[Deck] Merfolk

[sadakiyo]

About fetches, I got your point guys. Thanks for enlightening me on that one.
@purgatory, Yes I meant 13 island, not 12. My bad....
@tacosnape. About going to 21 island... sounds like a good idea to me, but I don't know what to cut for the 21st land. I'm still sticking with the 20 lands and if playtest and tournament result prove it to be bad, I would consider your suggestion. So far, I seldom find myself mana-screwed with just 20 lands.
About dismember, I know it is THAT good. It saved my ass many times. I have 3 total in my SB. I would make it a 4 of.

So here is my SB look like
4 dismember
3 submerge
2 relic of progenitus
2 spell pierce
2 echoing truth
2 kira

Do you guys think 3 submerges and 4 dismember a little bit too much?
There aren't many zoo in my meta, but there are some gw maverick, team america and bant.
Should I just cut the 3rd submerge for the 4th dismember?

there are some affinity in my meta but not too many. I have the urge to have energy flux in my sb but I always thought that it is a narrow SB choice, just like llawan. Never test deck against affinity again, but can this match be won by having 4 dismember???

[Malakai]

Personally I went to 22 lands (14/4/4) and never looked back.

[kiwi]

One doubt againts reanimator, is a good idea sideboad in dismembers or to keep dismembers in maindeck if you have some copies ? With dismembers we can kill Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur but I dont know if its correct that decision

[Tacosnape]

One doubt againts reanimator, is a good idea sideboad in dismembers or to keep dismembers in maindeck if you have some copies ? With dismembers we can kill Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur but I dont know if its correct that decision

Depends on what you have to board in. I tend not to.

When I board, I'm bringing in usually 8 cards. 3 Spell Pierce, 1 Daze, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Tormod's Crypt, and either a second Crypt or a fourth Pierce. Then I'll eye two Dismembers in board (I have two main also).

My cuts are usually Merfolk Sovereign, Merrow Reejerey, and Dismember. Depending on the opponents' build, I might leave two Dismembers in and cut two Coralhelms. You only need one guy to go the distance here, and you're going to want open mana to handle their Dazes and cast your Spell Pierces.

The thing about Dismember is this. Jin-Gitaxias isn't the guy they want to go find against you, ever. They're always going to want either Iona, Elesh Norn, or Blazing Archon, depending on your board. Sometimes Jin-Gitaxias may BE the guy they find against you, but it's not who they want. So I tend to think having a Coralhelm who can either kill or pitch to Force is better than having the black spell that's only useful if the exact scenario of them sticking Jin-Gitaxias happens.

Also, keep in mind, your best strategy with Merfolk is just to not let them stick anything. And with Cursecatcher, Daze, Force of Will, Mental Misstep, Spell Pierce, and yard hate all pitching in, this isn't hard to make happen.

[charlyx]

hello!

i play a mono u merfolks deck and usually I have problems with side. I don't know which cards are better put or remove.

Which cards put and remove against zoo landstill, maverick etc.?

thanks

Welcome to The Source. It appears English isn't your first language, so your grammatical flaws are forgivable, but please make an effort to use proper capitalization in your posts. Thanks. - zilla

[SageShadows]

Played Merfolk to 12th (4-2) in a 49 person tournament (the Southern California Legacy Tournament @ MTG Deals in San Gabriel)

I ran the following list:
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
13 Island

4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Merfolk Sovereign

4 AEther Vial

4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Mental Misstep
2 Dismember

SB: 2 Dismember
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 3 Spell Pierce
SB: 1 Sower of Temptation
SB: 2 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
SB: 2 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Daze

I was anticipating heavy dredge, reanimator, and combo. Obviously, I hit none of those. Here's a mini tournament report, which won't be very detailed as I have horrible memory.

Round 1: UB Good Stuff (0-1)
Literally, it was a homebrew that made no sense. Game 1 I saw Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. I win that game on the back of a Merfolk Sovereign and Coralhelm. Game 2 I lose to Vendilion Clique and Sower after I nuke his Academy Ruins and Crucible. Game 3, I actually don't remember wh-- Oh yeah, 2 Engineered Plagues.

Round 2: Aggro Loam (1-1)
Game 1, I think I stopped a Tarm at 1 life, then the vault went all the way. Sick. Game 2, I lose because he cast ANYTHING after I killed his Terravore. Game 3, I pick up a win with Coralhelm Commander. I think I came back from a Devastating Dreams this game, but it involved him bricking on lands.

Round 3: GWu Maverick (2-1)
I thought he was on Natural Order. Game 1, Lords eat his face. Game 2, an alpha strike takes out his 2 Pridemages that were giving lethal power to his Clique. Sided in incorrectly when I took out Dazes for Spell Pierces and Llawans.

Round 4: UW Landstill (3-1)
Game 1, I had 3 Lord of Atlantis. Game 2, my hand was full of lords, and he was landscrewed. Not very interactive.

Round 5: Zoo (3-2)
I actually win game 1 because he is land flooded. Game 2 isn't even close, as he gets a library onboard and his MD removal in addition to 6 red blasts make it easy for him. G3 he has a grim lavamancer online, which kills me.

Round 6: GBW Good Stuff (I saw KotR and Goyfs) (4-2)
Game 1, Mutavault chips away at life while he's landscrewed from mulling to 5. Game 2, the game is relatively close, but he pulls away with a KotR and some timely removal. Game 3, Dismember clears the way for Lord of Atlantis with a Jitte and his friends to beat down until he scoops.

Thoughts:

• Dismember is a great MD card. I found myself being able to kill off bobs, clear the way for my merfolk army, and win out on combat math.
• The Sower didn't really do much for me, but that's because I didn't draw into it.
• Regret not having Submerges in the SB, but that's mainly because I didn't anticipate so many Zoo/Maverick/Goyf/KotR.
• Spell Snare didn't really prove its worth even though I found myself siding it in a lot. This is due to the lack of combo decks I played, I suppose.
• Really liked the 21 lands. Felt landscrewed even sometimes. I don't think 20 lands is a safe number, but I kind of felt the loss of the Merfolk Sovereign I cut for the land.

Questions:

• I won basically every single Game 1 I played. I usually sided out my 3 Dazes on the draw, usually for pierces in relevant matchups or other SB cards. Is this right? Should I keep in a few? I feel like Dazes are terribly useless in matchups such as Zoo and are totally neutered on the draw. Also, I felt like I didn't have enough countermagic when I sided out the Dazes.
• I never found myself cutting the Force of Wills. I know it's straight up Card Disadvantage, but I felt kind of safer being able to stem the zoo from overwhelming me and being able to represent Force helped out.
• Is Llawan really that great of a SB card? I get that it's a bomb against the mirror, but it seems so, so narrow. At least Crypt helps out with Aggro loam and stuff.
• On the same note, would Kira merit inclusion in the SB only? The Zoo matchup really left a bitter taste in my mouth, but it seems even narrower than Llawan.

Sorry the "report" wasn't that in-depth; I didn't take amazing notes because I was focused on the game. I just read off life totals and little markings to see what happened.

[Tacosnape]

Questions:

• I won basically every single Game 1 I played. I usually sided out my 3 Dazes on the draw, usually for pierces in relevant matchups or other SB cards. Is this right? Should I keep in a few? I feel like Dazes are terribly useless in matchups such as Zoo and are totally neutered on the draw. Also, I felt like I didn't have enough countermagic when I sided out the Dazes.
• I never found myself cutting the Force of Wills. I know it's straight up Card Disadvantage, but I felt kind of safer being able to stem the zoo from overwhelming me and being able to represent Force helped out.
• Is Llawan really that great of a SB card? I get that it's a bomb against the mirror, but it seems so, so narrow. At least Crypt helps out with Aggro loam and stuff.
• On the same note, would Kira merit inclusion in the SB only? The Zoo matchup really left a bitter taste in my mouth, but it seems even narrower than Llawan.

Good report. Neat list.

1. I almost never side out a Daze on the play. I will sometimes on the draw. It usually depends on what I have to board in, how bad missing a land drop could hurt me, and what I want my ratio of dudes to counters to be. I'd never board out a single Daze against any combo deck, for instance. But Zoo on the draw? Yeah. Get them out of there.

2. Zoo overwhelms you much more efficiently if it Hymns you. I cut Forces on the play in some matchups - Usually anything where the card count heavily matters (Zoo, any Confidant variant), but under no circumstances would I cut Force of Will on the draw, ever.

3. I personally don't think so, but the rest of the world disagrees with me. I don't really ever run it unless the metagame's just swarming with Merfolk and Natural Order, but I keep it in my box as a metagame call. I'd certainly never pick it over graveyard hate. Decks like Reanimator, Dredge, Aggro Loam, and Cephalid Breakfast thrive largely in part because players stubbornly refuse to pack enough yard hate in sideboards. I feel like 2 is the absolute minimum for a heavily disruptive deck like Merfolk or Deadguy and 3 for zomething like Zoo or Maverick, and I don't feel comfortable packing less than 3 and 4 respectively. My Maverick actually packs five, counting the maindecked Bojuka Bog.

4. Kira's less narrow than Llawan. Kira's solid against some other decks, as well (UW Landstill, Team Italia, etc.) Basically, if they pack as many removal spells as you pack Lords, Kira's pretty neat. That said, I don't maindeck Kira, because most of the time I'm only dealing with between 0 and 2 removal spells I can't counter, and I'd rather have another Lord.

[reale]

Hello again.

Taco, everyone: what about Turn to Frog (M12) instead of Dismember?

Pros:
- Synergy with FoW;
- Eliminates Dismember's life loss;
- Opponents will think twice if you send your lord to death;
- Better to kill big creatures (wo/ protection, but dismember won't help anyway);
- Other possible uses to stop abilities for one turn;
- Insta-One Shot-Humility? (That means I can't think of anything else)


Cons
- The extra blue to cast (Dismember in perspective);
- Actually don't kill any creature;
- ... continue ...

Best regards,

[randomly.anonymous]

I'm guessing for similar reasons [card]snakeform[/card] didn't cut it?
It is one mana less tho :-S

[Gui]

For similar reasons that Ovinize never made the cut?

[Sturtzilla]

I have to agree. I think that the ability to actually remove a creature is far more valuable than a possibility to remove the creature pending various combat and blocking scenarios. I am going to stick to Dismember.

[reale]

Thanks all. I didn't even know the existence of Ovinize. It really don't make te cut.

Best regards

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

Not digging Turn to Frog. But that squirrel is effing amazing!

[Sturtzilla]

Not digging Turn to Frog. But that squirrel is effing amazing!

That squirrel was pretty badass! I really enjoyed it.

[Finn]

It is also important to note here that Dismember is a 1-mana spell that can not be Misstepped.

Cake? check
Eat it too? check

[Julian23]

Creatures, Turn to Frog usually won't kill: Grim Lavamancer, Dark Confidant Stoneforge Mystic. Dismember also kills creatures equipped with Sword of Fire and Ice which is an important application from my experience.

[Tacosnape]

Are people seriously discussing Turn to Frog? What a terrible card. I wouldn't play this over Dismember if it cantripped.

Dismember kills. Period. One colorless to kill 90+% of the creatures in the format is incomparably good for Blue. Your miss list is very small: Mirran Crusader, Argothian Enchantress, Thrun the Last Troll, huge guys who get comboed into play, and guys who get bigger based on land in your graveyard. There's no blue card in existence that's even close to this level of efficiency and probably never will be. It'd take a cantripping Unsummon to make me consider dropping Dismember, and even then I'd probably keep a couple Dismembers in board.

[bakofried]

Adaptive Automaton 3
Artifact Creature - Construct R
As ~ enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
~ enters the battlefield as a creature of the chosen type.
Other creatures of the chosen type get +1/+1.
2/2

Huh. Don't know what to think of this. Maybe edge out Sovereign? I like her ability, but the casting cost on this is so much easier. Worse with Silvergill though, and doesn't trigger Reejerey. Anyway, thought I'd bring it up.

[Fortunae]

The only good thing that I can see in this card versus Sovereign is that it doesn't require double blue, and can block Goblin Piledriver.

Probably isn't nearly good enough. We already have an abundance of great lords to play, and our flex slots are too valuable to spend on a 3cc lord that is otherwise a vanilla creature.

[Julian23]

What Fortunane said + it sucks in the mirror.