I'm more suspicious of the appearance of Cursed Totem and Arcane Laboratory than anything else.
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I'm more suspicious of the appearance of Cursed Totem and Arcane Laboratory than anything else.
Of all commonly decks, I definitely view Elves as the matchup I least want to play against...
I can see how overloading on hate can win you some games, but in my experience elves is pretty good at dealing with multiple pieces of permanent hate. That makes me reluctant to devote much space to them in SB, which means I keep losing against it.
So I can definitely see why you've been winning much more than me against them. I'm just not ready to devote so much space in SB for this matchup. Even though cursed totem and arcane lab have applications in other matchups, I feel there are other cards I currently want.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
On a different note: what will happen if they ban DTT on monday? (I'm not convinced, but we'll see).
The main change I can see is OmniTell players returning to sneak & show, meaning I'll probably go back to 4 images.
No major legacy events happened between the last ban date and now. I don't see DTT banned this time. Maybe next year.
The name is Reclamation Sage. Elves is a pretty tightly packed deck with not much space for sideboard cards. I usually expect a couple of Reclamation Sage and three to four Abrupt Decays in G2. Sage is ok since it can be FoW'ed. Abrupt Decay is more problematic, but needs black mana.
Again, it's all about probabilities. After SB I have 4x Chalice of the Void, Umezawa's Jitte, 2x Cursed Totem, 3x Arcane Laboratory, 4x FoW, 2x Echoing Truth, and Rushing River. And Elves bring significantly less hatred.
This is my experience so far. Earlier this year, my first build of Merfolk had 4x Daze and no Chalice of the Void. And Elves were very problematic for me. And with my current build I perceive Elves as a relatively fair match up with probabilities slightly in my favour.
I am more concerned about Maverick as Mother of Runes and lands are major troublemakers. Elves are fine.
My prediction is that (i) sneak and show will replace omnitell, (ii) RUG/BUG delver will replace grixis delver; (iii) miracles will be a larger share of the winner's metagame.
I can also death & taxes and lands being better positioned now. Not sure about Elves though.
Overally, I think this is good news for merfolk I'd say!
I have to think a bit about to change my sideboard a bit (for instance, maybe spell pierce will make a come back)
That's up for debate but chalice is getting a little worse: sneak and show and bug delver care much less about it than omnitell and grixis delver.
I'm considering cutting 1 MD if I need an extra slot (not sure what at this stage though)
Not everyone can (or should, since familiarity is important) change decks completely as they please.
Omnitell was not a great matchup for us in the first place (Boseiju and playing around Daze, even Pierce). It was ok-ish.
Switching that to Show&Tell is a lot better.
I played merfolk years ago and always loved it. I get the reason to play chalice of the void in the Treasure Cruise and DTT era (since it stopped the cantrips that fuelled those decks): do you guys think that now Chalice will be good as before?
Are there any changes you guys are planning to do? I know there won't be any big changes and there's no reason for it but just a few here and there. Is Chalice still good enough to play or it is better to go for Daze?
The turn 2 chalice got a lot weaker as alot of decks will be shifting away from the full cantrip package. I would wait a weekend or two to see the sum total changes. If rug gets big I will likely be going back to junk nicfit, or if shardless seems to be top contender, bloodmoon decks are back in.
I have a tournament in a week, that's why I asked and want to be prepared to it. Maybe I'll try Dazes and see how it works. After that tournament I'll go back to Death and Taxes.
Switching Chalice for Daze is worth thinking about I believe. If BUG and Sneak and Show are back in force, it might be worth it. Let's see how the meta changes.
I'm preparing for the eternal extravaganza at the end of the month, and if it was tomorrow, I would play the following 75:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 True Name Nemesis
4 Phantasmal Image
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Mutavault
3 Cavern of Souls
2 Mishra's Factory
12 Islands
Sideboard:
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Dismember
3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle
2 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
Comments welcome :)