[Deck] Merfolk

:smile:
Tournament Report from Friday Night @ Trader J's

Triton's Minions
\deck
4 Tidal Warrior
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Stonybrook Banneret
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Tidal Courier
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Stifle
4 Aether Vial
4 Wasteland
4 Rishidan Port
15 Island

\sb
3 Repeal
3 Spell Snare
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Seasinger

I have been waiting to play this deck since the Cang started, and I am really stoked about Morningtide FINALLY coming out. I got there early and traded for some Bannerets. But I did not show my deck to anyone except Kai, the owner's son.

rd 1 vs. Benny with Ubg Landstill
Game one I win the coin flip, mulligan, resolve a vial, and did not cast another spell the entire game. I killed him on something like turn 8 with 4 merfolk islandwalking past two Mishra's and a Standstill that had been in play since turn 2.
Game two, I lose to foolishly overextending into a Pernicious Deed. I got him to 4 life but blew it.
Game three I again play vial on turn one, but he Forces, I Daze, he Forces again, I Force. I drew savage land destruction with a Stifle on the fetch, 2 Wastelands, a Port and a Tidal Warrior keeping him off of Black and/or Green during his main phase the entire game. When I kill him he shows me two Deeds.
1-0

rd 2 vs. Roo with Uwgb Landstill
Game one, I lose to play errors combined with bleh. With Countertop up and running, I scooped before he even had a threat (because it's Landstill after all).
Game two, the threats just kept coming. He Deeded away 4 Merfolk, and I still won.
Game three, the Dr. Pepper stains on my notes indicate that I cast Fireball for 8 to win, I think. Or perhaps that's not what it says. Anyway, I Stifled a Deed, and Forced his Force as a flying Courier flew over a Monastery for the win.
2-0

rd 3 vs Ally with Bwg Control
I beat her both games by denying her green. Sorry Ally, I lust after you, but I still don't want to lose.
3-0

rd 3.5 vs a Whopper combo meal and a Snickers. I won this one with greasy fingers and a ketchup stain on my shirt to prove it.

rd 4 vs Kevin with UGwThreshold - No show
So I'm in.
4-0

rd 5 vs Xiang with Dragon Stompy
Game one he comes out big with City of Traitors, Mox, Magus, Song, and Chalice on turn one. I have no counters, and I look at my Stifle and consider siding in Repeal and then think about how inept they both are at handling Chalice at one. He was behind on cards and lands from that point with another City of Traitors before his first Mountain. As it turned out I got a steady supply of guys while he got some equipment. I Forced a Sword, and tapped a big Jitte-equipped Raider with Reejerey on the last turn.
Game two he again comes out swinging with a turn one Pit Dragon. I Force of Will, and follow up with Wasteland on his Ancient Tomb. And then I did something cool when my vial got to four counters. With Reejerey and Banneret in play, I vialed in a Courier (whiffed), played another Banneret, untapped the vial, vialed in another Courier, played Lord, Silvergill, Silvergill, Lord. That's SEVEN MERFOLK IN A SINGLE TURN. He untapped and drew for his turn. Then he scooped with 20 life.
5-0

Finals vs. Ronny w/ Belcher
In hindsight, I think maybe I should have played him, but I was pissed that I took out the fourth Stifle and Ronny is really good.

There were 2 Goblin decks I did not want to see, so I guess I got kinda lucky. I did wish there was a Vindicate in blue, though. I don't see a good solution for Countertop or Chalice, and that shit is everywhere. Jitte was a nonfactor. Of course I did face a steady stream of control all night. So you can forget me commenting on whether the deck needs it after a single day.

Why you dont play Back To Basics, when you only play Basics?

Well done, especially against landstill.

The closest blue gets to Vindicate is Reality Acid. I guess that's not too bad for taking out Counterbalance...?

Nice. All the MUs you faced are positive on the paper. The missing stifle may have been critical though against deed decks.

By the way Benny looks like an horrible player. Play a standstill with an opposing vial is plain stupid.

Why do you want a solution for chalice? Chalice does not hurt you at all: @1 it stops only vial and stifle and @2 is stops only daze since vial is effective.

Quote:

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Why you dont play Back To Basics, when you only play Basics?

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Back to basics takes upa slot. Ports and Wastelands do not.

I am going to be updating the opening post with more info.

Finn:
How many game do you win with Port + Waste?

Either on your mono-blue or your mono-white deck, you used them.

Actually, I wonder how B2B could help improved your winning.

In which MU Port + Waste is a must for you?

With Dragon Stompy, or Loam LD deck or MUC with B2B, port is a waste...

Playing on MWS meta is harder in my opinion, so many peoples do some land control, it's so worse that I had put sacred ground in my D+T SB. ;) (but even with that B2B or BloodMoon effect, my guess is the port become an annoying factor. In those MU, a white splash with swords (tarmo is everywhere) and the merfolk that protect your guyz (all the shit that kill yours in legacy) i think, the white splash should be better against B2B or Blood Moon. Terramophic Expanse + Flooded Strand + 2 plains ;)).

Please show me why Wasteland and Ports are greater than the white splash in that case.

Jourdelune

Your list has 62 cards in it MB is that right?

EDIT:

Quote:

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Playing on MWS meta is harder in my opinion, so many peoples do some land control, it's so worse that I had put sacred ground in my D+T SB. ;) (but even with that B2B or BloodMoon effect, my guess is the port become an annoying factor. In those MU, a white splash with swords (tarmo is everywhere) and the merfolk that protect your guyz (all the shit that kill yours in legacy) i think, the white splash should be better against B2B or Blood Moon. Terramophic Expanse + Flooded Strand + 2 plains ;)).

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WHAT?! are u saying mwsplay is good to test against...

Also is stifle good instead of another merfolk? tidal courier needs more merfolk...
What about rootwater thief, although not as good as in vintage fish but at the same time you will know what their hand consists off, something my friend pointed out to me

The 62-cards list should play 1 or 2 less island. And Tidal Warrior is really bad. Instead of it I would play 1*stifle and 3*the bouncer merfolk (kind of comboing with courier and reeejerey in order to remove blockers, in addition to be a nice way to get rid of opponent's creatures)

Bouncer Merfolk? Tidal warrior is the total nuts ^.^,

Are you talking about waterfront bouncer?

Yes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maveric78f

The 62-cards list should play 1 or 2 less island. And Tidal Warrior is really bad. Instead of it I would play 1*stifle and 3*the bouncer merfolk (kind of comboing with courier and reeejerey in order to remove blockers, in addition to be a nice way to get rid of opponent's creatures)

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In case you didn't see it, the Tidal Warrior is the man that permits to all out attack with islandwalk from the Merfolk Lords.

That combo win more game by itself than any other card in the deck ;).

You should SB them when you face a blue deck.



Quote:
Playing on MWS meta is harder in my opinion, so many peoples do some land control, it's so worse that I had put sacred ground in my D+T SB. ;) (but even with that B2B or BloodMoon effect, my guess is the port become an annoying factor. In those MU, a white splash with swords (tarmo is everywhere) and the merfolk that protect your guyz (all the shit that kill yours in legacy) i think, the white splash should be better against B2B or Blood Moon. Terramophic Expanse + Flooded Strand + 2 plains ;)).

WHAT?! are u saying mwsplay is good to test against...


Lol!

mwsplay is the only place I play magic from my home. Some elitist prick, some noobs, some impolite, some trickster, some big ego, but a lot of good players also. If we can get a reliable server, (not one that flush all games constantly) the mwsplay community should be larger and much more better! (hint: The Source should get his Legacy server for mws!!!!)

And yes, mwsplay meta is filled with LD deck (Pikula, Pox, loam, stacks, landstill...) or mana disruption deck (dragon stompy, MUC).

And while I play there, I had the chance to meet Finn on mwsplay when he was working his merfolk deck at the beginning of December. And I had meet Alex, the day before... both time I played Death + Taxes + twists. (i hate playing exact copy of a deck, trying to figure out some optimization on the go)

While any magic deck should work toward the actual meta, mwsplay give a lot of struggling compare to any local tourney.

I didn't say it's good to test against... I did say that if you play in that heretic meta, do the Port + Waste worth trading against the WU protection merfolk and swords to plowshare? ;)

I want to know more about the power of Port + Waste, know why Finn put them in the two last deck it at work at. I know goblin used them, I know aggro/control mono color want to have them, but do the powerful splash of protecting merfolk and swording Tarmo worth more than port + waste on mws meta? ;)

Jourdelune

p.s. english is not my native language, I do pretty good considering that aspect ;)

I play D&T all the time and port + wasteland to me is irreplaceable.. id run that any day vs swords besides we have evasion via tida warrior + lords, not only that but Merfolk also has big creatures

I run rootwater thief in my maindeck instead of stifle cause i want more merfolk for courier and hes actually pretty good cause i can make guesses on what my opponent has in his hand and remove goyf/stp's from decks, he also has evasion via flying

To add for the Tidal Warrior:

Synergy with port+waste for mana denial.
Use with seasigner on none-blue deck based.


For D+T:
Port + Waste + Mana Tithe + Glowrider + Mangara eating lands + thorn when need + cataclysm when we start land race against.
(glowrider had messed me so much to play cataclysm or any 2 drops+ none creature, that I had changed it to suit my need and remove mana disruption in favor of spot removal - O Ring + Vindicate, but it is just me. I had put a special tech that permits to do 2 mangara effect straight at EoT without waiting for sickness... and that tech is another 3 drop none-creature. On mwsplay meta, all the crucible of worlds deck win the race even with the mana restriction of D+t, all the loam deck too and all the deck that got land disruption with blood moon effect or B2B effect, and the mana disruption of D+T is not really effective against rifter cycling effect- except for Aven MindCensor - but that Aven had disappear from the list if I remember well )

For Triton Merfolk:
Port + Waste + Tidal Warrior + Daze

The mana disruption package is much more weak on Triton than D+T. Anyway, we are all free to change what we work best for our play style and meta, but I want to know why they are irreplaceable. Saying so without arguments and match-up analysis is like throwing a rock and missing the goal.

Jourdelune

I'm going to weigh in here.

I don't really think anything in the deck is beyond replacement. The fact of the matter is that when we make a deck, it reflects the strategies we are fond of at the time. The last deck I worked on seriously was Death and Taxes. I found the mana denial aspect of it to be vital against many opponents after trying a LOT of different approaches to first make Mangara work, and then make the white weenie shell around him perform better than the other stuff I had seen. That way I could take advantage of Mangara as far as I could push it. That took a very long time, and a lot of testing, and had plenty of input from a lot of people.

If we are comparing my decks to each other I only think it is fair to stress that that is not the case here. I am fresh off of that project, and so I am leaning heavily on what I have found to work in the recent past. Now, I make no bones about the fact that I think Stifle is the most versatile disruption card in the format. I saw a deck idea that I thought could make the most of it, so I have plunged headlong to following that course to its natural conclusion. Is this the only direction for Merfolk? Naturally not. The best direction? I don't know since it is the first one I am following. Monoblue aggro has some very glaring deficiencies, just ask Eldariel. But the deck is consistent, difficult to pin down, and can kill nearly without warning. It has reasonable matchups against enough of the expected meta. In short, it seems to be working.

I have not used Back to Basics as more than a blind sideboard card in more than a decade. But I can tell you that in a deck with Tidal Courier in it, I am disinclined to start from scratch to rework this deck to support it. Ther just isn't room in such a design for a single-purpose card like that. I HAVE seen the effect of Wasteland, Port, and Stifle. Having them together has been nothing short of huge for me. Tidal Warrior is the sad little brother of the bunch when it is alone. He is TERRIBLE alongside Daze since the once useless island now has a very definite purpose in the same early turns that Daze is at its strongest. He eats crap against Tabernacle effects. He sucked when I wanted a dead Faerie Conclave across from me. And he annoyed me when I was trying to keep a Dryad Arbor from being a creature. But the guy does a lot of other things as well so I am not ready to consider him for cutting. This deck wants a critter in that spot badly, and the other choices are far less desirable.

This is where Maverick and I disagree. While he only sees a 1/1 with a small effect, I see guy who is one more tool to keep the opponent down early, and who enables several key elements of the deck later on. You have to like that kind of extensibility on a 1/1 for 1 which, by the way, is a Merfolk. If that is not testament, consider that my playtest partner began to use Swords to Plowshares on them the moment he saw them after just a few games. I will take that. Wouldn't you?

Clearly the strength of merfolk compared to gobs is the mana denial package (waste/port/stifle) and the counterspell suite (stifle/FoW/daze). All these cards are absolutely 4-of. Then the rest whould be islands (or conclaves), vial or merfolks (maybe jitte and/or standstill too).

According to me, the only reason to play this deck is not the merfolk suite because apart from 3 of them, they suck very much (courier could be good if there were more good merfolks). It's the mana denial + counterspell shell. My testings showed it and I even splashed black for confidant (and SB options) and green for tarmogoyf with the same shell but only the 3 good merfolks. That's my CANGD entry. Now I'm even playing the same deck with no merfolk because I think that serendib efreet or sea drakes are better.

I'm starting to like the folks' but my approach is more aggro with Grimoire Thief instead of Stifle and I don't run Ports.. 1st because I think they interfere with my fast clock I really dont want to not be able to play Lord of Atlantis or Thief turn 2 because of 1 Island 1 Colorless - 2nd I run 4 Back to Basics which are huge against landstill and many other decks I've met.
I run 4x Tidal Warrior as well, he's helped me win a few games with his nifty ability.

Here's something I've gotten a couple of times while playing on MWS:

Quote:

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Hightower plays Merrow Reejerey from Hand
Merrow Reejerey is now 3/3
Merrow Reejerey is now 4/4
Lord of Atlantis is now 4/4
Silvergill Adept is now 5/4
Stonybrook Banneret is now 4/4
Tidal Courier is now 4/5
Lord of Atlantis is now 4/4
<Nightfall <GER>> gg
<Hightower> :)
Hightower taps Island
Hightower taps Island
Hightower taps Island
Hightower taps Island
<Nightfall <GER>> didnt believe in merfolk :)
Hightower plays Tidal Courier from Hand
<Nightfall <GER>> now i do
<Hightower> hehe
<Nightfall <GER>> tnx for playing
<System> Player Lost

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Makes me happy.

I know for D+T its done.

For merfolk, the goblin MU is HARD. So, Syyg + Sword would give edge for that MU. What can be removed that will not affect the thresh MU and will bring the goblin MU in better shape?

The thing is, at any tournament with more than 50 peoples, the odds to see goblins are high.

Anyway, I loves playing merfolk when I feel depress about my aggro-control homebrew deck get pawn here and there.

Jourdelune

Syyg would not help against gob. Your merfolks still can't block pilly which is the main threat in gob. Propaganda is far better, and it's blue!

If you can play Sygg, you can play all manner of Piledriver-stoppers, most notably Swords to Plowshares.

Hightower: How well is Grimoire Thief working out? Can you please post (or PM) your list? Its counters still cost 1, and it needs to hit a few times before it can reliably counter a spell. (However, it'd sure be fun to remove a MUC deck's 2-4 finishers.) In my casual meta the mana denial package actually does very little, so I'm thinking of using more creature control (e.g. Jitte, maindeck Seasinger) and more creatures (e.g. Grimoire Thief, Riptide Pilferer). Since there's not a lot of nonbasic hate in my meta, I'm also having fun with Reejery+Banneret+Soldevi Excavations, so I can do Faerie-Stompy-like tricks.

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.

"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

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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

Itty bitty tournament report.

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

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?

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?

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mav

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).

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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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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

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Originally Posted by Hightower

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

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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.

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?