Has anyone tried out playing a single Skaab Ruinator? In theory it seems pretty cool to have a huge recurable threat that works great with Vial, but it might just be a lot more clunky than it seems on paper.
I'm actually testing it as a 2-of. I think it's really good on paper since it gives us a huge flying beater that's not dependent upon lords. Synergy with Aether Vial has been mentioned and I think Merfolk is one of the few decks he's playable in since we run so many creatures and can actually feed him.
The negatives to it right now is all the StP's flying around, but at least he's very good against Dismember / Lightning Bolt.
Yep, playing bant pod in standard so I know how easy/hard is to have Ruinator in play. I plan to have 2 in merfolk main deck if I ever find a slot.
The idea of getting to recast Ruinator from your yard is pretty ambitious (lots of hate + StPs floating around) so his value should be assessed mainly from how good he is coming in from an Aether Vial. I think he is an interesting card to try, but what are you cutting for him? I have a hard time seeing what Ruinator would replace. Dismember, Spell Pierce/Snare, and Kira all seem to answer more relevant problems.Originally Posted by Esper3k
Is there any reason you guys are playing Surgical Extraction over Faerie Macabre SB when you're not playing Snapcaster Mage at all? I find being uncounterable a lot more relevant than Exiling the target considering the amount and type of counters that deck has (Flusterstorm is irritating as fuck) I could understand if you guys were diversifying your SB hate between Surgical Extraction and Faerie Macabre because of Dredge and Cabal Therapy, but there really doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to playing Surgical Extraction other than it being trendy unless you guys are worried about Life from the Loam?
I don't play Spell Pierce/Snare main and run 2x Dismember / 3x Kira (I think Kira is the most important card in those meta slots right now).
I definitely agree he's a lot worse vs the StP decks, but against decks that use red or black removal more, you get a lot more value out of him. Just being able to hard cast him as a mid-late game bomb after your opponent has used all his removal on your lords has been pretty good for me.
Of course, sometimes you open those hands where you see both in your opener with no Aether Vial and you just want to punch yourself in the balls.
I've liked over Faerie because although it's counterable, stripping your opponent's deck of all their StP's is pretty backbreaking for them, imo.
What hate are we talking about? Who can bring yard hate against merfolk? In that scenario where we have Ruinator in a graveyard and have problems casting it again, he already did its job of trading for something, certainly not its fault.
My point wasn't that people were going to bring in GY hate against Merfolk (it would be awesome if they did), but that they can and it is another reason that you shouldn't count on him being cast from the GY. I haven't playtested with it but I imagine that the opportunities to recast him would be few and far between.
So if you are just looking at him as a creature, his best feature is being a 5/6 flyer. Beyond that his additional cost is great enough that he is almost unusable without Vial. If I want a big flyer, I will just level up my Coralhelm. He isn't doing anything powerful enough, like say Kira, to be worth decreasing the synergy of the deck.
For me, I kind of see him as very similar to a Tombstalker.
Against a non-white deck that's exiling your guys (ie, Canadian Thresh, BUG decks), I think hard casting him at least once shouldn't be that difficult.
Then, if you have a Vial, he's just pretty amazing.
I'm sorry, your point still eludes me. If people would be sideboarding in grave hate against my 2 Ruinators I would be very happy and call that positive reason to play him, not negative.
Also, Skaab is one of the best card you could have against Canadian, no single card "solve" him.
Having Vial at 3 counters and this flyer in hand is really good feeling (not impossible situation) that can also destroy opponent's Goyf, Tombstalker, Batterskull, Elspeth and Jace. Pretty cool reasons in my book.
Not having 3 dudes to remove, double blue mana, not being merfolk and so on, are his flaws, not the fact that StP exists or that your opponent could side in GY hate.
I would like to hear more opinion from all who reads this topic (it is our "job" to resurrect merfolk to tier1 status)
I also think that Skaab Ruinator has potential, Serious Potential, I am willing to cut somewhere to try out 2 Maindeck, as his ability to just keep coming back if not exiled is huge. If he draws heat off of your Pump Lords then he did his job, he is big enough to not need pump while trading with almost anything out there at least.
My issue is that I am running 24 creatures already, so what do I cut to fit him in ?
Here is my list
4x AEther Vial
3x Daze
3x Spell Snare
4x Force of Will
2x Dismember
4x Cursecatcher
4x Coralhelm Commander
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Lord of Atlantis
2x Phantasmal Image
4x Merrow Reejerey
2x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4x Mutavault
4x Wasteland
13x Island
I am open to thoughts and discussion to what the 2 card swap might be; as I would also like to Merfolk on top again.
My point was that you should mostly rule out the possibility of getting to recast him from your GY when evaluating Ruinator. Whether or not I articulated that well is in question, but I just don't think it is reasonable to count one of his upsides as potentially recasting him.I'm sorry, your point still eludes me. If people would be sideboarding in grave hate against my 2 Ruinators I would be very happy and call that positive reason to play him, not negative.
Also, Skaab is one of the best card you could have against Canadian, no single card "solve" him.
Having Vial at 3 counters and this flyer in hand is really good feeling (not impossible situation) that can also destroy opponent's Goyf, Tombstalker, Batterskull, Elspeth and Jace. Pretty cool reasons in my book.
Not having 3 dudes to remove, double blue mana, not being merfolk and so on, are his flaws, not the fact that StP exists or that your opponent could side in GY hate.
I would like to hear more opinion from all who reads this topic (it is our "job" to resurrect merfolk to tier1 status
I just don't think he is worth running in the flex spots over Kira/Snare/Pierce. Looking at your list, Pierce can potentially answer Jace, Elspeth, and Batterskull. Snare can stop Goyf and potentially Batterskull via countering SFM. Kira is arguably more important in a meta where Ruinator would be good because she protects the whole team. I would like to see Esper3k's list so I have a better idea of what he cut in order to fit in Ruinator. But if you are playing in a meta where you need 3 MB Kira's it sounds like you will be fighting an uphill battle no matter what.
I think the underlying problem here isn't tweaking the deck, its that a meta full of Punishing Mav, Stone/Bant blade, and Zoo just isn't conducive to rocking Merfolk. Only time will tell whether this is just a temporary metagame shift (seems likely) or a permanent change that invalidates Merfolk as a Tier 1 strategy (see: Goblins).
Edit: @ Supreme - If you are cutting things like Coralhelm for Ruinator your are in turn making your other Merfolk worse. The non-merfolk creatures in the deck need to be worth their weight in gold and that is why Kira and Image make the cut. Kira blanks spot removal and Image is the best creature on the board.
Here's the maindeck I've been messing with. Fairly straightforward.
4x Aether Vial
4x Daze
4x Force of Will
2x Dismember
4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Coralhelm Commander
4x Merrow Reejerey
3x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2x Skaab Ruinator
4x Wasteland
4x Mutavault
13x Island
I'm considering moving to a black splash, but figured I'd test this one more before making any major changes.
Black really isn't going to do much. As long as there's massive amount of tier 1 decks using red, merfolk doesn't have a good chance.
Well, that's where Skaab and the Kiras come in. They're really useful against the red decks.
Black is for Perishes, etc. in the side against Maverick decks.
wth....this is exactly like my deck.
mine too, except -1 catcher, +1 factory
I agree apistat_commander, so what gets cut to add in 2x Skaab Ruinator, as I do not want to trim out Merfolk for something that delutes the decks aggro power while adding a little specific advantage.
Maybe I will try swapping in the place of Kira, and see how that goes.
Thanks.
i was wondering if there is a place for
Cosi's Trickster
just wondering thanks guys i just notice most of the deck in the Deck to Beat
section contains atleast 8 fetch
That would be ok in a Tempo respective; but as it doesn't help any other Merfolk I don't think that it holds much water in the long run of the game. A lot of deck don't use fetches etc either, so it could be bad.
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