[Deck] Merfolk

Hello all! I am a Modern player going to GP Lille. As I have some experience with Merfolk in Modern, I am now strongly considering playing the deck at the GP. What works in one format has to work in another as well, right? Right??

Jokes aside, what do you think are the key differences/similarities between Merfolk in Modern and Legacy. I am not talking about sepcific interactions in the Legacy format, but more about the big picture. Are there any changes I have to make to my mindset/playstyle to do well with the deck in Legacy?

I might have questions on specific card choices later, but for now I'm still reading through the last couple of pages here :wink:

Well, the good thing is you don't have to think about affinity; Chalice of the Void (if you choose to run it) is brutal against most legacy decks, since the format itself have Wasteland, which means decks are used to operate on low mana and therefore have more efficient spells (one being the prime number; for example burn in modern is based on two mana cards while burn in legacy is almost all one mana).
Our mana is more or less the same as modern counterpart, 20 lands with 4 Vial and there are enough basics to not be a victim to Wasteland and Stifle.
Image in legacy is few leagues better than in modern (no Twin, copying True-Name is fun...).

There are less beatdown and more Island and combo decks, aka perfect for Merfolk.
With TNN there is no need for protection dudes like Kira and Spellskite.
At this moment Miracles and Omnitell are the "best" decks in legacy and Merfolk have the best tools to beat them.

Ok, thank you for the introduction! :laugh:

Reading through the last +-3 pages of the thread and from you comment I infer that running Chalice is - literally - a choice? As in, there is no right/wrong answer?

It seems nice to have a proactive play against unfair combo, but on the other hand, just runnig more disuption might have the same effect... ah, I can see where the discussion that has been going on in the last few weeks is coming from :wink:

Is the primer of this thread considered up to date? If not, can someone point me to a summary of the dynamics in the most common matchups?

Primer is obsolete.
There are 377 pages of discussion so some cards don't have consensus.

Stock cards are (not necessarily playset) :
Mutavault
Cavern
Island

Cursecatcher
Adept
Master
Atlantis
Image
TNN

Vial
Daze
Force

It is up to you to find a spot for Wasteland, Pierce, Standstill, Truth, Reejerey, Clique, Chalice, Jitte...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FANAttIC

Primer is obsolete.
There are 377 pages of discussion so some cards don't have consensus.

Stock cards are (not necessarily playset) :
Mutavault
Cavern
Island

Cursecatcher
Adept
Master
Atlantis
Image
TNN

Vial
Daze
Force

It is up to you to find a spot for Wasteland, Pierce, Standstill, Truth, Reejerey, Clique, Chalice, Jitte...

---

i'm not sure Daze is a mainstay in this deck.

I actually left it out in the first draft, but didn't want to be too controversial.

http://www.iplaymtg.com/data/attachm....jpg.thumb.jpg
Closer to a Modern card, but also possible combat trick in legacy?

Hello Fish lovers!

I've been playing Merfolk for a while and although there aren't many blue-based decks in my local meta I perform well during tournaments. There is one match up that I find really hard - Death and Taxes.
IMO it has a lot of tools to fight Merfolk - Vials to prevent me from countering their threats, Thalia with her first strike which makes it sometimes impossible to play aggressively on first turns, Revoker to stop my Vials, Wasteland and Ports to get rid of Mutavaults - the only possible blockers for their non-flying creatures with support from Mothers and/or Sword of Fire and Ic,and of course every Merfolk player's FAVOURITE card in four copies - Stoneforge Mystic...

Any thoughts of how to improve this horrible match up? I run 2 Jittes MD, but it turns out to be useless when not equipped on Nemesis. I board in additional bounces such as Echoing Truth, but nothing seems to be as good as it should be.



About Harbinger of the Tides... meh. Still waiting for some better fishy dudes in Battle for Zendikar :wink:

In the main,Clique can steal equipment from stoneforge as well as flying over blockers. I also found Daze to be a better against them that I usually thought (they often board out vials because of revoker, which makes them pretty slow). Manlands have some game against mother of runes and SOFI, although they are susceptible to wasteland. The matchup is not good, mutliple TNN are the best way to win. Otherwise, try to win fast before equipment comes online. I like Dismember in the board as well, as they have little to punish you for the early life loss.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spankyourmonkey

Hello Fish lovers!
There is one match up that I find really hard - Death and Taxes.

---

This is what I bring in vs D&T. I actually like the matchup, from the merfolk side.

+1 Carry Away
+2 Dismember
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Cursed Totem
+1 Misdirection

Back when TNN just came out and they were running Meekstone as an answer, it was way tougher.

I also really like the Harbinger, and think it swaps in easily for Reejerey. Too bad it doesn't bounce any tapped creature though :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by f7eleven

This is what I bring in vs D&T. I actually like the matchup, from the merfolk side.

+1 Carry Away
+2 Dismember
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Cursed Totem
+1 Misdirection

Back when TNN just came out and they were running Meekstone as an answer, it was way tougher.

I also really like the Harbinger, and think it swaps in easily for Reejerey. Too bad it doesn't bounce any tapped creature though :(

---

f7eleven,

Like you, I like the D&T matchup for Merfolk. Carry Away is an interesting choice, though I'd be surprised if the D&T players in your meta wouldn't play around it with "3: Return Batterskull to its owner's hand."

On Harbinger: I wouldn't swap for Reejerey, which has excellent synergy with it. Flash in Harbinger during combat to tap (off Reejerey) and blank Batterskull (or even Elesh Norn or what-have-you). Of course, most Legacy decks don't run Reejerey, so Harbinger will likely be better in Modern Merfolk. But the vial or flash option seems good enough for Legacy if you do. My only question is: 4 or less than 4. Thoughts, folks?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Knight Ware

Many thanks to the 42 of you who showed up for a really bizarre meta.

---

http://www.knight-ware.com/ccg/magic...015legacy.html
Still no respect! :tongue:
But we have the last laugh.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by f7eleven

+1 Carry Away

I also really like the Harbinger, and think it swaps in easily for Reejerey.

---

That is some deep tech! Don't know I'd fit the slot for that. Would probably rather have a Pithing Needle.

I'm curious about Harbinger for sure. The thing is, Legacy Merfolk lists are pretty consistently 24 creatures: 4 of Cursecatcher, Silvergil, Lord, Master, Phantasmal, TNN... So they probably come at the expense of Phantasmal or board slots. Not sure how worth it the Merfolk Wizard is (the best class for Merfolk!).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FANAttIC

http://www.knight-ware.com/ccg/magic...015legacy.html
Still no respect! :tongue:
But we have the last laugh.

---

crazy! the cat's out of the bag!

how people feel about back to basics in the board? Beyond Lands, in which matchups do you like to bring it in?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dinosaurus

crazy! the cat's out of the bag!

how people feel about back to basics in the board? Beyond Lands, in which matchups do you like to bring it in?

---

Also interested in the answer to this one; I've sometimes played B2B but often found that the dissynergy with Mutavault combined with people fetching basics to play around Wasteland anyway have all made it less effective than I'd want. The other question I have is about Blue Elemental Blast. I like the card, I'm just curious what your metagame looks like to warrant three of them. Is it just a lot of burn?

A list of someone that went second in an IQ last week:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=87306

Umm, I just realized Chris Ferber's deck at the knight-ware link doesn't run Vials. Talk about aggressive.

This is what I'm planning to play at the GP, comments welcome! thanks :)

4 Cursecather
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Lord of Altlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Phantasmal Image
4 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique

4 Aether Vial
3 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
2 Daze
1 Dismember

4 Mutavault
1 Mishra’s Factory
3 Cavern of Souls
13 Islands

Sideboard

2 Dismember
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Echoing Truth
2 Flusterstorm
1 Swan Song
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Vendilion Clique

There are a couple flex slots here and there that I would consider changing.

I like having an answer to annoying stuff like Glacial Chasm.
I have -1 Island, -1 Factory for +2 Wasteland difference to your mana base.
2 Wastes are still randomly winning me games and with your 3 Dismember for Deathrite you have the option for ending games against 3-4 color decks on the second turn.
My 2 cents.

thanks! it's a very tempting decision, and I was agonizing over it last night, but in the end I'll discipline myself and go for the slightly more consistent mana base.... plus factory has always been great for me
see you this weekend hopefully! I'll be in Lille after lunch today, I'll be playing a grinder or two, my name is Olivier Darmouni