[Deck] Merfolk

[Piceli89]

Mm I thought that you had abandoned merfolks, Maveric .
What about including 1-2 sygg ? they could increase the CA ( even more than what standstill offers) and be occasional blockers ( they often become 2/4 or 3/5). Well, i know that you will always disagree me , but just a humble consideration...

[Hightower]

I went T8 with Merfolk at a 23-people tournament last week btw (I'm still playing Tidal Courier) I'm hoping for some decent Merfolks in Eventide tho..

[Piceli89]

i guess than , playing courier, you play an aggroish version also with bannerets. can you post it ?

[Hightower]

Actually I cut Banneret for Grimoire Thief, which I haven't regret. Here's my "wannabe goblins"-list I'm using atm.

// Lands (21)
17 Island
4 Wasteland

// Creatures (27)
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Tidal Courier
4 Grimoire Thief
3 Tidal Warrior
4 Lord of Atlantis

// Spells (12)
4 Force of Will
4 AEther Vial
4 Daze

I play 4 Stifle SB

[Piceli89]

why don't you play stifle MD, seriously? there are too much cards that stifle can be useful ( if not essential ) against: pernicious deed and EE above all, but also combo bombs ( EtW, tendrils, freezes)...
I can't see how you can play couriers without bannerets: they cost 4 , and unless you have vial charged a 4 ( which is slow and almost useless), it will cost you at least 4 turns.. i'd play something else , maybe stifles or some equips ( jitte, to become even more aggro).

[Hightower]

I don't have room for Stifle in my version, and Vial @ 4 isnt too slow at all - (Goblins do it all the time), atleast it hasn't been a problem for me.

[cloudstrife7]

In such a thread, there should never be budget consideration. If you don't have the cards take it as a theory and then make yourself the practical projection into your card pool.

Cursecatcher is bad, because it's 1 for 1 and it's never a surprise (or you'll bluff with a 1-counter vial which is suboptimal for the game strategy).

Theorizing and then personally budget projecting makes sense, I just figured since I would work towards aquiring any necessary un-budget things that it wouldn't matter, though I guess I would have had to explicitly state that to expect anyone to know what i meant. I'll correct the mistake in future lists.

Obviously Cursecatcher is not strong in his own right, but allow me to defend him for a moment: The first issue is mana curve. Running catcher gives you 8 turn 1 plays instead of 4. This is essential against combo, where you often have to daze on the first turn, seriously stunting your growth. Obviously Vial takes care of the problem if you draw it, but 4 is a small number as far as getting into a 7 card hand out of 60 cards is concerned. If i were to replace catcher I would probably want another turn 1 play. The second issue is synergy. They also make all your pumping merfolk slightly better, as without him, they must wait a number of turns for their effects to really be felt Catcher. Along with the Wastelands i will run when munny allows, Cursecatcher makes Daze a lot better. It isn't that catcher is a surprise, it's that many of the cards he hits are very bad when they must play around him. Dark ritual isn't very good when it nets 1 mana instead of 2, and rite of flame is even worse. Looking back, 2/3 of those reasons revolved around combo, so I suppose i can understand leaving him out if you expect more traditional metagames.

It seems that maverick's deck is more of a midrange deck, with a slightly worse combo matchup but with a significantly better ability to grasp initiative and keep it than traditional aggro-control decks in legacy. I would say my current list is definitely a tempo deck, rather than aggro-control.

@hightower: Do you still feel that your list runs like "goblins with FOW"? I think I like that as a concept. Also, did you feel that your lack of bounce every hurt you, or was your army able to run over most of the threats you encountered.

I'm trying to figure out what everyone agrees on, to gain some insight as to what make fishypeople worth playing. Looking at lists, these elements seem pretty universal:

4 Lord of atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merrow Reejerey

4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Vial

4 Wasteland

Allowing 18 slots for debate

Would you guys agree?

[Hightower]

4 Lord of atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merrow Reejerey

4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Vial

4 Wasteland

Allowing 18 slots for debate

Would you guys agree?

I agree, now we just need another Merfolk "staple" from Eventide, to add to that list.

- And I still like my "Gobfolks" approach, I don't know if it's the best, but it's working for me.

[cloudstrife7]

now we just need another Merfolk "staple" from Eventide, to add to that list.

If only merrow harbinger or sage of fables had been a teensy bit better, the deck could use a great 3-drop. We definitely missed out quality-wise on two key tribal cycles. At this point I really doubt we'll be getting anything really solid to work with in Eventide, I hear the tribes are going to dry up somewhat in favor of weirder things.

[fourleafedmonkey]

I have a few questions.
I dont really want to go the land destruction route because it is a tad too expensive, therefore, I was thinking a more aggro control route.

Here is my list.

4 Silvergill Adept
4 Grimoire Thief
4 Lord Of Atlantis
4 Tidal Courier
4 Merrow Reejery
4 Cursecatcher
3 Sygg, River Cutthroat/ Inkfathom Infiltrator

4 Daze
4 Force Of Will
2 Remand/ Psionic Blast/ B2B

4 Aether Vial

4 Mutavault
15 Island


I think it is more of a tempo based version that could really benefit from the Cursecatchers and the the Syggs.
Also, I think remand is a good card that has yet to be mentioned.
It can act as a time walk that draws a card.
I have also thought psionic blast because of the reach, the crature destruction and the synergy with Sygg.

[fourleafedmonkey]

Also, any thoughts on Saprazzan Heir?

[Piceli89]

useless, oppo won't block a 1/1 to make you draw 3 cards. It is just a 1/1 for 2 mana, in a word: useless. Way better standstill in this deck, really.

[Piceli89]

I have a few questions.
I dont really want to go the land destruction route because it is a tad too expensive, therefore, I was thinking a more aggro control route.

Here is my list.

4 Silvergill Adept
4 Grimoire Thief
4 Lord Of Atlantis
4 Tidal Courier
4 Merrow Reejery
4 Cursecatcher
3 Sygg, River Cutthroat/ Inkfathom Infiltrator

4 Daze
4 Force Of Will
2 Remand/ Psionic Blast/ B2B

4 Aether Vial

4 Mutavault
15 Island

(Sorry for the double post)
I think it is more of a tempo based version that could really benefit from the Cursecatchers and the the Syggs.
Also, I think remand is a good card that has yet to be mentioned.
It can act as a time walk that draws a card.
I have also thought psionic blast because of the reach, the crature destruction and the synergy with Sygg.

well, if land destruction is expensive, what are mutavaults then ?
To make a more aggro-controlish version, you could pack the counterbalance + top engine, put 3 BtB, way less merfolks, add standstill and stifle, in order to keep only the good 'folks, courier is very meh if you can't be enough fast to exploit it ( 4 mana means at least 4th turn, we 're not goblins).. thief in my opinion isn't that great, i would recommend 2-3 puresight merrow instead, they can clean yur draw sometimes.
I like psionic blast, but do you find comfortable with the remands ? being aggro means that you can't always keep 2 mana open to remand a spell... daes and fows cheat mana, so are way better...

[fourleafedmonkey]

The Mutavaults are in there in hopes that the price will go down after the rotation, lol.

I completely agree with you on the Remand, so I think I will go for the Psionic Blasts.

And if the Courier is too slow at 4 mana, what should be used instead?

[Piceli89]

The Mutavaults are in there in hopes that the price will go down after the rotation, lol.

I completely agree with you on the Remand, so I think I will go for the Psionic Blasts.

And if the Courier is too slow at 4 mana, what should be used instead?

the last question : STIFLE... that card is God. It reduces the number of merfolks ( 20 are enough), can be mana denial, stops mass revals ( dedd, EE), stop wasting your vaults.. does the coffee.
Another folk to run as an alternative ? Shapesharer.. in 3 copies IMO.. fantastic with our 8 pumpers (LoA+ reejerey), also huge in copying oppo's shits (goyfs) and whateverelse.

I also pack Mutavaults, but the price won't go down easily, until at least 1 year when that fucking piece of shit of T2 will change sets to play with.Ah, back to basics are a bit antysingergic with mutavaults.. better to use them as SB bombs against landstill etc etc.. unless your meta is full of Non basics.

[FoolofaTook]

I don't have room for Stifle in my version, and Vial @ 4 isnt too slow at all - (Goblins do it all the time), atleast it hasn't been a problem for me.

Vial @ 4 defeats half the purpose of Vial, which is to cheat a lot of your critters into play uncounterably and at the point that you really want them to land.

Vial decks that stretch a Vial out to 4 are essentially over-committing to the board, which is just as bad as laying out too many critters in front of a potential sweeper.

I'm not saying it's not a play that you might make occasionally, but it definitely weakens the board position when you do it.

[Windux]

I would cut the couriers and put in Confidants and/or Syggs.

You don't want a Vial with 4 counters and you don't want to pay 4 mana either.

That's the list I would play:

4 Silvergill Adept
4 Grimoire Thief
4 Lord Of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejery
3 Dark Confidant
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
3 Shapesharer


4 Daze
4 Force Of Will
3 Stifle
4 Aether Vial
2 Back to Basics


4 Mutavault
15 Island

[Maveric78f]

3 confidant and no way to play them, omg this thread is becoming worse and worse.

[Joon]

Vial is pretty tech, you know.

But I'd definitely play Fetches + USeas.

[Windux]

"Someone made a mistake, let's spam!"

Omg I just c/p'ed a list from above instead of tipping my list completly new.

Just put 3 U-Seas and 5 Fetchies in...