I am usually a UB Tendrils player, but I've been playing the deck so much lately that I opted to play something else to take a week off from preparing for an upcoming event. I brew'd a Merfolk list based on a Modern deck that I've been building some some friends. The list was as follows:
Lands
3 Island
1 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Mutavault
3 Wasteland
Creatures
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Merrow Reejerey
1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
4 Dark Confidant
Spells
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
2 Daze
2 Dismember
Sideboard
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Engineered Plague
1 Nature's Ruin
1 Dismember
2 Null Rod
1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
3 Flusterstorm
I went 2-2 in the swiss and somehow advanced on tie breakers and ended up winning out making it to finals and drew to split the prize money.
In the swiss, I lost to Reanimator and Ur Counterbalance with Dreadnoughts. I beat Goblins and Ub Tezzeret artifacts.
Dark Confidant was easily the MVP of the day for me. I rarely lost a game in which I resolved a Dark Confidant. It allowed me to keep pace with Goblins when they would usually overrun Merfolk with the card advantage generated by Siege-Gang Commander and/or Goblin Ringleader. It also allowed me to draw into enough countermagic to edge out Reanimator in the first elimination round. I'm not familiar with the finer points of piloting Merfolk, but Dark Confidant seems like a great addition as it adds an element of card advantage. Additionally other decks now have to use their removal spells on Confidant instead of killing your lords. While I did not get the opportunity to test this, my guess would be that Dark Confidant would give you an edge in the mirror match as well.
I found the Reanimator match-up to be somewhat difficult. I lost 0-2 in the swiss and won a very intense match 2-1 in the first elimination round. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is nearly impossible to overcome. Two out of the three games I lost where due to a resolved Norn. The hands I kept that ended up being successful where ones in which I had a turn one disruption play backed up by a free counterspell. For example, turn one Cursecatcher backed by either Daze or Force of Will. If you're not casting Cursecatcher turn one, I usually held up mana for Spell Pierce or Flusterstorm (backed by Daze or Force of Will). My short experience in this match has led me to believe that you forgo casting a turn two spell and wait until turn three to cast a threat. The reason why is Reanimator almost always plays Daze. So leaving mana up to pay for it effectively blanks one of their counterspells. While I boarded in Leyline of the Void, I never found it in my opening hand so its hard for me to make an assessment of its value. Moving forward, I would still keep Leyline in the sideboard. However, I think most Reanimator lists will adopt a Show and Tell in the maindeck and at least two more in the board so it is not a total solution. Flusterstorm was particularly useful in this match-up as it dominated the stack. The one thing to be wary of is that some lists are now running Animate Dead in an increasing quantity. This can make hands that have Cursecatcher and Flusterstorm somewhat risker. I would suggest using Cursecatcher and Flusterstorm to counter the Entomb or Careful Study if you put them on more than one Animate Dead.
Moving forward, I would make the following changes:
Maindeck
-Minus one Swamp, plus one Watery Grave: I wanted to try a basic Swamp because have access to a basic seemed nice given the amount of black cards in the maindeck and in the board. Upon further reflection, I think switching to Watergrave seems correct. It does the best Undergroudn Sea impression out there. I lost one game because I drew the Swamp early and couldn't generate the necessary blue mana to stay in the game. The list doesn't need access to black mana since Dismember can be cast for free and you can Vial in Dark Confidant if need be. The sideboard cards are have a single black mana in the casting cost (Leyline excluded), and the deck will be running ten ways to access black mana which seems sufficient.
Sideboard
-I would take out the single copy of Nature's Ruin. Plague covers the Elves match up while Dismember solves Tarmogofy issues. Nature's Ruin could stay in if I needed a solution to NO.dec. However, I think a copy or two of Phantasmal Image solves this issue just as well and has added value in other match-ups as well.
-Null Rod seems like the odd card because it shuts off Aether Vial. However, we had at least three decks of the B/W or mono white variety that played copious amounts of equipment. Null Rod seems like a great solution these decks as their creatures look much less impressive if you shut off their equipment.
I am usually a UB Tendrils player, but I've been playing the deck so much lately that I opted to play something else to take a week off from preparing for an upcoming event. I brew'd a Merfolk list based on a Modern deck that I've been building some some friends. The list was as follows:
Lands
3 Island
1 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Mutavault
3 Wasteland
Creatures
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Merrow Reejerey
1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
4 Dark Confidant
Spells
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
2 Daze
2 Dismember
Sideboard
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Engineered Plague
1 Nature's Ruin
1 Dismember
2 Null Rod
1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
3 Flusterstorm
I went 2-2 in the swiss and somehow advanced on tie breakers and ended up winning out making it to finals and drew to split the prize money.
In the swiss, I lost to Reanimator and Ur Counterbalance with Dreadnoughts. I beat Goblins and Ub Tezzeret artifacts.
Dark Confidant was easily the MVP of the day for me. I rarely lost a game in which I resolved a Dark Confidant. It allowed me to keep pace with Goblins when they would usually overrun Merfolk with the card advantage generated by Siege-Gang Commander and/or Goblin Ringleader. It also allowed me to draw into enough countermagic to edge out Reanimator in the first elimination round. I'm not familiar with the finer points of piloting Merfolk, but Dark Confidant seems like a great addition as it adds an element of card advantage. Additionally other decks now have to use their removal spells on Confidant instead of killing your lords. While I did not get the opportunity to test this, my guess would be that Dark Confidant would give you an edge in the mirror match as well.
I found the Reanimator match-up to be somewhat difficult. I lost 0-2 in the swiss and won a very intense match 2-1 in the first elimination round. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is nearly impossible to overcome. Two out of the three games I lost where due to a resolved Norn. The hands I kept that ended up being successful where ones in which I had a turn one disruption play backed up by a free counterspell. For example, turn one Cursecatcher backed by either Daze or Force of Will. If you're not casting Cursecatcher turn one, I usually held up mana for Spell Pierce or Flusterstorm (backed by Daze or Force of Will). My short experience in this match has led me to believe that you forgo casting a turn two spell and wait until turn three to cast a threat. The reason why is Reanimator almost always plays Daze. So leaving mana up to pay for it effectively blanks one of their counterspells. While I boarded in Leyline of the Void, I never found it in my opening hand so its hard for me to make an assessment of its value. Moving forward, I would still keep Leyline in the sideboard. However, I think most Reanimator lists will adopt a Show and Tell in the maindeck and at least two more in the board so it is not a total solution. Flusterstorm was particularly useful in this match-up as it dominated the stack. The one thing to be wary of is that some lists are now running Animate Dead in an increasing quantity. This can make hands that have Cursecatcher and Flusterstorm somewhat risker. I would suggest using Cursecatcher and Flusterstorm to counter the Entomb or Careful Study if you put them on more than one Animate Dead.
Moving forward, I would make the following changes:
Maindeck
-Minus one Swamp, plus one Watery Grave: I wanted to try a basic Swamp because have access to a basic seemed nice given the amount of black cards in the maindeck and in the board. Upon further reflection, I think switching to Watergrave seems correct. It does the best Undergroudn Sea impression out there. I lost one game because I drew the Swamp early and couldn't generate the necessary blue mana to stay in the game. The list doesn't need access to black mana since Dismember can be cast for free and you can Vial in Dark Confidant if need be. The sideboard cards are have a single black mana in the casting cost (Leyline excluded), and the deck will be running ten ways to access black mana which seems sufficient.
Sideboard
-I would take out the single copy of Nature's Ruin. Plague covers the Elves match up while Dismember solves Tarmogofy issues. Nature's Ruin could stay in if I needed a solution to NO.dec. However, I think a copy or two of Phantasmal Image solves this issue just as well and has added value in other match-ups as well.
-Null Rod seems like the odd card because it shuts off Aether Vial. However, we had at least three decks of the B/W or mono white variety that played copious amounts of equipment. Null Rod seems like a great solution these decks as their creatures look much less impressive if you shut off their equipment.
I tried splashing black but shaky manabase, to much selfdamaging, being vulnerable to Stifle and Wasteland and similar 2-2 and 3-3 (my breakers were not so good) results made me turn back.
My next "project" is to see if I can find space for Snapcaster package. Why? Well, we are using only one (and maybe half) of the best 5 blue cards (Force, Jace, Brainstorm, Vendillion, Snapcaster; at least that is my opinion) so there is margin to improve.
Pros: Vial at 2, CA on a creature if Adept and Image copying Adept are not enough (and they are not), flashback on Spell Snare (and maybe Stifle) is fantastic (and also Spell Pierce, Beb/Hydroblast, Surgical Extraction, Gut Shot (:D) from sideboard),
Slops: no space whatsoever, not a merfolk, flashback on Dismember and Daze is ok at best, flashing Force is a longshot.
No need for playset because lack of spells but it could be the next step in "evolution".
Today is second day of GP Amsterdam. Let's hope that there is capable fish player so we can copy his list :)
Looks like Fish cannot do it no more. Sad to say its out the door of the proven section.
With so many burn and zoo players, I guess the fish players got knocked out pretty early.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...s11/welcome#00
One merfolk in top32, not good. At least he used Spell Snares...
Hi everybody!
Yesterday while many other players was in Amsterdam i went in a local Legacy Tournament, playing Merfolk MonoU, and i made 4-0-1 in Swiss doing top4 splitting the prize with the other finalist (he was playing ANT)
I really like the deck's perfomance of yesterday!
// Lands
4 [TE] Wasteland
4 [CHP] Mutavault
13 [UG] Island
// Creatures
4 [LRW] Silvergill Adept
4 [LRW] Merrow Reejerey
4 [TSB] Lord of Atlantis
4 [SHM] Cursecatcher
4 [ROE] Coralhelm Commander
2 [BOK] Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 [M12] Phantasmal Image
// Spells
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [NE] Daze
4 [DS] AEther Vial
2 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
2 [NPH] Dismember
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 1 [NPH] Dismember
SB: 2 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 1 [TO] Llawan, Cephalid Empress
SB: 4 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 3 [NE] Submerge
SB: 3 [MI] Cursed Totem
During the Swiss i win vs: Sliver (2-0), Burn(2-0), MonoU Faeries(2-1), UG Berserk Infect (2-0), and i ID with StifleNought to top4.
In top4 i beat BW Pikula (2-1) than as i said i split the prize with an ANT's player.
The deck was really good, i think i will cut 1 Island for the second Phantasmal Image that was Amazing! I also will probably drop the 3 cursed totem for the second Llawan the fourth Spell Pierce and probably also the fourth Dismember, another card that i would test is Surgical extraction instead of Relic of progenitus.
About Amsterdam i think that the problem has been the large amount of player with Maverick,Zoo and co. and also the large numer of card dedicated to the merfolk's MU, i think that a bad Merfolk's performance was expectable! ^^
The Merfolk Player in Amsterdam got paired against Elves, otherwise he couldve been in T8
Soooo..., nothing new to add? We solved the deck until Dark Ascension?
Shaving Cursecatcher, Commander, Reejerey, Daze or Force here and there but mostly we agree on what should be in a deck. How does your flexible slots serve you? All those cards like Image, Kira, Dismember, Pierce and so on, are dancing in the main, side and binder. What is your experience with them? Did you tried them all? Would you recommend anything particular that should become main cast, why and how many?
I have standstill, spell pierce, spell snare, 1 daze, kiras, all dancing around the MD.Originally Posted by FANAttIC
im' pretty set with 3 spell snare, 3 daze, and 4 fow. I think this answers the majority of our issues.
I think the flex slots are best left to meta decisions. So it could be said that yes, it's pretty much a solved problem.
Most people blindly suggest new cards for decks. True contributors also suggest what to remove. It's not about what's good, but rather what's better than the current selections.
Hi guys, this is my first post. Some decks use a random jitte in order to search it in copying stoneforge mystic with phantasmal image. I was wondering : what about using a batterskull in place of a jitte, tutorising it in the same way?
Also if you search batterskull with phantasmal image you still have to pay 5 colorless mana to cast batterskull, unless you play the white splash, because to use the Mystic's activated ability you need White mana ^^
So i think that Batterskull is pretty useless ^^
Hello everyone,
I am new to the source but have been a long time fish player. Couple quick question to try and stir up this dead thread (no pun intended).
1. With all the snapcaster.dec running around, is two Kira, Great Glass-Spinner worth it in the main deck? Granted she is very reactive and does not play nice with vial or jitte :(
2. Whats is everyone's thoughts on Phantasmal Image? Currently I am running 4 and have not looked back. It copies LoA and opponent's goyfs but lacks synergy with reejery and adept.
3.Is black worth the splash? I know the debate they could stifle fetch lands or wasteland your black source. Perish and to some degree death mark help in the match-ups where the fishes sink instead of swim...Also, as an added bonus the three dismembers I play along with two surgical extractions will not cost me as much life...
-Buffalo
Re: Image with Reejerey and Adept, I'd consider the numbers of Kira you're putting in as well, as they're all non-Merfs.
However, if you can lower your number of Reejerey and Kira, you can get by keeping your Vial at 2, which negates some of the downside of running Adepts with Images (non-Merfolk).
Most people blindly suggest new cards for decks. True contributors also suggest what to remove. It's not about what's good, but rather what's better than the current selections.
If I splash black, I will definitely run 4 dark confidants. cut the kiras, the whatever ur flex slots have and straight out 4 dark confidants. If it sticks on board, you have two fish enter play each turn. It will be gg very very soon.
My proposed list with a black splash so far is as follows:
main:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Dark Confidant
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 AEther Vial
2 Dismember
5 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
Side Board:
3 Spell Pierce
3 Perish
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Go For the Throat
Reason for more kill cards is to take care of green/white decks while trying to remain having decent game against combo and graveyard based decks.
Hi everyone, I played in a Legacy 2.5K tournament this weekend, and I was running pretty hot despite the fact that I didn't get much practice in for the event. I was primed to land in the top 8 when I faced down 2 Maverick decks in succession that knocked me out.
I've never played against the deck before, but it was impressive to see it in action against Merfolk. The only game I managed to win was because he mulliganed to 5 and I had an explosive start with multiple lords.
So I guess my question is- are there any cards that make this matchup closer to 50/50? Mother of Runes and Scryb Ranger felt like the game was over by turn 3, and Zenith made sure that Ranger was in play literally every game I played.
I tell you what though, I really regretted cutting the Jittes out of my sideboard after I was beaten down by a Scryb Ranger equipped with one, lol.
gut shot, dismember, wasteland and submerge were good cards for me against maverick
The secret is not to play merfolk in this environment. RUGS, Maverick, Blades are all topping the lists. Its not the best thing to do to run against these decks.
Wait until more thropterbalance decks make it then run fish.
Ari Lax has a premium article up SCG concerning the path that aggro decks (inlc Merfolk) should take. He suggested hard counters such as Spell Snare in lieu of the taxing counters such as Daze and Cursecatcher (which could be replaced by the 1CC Merfolk dude that flies when level-ed up.
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