[Deck] Merfolk

[tivadar]

To me the point is that the card that is really made to hate us is not an auto-scoop. Even without bounce, vial gets around it. Sure, it hurts a bunch if they land it, but it's rather narrow and we can deal with it.

Also, Llawan is not irrelevant in other matches, primarily faerie and especially faerie stompy. Not that these see anywhere near as much play as merfolk, but still.

[tivadar]

...Mark of Asylum(I have Absolute Law) ....

I honestly can't think of a situation where mark of asylum is better than absolute law. What direct damage does he deal with that's *not* red? Barbarian ring? Absolute Law let's you deal with damage from red creates (read: damage from goblins). Isn't it strictly better?

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

I honestly can't think of a situation where mark of asylum is better than absolute law. What direct damage does he deal with that's *not* red? Barbarian ring? Absolute Law let's you deal with damage from red creates (read: damage from goblins). Isn't it strictly better?

Hey, when you're right, you're right... Unless, you know, that "savage Aeolipile tech" is big in their meta

[_erbs_]

hello,
just want to hear your comments on my SB list.. im unsure if my SBs are the right choices.

2 relic of progenitus
1 tormod's cyrpt
1 echoing truth
2 blue elemental blast
2 hydro blast
2 kira, great glass-spinner
3 thorn of amethyst
2 back to basic / umezawa's jitte / llawan cephalid empress / cold-eye selkie

the list im running is..

Lands [19]
3 mutavaults
3 wasteland
13 island

Creatures [20]
4 cursecatcher
4 silvergill adept
4 lord of atlantis
4 merrow reejerey
4 merfolk sovereign

Utilities [21]
4 standstill
4 aether vial
1 echoing truth
1 rushing river
4 force of will
3 daze
1 spell snare
1 counterspell
2 mana leak

thanks !!

[Skeggi]

Against what decks would you side in Selkie?

[_erbs_]

Against what decks would you side in Selkie?

mirror or any blue based decks

[Skeggi]

Well, you could ask yourself if you'd not rather have a Jitte against the mirror. The general blue based match-up is a good one, so I personally don't have any sideboard cards against them. I prefer improving the match-up against anything that's red. So far all you have are 4 blasts and Kira. I would either up that count or add something else that would help, like Threads of Disloyalty.

I wouldn't go for a Selkie in my 75 anyway. And I've tried Llawan and she was a big let-down. She's supposed to be good against the mirror, but she's not: she's slow and doesn't stop Aether Vial, and if your opponent steals her, she really starts to get annoying.

[_erbs_]

Well, you could ask yourself if you'd not rather have a Jitte against the mirror. The general blue based match-up is a good one, so I personally don't have any sideboard cards against them. I prefer improving the match-up against anything that's red. So far all you have are 4 blasts and Kira. I would either up that count or add something else that would help, like Threads of Disloyalty.

I wouldn't go for a Selkie in my 75 anyway. And I've tried Llawan and she was a big let-down. She's supposed to be good against the mirror, but she's not: she's slow and doesn't stop Aether Vial, and if your opponent steals her, she really starts to get annoying.

Thanks for the heads up on Llawan. Based on my testing jitte felt like just like a win more card. In the events in where the deck doesn't go on a regular follow meaning 1-2 creature drops early turn or a poor hand thats where jitte shines and in random aggro match-ups.

How about rock-based or aggro control decks ? would back to basics be a good one or just add more SB against red / burn ?

Have you tried running thorns of amethyst aswell ? im just going to use them against combos or spell based decks like UGr thresh or stax etc.

Threads of disloyalty seems to be a good choice...

[tivadar]

So out of curiosity, we were discussing the white splash a while back and a lot of the talk had been on STP and whether it should be mainboard or sideboard. Has Harm's Way been considered in its place (mainboard)? It 2/1's a lot of burn spells, provides a way to kill lackey/bob/others, and doesn't give your opponent life. It can in fact push through your last couple points of damage in a close game.

Just a thought, STP is strictly better as creature removal, but Harm's Way seems more versatile.

[Nightmare]

So out of curiosity, we were discussing the white splash a while back and a lot of the talk had been on STP and whether it should be mainboard or sideboard. Has Harm's Way been considered in its place (mainboard)? It 2/1's a lot of burn spells, provides a way to kill lackey/bob/others, and doesn't give your opponent life. It can in fact push through your last couple points of damage in a close game.

Just a thought, STP is strictly better as creature removal, but Harm's Way seems more versatile.

I've been running STP over Stifle in my MD for the last week or so, and it's been good, but I'm not opposed to testing out Harm's Way, either. At first glance, it seems like it could be a solid way to give headaches to Zoo, which is really all I'm looking for at this point. I'm also going to be testing Kira, since I've noticed that while Absolute Law is great against their burn spells, it still doesn't stop your lords from being Path to Exiled. That's extremely annoying.

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

So out of curiosity, we were discussing the white splash a while back and a lot of the talk had been on STP and whether it should be mainboard or sideboard. Has Harm's Way been considered in its place (mainboard)? It 2/1's a lot of burn spells, provides a way to kill lackey/bob/others, and doesn't give your opponent life. It can in fact push through your last couple points of damage in a close game.

Just a thought, STP is strictly better as creature removal, but Harm's Way seems more versatile.

I think Harm's Way is cool and all (infinitely more sexy than Healing Salve at least), but I think it would be crazy to take out StP in favor of Harm's Way.

The only card I can think of that I might take out in order to put in some Harm's Way would be some amount of Blue Elemental Blast/ Hydroblast/ Divert (if anyone still uses that one) from the sideboard.

Basically, it's just incorrect to say that Harm's Way can fill in on StP's job, because it's not reliable enough as a source of removal. Let's say you want to nuke a 'Goyf. If you have StP, this is basically a point and click operation. However, if you want to take out that same 'Goyf with a Harm's Way, it becomes a bit more complicated. You will have to wait for some situation where you can get one of your dudes in combat with that 'Goyf to make up for the difference (assuming the 'Goyf has more than 3 toughness at that time). Also, let's say your opponent makes a play like "burn your blocker so I can swing through with unopposed 'Goyf." What do you do? Do you use Harm's Way to save your creature and just redirect the damage to your opponent? Keep in mind that most smart players are not going to attack with that 'Goyf any more if you redirect the damage to it. But let's say you do redirect that Lightning Bolt to your opponent: Your opponent's 'Goyf is still larger than your creature, and they will still attack, forcing you to either lose a creature or soak up some damage.

I guess I'm starting to ramble a bit here. Basically, my point is that Harm's Way is a decent card, and I could see it actually being a nice 'surprise' card to bring in from our sideboard... maybe. But for the love of God, don't go running the white splash using Harm's Way instead of StP: Having hard creature removal is probably the number one reason to splash a color in this deck in the first place!! And Harm's Way may be versatile, and even mildly sexy, but it sure as fuck isn't hard creature removal.

[Skeggi]

I can see Harm's Way sitting in your sideboard if you run Swords to Plowshares maindeck. I'm affraid the card is too narrow to maindeck it.

[lorddotm]

Orb of Insight says 12 instances of the word Merfolk!!

This could be awesome possum.

[Jeff Kruchkow]

Orb of Insight says 12 instances of the word Merfolk!!

This could be awesome possum.

Fingers crossed for another lord that costs 2 lol

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

Fingers crossed for another lord that costs 2 lol

Or another bomb-ass Merfolk that costs either one or two mana...

Hell, while we're on the wish-list, how about a decent Merfolk that flies? I always get a little miffed by how hit-or-miss the evasion we have access to can be...

[Skeggi]

You guys actually have room in your decks for all those awesome new Merfolk? The bar is set pretty high and the list is pretty tight. I'll have to think twice about thinking twice about removing cards from the deck to accomodate any possible new Merfolk.

On the hit-and-miss topic of our evasion: I've actually won a few games because of Sovereign's ability to get another beater sneak by some Tarmogoyfs. It certainly improved our non-blue match-ups, in more ways than just giving extra toughness against burn.

[Patrunkenphat7]

I would say a cheap merfolk with a sac:bounce ability would be siiiick and exactly what this deck needs.

[sauce]

probably some landfall merfolk in zendikar, still this tribe is getting a lot of goodies.. but goblins has 17 hits in the orb i think

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

So i'm a little mystified that Merfolk has failed to put in any sort of showing at GenCon this year... Contrary to what Doug Linn said in his article, the top 8 seems like it would have been a pretty favorable field to run Merfolks against. Tempo Thresh, Dredge, and Counterbalance all seem to be winnable match-ups for us.

Anyone have any ideas why there weren't any of our loveable Merfs in that winner's bracket? Is the meta shifting against us??

[lorddotm]

So i'm a little mystified that Merfolk has failed to put in any sort of showing at GenCon this year... Contrary to what Doug Linn said in his article, the top 8 seems like it would have been a pretty favorable field to run Merfolks against. Tempo Thresh, Dredge, and Counterbalance all seem to be winnable match-ups for us.

Anyone have any ideas why there weren't any of our loveable Merfs in that winner's bracket? Is the meta shifting against us??

This cannot reliably beat Canadian Thresh. The combo of 12 counters, 8 burn, and Tarnogoyf is not one we can beat, if you splash white, good fuckin lucky beating the Wasteland/Stifle part of them as well.

Merfolk is a metagame deck. It is not a deck that one can run in a metagame with burn in it. I imagine that a lot of people were running a lot of antiMerfolk tech, such as burn spells lol.

Doug Linn was right, Merfolk has no place in todays metagame without some super awesome new Merfolk being printed.