DS continues with his rampage:
http://www.mtgpulse.com/event/20853#296468
(I am even more intrigued by a third place list because I love Architect and Engineer, while Familiar and Sage are known legacy powerhouses :))
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DS continues with his rampage:
http://www.mtgpulse.com/event/20853#296468
(I am even more intrigued by a third place list because I love Architect and Engineer, while Familiar and Sage are known legacy powerhouses :))
Here is my current list:
4 Cursecather
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Lord of Altlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 True-Name Nemesis
3 Phantasmal Image
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Daze
4 Mutavault
4 Cavern of Souls
13 Islands
Sideboard
2 Dismember
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Venser Shaper Savant
3 Flusterstorm
2 flex splots (experimenting atm)
Few comments: (i) I'm finally on board with MD Jitte, playing 2 cliques pushes it over the edge. (ii) with 2 cliques and 2 venser in the 75, I want to play the fourth cavern over a brown land. But again, I'm always on the conservative side when it comes to the manabase.
I've also been able to play about fifteen practice games against storm last week, winning about 60% of them. I wanted to share an interesting line of play that I didn't think about before, but won me a few games and I believe now is very important in the matchup: slamming chalice on 1 is NOT always the best play. Very often if they have already sculpted their hands with cantrips (i.e. they are on the play and casted 3 cantrips by their turn 2), then X=0 is better to prevent them from going off next turn. In later turns when they have a full grip, X=2 is probably where you want to be (there is a reason why meddling mage always names infernal tutor).
Of course, X=1 turn 2 on the play is usually backbreaking, but I've lost once with it and would have lost another one on the draw if did it instead of X=0.
I wonder what you think of this, in particular TrevaBlues who played storm himself.
I would like to ask everyone their opinion here.Quote:
Originally Posted by dinosaurus
I slowly fade out Jitte from my MD - in so many matchups (Miracles/ANT/Omnitell) i found it a dead card and i replaced it with an extra copy of harbinger...
I noticed some lists have a 2x maindeck and I can imagine it's a metagame call
Tonight I will have a 4 rounds tournament in an unknown field (I am on a business trip in another country) and I will test a 3x harbinger list
If you're worried about Miracles/ANT/Omnitell, replacing with Cliques seems like a pretty good bet. Harbinger doesn't seem that effective against a tapped Emrakul (Annihilator on the stack), Snapcaster Mages and Cliques in Miracles, etc.
If you aren't worried about Miracles/ANT/Omnitell, then keep in Jitte for those matchups where it's useful.
Maybe I'm just not sold on Harbinger of the Tides yet. I'd much rather have Venser even if he's not a Merfolk. Can someone explain why Harbinger's so great?
I think Harbinger is great in modern Merfolk and it has no place in legacy.
Just like reversed position of Image.
Just curious as I might build Merfolk in Modern, why is Harbinger good there but not Image? Does the TNN-Image thing not work? (Maybe TNN is banned, I'm really not familiar with Modern.)
TNN is not legal in modern. Because it was released in a commander product the only formats (besides commander and things like tiny leaders) where it is legal are eternal formats i.e. legacy, vintage.Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbysdl
edit: derp, should probably read what I am posting before actually posting.
Twin is maybe the best deck in modern so Exarch and Pestermite are killing Image the easy way.Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbysdl
Not to mention the other mainstream cards like Elecktrolyze and Kolaghan's Command.
Harbinger is good addition to fight mentioned Twin without losing tempo, while also playing catch up vs Affinity guys.
I didn't end up playing the deck last Sunday after all. x_x Regrets.
A friend and I are going to be running Fish a couple weeks from now at a Vintage event on Saturday, followed by Legacy on Sunday. I'll report back on how that goes.
here i am, back at home after a business trip in Vilnius, Lithuania.
I played on a 4 rounds legacy local event in a very friendly environment.
maindeck:
8 lords
4 nemesis
3 images
4 adepts
4 cursecatcher
3 harbingers
4 vials
4 force of will
3 daze
3 chalice of the void
11 island
4 mutavault
3 cavern of suols
2 wasteland
side:
2 null rod
1 cage
1 envelop
2 spellskite
1 pithing needle
1 dismember
2 echoing truth
1 relic
2 flusterstorm
2 spell pierce
r1 - UW miracles with rest in peace/energy field combo
g1 - he locks me pretty soon and i scoop after jace's ultimate - i missplayed my second chalice (at 2) not considering I still have 3 dazes in the deck...i then drew daze and he manage to sneak in Jace with no mana open...and my daze was useless
g2 - i lock him out with chalice for 1 on turn 2 and i gnaw his lives with mutavault...he plays energy field with 15 lives but i topdeck wasteland to kill his non basic and attack for 17 damages
g3 - counterwar leaves us with no cards in hand...after a couple of turns where i am attacking he draws helm and i do not topdeck my echoing truth for his rest in peace...
0-1
r2 - death and taxes
opponent knows i am a fish player and says this is the worst matchup...i cannot win and so on...i immediately think he is playing ANT...
g1 - believing in my ANT idea i start with land cursecatcher chalice for zero (i had another chalice but no second land) - he starts with plains vial and from there he submerges me with creatures and equipments
g2 - double nemesis for him to race and force on council's judgement countered to seal the deal...while we side he said he had in hand the card to win and i think about cataclysm...
g3 - he got stuck on lands allowing me to prepare a board he cannot beat...meanwhile i keep in hand two counter...i win easily and he shows me moat - only reply in the 75 is echoing truth...but i had counters in hand anyway.
1-1
r3 - patriot? UWR control? (i did not see delver...)
g1 - lords and 2 phantasmal images on his nemesis let me win easily...helped by chalice for 1...
g2 - turn 1 relic helped me to keep him at bay...i waste one land leaving him further behind and counter his dig thru time when he tried to climb back
r4 - food chain combo
i know what my opponent plays because i was scouting after r3...
g1 - he falls behind due to wasteland + bounce his shaman with harbinger and he uses fierce empath to find tasigur - I realize he has no combo ready otherwise he would have taken emrakul and i win with lords
g2 - i do not remember much of this game but i remember countering one food chain and playing too many lords for him...he uses a couple of decays to stay alive but he does not manage to combo out.
3-1
overall good tournament - the real interesting games were at round 1 and i think i played it well even if i lost
harbinger so far is good - it was relevant only last round but i have the feeling it would be good against delver on r3 (if my opponent plays it obv)
I will travel to Elblag, Poland in August and I did not find any relevant tournament for my beloved fishes...in September I should travel to Texas where I am sure I will find some SCG Open to play...until then...my fishes will rest in calm waters!
What's going on fellow Merfolk players,
I've been visiting this site for over the last few months as I got more into Legacy. Naturally, I'm on Merfolk with a typical "Chalice build". I've played MTG off and on since Revised (34 yrs old). Over the last few years I've played a little Standard, Modern and EDH...now I mostly just play EDH (closet filthy casual) and Legacy. I've had a "budget Goblins" Legacy deck for years (Goblins minus Waste/Ports) and loved it but it didn't have the capabilities of a solid Blue/FoW enabled deck...I dig Vials, like turning dudes sideways and thus found Merfolk.
I play in the Netherlands but live Germany...and I'm American (military). I really enjoy the Magic scene in Europe and particularly the Legacy crowd("Grown Man Magic" as I call it, lol). I played my first Legacy event in years a few weeks ago and went 3 and 3 in a 20 Man(9th place). Two of my match losses where to Infect, the other one was Miracles. It was my first time playing Merfolk competively. I absolutely love the deck and the only changes I need to make are additions to the side board(I need Flusterstorms for my VERY heavy combo Meta). Unfortunately I read about and stream more Legacy than I play but such is life being old 😃
Anyways I just wanted to say "hey" and ask if any other Merfolk players are heading to GP Brussels this Fall? I hope to play in some side events and shop.
If any one else plays in or near NL hit me up!
Cheers!
Gary
66 year old man had 8-0 in Grand Prix this Saturday (don't know how he finished the tournament).
I plan to have drafts when my kids put me in a Home (decades from now).
As magic players we have the best possible hobby for retirement, so cut the 34 yrs "old" crap :)
Welcome to our pond.
FANAttiC thx for the response! I'm on the fence about other Legacy cards to buy next...I'm thinking about picking up 4xWastelands so as to have access to them in my Merfolk and Goblin decks. How many of you guys like having access to Wasteland? Is it worth it? My long term plan is to build another Legacy deck (Death and Taxes) thus Wastelands are a must. Also, how many of you guys just play Merfolk exclusively?
Yep, having Wastelands is a good thing. I have my set from that year when Wizards mailed dci foil copies to anyone who played 20 tournaments. We didn't even know how valuable that was.
Anyway, I like having two copies in Merfolk. Definitely worth it (it would be more if they didn't interfere with my colored mana requirements).
I had access to 7 legacy decks but Merfolk (in my head) is a great deck, the best anti-best deck in legacy and there are no opportunities to play other concotions. Slowly selling Infect stuff so 6 more to go.
Exclusivity has its perks in tournament results. 7 years of swimming with fish and boredom still haven't cought my tail.
So from the sounds of it, there is an undefeated merfolk player at eternal weekend. Sounds like he's running a pretty stock list with chalice in the main. Hopefully he can make top 8!
Hello everyone i have been watching the source for a while and finally feel comfortable to post how i did. So I am prefacing this by saying that I live in Seattle and we are very blue and combo heavy. There was a Grand Prix Trial to day and I went 5-1 and was ranked first going in to the top 8 and ended up getting third/fourth with this 75.
Creatures
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 True-name Nemesis
4 Phantasmal image
Spells
4 force of will
2 Dismember
4 AEther Vial
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
lands
10 islands
4 Mutavault
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Wastelands
Sideboard
3 Submerge
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Manriki-Gusari
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Graffdiggers Cage
2 Misdirection
2 Echoing Truth
2 Cursed Totem
The time before the cut down was all blade and delver decks and the only reason that i lost the game i did was because i had a bad couple of draws and the RUG player had the better draws.
the reason i am posting is because of the fact that i did not ever use the Cursed totems and was looking for a couple of side board cards to handle enchantress because i had no chance against them even when i was on the play.
Unless your meta is such that you just can't dodge entrantress, I'd just ignore it. I wish I could have done the same with D&T, but if I did well I'd be nearly guaranteed to play against our then-resident D&T player and 2014 kansas city SCG open champ. I just could not dodge that matchup, so my deck ended up super warped in a vain attempt to try to claw some percentage points in that matchup.
I've been a traitor for a while and casting stoneforges and SoFaIs and supreme verdicts, but I decided to go back to ze good ol' fishies for this week's legacy night, especially since I wanted to try out Harbinger. The List:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Harbinger of the Tides
3 Phantasmal Image
4 True-name Nemesis
3 Merrow Rejeerey
4 Force of Will
3 Chalice of the Void
4 Aether Vial
11 Islands
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Mutavault
2 Wasteland
Sideboard
3 Submerge
3 Swan Song
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Misdirection
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Null Rod
1 Cursed Totem
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Yep, a full 29 creatures! Harbinger now plays double-duty where dismember/echoing truth did before, and it's too hard to pass up on the rejeerey/harbinger synergy. It's a bit sad to run only 3 phantasmals as I consider that *the* best card in the deck, but I really wanted to run 3 harbingers and 3 reej so that I could get that combo out reasonably reliably and test it. Something had to give, and I decided that something was a copy of phantasmal. Also, I was slightly worried about whether I could actually cast the phantasmals, as I only put in 11 actual islands this time when I usually do 12-14.
Round 1: D&T
As previously mentioned, due to my losing streak against D&T I pretty much thought going in I was going to lose hard again. However, a combination of some of my best draws and inexperience on my opponent's part resulted in a crushing victory (for example, he sided out his vials G2). 2-0, 1-0
Round 2: Grixis Pyromancer
Resolved a Chalice T3 in G1 and T2 on G2, and pretty much just won off of those. He had pyro on board and making tokens, but there was no way he could beat my board presence when he had to just feed the chalice and not actually cantrip. 2-0, 2-0
Round 3: Red Stompy
G1 a 3sphere slowed me down too much, so a breached griselbrand draw 14 into breach emrakul got me good. G2 I went T1 cursecatcher into his T1 3sphere by pitching two apes, we did nothing for a bit, but I ended up managing to get 3 actual cursecatchers and 1 phantasmal cursecatcher in play and he couldn't do anything. G3 he resolved a chalice on 1. I had a swan song and a force in hand, but I decided I was better off playing out all the creatures and using the swan song for force rather than to pitch a creature right then. Might not have been correct, but it worked out. 2-1, 3-0
Round 4: Shardless BUG
Went about as expected against a fair, slow, blue deck. Couldn't keep my board under control (especially with 2 vials going), besides tarmo I can outrace his creatures super easy and even tarmo can get outraced too at times. Amusing moment G2: he went T1 deathrite T2 shardless flipping thoughtseize, I went "NO U" with my misdirection. Maaaaan if only that flipped into an ancestral. I'm greedy. 2-0, 4-0
Soo.. a full 4-0 sweep. good times.
The lesson: play Merfolk, do not be a traitor ;)
You cut your mishra factory! Blasphemy!Quote:
Originally Posted by dinosaurus
Sorry I've been away from magic a while, but now making sure I'm decided on my list for the SCG Invitational today :)
Re storm & chalice:
Absolutely you have to consider chalice for 0, 1, and 2. You shouldn't auto slam it for one.
0 shuts off their broken hands which can help when on the draw. Storm also sometimes rely on lotuses to fix mana so you should look for that. You really have to read your opponent though. Often they will just slam those down if a chalice for 0 would wreck them, sometimes they are just baiting it out. But sometimes they hope to draw it. Also note Ad Nauseum is really bad without lotus petal/ led.
1 on the play is often the plan. Hitting cantrips, esp brainstorm, half their rituals, and discard spells. Honestly the most important thing is shutting off duress and cabal therapy, because then you can just reliably sit on fow or flusterstorm and they can't beat that without decay.
2 is one of the best end game plays, shutting of tutor and cabal rituals big mana, also the rare hurkyls recall :). Often you make your second or third chalice you draw late on two.
REALLY it all comes down to the intricacies of LED and Infernal Tutor.
If you have one on 0, they can't easily go hellbent, so they have to waste time casting spells. Chalice on 1 with no LED in hand they have to just cast cantrips to discard them to turn cabal ritual and Infernal Tutor online.
Yes be wary, an easy way to beat chalice on 1 with storm is just discard cards to chalice then cabal rituals and Infernal Tutor. Sometimes you can counter, sometimes not.
I hope it was worth going into lengths about this. I surprise myself with how much I know about storm so yes there are lots of angles to look at when playing chalice against them.
That said, I am excited to sleeve up merfolk for the invitational today!
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