me some creature removal in mono-blue. More importantly, helps the control matchup by giving me reach. Never really a dead card.)
• 3rd CB + something else (CB/Top is obviously very strong, but too often have I had CB with no top and had what was essentially a dead card. Due to the curve being pretty evenly spread out from 0 to 3, CB/Top is immensely strong; however, with this more spread out curve, CB without Top becomes significantly weaker. Still the 3rd one might warrant inclusion [I used to run 3 but cut it to 2 for the reasons mentioned].)

Ultimately, it is probably a metagame decision. However, the Massachusetts meta is fairly random. That in mind, what do you feel is the best use of that slot?