[Deck] Merfolk

[Tacosnape]

Friend of mine borrowed my deck and took down a local tournament with the following list:

12 Island
4 Wasteland
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Mutavault

4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
4 Daze

4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Coralhelm Commander
2 Waterfront Bouncer

SB:
4 Spell Pierce
4 Submerge
4 Faerie Macabre
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Cursed Totem

He steamrolled among other things, RUG Delver, S&T Omniscience combo, Reanimator, and Dredge.

Note that my actual list is 3 Bouncer, 2 Coralhelm, 1 Image, but due to not having an Image or a third Bouncer, he ran the above list.

Waterfront Bouncer is a god. He saves you from Jitte, Knight, random reanimation targets like Blazing Archon, and he's tempolicious against Insectile Aberration, as bouncing Insectile makes it a minimum two turns that the 3/2 flyer's off your back. He also handles Emrakul pretty well, and I've won two games against Goblins by bouncing Warchief multiple times to delay Krenko shenanigans a couple turns.

[Bahamut056]

I still love Standstill myself, but mostly because it terrifies a lot of players. As for the Reejery though...can someone enlighten to me as why I should keep him? I've never been happy with him and I think I could a lot more use out of some Phantasmal Images and Masters of the Pearl Trident in his slot.

[Anfylion]

Waterfront Bouncer is a god. He saves you from Jitte, Knight, random reanimation targets like Blazing Archon, and he's tempolicious against Insectile Aberration, as bouncing Insectile makes it a minimum two turns that the 3/2 flyer's off your back. He also handles Emrakul pretty well, and I've won two games against Goblins by bouncing Warchief multiple times to delay Krenko shenanigans a couple turns.

You made my day with that card,

Waterfront Bouncer +2; Phantasmal Image -2

[Shawon]

Tacosnape made my day as well! I don't play this deck anymore, but I glanced at this thread and saw a post about my favorite Merfolk!

- Have any of you tried Waterfront Bouncer? It's a really neat card. It seems particularly useful in this meta, as screwing over Dreadnoughts or Tombstalkers seems awesome.

12-25-2008, back when Merfolk played 4 of this card:

[Tacosnape]

I still love Standstill myself, but mostly because it terrifies a lot of players. As for the Reejery though...can someone enlighten to me as why I should keep him? I've never been happy with him and I think I could a lot more use out of some Phantasmal Images and Masters of the Pearl Trident in his slot.

If you have to ask, you clearly need to just play more magic. Reejerey's amazing. Tapping down blockers wins games. Untapping lands wins games. Untapping Vials wins games. The versatility and power of Reejerey is completely beyond comparison. To summarize in two succinct points:

1. He helps you keep swinging when you're already swinging.
2. He helps you mana/vial ramp into large armies when you aren't swinging so you can start doing so.

And none of this nonsense about him costing 3 from anyone. You've got no business running anything -else- in the deck that costs over 2, so 4 3-drops for that level of power isn't going to hurt you.

[SlopeeJ]

I have been messing with my list more and I am thinking commander has to go/get cut down. When he first was spoiled I thought he was to mana intensive and it is a blow out when you spend so much to just get bolted. I would rather have all the other lords with images and not have to sink mana into commander. Only good thing is commander can get you back in the game from a top deck and the other lords really can't.

I wanna bring back wakethrasher as well, doesn't need mana and is great on the offense. I have played bouncer before and he is good, I was gonna add him to my maindeck instead of having sb cards vs batterskull that don't really work ie dismember. So wake thrasher reejery and kira at 3ccyou (2u is very relevant compared to uu) vs explosives.
Another note, I usually never side out any vials and I think I am going to start testing siding 1-2 in certain matchups. Anyone side out vials?

[Final Fortune]

I have been messing with my list more and I am thinking commander has to go/get cut down. When he first was spoiled I thought he was to mana intensive and it is a blow out when you spend so much to just get bolted. I would rather have all the other lords with images and not have to sink mana into commander. Only good thing is commander can get you back in the game from a top deck and the other lords really can't.

I wanna bring back wakethrasher as well, doesn't need mana and is great on the offense. I have played bouncer before and he is good, I was gonna add him to my maindeck instead of having sb cards vs batterskull that don't really work ie dismember. So wake thrasher reejery and kira at 3ccyou (2u is very relevant compared to uu) vs explosives.
Another note, I usually never side out any vials and I think I am going to start testing siding 1-2 in certain matchups. Anyone side out vials?

FWIW, the 2 cards that appear to be contributing the least to the archetype right now are Commander and Muta, I've already cut Muta completely but the problem with cutting Commander is that their just isn't any other really cost efficient fat unless you want to play 4xImage or something instead.

[FANAttIC]

Mutavault is better than ever, various lords can be "put down" for Master slots but having less than 4 Mutavault is pure mistake.

Another notch: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=48215
I might expected good merfolk placement but not good player winning the tournament.
I really like his instant numbers.

[KevinTrudeau]

Anyone trying out Port in the colorless land #5-8 slot? Seems pretty damn good.

Waterfront Bouncer is Real Deal Holyfield.

[Final Fortune]

Mutavault is better than ever, various lords can be "put down" for Master slots but having less than 4 Mutavault is pure mistake.

Another notch: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=48215
I might expected good merfolk placement but not good player winning the tournament.
I really like his instant numbers.

The manabase is disastrous, 4 colorless lands that don't disrupt the opponent in a deck full of UU creatures is asking to make your bad match ups even worse match ups when you don't really need the threat density vs. your good match ups.

Even Caverns is pushing it.

[1337erhosen]

The manabase is disastrous, 4 colorless lands that don't disrupt the opponent in a deck full of UU creatures is asking to make your bad match ups even worse match ups when you don't really need the threat density vs. your good match ups.

I don't know if you've ever played against Terminus or Snapcaster + STP, but threat density in this deck is very relevant. Mutavaults are a key part of developing board position after dropping our second blue source, and that's something we can't afford to cut.

Also, on the topic of Waterfront Bouncer, he seems promising, but my worry would be that he's too slow. I can see many scenarios when I play him turn 3 or 4 to stay on tempo and he just gets bolted while Delver beats my face in. Obviously Tacosnape likes him, but how long have you played him? Is he too slow vs Stoneblade/RUG?

[FANAttIC]

Caverns and Mutavault can not be in the same sentence. What does your manabase look right now?
Mine is:
13 Island
4 Waste
4 Muta
Only other option I am considering is adding Island for better Spell Pierce/Daze interaction and to accomodate 4 new lords mana demands.

[danyul]

The manabase is disastrous, 4 colorless lands that don't disrupt the opponent in a deck full of UU creatures is asking to make your bad match ups even worse match ups when you don't really need the threat density vs. your good match ups.

Even Caverns is pushing it.

I thought 12 Island, 4 Muta, 4 Waste was standard for Merfolk lists. It is greedy, yes, but that has always been the trouble with Merfolk manabases. If you had watched the coverage you would have seen that those 4 Muta more than carried their weight in his list. Nobody is asking them to *disrupt* an opponent. They are there to *kill* the guy.

Caverns at least lets you cast your UU guys, but as the pilot who won that SCG open said, he doesn't like them because they cant cast Standstill and Spell Pierce and all that. If you really want to up the blue mana count to accomodate the new lords, you might want to cut a Wasteland or just stack more than 12/20 Islands to do so. Cutting Mutas seems bad.

Or just run hot with 12. Be bold!

edit - posted at the same time as fanattic

[Final Fortune]

I don't know if you've ever played against Terminus or Snapcaster + STP, but threat density in this deck is very relevant. Mutavaults are a key part of developing board position after dropping our second blue source, and that's something we can't afford to cut.

Also, on the topic of Waterfront Bouncer, he seems promising, but my worry would be that he's too slow. I can see many scenarios when I play him turn 3 or 4 to stay on tempo and he just gets bolted while Delver beats my face in. Obviously Tacosnape likes him, but how long have you played him? Is he too slow vs Stoneblade/RUG?

I don't if you've every played against RUG, but I give way more credence to trying to win vs decks where we're at a disadvantage than face rolling the match ups we pretty much crush anyway.

Obviously they aren't worthless, but they make bad match ups worse match ups because we don't have a stable manabase for UU.

I just play Wastelands, Islands and a couple of Caverns, and I'm not even certain the Caverns are worth it despite producing U for creatures.

[chags]

I don't if you've every played against RUG, but I give way more credence to trying to win vs decks where we're at a disadvantage than face rolling the match ups we pretty much crush anyway.

Obviously they aren't worthless, but they make bad match ups worse match ups because we don't have a stable manabase for UU.

I just play Wastelands, Islands and a couple of Caverns, and I'm not even certain the Caverns are worth it despite producing U for creatures.

I agree, mutavault and coralhelm commander are awful! I cut all 8 of those terrible cards from my list. I love that cavern of souls does what aether vial does but worse, it is definitely necessary. I've also found that silvergil adept is just awful, I cut it for Whispers of the muse and never looked back. Instant speed + buyback ? How can you beat that?

No, seriously. Cutting mutavault and coralhelm? Coralhelm is the only fish in your deck (besides mutavault) that makes coming back from board sweepers possible. He is also your only evasive dude so unless you run lots of ways to turn lands into islands you are going to run into problems. I haven't had too much chance to test the new lord and see how bad the UU issue is but frankly it has always been a problem with the deck, mutavault is still every bit worth it.

[KobeBryan]

I've been finding the need to have the ability to shuffle the library because of all the terminus decks now.

Do you guys have that same issue yet?

[Julian23]

Don't think shuffling your opponent's library is the answer. Because of Terminus I'm surrently trying out 3-4 Flusterstorm in my sideboard. Getting double value on your Dazes and Spell Pierces should do the trick.

Also, I'm back on Merfolk for the time being. As much as I think UW Control is the best deck right now, I really missed smashing Face. Waterfront Bouncer seems hot, currently testing 3 in the main. Finally a potent way to make use of excess Land and Vials.

This is what I'm running right now:

4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
3 Coralhelm Commander
3 Waterfront Bouncer

4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
2 Spell Pierce

10 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
2 Cavern of Souls

4 Submerge
3 Flusterstorm
3 Dismember
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Faerie Macabre

Against UW Terminator:
+3 Flusterstorm +1 Surgical Extraction -3 Waterfront Bouncer -1 Merrow Reejerey

[KobeBryan]

Don't think shuffling your opponent's library is the answer. Because of Terminus I'm surrently trying out 3-4 Flusterstorm in my sideboard. Getting double value on your Dazes and Spell Pierces should do the trick.

Also, I'm back on Merfolk for the time being. As much as I think UW Control is the best deck right now, I really missed smashing Face. Waterfront Bouncer seems hot, currently testing 3 in the main. Finally a potent way to make use of excess Land and Vials.

This is what I'm running right now:

4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
3 Coralhelm Commander
3 Waterfront Bouncer

4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
2 Spell Pierce

10 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
2 Cavern of Souls

4 Submerge
3 Flusterstorm
3 Dismember
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Faerie Macabre

Against UW Terminator:
+3 Flusterstorm +1 Surgical Extraction -3 Waterfront Bouncer -1 Merrow Reejerey

I like the list...I would actually play 2 waterfronts, drop the spell pierces and play standstill.

[Ertai87]

Are people actually talking about cutting Mutavault? No, you're actually just wrong. Especially those of you who are talking about cutting Mutavault and then complaining about how you die to UW Miracle Control. If Mutavaults are too expensive and you can't afford them, that's cool. But cutting them is strictly incorrect.

Regarding Waterfront Bouncer, it sounds to me to be in a space similar to Brainstorm. It takes dead cards in your hand and converts them into useful effects while simultaneously reducing the tempo of your deck. I'm not sure personally if this type of card is good or bad, but the general consensus is that it's bad. Perhaps a more grindey, controllish build of Merfolk exists that puts these type of effects to good use, but I'm not sure.

[Einherjer]

I would like to talk about the manabase once again. I am playing 14 Islands 4 Waste 2 Mutavaults now, and I'd like to have 1 or 2 more Mutavaults somewhere. I am thinking of cutting one Island and one Creature-Slot for it. But 13 is the absolute minumum of Islands if you ask me.
Julian, how many testing-games did you do with your 10 Islands? To me it sounds pretty suicidal! :P

In addition to this, I am thinking of putting Standstils int he deck once again :P

Greetings