[Deck] Merfolk

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Originally Posted by Nekrataal

Against Goblins see above
Against Goyfsligh. There is no SB choice for the traditional build that will change the matchup tremendously. Blasts, Kira, Propaganda all help a little but are not enough. I played a dreadnougthed version because of that for some time, which didnt win consistently enough. BUT I can win with Ugw against Goyfsligh though it depends a little on what you draw. Why? Because I also play Goyf to stop their dudes early and I play white anti-red shit that spoils their direct damage, stops their red creatures and provides an "unblockable" path for my creatures. SO if you really expect a lot of Goyfsligh I would recommend at least considering a white splash.

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I wouldn't recommend a double splash against goyf sligh. I realize the matchup is pretty bad, but you have to worry about all of their cards, including the ones you make relevant by using dual lands. I speak of course of the 4x price of progress that already deal 2-4 damage from our mutavaults. Fetch lands are also very bad against burn.

The best thing I've found against goyf sligh is Kira (who can't help you against goyf) or dreadnaught (who can't help you against their burn clock if you don't get him out within turn 2-4), which are both hard to find without cantrips.

I would also argue that jitte loses more games against goyf sligh than it wins. You will waste so many turns worth of mana trying to equip creatures to just see them get burned that you'll lose before you get it up and running.

I'm still looking for anything that helps against goyfsligh. The best new things I can think of are spellstutter, which suck in general because of no synergy with merfolk and you have to leave untapped lands up, thus screwing your tempo over, and also having maindeck Spell Snare to stop their major damage dealers.

Luckily many goyf sligh I see have been splashing white for nacatl and Qasali, which definitely helps those of us who run stifle/wasteland to screw over their colors.

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Originally Posted by Phoenix Ignition

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I agree with you man, I love Jitte in theory but against sligh/burn you it can act as a time walk for them as you try to get it online. Staying U and using spell snare is probably all we can do :frown:

@ Nekrataal: That's right, but I think that the mono U version is the best one. Except Goyfsligh and Goblins you have at least 50% against each deck.
I will try something like chill or so and test it(or i try to avoid playing against these MUs:wink: ).

How about replacing the maindeck Jittes with Threads of Disloyalty. I have seen of friend of mine playing such a build in our aggro meta.

In all honesty if you're planning on seeing more than 50% aggro decks in a tournament then you really shouldn't play merfolk. Sideboard options are the best we can do, but if you think you're going to need a lot of maindeck help for it then just pick up combo until people start using blue again.

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Originally Posted by holkenborg

How about replacing the maindeck Jittes with Threads of Disloyalty. I have seen of friend of mine playing such a build in our aggro meta.

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I really like Threads in the maindeck. Playing this on MWS, threads was a great addition as it steals Goyf, Bob and pretty much all other creatures in Goyf Sligh or Zoo.

tbh, as a zoo player, I'm not particularly scared of threads. Qasali Pridemage answers it really well, and I have vials and stuff to force it down if I don't just have it down already when threads enters play. And if you take the pridemage, well, a 2/2 roadbump doesn't do much...

I used to play Folk, but I honestly don't think there is really any good way to beat the goyf decks with it. I've rarely beaten anything with red and green in it, and with the RG decks I've been playing lately I haven't lost to Merfolk in a while.

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Originally Posted by hungryLIKEALION

I honestly don't think there is really any good way to beat the goyf decks with it.

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Well, if you can't beat them, join them.

Next Level Merfolk
Maindeck
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Tarmogoyf

4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Brainstorm
4 Standstill
4 Aether Vial
2 open slot*

3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Tropical Island
5 Island
4 Mutavault
1 Mishra's Factory

Sideboard
4 Krosan Grip
4 Hydroblast
3 Pithing Needle
3 Tormods Crypt
2 open slot*

* Echoing Truth / Umezawa's Jitte / Threads of Disloyalty etc


I have ditched Stifle and Wasteland completely in order to go all in with a green splash for Tarmogoyf/Krosan Grip and a full playset of Brainstorm supported by fetchlands, and I haven't looked back. The mana denial gameplan had been sort of watered down lately anyway and lost most of its impact. Brainstorm is amazing. Playing merfolk for almost ten months, I had almost forgotten how good it is.

Tarmogoyf does what he is supposed to and is a nice alternative wincon since he doesn't require a supporting horde of buddies to be able smash face. A lot more reliable than the other muscle available for the deck (I'm looking at you, Wake Thrasher). Obviously, having access to Krosan Grip is also very handy and makes some difficult matchups alot more manageable.

I am very happy with how the maindeck plays, but the mana base could probably use some tweaking. All other cards being as they are, what would the optimal configuration of fetches/tropicals/manlands be?

@ sadface: Ur list is not even bad but I feel the need of Wastelands. In Maindeck I would play Umezawas, because you don't really need Threads in main, u already have goyfs:smile: .
I also tried Wipe Away, because it's even better against Top/Balance decks.
I'm not sure about the configuration of lands, but I think you did well, except Mishra. I would get Mishra and 1 Standstill out, and 2 more Islands in.
You need many lands to win with Standstill on board. And that's the major problem. Standstill's are useless if you have no Vial or Wastelands. In total Standstill will be a dead card.

I would play like this:


Maindeck:
3 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Tarmogoyf

4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Brainstorm
3 Standstill
4 Aether Vial
2 Umezawas Jitte

2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Tropical Island
6 Island
4 Mutavault
3 Wasteland


Sideboard
2 Krosan Grip
3 Hydroblast
2 Wipe Away3 Tormods Crypt
2 Umezawas Jitte
3 Spell Snare

I will try it on MWS.

I also must say that Wasteland is still a must play. I play it in my 3 color version as a 4 off so it is definitely playable in your Ug version. It is just too good against alot of decks out there.

"I wouldn't recommend a double splash against goyf sligh. I realize the matchup is pretty bad, but you have to worry about all of their cards, including the ones you make relevant by using dual lands. I speak of course of the 4x price of progress that already deal 2-4 damage from our mutavaults. Fetch lands are also very bad against burn."

You are partially right. My version has more to stop Goyfsligh but the great weakness is PoP. And I lost to it because I ran out of counters (see tourney report a few pages up). The thing is that you always try to keep a FoW for it and you fetch basics whenever possible and do not put too many non-basics into play. Usually one Taiga is sufficient. Goyfs can be played with Vial. Wasteland should be used to waste stuff. After sideboarding you have BEB or Hydroblast to stop PoPs. The only other time where I use counters against Goyfsligh is right at the beginning to stop an early Nacatl, that can do considerable damage the first 3-4 turns.

in this tourney one of three merfolk lists which made top8 had 2 Reins of Power in the sideboard. any ideas about this card? it seems quite powerful, but in a tribe deck?:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by ykpon

in this tourney one of three merfolk lists which made top8 had 2 Reins of Power in the sideboard. any ideas about this card? it seems quite powerful, but in a tribe deck?:rolleyes:

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4 Mana for taking over 1 maybe 2 creatures (on average) for one turn? I doubt that is very useful in the majority of matchups.

Mind Harness does what you want to do with Reins of Power, except earlier and faster. Same with Threads of Disloyalty.

I brought the reins in for progenitus, gobbos, and the mirror match.

The idea for progenitus was that by the time they could get a natural order past my counter magic a single swing with a 10/10 pro everything would end the game. I only played progenitus elves once in the tournament. He told me that he boarded out natural order against me.

As for gobbos and giving them a bunch of blue creatures and swinging with a pile driver seemed like a good idea.

Same with the mirror match. Either I am ahead in tempo and dont need the reins or i am behind and stealing their island walkers is a good thing. I played the mirror once he was Folk + Goyf at one point game 2 he had 20+ island walk on the board. Reins would have won me that game... but alas that was my only loss in swiss.

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Originally Posted by shaneswa

I brought the reins in for progenitus, gobbos, and the mirror match.

The idea for progenitus was that by the time they could get a natural order past my counter magic a single swing with a 10/10 pro everything would end the game. I only played progenitus elves once in the tournament. He told me that he boarded out natural order against me.

As for gobbos and giving them a bunch of blue creatures and swinging with a pile driver seemed like a good idea.

Same with the mirror match. Either I am ahead in tempo and dont need the reins or i am behind and stealing their island walkers is a good thing. I played the mirror once he was Folk + Goyf at one point game 2 he had 20+ island walk on the board. Reins would have won me that game... but alas that was my only loss in swiss.

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Playing a 4 mana spell for Progenitus is a rather narrow application of a card. As for the Gobbo matchup I pretty think that it is useless just to have one attack with a single pile driver. As for the fact you go all in you probably loose your folks and if not you probably were winning anyway so I really do not see the point of playing it not to think about the fact the 4 mana with a Pile Driver already on the table may be far too late especially with Ports on the other side. In the mirror it also doesn't serve you much except you may deal some minor extra damage if you are not ahead in the damage race or you can negate one attack what is more valuable . But then I would rather play something more relevant (permanently steal a Rejeerey, bounce Lord of Atlantis for a surprise block, play Llawan).

Unless we ever get a silver bullet for Goblins, I think we can safely say that any measures we side in against them must have broad application in other matchups. Cuz it's an ugly game even if you have some good sb tech.

I'm sorry I haven't read through the entire thread before suggesting this, but has anyone considered running Vedalken Shackles in the board of Merfolk, namely to have a powerful card against goblins that also has broad applications against aggro control/decks that bring in Plague? It seems pretty good.

Mind Harness is really good versus GoyfSligh and Goblins. Costs U and can give a 2-for-1. Shackles is good too but you won't always have enough islands to take a Goyf, plus it's slower.

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Originally Posted by nitewolf9

I'm sorry I haven't read through the entire thread before suggesting this, but has anyone considered running Vedalken Shackles in the board of Merfolk, namely to have a powerful card against goblins that also has broad applications against aggro control/decks that bring in Plague? It seems pretty good.

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Pretty tried it , but soon abandoned it because of the presence of MD 8 colorless lands, which made Shackles pretty underwhelming.

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Originally Posted by keys

Mind Harness is really good versus GoyfSligh and Goblins. Costs U and can give a 2-for-1. Shackles is good too but you won't always have enough islands to take a Goyf, plus it's slower.

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Seasinger. You can Vial it.

RTFC. ~NC