[Deck] Merfolk

[cloudstrife7]

@ Maveric78f. I think in essence we agree, as we both mentioned rushing river as the best removal option for the deck. I should have added more qualifiers for the edit on STP, as I wanted to suggest it may be a legit 1-cost utility card in two matchups, as i don't think is so terrible as to deserve unreserved bashing. For the record, I don't think that those two matchups are a good reason to run the card over chain of vapor in the 1cc utility slot. I also feel that 3cc is the best cost to use for removal in this deck , hence I am sceptical as to whether that slot should even exist.

General. I'm interested in the threat/spell balance for this deck. I find that I want to run Force, Daze, Stifle, Vial, River, and Still, but doing so cuts me to 14 creatures if I roll with 22 lands, and I would rather have around 22 fish. What cuts do people find are the most effective? I think subbing cold-eyed for standstill might be necessary, even though standstill is a much more powerful card, in order to preserve the balance.

[Piceli89]

OMFG !! Merfolks has been moved to estabilished deck !!! yeah ! It deserved this a lot !! Cm' on guy, just a bit of work here and we'll soon find the topic: [DTB] Merfolks !!

Long live the blue fishes!

[Finn]

In addition to that, bounce is as good as removal because mana denial can prevent your opponent to play his bounced permanents, you play counterspells and it's synergic with standstill.

This is very true. I have been playing Repeal, which I am generally happy with. But I have also been using Echoing Truth, which I think I may be replacing with Rushing River. Losing the land could hurt from time to time, but I bet it will not be nearly the pain an opponent will feel when we are able to keep them off their mana so often. In particular, I repealed a Tarmo a couple of weeks ago that never came back into play. I topdecked Wasteland and that was that.

If I am to splash, it will definitely be for White, and it will primarily be for Sygg, not STP.

[pingveno]

If I am to splash, it will definitely be for White, and it will primarily be for Sygg, not STP.

I must say I one hundred percent agree with a splash, in my personal list Sygg was very good with vial. And even without he demands removal because if you untap with him in play his effect can be devastating. He allows you to color walk past any threat which almost fills the role of bounce. And though earlier I said I might cut him first, the more I think about it the more I realize he has a very nice niche to fill and does his job well. Any match-up with big creatures or a flurry of removal can benefit from Sygg. Plus if you splash white you might as well run StP.

Also, very exciting to see merfolk in established decks

[Maveric78f]

General. I'm interested in the threat/spell balance for this deck. I find that I want to run Force, Daze, Stifle, Vial, River, and Still, but doing so cuts me to 14 creatures if I roll with 22 lands, and I would rather have around 22 fish. What cuts do people find are the most effective? I think subbing cold-eyed for standstill might be necessary, even though standstill is a much more powerful card, in order to preserve the balance.

21 lands should be enough if you don't play standstill (which is not needed anymore I think). 2 or 3 rushing rivers should be enough too. The rest should be *4. I finally get 60-21lands(8denials, 13islands)-4vials-4FoW-4Daze-4stifle-2/3rivers = 20/21 merfolks. I would go 8 pumpers, 4 silvergil, 4 thrashers, 3 selkies and 2 shapesharers.

[AngryTroll]

Sygg is as close as Merfolk can get to having Crystalline Sliver, the best of the Sliverfolk. While clearly not as strong against removal as Crystalline, the colorwalking ability is relevant. If you run white, he's too good not to include. One more great white Merfolk would make the decision easy; as it stands, are Sygg and Swords good enough to splash white?

[Barook]

What's the general thought on Mutavault? I tested this list (with a different sideboard) and I was quite impressed by it. Sure, it competes with Wasteland for the slot, but from the little testing I've done so far, Mutavault backed up with pump contributed alot to the wins.

Despite having Mutavault and Vial, I had massive problems against a resolved Counterbalance, especially with Disenchant contributing nothing to solve the situation. I'm going to try Oblivion Ring instead, which is able to get around CB and adds addtional creature removal if necessary. Thoughts?

[Cabal-kun]

What's the general thought on Mutavault? I tested this list (with a different sideboard) and I was quite impressed by it. Sure, it competes with Wasteland for the slot, but from the little testing I've done so far, Mutavault backed up with pump contributed alot to the wins.

If you can include it in the deck, do so. While you might have some color issues, it's a pumpable creature that dodges board sweepers. I have won Landstill matches by having Mutavault in play, and dropping a Lord and swinging.

[Hightower]

Great to see this in Established =)

I've just come back from Grand Prix: Copenhagen, Legacy side event (63 players) playing 7 rounds of swiss then standings - no top8 due to time constraints.... I played Merfolks, to a 6-1 finish, making 3rd place with this list:

// Lands
14 Island
4 Wasteland
3 Rishadan Port

// Creatures
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Tidal Courier
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Stonybrook Banneret
4 Wake Thrasher

// Spells
4 Force of Will
4 AEther Vial
3 Daze

// Sideboard
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Stifle
3 Chill
3 Annul
1 Gaea's Blessing

Here's how it went (no huge tournament report from my side, since I didn't take any notes - just a short info of what I met):

Round 1

A fellow Dane, he's playing 5c Slivers. I win 2-1

(1-0)

Round 2

A Swedish guy playing something with Academy Rector and Form of the Dragon. I win 2-0

(2-0)

Round 3

I meet a German (and fellow "Sourcer", Van Phanel), playing Solidarity. I win 2-0 (he drew crap on his Meditates and fizzled in both games)

(3-0)

Round 4

A Scottish guy, who played something GBW-rockish' without deeds, it seemed like Eva Green w/ white splash. I lose 1-2 (He had 16x creature removal spells + Engineered Plague post board) =(

(3-1)

Round 5

Another Dane, this one is playing Ichorid. I win 2-1 (Tough match)

(4-1)

Round 6

I meet a Polish guy playing UBr Painter combo. I win 2-0 (Gaea's Blessing helped alot!)

(5-1)

Final round: 7

The undefeated Finnish player gets paired down (noone else is 6-0), and he gets to meet me! He is playing traditional Meat Hooks.
I win 2-1 (This was an interesting match, and of course I played really bad.. Getting a warning for trying to target his Muscle Sliver, while he has a Crystaline in play 'doh', but I pulled it off anyway and won game three on 6 life)

(6-1)


- So in the end there's 3 people with 6-1 and of course my tiebreakers suck balls, so I get in 3rd, and the Meat Hooks guy still wins 1st - so he got a display Eventide and a 80-gig Ipod. But was great fun, even though I had expected more people to show up at the side event, entry fee was 3 Euro / 5$ - pretty cheap for an Ipod! (prize support was also 1.5 boosters pr player, divided in the top 8, I think)

Gaea's Blessing showed to be tech, since there was around 5+ Painter combo decks and 2+ Solidarity.. (I thought that deck was dead and forgotten)

Over and out.

[Maveric78f]

Congrats HighToe.

A very tribal and aggro list, with absolutely nothing to deal with permanents, but apparently fast enough to win before running out of coutnerspells for your oppoennt's key spells. Bad luck to face a random list at 3-0 too. What were those 16 anti creatures? maw, putrefy, smother and edict?

[Hightower]

Thanks Mav-o, my only way to deal with resolved permanents was tapping with Reejerey, yeah =P So I had to hope for 1x or 2x FoW's pr game.

- The GBW guy played: Swords to Plowshares, Smother, Vindicate (not only creature removal I know) and fucking Slaughter Pacts :P

I'm actually beginning to think about testing Mutavaults and Standstill+Brainstorm in the deck, I would cut Tidal Courier and Stonybrook Banneret.. We'll see =)

[Maveric78f]

21 lands should be enough if you don't play standstill (which is not needed anymore I think). 2 or 3 rushing rivers should be enough too. The rest should be *4. I finally get 60-21lands(8denials, 13islands)-4vials-4FoW-4Daze-4stifle-2/3rivers = 20/21 merfolks. I would go 8 pumpers, 4 silvergil, 4 thrashers, 3 selkies and 2 shapesharers.

I changed a lot my mind after some testing and I came back to standstill which is far more efficient than selkie in drawing. Selkie is too difficult to play and to protect. Standstill can almost always be played (I play 4*wasteland, 3*port, 3*mutavault now + 12*islands + 4*vials +2/3*Rushing river) in the first turns, and does not need to be protected.

Here is the list I play now :
Lands: 22
12 islands
4*wastelands
3*rishadan port
3*mutavault

Folks: 19/20
4*silvergill
4*lord
4*reejerey
4*thrasher
2*Shapesharer
1/2*Selkie (or jitte)

Stuff: 18/19
4*vial
4*FoW
4*Daze
2/3*rushing river
4*standstill

SB :
4*tormod
3*propaganda
4*stifle
2/3*Mind Harness
1/2*rushing river

Mutavault has become very good with Thrasher, enabling you to tap out without taking burn damages.

I'm actually beginning to think about testing Mutavaults and Standstill+Brainstorm in the deck

BS, I'm not convinced, since you don't play fetches and probably don't want to. I think that the merfolk MD does not need it, but it's very useful to find your SB material in the first turns (tormod mainly).

[Hightower]

BS?? I would add fetches of course, around 6 possibly. Since Tidal Courier in theory should only give around ~2 Merfolks, Brainstorm is on par, If not better, and alot more flexible since I can get the "non-merfolk" cards I just boarded in, etc.

I'm thinking about testing it that's for sure =)

[Maveric78f]

I mean "you don't want to play fetches besides in the aim of shuffling the BS cards far in the library". Another problem is that I often keep a hand with no blue mana (with FoW, vial and a lot of creatures/mana disruption precisely). In these hands brainstorm is a dead card.

[Hightower]

I thought you meant Bull Shit.. =P like "I don't believe you"

[whienot]

Merfolk took 1st out of 72 at Iserlohn on 8/3.

Here's the decklist.

There was only 1 non-blue deck in the top 8. Looks like it was a great choice.

[Nihil Credo]

Merfolk took 1st out of 72 at Iserlohn on 8/3.

Here's the decklist.

There was only 1 non-blue deck in the top 8. Looks like it was a great choice.

"Sardinengulasch". Winner.

Only 1 B2B in the sideboard. Less winner :(

Also, +2 Tidal Warrior -2 Tideshaper Mystic, but I'd bet caviar to sardines he just couldn't find the extra Warriors.

[Sims]

Merfolk took 1st out of 72 at Iserlohn on 8/3.

Here's the decklist.

There was only 1 non-blue deck in the top 8. Looks like it was a great choice.

The only thing I can say is, only 2 Wake Thrasher?

[Maveric78f]

- brainstorm with no shuffling effect...
- only 19 lands
- tidal warrior + tideshaper mystic and only 2 Wake Thrasher
- strange SB

Everybody here would agree that this list was suboptimal, but it still did 1st on a quite big tourney.

[Shugyosha]

- brainstorm with no shuffling effect...
- only 19 lands
- tidal warrior + tideshaper mystic and only 2 Wake Thrasher
- strange SB

Everybody here would agree that this list was suboptimal, but it still did 1st on a quite big tourney.

The guy owned one card of the whole deck before the tourney started. He had to build this thing with what his friends had, as far as he wrote in his tourney report (it's in german obv. so I didn't quote from it). From the report it seems that he always had Port/Wasteland online by turns 2-3 and often killed/decided the game by turns 5-6.