[Deck] Merfolk

[Zappa]

Glad to see another player picking up merfolk. Are you really okay with not having any equipments in the deck, or some way to take the opponent's creatures?

I asked coz the deck has problems fighting toe to toe vs aggro decks. There are alot of aggro decks in my area and most of them are just naturally bigger than ours, and packs relevant abilities (first strike, bushido, pumpable, regenerating), and the decks I play against just packs alot more threat density than ours. So I am very iffy with dropping the equipments. They help speed up our clock, and also fight off aggro decks.

I've been running simulations of this deck alot on MWS, and honestly, I am slowly disliking the Counterbalance + top in the deck. I am also starting to favor the inclusion of Aquitect's Will into the deck. Often times as our creatures get bigger, having to tap our 1cc merfolks to attack with a bunch of unblockables, I am starting to dislike. As that 1 creature actually makes a difference when it comes into a damage race. But I am against taking them out also, as they can also help screw your opponents mana, sometimes even buying us enough time for 1 massive attack.

Things I dont like to see are:
- Opponent drops a Aether Vial on the first turn.
- Opponent opens up with 2-3 creatures on turn 1 via dark ritual.
- Opponent constantly aiming pin point removal to our LoA's head.
- Seeing a Bayou/Overgrown Tomb coming down (Start becoming defensive due to worry of pernicious deed)

But from the 1st 3 things I mentioned, what I really am worried about at basically aggro decks that runs more threat density than us. We cant go toe to toe since their creatures are bigger, and they run more than we do, and we can't afford to just sit back and pray that we come across one of our lords.

So yes, propaganda is a must, and equipments are too.

I see that you run brainstorm, however, you also do not have a fetchland. Have you considered running ponder at this case, for that shuffle effect?

I am also begging to think that I should run Mutavault also, though I am hesitating due to the fact that we also run Back to Basics, and that majority of decks in legacy right now runs Wasteland. So instead of their wasteland becoming useless, we are actually giving them a target for it.

How much help has that Puresight Merrow give you? Merfolk deck since its new, has so many things we can play around and test.

Heres my current build I am playing around in MWS:

(4)[CARD]Flooded Strand[/CARD]
(8)[CARD]Snow-covered Island[/CARD]
(8)[CARD]Island[/CARD]

(4)[CARD]Tidal Warrior[/CARD]
(4)[CARD]Tideshaper Mystic[/CARD]
(4)[CARD]Silvergill Adept[/CARD]
(4)[CARD]Lord of Atlantis[/CARD]
(4)[CARD]Merrow Reejerey[/CARD]

(3)[CARD]Propaganda[/CARD]

(4)[CARD]Force of Will[/CARD]
(3)[CARD]Daze[/CARD]
(4)[CARD]Counterspell[/CARD]

(2)[CARD]Aquitect's Will[/CARD]
(4)[CARD]Sword of Fire and Ice[/CARD]


SB: (3)[CARD]Back to Basics[/CARD]
SB: (4)[CARD]Chill[/CARD]
SB: (3)[CARD]Energy Flux[/CARD]
SB: (1)[CARD]Proganda[/CARD]
SB: (4)[CARD]Stifle[/CARD]

Maindecked propaganda, as well as running 4 equipments to deal with aggro matchups. Nice form of card draw from Adept, Will, and SoFI.

[Piceli89]

@zappa:
To be sincere, the tournments where I brought Merfolks , there were dragon stompy, ichorid combo and WW, and threshold. Since i played against all of them and got multiple victories, I can tell you that it is better ( in my opinion and referring to my meta ) to increase the number of merfoks instead of equipments which are, of course, very useful, but i think they're not necessary, and they often slow down our race. If your meta is full of aggro and you can't manage to hold the race with their creatures, i suggest you to run seasinger ( which, although all, i personally dislike becuase of her slowness) or threads of disloyalty to steal goyfs and whatever else causes you problems. For what concerns "if LoA doesn't come early", I remember you that our deck runs also other 4 pumpers, the reeejereys, which are surely more slow , but they allow you to do nice tricks in order to tap oppo's creatures and swing. Ah, perhaps i never lost the damage race in spite of facing werebears , goyfs and mongooses for the fact that i also run echoing truth , which is amazing if played in the right moment. My list also runs heavy disruption, which allows me to arginate thier MAJOR threats and play in the "standstill mode " (with mutavault , vial and standstill to gain CA on the board).
Finally,I hadn't tested puresight merrow yet in a torunament, but in he goldfish mode i can assure you that it is useful manily in mid game to clean our draw; either way, it's always a 2/2 for UU which becomes big early, and i think that its ability is often more useful that the thief's one. Their only problems could be the specific cost UU, which is not always easy to get with mutavaults on board, but i have vial to front this problem.
Last thing: RUN MUTAVAULT. If you should ever decide to run standstll, run them; even if u shoulfn't do it, run them in any case. They're extremely useful , and often a 3/3-4/4 for 1 colorless mana is just violent beatdown.
I think that the deck should have a very aggro approach, mantaining the control part ( composed by counters ) at the same time, so i wouldn't recommend to run BtB MB.. i keep it in the sideboard only for certain matches ( landstill above all), and generally prefer to smash oppo's face with additive 'folks.
This is all, tell me your considerations.
Piceli

[georgjorge]

Given the aggro character of the deck and the range of casting costs (1-3, distributed pretty even), I think it could even support one or two disrupting Shoals...trying it out at the moment.

[Zappa]

@ Piceli89

Do you have any Landstill players in your meta? I was wondering if you can post your match up Theres no one in my area that plays the deck, so I was wondering how it'll go. Granted that you do have counter magic of your own, as well as Aether Vial, but I am just imagining 1 resolved sweeper and its over. As far as the equipments, I guess it just depends on your comfort level, I guess. The thing that annoys me though is having to explain it to someone else that they also count as merfolks is a bit of a pain. But since I am playing alot of people in a card shop with it, I no longer need to explain.

On magic Workstation, however, its a different story all together.
In this game I my opening if I remmeber correctly was:

2 Island, Daze, Tidal Warrior, 2 Lord of atlantis, FOW.
Cant remember the draws but what was in play at the time was...

[Islands]
[Tideshaper Mystic] [LoA with SofI] [another LoA] [Propaganda]
I then drew a SoFI and equipped it to the LoA with SoFI already in it. (Dont remember what had happened to the Tidal Warrior, I think I pitched it to FOW)

which is when this took place...

[Zappa] Zappa plays Sword of Fire and Ice from Hand
[Zappa] Zappa taps Island
[Zappa] Zappa taps Island
[Zappa] Sword of Fire and Ice is enchanting Lord of Atlantis now
[Zappa] Zappa taps Tideshaper Mystic
[Zappa] Zappa taps Lord of Atlantis
[Zappa] It is now the Combat Phase, Beginning Of Combat Step
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> Wait!
[REaki] <REaki> no is a fucking merforld
[REaki] <REaki> no isladwalk
[Zappa] <Zappa> hes a merfolk
[REaki] <REaki> .......
[REaki] <REaki> is a LORD
[Zappa] <Zappa> look at the card
[REaki] <REaki> noob
[<System>] <System> Player Lost

Im confused on my screen it said "Merfolk Lord" do specific cards you put on MWS not really show up in their screen? Like if you decide to use Timespiral version, will they see a different version?

But yeah, anyways, unblockable merfolks with equiments are pretty evil.
I might consider running the mutavaults too, like you said, they can easily be a 3/3 for a mere mana. I am just worried though that I am going to make the opponent's wasteland relevant, than making it a dead card.

I am also beggining to think that propaganda is no longer needed. I think I'll play around with adding a few more equiments to the deck, since it really is the aggro deck I want to focus more into. The unblockable part of the deck makes it even more sweet. Surprised though that I haven't seen any green decks running [Vexing Shusher] yet, or atleast sideboard wise. Alot of people I know really wanted it.

For an aggro oriented meta, I think this is the build I would go for.
I know it may seem kinda overkill, but with the amount of removal other decks packs, as well as bigger creatures with relevant abilities, and a higher threat density. I feel comfortable with overkill.

Heres what I am thinking about going with:
Still waiting for my playset of Jitte, and beta version of LoA. *Yey beta!* ^_^

(4) Flooded Strand
(6) Snow-covered Islands
(6) Islands
(4) Mutavault

(4) Force of Will
(4) Daze
(4) Counterspell

(2) Aquitect's Will

(4) Tidal Warrior
(4) Tideshaper Mystic
(4) Silvergil Adept
(4) Lord of Alantis
(4) Merrow Reejerey

(3) Umezawa's Jitte
(3) Sword of Fire and Ice

The problem is, if I were to add the mutavault should Flooded Strand get taken out? Wouldn't Mutavault also start to cause some friction should Back to Basics get boarded in game 2? I am also worried of not being able to cast LoA turn 2, or not have UU on turn 2 (counterspell in hand) should I play "draw-go" on a few turns (happened to me a few times).



@ Goergjorge
Have you gotten a chance to play test the Disrupting Shoals? Between the FoW and Disrupting Shoal, did you ever have problems of losing a bit much cards? Since the deck has little card drawing as it is. If it showed positive results can you post the decklist youre using? What is your card drawing engine?

[Piceli89]

disrputing shoal is too specific for my taste, i wouldn't run it because it's too random.
@zappa: counterspell is not needed in this deck, if you decide to follow my advice and build an aggroer version. remember that we're an aggro deck, we must beat down and hold the race with our oppos, so counterspell would slow a lot our game keeping UU every time. I prefer to run mutavault and have a colorless mana ( this is generally not a problem , because i can drop vial on turn 1 or just make island -mutavault -standstill go) , and rarely i 've been wasted.. i remember you that my deck runs 3 stifles, though , so it's easy for me to read oppo's intentions and make him waste a land. Finally, counterspell is more typical of a control deck which can support lots of lands, we usually drop up to 3-4 lands and cast our angry fishes. At least, I do so XD.
Propaganda is not needed, perhaps only in SB for extremely aggro deck , but it is just a metagame choice. For what cocnerns the landstill matchup, I just played yesterday with a landstill ( and several times on MWS against net opponents) and I managed fortunately to win in spite of lots of removals ( ghastly demise for example). however, if you fear so much mass removals or "sweepers", just run some stifles and protect them with a FoW while you beat your oppo's ass.
Ah , last thing: LoA is a MERFOLK LORD (wizard corrected this "errata"), so it wil get the bonus by another LoA or from a reejerey. I know that MWS is full of noobs.. I think at how many times i got player lost because my oppos couldn't remove 3 cards face down from the top of deck because of grimoire thief's ability..

[rufus]

I wonder how much sense it would make to run some type of transformational with the goal of going beatdown against control decks, and control against combo decks. It's easy to come up with good control cards that can fit into a Merfolk deck - FoW, Daze, Counterbalance, perhaps Counterspell or Disrupting Shoal, Umezawa's Jitte and I'm sure there are plenty of others. Similarly, there are anti-control cards that will fit - Aether Vial, Riptide Pilferer, Tidal Courier, and Fallowsage come to mind.

[Zappa]

Yes propaganda doesnt seem like it is no longer needed. Or the deck doesnt even need, as usually the deck runs so many turn 1 drops. That's why I've decided to run more equipments on my merfolk deck to fight off aggro decks.

Maybe I should call the deck "Armed Merfolks", theyre armed and they are definitely angry. Ha ha just kidding.

I am finally considering the inclusion of Aether Vial as to not worry about losing that 1 land from Wasteland, have an element of surprise for combat as well as being good vs control decks, and having the mana available to Counterspell. Leaving 2 Islands untapped while Aether Vial in on 2, and NO Coounterspell in hand, and simply just passing the turn, is a mind game all on its own.

The deck I'll be testing for now will be somethig like:

4 Flooded Strand
6 Snow-covered Island
6 Island
4 Mutavault

4 Aether Vial

4 Tidal Warrior
4 Tideshaper Mystic
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey

3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Sword of Fire and Ice

4 Counterspell
2 Stifle
4 Force of Will

SB: 4 Back to Basics
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Stifle
SB: 4 Chill
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt


@ Rufus
About the Counterspell thing, taking them out to me would lower my comfort level. Specially when playing against an unknown deck, 1 resolved sweeper and it can very much spell game. I know some will say that we can just drop another ones, but part of the problem is that the deck doesn't have a solid card draw. If you are running equipments to can acquire card advantage, but a solid card draw, is a different story all together.

Since I am running a bit of artifacts now, with the inclusion of vial and jitte, I was wondering wether or not [Thirst for Knowledge] might see a fit, especially if I add 4 of [Seat of Synod], the artifact land. But doing so will just seem plain silly as we do run Back to Basics in the sideboard.

Maybe Fact of Fiction? But the card is four mana to cast.
Oh well, I am going to play test this version and see how it turns out.

Anyone here have MWS and would like to play test with me?

[Finn]

You guys are losing an awful lot of disruption when you exchange Wastes and Ports for Mutavaults and a stack of equipment. Are you sure you want to do this? The aspect of the deck that gives it such a big leg up on Thresh has been its ability to keep disrupting while it cheats creatures into play. These proposed versions I see have lost much of the disruption and some of cheat ability as well. Have the changes granted some other advantages that more than offset what is lost in this very common scenario?

What do you do with the Mutavaults when B2B comes in? Actually don't bother, I think I know this one.

Someone somewhere tell me what Tideshaper Mystic is doing in this deck.

[Piceli89]

@finn: i decided to cut out the ports and the wastes just because they slowed the deck alot for me. I play a very aggro deck , combined with the traditional elements of control 8see FoW, daze, stifles.. ) , so i don't want to keep my oppo tangled in my mana denial-very randomic happening, which is not always valid because they often play only basics . I have tested rishadan port and I don't like it because I must keep 2 manas open, and I prefer to play something different which makes more pressure. I know that yo could say that we win by cutting tha mana of the oponent, but for me it's more solid to add merfolks and prepare a hard beatdown. And ifyou watn to know if I lose again threshold, I can tell you that i rarely do. If you play smartly by countering the right things (see: burn spells on our creatures ) and manage to vial in the right moment, you will dominate the match. Tarmogoyf doesn't scare me. Mutavault is a solid choice in this deck which runs 8 pumpers, particularly in min,e bcause it fits well with the landstill "part " and often becomes very big.
For what concerns tideshaper mystic, I don't like it too: it just works with LoA, but doesn't give occasional manadenying because its ability can be played only in our turn. If you,zappa, want to play drops 1 -merfolks, play changeling, whose ability is nice, or cursecathcer ( which, I think, isn't that strong in legacy, though). However, i will try to add some equipments and run less merfolks.. let's seehow things change.

[Zappa]

I am playing Tideshaper vs reef shaman for 1 thing, that extra power. I'd rather have the power of one vs power of zero. In an outright damage race, that extra damage helps. It is why I tried Aquitect's Will with the previous builds. Since having to tap one merfolk to let the others get trough can be a bit of a set back.

EDIT: I use them to swing those early turns if opponent does't drop any creatures yet, when he drops something relevant but not counter-worthy, I use them to open the path for my other merfolks.

Run Ports and Wastelands? We're a pseudo aggro deck, but runs no where near as much threat density as goblins. 8 colorless land in the deck that runs only 20 lands, can often be a mulligan if Aether Vial is not on sight. I'd much rather have the blue mana available for either Stifle or Counterspell.
Equipments? That is just my preference, like piceli has his own, and other people has their own. Just like how other decks out there runs other card choices, color combinations and etc, while maintaining the concept. I have not lost sight of that, I am merely focusing on helping the creature vs creature match up, with the help of equipments.

The previous builds lacks card drawing and card advantage. Yes, you may have fetchland to shuffle the deck and silvergil adept, that's so minor of an effect. Equipment's when facing aggro decks, is pretty much card advantage on its own. Kill other cards with Jitte and sword of fire and ice, and SoFI also draws you cards. Helps your creature vs creature combat, card advantage over time, card drawing from SoFI, helps speed up your clock as well.

Why worry about getting affected with Back to Basics? It is in your sideboard, if you need to use it then use it, 4 cards in the deck that it'll affect shouldn't stop you from using it.

[mrb4b00]

It seems like there are two versions of this deck, disruption based vs aggro based. And I think it is probablty a meta game call.
I've tried disruption based version with B2B and Winter Orb, And I find that while B2B is very strong vs decks with 3 or more color, more and more decks are edging toward running basic lands in my area.
There are some advantages in using winter orb. While it is less powerful compared to B2B vs decks that uses mostly nonbasic, winter orb costs 1 less mana, and generally more versatile against unknown decks.

Here is the decklist I used

Lands/Mana (17)
4x Wasteland
11x Island
2x Chrome Mox

Creatures (20)
CORE:
4x Tidal Warrior
4x Loa
4x Silvergil Adept
TESTING:
3x Stonybrook Banneret
4x Merrow Reejerey
1x Seasinger

Artifacts(5)
2x Winter Orb //best used midgame to lategame
3x Aether Vial

Counters(10)
4x FoW
3x Daze
3x Stifle

Utility(8)
3x Serum Visions
3x Standstill
2x Echoing Truth

SB:
Core:
3x Chill (switching with winterorb)
3x Annul
1x Seasinger
8x Undecided

Note on Creatures
This deck usually requires no more than 2 mana to function, 3 if no aethervial or stonybrook bannert are present. However, choices of creatures are far from final. I've considered the new spiketail merfolk from shadowmoor but I have not got time to test it.

This deck has some problems against aggro decks, such as white weenie and goblin, but performs amazingly against combo and control.

[Maveric78f]

Ok. A lot of lists have been posted these last days or weeks and all of them seem really awful to my point of view. Instead of explaining what is bad in every list, I'll try to explain what is absolutely necessary in the merfolk deck.

4 vials: the best cheater. Cheats mana and cheats counterspells. Enables also sometimes combat tricks.
13+ blue mana providers: I found out that 13 was enough because we play vial and finally blue is not that much necessary as long as you can play your creatures. Moreover, as your CA is provided by creatures, you will be helped by them into finding a blue source. They can be 13 islands or fetches and bilands if you splash or again you may want to add some copies of faerie conclave if you want to.
4 wasteland + 4 rishadan port: the deck is based on tempo, you need to win within 5/10 turns. The mana denial enables you to control your opponent's development in the early and middle game. Back to Basics or Winter Orb are middle and late game control elements. They seem unfitted to the aggroness of Merfolks. Ask to gob players why they play those lands.
4 stifle: they complete the mana denial suite, as well as being an anti combo card and being a solution to the awful pernicious deed or engineered explosives.
4 daze: the best tempo card of magic. When you are aggro you force your opponent to play fast. When you are aggro and mana denying him, dazes are efficient until turn 10. Daze can be discussed into thresh because it is far more control than merfolks and because they don't play (or play less) mana denial then merfolk. In merfolk it's definitely 4.
4 Fow: well I think that noone was crazy enough to discuss it.
4 LOA/Reejerey/Silvergil: they are the main reasons to play merfolk. Every body plays them too so I won't overextend on this.
4 Shapesharer: it answers all the needs of the deck. You hardly have to activate it. Just being able to do it makes it strong. I tried it and it solves all the weaknesses of the deck: it faces every creature in the format and it often enables to kill one turn ealier by copying you merfolk pumpers. It's your 9-12 +1/+1 guy.

According ot me these 53 cards are absolutely needed. The deck needs a way to make CA too. If you decide to splash black, dark confidant is clearly the best. If you remain monoU, then you may want to play standstill (even if it's a bit counterproductive with the tempo approach). Here are 3 lists. The 2 first have been extensively tested. I prefer the Ub, because confidant is just crazy. The third one has not been tested and is quite different. I sacrificed the stifles in order to have a very effective standstill/sygg draw.

Ub:
Mana : 25
4*port
4*wasteland
3*underground sea
6*fetches
4*island
4*vial

Disruption : 12
4*Daze
4*Stifle
4*FoW

Creatures : 20
4*Dark Confidant
4*Merrow Reejerey
4*Lord of Atlantis
4*Silvergil Adept
4*Shapesharer

Divers : 3
3*Umezawa's Jitte

SB :
4*Propaganda
4*Tormod's Crypt
4*Rushing River
3*Mind Harness

monoU :
Mana : 26
4*port
4*wasteland
11*island
3*Faerie Conclave
4*vial

Disruption : 12
4*Daze
4*Stifle
4*FoW

Creatures : 16
4*Merrow Reejerey
4*Lord of Atlantis
4*Silvergil Adept
4*Shapesharer

Divers: 6
3*Standstill
3*Jitte

SB :
4*Rushing River
4*Propaganda
4*Tormod's crypt
3*Mind Harness


monoU experimental:
Mana : 26
4*port
4*wasteland
11*island
3*Faerie Conclave
4*vial

Disruption : 8
4*Daze
4*FoW

Creatures : 20
4*Merrow Reejerey
4*Lord of Atlantis
4*Silvergil Adept
4*Shapesharer
3/4*Sygg

Pioche : 4
3/4*Standstill

Bounce : 3/4
0/2*Rushing River
1/3*Snapback

SB :
3*Jitte
3*Propaganda
4*Tormod's crypt
3*Stifle
2*Rushing River

[Piceli89]

My god ! 22 mana for an aggro control deck ! And those faerie conclave in here are just as the most horrible you could choose ? nd you would say that "some lists in here are really awful to me " ?? Shapesharer is a good variant, ok, but with 8 colorless mana and 3 lands which come into play tapped i really fear that without a vial in initial hand, we're not put very well...
And mutavault is the best card you can exploit with stadstill and vial, believe me.. nah.. i really don't like your list. 4 ports and 4 wastes are just too much, even if i understand that your own plan is the one to disrupt opponen'ts mana.

[Maveric78f]

Yeah 4 wastelands and 4 ports are too much for gobs too. Go and tell them.

And their 22/23-lands + 4 vials + 4 lackeys is goddamn awful for their aggro game plan too.

The perfect deck is surely a list with random singletons as yours.

[Piceli89]

Yeah 4 wastelands and 4 ports are too much for gobs too. Go and tell them.

And their 22/23-lands + 4 vials + 4 lackeys is goddamn awful for their aggro game plan too.

The perfect deck is surely a list with random singletons as yours.

mine will be a random list, but I've played against almost every deck anda have beaten them , while i seriously doubt that yours will be able to stop deck such as a good threshold or wahtever else, just for the fact that it is too slow.
If I get you on mws, i'll demonstrate you.

[CalebD]

Yeah 4 wastelands and 4 ports are too much for gobs too. Go and tell them.

And their 22/23-lands + 4 vials + 4 lackeys is goddamn awful for their aggro game plan too.

The perfect deck is surely a list with random singletons as yours.

Are goblins trying to come up with RR turn two? The merfolks want UU turn 2 pretty consistently, 8 colorless lands could hinder this.

They also have lackey as an alternative method of cheating creatures into play, meaning they have 8 1cc methods of skirting mana issues. This deck has 4.

That being said, you could just drop ports and have wastes/stifles MD for your mana disruption. 2 ports could also be acceptible, especially with something like brainstorm.

[Maveric78f]

Picely89, you're right mothdust changeling hits far stronger than shapesharer. You have absolutely nothing more aggroish than my list. I could make a whole page showing that your list is really awful. 3 vials for instance is a complete nonsense. Vials is always 4 or 0, because you want it turn 1 or never. You state that my deck is slow on a supposingly analyse that you don't argument. In aggro decks, mana denying is a tempo strategy that endeavours to slow down the opponents so that you can kill him before he recovers. By the way threshold has never been a difficult MU for merfolks since merfolks are more aggro and pack as well better disruption for the MU.

CalebD: I really don't know what you're talking about. I never want UU on my turn2. UU is only needed for lord witch I would NEVER play on turn2. I prefer by far to rishadan port my opponent, the time for me to put a counter on vial or to play some CA cards (silvergil/dark confidant/standstill). You are right when you say that gob has 8 ways of cheating and merfolk only 4. But merfolk has 12 ways to disrupt the opponent mana base and 4 daze to take high advantage from it.

[georgjorge]

Port + Waste is great if you get turn one Vial, but not so great without. Wasting your opponents first dual is not tempo at all, and Wasting your opponents third land after you have played Merfolk turn one and two is not going to matter so much against many decks because mana curves are so low. Stifle complements them fine, but you don't get so many opportunities to Stifle a fetch in the first two turns overall (because you play second and they already cracked it, they play two duals as their first lands etc).

So, my argument is that Merfolk with LD effects is not necessarily better than without, as those effects for the most parts don't give you tempo advantage. Not having four Lackey makes all the difference compared to Goblins, so please stop using that as a "killer argument" in every post. Tempo effects are needed, but they might just as well be bounce or additional free counters (Shoal). And if if you don't use Port + Waste (which I don't), Vial becomes less attractive too, and maybe expendable (because you need lots of Merfolk in your hand to really abuse it).

[Finn]

I don't agree with Maverick about certain things, but he is spot-on with his approach to this deck IMO. I would really love to get Mutavaults involved in here, but they don't pitch to FoW, they don't help with Daze, and they don't make blue mana. That's a lot of strikes against. Frankly, I would be in favor of trying out two of them with two Rishadan Ports. There is no particular benefit in having more than one in play at a time anyway.

Also, keep in mind that he and I put a lot of hours into testing different approaches before independently coming to the same conclusions on direction. It seems like a waste of time to backtrack the conversation for folks who need to find out for themselves. Maybe Mav is not right. But his point of view is based on experience. Just keep it in mind.

Again, I want to know - Is the more aggressive approach winning as much against Thresh as the disruption-oriented one?

[Piceli89]

I don't agree with Maverick about certain things, but he is spot-on with his approach to this deck IMO. I would really love to get Mutavaults involved in here, but they don't pitch to FoW, they don't help with Daze, and they don't make blue mana. That's a lot of strikes against. Frankly, I would be in favor of trying out two of them with two Rishadan Ports. There is no particular benefit in having more than one in play at a time anyway.

Also, keep in mind that he and I put a lot of hours into testing different approaches before independently coming to the same conclusions on direction. It seems like a waste of time to backtrack the conversation for folks who need to find out for themselves. Maybe Mav is not right. But his point of view is based on experience. Just keep it in mind.

Again, I want to know - Is the more aggressive approach winning as much against Thresh as the disruption-oriented one?

Even my point of view is strictly based on lots of hours playtesting different approaches. I'vre benn working on this deck since this thread was opened, and tried ever possible solution and splashing to obtain the best solution. I started me too with the disrpution-oriented version, but I didn't really like it because a) it happened several times that ports drawn in mid game were a waste of energy b) in many situations i prefered having an island rather than 2 colorless mana open c) playing only with drop 2 or 3 merfolks, despites seming to be a trascurable feature, slow you pretty consistently.
And so, after having splashed white, I came to my personal list. Surely, there's few of disruption, but the aggro exploiting can cover this lack. And it is not true that if you have put lots of time playtesting you have reached the best solution, because I have worked on this deck for 2 months every day and my list satisfies me a lot, and the results clearly speak for my advantage, but i certainly don't think that this is perfect, just because a perfect deck doesn't exist, fortunately.
I don't want to put in discussion that your list can be a great deck, too: but I just tested it before and often i didn't reach the right mana or it was just too slow, only that, even with the disruption. So , my dear maveric, don't tell me that i support my adfirmations with no proofs, because I tested it and didn't like it at all. This, of course, doesn't want to mean that your list can't be a very great deck.
Last thing: i play 3 vial instead of 4 just because i can afford to keep mana open and play merfolks or instans, differently from you that have to keep mana open to rishadan port the opponent, thing that may be succesfully in the first turns, but going to mid game loses its efficay. And , as someone wrote previously, having 2 ports in play is useless because you should keep 4 mana opej to exploit them, and this won't happen easily. I would rather use 2-3 of them and some mutavaults..