[Deck] Merfolk

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I am not one of those that feels everone should follow the neet-deck. Each meta and each pilot are different so you need to tweek to what suits your area and what suits your play

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The problem with this is if he actually ran good cards his deck would be better. I agree tweaking the deck to your liking, but their is a reason some cards are not played. There are people our there with a lot more time on their hands then the common casual/weekly player to test out different stuff. An example of this, Kira is a commonly played card but usually as a 1 or 2 of, well I play 3. What do you think that does vs my matchup vs bolt/swords/punishing fire/removal?

Of course you can't beat ur delver decks when you don't have cursecatcher/ or lose to maverick when you don't have a play set of submerges/dismembers. Brainstorm is just like stifle, you need to use your mana during your first 3 turns. Not holding back for stifle or sculping your hand with brainstorm. Standstill is the card draw for this deck.

How could the deck not be better if you cut stifle and added more creatures, the actual strategy of this deck? If you are going to go stifle package, you should at least run the full set of stifle, daze, cursecatcher, wasteland for the complete package.

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Originally Posted by Gunseng

As you can see I run both Brainstrom and Stifle. My reasoning behind this that Brainstorm increases the consistency of the deck, which decreases the chance of just dying in the midgame, because you do not draw any buisness. In my experience, the card is very useful and I urge you to give it a try. I know that this is a rather old idea, but I never could find any compelling reason for the exclusion of Brainstorm in this deck. Many people claim that Merfolk is consistent enough so adding Brainstorm is not necessary. In my opinion, there is no such thing as enough consistency. More consistency is usually better, so I think adding Brainstorm to Merfolk is a rather good idea. What do you think?

Also, I play Stifle and am very satisfied with its performance. It is a highly versatile card which handles Stoneforge Mystique nicely and also allows you to attack the opponent's manabase, which greatly helps against Canadian. Furthermore, you can neuter Snapcaster Mage and take random wins against junk like Belcher. Naturally, the performance of Stifle is highly meta dependant, but maybe you can give it a try.

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I think it is worthwhile to explore new ideas but it is also important to look to the past. There is a reason that none of the Top 8 lists for Merfolk run Stifle MB or Brainstorm at all. Both cards have the allure of something that might work well in our gameplan, while not actually achieving the end goal we want.

Brainstorm is great in multi-color decks because they are already running fetches for their manabase. In order to make Brainstorm work in Merfolk you have to weaken the rock solid manabase (one of the greatest strengths of the deck) and cut down on other useful cards. For example, in your list you aren't running maindeck Dismember. While it isn't the greatest card ever, Dismember can still be clutch when you draw it at the right time. The other issue with running Brainstorm is that it isn't a Merfolk. Yes, it can turn into a Merfolk, but the point of the deck is to achieve a critical mass of guys to beat in FTW. You just don't have the mana/time to have durdly cards in your opening hand.

Stifle isn't that great because the deck likes to tap out. Especially if you are running a full set of Coralhelm Commanders you are going to be tapping out well into the midgame. Stifle is best in the early game but the best first turn play for the deck is Island -> Aether Vial (hopefully with Daze backup). This doesn't mean that Merfolk is a "decision less tapout deck" as I have heard it referred to before, but it does mean that we need to be dropping threats as quickly as possible. The decks that run Stifle to its fullest potential also run a small suite of high-impact beaters (Delver, Goyf, Tombstalker) and lots of spells. They are riding a single creature to victory and are frequently leaving mana open. Merfolk on the other hand is almost entirely permanents, meaning that you will always have something to do with your mana. Running a counter like Stifle means that you are going to have to decide if you want to limit your opponent or advance your own gameplan.

Won a small local tournament (maybe 16 people at most). Ran against an artifact heavy stax, white-green junk-blade and affinity. Mainboard sower was when I saw Eureka being tested.

It was a very basic build, except Sovereigns and 1 Sower mainboard instead of Kira. 4 Daze and 4 Forece of Will with an added Spell Pierce. SB Jitte (2), Standstill (3), Sower of Temptation (2), Back to Basics (2) and Energy Flux (2). The SB looks weird but it was a metagame choice as I knew there was going to be affinity and that eureka deck.

Hi

I've been running a pretty standard merfolk list these past few weeks, with some average results (mainly due to some bad matchups, and random play errors on my part).

Creatures (24):
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Meerow Reejerey
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

Spells (16):
4 AEther Vial
4 Standstill
4 Daze
4 Force of Will

Lands (20):
12 Island
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault

Sideboard:
2 Echoing Truth
2 Mindbreak Trap (want to replace these with flusterstorm)
2 Submerge
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
3 Dismember

Now some of you may notice that i'm running a four of standstill, my reasoning for this is that our current meta doesn't hold that many other AEther Vial decks.
Phantasmal Image is just a power card in our meta, since it's filled with Bant, Reanimator, and Maverick (different builds). If they play some other decks where you need not worry about any heavy hitters, I just copy a reejerey or lord for extra damage.

What are your opinions about having Kira maindeck? At times there is alot of heavy spot removal in our meta, so thats kind of the reason. But would it be better with more counter-magic for game 1?

With the printing of Grafdigger's Cage, it went right into me sideboard, as there's alot of snapcasters with dredge being more of a once in a while (but i think that some LED/footless looting build will pop up next time, but is just a hunch).
Is anything missing in the sideboard in general, as our meta is pretty mixed from time to time, it's hard to find a rock solid sideboard but I feel this one does the job pretty good :)

Looking forward to your comments.

Have you guys tried using a white splash to deal with our most problematic decks, ie. maverick and sfm.

we have access to good removal AND disenchant to deal with the pesky equipment that does enter play.

As for Swords and Disenchant: I prefer to play Mono U with Wastelands, consistency in mana, and sometimes Back to Basics in the board. Both black & white splashes are viable in Merfolk if the builder chooses.

My tournament decks have become a bit stale this last year and I am looking to bring one back up to snuff for a SCG tourney coming through AZ. I have been playing fish since before we actually had a bunch of merfolk in it, so I am partial to it. I am not sure whether to move my Solidarity deck to sorcery speed with Time Spiral, or play ye olde Solitaire (long time pilot of Enchantress too). Combo and even Burn look like good choices after my research these past few weeks. My Fish tournament deck has two cards that seem unique: Psionic Blast and Maze of Ith.

I am looking at replacing Psionic Blast with Dismember, I see how it will be easier to cast Dismember, at a cost of two more life points but two less mana.

Psionic Blast would get pitched to Force of Will in the early game, and turn into a clutch card in the late game. The surprise factor of blue direct damage to dome should not be understated. I wonder the difference in how many creatures would die to Dismember that live to Psionic Blast (either because I cannot cast it or they have that extra toughness).
Brainstorming on things to pay attention when holding Dismember:
* Do I wish I could pitch it to Force of Will?
* Do I wish I could get through those last points of damage to the opponent?
* Does the -5 toughness take out a creature that P. Blast would not have?
* Does the 4 life for Dismember makes a difference over the 2 damage from Psionic Blast?
* Does the -5 power save one of my lords or do I really needed to net one life point through their combat phase (pay four life to get five damage from their critter nets one life)
* How often I cast another threat/creature, where I would need to keep two mana open for the hard cast on Psionic Blast?

I have been running two Maze of Ith maindeck for a while now. It shines against decks where the threats are bigger and fewer in numbers. The Maze can also be used to let me swing with my army and untap & save a lord they meant to kill or try combat shenanigans on. I wonder if these will get moved out in favor of countermagic. Does anyone have insight on using Maze of Ith in the current field?

Other stale cards in my build are Standstill and Merfolk Sovereign. I have sifted through the pages here, but failed to find the discussion were Standstill fell out of favor with the deck. It pairs well with Maze of Ith. Perhaps someone could point me in the right direction/page/date. (I presume with the rise of other Aether Vial decks in the scene?) I am looking forward to trying out Phantasmal Image.

I def don't see how you can run maze of ith in a deck that plays 12-13 islands and 4 wastelands/mutavaults unless you are cutting 2 of the colorless lands. I would much rather have mutavaults and wastelands. Maze of ith isn't part of the decks strategy.

I would rather play another lord over blast, but 3 mana for blast is a lot when you consider dismember is 1... I don't even like paying the 1 mana, I should be using that mana to cast creatures.

Swords in Merfolk owns stoneblade

I run the 21 lands that most else run:
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
13 Island

I would run the 2 Maze of Ith in place of other control spells I would have ended up running.

If I were to try to run mono U in the upcoming tourney I would run one less Coralhelm Commander than the typical 24 creatures of the recent lists. I would default to 4 Force of Will & 4 Daze and 2 Maze of Ith. When was the consensus reached that 4 Vials over 3 was preferred/optimal?

Is Merfolk plausible without splashing green, white, or black? I looked for some way to have a toolbox of merfolk with GSZ for a fetch, lol.

Maze of Ith is best used in a deck that uses a land toolbox and can search it up. It is good in rock builds and maverick, but few people run more than one to search it up. Untapping your own creature also tends to be less useful in merfolk. Additionally, since it doesn't produce mana, you will have to cut a business slot for it. It isn't bad in the current meta, but merfolk does not utilize it especially well.

The 5th point of damage is more relevant than one would expect, as dismember is often hitting a goyf or a KOTR. But as the post above me noted, it is much more about the difference in mana. Merfolk is still a tempo deck: tapping out to cast a removal spell on turn 3 isn't thrilling, and typically you will get 4 points of reach out of running another lord in its spot.

Not being able to pitch dismember to FOW is an issue (especially as it is a dead card preboard against most combo MUs), but I just don't see psionic blast doing what the deck needs.

This deck is in a need for a whole new revamp.

I've been thinking, The weakest card in the deck right now is Force of will. Spell snare is actually one of the stronger cards.

The new list i'm testing out would be somethign like this.

Creatures (24):
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Meerow Reejerey
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

Spells (16):
4 AEther Vial
4 spell snare
4 vapor snag

Lands (20):
12 Island
3 Tower of Magistrate
3 Mutavault
2 wasteland

There is a slot for 4 cards. I cannot think of any cards that might fit into it right now. I've been trying standstills, but it was sometimes annoying, spell pierce, and daze were useless occassionally.

Maybe another island and 3 more cards to place in there. Snapcaster mage perhaps?

Why not try running your Jitte maindeck, and/or add a some counterspell to make it hard control.

Cheers

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Originally Posted by SupREME-10

Why not try running your Jitte maindeck, and/or add a some counterspell to make it hard control.

Cheers

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Jitte maindeck already isn't solving the problem merfolk is facing now.

The deck needs more than minor tweaks. it needs a revamp.

I agree with Avatar of Shadow on the revamp. That leaves me thinking about what should be considered the core/shell of it and where the flex spots are.

First with the creature count; there is definitely a typical build of the same twenty-four creatures. I see Coralhelm Commander as possibly being < 4-of in some builds. I wish there was another aggressive fish with some different utiity that I hadn’t thought of before.
Saprazzan Heir? (I wish she was 2/1)
Grimoire Thief? (This would fun; double U might be a drag; good if we could bounce a threat to the top of their deck;)
Rootwater Thief? (In my past, it has proven too mana intensive.)
Thada Adel, Acquisitor? (does this help with Stoneforge Mystic decks)?
Other tribal ‘folk that provide some card advantage just cost too damn much (Merrow Harbinger, Seahunter, Tidal Courier)

What is it that out-powers/out-tempos fish these days? Lifegain? Huge Knights? G’yard decks? After perusing the U/R Delver thread, Vapor Snag seems noteworthy. It looks to keep up the tempo game (minus bouncing a SFM, lol). Prehaps it is time to go back to Stifle even, lol. All the other decks I am thinking about running have fetchlands galore in them.

What is it that out-powers/out-tempos fish these days?

For utility, you can reconsider the cards that used to be played at one point in time.

Seasinger
Tidal Warrior
Waterfront Bouncer
Wake Thrasher
Merfolk Sovereign
Standstill
Maindeck Jitte

Or what about a more "balls to the wall" lord deck using Merfolk Sovereign and Phantasmal Image?

Anyways, in this snapcaster/burn metagame, I'd consider loading up on Kiras or spashing for Mom or something.

I know, lets just start with this core...
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Adaptive Automaton
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Merfolk Sovereign

relentless rats.deck here I come!

It is February 26th. The last tournaments for this month are running, results will trickle in shortly.
As I am writing this, there is no Merfolk-Deck in this months "Tops" at the TC-Decks database.
There are, however, one of each for Boros, Mono Black Control, Mono Black Aggro Counter Sliver (!), two Angel Stompies, two Rock Decks, two Deadguy Ale and six Goblin Decks.
I am particularly annoyed by that last one, since I instantly ragesold my Goblin Deck when New Phyrexia came out. I spent the money (most of it) on 4 ridiculous overpriced Forces and started playing Merfolk - it has been a tier 1 deck for some months back then.

Now, I know that Merfolk is a poor choice right now - but is it really that abysmal?

Let me elaborate: I have been out of touch with Legacy for some time now - having a second kid does that. In the last small tournament (5 rounds, 14 ppl) I participated (this January), I have won third place with a pretty basic Merfolk list. I won against UWb CounterTop-Thopters, UR Sneak-and-Tell and Dragonstompy, lost against UGr Threshold and ID'ed against UWr Punishing Stoneblade. The loss against Threshold was a savage beating, the match against Stoneblade would have been the same if it wasn't for the ID.
The matches I have won, however, were pretty good. I felt confident and pretty much in control all the time.
Granted, I wasn't thinking "Yeah, M3rf0lk is still t3h uber-pwnage!", but I was certainly not thinking "OMG, this deck's not top-eighting anything next month" also.

Is this month just a "statistical anomaly", or is Merfolk rightfully non-existing in todays Meta? (And I mean literally "non-existent".)
Or should I rather play something like Aluren or White Weenie (one "top" each)?

http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...8&iddeck=56306
I like the card choices and selection of who he wants to beat, namely batterskull deck.
1 Reej got the axe to support "don't swords me bro" Kiras and 2 Dismembers for path clearing and landing Standstill.

25 people is not much but at least it's something.

I think the first card that needs to be reassessed right now is cursecatcher.

he doesn't really cursecatch anything right now.

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Originally Posted by Avatar of Shadow

I think the first card that needs to be reassessed right now is cursecatcher.

he doesn't really cursecatch anything right now.

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Has anyone tried cosi's trickster over the cursecatcher slot?

No one has tried trickster because it is terrible, cursecatcher is the best one drop and probably always will be. Cursecatcher is to good vs dredge, storm, and control. I would go down to 3 cursecatchers before I cut a reejerey.

The card that needs be reassessed is Daze, which is a terrible card right now. Also if you are not running standstill (you should be) then force of will is a bad card right now.

I have been playing 3 kiras for years now, never leave home without the jellyfish

If illusions, fae and spirits have hexproof lord, I am eagerly awaiting that blue signature race get one.