Miracle Control

[Valtrix]

Merfolk owns this deck because they have way too many creatures for us to deal with, and on top of that they have wastelands and countermagic to make us stumble. As such, we're unlikely to resolve a terminus, the best card in the MU, and have to rely on a small number of swords to deal with their 20+ creatures. Don't forget that Aether vial negates a bunch of our answers or that Silvergill and standstill net them free cards too, which puts this deck even further behind.

You'd think that the deck is good against creatures since it's control, but in reality there's really not that much removal to deal with the decks that have a ton of creatures to play. This deck also wins a lot through card advantage/quality, since many other decks don't have as much of this, so running into things like standstill and silvergill can be hard to cope with.

[Einherjer]

Yeahyeah, we all know about Merfolk, but I would like to hear some good ideas on the Esper-issue.

[JimmyC27]

@Valtrix: I think when I was watching the SCG finals, the Miracles player opted to not board Engineered Plague in. I'm not 100% on that, because the camera cut away. However, I'm pretty sure he looked at the cards and stuck them back in the box. If Merfolks is back on the rise I would test out Plague in this match up (which can also hit other highly played doods, such as Humans, Goblins, Spirits, etc.). Plague is at the very least better than Spell Pierce in the match up.

@Phillip: You could try several things: 1) run 2x Underground Sea or 2x Volcanic Islands for either spot discard or REBs; 2) try something like Elspeth for that match up; 3) board in Disenchants; or 4) I also have noticed Esper has trouble dealing with active Top/CB.

[Black Rain]

Merfolk own this deck because it is the perfect counter strategy to control. They have creatures plus counters that attack our life total and disruption. I play a slightly different version of the deck, but I've been playing a blue white counterbalance cntrol shell for a while. Peacekeeper and Ensnaring Bridge out of the board shores this matchup. The lists at the last SCG ran little to no creature removal so Peacekeeper resolving is key especially game two. I run no creatures maindeck so they prob wont see Peacekeeper coming. I thought Terminus would shore the matchup more but from the finals coverage the Merfolk player always seem to have the counter for it. Also Aether Vial trumps counterbalance everytime, with no turn zero counter beyond Force, that card becomes very problematic for us. As for U/R Delver if you run Counterbalance main this should essentially be like playing RUG thresh, but then again I only run three non basics so Im never dead to Price so I guess it depends on your build. Also running more basics in your build can help you in the Merfolk match. edit: Also remeber they have Cavern of Souls now so our countermagic plus CB become more of liability than ever in this matchup. Since Aether vial is so problematic I wonder if he ran Explosives as quick removal for it. Thoughts? I feel Pithing Needle can do the same at a cheaper cost and better tempo advantage but that may be personal taste. WHat's funny is I was running a singleton explosives and after testing this weekend just removed it. Explosives is also good vs nimble mongeese and delvers.

[Einherjer]

I doubt good Merfolk players have Cavern of Souls. At maximum a single one. At maximum.

@Jimmy: I was using plan 2,3 and 4 during the GPT as I got Elspeth and Disenchant in the board, as well as Counterbalance in the main. Did not really help. I will be toying around with a red splash in the following days. For like 4 Red Elemental Blast in the Side, maybe I'll be dropping the Enlightened Tutors then again..

Greetings

[Black Rain]

@Phillip I know most "good" players dont , but one of the list that top 8 at SCG this weekend ran three.

[Water_Wizard]

@ Phillipp

For fighting Esper (4 IN A ROW!), may I suggest:

1) Engineered Explosives

2) Dread of Night (requires a black splash)

3) Sulfur Elemental (if you are running a R splash, might as well give it a whirl. I believe Klaus mentioned that a few weeks ago - the red splash with 2 REB and 2 Sulfur Elementals - if not Klaus, then another poster).

[ivanpei]

If you're having problems against folk, it's about time to cut those Counterbalances from the main. I've been advocating that for a while and it's decks like folk/gobs that make counterbalance really weak in the main. The key card here is still terminus and the way to beat folk is to stall till you can pull one off.

I recommend - 4 Counterbalance, + 2 Path, + 2 Snare (or the 4th Snapcaster and a Snare). Snapcasters + Point Removal can really wreck a Merfolk deck. Of course, try to go for the lords with the removal then try to 2 for 1 them in the combat step with Snapcasters. Snares are also very good against folk now that you have to deal with so many dangerous 2 drops. Bait they're counters with these early on and only wipe the board at the last possible moment. Save your force for their force, if you have enough lands out, you can ignore Daze and Pierce. A Terminus on 5 lands lets you ignore alot of Tax-Counters and you need to keep the Force for their Force.

[Valtrix]

I think that Vedalken Shackles should be a good card in the upcoming meta. We easily have enough control spells to land it, and it can do a lot to solidify control over a game, and is great in a lot of matchups I think.

Against Esperblade, which some were struggling against, you can deal with the pesky recursion of Lingering Souls tokens or Batterskull, while trading for anything else that's annoying.

Against Merfolk it's usually great if backed up with point removal. Their islandwalk can be a problem, but if you can remove those creatures from hitting play or if they don't have them a single shackles stalls them out so long. Merrow Rejereey is annoying for untap and Lord of Atlantis sucks because it gives islandwalk to all merfolk. We'll have to see how Merfolk adjusts to the new lord, but Shackles can still be very strong.

Against opposing control you can shut out most of their non-Jace ways to win. It can even stop an early Entreat the Angels from winning quickly.

If you stop RUG delver early, a shackles can make it difficult for them to win without a Nimble Mongoose.

These are just some examples. It's a little slow, but I think it's immensely powerful and can win games almost entirely on its own if unanswered.

[Einherjer]

When I adress my mainboard the new threats I might do the following changes:
-3 Glacial Fortress +3 Volcanic Island
-3 Spell Pierce +2 Flusterstorm +1 Snapcaster Mage(playing 3 now)

I have a (pretty radical) idea of a sideboard geared against Delver/Griselmator:
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Surgical Extraction
2 Pithing Needle
3 Peacekeeper
2 Disenchant

Any criticism?
Greetings

[Valtrix]

I have a (pretty radical) idea of a sideboard geared against Delver/Griselmator:
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Surgical Extraction
3 Pithing Needle
3 Peacekeeper
1 X

Greetings

How exactly is that board dealing with Delver decks? I feel like what you really need is more creature removal. As silly as this sounds, I'm actually a huge fan of Porphyry Nodes (although I'm silly like that). It has has a delay of one turn, this is usually an acceptable cost for the other things it does. If played first turn, it causes your opponent to play slower, which should make up the early damage taken anyway. It's also great against swarm decks like Merfolk or Maverick because it makes them play at a pace you want to be at. Additionally it kills tricky things like Nimble mongoose like a boss, and can be put into play under Show and Tell. That said, Peacekeeper is definitely the stronger answer against Grisel decks, so it's whatever. I really just don't think there's enough removal to beat RUG consistently. What are your board plans looking like against these matchups anyway?

I was having great success with it in mono-white in the maindeck, and I think that UW miracles could perhaps benefit from it as well, at least in the board. I'm sure there are better more specific answers, but few which are as versatile.

[Einherjer]

Well, 4 Red Elemental Blast are kind of a Removal-Spell in a RUG-Meta. It trades 1-1 with a Delver, either countering or destroying it. Postboard you have 4 REB/StP/Terminus making it kind of 12 removal, RUG plays 12 or less creatures, so I do think this is enough removal if you ask me.

Greetings

[Maëlig]

3) Sulfur Elemental (if you are running a R splash, might as well give it a whirl. I believe Klaus mentioned that a few weeks ago - the red splash with 2 REB and 2 Sulfur Elementals - if not Klaus, then another poster).

This. Sulfur elemental is spectacular against them, especially since they will often side out StP. I still experiment with different versions of the deck, but the UWr one with 3 REB 2 sulfur in the board definitely has the best chance vs esper blade.

[Julian23]

Because several people have asked me by private message, I will just respond in this thread.

Esperblade: I've played this matchup only 3 times altogether so take my conclusions with a grain of salt. I felt really confident about this matchup as long as they didn't run manlands. Counterbalance locks them out completly. After you've established it, the only thing you really have to worry about is their Equipments. You should easily be able to Terminate their board, Counterbalance or spot removal all their 2-drops. Lingering Souls actually has pretty ok chances of slipping through but you still got Terminus, Snapcaster Mage and Entreat the Angels. With Counterbalance in play, all of these should resolve. Again: establish Countertop because you're going to lose if you don't.

Vedalken Shackles: This card helped a lot in the Esperblade matchup because it completly disabled all their Equipments. It also nullifies Lingering Souls and is pretty hard for them to deal with in the first place. Unfortunately, as a 1of, it's not very reliable. As much as I liked it in the beginning, I have a hard time justifying cutting a Clique for it from the maindeck. The sideboard is even tighter. Right now I'm considering going down to 1 Entreat the Angels once again.

Goblins: I'm playing 3 Humility in the board and this is still my worst matchup. Right now I'm looking for on-color options to fight these pesky little guys. I'm less concerned about Merfolk because Snapcaster Mage is usually a pretty good 2:1 making them bleed out slowly. Standstill hurts but it's been like 2 years since I last saw Merfolk play that card.

Manabase: I'm playing 4 Tundra 2 Glacial Chasm Fortress right now and it already feels like a stretch. If I could play more Flooded Strand, I'd start cutting all the non-basics. Still, playing Tundra instead of Glacial Chasm is the correct choice. More often than not you will lead with a Fetchland which makes Tundra a way better play on turn2 than Glacial Chasm Fortress.

Note to myself: I've been playing Lands.dec for way too long

[JimmyC27]

@Lance: Thanks for the report! Did you ever miss having Counterbalance in the maindeck or were the EE's good all day?

[ESG]

I doubt good Merfolk players have Cavern of Souls. At maximum a single one. At maximum.

@Phillip I know most "good" players dont , but one of the list that top 8 at SCG this weekend ran three.

How do you guys define "good Merfolk players"? Merfolk players who do things exactly the way you do them?

If it's by results, Josh has won two Black Lotus tournaments and gobs of dual lands with this deck, which he has been tuning and adapting for at least two years. This top 8 is only his most recent success. He's also a Sourcer. His results make the case that he's the best Merfolk player in this region.

You're free to disagree with his card choices, but don't just assume that he doesn't know what he's doing just because his list differs from what you're accustomed to.

Lance, too, has won Lotuses and numerous other tournaments. He's a stellar control player. We all make mistakes, but quite often what one might presume is a mistake isn't necessarily one. It's far more illuminating to question the reasoning behind a play than to just condemn it.

[Einherjer]

You are partly right. Lets redifine it:
"Good players will not play Cavern of Souls along the old Playsets of Wasteland and Mutavault! If they do they have to cut (parts) of the old playsets for Cavern(s)"

On topic: I am struggling with the perfect number of Fetchlands/Basics as soon as I splashed read. My manabase looks like this:

3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
4 Island
2 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Arid Mesa
1 Karakas

As I cut the Glacial Fortress for the Red-Splash I think I have too few UW-sources. Maybe I should cut a Delta for the 4th Tundra? A friend of mine thinks that I should squeeze a Basic Mountain in there. If you ask me, that's too risky, considering bad openings.

Greetings

[Storming_Dude]

I wouldn't play so many Volcanics for a small Red-Splash. My current Mana base looks like this:

3x Tundra
1x Volcanic Island
1x Mountain
4x Island
2x Plains
2x Glacial Fortress
4x Flooded Strand
4x Scalding Tarn (Why are you playing Delta's without a black splash?)
1x Arid Mesa

I never had a big problem finding the red mana source I needed.

It could be an option to replace one Fortress with the fourth Tundra or second Volcanic - What do you think about this?

[Julian23]

Finding the splash color should rarely be an issue since you're only going to be using it 1 or 2 times with likely great impact on the game state.
What you should be much more concerned about is reliably hitting double basic Island on turn2 without cutting off your access to basic plains and the splash color.

The manabase is decent the way it is. Not the greatest I have every played with but it's working. Right now there's nothing I'd actually want to stretch my manabase for, especially when looking at 9+7 rounds at a GP. The only matchup I'm looking to improve right now is Goblins. Yet finding the slots for 3 Engineered Plague in the sb seems impossible without cutting 2 Path to Exile and thus opening op myself to Delver Beats.

[klaus]

If you splash just for SB kicks 9 fetches and 2 Volcs should actually suffice.
Imo basic non-Islands/Plains only make sense, if you've maindecked splash color cards.

Finding the splash color should rarely be an issue since you're only going to be using it 1 or 2 times with likely great impact on the game state.

I'd like to differ regarding REBs doubled by SCMs.