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That is actually exactly what I was planning on testing. The 2 open slots are currently occupied by Pithing Needle, which can easily be relegated to the board. (I'd be more wary of doing this if Deed was a real meta concern, since that is primarily what Needle is in there for, but it isn't in my meta, so I should be fine.)Quote:
Originally Posted by freakish777
Of course he had game lost when he decided that my deck was too random for his Ug thresh. Maybe he would have preferred that my deck was less random and that I vialled in a serendib on his mongoose attack ?Quote:
wee taps Nimble Mongoose
wee taps Nimble Mongoose
Maveric78f taps AEther Vial
Maveric78f plays Sage of Fables from Hand
Maveric78f's life total is now 15 (-1)
Maveric78f's life total is now 14 (-1)
Maveric78f's life total is now 13 (-1)
<wee> omg fucking randoms...
It is now the Postcombat Main Phase
<wee> End my turn
It is now turn 12 (Maveric78f)
It is now the Beginning Phase, Untap Step
Maveric78f untaps his/her permanents
It is now the Beginning Phase, Upkeep Step
Maveric78f puts Rishadan Port into play from Library
Maveric78f puts Rishadan Port to Hand from Play
It is now the Beginning Phase, Draw Step
Maveric78f draws a card
It is now the Precombat Main Phase
Maveric78f plays Wasteland from Hand
Maveric78f taps Wasteland
wee sacrifices Breeding Pool
Maveric78f puts Wasteland to Graveyard from Play
Maveric78f taps AEther Vial
Maveric78f plays Merrow Reejerey from Hand
Sage of Fables is now 3/3
It is now the Combat Phase, Declare Attackers Step
Maveric78f taps Dark Confidant
Maveric78f taps Sage of Fables
Maveric78f taps Dark Confidant
Maveric78f taps Sage of Fables
<wee> ok enough crap
<wee> get lost
<System> Player Lost
Hi Finn! Just got to say thanks for getting me a new deck to play around in MWS. Its pretty fun deck to play with, and can be quite disruptive too. However, I made some changes to the list. The current build I am running is as follows:
8X [CARD]Snow-Covered Island[/CARD]
8X [CARD]Island[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Wasteland[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Cursecatcher[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Silvergill Adept[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Grimoire Thief[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Lord of Atlantis[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Merrow Reejerey[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Counter Balance[/CARD]
3X [CARD]Sensei's Divining Top[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Force of Will[/CARD]
2X [CARD]Stifle[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Daze[/CARD]
3X [CARD]Sword of Fire and Ice[/CARD]
The deck is a 20/20/20 split as the deck has a fairly low casting cost, and stonybrook helps out with the mana some more also. Some explanations to my choices:
[CARD]Cursecatcher[/CARD] Fairly evil card I might say, well not really evil just annoying. Its a 1st turn drop that can block lackey. Otherwise most of the time, if he cant get trough, he will just sit there while opponent plays around him.
[CARD]Silvergill Adept[/CARD] It was stonybrook at first, but I feel like with her there wasnt really much to benefit from. I also prefer Silvergill's extra punch for a faster kill. Additional card drawing isnt bad either.
[CARD]Grimoire Thief[/CARD] Has a nice synergy with Merrow Reejerey. 2 mana for a 2/2 isnt too bad either.
[CARD]Sensei's Divining Top[/CARD] + [CARD]Counterbalance[/CARD]
Pretty self explanatory, I do love being able to controll or atleast have much more of a selection on my card drawing thanks to the top.
[CARD]Sword of Fire and Ice[/CARD] This was a tough one to decide for me.
It was this vs Jitte, but I felt that having more card draw as well as having extra protection is pretty nice, that and the store I go to doesn't carry any jitte (Cries). But making our merfolks have a good sized body is pretty nice on its own.
Some things I am wondering about is:
1) How do you feel about [CARD]Cunning Wish[/CARD]?
Being able to wish for answers is pretty nice too.
2) The mana base, do you think doing a 50/50 split between islands, and snow-covered islands will be smart? In case opponent runs some predicts? Granted that card is very very rarely played, but I dont think having a 50/50 split of islands and snow-covered, will have any negative effect on the deck.
3) Between the FoW, Daze, Counterbalances, and stifles. Its pretty disruptive, but with cursecatcher as well as grimoire thief, I wonder if I am being too cautious. If I take out the Grimoire Thief and Cursecatcher, I would run [CARD]Tidal Warrior[/CARD] as well as [CARD]Tideshaper Mystic[/CARD] to go with an unblockable route. Atleast this way I will have 12 answers to a first turn lackey (16 if I went first: Daze).
So with number 3 in mind the deck will look like this:
8X [CARD]Snow-Covered Island[/CARD]
8X [CARD]Island[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Wasteland[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Tidal Warrior[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Tideshaper Mystic[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Silvergill Adept[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Lord of Atlantis[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Merrow Reejerey[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Counter Balance[/CARD]
3X [CARD]Sensei's Divining Top[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Force of Will[/CARD]
2X [CARD]Stifle[/CARD]
4X [CARD]Daze[/CARD]
3X [CARD]Sword of Fire and Ice[/CARD]
4) Since Damnations, Pernicious Deeds, Wrath of God, Engineered Explosives, and Powder Kegs, sees alot of play. Do you think that adding perhaps two [CARD]Faerie Conclave[/CARD] will help, in case something bad happens and the board got sweeped?
5)What is your opinion on [CARD]Shapesharer[/CARD] Its a 1/1 Changeling for 2 mana. Can act as another Merrow Reejerey or Lord of Atlantis, or perhaps copy one of their legendary creatures and take out each other *Waves at Akroma* or perhaps copy other things like Tarmogoyf? Perhaps 1-2 could be useful?
6) Do you think that running diffrent numbers of those 1cc land changing creatures be a smarter play? Like perhaps 3/3/2 split between Tidal Warror, Tideshaper Mystic, and Reef Shaman be a smarter play to avoid being too prone to [CARD]Pithing Needle[/CARD]?
7) The question with the land changing creatures is, just how many do we really need? I was thinking of maybe going something like:
4X [CARD]Cursecatcher[/CARD]
1X [CARD]Reef Shaman[/CARD]
1X [CARD]Tideshaper Mystic[/CARD]
1X [CARD]Tidal Warrior[/CARD]
1X Something?
I added the Cursecatcher in the list of possibilities since granted there is no element of surprise, the opponent will, however, try to play around the card. Thus buying you more time to drop more critters, or drop a Counterbalance. If they do decide to play around the creature, shouldn't it benefit us since they are sacrificing tempo? We can just have it basically just stay there with no porpose of ever sacrificing it and just beat them up with it, if they are trying to play around it. Just thought he/she/it may have some potential.
Which build seems more viable?
The first one thats more disruptive but slower.
Or the second one that has more first turn drops, as well as the ability to have an unblockable route.
Sorry for so many questions, I really like the deck so I was wondering about so many stuff. ^_^
I am tempted to answer your questions, but as you are talking to Finn and I am not Finn, I won't. I'm wondering myself why you did not mp him directly.
By the way, your deck is awful and you make abstraction of all that has been said since the beginning of the thread (and the one before).
I think that without Seasinger, I certainly would not use Tidal Warrior. Cursecatcher may be good for that role, but my concerns about it not affecting creatures stands. The deck needs anti creature cards more than anything else.
I don't like Grimoire Thief in this deck. The deck is very disruptive without it, and its ability is pretty clunky. Again, it doesn't do much against creatures.
Counter-Top seems like a good fit iff the opponent is not able to land an attacker before it comes online.
A lot of the cool cards like Counterbalance, Vedalken Shackles, Psionic Blast, etc. I have not tried out simply because I have been using Tidal Courier, and there is never room for that stuff. If you are not using that card, use Brainstorm for sure. That brings me to fetchlands - use them in any deck with Divining Tops if at all possible. That opens the door to a second color fairly wide. I like white here for our original problem answered - creatures.
I did a recent discovery, when trying different options for the monoU build:
- shapesharer
http://magiccards.info/scans/en/lw/85.jpg
I wonder how I could miss it before. I'm too lazy to make a scan (mmm just did it and saw that Zappa talked about it in the same page, I don't know why I've missed this card) to see if it was proposed by somebody else. The advantages of this card in the merfolk deck are manyfold:
1/ it is able to face any opponent's big guys and this is what tribal decks fail at usually.
2/ it's merfolkf AND wizard. Great in my list.
3/ can copy the lord, the reejerey and it's a very good kill.
4/ the ability is more dissuasion (is it english?) than anything else. Indeed as our deck is one of the aggroest ones of the metagame, even if we are fulltap, the opponent will keep his guys in defense, fearing that we would kill him on our turn, copying his big guy. That way, you never have to pay for 3, not even keep 3 open, because the threat is usually on your next turn, after your untap.
5/ even greater when you get a sage of fables counter on him (your tarmo is +1/+1 than opponent's, the same for terravore).
My list:
// Lands
13 [B] Island (2)
4 [TE] Wasteland
4 [MM] Rishadan Port
// Creatures
4 [TSB] Lord of Atlantis
4 [LOR] Silvergill Adept
4 [LOR] Merrow Reejerey
4 [LOR] Shapesharer
3 [MOR] Sage of Fables
4 [SHM] Cursecatcher
// Spells
4 [DS] AEther Vial
4 [SC] Stifle
4 [NE] Daze
4 [AL] Force of Will
// Sideboard
SB: 3 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 4 [MI] Mind Harness
SB: 4 [TE] Propaganda
SB: 4 [CH] Tormod's Crypt
Thats a very nice list maveric. I do actually mis a way to gain some caddrawwing. Has this been a problem for you during testing?
Shapesharer is an interesting find, as an answer to big dudes if nothing else. I don't know if there is really any room in my list, though.
Here's is my current list:
// Lands
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
14 [US] Island (4)
2 [ON] Polluted Delta
// Creatures
3 [SHM] Cursecatcher
4 [SH] Tidal Warrior
4 [LRW] Silvergill Adept
4 [6E] Lord of Atlantis
2 [FE] Seasinger
4 [LRW] Merrow Reejerey
// Spells
3 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
4 [5E] Brainstorm
4 [NE] Daze
3 [CS] Counterbalance
2 [US] Back to Basics
4 [AL] Force of Will
// Sideboard
SB: 4 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 [SOK] Pithing Needle
SB: 3 [US] Annul
SB: 3 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 2 [BOK] Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 1 [US] Back to Basics
I switched up the B2B/CB numbers from my previous list, as well added Cursecatcher. They are pretty much what I expected, not fantastic, but a decent one-drop that will occasionally help you win a counter war. I'm also trying some new tech in Annul in the SB. It counters Deed, Plague, Moat, Humility, Solitary Confinement, Standstill, Survival, most of Enchantress, most of Affinity, equipment, Vial, Counterbalance, Belcher, etc, most of which are must-counters for this deck.
@Splashing a color (specifically, white): I strongly considered this, but opted for the power of B2B instead. I could run white and B2B alongside each other, but that might be dangerous. I really don't know if StP is better than B2B + being hit by Waste/Moon/etc.
@Mind Harness: When making my SB, I kinda forgot about that card and opted for Threads instead. Now I'm thinking Harness might be better, though I'm not sure, as cumulative upkeep + not being able to steal things like Dark Confidant can be a substantial drawback. Also, since my list is a bit less aggro/tempo than other lists, should Shackles be considered in that slot, or is it just too slow?
You got one point. This is the big shortcoming for dropping b (which was essentially for dark confidant). I tested a lot with 4 sages and 3 shapesharer and I never really was on topdeck mode. I think that 1 shift should not change that too much. The fact is that the deck plays a lot on the tempo, waste/rishadan/stifle/daze, during this first part of the game, you don't play a lot of your threats. You keep developing while you slow down your opponent. Once vial is raised @2, or once you miss fuel on mana denial, you can start dropping your guys and usually the opponent is dead before you empty your hand.Quote:
Originally Posted by Waikiki
KillemallCFH > your deck does not have the same strategy as mine, mine is much aggroer and more tempo-based. I don't have a lot of advises to give to you. I just feel that you play too many cool things. About shapesharer, I would say that you should choose between seasinger and him. Seasinger is cool but it's useless against non-creature decks and it needs an island which you can't rely on. That's why I would remove your tidal warriors and seasingers for them.
I like shackles a lot as a supplement to Seasinger. My list is very close to your slightly older list except i dropped the reef shaman to add in CB 3 and then added in 2 Shackles in the open slots. Having 8 cards that run 3CC for CB is amazing, plus it gives you variety in what you're able to jack. It might be better off as one or the other, but I like being able to steal chump blockers with the shackles without my opponent being forced to have an island (or me having tidal warrior)... On the flip side, having seasinger is great for hijacking fucillo huge Goyfs.
Jus my opinion.
Actually, Shapesharer's Pretty good. Even though it's a VERY sucky Merfolk of the Pearl Trident against creatureless decks, he's brutal when facing i.e. an Akroma cookie deck. And in small tournaments, random jank (ref. mav's MWS log :P) occur often. Shapesharer can only be a solid choice. Nevertheless, he also copies your dudes which can get two lord of atlantis out of lightning bolt range.
I'll switch him with Seasinger. Plus, I start test the deck today.
All what I just said comes from theory, but I've of course seen the deck perform and I have a bit of know-how at least. Just so you know.
Just went 3-1 at a small local tourney, splitting top4. My list was my most previously posted one -3 Cursecatcher (couldn't get them, as SHM was just released yesterday) -1 Island, +3 Ponder, +1 Wipe Away. Brief report:
Round 1 vs Jared (Jaynel) w/ SI
G1: I see a hand of 6 lands, send it back, see a hand of no lands, send it back, and keep a hand of one land and no 1-drops. I do nothing. He does nothing. I do nothing. He goes off.
(SB: -2 B2B, +2 Annul)
G2: I play an island and say go. He goes off turn 1 in the face of Daze. /shrug
(0-1, 0-2)
Round 2 vs my brother, Scott (VsTheWorld) w/ Ichorid
G1: Ichorid does its thing and I can't stop it.
(SB: -2 B2B, -3 CB, -1 Wipe Away, +4 Crypt, +2 Jitte)
G2: I lead with Crypt. He does something. I play some dudes and eventually get another Crypt. He can't get around them.
G3: I FoW his first turn Chalice @ 0, and drop a crypt on my turn. Merfolk beat him down before he gets anything going.
(1-1, 2-3)
Round 3 vs Ben (from Cairo) w/ UWb Cunning Landstill
G1: I drop a first turn Tidal Warrior. He plays a land. I drop a LoA, he FoWs, I FoW back, he FoWs back. I land a B2B next turn and beat him down with 'folk.
(SB: -2 Seasinger, -1 Ponder, +3 Annul)
G2: I play some cantrip-folk. He plays some removal. I get a board. He WoGs. I drop a B2B. I win.
(2-1, 4-3)
Round 4 vs Roddy (RoddyVR) w/ 5c Survival Slivers
G1: We both play our respective tribe-members, but mine islandwalk. We get in a race and triple LoA seal the deal.
(SB: -2 Tidal Warrior, -1 Ponder, -1 Wipe Away, +2 Threads of Disloyalty, +2 Pithing Needle)
G2: I counter an early Pump-Sliver, he lands a Crystalline, due to the blue I gave him by Tidal Warrior-ing his Plateau. Whoops. After that he proceeds to play 3 Harmonics, killing my CB and Top (due to Vial shenanigans). However, he can't get much going and LoA + Tidal Warrior + Silvergill Adept means an unblockable 3/2 every turn that wins me the game.
(3-1, 6-3)
We split Top 4, get some Thai food, and play some Type 4. Anyways, here are some thoughts on the deck:
- Ponder is awesome, and may be the best use of that slot. I had more than one hand throughout the day that was only keepable because of Ponder, and it just all around made the deck run more smoothly. There is a good chance that even once I'm able to obtain Cursecatchers, I'm going to stick with Ponder.
- Tidal Warrior is solid. He makes guys unblockable. He gets rid of Factories. He makes Seasinger playable. He beats with lord(s) on the board. And if all else fails, he pitches to FoW.
- Back to Basics, especially when backed up by a clock (unlike in MUC), is a bomb in this format.
- I have no conclusive results as far as the usefulness of Wipe Away. I'm going to do some more testing with it, but in theory it seems solid.
- Merfolk pwn.
Congrats on the win. It seemed odd to side in control magic effects against slivers. With many decks running both Crystalline and Hibernation, it seems like they'd be dead more often. Did you put them in to get more 3-CMC spells for Counterbalance?
I wish you could have gotten Cursecatchers in time. I think they're an interesting addition for sure and serious testing results would have been nice.
While this deck can be pretty fast and quite disruptive with its counte magic, other weenie decks just simply gives it problems. Some cards I would like to address if it can be worthy of inclusion are the following:
Wings of Velis Vel -
It's a changeling so it also benefits Silvergill Adept, making our merfolk 4/4 is nice to fight against other weenie decks, and helps protects our Lord of Atlantisand Merrow Reejerey from burns. Speaking of Merrow Reejerey, its can be a nice surpirse to the opponent too. Porposely tap out either from your attack phase, or their phase by using the 1 drop merfolks to change their lands. They try to attack since were either tapped out or they think we wouldnt block with our Merrow Reejerey. Cast it, on one of the tapped merfolks, and since it is a merfolk spell, untap the one we just casted it on, now we have a nice 4/4 blocker as a surprise. I think its a nice surprise card and helps with our aggro matches.
Vedalken Shackles -
Were running mono blue, prehaps this artifact can also help with our aggro matches? Plus it can also be a card advatage. Maybe a nice combination of Vedalken Shackles and Seasinger may help, especially if opponent is running either vial.
Psionic Blast -
If were fighting against combo decks, perhaps these cards would be nice to speed up our clock. Or is it better to just run more stifles and countermagic main deck?
Speaking of sideboard, can Spell Snare find a place in the sideboard slot?
I've been playing this deck, I must say that if you choose to run Counterbalance + top in the deck, I really think that we should ditch the Wasteland. Since we run a mere 20 land, you gotta have access on two blue mana on turn two. To either drop counterbalance or Lord of Atlantis early on. As turn 3 will either be reserved for Merrow Reejerey, Seasinger (if youre running it), Sword of Fire and Ice (if youre running it), or top if you didnt drop it on turn 1.
I'm confused.... If you guys are discussing Killemall's latest list, he's not running Wasteland and he does run 4x Brainstorms... Anyways. I've been running a list that I came up with pretty similar to his, excepting that I had Wastelands and Vedalken Shackles in the list. I'll give ponder a whirl, but I like Shackles. With the amount of basic islands, later in the game it's a bomb and can take damn near anything, but early on especially seasinger is amazing at stealing goyfs or even just kidnapping chumpers to thwart other attacks. It's just that sometimes Seasinger blows cause you can't find or keep a Tidal Warrior alive, and then Shackles shines even moreso. I haven't tested Psionic or any of the changelings. Hell, I haven't even tested Cursecatcher at all yet.
I can't help but mentally compare it to CounterSliver, which seems to do alright against aggro. It can run combat tricks a-la Hibernation Sliver, it has 4 Swords main, and it can side in Engineered Plague. If you've the lands for it, you might try a splash to see if such removal helps you out. I use Wings in my aggro build, but it's probably not so good in an aggro-control situation. For example, Shackles are probably better (and note you don't need to be monoblue to use Shackles. Just make sure your multicolor land count as Islands.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Zappa
(Heh, I was just reading mtgsalvation and I saw this exact post there too. :tongue: )
Well, if I am able to steal a Sinew/Muscle, it is amazing. If they get a Crystalline/Hibernation it is dead. *shrug* I figured I would just not let the latter resolve so I could steal the former. I actually ended up having 2 of them in my hand G2 when he had a Crystalline, but at that point it didn't matter.Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbysdl
@Aggro Matchup: Jitte basically solves every problem you have here. If Aggro is really prevalent in you meta, run 'em main. If not, run 'em SB.
@Psi Blast: I would basically only run this if control is a big concern, as it can give you much-needed reach. Aside from that, it seems pretty underwhelming. It you're concerned about creatures, just run Shackles instead.
I was wondering if I can get some opinion on just how to improve my aggro match. That is the only thing I really care about at the moment. As there is just 1 player in my meta I want to crush with this deck.
A bit of history:
This guy hates everything that is blue, he's just like every other player that I have played that talks so much crap just because I use cards like Counterspell and Force of Will. I also swear there are times when them whining gets really aggrevating, saying thing like "figures" to "thats so (insert swear word here) cheap". The players in my area thats like that usually plays a fast weenie deck.
I have just been play testing this deck in Magic Workstation, doing test runs on how it plays in the early turns and what so ever. I have not played the person at all yet. That guy I am trying to gear it to plays a white weenie with Aether Vial, Swords to Plowshares and Condemn. His creature base is alot and casting cost ranges from only 1 to 2 casting cost. I usually see cards like:
Savannah Lions, Isamaru, Serra Avenger, Whitemane Lion, Samurai of the Pale Curtain, and a bunch of other 2cc creatures, Disenchant and the enchantment Crusade... and etc.
His creatures as I can see so far are just plain bigger compared to my merfolk, and he does outnumber me in creature base. I have already bought the cards for this deck, however the problem is getting the 4X Jitte. the two card shops I went to (both so far away) carries only Sword of Fire and Ice. So thats what I had bought instead.
Currently heres my list and I am hoping I could get a little help tweaking it to face against that decks player that talks so much crap when someone uses blue.. I guess you can call it a grudge match.
Currently heres my list:
(4) Flooded Strand
8 Snow-covered Island
8 Island
(3) Tidal Warrior
(3) Tideshaper Mystic
(2) Reef Shaman
(4) Silvergill Adept
(4) Lord of Atlantis
(4) Merrow Reejerey
(3) Counter Balance
(3) Sensei's Divining Top
(4) Force of Will
(2) Stifle
(4) Daze
(4) Sword of Fire and Ice
I understand that not having the Umezawa's Jitte can hurt, bust since the stores I go to doesn't carry it I was wondering if Sword of Fire and Ice can be a decent subtitue instead. Against fast Aggro matchups should I just use card like [Propaganda] instead?
Currently my Sideboard is still a little empty, I have only currently decided on a few cards:
SB: (4) Propaganda
SB: (4) Back to Basics
It's something I am still trying to work on on what I really need against my meta. Which is pretty much ranging from: Goblins, White Weenie (Blue hater), X Land stompy, Suicide Black (Blue hater), B/W confidant (Blue hater), UGR Threshold, UG Madness, Pure Burn. There is also a person that plays with a combo deck that wins with Tendrils or Agony, but he rarely plays.
Is there any other counter measure I can use isntead of propaganda in a Mono U deck, or is that pretty much my main answer against a quick rush of creatures?
Has anyone also tested Aquitect's Will? I am curious on what your opinion about it, coz I have been in a few cases where I wish my merfolk could have been attacking to deal that extra damage instead of having to tap to make the others unblockable. Its a cantrip that does what alot of our merfolks already give, but atleast when Lord of Atlantis do come down, they can push for that extra unblockable damage.
With Silvergill Adept, Sword of Fire and Ice, if I were to add a few Aquitects Will as well, then there would be a nice amount of card drawing.
But can anyone give me some advise for aggro match up? Mainly on that white version (grudge match).
I have been testing Aquitect's Will in place of Reef Shaman/Tidal warrior and I have found it to be very effective. One of my favorite things that happened was when I "islandified" my red death-playing opponent and he sinkholed himself so he could block. then i willed him again. Vial is priceless, and the counter-suite is great, although i cant bring myself to use counter-top.
hi all ! This is my first post in legacy. Some times ago, staring at the infinite number of tritons that lorwyn block has given us, I decided to build a solid t1,5 merfolk aggro-control deck, exploring all the possibile variants nad pairings of colour. I came to the conclusion that mono U IS JUST THE BEST CHOICE WE CAN ADOPT, and so i built a deck that -i thought- could be quite competitive.
The results were extremely surprising: testing the deck often in MWS, I simply realized that this deck was extremely strong, and could race both control decks (even 4c landstill, despites pernicious deeds and/or , generally, mass removals) and aggroer ones . I often won to goblins, 4c landstill itself, threshold and even with comboes such as dredge, enchantress. I have rarely lost these matches, mainly because of slightly crappy hands or too much hate ( see: rebs, stp,bolts all at once ).
I think that i had reach one of the best ( if not the best, i can assure you) versions that merfolks could offer: this deck is extremely aggro ( i often won the match by savagely beating my oppo's face with 5/5s ) as well as it can assume a control philoshophy. Daze, FoW, stifles help us a lot against every deck, and, well , this is proven by everyone, i think :smile: .
As you can see, there are also 3 standstills, which abuses of their sinergy with vial, forcing our opponent to break t his enchantment and gaining huge card advantage, or simple forcing him to wait until our angry fishes are vialed on the board and they begin to smash his a**. Furthermore, the deck can also exploit standstill for the fact that it runs 4 mutavault, which are IMO the best choices for such tribal decks: they receive tribal benefits from LoA and reejerey so they pump, but they are also synergic with vial and standstil itself.
About the "pumpers ", Lord Of Atlantis is a broken card: it allows you to do interesting tricks with vial, and giving +1/+1 and MOST OF ALL islandwalk is an amzing thing. I think that it isn't always needed to combo out with him and tidal warrior and/or tideshaper mystic (which is horrible), so i run only 1 tidal warrior, also to have a cc1/1 merfolk more.
One thing about the critters : mothdust changeling is amazing. Believe me. Not only for the sinergy with thief which is not a thing to die for, but for its ability to fly and fetch strategical damage when , for example, the match is stalled. Furthermore, it works very well with the new 2/2 critter for UU, puresight merrow ( in the list there's only 1 copy but perhaps i add more of them because they're more useful than thief..), who can clean our draw, do nice trick combats and perform a little combo with changeling in midgame when we want to draw a resolutive card. we can tap , untap, tap, untap, digging the deck until ( we hpe, soon :laugh: ) we find the solution for the situation.
After this presentation, i pass to the list:
lands -18
14 islands
4 mutavault
creatures - 19
4 LoA
4 reejerey
2 thief
1 puresight merrow
1 tidal warrior
3 mothdust changeling
4 silvergil adept
spells-23
4 FoW
4 Daze
2 Stifle
1 Trickbind
3 Vial
4 Brainstorm
3 Standstill
2 Echoing truth
SIdeboard : (mine depending on my metagame)
3 Back to Basics
3 Tormod's crypt
3 Propaganda
3 Chill
3 Pithing Needle
Even if some choices may seem odd ( the mono trickbind, 3 vials instead of 4 ) , this is mainly because trickbind is an addictive protection which often, acting as the 3rd stifle but incounterable, lets us protect our merfolks against EE, deeds , ecc ecc, especially against landstill; i added 3 vials because 4 are too heavy, and this decks relies on them , but they 're not "vitals " for our gameplanning -- i often won without dropping a vial, because our merfolks are just incredibly fast-- even exploiting reejerey's ability to untap lands and opponent's threats in order to drop an entire army in one turn and smash face. Jittes aren't compulsory, just because merfolks become huge in a very short time, so i never felt their necessity.
2 echoing truth are simply A-M-A-Z-I-N-G : they can resolve bad situations, and, in addition, they are nice when combined to standstill ( read: vial on board, i echoing your goyf EOT, cast standstill (possibly protected by fow and daze) in mine, and wait to vial the world or to attack you by mutavault). They also act against Etw tokens, multiple fattiesm etc etc.
I know you could be a little diffident abut this list, but i assure you that it is very worth to be tested. Ah, BTW, I won my first 2 torunaments with this list,always winning 2-0 except in the second final where i scored 2-1.
Merfolks are incredible, trust me.
Piceli89