[Deck] Merfolk

Finished off a league at 5-0 today on MTGO. The SB is a bit unique but has been working on my paper meta, so I figured I'd try it online. I played against Storm (2-1), Show and Tell (2-1), Esper Stoneblade (2-0), Eldrazi (2-1), and Esper Stoneblade (2-1). For both of the post-board games with stoneblade, I tried taking out vial to bring in null rod and back to basics, which ended up being really effective. Perhaps not the best idea, but it worked. I haven't sprung for Wasteland online yet, which is why they're missing here. Typically I play 3 Cavern, 2 Wasteland, 12 Island.

MD:
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
13 Island

4 Aether Vial
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 True-Name Nemesis
3 Phantasmal Image
2 Vendilion Clique

2 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will

SIDEBOARD
2 Back to Basics
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Dismember
2 Flusterstorm
2 Hibernation
2 Null Rod
1 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Umezawa's Jitte

I've been playing more mono-red sneak attack and grixis delver lately, so it was nice to whip through a league fish slapping people again. I forgot how resilient the deck is.

5 cards are missing in your 60. +3 Image and +2 Force?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FANAttIC

5 cards are missing in your 60. +3 Image and +2 Force?

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Haha yeah, good catch. It was late last night and I must have glazed over them while typing.

Then great! All I hear is people winning with this maindeck, we are approaching stock list and hopefully reaching our peak at double GP (Columbus and Prague) 2 months from now.
They will never know what hit them (ok, it will be TNN with their name stickered on it, but still)!

Hey folks. It has been a long time since I have been involved in this deck beyond a casual peek in here. I would like to keep some sort of value to the OP. Can I get someone to supply a stock list and a very quick matchup analysis for it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finn

Hey folks. It has been a long time since I have been involved in this deck beyond a casual peek in here. I would like to keep some sort of value to the OP. Can I get someone to supply a stock list and a very quick matchup analysis for it?

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I have not played the fishfolk in a while but the chalice lists have been putting up the best results so I imagine that is where you want to start. I think for the most part the following are pretty set in stone, so about 52-55 cards. So you have about 5-8 flex spots to adapt the deck to your meta. You have some leeway with the island count as well, I prefer 10 Island, 2 Wasteland, 4 Mutavault and 4 Cavern of Souls.

4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
4 True-Name Nemesis
0-3 Phantasmal Image

4 Aether Vial
4 Chalice of the Void

4 Force of Will

4 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
12 Island

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finn

Hey folks. It has been a long time since I have been involved in this deck beyond a casual peek in here. I would like to keep some sort of value to the OP. Can I get someone to supply a stock list and a very quick matchup analysis for it?

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Hi Finn, I've used to play merfolk long ago but recently I've rediscovered my love for the deck and won a small tournament at my LGS with this list

4 cursecatcher
4 lord of atlantis
4 master of the pearl trident
4 silvergill adept
4 true-name nemesis
2 harbinger of the tides
3 phantasmal image
2 Vendilion Clique
4 force of will
3 Chalice of the Void
4 aether vial
2 umezawa's jitte

10 island
2 wasteland
4 mutavault
4 cavern of souls

Side
2 venser, shaper savant
2 dismember
2 warping wail
2 flusterstorm
2 spell pierce
2 back to basics
2 relic of progenitus
1 chalice of the void


I think other people play lists similar to this one, and I'm almost sure that Fanattic's list differs only of a pair of card from the above (btw, good job pushing this thread over bud!), but ultimately it's a matter of preference because there are quite a few flex slots.

I think merfolk's core is

4 cursecatcher
4 lord of atlantis
4 master of the pearl trident
4 silvergill adept
4 true-name nemesis
2 phantasmal image
4 force of will
4 aether vial
10 island
4 mutavault
3 cavern of souls
13 flex slots


Those flex slots can be covered by a number of cards like

3-4 daze
3-4 chalice of the void
1-2 kira, the great glass-spinner
1-2 vendilion clique
1-2 spell pierce
1-2 warping wail
1-2 umezawa's jitte
1-2 phantasmal image
1 cavern of souls
1-2 island
1-4 wasteland
1-3 harbinger of the tides
1 echoing truth


I've exluded some of the old played cards that are not played anymore, like standstill, focusing on the pool of the most recently played.

Of course some choices goes well with the some others, like playing daze and spell pierce with a full set of wasteland, but are bad with other (like spell pierce and chalice in the same main deck).

Most of the cards not in the maindeck can be found in the side (like vendilion, echoing truth and pierce).

I ask other active players to give their opinion on the matter since I may be inaccurate since I've been a long time without playing the deck.

MU analisys to come.

Cheers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finn

Hey folks. It has been a long time since I have been involved in this deck beyond a casual peek in here. I would like to keep some sort of value to the OP. Can I get someone to supply a stock list and a very quick matchup analysis for it?

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I think my list (a few slots above) is close to what Fanattic plays (and what I would consider stock) for the main deck.

Depending on your meta, more Jitte or more Echoing Truth or even more creatures may work, but I've been very happy with my set up.

Important cards in my sideboard are 2 Back to Basics, 2 Flusterstorm, and 2 Submerge. (I don't have sub on MTGO because it's expensive). The rest flexes but often includes relic, Pithing Needle, and something else to help against combo.

My hardest match ups are shardless, Elves, and D&T.

spankyourmonkey: I've been extremely pleased with Warping Wail, so much so that I run 3 maindeck. It's so very flexible and all 3 modes (yes, even the scion) have been very very relevant.

Finn: I've been working on a new primer for a little while now, and this here's the list I use (and discuss)

Creatures
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Phantasmal Image
4 True-name Nemesis

Disruption
4 Force of Will
3 Warping Wail
1 Echoing Truth
4 Chalice of the Void

Mana
4 Aether Vial
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
2 Wasteland
10 Island

Sideboard
3 Dismember
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Flusterstorm
2 Null Rod
1 Back to Basics
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Echoing Truth
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

As for matchups, Merfolk is *still* fundamentally an anti-blue deck, though it's gotten so so much better against the non-blue decks with TNN. I think it's secretly a DTB but people still think of it too much as a "noob deck" and want to play brainstorms too much. There's not really much about Merfolks that screams "I'm doing powerful legacy things". I think the biggest, most important shift in Merfolks is in "deck philosophy". With Daze getting dropped for Chalices and the reduction of Wastelands, I don't think of Merfolk as a tempo deck anymore, we're actually a Blue Stompy list.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tuxdev

With Daze getting dropped for Chalices and the reduction of Wastelands, I don't think of Merfolk as a tempo deck anymore, we're actually a Blue Stompy list.

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This times 1000. I think this is something we should embrace. A lot of times we do not want to trade 1-for-1 because the more fish we have, the better they all get. This is not true of a tempo deck.

I'm intrigued with the Warping Wail inclusion. I'll definitely give that a try, and I like your sideboard. I've been running Faerie Macabre in other lists to deal with Reanimator, which is definitely a challenge, though I don't have any at my local meta. I'm not going to Columbus or Prague because of work, but trying to put in time on MTGO and weekly to push this forward. Will report back.

This is what I've been running just at my LGS:

4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of Pearl Trident
4x Merrow Rejeerey
4x True Name Nemesis
1x Phantasmal Image

3x Standstill

4x Aether Vial
1x Umezawa's Jitte

4x Force of Will
1x Misdirection
2x Echoing Truth

2x Wasteland
3x Cavern of Souls
4x Mutavault
11x Island

4x Chalice of the Void
1x Graffdiggers Cage
3x Relic of Progenitus
2x Pithing Needle
2x Spell Pierce
2x Spreading Seas
2x Harbinger of the Tides
1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner



At the monthly I went 3-1 beating The Rock with Siege Rhinos, Aggro Loam, and Miracles, I lost to affinity. I really liked Rejeerey to tap down blockers against all the non-blue decks, and I like a real lord over image because they can still target through a chalice and kill the image, or its your only lord and there's nothing to copy.

Standstill has been a house, playing it on turn 2 with Vial in play is back breaking, obviously thats the dream, but anytime you have TNN or mutavaults, Standstill is a must break for them and 1U for 3 cards is the best card draw in the format.

The board is pretty effective, I have a lot of graveyard decks and lands in my meta, thats also why I maindeck wastelands, its not unusual to have a tabernacle come down, or maze of ith is annoying.

Hey guys,

I'm a long-time Modern Merfolk player that's getting ready to make the leap into Legacy. This is the list I'm thinking of working my way up to:

Legions of Atlantis v. 2

Artifacts (8)
4 AEther Vial
4 Chalice of the Void

Creatures (24)
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 True-Name Nemesis

Instants (8)
4 Daze
4 Force of Will

Lands (20)
4 Cavern of Souls
10 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Wasteland

Sideboard (15)
2 Echoing Truth
2 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Spreading Seas
1 Umezawa's Jitte

I know I'm making some rather unorthodox decisions, but allow me to try and explain myself:

Daze - I know that a lot of people are down on this card of late, but I have still found it useful. I've used it to pull the rug out from my opponent in the mirror (stripping his islandwalk by bouncing my Island), and I feel a lot more comfortable against the likes of Storm and Reanimator by having a critical density of count

Merrow Reejerey - I know he's a bit slow, but this is a nod to the deck evolving into Blue Stompy (as was described above). I want as much pump as I can get my hands on, and this (unlike Phantasmal Image) stands on its own and plays nice with Cavern of Souls and Silvergill Adept. Furthermore, with 6 true colorless sources and 4 conditional colorless sources in my mainboard, the 2U casting cost can sometimes be easier to get through.

Harbinger of the Tides - This card is still under testing, but I think it's a potent way to stuff the deck with bodies for attrition matchups (where AEther Vial is not so hot), and a quick tempo tool that can come in handy against the likes of Infect.

Spreading Seas - I know that Blue dominates Legacy and that makes this less potent than it is in Modern, but this is essentially a concession to the existence of non-blue decks that can stonewall our attackers. I'm specifically thinking of the likes of Eldrazi and Maverick, though it also happens to do some good work against Lands (a matchup that can be pretty tough without it, from what I've read - I've only faced it once myself).

Anyway, I would love to hear some thoughts on this list.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rothgar13

I know I'm making some rather unorthodox decisions, but allow me to try and explain myself:

Daze - I know that a lot of people are down on this card of late, but I have still found it useful. I've used it to pull the rug out from my opponent in the mirror (stripping his islandwalk by bouncing my Island), and I feel a lot more comfortable against the likes of Storm and

Merrow Reejerey - I know he's a bit slow, but this is a nod to the deck evolving into Blue Stompy (as was described above). I want as much pump as I can get my hands on, and this (unlike Phantasmal Image) stands on its own and plays nice with Cavern of Souls and Silvergill Adept. Furthermore, with 6 true colorless sources and 4 conditional colorless sources in my mainboard, the 2U casting cost can sometimes be easier to get through.

Harbinger of the Tides - This card is still under testing, but I think it's a potent way to stuff the deck with bodies for attrition matchups (where Æther Vial is not so hot), and a quick tempo tool that can come in handy against the likes of Infect.

Spreading Seas - I know that Blue dominates Legacy and that makes this less potent than it is in Modern, but this is essentially a concession to the existence of non-blue decks that can stonewall our attackers. I'm specifically thinking of the likes of Eldrazi and Maverick, though it also happens to do some good work against Lands (a matchup that can be pretty tough without it, from what I've read - I've only faced it once myself).

Anyway, I would love to hear some thoughts on this list.

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Nothing too unorthodox here, all of this is fine and playable but with time you may change your mind.

Daze - Is just not what Merfolk is trying to do anymore, what are you dazing? Storm doesn't go off on turn 1 and will play a petal before they dark rit. I would also not build my deck expecting a mirror, its really uncommon and unless you are running llawan its not really going to do it, it will just be a race. The best use I can picture is a Turn 2 Lililiana. I dont know, I say run it until you cut it.

Rejeerey - Look above, I just posted about him. I love him, a real lord and the tap/untap is very relevant.

Harbinger - It seems good, I've yet to have it impact a game from the sideboard.

Spreading Seas - Also like Harbinger, it seems good and relevant but have yet to have it impact a game (positive or negative) from the sideboard.

I'd recommend moving at least 1 echoing truth to the main, it really is a wonderful card that can be a random catch all, blow out some mentor tokens or just pitch it to FoW if its too early or you don't need it.

I guess the reason why I still have Daze is because I'm very apprehensive of lowering my counterspell density, and I don't really know what else to put in to replace it. Echoing Truth might be able to do fulfill some of the functions that I'm looking for, but using that one actually involves keeping mana open. I think I'll go with the "run it until I cut it" line of thinking.

I'll freely admit the Harbingers and Seas are experiments, and they're mostly brought in as responses to decks I've heard Legacy Merfolk struggles against but Modern Merfolk does not (except for Lands - there I'm just speculating), in large part due to these cards. We'll see if they're relevant enough to justify their inclusion. Otherwise, there's plenty of tech for me to choose from as substitutes (I'm particularly looking forward to testing Back to Basics).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rothgar13

I guess the reason why I still have Daze is because I'm very apprehensive of lowering my counterspell density, and I don't really know what else to put in to replace it. Echoing Truth might be able to do fulfill some of the functions that I'm looking for, but using that one actually involves keeping mana open. I think I'll go with the "run it until I cut it" line of thinking.

I'll freely admit the Harbingers and Seas are experiments, and they're mostly brought in as responses to decks I've heard Legacy Merfolk struggles against but Modern Merfolk does not (except for Lands - there I'm just speculating), in large part due to these cards. We'll see if they're relevant enough to justify their inclusion. Otherwise, there's plenty of tech for me to choose from as substitutes (I'm particularly looking forward to testing Back to Basics).

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Nice to see a familiar face from the MTGSalvation modern boards.

I don't think Reej is a totally crazy idea. Another local fish player runs a 3/3 split of Image and Reej and has found it helpful. I may give that a try at this weekend's event.

I also have wondered the same thing about spreading seas. It's probably the card I miss the most from the modern version, even though I run back to basics in my sideboard. I've been playing a lot of mono read sneak attack lately, and having more ways to prevent other people from using their lands effectively is amazing.

I know Nikachu runs two harbingers in the board, and that has been somewhat effective. I've been running submerge because it's free for the creatures I care about (Marit Lage in Lands, Goyf, and infect creatures), but YMMV.

I'll do some goldfishing and then post back with where things end up before the event.

Yeah, Submerge is a heck of a card. I really should make some room for that in the SB. I'll see how my experimental choices pan out, but I definitely have that and Back to Basics as the proverbial "first cards in".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tuxdev

spankyourmonkey: I've been extremely pleased with Warping Wail, so much so that I run 3 maindeck. It's so very flexible and all 3 modes (yes, even the scion) have been very very relevant.

Finn: I've been working on a new primer for a little while now, and this here's the list I use (and discuss)

Creatures
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Phantasmal Image
4 True-name Nemesis

Disruption
4 Force of Will
3 Warping Wail
1 Echoing Truth
4 Chalice of the Void

Mana
4 Aether Vial
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
2 Wasteland
10 Island

Sideboard
3 Dismember
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Flusterstorm
2 Null Rod
1 Back to Basics
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Echoing Truth
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

As for matchups, Merfolk is *still* fundamentally an anti-blue deck, though it's gotten so so much better against the non-blue decks with TNN. I think it's secretly a DTB but people still think of it too much as a "noob deck" and want to play brainstorms too much. There's not really much about Merfolks that screams "I'm doing powerful legacy things". I think the biggest, most important shift in Merfolks is in "deck philosophy". With Daze getting dropped for Chalices and the reduction of Wastelands, I don't think of Merfolk as a tempo deck anymore, we're actually a Blue Stompy list.

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Tuxdev - I saw your wins on Mtgtop8.com (http://mtgtop8.com/search?player=tuxdev)

Is there a reason for the 2 Mishra's Factory versus Wasteland? Is this an MTGO price thing or a preference?

Pretty much just an MTGO price thing. I don't really want to get them now when EMA is coming down soon enough. Against miracles the factories are awesome and significantly better than wastelands. Against most everything else.. not so much.

it looks like the last succesfull lists are running daze along with chalice

http://tcdecks.net/archetype.php?arc...&format=Legacy

any thoughts? please compare majority of decks of April
they are putting up good results in decent sized tournaments

The most worrying thing in that link is the "Most played cards in Merfolks" section.
There is no equal number of Lords, Adept (as the best card in the deck) is only the third most played card?!...
What were they thinking?