[Deck] Merfolk

So I am starting to prepare for the hopefully next years legacy season in my state. I guess the metagame will be about

1/10 Landstill
1/10 Belcher
1/10 Ledless ANT
1/10 Burn
1/10 Goblins
1/10 Merfolks
2/10 Zoo (only 1 with goyfs)
2/10 other aggro

I run mono blue 12 lords version right now. Is that the best choice to play with a designated sideboard to beat this metagame or is it better to get myself some more Tundras and splash for white? How does the white splash version look btw? -x, +y? In the mono blue version I am pretty sure I would play 3 Propaganda in the sideboard (60% aggro), 2 Back to Basics, 2 Trickbind (I feel ANT is such a bad matchup). And probably some Divert, Echoing Truth, Jitte and Relic (in case some GY deck shows up). I don't feel I am experienced enough to know what matchups are good and what matchups need to side against. How about Goblins/Burn(perhaps Zoo), should I (in case I am playing white) include CoP: Red in the side? Thanx

does that mean that 1/10 decks will be landstill etc? I personally like the white version because of swords and absolute law. The problem vs anything red is they burn your creatures not you, so I don't cop red will do any good. My white splash looks the same just with 4 swords maindeck, which means you prolly won't be able to run 12 lords.

I'm not really a fan of propaganda or back to basics because with propaganda they just sit back and wait till they get mana and back to basics really isn't enough. Most decks now run basics and it also hurts your mutavaults.

My board
2-3 echoing truth
2 blue blast
1 hydroblast
3-4 absolute law (usually 4 cause only really works if you get it out early)
1 disenchant
2 mindharness
3 play around with jitte, mind harness/threads, gy hate relics/trap. Don't really run hate though cause not many dredge and Merfolk does pretty well vs them

just try to beat anything with red, the rest of the matches Merfolk are pretty good vs cause of counters/vial and just big fish.

I'd say to include the Relic of Progenitus as well in your sideboard, I've found that card to be very good against more than dredge alone. Take Zoo for an example: It keeps goyfs in check, makes Lavamancers cry and it cantrips in a pinch.

As for sideboards: I'd like some advice myself. Currently I'm running this:

3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Mind Harness
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Stifle

The Sowers were a suggestion of a friend but I'm thinking of dropping them. Too expensive + unrelevant creature type = bleh. The singleton Stifle is there because I already run 3 maindeck, I side in the fourth one if I really want to punish fetchland strategies.

I must admit, I haven't had time to really test this board. I'll be attending a tournament in a few days (if christmas hangover lets me :p) so I'll be alot wiser by then hopefully. Thanks in advance.

Thanks. I run 2 Kira maindeck and am very happy with her. What's up with Mind Harness btw? What creature with cmc 3 or more do you want to steal? I just don't see quite why you run this over Threads of Disloyalty. Perhaps I need to test it and see how it works. Perhaps I should cut Back to Basics, after all it's not Blood Moon. Propaganda on the other hand I am very satisfied with in my deck but with more testing and reading this can be up to debate. Have you tested Trickbind? In most of my Vintage decks I run a single Trickbind in addition to the Stifles, it has a nice surprice effect against every storm deck that goes off with counter backup vs stifle.

What decks should I fear most of the one I mentioned three posts up? Burn, Goblins, Zoo? (Kira is pretty awesome against Zoo, farewell to Swords, Paths, Bolts and Helixes) How about Ledless ANT? I will read some more in this thread and the DTB forum and hopefully with yours help I will come up with a descent list + board.

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What creature with cmc 3 or more do you want to steal? I just don't see quite why you run this over Threads of Disloyalty

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that is the argument that everyone in my local meta uses. First for me, threads costs 3 mana with 2u which is pretty huge when you run 4 wasteland and 4 mutavault. So that means it takes your whole 3rd turn play and really sucks if it gets countered or red blast right away. Mind harness can take any of zoo's creatures and it takes 3 turns to cost as much as threads. I usually still take a goyf, but it is awesome to take take their 5/4. Mind harness is for the later game, obviously you wouldn't take a creature turn 1-2. Usually 1-2 turns is enough if you swing through with your fish

I don't think Kira is that good, all you need is 2 burn or a board sweeper and zoo/burn has plenty. Also she stops your own jitte. I would rather have more lords then kira

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What decks should I fear most of the one I mentioned three posts up?

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Anything with red in it owns Merfolk

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Originally Posted by SlopeeJ

Anything with red in it owns Merfolk

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Better yet, anything that packs more than 8 pinpoint removal spells is mostly a lost cause. Eva Green doesn't play red and is almost worse than the Zoo matchup. Not to mention you get to deal with Jittes/Choke postboard. Funtimes.

About my Sideboard, I'm thinking of adding Divert somewhere. Is that card really that good?

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Originally Posted by Cesarius

As for sideboards: I'd like some advice myself. Currently I'm running this:

3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Mind Harness
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Stifle

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Unless you're running these main, I'd also suggest:
3/4 Blue Blasts (unless you know you're not seeing any red at all)
2/3 Echoing Truth
2/3 Spell Pierce (especially if you think you'll see a lot of combo)

I would cut:
2x Chalice (I've never liked this card, good against combo but our combo MU is good enough as it is and I think Spell Pierce is better, anything other time it hurts us more)
2x Sower (don't need 5 steal effects)
1x Stifle (3 Stifles is fine)
Possibly 2x Jitte, there's a lot of debate about whether it's good enough, and honestly I've been happier after I took it out of my own list.

I'd go with Threads of Disloyalty over Mind Harness. More expensive, but it's a one-time payment, and can take Bob.

I don't think I would side in threads for bob, would rather just use swords. The zoo matchup is way worse then any matchup with black in it and mind harness is just better vs zoo. Especially with all the pridemages and red blasts running around, I would much rather invest 1 mana then waste my whole turn 3.

When do you not want to tap out for fish or use some mutavaults? 3 mana is a lot especially with wasteland and mutavaults

Thanks alot for feedback, I think I post my list to help the discussion:

Creatures: 22
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Merfolk Sovereign
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

Spells: 19
4 Æther Vial
4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
3 Stifle
3 Daze
1 Divert (used to be Sygg, River Cutthroat but this works better)

Lands: 19
12 Island
4 Wasteland
2 Mutavault
1 Mishra's Factory (soon to be Mutavault)

Possible sideboard:
3 Propaganda
3 Mind Harness
3 Hydroblast / Blue Elemental Blast
2 Divert
1 Trickbind
3 Submerge

With this 75 I would like to go +3 Mind Harness, +3 Hydroblast, +2 Divert +3 Submerge against Zoo. What cards should I remove from my deck, is this an overkill in the sideboard?

Agains Goblins I would go +3 Hydroblast, +3 Propaganda. Should I include Mind Harness here? And if so what Gobbo should I steal?

Is not having a single GY hate piece stupid or is it just a right metagame call?

I think you should probably have at least 2 echoing truth maindeck, but at least 3 total in the sb to bring in if you don't want to run any main. That is your only out besides counters for enchantments and stuff like that.

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Originally Posted by SlopeeJ

I think you should probably have at least 2 echoing truth maindeck, but at least 3 total in the sb to bring in if you don't want to run any main. That is your only out besides counters for enchantments and stuff like that.

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What about:
maindeck: -1 Divert, +1 Echoing Truth
sideboard: -3 Mind Harness, +2 Echoing Truth, +1 Divert

I still have 8 cards to side in against Zoo and 6 cards to side in against Goblins.

EDIT: http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=30566
with those changes my maindeck is an 59/60 copy of this deck, -1 Echoing Truth, +1 Merfolk Sovereign.

So I'm going to a tournament soon and I know at least 2 players who will probably bring merfolk out of around 10 people. Do you think this warrants the sideboarding of a couple Merfolk Assassins? They're mono color and wield jittes while I already have the white splash.

Too be honest, I don't have a lot of experience with this deck but one thing I can say: If I know at LEAST 20% of the field is gonna be a specific deck I will certainly have something in the board dedicated to this matchup!

If you're going to sideboard a hoser for the mirror methinks it should be Llawan, Cephalid Empress.

If you're focusing on the mirror I'd go for Merfolk Assassin

Ok, I'm soooo tired of all the Merfolk decks in my meta. I need something to destroy them for a bit to convince people to play something else for a while. Even the abundance Zoo players don't seem to be able to keep them out of the top spots each week.

I typically play Control, combo (occasionally), or some homebrew concoction. It's just getting old having to gear every deck against these decks each week.

I really haven't seen any deck have such a wide variety of decks it can beat handily. What's it's worst matchup? I never bothered playing it (for obvious reasons) so I have no clue.

I practically have every card printed so money isn't a concern. Long time player.

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Originally Posted by dahcmai

Ok, I'm soooo tired of all the Merfolk decks in my meta. I need something to destroy them for a bit to convince people to play something else for a while. Even the abundance Zoo players don't seem to be able to keep them out of the top spots each week.

I typically play Control, combo (occasionally), or some homebrew concoction. It's just getting old having to gear every deck against these decks each week.

I really haven't seen any deck have such a wide variety of decks it can beat handily. What's it's worst matchup? I never bothered playing it (for obvious reasons) so I have no clue.

I practically have every card printed so money isn't a concern. Long time player.

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Oh I feel you. I just feel bad that I have maybe contributed too much to the deck that ~5 noob pilots play in my metagame every week and still do well because they can just crap out lords.

You need spot removal, and a lot of it. Zoo does well because it has so many 1 cost removal spells. Lightning bolts, StP, PtE, or any lower forms of burn are good. 2 or so Firespout main are also a good idea if you can manage it. I'm currently playing UBr faeries and am destroying merfolk (Lightning Bolts, 2 Firespout main, 2 EE, 2 Terminate, and Jittes).

Other than that 43 lands does a very good job of shutting them up. 4 Maze of Ith with Mishra's Factories and an easy to find Tabernacle (crop rotation or gamble or something) will do a good job of keeping them off of tempo.



As for all of you Merfolk Mirror people, just run Wakethrashers maindeck instead of whatever other slots you may have. It absolutely blows other merfolk decks out, if either of you play a LoA you win. I played Llawan in my sideboard last tournament I played in and faced 2 mirror matches without ever seeing her. But Wakethrasher is just a huge freaking beast.

43 Lands is one I'm fond of. I have that one built all the time. Never thought to give it a shot since the uprising of all the folk here. It doesn't seem like it would do all that well since it doesn't have a good way to shove Manabond or Exploration through a bunch of counters. Though I guess that's the only spell you have to care about.

How good is Fetchland Tendrils against this? I have that one built and I'm quite good with the deck, but I put it away since Countertop Goyf was getting popular after the Grand Prix Chicago. I haven't seen the Countertop decks around much aside from one guy who still plays Dreadstill since he has nothing else and it's still good. I could always pull that one out again. Countertop decks AND Merfolk was a little much for me to be punching through every week. I never knew exactly how bad my match ups were since I was quite good with my deck and some of the Merfolk players were kids so it was hard to tell if I was just outplaying them or it was an actual good match up for me. I managed to beat a couple of our local pros with it while they played Merfolk, but 2 or so games every so often was still not a good indicator.

By the way, think you could PM me a list of the UBR faeries, that sounds interesting.

If you want to break the mirror open, just run Jitte. It's at least good in a bunch of other situations as well, unlike Llawan and Merfolk Assassin.