[Deck] Merfolk

[Vacrix]

How about changing the name to Lordfolk? Too soon?



Also, Architect's Will? Yeah I think its an actual card now as well. Island walk is pretty beast right now with 7 out of 8 DTB playing blue. Hell even Maverick plays a blue splash sometimes.

[JJ-JKidd]

Guys, why dont just we beat up our opponent with dudes instead of Chalice shenanigans? My concern will be like me dropping lords after lords after lords.

3 wasteland
3 mutavault
13 island

4 merfolk the pearl
4 lord of atlantis
4 reejerey
4 phantasmal image (pseudo-lord; can copy grisel as well)
4 cursecatcher
4 silvergill adept
2 Corralhelm commander/dismember

4 fow
4 daze
4 vial
3 standstill

Thats 18 lords vs rugs 6 removals and uw's 8 (scm incl)

[KobeBryan]

Guys, why dont just we beat up our opponent with dudes instead of Chalice shenanigans? My concern will be like me dropping lords after lords after lords.

3 wasteland
3 mutavault
13 island

4 merfolk the pearl
4 lord of atlantis
4 reejerey
4 phantasmal image (pseudo-lord; can copy grisel as well)
4 cursecatcher
4 silvergill adept
2 Corralhelm commander/dismember

4 fow
4 daze
4 vial
3 standstill

Thats 18 lords vs rugs 6 removals and uw's 8 (scm incl)

I would never ever cut coralhelm commander. especially to a 2 of.

[JJ-JKidd]

I would never ever cut coralhelm commander. especially to a 2 of.

Casting more lords is better than pumping commander in that kind of configuration

[Vacrix]

Guys, why dont just we beat up our opponent with dudes instead of Chalice shenanigans? My concern will be like me dropping lords after lords after lords.

3 wasteland
3 mutavault
13 island

4 merfolk the pearl
4 lord of atlantis
4 reejerey
4 phantasmal image (pseudo-lord; can copy grisel as well)
4 cursecatcher
4 silvergill adept
2 Corralhelm commander/dismember

4 fow
4 daze
4 vial
3 standstill

Thats 18 lords vs rugs 6 removals and uw's 8 (scm incl)

If 'lol drop Lords' actually worked don't you think Merfolk would be more competitive?

As Koby was saying, tough to beat Mom + Jitte. Mom gives this deck nightmares. Also, theres 1cc removal all over the place to 1 shot lords. RUG and UR play 10+ removal spells for your lords. Even 20 lords wouldn't solve that problem as they fly over your blockers with a flipped Delver.

Chalice on the other hand, is the shennigans that this deck needs. Think about it. After they Burn one of your lords, Burn another, Snapcaster, another... it gets ridiculous. However, if you have Chalice you can safely drop your lords without actually needing Standstill to draw more.

[KobeBryan]

Casting more lords is better than pumping commander in that kind of configuration

You need to use coralhelm more often. That guy wins you games.

[supachai]

Did a little bit of goldfishing and I don't think we can run mutavaults anymore. Running 12-13 blue sources is not enough to support 11-12 UU cards.

[paeng4983]

Did a little bit of goldfishing and I don't think we can run mutavaults anymore. Running 12-13 blue sources is not enough to support 11-12 UU cards.

Mutavault is still needed in the deck.
Maybe you can do a 14 - 3 - 3 (island - wasteland - mutavault)

[Justin]

How about this? I call it 36merfolklords.deck.

20 Island
4 Aether Vial
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Adaptive Automaton
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Clone

But seriously, Master of the Pearl Trident is really cool.

[JeroenC]

If you're struggling with a meta with Mother of Runes/Delver, isn't it an option to go back to the UB folk deck and put some Darkblasts in? Chalice is great before a Delver or Mom, but after those hit the tabel, Chalice just sort of looks funny. Having one Darkblast in hand
You can also get some discard pre- or postboard to help further vs storm and Griselbrand, sweepers vs Maverick (and other decks). Of course, your RUG matchup becomes worse because you have to run a pretty shaky manabase (less room for basics or Cavern of Souls) but keeping their delver away while you amass an army is still an acceptable strategy.

[Vacrix]

If you're struggling with a meta with Mother of Runes/Delver, isn't it an option to go back to the UB folk deck and put some Darkblasts in? Chalice is great before a Delver or Mom, but after those hit the tabel, Chalice just sort of looks funny. Having one Darkblast in hand
You can also get some discard pre- or postboard to help further vs storm and Griselbrand, sweepers vs Maverick (and other decks). Of course, your RUG matchup becomes worse because you have to run a pretty shaky manabase (less room for basics or Cavern of Souls) but keeping their delver away while you amass an army is still an acceptable strategy.

Waterfront Bouncer (in Tacosnapes list) would force them to replay their 1cc's which means a mid-game Chalice isn't bad. Also, Chalice has a utility in protecting your lords from REB/Pyroblast post-board, and STP/Bolt/Chain preboard (and PtE if you run into it post-board against Maverick).. unlike Darkblasts.

[Deez_Naughts]

Here is my list I put together for our teams testing gauntlet; really good results thus far.

14x Island
3x Mutavault
3x Wasteland

4x Master of the Pearl Trident
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Coralhelm Commander
4x Cursecatcher
4x Merrow Reejery

4x Aether Vial
4x Force of Will
4x Daze
4x Standstill

SB:

4x Grafdiggers Cage
3x Submerge
2x Spell Pierce
2x Gilded Drake
2x Phantasmal Image
2x Dismember

[SupREME-10]

I think standstill could easily be more control or some removal As 16 lords and 8 more creatures really should not need that much more card draw to simply beat face.

Master of the Pearl Trident is an excellent new card though and I prr-ordered my set already.

Standstill might be the right way to go; but I would rather keep it as a 3off in the sideboard at least in my meta.

Super consistent deck though, and I love it.

[KobeBryan]

I think standstill could easily be more control or some removal As 16 lords and 8 more creatures really should not need that much more card draw to simply beat face.

Master of the Pearl Trident is an excellent new card though and I prr-ordered my set already.

Standstill might be the right way to go; but I would rather keep it as a 3off in the sideboard at least in my meta.

Super consistent deck though, and I love it.

Did you guys see some of those proposed lists on MTGSALVATION? Some of those guys are dropping coralhelm commander, reejerey, and some are even using 19 lands total with 4 mutavaults, 4 wastelands and 11 islands.

Thats insane right there.

I think the only way to balance the amount of 2U creatures is to up the island count to 13, with 3 mutavaults, and 4 wastelands. I even want to drop the mutavault count to 2 if need be. But more playtesting needs to be done.

I think the main deck should drop the reejery to 3 so there would be 3 flex slots to play with.

(25)
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Coralhelm Commander
4x Cursecatcher
3x Merrow Reejery
2 phantasmal image

(15)
4x Aether Vial
4x Force of Will
4x Daze
3x Standstill

(20)
Lands

[luckme10]

Merrow Reejerey is the utility card that helps to fix stalemates. It can allow you to play around a giant beater, utility creature, or another, otherwise, problematic card. It forces the opponent to activate triggers when they don't want to. It's freaken Mother of Runes 1-4 and Aether Vial 4-8 rolled into one lord. It's a functional opposition for merfolk.

I would consider dropping every card that isn't lord of atlantis before dropping Reejerey. Period.

[Tammit67]

Merrow Reejerey is the utility card that helps to fix stalemates. It can allow you to play around a giant beater, utility creature, or another, otherwise, problematic card. It forces the opponent to activate triggers when they don't want to. It's freaken Mother of Runes 1-4 and Aether Vial 4-8 rolled into one lord. It's a functional opposition for merfolk.

I would consider dropping every card that isn't lord of atlantis before dropping Reejerey. Period.

I agree with everything you said, minus LoA plus Silvergill.

Why the hell are people discussing cutting the lord that shines in the harder matchups?

[KobeBryan]

I agree with everything you said, minus LoA plus Silvergill.

Why the hell are people discussing cutting the lord that shines in the harder matchups?

Reejerey wins games. I don't know why people would even consider cutting him.

I guess those are the not so good merfolk players.

[KobeBryan]

I need to stop reading posts on MTGsalvation.

some of those people there are putting in 1 of brainstorm, 1 of stifle, jace the mind sculptor, and delver of secrets.

This one is the worst.

Deck
CREATURES
3 Coralhelm Commander
4 Cursecatcher
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
2 Merrow Reejerey
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Silvergill Adept

PLANESWALKERS
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

SPELLS
4 AEther Vial
1 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
1 Stifle
LANDS
2 Cavern of Souls
10 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
SIDEBOARD
1 Flusterstorm
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Hydroblast
1 Into the Roil
2 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spell Snare
2 Submerge
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Rationale of the deck

There seems to now be a new "standard package" of fish for the deck (i.e. fish who are not in serious debate about being cut). These four include:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept

The value of the cards are well established, and I see no reason to really discuss them, other than the fact that, yes, MofPT is a strictly better LoA, and you'll probably want to side out your LoAs in the mirror, unless your deck is clearly more aggressive than their version of Fish.

The creatures in contention seem to be:
Coralhelm Commander
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Merrow Reejery
Phantasmal Image

So, with that in mind, here are my numbers and why I chose them as such:
3 Coralhelm Commander - This is more of a concession that something has to give if we are going to fit in all of our new superstar, MotPT. CC is an excellent 'folk. There's no doubt about that, really. He's another lord that also makes himself huge (and flying) in the process. What does bother people about him seems to be that exact process. A lot of people are worried about the mana committal to leveling up. Personally, I feel it's a non-issue, since, with an Aether Vial, most of our spells are free, so our mana should almost always be available to put a counter or two on him a turn. But, since it does take a turn or two to get him up to the true beatstick that he is, I decided to cut him down to 3.

2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner - She may not be a Merfolk, but like a Great Dane letting kittens suckle from her, she sure does protect them like she's one of them. The only real debate with her has been whether she should be Main or Sideboard, and I definitely think Main, since we don't run anything anti-synergistic with her (until possibly post board). 2 has just always been seen as the right amount for her, and I agree.

2 Phantasmal Image - A lot of people who are new to the 'folk seem to wonder "Well, if Image is just serving the purpose of more Lords, why not just run more lords?" Well, the answer to that is that Image is NOT just serving the purpose of more Lords. That is a use, yes, but as has been discussed here, being able to Vial in an Image to legend-rule out their Emarakul or other Show and Tell creature is a pretty handy ability, and having 2 in the deck along with a bit of card draw and deck manipulation tends to allow you to get at least one when you need it.

2 Merrow Reejerey - Now, here's the hot button issue. Where does Reejerey place among our list of lords? He's a Lord himself, and he even has a good additional ability. What makes him worse than doubling up on Islandwalk or having to level? Well, to be frank, not a whole lot. This is why it's so hard to figure out where to cut things, but here's the issues as I see them: 1.) He cost to play. Now, that's not exactly hard to come up to, which is why he is still definitely playable, but the issue that does come up is that we can't (or rather, almost always shouldn't) play him with our Vials, since that would require knocking up the number of counters on it to 3, and he is the only 3 drop aside from Kira. It's just not worth it, because after you cast him once with the vial, you now have a useless vial. 2.) His ability is good, but how often is it really relevant? Of course, there are situations in games where tapping down their dude or untapping your land land swings the game into your favor, but most of the time, in my experience with him, since he doesn't often contribute to game-changing actions like that, I find myself wishing he'd have just been any other 2 drop that I could Vial in so that I could keep my mana up for anything else in the deck. Now, while his ability may not always be relevant, it's certainly not irrelevant, which is why we keep two of him.

To the Planeswalker!
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor - First, let's get it out of the way. He's a 4-drop, with in his cost. That's actually pretty high. Why not just run a lower casting cost card that gives us either card draw or deck manipulation that Merfolk always tend to be so lacking in? Well, frankly, because Jace gives us all of these in one. Repeatedly. And more. He's also removal, with the ability to bounce whatever monster they've gotten into play. And let's not forget about him being an alternate win-con. You may not always have the to cast him turn 4, but really, I don't know if I ever would just windmill slam him onto the table turn 4. I'd rather keep my options open. By the time you are ready to play him, you'll have all the mana you need.

All the spells!
So, there is also a standard package that seems to be ran with this regarding spells, which I agree with.
4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
Aside from a recent post on whether or not Force is really needed, there's never any real debate about this. And Vial is Vial, and Fish would not be Fish without Vial.

3 Daze - Free counterspells tend to be awesome. Just ask Force of Will. That guy knows. The only real debate on this seems to be the number to run. I find three works, since 4 will often get you a late game Daze, where they can easily just pay the extra 1.

1 Stifle - For some variety in the counterspell suite. Always good to be prepared. Plus, it's pretty fun stifling their fetchland or wasteland.

1 Brainstorm - This is there to give the deck that last little bit of card draw it needs. "Well, you already put in 2 Jace. Why not just put in one more, since he has this card on him?" Well, Jace isn't an instant, he's effectively Legendary, and, as I said before, he does cost , which is why I limited him to 2.

Terraforming!
4 Mutavault - Arguably the best man-land ever printed, it's always nice to take unneeded mana and use it to beat face.

4 Wasteland - Because they might have something as powerful as Mutavault. Also, the obvious parts of destroying their dual lands to throw off their mana base.

2 Cavern of Souls - So, not everything gets cast by Aether Vial in this deck, and we aren't the only people who run counterspells. The only problem I've really found with this is that, rarely, every once in a long while, you'll want this to be able to be for a non-creature spell instead of just colorless.

10 Island - They make our world go round. Especially since MotPT, the ability to keep our Vial on 2 counters means that there is less need for us to always have open, though with 10 of them, you almost always have that anyways.

As for the Sideboard, well, that all depends on your Meta. I've taken a bit of a rounded approach to this one, since obviously this list is posted for everyone, and not just my metagame.

Well, I hope my thoughts have proved valuable to you. Please let me know what parts of this you do/do not agree with, and why! Discussion will always help us improve.

[cartoonist]

Jace in Merfolk? Hey, let's cram some Land Tax in there while we're at it...cuz, you know, THAT will surely solve the deck's mana problems. Let's paint some flames on our sleeves, too. That will make the deck go faster!

2 Reejerey isn't enough. That card will win games, as will Coralhelm.

I can see Kira getting boarded. I can see Stifle in the board.

That build from mtgsalvation could get wrecked by nearly any current (non-Master) versions of the deck. Bad, bad choices.

Lord have mercy, they want to cut FOW and cut down on the number of vials now.

[zulander]

Here's my list, and I don't care if you don't like it, jerk.

Mana: 21
4 Fetch
8 Island
3 Waste
4 Mutavault
2 Cavern of Souls

Creatures: 22
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Coralhelm Commander
2 Phantasmal Image

Other: 18
4 Vial
4 Brainstorm
4 Force
3 Spell Pierce
2 Cunning Wish

Boomshakalaka

Brainstorm > stupid 2/1's
Spell Piece can also be daze, either or no problems.