2 Vendillion Clique instead of 2 Reej.
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2 Vendillion Clique instead of 2 Reej.
And 2x Sygg for the other two.
Didn't play against it (MUD) much in tournaments (like 5-6 matches at most), but playtested a bit a while ago. It was slightly unfavorable, but also very random. Problem was that they ignored pretty much everything in Merfolk - only relevant cards were Force of Will, Dismember and Wasteland (after board Echoing Truth and Cursed Totem). Seeing how we don't play many Dismemebers and Wastelands today, and we play useless CotV I assume it got much worse.Quote:
Originally Posted by CptHaddock
In case you haven't noticed, Tyler Wilkerson top 16ed the last SCG Open with this 75:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Merrow Reejerey
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Silvergill Adept
4 True-Name Nemesis
3 Aether Vial
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Vapor Snag
13 Island
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
Sideboard
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Back to Basics
2 Chill
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Hydroblast
2 Spell Pierce
1 Vendilion Clique
That's really interesting, I hope Tyler comes by and can give us some comments on his tournament. Some pretty bold choices, including no chalice in the 75 (especially given that he championed the chalice build even before treasure cruise was printed).
My list quite different, but I can appreciate what he's trying to do. Cool to see all these options on the table!
Looking forward to hear what others think
This is what I'm thinking for the SCG Legacy in Portland tomorrow (and the Invitational next weekend):
12 Island
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
3 Mishra’s Factory
4 Aether Vial
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 True-Name Nemesis
4 Phantasmal Image
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Sygg River Cutthroat
Spells:
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
3 Chalice of the Void
Sideboard:
2 Dismember
2 Echoing Truth
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Flusterstorm
2 Cursed Toten
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle
1 Hurkl's Recall
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Threads of Disloyalty
I really wish we had a sideboard plan for Delver, I wouldn't mind going without the Hurk's and Crypt if there were any cards particularly good against Delver, but I can't think of much...Gut Shot? Still doesn't seem great, but maybe that's the best we can do...
don't you have too many cards in your maindeck? otherwise I like your list. Please let us know how it goes!
as for sideboarding against delver, you can put a fourth chalice if you want. I also like to have access to more dismember against Jeskai (also the non-delver stoneblade list).
best of luck!
I've been trying out a few gutshots in the sideboard however against most of the young pyromancer/delver decks the life lose is slightly relevant, although it does get rid of a lot of pressure that they have. The deck running the 4 vapor snags was pretty interesting, snag is probably just a better answer to all the delver decks. I think the best thing to do against delver is to race it; after all we do play the self pumping islandwalkers.Quote:
Originally Posted by athosthemusketeer
Yea this is 2 too many in the maindeck, crap. What're the cuts? My instincts say cut the 2 Cliques but people in here have said they're really important...In the past I've trimmed a Phantasmal Image or Cursecatcher, but those are so important when they're neededQuote:
Originally Posted by athosthemusketeer
If you want your miracles matchup to still be a bye then Vendillions need to stay.
If you do not care for that matchup then they can go.
In your list, possible cuts are Sygg and Image. Sygg is great when TNN starts hiting but at that moment you have TNN in attack mode and drawing cards is not that vital.
And Image still depends on other cards in play, 3 should be enough.
Good luck in your tournaments!
Merfolk should be good in this meta...i don't know why no one plays it.
It beats BUG, Miracles, sneak attack.
I guess the UR matchup is pretty bad
There's a couple cards good versus delver for mono blue merfolk to use. Repeal is quite nice against the creatures. Chill is great, if you can protect it. Personal I would play treasure cruise in the sideboard. Cruise will make most of their removal pretty pointless.
Merfolk
By: The Dojo
3. Phantasmal Image
4. Curse Catcher
4. Lord of Atlantis
4. Master of the Pearl Trident
2. True Name Nemesis
4. Silvergil Adept
3. Tidal Currier
4. Force of Will
4. Vapor Snag
4. AEther Vial
4. Cavern of Souls
4. Mutavault
4. Flooded Strand
4. Polluted Delta
4. Island
The 2 unusual card choices being Tidal Currier and Vapor snag. Vapor Snag gives the deck soft removal buying a little time which is usually all the deck needs to progress the board to a winning position. Tidal Currier has been amazing. We put it in just to try it out and in all honesty the card has totally out performed our expectations. It can fill your hand up after a board sweeper, and counts as a Merfolk. One of our favorite plays has been to cast it off uncounterable mana from Cavern then copy it with Image from a vial and reap the rewards of drawing all those cards. I highly recommend everyone give it a couple games tell me what you think.
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I'm planning to play the SCG Open in Philly in two weeks and I expect quite a lot of Jeskai Stoneblade, but I'm not totally sure how to sideboard against them. More specifically, I'm afraid to dilute the deck too much post-board and i'm not set on which cards to take out. What would be your ideal 75 against stoneblade?
I'm currently thinking of:
4 Cursecather
4 Silvergil Adept
3 Lord of Altlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Phantasmal Image
4 True-Name Nemesis
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Dismember
21 Lands
Currently, I feel like to best way to win is to keep stoneforge mystic off the table and resolve a chalice or a true-name. The fact that the life loss is irrelevant makes me max out on dismember, but the fourth could be something else (I'm not a big fan of Jitte or Echoing Truth in the matchup though).
I would cut pretty much anything before I cut a Lord of Atlantis.
The Stoneblade matchups are very interesting, and depending on what side you want to play, there's a lot of variation. If you want to stick to an aggro plan (which your deck is best setup to do), I like cards like Kira, Spellskite, Spell Pierce and Blue Elemental Blast, with the plan being to land a clock and protect it from their spot removal. Standstill is also very good for that plan. If you'd rather play an equipment-battle kind of plan, I'd suggest at least one Jitte (especially given that you have Phantasmal Images for when they have SFM in play) just because if you resolve it, the game completely changes and suddenly they just lose if they can't contain it. Some of my other favorite cards for that plan are Hurkyl's Recall and, again, Spell Pierce and Blue Elemental Blast. That gameplan is a race to get equipment online, so bounce spells let you out-tempo them and get your Jitte (or Sword of Fire and Ice, which is super spicy) online and controlling the game.
Another card which is bonkers in that matchup is Divert, since it's an incredibly large swing for them to think that they are successfully Lightning Bolting a Lord of Atlantis and getting into the driver's seat, only to lose their Young Pyromancer (or their own True-Name Nemesis, which is boss) and suddenly being twice as far behind in the race. It's basically as good as Spell Pierce, but results in a huge tempo swing that they probably can't recover from. It is less good if you're planning on not running Wasteland, though. It's also, clearly, less good if your plan is Chalice of the Void. But if it's not...
This weekend I Top 4ed one of the bigger Legacy Tournaments here in Germany (153 players showed up, even through a rather annoying blizzard) with Merfolk, losing only a single game in the swiss (vs D&T) before getting my head stomped in in the quarterfinals by the eventual winner of the tournament on Reanimator.
Here is the List I ended up running:
21 Lands
13 Island
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
6 Artifact
4 Aether Vial
2 Umezawa's Jitte
8 Instant
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
25 Creatures
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pear Trident
4 True-Name Nemesis
3 Phantasmal Image
1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
1 Merrow Reejerey
Sideboard
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Hydroblast
2 Spell Pierce
2 Swan Song
2 Dismember
2 Submerge
2 Relic of Progenitus
General thoughts on the deck:
I really, really like Merfolk in the current meta(Treasure Cruise decks, anti treasure cruise decks, combo, miracles), we are one of the few decks that I feel has a good game vs Delver (Chalice+high threat density), Control (uncounterable TNN, high threat density) and Spell based combo (Chalice, quick clock, cheap disruption).
Manabase was very solid, liked having access to the 21st land, was experimenting with a factory in that slot but it screwed me over a lot)
I like the sideboard, would love to fit in the 4th chalice but I am not quite sure what to cut. The only thing that is a bit lacking is graveyard hate should I ever end up vs Dredge or Lands I don't think I can ever win. At the same time I am not sure its worth it to dedicate more sideboard space to those decks.
Would love to hear some comments on the decklist or other things. If there is interest I have a ~1400 words tournament report written in german that I could translate for this forum, wasn't sure what the stance on euro tournament reports is in this forum.
It would be great to read your report :) There are european players here also!
How was Jitte's performing? I love to play Vendilion Clique (or even 2) in Merfolks - best 3 drop next to TNN in Merfolks!
congrats! would be great to hear the report! i'm interested in how daze performed for you. How costly would you think cutting them would be (for chalice for instance)? thanks!
+1 for report.
It doesn't matter what continent you represent, 153 people is relevant anywhere.
How do you top4 something and get stomped in quarters? :)
After a relatively uneventful drive I arrived at the tournament site. Initially I didn’t have high hopes fort he tournament. I had not gotten to play Legacy in 3 Weeks (thanks german public transportation) and I finished my last modern tournament with a solid 1-4 finish, which earned me a last place. But everything went better than expected.
Round 1 vs Sneak and Show 2-0 [1-0]
My opponent was a local player, so I knew which deck he was on, which led me to keeping a hand of 2x Force, 2x Image, 1x Daze, Cavern, Island, which is probably not keepable in the dark, but against my opponent it worked out relatively well.
SB: -2 Jitte, -2 TNN, -1 Image, -1 Daze/Cursecatcher (not quire sure about that one) +2 Pierce, +2 Hydroblast, +2 Swan Song
Game 2 was a bit weird. I kept a controling hand that mainly relied on a pair of mutavaults for pressure, which my opponent turned off with a sideboarded Blood Moon, fortunately I drew Islands and was able to chain a few Silvergill Adepts to put my opponent to quasi dead on board (My board consisted of 2 Cursecatchers, 2 Adepts, my opponent was on 10 and I had a lord in hand). My opponent went for a pyroclasm, which I Swan Song’ed and attacked for lethal, my opponent tried to block but I reminded him oft he Islandwalk. That interaction comes up surprisingly often vs Blue Combo decks.
Round 2 vs Death and Taxes 2-1 [2-0]
In game 1 I thought I was in trouble when my Opponent lead with Cavern on Human into Mother of Runes, but it turns out my opponent kept a hand that was incapable of producing white mana (his manabase was Cavern+Tower of the Magistrate) and I just ran him over.
SB: -2 Daze, +2 Dismember.
Game 2 was a similar Blowout, but this time directed towards me. He curved Mother of Runes into Thalia into Stoneforge into Jitte into Serra Avenger + Revoker and just ran me over.
Game 3 was absolutely fascinating. I naturally drew Jitte but he was able to keep it in check through a combination of removal and the Thalia+Karakas softlock, but a slight misplay on my opponents part (he attacked with the Thalia, thinking he could Swords my Jitte’ed Creature, but he tapped down to 1 land) allowed me to get counters oft he Jitte and from there a phantasmal image out of a vial to copy Flickerwhisp allowed me to kill the Thalia. From there on Jitte did the things that Jitte does in Creature based matchups.
Round 3 vs UR Delver 2-0 [3-0]
After this relatively decision intensive game I was happy when my opponent led on Scalding Tarn into Volcanic Island into Ponder. The first game he was able to treasure cruise and cantrip his way into a gigantic army of elemental tokens after I failed to draw the lethal lord for 3 turns. My opponent made the crucial mistake of tapping out for Goblin Piker (a second Pyromancer on a lethal board) instead of keeping up the Bolt he was sure to have, which allowed me to finally draw the lord and swing for lethal.
SB: -2 Daze, -2 Image, -1 Cursecatcher, -1 Reejerey, -1 other card (either the third Daze or the third Image) +3 Chalice, +2 Spell Pierce +2 Hydroblast
In game 2 I drew an early Chalice but decided to trade cards with my opponent for a while and after he tapped low I was able to resolve a Chalice on 1 and shortly after one on 2, which left me at 17 Life and him with a single Swiftspear, which was not enough to beat me. After the match he told me that he thought this was a very good MU for him postboard and showed me the 7 1cmc removal spells he brought in, which is not the best against my plan of „resolve Chalice and laugh maniacally“.
Round 4 vs UWr Stoneblade 2-0 [4-0]
Game 1 was a classical „2 Jitte on 2 TNN“ mirror match that looked like it came straight out of December 2013, but I was at a higher Lifetotal when the shenanigans started and was able to finish him before he found his Batterskull.
SB: -4 Daze, -1 Reejerey, -2 Cursecatcher, +3 Chalice, +2 Spell Pierce, +2 Dismember. Worth noting that my opponent is on relatively old school Stoneblade with no Pyromancers and with a high saturation of 1cmc answers.
Game 2 I got off to a quick start which included a Chalice on 1, but I overextended into a (rather obvious in hindsight) Verdict, but was able to follow it up with 2 TNN before he was able to get back into the game.
Round 5 vs Team America 2-0 [5-0]
At this point the nerves started getting to me. I quickly got Jitte active but gave my Opponent 2 additional turns by killing a Goyf with it instead of just pumping for lethal. Luckily it didn’t matter since his deck wasn't well situated to kill multiple lords quickly enough.
SB: -4 Daze, -1 Image, -1 Cursecatcher, +2 Dismember, +2 Submerge, +2 Relic of Progenitus
Game 2 I kept a wonky hand with only 1 Island and a Aether Vial, which is obviously bad against both Daze and Thoughtseize. He did have the Daze, but I was able to protect the Vial with Force and was able to play a real game of magic. My opponent stumbled a bit, missed his 2nd land Drop for a while and his Delvers took 2 turns to flip, which allowed me to start racing him. The turn before his Delvers would have been lethal I was able to Dismember one of them, pay for the Spell Pierce he used and submerge the second Delver, which allowed me to kill him before he rebuilt his board.
Round 6 vs MUD 2-0 [6-0]
In the last match I saw my MUD Opponent cast a Turn 1 Forgemaster into Turn 2 Battleball out of the corner of my eyes, which did not make me feel optimistic about my chances in this matchup, but everything went rather well. Game 1 he did a lot of damage to himself via Ancient Tombs and I was able to Force his first bomb and get him low enough so that his second Bomb (a Steel Hellkite) never came online, since he was at 2 Life and had a manabase that consisted exclusively of Ancient Tombs
SB: -2 Daze, -2 Cursecatcher, +2 Dismember, +2 Spell Pierce.
Game 2 was absolutely brutal. I was able to Spell Pierce his turn 2 Staff of Nin, Force his turn 3 Lodestone Golem and Daze his Turn 4 Bomb, all the while hitting him down with increasingly big Creatures. The whole match lasted maybe 15 Minutes but it was definitely one oft he more intense matches this weekend, helped by the fact that it was basically a win-and-in. After the match my opponent and I chatted about how interesting it was that the Match on table 1 of a rather big legacy Tournament ended up being a Chalice mirror match, which I definitely agree with.
Round 7+8 Double draw into Top 8, against my eventual semi- and quarterfinal opponent.
Quarterfinal vs Burn 2-0
I was definitely feeling the pressure at this point, my opponent was an IRL friend of one oft he people responsible for me getting into the format, Julian Knab, who was watching the whole match. Since the cut to top 8 was relatively clean I was 3rd Seet/Seat and on the play in this MU, which definitely helped. My opponent led with a Turn 1 Grim Lavamancer and spent a lot of cards on burning my Creatures, thankfully most of them were Silvergill Adepts, so I did not fall behind on Cards too much. The deciding phase of the game was when my Opponent traded his Lavamancer and a Bolt for my Lord+Adept and I was able to Daze the replacement Lavamancer he played and the next Turn ambush his freshly played Goblin Guide with a TNN out of a Vial and then follow up with a second TNN, which put the game away rather quickly.
SB: -3 Image, -1 Reejerey, -1 TNN, -1 Daze, -1 Sygg, +3 Chalice, +2 Hydroblast, +2 Spell Pierce.
Game 2 he changed his strategy and pointed a lot of Burn at my Face, which quickly brought me down to 6 Life, but he was hellbent and Topdecking and I had ~30 Power worth of Fish on the Table, which quickly killed him.
Semifinals vs Reanimator 1-2
My luck had to eventually run out and I was matched up vs a matchup that I would describe as pretty bad, which was not helped by the fact that my opponent was the 2 Seed/Seat, which gave him the rather important play. Game 1 he exhumed a Sire of Insanity on turn 2, which left me with no hand and a board that only contained an Aether Vial (I returned an Island to my Hand to Daze him and got Dazed back). I was able to get a Lord on the Table and would have been able to almost swing the game around with a TNN, but my opponent eventually drew the reanimation spell to put a Griselbrand onto the table, which ended the game.
SB: -2 Jitte, -4 TNN, -1 Reejerey, -1 Image, -1 Daze, +2 Relic+ 3 Chalice, +2 Swan Song, +2 Spell Pierce
Game 2 I kept a hand with 2 Force of Will, which I desperately needed since my opponent had a turn 1 reanimate Iona into turn 2 Reanimate Iona. I eventually drew a Relic and decided to crack it immediately to play around Krosan Grip (wtf was I thinking?) and the next turn decided to tap my only Blue source (which I needed for my Swan Song) to activate Mutavault. Thankfully my opponent didn’t find the third reanimation spell in time and I killed him shortly after.
Game 3 I kept a Hand of Spell Pierce, Chalice, Image, Lord, Cavern, Mutavault, Island, which in my Oppinion is a keepable, albeit a bit slow, hand. Unfortunately my opponent had an incredible hand of 2x Entomb, Reanimate, Exhume and a few Firestorm for good measure, which ended up in a Turn 2 Iona, which I could not answer in time (or at all, really). After mulling about it a fair bit I came to the conclusion that the game might have been winable if I let his entomb on my endstep resolve, he follows up with the Exhume, which I pierce and then slam the Chalice on 1, but at that point in the Day I had been playing magic for close to 12 hours and was pretty exhausted.
Best play of the Day: Vialing in a Phantasmal Image to copy my Phantasmal Image that was copying a Flickerwhisp to target a Karakas to allow me to break the Thalia+Karakas softlock.
Misplay of the Day: Playing a Spell Pierce into my own Chalice of the Void and forgetting the trigger, made me seem like a scumbag, when in fact I just genuinely forgot that the Chalice was on the Board.
Sorry for spelling and capitalization errors, for whatever weird reason both my Word and my Chrome decided that the English spell checker was not really neccesary, so I had to do it myself.
Answers to some questions:
Cutting Daze is not something I would be comfortable doing, Daze did lots of good stuff throughout the weekend.
Chalice in the main: This might be me metagaming waay to hard, but I like it more in the Sideboard, for the following Reason: I feel we are allready favored in Game 1 vs the various Blue decks that Chalice is good against simply due to our Speed, decent Disruption and high threat Density. Game 2 they often bring in a lot of 1 cmc removal/REBs, since its the Delver hate of choice for lots of people, often on the cost of their own permission. This allows me to just slam a Chalice on 1 and invalidate a large chunk of their deck. If I had the Chalice in the Main they would almost certainly keep in their permission and not side in that many 1 cmc cards.
Mixup semi vs quarterfinals: Just a goof up, thought top 4 = quarter and finals=semifinals for some weird reason.
Been thinking of getting back into Merfolk, I miss the art, TNN, and Islandwalk effects. My question is though, is there a shell that I can play that gives the deck more than just a plan A so I do not get bored of the same strategy every game? My first thought that could work is a shell with 4 Chalice of the Void, 8 Manlands, 3-4 Standstill, and debating between either 4 Tidal Warrior, or 4 Aether Vial. This kind of shell gives you a "landstill" playstyle that can catch your opponent off guard right? Or am I going the wrong way about this?
Also with the debate between Tidal Warrior and Aether Vial, late game vials are horrid draws (unlike D&T), and Tidal Warriors can manascrew opponents while also being a creature late game. Which is better in this "landstill" style? I would prefer to not get rid of Tidal Warriors as I have found them very powerful in pushing decks to the late game. Hopefully you guys can give me clues as to what shell and cards would be best.