[Deck] Merfolk

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I'm not really sideboarding against a particular build. I'm trying to make it as flexible as possible since it's somehow an unknown meta.

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There really is no "unknown meta" legacy only has a certain amount of decks and Merfolk has certain advantages and disadvantages vs those decks. So you need to have a sb that helps vs the weak matchups such as Zoo or other red decks.

Decks you can probably expect are counter top Progenitus, dark depths/thresh/zoo/burn/goblins/loam/dredge/combo/white stax. Maybe with the latest from the latest star city there might be some land decks or enchantress. So it pretty much depends on how big of tournament you are playing in, if it is a bigger tournament you could very likely have a wide range of decks. Maybe this is what you mean by unknown, but when you think about it it really isn't unknown. Merfolk has better good game vs blue decks and combo but really tanks vs Red/burn.

If you look at your sb you have 2 needle and 2 propaganda. Needle is a nice versatile card, but in what matchup would you bring it in vs taking out what? Then with only 2 are you ever going to see that card and will it help? I would use the same argument with Kira/Propaganda, both are good cards though I do think propganda at turn 3 is slow because decks like zoo/goblins are so fast or zoo can just burn out all your creatures and wait for mana. But if you are going to go with the stifle/wasteland/propaganda you need at atleast 3 if not 4 so you have good chances of seeing the card.

I would go with something like this if you think propaganda and kira will work. Atleast some combination of 3 of's

4 echoing truth (it really is the champ and is your only out)
3 propaganda
3 hyrdroblast
3 relics
2 kira

I have been playing Merfolk for a long time and it just sucks vs red. I have been trying the white splash and messing around with different sb options. I am playing in a tournament tomorrow and my sb is going to be... I try to have cards that are good vs multiple matchups but I'm not sure I need both chill and absolute law

4 absolute law
4 chill (I like chill in mono blue, but haven't read much about it on here)
2 jotun grunt
1 relic
2 path to exile
2 echoing truth

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Originally Posted by SlopeeJ

There really is no "unknown meta" legacy only has a certain amount of decks and Merfolk has certain advantages and disadvantages vs those decks. So you need to have a sb that helps vs the weak matchups such as Zoo or other red decks.

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This is false. Legacy has a huge number of decks. Yes, the Source DTB forum may only have a few threads in it, but that doesn't mean those are the only decks people play. Take a look in the Established Deck forum. Now take a look at the New and Developmental forum. Now figure that at least a portion of the people at the tournament aren't members of The Source. Legacy has the widest cardpool apart from Vintage, and that's what draws many players, including myself, to it. We can build anything we want with anything we can get our hands on. Now think that maybe (nameless one) hasn't played at this particular store or against these players before and doesn't know what they normally run. Maybe it's a 'developed' meta, with people who run the top decks loaded with the best cards. Maybe it's an 'undeveloped' meta, with a bunch of new-ish legacy players who maybe haven't bought a set of Duals yet and thus don't build many of the top decks but build their own concoctions. Merfolk needs to prepare differently for each of these situations. Nonbasic hate is decent if you're expecting a developed meta, otherwise you may run more copies of bounce spells or Jitte or something with wider applications. Yes, Gobbos and Zoo may have a tendency to beat us fairly consistently, but what if it's a room full of combo players and your board is full of red hate? It is totally possible to have an unknown meta.

As for (nameless one)'s list, I personally would probably drop the Minamo for an island, add in the fourth Mutavault, and, I know he's addressed this, but I would drop the Thrashers for a couple more mainboard outs, such as Echoing Truth. In an unknown meta, there's a high likelihood of just having to toss game one if they land a Moat or something similar, and I hate that.

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This is false. Legacy has a huge number of decks. Yes, the Source DTB forum may only have a few threads in it, but that doesn't mean those are the only decks people play.

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That is not false and has nothing to do with the source. There are like 5-6 tier 1 decks that Merfolk has to compete with, all the other matchups Merfolk has a good matchup do to big fish and counterspells. They are a positive match up vs the decks with blue and have horrible matchup vs most of the decks with red. That pretty much is how it is. You mention combo and Merfolk has a positive matchup because of 7-8 counterspells plus Cursecatcher so why would you have a sb for it when other matchups are way worse? Force of will......

Sorry when I sb I have a sb for the matchups that hurt me the most. You are right though some people might be running random jank decks they think are cool or decks like NOgoyf and suicide black, but I would just prefer to have sb cards for matchups that are very bad because Merfolk has a positive matchup. The cards we have main are way better then taking up space in the sb for random matchups that you might see. If the meta isn't developed as you say that is even better because Merfolk just owns

Non basic hate sucks when you have 8 non basic lands especially when mutavault vial standstill are a big part of the Merfolk strategy.

I also want to say that I'm not trying to say I'm right, I"m just giving my opinion. I live in the Seattle area and play legacy at least 3x a week with $5 tourney's to 30$ tourneys. I'm going to one today and expect 30+ people and my sideboard looks like what I posted up there. I have never faced a random deck that I would put sb cards in (that i can recall) or have a faced a lot of the decks in the dtb section that I was really worried about. Merfolk would be one of the best decks in legacy if it wasn't for all the red.

Congratulations to merfolk in Dallas for having 3 in the top 8!

Bertoncini Fish just posted another Top 8 finish at an 80-man in Vestal, NY. Why doesn't UG Merfolk get the attention that UW or MonoU Merfolk get?

What's the general consensus on Rushing River? I recently picked up this deck for some testing and tottally feel in love with this card even in the mainboard. It's pure tempo and allows for at least one more swing of your full team or completly destroys a board position your opponent called "stabilized" ten seconds ago.

I know a lot of you people got much more experience with this deck and might deem the River unplayable or something but I'm really interested in the reasoning behind it. Saccing that land was never ever a problem to me, especially with vials. Bouncing TWO creatures for example is such a harsh setback...

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Originally Posted by TOGITwill

Bertoncini Fish just posted another Top 8 finish at an 80-man in Vestal, NY. Why doesn't UG Merfolk get the attention that UW or MonoU Merfolk get?

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I don't think anybody else beside Bertoncini has had much luck with the UG Merfolk combination. And after testing a bunch I think the general consensus is that white offers a lot more than green if one is going to splash.

However I still wonder why it gets zero attention nowadays. But I put more relevance on the discussions of the more experienced sourcers than one great magic player consistently top eighting with UG.

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Originally Posted by Julian23

What's the general consensus on Rushing River?

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What is the definition of 'pure' tempo exactly? Regardless, I'd be so bold as to say the general consensus is Echoing Truth is just better.

Pros:
-Costs one less. One mana definitely makes a difference when you're often sacrificing Wastelands already, sending Mutavaults into battle, keeping mana open for stifle/spell pierce/spell snare.
-Regardless of cost, Echoing Truth has the ability to be as good as RR (hitting two permanents), and sometimes *far* better. It bounces all of Belchers Goblins, all of Dredges zombies, bounces multi-creature (who hasn't faced the dreaded 3 Goyfs at one point or another). This is one of your few outs against resolved tokens.

Cons:
-Pretty obvious; can't bounce two different cards. Outweighed by aforementioned pros.

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Originally Posted by TOGITwill

Bertoncini Fish just posted another Top 8 finish at an 80-man in Vestal, NY. Why doesn't UG Merfolk get the attention that UW or MonoU Merfolk get?

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Merfolk players prefer not to sell their souls and play the evil that is Goyf.

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Originally Posted by AcidFiend

What is the definition of 'pure' tempo exactly? Regardless, I'd be so bold as to say the general consensus is Echoing Truth is just better.

Pros:
-Costs one less. One mana definitely makes a difference when you're often sacrificing Wastelands already, sending Mutavaults into battle, keeping mana open for stifle/spell pierce/spell snare.
-Regardless of cost, Echoing Truth has the ability to be as good as RR (hitting two permanents), and sometimes *far* better. It bounces all of Belchers Goblins, all of Dredges zombies, bounces multi-creature (who hasn't faced the dreaded 3 Goyfs at one point or another). This is one of your few outs against resolved tokens.

Cons:
-Pretty obvious; can't bounce two different cards. Outweighed by aforementioned pros.



Merfolk players prefer not to sell their souls and play the evil that is Goyf.

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Goyf is not a Merf ergo he has no place in the deck :laugh:

I got 3/4th in the 41 man tournament with my uw Merfolk, went 4/1/1 with my only loss to zoo in the swiss and then lost to thresh in the semi-finals. I didn't take notes or anything but I will post some stuff later.


I tested goyf early when I first started playing Merfolk and most of the time it was just Goyfs looking at each other while my fish were swimming through or there goyf was backed up with burn or Noble Hierarch/pridemage. I would rather have Merfolk

I was wondering if I could get some advice on my build of merfolk. I just built the deck Sunday and I would like to bring it to my local store's tournament.

Creatures
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Sivergill Adept
3 Cursecatcher
2 Phyrexian Dreadnought

Instant
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
4 Daze
3 Spell Snare

Enchantment
4 Standstill

Artifact
4 Aether Vial

Lands
4 Wateland
3 Mutavault
13 Island

Sideboard (Incomplete)
4 Spell Pierce (burn/combo/storm)
1 Propaganda (zoo)
2 Umezawa's Jitte (burn/zoo)
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress (mirror)

Can I get some advice on the deck and some experienced suggestions. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by CUB3X

I was wondering if I could get some advice on my build of merfolk. I just built the deck Sunday and I would like to bring it to my local store's tournament.

Creatures
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Sivergill Adept
3 Cursecatcher
2 Phyrexian Dreadnought

Instant
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
4 Daze
3 Spell Snare

Enchantment
4 Standstill

Artifact
4 Aether Vial

Lands
4 Wateland
3 Mutavault
13 Island

Sideboard (Incomplete)
4 Spell Pierce (burn/combo/storm)
1 Propaganda (zoo)
2 Umezawa's Jitte (burn/zoo)
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress (mirror)

Can I get some advice on the deck and some experienced suggestions. Thanks.

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If you are gonna go the Dreadnought way,, put in some Trickbinds.
Mind Harness for Zoo. Props can do though.
Kira also for Zoo and Burn.
Cold-Eyed Selkie for Mirror.
BEB and/or Hydroblast for Zoo

I don't think Jitte is optimal against Zoo. (they just burn whatever creature you equip and it's a tempoloss)

Just a random thought about Jitte. I don't really know how you play the card but if it is in my main/sideboard and I play it against zoo, I definately wait until they are tapped out, then play-equip-attack. I don't think that you have to be great genius to understand what is the best way to play the card against zoo. Zoo is a fast deck so sometimes this might be hard to pull of, but when you do, you really have a chance to win.

I don't think it is the optimal card against zoo, but if you have nothing else to board, it's better than nothing.

I've also seen lots of Thrasher lists lately and I just don't get it... it is so much worse than Sovereign. And in my opinion there is only room for 20 creatures because I just love the Echoing Truths MD. Stifle is nice but you have to leave mana open for it so my choice for those 4 "moving slots" are still 3 ET and 1 Misdirection (just a FoW number 5)

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Originally Posted by (nameless one)

New sideboard to an unknown meta:

3 Echoing Truth
3 Hydroblast
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2 Pithing Needle
2 Propaganda

I'm not really sideboarding against a particular build. I'm trying to make it as flexible as possible since it's somehow an unknown meta.

Does it look okay or still need little fixings?

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I just learned that on the previous Legacy tourney, it's was pure aggro. There were zoo, goblins and weenie sightings. This tourney, there might be a chance of combo. So basically I am expecting aggro and combo.

Is merfolk going to have a bad overall matchup with my meta? I wanna come prepared against combo but do I compromise my chances of winning against aggro?

Is my sideboard good enough to deal with aggro?

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Originally Posted by DCTopTeam

If you are gonna go the Dreadnought way,, put in some Trickbinds.
Mind Harness for Zoo. Props can do though.
Kira also for Zoo and Burn.
Cold-Eyed Selkie for Mirror.
BEB and/or Hydroblast for Zoo

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I was running 4 Stifle 1 Trickbind but the issue is if I were to put the Trickbind back in, I really don't have open slots to get it in. I already cut a Cursecatcher. I guess I could get rid of the Spell Snares or Dazes but I really found running 4/3 is extremely helpful. The snares are really good against zoo.

As for Hydroblast, I found Spell Pierce does the same thing 70% of the time. The only guy blast kills against zoo is Grim Lavamancer. Spell Pierce just seems better in my testing.

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Originally Posted by CUB3X

The only guy blast kills against zoo is Grim Lavamancer. Spell Pierce just seems better in my testing.

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Not exactly. Depending on the build the Zoo player may run Kird Ape or Woolly Thoctar. Also Hydroblast can stop all their removal sans Path to Exile.

I was wondering, do you guys have trouble agaisnt ichorid or do you think it's a good match up for you ?
I would really be interested in the merfolk player point of view on that match up.
Thanks.

I still feel like Spell Pierce is just as good in the zoo match up and better in other matchups.

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Originally Posted by Raptor

I was wondering, do you guys have trouble agaisnt ichorid or do you think it's a good match up for you ?
I would really be interested in the merfolk player point of view on that match up.
Thanks.

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Merfolk has a lot of good weapons against Ichorid. Counters at the right moment can easily ruin Ichorid's day and bouncing zombie tokens or Narcomoeba's can spoil a potential dread return. In addition, Cursecatcher's self-sacrifice to potentially remove bridges is an invaluable tool available from turn 1. Factor in that in many metas Relic can be legitimately maindecked and Merfolk has a lot of tools that Ichorid hates to see. I'll let somebody else throw some numbers out, but IMHO Merfolk definitely has the advantage.