[Deck] Merfolk

Ok, so I'm hoping to play at SCG's open in LA this weekend. I'm expecting Merfolk, Affinity, and Team America. Unfortunately, that means Zoo will arrive as well, because a meta like that is ripe for the picking. So while I'm still on the fence as to what deck I would bring, if I were to bring 'Folk, here's what I'm planning to play:
Lands:
16x Island
4x Wasteland
Creatures:
2x Kira, Great Glass Spinner
3x Merfolk Sovereign
4x Merrow Reejerey
4x Coralhelm Commander
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Cursecatcher
Spells:
4x Aether Vial
4x Force of Will
4x Daze
3x Spell Pierce
Sideboard:
4x Relic of Progenitus
3x Back to Basics
3x Hurkyl's Recall
3x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Vedalken Shackles

Submerge?echoing truth?


Did you watch the scg game affinity vs merfolk? Recall isn't that great, you just bounce there stuff and they play it again. dude played it and still got worked, Null rod is still king. Sure it sucks with vial, but it basically just says I win. You have lots of islands to cast your guys.

Energy flux will probably work also, but seems a little slow

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Originally Posted by SlopeeJ

Submerge?echoing truth?


Did you watch the scg game affinity vs merfolk? Recall isn't that great, you just bounce there stuff and they play it again. dude played it and still got worked, Null rod is still king. Sure it sucks with vial, but it basically just says I win. You have lots of islands to cast your guys.

Energy flux will probably work also, but seems a little slow

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Seems to me like Null Rod does way less to the version of Affinity that runs Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Master of Etherium/whatever midrange-ish threat than it does to the Ravager/Disciple of the Vault version. It still does a lot, but I'm not sure they couldn't just go for sheer brute force and keep swinging at you with big dudes.

I think Energy Flux is probably best, since yeah, it's a little slow against such an aggressive deck, but if you can manage them until you stick it, they basically lose all their shit next turn.

My problem with Null Rod is that it's entirely a preventative card. Let's put it this way: If Leyline of the Void cost 2 to play and didn't have the opening hand ability, would it see play? Probably not - and Null Rod is in the same vein. As such, I'll swap out Recall for Energy Flux.

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Originally Posted by DukeDemonKn1ght

Seems to me like Null Rod does way less to the version of Affinity that runs Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Master of Etherium/whatever midrange-ish threat than it does to the Ravager/Disciple of the Vault version. It still does a lot, but I'm not sure they couldn't just go for sheer brute force and keep swinging at you with big dudes.

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It depends. Sure, if they manage to plant a lord-powered army and/or Tezzeret on the board before your Null Rod, you're probably dead anyway. The thing is, Null Rod costs only two mana so you have a reasonable shot to stick it before their Tezzeret and/or lord - and then you just win.

I think null rod is best, because it also works against the other mud decks/forgemaster/good against thopter jank/not great but good vs Painter grindstone decks etc. I'm pretty sure he can beat a master with some lorded memnites with all his lords if he drops null rod and his opp can't do anything. 3 echoing truth and 3 null rod would be hard to beat.

I know the winning list didn't run ravager/disciple but with energy flux he can sack his board or he can ravager his board and put the counters on champion.

They both should do the job and each have their own dis/advantages. I might even bring in null rod vs stoneforge decks to stop jitte and fire/ice, owns merfolk

Well, let's assume that by playin 'Folk I already have a strong leg up on Team America - which I expect to show up, in some numbers. So I don't need many SB slots for that MU, if any at all. Second, I need SB suggestions to fight Zoo (which will show up to fight Affinity and TA).

back to basics seems pretty bad, what matchups are you bringing that in? I would guess you will say control and your main will own control esp with 3 spell pierce. I don't see how you beat the decks with green fatties without submerge such as zoo/knights/goyfs.

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Originally Posted by bakofried

Well, let's assume that by playin 'Folk I already have a strong leg up on Team America - which I expect to show up, in some numbers. So I don't need many SB slots for that MU, if any at all. Second, I need SB suggestions to fight Zoo (which will show up to fight Affinity and TA).

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Splash Black, play Peri... eh, ignore that.

Submerge and Mind Harness are quite hot against Zoo.

back to basics seems pretty bad, what matchups are you bringing that in? I would guess you will say control and your main will own control esp with 3 spell pierce. I don't see how you beat the decks with green fatties without submerge such as zoo/knights/goyfs.

back to basics seems pretty bad, what matchups are you bringing that in? I would guess you will say control and your main will own control esp with 3 spell pierce. I don't see how you beat the decks with green fatties without submerge such as zoo/knights/goyfs.

Submerge seems fine against them - is Shackles just not good enough?

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Originally Posted by bakofried

Submerge seems fine against them - is Shackles just not good enough?

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This is coming from someone who has played Shackles not in Merfolk, but in a much slower deck - Ugwr CounterTop. Shackles is the nuts when followed up or when being the followup of a boardsweeper - however, the chances to take control of something like a Knight of the Reliquary is almost equal to zero. I mean, I could rarely drop 6 Islands when not already winning, at which point a single KotR is laughable.
I know you are able to drop more Islands than me because you simply run more of them, but Vedalken Shackles is first and foremost 5 mana for a conditional Mind Control - yeah, excatly, it costs the same as Mind Control itself.
When I was confronted with these problems, I began to search for alternatives.
These are what I came up with:
Control Magic
Mind Harness
Threads of Disloyalty
Gilded Drake
Sower of Temptation
Callous Oppressor
Cytoplast Manipulator
Dominate
Seasinger
Thalakos Deceiver


From all of these, Mind Harness, Control Magic, Threads of Disloyalty, Sower of Temptation, Seasinger and maybe Thalakos Deceiver seem to be playable. Considering we are talking about combating Zoo here, Thalakos Deceiver and Sower of Temptation seem both impracticable. Seasinger is unsable in this MU.
This leaves us with Mind Harness, which taxes your mana, but should win the game quite fast, Threads of Disloyalty, which takes up a good chunk of initial mana and seems to be a bit meh if you don't have Vial out and Control Magic, which is unconditional, but requires 4 mana, which certainly is doable, but seems unlikely to reach fast enough to gain control of a Tarmogoyf in time.
I think I am going to take Mind Harness for a spin in my CounterTop deck - it's cheap, dies to everything else Control Magic and Threads die to while costing a lot less initial mana.
For you Merfolk players, I don't know, but Thresh, a deck without much lands in play often favors Mind Harness because it's cheap and overtaking a Goyf wins the game in a few turns if left unanswered.
Too bad that gaining control of a KotR isn't going to do much for you other than removing the threat from the table and you gaining a bear with Cumulative Upkeep...

All in all, I'd suggest a split between Submerge and Mind Harness.

Submerge in response to a fetch (or KotR activation) seems much better than Shackles because the fattie usually have more power than your island counting, and it's just vulnerable to Qasali Pridemage.

Well, if I remove Shackles and B2B, should I add some copies of 'Vault?

Also, how does this sideboard look instead:
4 Relic
3 Truth
3 Submerge
3 Jitte
2 Rod

Maybe flip the numbers of Rod and Truth?

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Originally Posted by bakofried

Also, how does this sideboard look instead:
4 Relic
3 Truth
3 Submerge
3 Jitte
2 Rod

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Split your graveyard hate, i.e. 2 Relics and 2 Crypts or something similar. And why do you want 3 legendary swords? Two Jittes are enough, get a third Rod instead.

I like the 3 jitte, ensures you draw it (no card draw) in the aggro matchups when you need it. I really don't think you need 4 graveyard hate, your list has no dead standstills vs dredge and has echoing truths in the sb. Dredge is already a pretty good matchup and 3 relics should be fine.

Well, the theory is, if I need Jitte, I really need Jitte. If I draw a dead copy, well, that means the one on the board is still alive (and probably active). I was already considering cutting a Relic for a Rod; I really just want Relic for Loam-engine decks (and decks that use Terravore/Goyf/Knight).

Quick question. Is it the correct play to daze a Nacatl, if on the play? What if you have a Vial? Cursecatcher? Nothing?

new to the forum, but i've been tagging along reading all your comments for a while now. thanks for the primer whoever wrote it, its really helpful.

I've been playing Merfolk since last August and have won 3 tournaments out of three that i've played here in Minnesota. the legacy community up here is awesome and i hope to get some more in when i have time.

this is the deck that i've been playing

4 mutavault
1 mishra's factory
4 wasteland
13 Island

4 cursecatcher
4 silvergil adept
4 lord of atlantis
4 coralhelm commander
4 merfolk reejerey
2 merfolk sovereign
1 kira, great glass spinner

4 force of will
4 daze
3 stifle
4 standstill

SB
3 submerge
2 hydroblast
1 llawan, cephalid empress
3 spell pierce
2 umezawa's jitte
2 relic of progenitus
2 sower of temptatioin

its been pretty successful vs fetchland decks due to the stifle. i feel sometimes i actually out Team America, team America decks b/c they really cant stifle anything profitably.

here is a list that i'm going to try. no testing yet,could be horrible or could be BOSS. remains to be seen.

4 mutavault
1 mishra's factory
4 wasteland
13 Island

4 cursecatcher
4 silvergil adept
4 lord of atlantis
4 coralhelm commander
4 merfolk reejerey
2 sower of temptation
1 kira, great glass spinner
4 spellstutter sprite

4 force of will
4 daze
3 stifle

i'm not sure how many faeries you need to make this work, but with mutavault and sower it may work. most casting costs are 2 or less anyway. has anyone tried this out yet? if so, how did it fair. sound off guys and thanks

I would probably consider Llwann, cephalid empress 4 the mirror match, at least two