[Deck] Merfolk

I'm pretty much sold on this shell, and have been testing cards in the '3 card slot'.

57-Card Shell:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Wake Thrasher
4 Spell Snare
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Æther Vial
4 Standstill
3 ???
4 Wasteland
3 Mutavault
12 Island

I tried 3 x Echoing Truth and while it wasn't bad, I felt I could do better. Most of the time it just stalled a Goyf for a turn then it bashed my face. I tested 3 x Stifle, which again didn't cut the mustard for me. Almost everyone played around it, and when I did draw it/use it, it was 'eh'. In Game 1 since I often leave mana open for Spell Snare anyways (depending on matchup), most people slow down in case I have Stifle. This has been debated greatly already, so I don't mean to fan the flames. If you run and like Stifle, power to you.

I analysed my losses and 4/5 games were from a resolved creature I couldn't deal with (Goyf/Dreadnought/Tombstalker). So next I'll be testing a 4th Mutavault and 2 Sower of Temptation. Its four mana is only a tick over from Aether Vial @ 3, and it gives me an answer to mise for when they resolve a fatty, which this deck never had.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AcidFiend

I'm pretty much sold on this shell, and have been testing cards in the '3 card slot'.

57-Card Shell:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Wake Thrasher
4 Spell Snare
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Æther Vial
4 Standstill
3 ???
4 Wasteland
3 Mutavault
12 Island

I tried 3 x Echoing Truth and while it wasn't bad, I felt I could do better. Most of the time it just stalled a Goyf for a turn then it bashed my face. I tested 3 x Stifle, which again didn't cut the mustard for me. Almost everyone played around it, and when I did draw it/use it, it was 'eh'. In Game 1 since I often leave mana open for Spell Snare anyways (depending on matchup), most people slow down in case I have Stifle. This has been debated greatly already, so I don't mean to fan the flames. If you run and like Stifle, power to you.

I analysed my losses and 4/5 games were from a resolved creature I couldn't deal with (Goyf/Dreadnought/Tombstalker). So next I'll be testing a 4th Mutavault and 2 Sower of Temptation. Its four mana is only a tick over from Aether Vial @ 3, and it gives me an answer to mise for when they resolve a fatty, which this deck never had.

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IMO deck should have at least 2x kira. shes good. really good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AcidFiend

I tried 3 x Echoing Truth and while it wasn't bad, I felt I could do better. Most of the time it just stalled a Goyf for a turn then it bashed my face.

...

I analysed my losses and 4/5 games were from a resolved creature I couldn't deal with (Goyf/Dreadnought/Tombstalker).

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Doesn't Truth deal with both Nought and Stalker?

What about 2 Psionic Blasts? Seems like it could be a good finisher and decent removal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Patrunkenphat7

What about 2 Psionic Blasts? Seems like it could be a good finisher and decent removal.

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Psionic Blast isn't a good answer for us. Dealing extra damage to the face isn't usually needed, and as removal, its garbage. If you're facing a creature that can be dealt with by only 4 damage, its not a threat to begin with. The issues this deck has are with resolved huge creatures, such as 5/6 Tarmogoyfs, Tombstalkers, Dreadnaughts, etc. Psionic Blast just straight cant kill dreadnaught ever, and goyfs will almost always be bigger than 3/4's.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finn

Tivadar, I think I would keep Wasteland in this deck no matter what.

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Agreed. Even without a huge LD package, wasteland is just too good to cut.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keys

Doesn't Truth deal with both Nought and Stalker?

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It does, but given the choice I'd rather rip a Sower off the top. Then they are on the clock, instead of just slowed by a turn with E.T. Also you can potentially Vial in Sower, avoiding counters.

I'll add Kira on my list to test, as a lot of the time my Lords eat a Swords/Gempalm.

Hello,
Has anyone tried the splash green version for SB and tarmo purposes....

If so was it good or bad ?

Im thinking of running the green splash as our meta is filled with counter top, rock and goblins..

My current deck list is
______________________________
Lands
3 wasteland
2 mutavault
14 island
19

Creatures
4 cursecatcher
2 tidal warrior
3 inkphatom infiltrator
3 silvergill adept
4 lord of atlantis
4 merrow reejerey
3 wake thrasher
23

Spells
2 umezawa's jitte
4 aether vial
4 force of will
3 daze
3 ponder
2 stifle
18

SB
2 stifle
3 phyrexian dreadnought
1 relic of progenitus
1 tormod's crypt
2 thorn of amethyst
2 submerge
2 echoing truth
2 spell snare
_____________________________

I plan to convert it to something like this

_____________________________
Lands
4 tropical island
1 forest
4 windswept heath
3 wasteland
7 island
19

Creatures
4 cursecatcher
2 tidal warrior
3 inkphatom infiltrator
1 silvergill adept
4 tarmogoyf
4 lord of atlantis
3 merrow reejerey
2 wake thrasher
22

Spells
2 umezawa's jitte
4 aether vial
4 force of will
3 daze
3 ponder
2 stifle
18

SB
2 stifle
3 phyrexian dreadnought
1 relic of progenitus
1 tormod's crypt
2 krosan grip
1 trigon predator
3 thorn of amethyst
1 spell snare
1 echoing truth
______________________________

What do you think ? or going mono colored is much better ?

Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by _erbs_

I plan to convert it to something like this

_____________________________
Lands
4 tropical island
1 forest
4 windswept heath
3 wasteland
7 island
19

Creatures
4 cursecatcher
2 tidal warrior
3 inkphatom infiltrator
1 silvergill adept
4 tarmogoyf
4 lord of atlantis
3 merrow reejerey
2 wake thrasher
22

Spells
2 umezawa's jitte
4 aether vial
4 force of will
3 daze
3 ponder
2 stifle
18

SB
2 stifle
3 phyrexian dreadnought
1 relic of progenitus
1 tormod's crypt
2 krosan grip
1 trigon predator
3 thorn of amethyst
1 spell snare
1 echoing truth
______________________________

What do you think ? or going mono colored is much better ?

Thanks

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If you ask me(and I know you propably won't ;p), I'll say go try white splash. I believe it's kinda more 'natural' choice for this deck as it gives you the crucial removal and also opens a lot of SB choices. An if you want some non-merf fattie try MD Jotun Grunt. It's bigger than most 1 and 2cc creatures and has a built-in tarmo-shrink-bility(or general grave hate utility). It has been working pretty amazing for me. I'm pretty sure white ist better choice, but obviousley, I haven't tried green so I might be wrong.
Anyway here's my list I've been testing for a while and I'm 100% (so far) satisfied with it:

4x Polluted Delta
4x Mutavault
3x Tundra
7x Island
(yeah, yeah, I know, no wasteland ;p)

4x Merrow Reejerey
4x LoA
4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
3x Jotun Grunt

4x Aether Vial

4x Fow
4x Daze
4x Brainstorm
4x Stp
3x Standstill

SB:(still unfinished and yet a bit random)

4x Hydroblast
2x Absolute law
1x Jotun Grunt
2x Mind Harness
3x Seal of Cleansing
3x Disrupt

Btw, to anyone who tried white splash: what do you think about this sideboard?
Last time I wanted to board against goblins I was unable to decide what to take out for 2 Absolute Law and some blasts.
-4Stp / +4Hydroblast seems like a logical choice, but I didn't want to loose to not being able to kill piledriver. I wonder what would you do in this particular situation.

Hi guys.

To me it has been a 55-card shell for some time now.

4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
11 Island

4 Lord of Atlanti
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher

4 AEther Vial
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Spell Snare
4 Standstill

Spell Snare can be swapped for Stifle but I like Stifle more from out of the board. So that leaves the deck with 5 open slots that I have been testing with various formations. After all that my conclusion was this:

3 Echoing Truth
2 Vendilion Clique

ET answers most problems that could come up. It is versatile and cheap and easily the best bounce spell available. Clique is difficult to explain because it takes the slot where most people play Wake Thrashers. I can only say that I was dissapointed in Thrasher and wanted to try something else. Thrasher is cute but it dies virtually to everything, well so does Clique but atleast it does something. Flying is also a big plus. It can also fix your hand and is overally a very versatile card.

I've played about 30 games now with Clique and I can recall 2 games where it was a problem with silvergill adept because Clique is not a merfolk. But there were many others when I ripped their mass removal out their hand and won the next turn. 3/1 body is no joke either because of the flying.

I'm sure many of you wont even try it because Wake Thrasher just randomly beats so much more. But this is for those who are also a bit dissapointed on thrasher and want them to do a bit more.

My board looks like this:

4 Stifle
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Divert
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Quote:

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Originally Posted by _erbs_

Hello,
Has anyone tried the splash green version for SB and tarmo purposes....

If so was it good or bad ?

Im thinking of running the green splash as our meta is filled with counter top, rock and goblins..

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Well if I would go for just one color (I currently play Ugw) then it woul be green. You get the best beater of the format and the best answer to CBT. White only adds StoP and a few sideboard choices to improve your R matchups if you dedicate at least 4 or 6 slots for it. From deckcheck I would say that Ug currently is more popular but in general I think that splashing which also includes adding Brainstorm / Fetchlands is a very successful approach.

What do you guys think about this list?

4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
12 Island

4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
3 Wake Thrasher
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

4 AEther Vial
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Spell Snare
4 Standstill

SB: not sure yet

Should I go to 19 land? Too many 3-drops?

I opted for 1 more land than some lists because of the slightly higher curve due to Kira, and I really wanted to run 4 Mutavault. Advice from experienced players would be greatly appreciated!

Changes I might make:
-1 Wake Thrasher
-1 Island (or Mutavault?)
+2 Relic of Progenitus

Keep in mind that Kira is really only ever necessary against Burn or Goyf Sligh. It has applications outside of those matchups, but in all other cases there are other cards that do the job better (Blue Blast, Chill, Misdirection, etc). If the meta has so many hostile corner case matchups, choose another deck. Kira won't turn those matchups significantly in your favor anyway, so I don't see any time I would ever use it.

Also, going below 13 Islands is taking a chance. Not huge, but you are going to be mulliganing extra hands.

Finally, are you really comfortable with not a single removal spell in your 60?

I won a Moat draft yesterday with this list:

Creatures-18
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Wake Thrasher

Instants-11
4 Stifle
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Echoing Truth

Artifacts-4
4 Æther Vial

Enchantments-4
4 Standstill

Lands-19
4 Wasteland
3 Mutavault
12 Island

Sideboard
2 Mind Harness
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Hydroblast
4 Submerge


I beat Goyf Sligh, this was my boarding plan:

-4 Force of Will
-4 Daze
-2 Stifle
-2 Standstill

+2 Mind Harness
+2 Umezawa's Jitte
+4 Hydroblast
+4 Submerge

hah, I got 3rd at the same tournament mr lorddotm was in yesterday. This was my list:

(19) Land
4 Wasteland
3 Mutavault
12 Island

(20) Creatures
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Wake Thrasher
2 Phyrexian Dreadnought

(21) Spells
4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
3 Daze
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Standstill

(15) SB
1 Relic of Progenitus
4 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Spell Snare
2 Sea Singer
2 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Submerge

Tourney Report:

First Round vs Countertop (i think it was called Probasco?)

First game I made a major misplay that could have made the game very, very different. Second turn, I have a Lord out with a standstill, stifle, Force and Dreadnought in hand. He has five cards and two lands. My game plan was to reserve the stiflenought and force him to spend his removal on the merfolk first.

He plays a goyf and I spend about thirty seconds agonizing over whether to pitch Stifle or Standstill to Force it.
**It wasn't until later that I realized the choice was rather illusory: The best play would have probably been to let the Goyf resolve, then play nought and just trample over and either play standstill the turn after or hold it to use the Force to defend the Nought. Major misplay on my part; That nought could have won me the game.

Either way, I decided to Force the goyf, pitching stifle. My next turn, I draw a vial, play the vial and the standstill. He breaks the standstill playing a brainstorm. I draw three, including another standstill. he plays top. my next turn, i put counters on the vial and drop the other standstill.

He rolls his eyes like he's fucked and by all accounts, he really ought to be. So how the rest of the game turned out just blows my mind. he breaks the second standstill, I draw a couple of lands and a merfolk--no counters--he plays counter balance, uses the lock to keep me from laying more threats (I had three fish out at the time), then tops himself into two shackles and a goyf. He stops my merfolk advance at 1 life (!!!) before locking it down, stealing all my creatures, dropping a second goyf and winning the game.

Pitching the stifle was something I regretted for the rest of the tourney

I boarded:
-3 Daze
+3 Spell Snare

Game two - I get the "landstill draw" - an island, a vault, a force and two snares I sided in. I keep his board clean, draw more counters and end up just beating him down with vaults.

Game three - I get another control draw full of forces, snares, stifles and one lord of atlantis. Somewhere along the line, I apply light pressure with my lord and another folk, then draw two more stifles and a Nought. With two of my folk on teh board, he gets out counter top and passes turn with one land open and one fetch. He pops the fetch and I burn one of my stifles on it. His balance reveals brainstorm, so he gets his land anyway.

On my turn, I play my stiflenought; he tops and has no 1cc on top of the library. He tries to put the top on top of his library. I use the second stifle on the top. He has no other answers and I grin thinking I got him. Next turn, he plays an explosives for one. I shouldn't have burned the third stifle on a fetch. Again, I lost the game because I misplayed the stiflenought.

0-1

Second round: I played the mirrormatch, against mr lorddotm who just posted his list.

first game, he mulls down to 5; I win.

I board:
-2 Dreadnought
-4 Stifle
+3 Spell Snare
+2 Seasinger
+1 Threads

second game, He got the good draw and I made a pretty major misplay--the details of which, i can't even remember. He wins

Third game, I get a first turn vial, snare his lord, vial some more merfolk before vialing in seasinger and winning the game.
Mr. dotm drops to 0-2; yet somehow manges to miraculously turn it around, make top 8, beat the first seed Goyfsligh and get first overall. But that's his story, not mine.

1-1

Third Round: I play versus Charbelcher. I daze. I stifle. I force. Second game I spell snared. Fairly unremarkable matchup. I win both games

2-3

Fourth Round: I play versus a fairly undeveloped Affinity deck

First game, I get a turn 1 vial, two wastelands a handful of folk and no other lands. I waste both of his Artifact lands, keeping him from playing the myr enforcers in his hand and I just vial in giant merfolk. He dies to wake thrasher.

I board:
-2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Threads of Disloyalty

Second game, I get no vial but actually draw islands. He's forced to break my second turn stand still after I start beating him with a vault. I draw more folk, he thoughtcasts, drops three frogmites and eventually plays a ravager. We race each other for a bit, he gets me down to five life. I get two Lords and a reejery out, allowing me to block against those frogs. He gets his ravager to five, then trades it in combat versus my pumped silvergill, dumping the counters on a freshly summoned ornithopter.

My turn, I play threads on the ornithoper, then win two turns later.

3-1

Fifth round: versus a BGW Rogue deck. not exactly the rock, but I'm not sure how to describe it. He ran Thoughtsiezes, Tidehollow sculler, duress, Pridemages, Hierarchs, etc.

First game: He plays a top, I play a wasteland. I was counting on drawing the island. I don't draw an island for five turns. He spends five turns drawing lands. Once he's six lands out, he wastes my waste. I finally get an island he vindicates. My third island, he sink holes.
Once he's at about eight lands, he finally draws threats and I lose. Somewhere along the line in the game, he thoughtsiezed me a couple of times and saw my dreadnought. So, i had to board them out

I sided:
-2 Dreadnought
-4 Stifle
+3 Spell Snare
+3 Submerge

Second game: I get the typical fish draw, Submerge (aka TIME WALK!) his hierarch, walk all over him.

Third game: He was able to pull a few cards with Tidehollow, but overall, the result was the same: I played lords, silvergils and a reejerey, then used the reejerey ability to maneuver around his goyf and beat him down.

4-1

First round of Top eight - Rematch with the Countertop/Probasco player:

First game: This time, I didn't even see a nought; but I got the typical fish draw. He was running islands so I beat him down and dazed out his answers.

I boarded:
-2 Dreadnought
-1 Standstill
-3 Daze
-2 Wake thrasher

+3 Spell Snare
+2 Seasinger
+3 Submerge

Second game: He spends all his removal on trying to get rid of seasinger before I steal his goyf. I beat with the other folk. He steals Seasinger with shackles and uses it to chump a reejerey. next turn he plays a goyf, which I submerge for a time walk, then play lord. And I have too many merfolk and too much island walk to be stopped.

5-1

Top 4: against UG Coatl/Dryad Grow with Winter Orb. Of note, I would say that the dude piloting this deck overall outplayed me. I made a lot of misplays that cost me at least one of the games.

First game - I got the typical fish draw, Islandwalked around and played through his winter orb. He got a dryad out but couldnt race my Folk.

I boarded:
-2 Dreadnought
-1 Daze
-1 Standstill
-2 Stifle
-2 Relic
-2 Wake Thrasher
+3 Spell Snare
+2 Seasinger
+3 Submerge
+2 Threads of Disloyalty

Second game - i snared his winter orb, but he was still able to get an early Coatl and Dryad. I can't draw enough threats to chump and keep up race, eventually he plays propaganda, which seals the deal.

Third game - this was the one where i made quite a few errors

First turn, I play an island, second turn I draw a vial and play it off a wasteland, holding the mana open for a spell snare. His turn, he plays Coatl off a hierach, tapping out. I bounce my uptapped island to daze. He bounces his tapped Island to daze. And I'm just like...fuuuuuck. I should have floated !

either way, my hand was still looking good. I had a vial out, two reejereys, a lord and a seasinger in hand--I thought I could win off the back of seasinger alone. He gets out two more coatls and propaganda and even with three lords, I can't keep up with the size of them. I'm forced to chump several times with silvergills, curscatchers, etc but I get a seasinger online and steal one of his biggest coatls.

This pretty much brings the game to an Impasse; which he's hesitant to throw his coatls into mine and I can just pay 2 to islandwalk for 3 dmg every turn. This goes on for a couple of turns (I occassionally forget to put +1/+1 counters on my coatl for my draws; another one of my misplays) On one of his combat phases, he attacks with two mana open.

I try to waste his tropicals so he can't play brainstorms as combat tricks. In response, he plays Opt, then thwarts his own opt, in the process returning all three of his islands to his hand.

I misplay by attacking a now null island walk, which he blocks; then he attacks, we trade coatls and I'm forced to chump one by one against his last coatl because seasinger is void. I can't top deck an answer and I lose.

So, in the end i went 5-2; I was kicking myself over the daze and stifle plays, but In the end I was happy with third. I got the prize I wanted (an underground sea) and probably would have chosen it over the moat if I had won first.

Nice report lorddotm, quite entertaining to read.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Antonius

Top 4: against UG Coatl/Dryad Grow with Winter Orb.

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I'm really interested on this deck's decklist; do you know something about it maybe?

I played against that Coatl deck and found Merfolk well-equipped to beat it. It felt like playing against Threshold but an even easier win.

lol, that was a horrible coatl deck and you know it! It was filled with wrong card choices. I believe your exact words were "He fell into the danger of cool things".

Here is my report

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=14023

Quote:

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lol, that was a horrible coatl deck and you know it! It was filled with wrong card choices. I believe your exact words were "He fell into the danger of cool things".

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Yeah I did. And I still think Cliff's deck was in need of some attention. (I wanted his Looters to be Tarmos) But I looked into it here:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=13971

...and it looks like what I said. Threshold, but an even easier win.

Still the deck looks interesting. And I hope it gets attention.

Landx19
6 * Island
3 * Flooded Strand
3 * Mutavault
3 * Polluted Delta
4 * Tropical Island

Creaturesx30
4 * Cursecatcher
4 * Lord of Atlantis
4 * Merrow Reejerey
4 * Silvergill Adept
4 * Stonybrook Banneret
4 * Tidal Courier
2 * Tarmogoyf
4 * Selkie Hedge-Mage

Other Spellsx11
4 * Daze
4 * Force of Will
3 * Chrome Mox
----------------
Sideboard
4 * Chill
3 * Spell Snare
4 * Submerge
4 * Relic of Progenitus


It's not quite the control that regular Merfolk is, but it does a good job of defending itself, can get extremely fierce wins, and usually manages to get all damage through.

The sideboard is tentative. Selkie Hedge-Mage could be the best card in the deck. Throwing Adept or Courier back to your hand for another round, or bouncing Dreadnought and saving your ass are both great plays.