[Deck] Merfolk

[Star|Scream]

Looks like this deck is finished. The core is solid. Then you just add kira, sower, or jitte, and the usual SB culprits, and you have a deck.

[KobeBryan]

what does he have to deal with prog and emrukal?

[Star|Scream]

what does he have to deal with prog and emrukal?

11 main deck counters, 1 in the sb, 4 counter creatures, 2 mb creature thieves, 2 llawan in the sb to bounce prog, plus 2 back to basics to shut down 12 post and NO rug.

Can't tell if trolling or...

[Julian23]

Phyrexian Metamorph
Sower of Temptation

And especially against Progenitus: alpha strikes. The hydra is usually too slow to actually kill you. After it comes down you have 2 swings to deal the remaining damage which - in my experience - is often enough to finish then. However, with NO RUG playing 12 spot removal + Lavamancer after boarding this might change. Thus far though, I wouldn't be afraid of Progenitus or Emrakul with this deck.


/edit: sorry missread "what do we have to deal with..."

[KobeBryan]

11 main deck counters, 1 in the sb, 4 counter creatures, 2 mb creature thieves, 2 llawan in the sb to bounce prog, plus 2 back to basics to shut down 12 post and NO rug.

Can't tell if trolling or...

i'm actually a noob with this deck.

What I don't understand is why he doesn't have dismember in the MD, and only 1 in the SB

[Star|Scream]

i'm actually a noob with this deck.

What I don't understand is why he doesn't have dismember in the MD, and only 1 in the SB

I dunno. I'm not a fan of sower myself. But what I was trying to illustrate is that the land, core creatures and the 11-12 free counterspells are flushed out. All that really changes are sowers, jitte, mishra's factory, dismember, and sideboard.

Instead of true removal maybe he preferred virtual removal (i.e. stealing). Some like copying. Others like dismember. Others like protection (kira). It's all a preference thing and I really don't think those 3-4 flex slots really change the deck at all.

[KobeBryan]

Everyone knows there are 3 flex slots in this deck. has anyone used 3 jaces in those?

[Julian23]

Isn't Dismember just flat out better than Jace, at least in the maindeck? You don't wanna use Brainstorm, you don't wanna Fateseal and Dismember seems way better than -1 bounce to me.

[Syaoran]

Has anyone experimented with Flusterstorm in the sideboard?

It seems like it's strictly better than Spellpeirce

[Sturtzilla]

Has anyone experimented with Flusterstorm in the sideboard?

I ran it in my board at SCG Pittsburgh. Although I was running a different deck, Reanimator, and I opted for Flusterstorms over both Spell Pierce and Dispel. I also play Merfolk and both decks run virtually the exact same counter package (Merfolk gets the added bonus of Cursecatcher). Flusterstorm beats unprotected storm, just generally helps win counter wars, and gets under the Hive Mind players Chalice of the Void set at 1 (they also don't get the Storm trigger off of the Hive Mind). That is why I ran it and it seemed to work well for me. I have stepped away from the fishies at the moment and have been rocking Reanimator. All of the NO RUG and Maverick have been slanting me that direction. I would suggest trying it out. I really liked having it.

[chuck2657]

Isn't Dismember just flat out better than Jace, at least in the maindeck? You don't wanna use Brainstorm, you don't wanna Fateseal and Dismember seems way better than -1 bounce to me.

I think most people (including me) would agree dismember is a better slot, since merfolk tries to build and ride temp most matches, and not control a long end-game via card advantage. That being said, everything is worth trying. It is a bit slow for legacy, but a JTMS that sticks can really dominate games.

[JBlaze]

I want to talk about sideboarding and general tactics for the mirror match Im in a small but fierce local meta where you can usually count on at least 2-3 merfolk players at any event I have gone 1-2 in matches the mirror seem kinda swingy any body have any pointers I have a pretty stock no standstill list

I am also wondering what peoples feeling on llawan are she can be great but with the addition of dismember she seems worse also vendillion clique out of the sideboard has been very effective for me I swear clique should be named an honorary merfolk it does everything we want disruptive evasive good power I know this is a bold statement but if Im running a 3cc non-merfolk legend in my main deck i would run clique over kira

this actually happened on the play game three vs B/W stoneforge
he goes turn two stoneforge grabs sword of body/mind I pass with three mana up planning to clique in response to stoneforge and take sword on his turn three he drops engineered plague on merfolk so of course I go clique taking sword then drop jitte equip swing kill stoneforge and roll him

oh yeah and the last card I want to bring up is spreading seas for the non blue midrange decks its a two mana cantriping stone rain that sometimes makes our guy unblockable just throwing it out there

[JBlaze]

I want to talk about sideboarding and general tactics for the mirror match Im in a small but fierce local meta where you can usually count on at least 2-3 merfolk players at any event I have gone 1-2 in matches the mirror seem kinda swingy any body have any pointers I have a pretty stock no standstill list

I am also wondering what peoples feeling on llawan are she can be great but with the addition of dismember she seems worse also vendillion clique out of the sideboard has been very effective for me I swear clique should be named an honorary merfolk it does everything we want disruptive evasive good power I know this is a bold statement but if Im running a 3cc non-merfolk legend in my main deck i would run clique over kira

this actually happened on the play game three vs B/W stoneforge
he goes turn two stoneforge grabs sword of body/mind I pass with three mana up planning to clique in response to stoneforge and take sword on his turn three he drops engineered plague on merfolk so of course I go clique taking sword then drop jitte equip swing kill stoneforge and roll him

oh yeah and the last card I want to bring up is spreading seas for the non blue midrange decks its a two mana cantriping stone rain that sometimes makes our guy unblockable just throwing it out there

[bakofried]

It's not a Stone Rain, it just turns it into an off-color land. The Cantripping is nice, but it seems to swallow up tempo (and slots in the deck) for very little reward.

[chuck2657]

I want to talk about sideboarding and general tactics for the mirror match Im in a small but fierce local meta where you can usually count on at least 2-3 merfolk players at any event I have gone 1-2 in matches the mirror seem kinda swingy any body have any pointers I have a pretty stock no standstill list

I am also wondering what peoples feeling on llawan are she can be great but with the addition of dismember she seems worse also vendillion clique out of the sideboard has been very effective for me I swear clique should be named an honorary merfolk it does everything we want disruptive evasive good power I know this is a bold statement but if Im running a 3cc non-merfolk legend in my main deck i would run clique over kira

this actually happened on the play game three vs B/W stoneforge
he goes turn two stoneforge grabs sword of body/mind I pass with three mana up planning to clique in response to stoneforge and take sword on his turn three he drops engineered plague on merfolk so of course I go clique taking sword then drop jitte equip swing kill stoneforge and roll him

oh yeah and the last card I want to bring up is spreading seas for the non blue midrange decks its a two mana cantriping stone rain that sometimes makes our guy unblockable just throwing it out there

Jitte and the empress are the two 'traditional' SB answers in the mirror. Although the opponent can still vial in creatures, a resolved empress can really swing the game. Yes, there are dismembers, but your opponent is down 4 life and has all his creatures bounced at this point...even if dismember resolves. In a merfolk-heavy meta she is a very powerful (if narrow) card. Sower can also be strong since merfolk normally only runs 2-3 dismembers for kills - assuming you're running sower for other reasons in your board.

A friend tried a version running stifles, spreading seas, etc. It does hit mana greedy decks hard, but it was horrid in the mirror and other decks that weren't 3 colors. Also, there may be less blue than before...but there is still a lot of blue in the meta. Turning a nonbasic into an island may not hurt the opponent all that much. Also, Back to Basics in some ways seems like a more powerful card for 1 CC more - and it receives limited SB space. Another issue with SS is your opponent still can play a land/fetch and land a spell with that mana.

[KobeBryan]

Do you guys find 3 surgical extractions and 1 tormod's crypt enough gravehate? of course i have two echoing truths in the board as well. So technically there are 6 cards.

[SageShadows]

Do you guys find 3 surgical extractions and 1 tormod's crypt enough gravehate? of course i have two echoing truths in the board as well. So technically there are 6 cards.

Yes, but I'd move that to 2 Surgical Extractions, 2 Crypt (or Relics). Surgical Extraction just doesn't help as effectively against decks that use the graveyard somewhat fairly.

[Tacosnape]

Graveyard hate really depends on what decks are prominent. If you're expecting Manaless Dredge, your Crypts and Surgicals won't be enough, because you more likely than not lost game one. You'll want 6+ pieces, or Leyline. If you're dealing more with Reanimator, you want Crypt more than Surgical, but you've got a fighting shot either way because your counters are all useful. Loam decks or anything packing Intuition, you want Surgical Extraction.

[angel882]

Hi, has anyone else tried out Phantasmal Image in folk? I played this list in a local turnament

12 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland

4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Cursecatcher
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
3 Phantasmal Image

4 Force of Will
4 AEther Vial
3 Daze
4 Mental Misstep
2 Dismember

SB:
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
4 Submerge
2 Spell Pierce
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sower of Temptation

where I faced

Landstill UBG 2-0: My opponent mull to 5 in both games and that's about it. One time I tried play Phantasmal Image, but it got countered.

Grim Caw-Blade 0-2: I think this is a hard MU. I can't anything land on the table or I'm dead. Grim is bad, Mystic is bad and all swords and Batterskull are bad. I sided Image out only against Grim-Blade.

TES 0-2: Both games I started t1 Cursecatcher, t2 copy Cursecatcher by Image. Didn't get any counters so that's why I lost.

Merfolk 2-1: Usually it was a cheap lord. Once I had to copy my own Llawan to stop my opponent's attack.

Dredge 2-0: Once I didn't copy anything and removed Bridges from graveyard. Also a cheap lord and helped me race.

in these games Image was great and it fits perfect in the curve.

Some cons are that it's not great with my own Kira and Jitte. Ofcourse opponent's Jitte is also bad. In legacy any removal spell usually kills my creatures anyway so that's why the "becomes target" -ability isn't so weak. So what do you think about PImage?

I also played first time maindeck Dismember and didn't like it so much. In a mirror I think it helped more my opponent than me to remove one of his creatures and lose 4. Of course I didn't play against creature heavy decks so it's hard to say is it good or not, but I think next time I try Echoing Truth or Sower of Temptation in main.

[Einherjer]

Hey guys, normally Im a midrange player but I think Ill start playing Fish.
So would you guys mind to explain to me, why Merfolk isnt in the top8 any more?
And what do you think of my list?

12 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland

4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Cursecatcher
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
2 Merfolk Sovereign

4 Aether Vial
2 Dismember

4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Mental Misstep

Soo, remember im kinda new to Fish, but not new to magic (some might know me from the Deadguy Ale thread) So tell me what ya guys think about this list and Merfolks current and futurionary place in the metagame. Thank you.