[Deck] Merfolk!

[Pwnstar91]

Ok, well I, being the magnificent marvolous genious that I am, came up with a great idea (like i usually do every afternoon). I was reading Chris Romeo's article about building Merfolk in standard, and I thought "hey, Merfolk are cards that can be used in legacy too!!"

So I thought up of this decklist.

Lands
4 polluted delta
3 flooded strand
16 island

Creatures
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Manta Riders
4 Merfolk Looter
3 Rootwater Thief

Artifacts
3 Umezawa's jitte (I'm surprised i spelled that right on the first try!)
4 Aether Vial

Enchantments
3 Curiosity

Spells
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell

Now, you may be wondering why I think that this is such a great idea. The first thing is that nothing in this deck has a casting cost that is greater then two (not counting jitte and it's equip cost), making the deck somewhat fast. This also makes Aether vial really good, set it to two counters and it pretty much plays all of the creatures in your deck.

Another thing is that Lord of Atlantis grants Island Walk. Island walk may not seem powerful at first glance but if you look at a lot of the powerful decks in the format have blue in them (thresh, solidarity). Seems solid to me.

I haven't tested this deck though, but it just seems like fun to play. I would appreciate any suggestions to what could be added to this deck to make it more competitive. I know that White could be splashed for Swords, Meddling mage, and Galina's Knight. I just don't know what to take out for all of that tech.

So any suggestions?

[clavio]

You should probably play daze since you won't be needing too many islands.

You should play sofi.

Island walk is irrelevant vs solidarity.

Do you have a sideboard yet? I suggest hydroblast and chill as red will probably be your worst enemy.

[nitewolf9]

Don't play aether vial, you don't have enough creatures to really abuse it (and they curve out really low like you said). I might try something like
2 vedelkan shackles and 2 sword of fire and ice, or maybe back to basics. </$0.02>

[Cait_Sith]

Island walk is irrelevant vs solidarity.


I disagree. Being chump blocked by game loss really sucks.

I would exchange 4 Vias for 4 SoFI. SoFI boosts the clock, refills your hand, and can pick off enemy targets. With 19 dudes getting some evasion and resistance to removal is critical.

With the inclusion of SoFI you can turn Curiosity into Daze, cause Daze makes baby Jesus cry.

[Bovinious]

Some suggestion I have is that I think you should cut some land, 23 seems like a lot in a deck where everything costs 2. I say you cut 6 land, down to 17, maybe 18 if you like, and cut maybe 1 jitte. Then id add 2 SoFI and some more dudes, including the 4th rootwater thief. If you want to add daze you should probably cut counterspell or maybe vial, you do have a low creature count right now, and with all your creatures being 2 or less you dont reallly get to cheat wiht it much. Heres a sample revision:

13 Island
4 Polluted Delta

4 FoW
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Counterspell

3 Jitte
3 SoFI

4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Manta Riders
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Rootwater Thief
4 Tidal Warrior (making a land an island seems good wiht islandwalk)
2 Merfolk Traders

SB you can have 8-12 anti red cards, and maybe some combo hate.

[clavio]

I disagree. Being chump blocked by game loss really sucks.


I'm going to assume that there is a typo there. How can solidarity chump block?

[Raatcharch]

I'm going to assume that there is a typo there. How can solidarity chump block?

Solidarity "chump blocks" by just winning in response to your declare attack phase. It's cute like that.

[kirdape3]

17 lands that wants to hit 3 mana as early as turn 3 seems a little high. You don't have the cantrip action that original Miracle Gro had to find lands.

That deck is one I'd be looking towards - the 10 land, U/g Dryad deck that Comer built.

[Meekrab]

I know that White could be splashed for Swords, Meddling mage, and Galina's Knight. I just don't know what to take out for all of that tech.
I hadn't even finished reading your post and I was wondering why you didn't splash black or white to handle resolved threats. :)

As for what to cut:

Four vanilla Counterspell doesn't really make much sense to me in a deck that uses the main phase to play Merfolk and has fairly few mana sources to take advantage of the low curve. There's a reason Threshold etc. play Daze instead.

As nitewolf9 stated, Aether Vial isn't all that great with only 15 creatures. On turn 3 (when it could be up to 2 counters), you'll have seen 9/10 cards. On average, that's 2.5 merfolk, one of which you probably cast last turn. You're also not playing any creatures that read "You win the game." against... well, anything, and honestly, who counters Merfolk?

Rootwater Thief has the same problem Counterspell does. If you're using his special ability, you're not playing more watermen.

Also I'd try to play two Tidal Courier, since drawing more threats is a good thing.

Of course, if I was playing blue aggro, I'd try to play Faerie Stompy. You may want to have a look at that deck.
http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3351

[AngryTroll]

I would go ahead and splash white mainboard. I played around with all the different colors of splash, and I think the white and black splashes are the strongest.

White offers Galina's Knight, which is simply excellent against Goblins. It also gives you a lot of help in the combo match with Meddling Mage. And, of course, Swords to Plowshares are just amazing.

Black gives you Duress and Cabal Therapy, if you want it. It also gives you spot removal in whichever form you choose. And, my favorite, Vodalian Zombie, a 2/2 Pro Green Merfolk. However, against Threshold, you have islandwalk anyway, so the Pro Green isn't as useful as the Pro White usually will be.

The Green Splash can be fun, but it is a more aggressive deck, with Gaea's Skyfolk, Rancors, maybe even Unstable Mutations and or Briar Shield. I think that this version is the most fun of the three, but it doesn't really gain much. You are still a lot slower then Goblins, and the splash doesn't win the game. Still a lot of fun, however.

I would run a list more along these lines:

4 Brainstorm

4 Tidal Warrior
4 Manta Rider
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Galina's Knight

4 Force of Will
3 Stifle
2 Counterspell

4 StP
2 Fact or Fiction
3 Jitte
3 SoFI

Islands, Plains, Tundras
Some Fetches
Wastelands?

Good luck with the deck. I will probably throw the UG version together to see how it plays.

[Barsoom]

There was already a Topic about a Merfolk deck made by me HERE (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4447&highlight=merfolk)
Maybe they shoud be join together.

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

Have you tried a build more like the original, with Standstill and manlands to support the fish?

Also, seriously, Daze seems a lot better in aggro-control than CSpell.

[Complete_Jank]

I've been thinking that Merfolk would be an interesting deck to make, but when I looked into making the deck, it doesn't compare to the rest of the field. A better deck can be made that won't be hurt so bad by plague.

[Cait_Sith]

And we call it Thresh. Cards like Daze are critical in Fish, since they are inexpensive and often work wonders.

[etrigan]

If there's a lot of combo in your area, you could try Wizards. I know it's not Merfolk, but it's still blue weenie tribal. There's a lot of fun stuff you can do with Voidmage Prodigy and Willbender. Expect to get rolled by aggro decks though.