[Deck] Merfolk

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Originally Posted by FANAttIC

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...gppar14/day1#2
As far as I know Rohner's list was best placed (11-4), maybe someone else got 12-3 but no top16.
The list with Vendillion Cliques seems "interesting", Clique is a great metagame call for Paris because it answers Verdict, Terminus, Jace, Batterskull and Entreat.

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Funny! This is the card I was going to add into my "local combo meta" arsenal. One in the MD, and one in the sideboard. Three of them is a lot but it does hit combo AND blade decks nicely. That is probably why he only plays 2 CoS, since he is running 3 Cliques. My current decklist looks like this:

4 x Cursecatcher
4 x Silvergill Adept
4 x Master of the Pearl Trident
4 x Lord of Atlantis
4 x Phantasmal Image
4 x True-Name Nemesis
3 x Sygg: River Cutthroat
1 x Vendilion Clique

4 x Aether Vial

4 x Daze
4 x Force of Will

4 x Mutavault
4 x Cavern of Souls
12 x Island

SIDEBOARD

3 x Tormod's Crypt
1 x Vendilion Clique
3 x Flusterstorm
4 x Dismember
3 x Jitte
1 x That anti-equipment equipment

4 Dismember is a lot and 3 Jitte is also a lot, but they're chilling there while I try and figure out what to do otherwise.

The 1-of equipment you don't know the name of is called Manriki-Gusari.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Secretly.A.Bee

The 1-of equipment you don't know the name of is called Manriki-Gusari.

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Cheers :cool:

Went to a legacy tournament on sat and had a turnout of 30 people. I decided to run merfolk as I felt like it would be good to overload on more True-Names than other decks and the lords protect the True-Names from the various -1/-1 sweepers. I decided to run a list that's based off Saito's merfolk:

12 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Cavern of Souls

4 Aether Vial

4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 True-Name Nemesis
3 Phantasmal Image

4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Dismember

Sideboard:
3 Submerge
3 Swan Song
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Vision Charm
1 Reality Ripple
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Cursed Totem

A quick summary:

Round 1 - Won against Bant splashing black for Deathrite and Decay
Round 2 - Won against Esper Deathblade
Round 3 - Won against Death & Taxes
Round 4 and 5 - Draw
Top 8 - Lost against Affinity

Some observations:
- I found that I boarded out a lot if not all my counterspells in all of the matches. I'm not sure if that's right or not but I felt like against the decks I played against, I didn't really want lose the number of threats.
- Never used Vision Charm and Reality Ripple so I don't know how good they are. Found out that Vision Charm can't make lands like Glacial Chasm into Islands so I'm not sure if it's actually worth playing.
- After playing against a deck like Death and Taxes where they tax your manabase so much, I'm thinking maybe it's not worth it to play 4 Merrow Reejereys as 8 three drops seems a lot and in my game two against D&T, my entire hand was three drops and I always only had two lands open due to wastelands ,multiple ports and a Thalia. Losing a lord seems wrong though so I'm not sure if that's just something I have to deal with in the D&T matchup.
- This was the first time that I played with True-Name and wow, it's just makes unwinnable games winnable.
- I thought I would miss Wastelands in the deck but the direction of the deck seems to have become landing a Cavern on turn 3 and then start slamming down uncounterable True-Names. Having 8 ways to make your creatures uncounterable is pretty sweet.

Miracles hated us before. Now how must they feel? :-P

Merfolk is what started legacy for me. I love these blue men but have been hesitant to play them. I think with TNN that may change as it helps against batterskull and goyf. Please give feedback on what to do to improve the list/board strategy. I think hardest match-up with this 75 is DnT.

4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill
4 TNN
4 LoA
4 MopT
4 Image

4 Vial
4 Daze
4 Pierce
4 Force

12 island
4 muta
4 waste

board:
4 submerge
2 truth
4 relic
3 swan song
2 needle

gbx decks including maverick
- 4 force
- 4 daze/pierce
- 4 curse catcher
+ 4 submerge
+ 4 relic
+ 2 needle
+ 2 truth

vs combo storm based
- 4 tnn
- 4 image
+ 3 swan song
+ 2 etruth
+ 3 relic

vs show and tell
- 4 tnn
- 1 LoA
+ 3 swan
+ 2 etruth

vs rug
- 4 Force
- 4 pierce/daze
+ 4 relic
+ 4 submerge

vs uwr tempo
- 4 force
+ 2 needle
+ 2 etruth

vs control
- 4 daze/force
+ 2 needle
+ 2 etruth

vs DnT
- 4 Force
+ 2 needle
+ 2 etruth

Took my recent brew to what was supposed to be a large local tournament(25$ entry, 4 fow for 1st, 2 wastelands for second, 1 wasteland each for 3/4) but ended up being a bad week for turnout, so prize support and entry was lowered(so was REL).

Decks I expected to see:
1-4 storm decks
2-3 show and tell
1 reanimator
1-2 elves
1-2 deadguy/death and taxes
1-2 jund
4-5 delver decks


Decks that showed up:
3 jund
1 belcher
1 elves
1 american delver
1 BUG delver
2 others i didnt play against and dont remember
Me on merfolk


This is what I ran:

Creature (29)
2x Cosi's Trickster
4x Cursecatcher
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
4x Phantasmal Image
4x Silvergill Adept
3x Tidal Warrior
4x True-Name Nemesis

Land (20)
4x Cavern of Souls
12x Island
4x Mutavault

Instant (7)
3x Daze
4x Force of Will

Artifact (4)
4x AEther Vial


Sideboard (15)
2x Back to Basics
2x Cursed Totem
2x Flusterstorm
2x Grafdigger's Cage
4x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Manriki-Gusari
1x Swan Song
1x Umezawa's Jitte


R1: Jund (1-0)
This match has always been a terrible matchup for me, I hate getting paired against it.
Guy playing is normally on omnitell but we are all pretty good friends. He hadn't planned on playing but due to low turnout he played. Drew hand and found out the deck he had on him was presideboarded, so we gentlemans agreemented on a mull to 6. Tidal warrior turn one, keeping him off black till turn 4 game was just a blowout.
Game 2 I just drew gas and had a counter up for his only lightning bolt for trickster.
+ 2 Back to basics
+ 4 Leyline of sanctity
- 3 cursecatcher
-3 daze

R2: American Delver (2-0)
Game 1 he brainstorm locked himself when I forced a ponder the turn after brainstorm.
Game 2 Image on stoneforge to fetch manriki, counter magic/cursecatcher managed to land it and equip to TNN. Blowout on jitte/batterskull he scooped.
+1 Manriki Gusari
+2 Back to Basics
-3 Daze

R3: BUG Delver (3-0)
Game 1 blowout
Game 2 he grinded me out after a well timed hymn
Game 3 long game but landed 2 phantasmals
+2 back to basics
+4 leyline of sanctity
-3 tidal warrior
-3 daze

R4: Draw in against Elves(3-0-1)

Top 4
1 Me
2 Elves
3 Jund
4 Jund


Top 4: Jund
Tidal warrior was a blowout game 1, to the point that he didnt believe I was main decking it.
Game 2 he got punishing fire online
Game 3 was really grindy, punted I should of dropped TNN to block his goyf, but I waited until his end step to play around a second lilliana. My turn I untapped all lands(he had used golgari charm on my previous end step to kill back to basics), life total was 8-6, I draw land, equip jitte to TNN and swing TNN at lilli and mutavault at him. He abrup decays jitte. Puts him at 4 and lilli at 1(his goyf was 5/6) he topdecks a punishing fire that he can recur 3 times, for the win.
Way to not punt:
Play TNN, to block the goyf. If he did have a second lilli i could of activated mutavault and saced that...
Game 2 sideboard:
+4 leyline
+2 back to basics
+1 jitte
-3 daze
-4 cursecatcher
Game 3 sideboard
+2 back to basics
+1 jitte
-3 curse catcher
Pulled the leylines out because he would likely remove his discard after seeing a turn 1 leyline game 2, my thoughts were correct when he left just lilli in.


Thoughts:
Tidal warrior made my jund much much better. It used to be impossible for me to peel a game off of them. Now I feel that game 1 is 50:50, game 2 is 40:60.
Manriki is fantastic against stoneforge decks, I had not previously thought about using phantasmal image to find the manriki, that +tidal warrior should make my DnT matchup better(if they could land a stoneforge previously I would lose).
Thinking of pulling out back to basics for a second jitte or a different sword(light and shadow is good against jund, and gives my creature protection against DNT and deadguy, SoFI is good against delver decks but I think my matchup is okay against them already).
Leyline is more to protect my hand against ANT, but is good against decks hoping to grind my hand down with hymn/thoughtseize.
Debating whether the fast clock from cosi's is worth it or whether I should play 2 merrow reejer or 2 sygg in its place.

I have enjoyed reading all of these posts - very helpful.

I'd just like to note that I played at my local competition, and it was a shambles of a deck I threw together last minute. I ended up accidentally forgetting my Mutavaults, and only had 2 Cavern of Souls. I ended up playing with 17 Island, 2 Cavern of Souls. I found that with 19 blue sources, I had more than enough mana. Just saying, you could probably go down to 18-17 land or something if you played with 4 CoS and 14 Island.

I don't plan to do this, but maybe someone might want to experiment with a deck that played less colourless utility lands, and more creatures? Probably not.

Sygg was eh. He was fine. I did terrible, but I played against some terrible match-ups anyway. I like the idea of Tidal Warrior over Trickster.

Yeesssss! I finally managed to 4-0 locally, though I did get real lucky with matchups. My deck:

Creatures(28)
4 cursecatcher
3 tidal warrior
4 silvergill adept
4 master of the pearl trident
4 lord of atlantis
2 merrow rejeerey
4 true-name nemesis
3 phantasmal image

Instants(11)
4 force of will
3 daze
2 dismember
2 echoing truth

Artifacts(3)
3 aether vial

Lands(20)
13 island
2 cavern of souls
2 mutavault
3 wasteland

Sideboard(15)
3 submerge
3 swan song
3 relic of progenitus
2 grafdigger's cage
2 pithing needle
2 jace, the mind sculptor

EDIT: lol I was somehow running 62 cards.. must have lost count of the deck after tweaking it too much.

Match 1: Punishing Maverick (2-1)
Lost game 1 to a fast knight of the reliquary getting depths combo
Won game 2 by drawing 2 submerges, an echoing truth, and a dismember with a T1 vial and totally tempoed out
Won game 3 similarly, but also had quite a bit of help thanks to a decent amount of mana screw forcing him to use horizon canopy for like 4 or 5 damage

Match 2: Reanimator (2-1)
Match 3: Reanimator (2-1)
Both matches went pretty similarly
Lost game 1 to iona, but I know I'm just pretty cold to that without the sideboard hate so.. whatever
Board in 12 cards (everything but submerge), draw them and win. One of the games I had just the nuts of force, image, lord, daze, relic, island, cavern and drawing a cage and then another force. My SB is just ridiculously super hateful. There's even splash hate in cage, as I wouldn't have it in my SB except that elves is around, though really I should be running jitte instead for stoneforge decks too (too bad I don't own any right now).

Match 4: Nic Fit (2-0)
Veteran explorer is just the sweetest card ever. G1 I traded a cursecatcher for it T2, played a silvergill and a lord, played another silvergill and lord the next turn... brutal.
G2 explorer was also real sweet, but the game was really put away drawing 3 TNN and an image. Did 14 damage in a single turn thanks to TNN, an TNN copy, and a mutavault attacking with 2 lords that came down that turn. Got wiped by a pernicious deed, but I still hand a TNN and drew a second one the next turn and that was that.


I dodged D&T. elves, and lands.. phew

Small tournament report: the tournament was 26 people

Match one Merfolk: 2 Bug: 0
Match 2: Merfolk: 2 Ant: 0 ( game two he killed himself with ad nauseam)
Match 3 : Merfolk : 0 Bug Delver: 2
Match 4 : Dont' remember but won 2-0
Match 5: Merfolk:1 Bug fit 2( I lost game 2/3 thanks to bad mulligans and seeing no creature)

I ran a list similar to Rohner's list from GP paris yesterday at SCG Atlanta and went 7-2 finishing in 18th

I lost my camera feature match against UWR in round 8 (http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/b/507673922 @ about 8:08:00)
to note the commentators got my sideboard plan exactly right
Where I made 2 minor mistakes
1. In g1 I pitched phantasmal image to FoW instead of reejerey -
- I should've saved the image since I know it can copy my opponent's TNN which ended up coming down the next turn.
- I would have then vialed the image in during my upkeep before the vial goes to 3 counters
- knowing that my opponent has Jitte in hand I should've realized that Reejerey is going to be useless in a turn anyway and my only way to win is via TNNs
- my next draw is another image which I did cast as a copy of TNN
- on my final turn the card that you don't see is another TNN which I did not show my opponent since I could not attack for 12 anyway
- however, if I had a 2nd image I would've attacked for 6 putting my opponent to 9 and the 3rd TNN would've been lethal (except he still would've had 2 counters on jitte)
- so in the end it didn't matter because he had a 2nd TNN and a flipped delver, but I still made a mistake that could've cost me the game

2. in g2 I attacked with my mutavault and cursecatcher intending to protect it with FoW and cursecatcher
- the attack with mutavault was correct but the with needle on lavamancer it is clear that he trades with cursecatcher then he can bolt my mutavault
- seeing as my game plan is TNN then back to basics I needed to protect my 2nd land better than I did
- It didn't matter in the end, since I never found land #3 but it was still a mistake that could've cost me the game
- though if I ever do find land #3 I likely win that game

As for the rest of the tournament
Round 1 Loss - Bant stoneblade because I never found a TNN
Round 2 Win - burn
Round 3 Win - UWR delver thanks to TNN
Round 4 Win - dredge where I used sower of temptation targeting my own phatasmal image to exile 3 bridges from below
Round 5 Win - elves thanks to a math error by my opponent where he GSZed for 7 and tried to get craterhoof
Round 6 Win - RUG delver
Round 7 Win - UW stoneblade - man lands were able to finish the game after a supreme verdict
Round 8 Loss - UWR delver - see above
Round 9 Win - miracles - actually lost g1 to back to basics, but g2 and g3 were manlands and counters for terminus

deck list

master of the pearl trident 4
lord of atlantis 4
cursecatcher 4
silvergill adept 4
true-name nemesis 3
phantasmal image 3
merrow reejery 4
sower of temptation 2

aether vial 4
force of will 4
gitaxian probe 3

cavern of souls 3
mishra's factory 3
mutavault 4
island 11

sideboard

spell pierce 2
swan song 2
pithing needle 1
echoing truth 1
dismember 1
umezawa's jitte 1
relic of progenitus 2
surgical extraction 1
back to basics 2
arcane laboratory 1
chalice of the void 1


What I liked about the list
14 blue sources make non-aether vial games somewhat winnable, especially cavern of souls
also 21 lands as opposed to the tradition 20 (with 4 wastelands) makes the addition of more 3 drops and 4 drops less painful
7 manlands make the grindy matchups much better
pretty good anti-combo sideboard
back to basics in the sideboard (though I never got to cast it, it would've been key in both matches that I lost)

What I disliked
sower of temptation seems best against sneak and show and not great in the fair matchups (except maybe BUG delver, maverick,and lands?)
- stoneblade - it can't take TNN and resolved stoneforges are useless
- RUG delver - too slow
- Elves - no relevant creatures worth stealing
- miracles - angel tokens?
- basically I sided them out in all my matches after round 1
- aside from the niche interaction vs dredge, I never used them at all
gitaxian probe only let me play around daze against RUG
- without the daze + wasteland package, probe becomes a lot worse
- I liked probe only in that it gave me free cards to side out without diluting my strategy at all and cantripped even when I couldn't find blue mana

What I would change
4th TNN no question about it probably cutting a reejerey
cut the probes for either preordains (better vs fair decks) or cosi's tricksters (better vs combo)-
move the sowers to the board and maybe try vendillion cliques main - the advantage being that I can leave vial on 3 always
If I go with preordains I will definitely play a 12th island
maybe run the 4th image since it goes so well with TNN and is good against stoneforge, however too many images can be rough

Cards I want to test out
phyrexian metamorph - for essentially 3 mana you get another clone effect that doesn't have the phantasmal drawback and can copy equipment
manriki gusari - for the sideboard since it is probably a better against SFM than Jitte since dueling Jittes is not fun.

Overall I think this should be the default build of Merfolk going forward
I think cutting dazes and wastelands is correct since Merfolk can now win the mid game with TNN whereas before we needed to disrupt the opponent more.
By cutting daze we can run fewer islands and get the advantage of cavern of souls, since uncounterable turn 3 TNNs can win a lot of rough games.
if we cut daze we should cut wasteland, since only half of the mana denial package is not particularly effective, and can run additional man lands instead.
however, by doing that you take some hits from the combo matchups and need to shore that up in the sideboard, though main deck V cliques would be a good start.
I would argue that I didn't have a single good matchup all day and I still went 7-2 (you might call miracles and RUG decent matchups but not amazing)
Therefore, I think that should I have had more good matchups (and a 4th TNN) I could have easily made top 8

Haven't been following the Merfolk builds lately...interesting. Seems like Wasteland/Daze is getting the cut in exchange for better mid-game power, as the last poster mentioned.

It makes me wonder why run this deck vs. TNN decks with equipment? I'm not trying to troll here - just wondering what the advantages are if there is less tempo going on. It seems like Game 1 you're going to have trouble vs. those types of decks with no easy way to get rid of equipment/SFM.

I suppose islandwalking all over them + speed = good deck. But the absence of Wasteland in some builds really surprised me, to be honest.

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Originally Posted by Plague Sliver

Haven't been following the Merfolk builds lately...interesting. Seems like Wasteland/Daze is getting the cut in exchange for better mid-game power, as the last poster mentioned.

It makes me wonder why run this deck vs. TNN decks with equipment? I'm not trying to troll here - just wondering what the advantages are if there is less tempo going on. It seems like Game 1 you're going to have trouble vs. those types of decks with no easy way to get rid of equipment/SFM.

I suppose islandwalking all over them + speed = good deck. But the absence of Wasteland in some builds really surprised me, to be honest.

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Actually, they have been cut to make the deck faster. Merfolk is getting more aggro, we mix our threats between creatures instead of just one. Also... It is much cheaper for people like me to play ;-)

The idea of cutting Daze sounds scary vs. Combo. As in, you would just lose.

I've got a question for the people playing with three Tidal Warriors in the maindeck. Did you guys ever find that three were too many or it felt like you always had one at the right time? I used to play with one in my maindeck and it felt great because the opponent will always use a removal spell on it instead of a lord but always thought that one was enough.

@Pocari m79: I play with the tidal warrior in the main for the following reasons:

1) 3 1 drop for a turn 1 play
2) enable some really nice tricks
3) It an islandwalk enabler.


Also why cutting daze and becoming more aggro?, daze i useful in a lot of match ups.

Is 3 Aether Vial really the correct play? Aren't we trying to maximize drawing it? I'm starting to become confused with the purpose of Aether Vial if we are only playing with 3.

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Originally Posted by Windmill

Is 3 Aether Vial really the correct play? Aren't we trying to maximize drawing it? I'm starting to become confused with the purpose of Aether Vial if we are only playing with 3.

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Don't be confused. It's always correct to play 4 of Aether Vial. 3 is wrong. It's a personal choice of an individual, but in deck building applied theory it's 4 or 0.

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It's really not that cut and dry anymore. We're actually the worst vial deck at using vial. Goblins has a nice steady stream of CA to keep vial busy (it's also the most crippled by not having a vial effect). D&T uses it for massive blowout tricks and also has sword of fire and ice to also keep vial fed. We mostly just use it as ramp more than anything else and can play just fine without one. Now that we've all dropped standstill, we don't have the CA needed to feed vial ourselves and that makes the second vial all the more painful. Due to how awesome T1 vial is and how terrible it is to draw one, 4x vial w/ 4 1-drops has significantly higher variance than 3x vial and 7 1-drops. Also, having the T1 play is much better than not having one as well as having something to vial in on 1, which the 3-7 build also gets you. Drawing the vial is a brick after T1, as you are much better off continuing to curve out with dudes than let up on the pressure by casting vial. The soonest you can possibly cast it while still advancing the board in a reasonable way is T3, which means it's not useful until T5.

There's no substitute for actually understanding what role vial has in the deck, and how that role has changed now that we don't run 100% of waste/muta/vial/standstill/daze.

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Originally Posted by tuxdev

It's really not that cut and dry anymore. We're actually the worst vial deck at using vial. Goblins has a nice steady stream of CA to keep vial busy (it's also the most crippled by not having a vial effect). D&T uses it for massive blowout tricks and also has sword of fire and ice to also keep vial fed. We mostly just use it as ramp more than anything else and can play just fine without one. Now that we've all dropped standstill, we don't have the CA needed to feed vial ourselves and that makes the second vial all the more painful. Due to how awesome T1 vial is and how terrible it is to draw one, 4x vial w/ 4 1-drops has significantly higher variance than 3x vial and 7 1-drops. Also, having the T1 play is much better than not having one as well as having something to vial in on 1, which the 3-7 build also gets you. Drawing the vial is a brick after T1, as you are much better off continuing to curve out with dudes than let up on the pressure by casting vial. The soonest you can possibly cast it while still advancing the board in a reasonable way is T3, which means it's not useful until T5.

There's no substitute for actually understanding what role vial has in the deck, and how that role has changed now that we don't run 100% of waste/muta/vial/standstill/daze.

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I suppose its on you that you presume "we've all dropped Standstill" because I haven't. I still like it, especially with Vial and 7 manlands.

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I think my biggest question (to the entire thread) is this: why are we cutting Daze, Wasteland, Aether Vial and Standstill? The strength of Merfolk, especially when compared to other tribal strategies, has always been that it has a strong game against control decks and against combo decks, mostly based upon being able to play flexible cards like the ones I've mentioned. They let you play the control role or the aggro role depending on what deck you're facing and they all do a good job of giving you the ability to change speeds when you need to.

I think the way that you build the deck has a strong influence on the way that you play it, and what I'm seeing from all of the people dropping the more traditional "merfolk" cards like Vial, Daze, Standstill, and Wasteland is a desire to push the deck away from it's aggro-control construction and towards pure aggro, with more 1-drops and 30+ creatures. Which is fine, I guess, if that's what you're into, but it leaves me confused. If you want to play an aggro deck, there are a lot better ones out there than Merfolk (Goblins springs immediately to mind, and Elves is probably just the best deck for someone who's interested in attacking with creatures and ignoring the opponent).

I'm mostly just interested in people's ideas on this; when I build and play this deck, I try to make it as flexible as possible and position it firmly in the aggro-control realm because I think that's what it's good at and I think that a well-built aggro-control deck in the hands of a great player is unstoppable.