[Deck] Merfolk

[Tacosnape]

RE Vision Charm: I'm pretty sure anything with the keyword Phasing on it falls under danger of cool things.

Re Micki:

1. Cursed Totem is amazing, neat, and shuts off Coralhelm Commander. It's still worth probably one slot in your board, given your one Enlightened Tutor.

2. Cut one Relic for a Crypt. No sense in not running at least one copy of the faster one, given that you have Enlightened Tutor.

[kiwi]

Now we can play dismember in main and I think that is unnecessary to splash white.

I think that its better to have a strong mana base before than the advantadge of white splash

[hyc8028]

I knew everyone was going to play landstill/stoneblade, but I don't want to play the same deck as 2/3 of people in the room and decided to play my merfolk list yesterday at a local 27 man tourney and finished 3-2.

Creature: 22
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Merrow Rejerry
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Coralhelm Commander
4x Cursecatcher
2x Merfolk Sovereign

Spell: 17
4x Aether Vial
4x Force of Will
4x Mental Misstep
3x Daze
2x Dismember

Land: 21
13x Snow Covered Island
4x Wasteland
4x Mutavault

SB: 15
2x Submerge
2x Energy Flux
2x Echoing Truth
2x Llawan, Cephalid Empress
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
3x Spell Pierce
1x Dismember
1x Daze

Round 1: UWB Stoneblade 1-2
He mana flooded game 1. I had to mull down to 6 on game 2 and game 3 and get mana flooded both games. Dismember is again really good taking out SFM and Bob.

Round 2: UWR Stoneblade 2-0
My deck did what it is suppose to do. Dismember was great here taking out Lavamancer and Sower here.

Round 3: Goblin 0-2
He slowroll me with Ringleader and get god flip every time. It doesn't help when I draw no gas.

Round 4: Merfolk 2-0
I run Dismember and he doesn't. Game 2, I got triple vial opening hand and kept drawing adept.

Round 5: UB Drednought 2-0
My deck did what it suppose to do. Dismember again good here taking out Bob and Sower.

All my loses I was having medicore to bad draws. However, when the deck suppose to work, it feels like a well oiled machine. Mystic/Batterskull could be a problem, so Dismember could be a really useful tool here because they would have to use one of their 6 hard counter to address it. Dismember deserves to be a 4 of in the 75. That 4 life is a cheap price to handle any threats IMO.

My main is going to be the same since it work flawlessly when I don't get flooded. SB I am going to find room for 4th Dismember. Here is my SB going forward:

SB: 15
3x Spell Pierce
2x Energy Flux
2x Echoing Truth
2x Llawan, Cephalid Empress
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
2x Dismember
2x Tormod's Crypt

[MRmtg]

what is dismember good against...i just dont know what to bring em in for...i like them but against certain aggro decks they dont seem very good...but anyway heres my sb now
also im not sure about back to basics but some people swear by them...do you think they should be energy flux instead?
‎2 jitte, 2 llawan, 2 back to basics, 3 tormods crypts, 3 dismember, 2 spell pierce 1 phyrexian metamorph

[hyc8028]

Against aggro, you can take out FoW, Daze or some MM for Dismember. FoW you just 2 for 1 yourself while Dismember is just better.

Against Stoneblade, I would do -1 MM, -3 Daze for +2 Dismember, +2 Spell Pierce.

[MRmtg]

do you think 3 dismember is too many? against which decks do you bring all 3 in i suppose?..i was thinking maybe 2 dismember 1 echoing truth split to get rid of pesky ensaring brige effects etc....i'd like to hear some thoughts on this...also anyone else going to scg Cincinnati? and if you are what would your list look like?

[darkmuse]

Round 3: UB ANT
Game1: I keep a super fast hand with Vial, Lords, Adepts but only MMS and Wasteland as disruption. When facing lethal on turn4, he goes for it: some Cantrips, <lots of Cabal Rituals>, drops LED but doesn't have to crack it since Infernal Tutor is his last card anyways. He grabs IGG and plays it.

This is were things get fucked up. He looks up at me for some seconds, then goes through his graveyard mumbling something about having made a mistake, looks at me again for some seconds. I tell him I don't wanna respond and he tries to crack the LED claiming that he never passed priority. Since he's a guy I know I try to sort things out and ask him whether he knew he had to announce he wanted to keep priority after playing IGG. His answer was that he didn't know it and that he thinks he made a mistake there. He still insists on cracking that LED since "c'mon, you know I would have actually done that". I call a judge over and he rules in my favor after interviewing both of us.
This felt so bad. Actually, I've been opposing runnning our local tournaments on REL Competitive. On REL Competitive I try to take advantage of each and every mistake my opponent makes. This is usually ok but not appropiate for local tournaments. Therefor I really argue for REL Regular on small events. We hardlly ever gather more than 20-30 people for an event.

gl&hf

I just wanted to clear this one up so I don't get caught out. According to your write-up he never said he was passing priority. In which case surely he still has it anyway? Isn't the default that you keep priority unless you announce that you passed, not the other way round?

[bakofried]

In higher level tournaments, looking up at your opponent is seen as a shortcut to passing priority or checking for responses. Like when Flores tried to Daze his own Darkblast, but had already looked at Davis, signaling a check for responses. Essentially, he did, just not verbally.

[Sims]

I just wanted to clear this one up so I don't get caught out. According to your write-up he never said he was passing priority. In which case surely he still has it anyway? Isn't the default that you keep priority unless you announce that you passed, not the other way round?

Actually, as I recall, it's assumed that you are passing priority after casting a spell or activating an ability unless you specifically state that you intend to retain priority as a shortcut to speed up games and not have to verbally acknowledge the passing of priority every time it happens. Chuck would be able to go into better detail, but as far as I am aware, if you don't say you intend to keep priority, it passes after the casting of the IGG in this case.

[darkmuse]

In higher level tournaments, looking up at your opponent is seen as a shortcut to passing priority or checking for responses. Like when Flores tried to Daze his own Darkblast, but had already looked at Davis, signaling a check for responses. Essentially, he did, just not verbally.

I suppose if you could have been construed as fishing for your opponent to respond then you have passed priority. But in the case of someone playing an IGG with an LED on the table I'd assume they haven't passed, not without asking explicitly. Actually if he started hunting his graveyard that could also be taken that the IGG has resolved, even though you are allowed to search graveyards at any point. Messy

[Tacosnape]

I've always been under the impression that if you want to retain priority in this situation, you have to indicate it. I simply say "Retaining priority" after I do the action. So if you intend to crack the diamond, but want a moment to think for some reason, say "Infernal Tutor, retaining priority." Then crack your LED.

Then Merfolk gets to Force it and win.

[Julian23]

To be fair, I think I should have just asked him straight away whether he passes priority or not. But that would basically be equal to saying "I think you made a mistake but here's your last chance to correct it". Therefor I asked him specificly about whether he knew he he had to announce retaining priority.

Had his answer not contained "I made a mistake" I think he would have gotten away with it. When the judge questioned us, this statement was what tipped the scales in my favor.

[JJ_JKidd]

Can the new clone card in M12--Phantasmal Image--be playable? Is it gonna be better than Phyrexian Metamorph? With Kira in play, it should be nuts.

[Julian23]

Sorry to say, but Kira doesn't protect Phantasmal Image. She(?) only prevents the spell targeting PI from resolving but PI already triggers on being targeted.

That being said, I'm currently running 2 Phyrexian Metamorph maindeck in place of Sower and 1 Spell Pierce (see my list above for reference) and I really like it thus far. Sower is sometimes just bad or doesn't contribute a lot to the board while Metamorph is cheaper and more versatile.
Oh, and currently running 3-4 Reality Ripple in the sb. It's suuuuch a tempo boost against SFM decks:

Turn 2: SFM
Turn 3: nothing, eot activate Mythic
Turn 4: attack with Batterskull, Reality Ripple it and you've basically blanked 2,5 turns of theirs while only spending 2 mana instant speed.

It's like turning SFM into Squire with echo.

[Tacosnape]

Can the new clone card in M12--Phantasmal Image--be playable? Is it gonna be better than Phyrexian Metamorph? With Kira in play, it should be nuts.

Kira doesn't stop Phantasmal's ability from triggering. It'll still die the first time its targeted.

EDIT: Started testing Phyrexian Metamorph. Following thoughts so far:

1. I've lost at least 2 games where Phyrexian Metamorph sucked because he wasn't a lord and I needed Lord #1 on the board. Probably lost another two because I couldn't Vial him out at 3. Probably lost another two where I couldn't trigger Reejerey with him.

2. The top three things I copied with him were Lord of Atlantis, Cursecatcher, and my activated Mutavaults.

3. Killed one Emrakul with him, Killed one Jitte with him. Copied a Batterskull at one point, but still lost. Doesn't change the fact that the other guy has a Batterskull. Best copy so far was Vialing him in to duplicate a Blightsteel Colossus swinging at my head. Blightsteel Colossus makes an AMAZING Blightsteel Colossus blocker.

So far, I think he's less awful than I thought, but I'll personally stick with Merfolk Sovereign.

[JJ_JKidd]

Sorry I didnt know that.

Right now, this is what I run

12 Lords
2 Kira
1 Sower
4 Adept
4 Cursecatcher

2 Dismember
3 Daze
3 Force of Will
4 Mistep

the rest is pretty basic like 21 lands.

If Metamorph is suggested I do not know what to cut now

[Julian23]

I recommend -1 land -1 Sower +2 Metamorph. 13 Islands, 4 Mutavault, 3 Wasteland.

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

...3 Wasteland.

Highly controversial?

[Julian23]

Which doesn't make it less of a correct choice.

It depends a lot on how you build Merfolk. Since dropping Standstill, I'd much rather develop my board early on than to lose tempo by wastelanding on on turn 2 or 3. I will always wasteland my opponent playing a nonbasic on turn 1 since that play indicates weakness. But overall, I'd much rather spent my early turns getting ahead and then maybe start wastelanding on turn 4 or 5 or even later. I don't consider Wasteland to be as important as it was in times of Standstill. For people who are able to tell the difference: Wasteland's role changed from a strategical to a tactical one.

[Tacosnape]

For people who are able to tell the difference: Wasteland's role changed from a strategical to a tactical one.

That doesn't even mean anything. You're just spouting off shit that sounds deep to make it sound like you know something we don't. That's like me saying that since the printing of Mental Misstep, in the Elves matchup Coralhelm Commander has gone from being a Brigadier General to a Fleet Commander. People are just going to blink at these statements incomprehendingly, and then find themselves with an urge they can't understand to go watch SNL's Best of Christopher Walken.

Running 3 Wastelands isn't incomprehensible, but I don't think it's recommended either. Wasteland's still one of the single best disruptive cards in the format, and while it's true that in some matchups you don't necessarily want to fire the Wasteland too early, there are times when you just win off the back of Wasteland with a Vial in play, and there are times when the land for land trade just benefits you far more than them. It's only really bad if you, as the aggro deck, have somehow managed not to come out quicker than your opponent. Which happens far less now that Mental Misstep exists.

In conclusion, run four.