[Deck] Merfolk

[FANAttIC]

Well, since the "norm" is 21 lands with 13 Islands, adding non Island won't hurt me more than anybody else who plays the deck for colored mana purposes, I guess.
Flooding may occur but I noticed less mulligans, need untapped mana for Spell snare, Coralhelm is hungry and factory is just another dude who frequently dies (and I like randomly pumping Mutavault against unaware people).
It is always tempting to cut lands for "business" but after I saw jund playing 27 lands in standard and never regret that decision, having always something to do with its mana (attacking with ravine when hand is depleted) and certain Alex B had most success with 22 land, I look at mana bases differently.
Img/Catcher question: yes, so far it is worth it (6 matches of swiss, played only vs one combo - high tide, Catchers where golden there; combo elves in semifinal couldn't care less for him), I enjoyed chaining Adepts and "Adepts". Is it the right decision? Don't know.
I never played with Gut Shot before so that is the reason (and lack of space) for one copy.

[KobeBryan]

Well, since the "norm" is 21 lands with 13 Islands, adding non Island won't hurt me more than anybody else who plays the deck for colored mana purposes, I guess.
Flooding may occur but I noticed less mulligans, need untapped mana for Spell snare, Coralhelm is hungry and factory is just another dude who frequently dies (and I like randomly pumping Mutavault against unaware people).
It is always tempting to cut lands for "business" but after I saw jund playing 27 lands in standard and never regret that decision, having always something to do with its mana (attacking with ravine when hand is depleted) and certain Alex B had most success with 22 land, I look at mana bases differently.
Img/Catcher question: yes, so far it is worth it (6 matches of swiss, played only vs one combo - high tide, Catchers where golden there; combo elves in semifinal couldn't care less for him), I enjoyed chaining Adepts and "Adepts". Is it the right decision? Don't know.
I never played with Gut Shot before so that is the reason (and lack of space) for one copy.

Jund plays 27 lands because their curve is like at 3-4, with spells at 5.

Merfolk has no where near 4 casting cost. At 5, the spell is free, 4, there is no card, 3 there is 4 cards, and everythign else is 1-2.

[Kanadell~]

What happens me too often is that I have a good hand with dudes and stuff but I only have 1 island and no vial/silvergill to draw, and I have tu mulligan. I don't know if it's just me or 13 islands is not enough to have 2 in the opening hand to cast a LoA.
Is Standstill a good replacement for Spell snare? Or it just sucks in an aggro metagame?

[FANAttIC]

Jund plays 27 lands because their curve is like at 3-4, with spells at 5.

Merfolk has no where near 4 casting cost. At 5, the spell is free, 4, there is no card, 3 there is 4 cards, and everythign else is 1-2.

Jund started at 24 land, then played 25 lands for months. Then a guy comes with 27, destroys all mirrors, wins a pro tour if I'm not mistaken and everybody copied his number until rotation.
I believe I want more chance to cast spells with 22 lands because I agressively use Wasteland in every opportunity.

[KobeBryan]

Has anyone tried force spike over the two spell pierces yet?

[Kanadell~]

Has anyone tried force spike over the two spell pierces yet?

It's nice but it's not what the deck needs. Daze does the same effect but better, and Spell pierce helps a lot vs MU's like reanimator.

[Einherjer]

How can you play 3 (THREEEEEEE) Cursecatchers? Id even run 8 if i could...

[FANAttIC]

:D I hear you, but (to me) combo matchups are not the biggest problem for deck, creature decks are, and Catchers are nice one/ones there after they are done bolting and swordsing. I apologize to all folk playsers if this is sacrilege :)

[Kanadell~]

:D I hear you, but (to me) combo matchups are not the biggest problem for deck, creature decks are, and Catchers are nice one/ones there after they are done bolting and swordsing. I apologize to all folk playsers if this is sacrilege :)

They don't shine only vs combo, you can counter a 1st turn brainstorm/ponder and play a T2 LoA/Coralhelm. I think Cursecatcher should be a 4x of but well, 3x of is not a sacrilege XD

[KobeBryan]

They don't shine only vs combo, you can counter a 1st turn brainstorm/ponder and play a T2 LoA/Coralhelm. I think Cursecatcher should be a 4x of but well, 3x of is not a sacrilege XD

I also think Cursecatcher is a 4 of. He helps counter spells, protects your lords from removal, he kills bridges, he helps you prepare for your alpha strike.

Can counter Hivemind pacts, show and tells. Many if anythign I'd drop a coralhelm commander. That guy is a vanilla 2/2 that robs you of mana. Coralhelm is certainly not a 4 of.

[FANAttIC]

Our play styles are different.

I saw suggestions to remove fourth Reej or Commander, would never do that. Yes, Reej is not good for Vial at 2 but there are many reasons why he deserves its slots. Coralhelm is robbing you of mana but merfolk have low curve and almost no way of refilling hand other than Adept and Standstill if you run it, if you draw Force, well, then the hand is gone even quicker. I like efficient mana sink that adds another dimension to the deck.

I don't sacrifice Catcher to counter Brainstorm/Ponder (often) but would use it against Thoughtseize, Hymn, Zenith or random counter for Lord. Really don't see it as protection for lords removal, Bolt, StP and PtE are too efficient (I assume the opponents are smart).

For Bridges I have 3 Catchers, 3 Images and 2 Dismembers, Force, Waste and Daze are also not bad (if they cast spells of course). Not bad number of cards for game 1.

Yes, Cursecatchers are excellent with daze to stop Pacts, but banning Misstep changes things, there are other quicker combo decks so I expect transfer form Hive Mind to those.

[KobeBryan]

Going to a tournament this sunday. Any suggestions would help

lands
4x mutavault
4x wastelands
4x tundras
4x flooded strand
4x island

creatures
4x merrow rejerey
3x coralhelm commander
4x cursecatcher
4x lord of atlantis
3x phantasmal image
4x silvergil adept

spells
4x force of will
3x daze
4x stifle
3x swords to plowshares

artifacts
4x aether vials

sideboard
4x surgical extraction
3x disenchant
3x spell pierce
2x path to exile
2x hibernation
1x swords to plowshares

The biggest gamble is the 4x stifles instead of 4x dazes. I found that dazes mid/late game useless. Thats why I went to three. The stifles serve like Mental Misteps. Any suggestions would help. Surgical extraction might be too much. Any suggestions for that last sideboard slot would help. Maybe another disenchant to kill stoneblade.

[Goin Aggro]

Have you actually played with that list in a tournament? More Islands in there, seriously.

With the manabase you have, I don't actually know whether you can count on consistently (70%) having double blue to hardcast Coralhelm or Lord, especially against decks with wasteland. (Isn't the standard 21/22 lands?)

The splash is fine, but not when you're giving up that much consistency on your manabase. The only way you'll ever hope to out aggro someone like Zoo (Or put a ridiculous amount of pressure on any deck that you need to kill fast, I.e. combo) is if you're fully utilizing your manabase AND vial to drop guys into play AFAP.

I've seen merfolk decks with TEN PLUS islands in addition to a splash get color screwed off of double blue. YOU NEED DOUBLE BLUE if you want to have this deck work at peak efficiency.

And no offense, Merfolk players have this habit of keeping the most ridiculous hands that have vial. (Wasteland, Wasteland, Vial + random creatures is not keepable unless they're on four color derp-control)

Good luck at Deals btw.

[Kanadell~]

Have you actually played with that list in a tournament? More Islands in there, seriously.

With the manabase you have, I don't actually know whether you can count on consistently (70%) having double blue to hardcast Coralhelm or Lord, especially against decks with wasteland. (Isn't the standard 21/22 lands?)

The splash is fine, but not when you're giving up that much consistency on your manabase. The only way you'll ever hope to out aggro someone like Zoo (Or put a ridiculous amount of pressure on any deck that you need to kill fast, I.e. combo) is if you're fully utilizing your manabase AND vial to drop guys into play AFAP.

I've seen merfolk decks with TEN PLUS islands in addition to a splash get color screwed off of double blue. YOU NEED DOUBLE BLUE if you want to have this deck work at peak efficiency.

And no offense, Merfolk players have this habit of keeping the most ridiculous hands that have vial. (Wasteland, Wasteland, Vial + random creatures is not keepable unless they're on four color derp-control)

Good luck at Deals btw.

Most merfolk players (including me) run 13 islands, and in my case I don't usually get 2 islands in the opening 7. Usually lands in hand are 1 island and 1 mutavault or something like this. The thing is, if you have vial, you can play the lords anyway and hope for an Island on topdeck. Is this decision correct or should be better to mull to 6? I don't know but most merfolk player prefer keeping a hand with vial and some lords than mull to 6.

[KobeBryan]

Have you actually played with that list in a tournament? More Islands in there, seriously.

With the manabase you have, I don't actually know whether you can count on consistently (70%) having double blue to hardcast Coralhelm or Lord, especially against decks with wasteland. (Isn't the standard 21/22 lands?)

The splash is fine, but not when you're giving up that much consistency on your manabase. The only way you'll ever hope to out aggro someone like Zoo (Or put a ridiculous amount of pressure on any deck that you need to kill fast, I.e. combo) is if you're fully utilizing your manabase AND vial to drop guys into play AFAP.

I've seen merfolk decks with TEN PLUS islands in addition to a splash get color screwed off of double blue. YOU NEED DOUBLE BLUE if you want to have this deck work at peak efficiency.

And no offense, Merfolk players have this habit of keeping the most ridiculous hands that have vial. (Wasteland, Wasteland, Vial + random creatures is not keepable unless they're on four color derp-control)

Good luck at Deals btw.

Yea its true. Even without a splash, I've been screwed before without getting double blue. 8 colorless sources do that to you.

I'll try to make it 5 islands and see what happens.

[SlopeeJ]

I would cut a tundra and island for 2 more fetches, doesn't seem like you have enough ways to get white and you only want to get the tundra when you need it. Maybe even 2 tundras for more islands/fetches, you don't want to draw the tundra. You will lose to wasteland

[ScatmanX]

When Mental Missteps came out, Merfolk dropped Standstill in place of a more aggressive build. Now that MM is banned, Standstill is not worth re-considering?

[Trentemoller]

I'm looking for a good Merfolk opponent to test against for the GP via MWS, if someone is willing to test, could you add me to Skype? Name is Trentecaller. Thanks!

[Kanadell~]

When Mental Missteps came out, Merfolk dropped Standstill in place of a more aggressive build. Now that MM is banned, Standstill is not worth re-considering?

Now that mental misstep is banned, aggro and combo decks like Goblins and T.E.S will rise again, so you have to race them and be as aggro as possible, so I think Standstill is not a good choise right now.

[RuthLessMerfolk]

Hi this is my first post

I have been playing Magic for only 4 months and decided to make a merfolk deck and have been very pleased with it. I have played in 4 tourneys with over 40 people and have top 8'd twice with one 4th place finish and one 2nd place finish.

I would like to know if anyone has play tested flusterstorm. With many storm decks out there is it a usable card in the current meta?