[Deck] Merfolk

[Arsenal]

As someone who has a very skilled Merfolk player in their playgroup, I have to say that Merfolk w/o Vial just seems wrong. Vial is the sole reason Merfolk is able to flood the board at the opponent's end step (shutting off cards like Supreme Verdict) and alter crucial combat math. Without Vial in the deck, you are just inviting your opponent to literally 1-for-1 you until they drop some stupid bomb like Jace/Batterskull/etc and win.

[Dice_Box]

I am a bit of a traditionalist, but I have to agree no vials is off. Some games are won by vialing in lords at opitune moments, curescatchers to counter or just dropping Silvergill to get around revealing cards. It also leaves mana open to use Vault and gives the element of surprised on Sygg if you run him. It's a painful late game draw, but I feel it adds more than it takes away.

Rereading that, after getting force fed my own teeth in a DnT match, tide seams like a natural fit. I think I will take that to heart. Thanks.

[greghatch]

As someone who has a very skilled Merfolk player in their playgroup, I have to say that Merfolk w/o Vial just seems wrong. Vial is the sole reason Merfolk is able to flood the board at the opponent's end step (shutting off cards like Supreme Verdict) and alter crucial combat math. Without Vial in the deck, you are just inviting your opponent to literally 1-for-1 you until they drop some stupid bomb like Jace/Batterskull/etc and win.

I'm willing to admit that cutting Vial is often wrong, and that I also felt the need to add Tidal Warriors after Death & Taxes and maverick got pretty big. True-Name really changes the score, and there's no longer a need to get tricky in order to dodge 1-1 removal when they have a hard time beating the True-Name. A Delver True-Name is manageable without early aggression, and a Merfolk deck's True-Name is just outrageous. I try to play removal heavy 1-1 style matches very carefully so that True-Name can prevent those late game scenarios where Jace or Batterskull take over, it deals with both nicely for awhile, and we can save our Forces if they are using their turns to remove our guys instead of playing their own Tarmgoyfs, of whatever.

It's also worth mentioning that Abrupt Decay has been seeing a lot less play, and I would play divert or misdirection in the board if those hymn/decay decks are popular in that metagame, and I'd play more Aether Vials when there are less non-blue utility creatures decks in the meta game.

To answer the other question about playing the other list - If I found Tidal Warriors I would've played 2-3 Tidal, 1-3 Cosi, 1-2 Reejerey, 0-3 Aether Vial, 20-21 land. I know the weird numbers might appear off, so it might help to view Cosi as a curve filling drop rather than an aggressive strategy - I just want men on the board turn 1 if I don't have a Vial, and Cosi is not a 1/1 by any means.

[greghatch]

First of all congratulations on the finish and that FANTASTIC article. Probably the best Merfolk analysis I've ever read. (Idk why there is not more literature about merfolks, pro's always write about tempo decks, that's repetitive)
And aslo thanks Windmill for contacting him! :)
I can't say I agree more with your words, and made me extremely happy when I was realising while reading that what was written was almost 100% my opinion on the deck.
I have also been saying that Cavern is becoming a really interesting choice, and I'm running them along with Trickster. Your review about Wasteland was also excelent, we can't be tempo if our creatures cost 2 and 3!! At least until turn 4 we don't want to throw a waste, and then is probably too late.
The point about Pierces was fantastic, and that's what I meant when I said days ago that we should be the aggresive deck almost always. We can save mana for Pierces let, but if we had been hitting with another Merfolk for the first turns, probably we can even let that S&T resolve, put a lord, and win!
The interaction between Dazes, Cavern, Swang Song is another good learn, haven't thought about it. :)
I'm really happy that another experienced Merfolk player came to the forum and I hope we can count on you from time to time.
I think Merfolk is a perfect deck in the current meta, but we couldn't simply add TNN to the main like nothing, we need to test if there is a more efficient path, and your deck it's probably one of the best options.

I would like to ask you 2 questions:

1. If you had found the Tidals before the event, would they replace the Cosi's? And after playing it, do you think during the event the Tidals would have been better in the situations you faced?
2. I think something all of us would really apreciate would be a quick SB tech, if you had the time to do it something that would definately help.

Again thanks and it was a really interesting read!
Go Merfolk!

EDIT: One more question. (I remembered you said you wanted 4-6 Mutas maindeck or something like that) This ended 5-6th in the League of Legacy from Madrid (here). I can't find the player to ask him about his choices, but some feel interesting. Could you give us your opinion?

Top 8: Sergio Matesanz
Merfolks

Creatures:27
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Phantasmal Image
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 True-Name Nemesis

Artifacts:4
4 AEther Vial

Instants:7
3 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will

Lands:22
3 Cavern of Souls
11 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mutavault

Sideboard:15
2 Pithing Needle
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Swan Song
1 Manriki-Gusari
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Whoa, this deck is either very good or unnecessarily bad, and I like it either way! This deck could definitely use Tidal Warrior and could easily cut 2-4 Lords, likely all Reejerey, since it has access to Man lands and doesn't need to go animal with lords to win.

I think no daze is strange, even with only 11 islands, and would definitely play 3-4 Daze, skim a Factory or two, lose the pierces and play some Tidal Warriors. I'd also play 4 Image since you have so much synergy with Factory and Image for pumping Mutavault, and copying lands keeps us safe from fringe target effects, like forked bolt.

Thanks for showing me this twist, always loved the idea of Factory's and could never justify it.

[greghatch]

Oh! Some other cool plays

Using Phantasmal Image, preferably with Aether Vial, to copy nothing and kill itself to remove bridges. This is it's primary mode of use post board against Dredge, and can also be done with Death's Shadow if you at at least 13 life - and it feels really, really nice :)

Also, everyone knows the Aether Vial on one trick and play around Cursecatcher, but they sometimes miss the options available with Aether Vial on 2. Using Image to copy Mutavault inside of your combat step to pay for their Daze would be something easily missed, even with hands revealed, and those "he can't pay for daze" certainties lead to some blowouts. Also, while it's easy for an opponent to know that you can copy Cursecatcher, I find it's forgettable that someone might actually plan to do it.

As for sideboarding, I really shoot from the hip with the last 4-5 cards in every Legacy sideboard, and don't have any real specific insight more than I mentioned. One thing I try to do is play a lot of 1-2 offs that are similar to a superior card in the matchup they are for, and have broad use elsewhere. Legacy is a huge meta game, and while Grafdigger's Cage may not be as good as other options against dredge, it has real impact elsewhere where Leyline or Rest in peace would be useless. Basically, the less narrow, the better. Swan Song is the first 4-of I've played in a Legacy board in a LONG time :)

[Dice_Box]

Found this: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...=Reef%20Shaman

Do people think no power is worth tuning on submerge or is that just too cute?

[greghatch]

Found this: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...=Reef%20Shaman

Do people think no power is worth tuning on submerge or is that just too cute?

I considered it, and I think that being an attacker is Tidal Warrior's primary use. When you use the ability, it doesn't matter how big it is - and when you don't, you want to get in there.

Also, the matchup where you would keep Tidal Warrior or Reef Shaman in and bring in a submerge are almost exclusively against decks that will reliably have a Forest of some kind in play at all times. Can't bring in Submerge against a non-heavy green deck without turning some heads.

Likewise, if you find yourself piloting RUG delver or Bant with daze, and you playing against a Merfolk player game 2, need to cast a green creature but don't want to expose yourself to submerge by playing tropical island, there are weird things you can do. I end up holding priority after having a creature resolve, casting something else, and immediately dazing my own spell, bouncing my tropical island to play around submerge - comes up often if you know they have it.

[comix84]

Oh! Some other cool plays

Using Phantasmal Image, preferably with Aether Vial, to copy nothing and kill itself to remove bridges. This is it's primary mode of use post board against Dredge, and can also be done with Death's Shadow if you at at least 13 life - and it feels really, really nice :)

Also, everyone knows the Aether Vial on one trick and play around Cursecatcher, but they sometimes miss the options available with Aether Vial on 2. Using Image to copy Mutavault inside of your combat step to pay for their Daze would be something easily missed, even with hands revealed, and those "he can't pay for daze" certainties lead to some blowouts. Also, while it's easy for an opponent to know that you can copy Cursecatcher, I find it's forgettable that someone might actually plan to do it.

As for sideboarding, I really shoot from the hip with the last 4-5 cards in every Legacy sideboard, and don't have any real specific insight more than I mentioned. One thing I try to do is play a lot of 1-2 offs that are similar to a superior card in the matchup they are for, and have broad use elsewhere. Legacy is a huge meta game, and while Grafdigger's Cage may not be as good as other options against dredge, it has real impact elsewhere where Leyline or Rest in peace would be useless. Basically, the less narrow, the better. Swan Song is the first 4-of I've played in a Legacy board in a LONG time :)

Copying the Mutavaults to play around daze is a very nice trick. :)

May I ask you another question? How do you play against Affinity? (I know that is not so common as it was before but it happened to find players who play it)...

I like the Swan song, the only thing is that it does not "full-work" against combo deck like the Painter. I would probably prefer to run one less and add another needle. :)

[Dice_Box]

Ok as I think about it, I like Shaman more. Oppoent on Elsper? Here, have a Mountain. I am told you really needed it. Playing Blue white control? I can see that tundra making a lovely swamp.

I think if your cutting Wasteland, Shaman may have more uses than Tide.

Also, Yay for new constructive conversation on deck direction. It's just a pity it's becoming more of a full Aggro and less of a Tempo build. I liked the Tempo strategy. Oh well, onwards and upwards.

[greghatch]

Copying the Mutavaults to play around daze is a very nice trick. :)

May I ask you another question? How do you play against Affinity? (I know that is not so common as it was before but it happened to find players who play it)...

I like the Swan song, the only thing is that it does not "full-work" against combo deck like the Painter. I would probably prefer to run one less and add another needle. :)

Against Affinity, I play dead, and hope they don't pair against me.

Seriously though, it's terrible and True-Name is a huge brick - I don't even bother with Energy Flux in the board anymore, although maybe I should. It's a really, really bad match if the Affinity player mulligans reasonably.

[comix84]

Against Affinity, I play dead, and hope they don't pair against me.

Seriously though, it's terrible and True-Name is a huge brick - I don't even bother with Energy Flux in the board anymore, although maybe I should. It's a really, really bad match if the Affinity player mulligans reasonably.

Honestly & unluckily that is the answer that I was imaging to read.

I noticed that the only way that I can win against Affinity is:

Turn one -> I start -> Chalice of Void

It does not mean that I am going to win but they have really a lot of 0-drop stuff.

[benthetenor]

Thanks for your insight, it's definitely illuminating. Do you think there's any merit to trying to play Merfolk like a tempo deck, with fewer creatures and more spells, for instance? I agreed with a lot of what you said, though trimming/cutting Aether Vial seems to me to be cutting one of the only real reasons to play this deck over a Delver deck or something like it, since giving all of your creatures flash or the illusion of flash is a great way to outplay your opponent. I just wanted to comment on one thing you said:

5) Brainstorm is often thrown into a fetchland version of Merfolk to try it out, and I wanted to comment that Brainstorm works best in a deck that benefits from card selection. Delver comes to mind, as you play a bunch of 4 ofs, but it lets you get rid of lands, extra Delvers, extra Dazes, extra removal, as you kind of want, like, one of each thing. In Merfolk, there is such an incredible redundancy in its cards outside of Force of Will, which is also its greatest strength! You need every land during most games, you have 8 lords and 3-4 more Phantasmal Images that are basically identical. All the cards are just so similar they might as well be interchangeable - and if you consider how much lists like Merfolk toy around with other Lord options and number counts - it paints a clear picture. Every card has value, so Brainstorm isn’t really upgrading your hand by THAT much by letting you exchange away some cards - notwithstanding that we can’t just afford to pay one mana doing “nothing” during the early turns, which means we will less often have a fetch available to do what we want. This is another slight against Aquitect's Will, since we can’t afford to cycle a card for a single mana, the mana is too important early and if we can’t cycle it early then we are dangerously close to dead weight!

This is absolutely true game 1, depending on how you build your deck, but what about games 2 and 3? You will tend to have a fair number of high-impact cards in your sideboard that you will absolutely want to find, and that will make other cards less valuable. That can be somewhat mitigated by simply sideboarding out the bad ones, but I have come up against a lot of situations where you have sideboard cards that have a variable worth depending on the game state, or where you just want to dig to a sideboard bomb, or you have a Daze or Aether Vial in your hand turn 4. It seems this problem would only get worse without Wastelands to keep Dazes live longer.

[greghatch]

Ok as I think about it, I like Shaman more. Oppoent on Elsper? Here, have a Mountain. I am told you really needed it. Playing Blue white control? I can see that tundra making a lovely swamp.

I think if your cutting Wasteland, Shaman may have more uses than Tide.

You could be right once we head down that road, I just feel like the land change is just as good to always change to island, since only delver and brainstorm can be cast, not removal or whatever else.

Reef Shaman can turn off Daze, ironically. Ultimately, I think the late game 1/1 guy (pathetic, but at least not 0/2) and the early damage come up more often than the secondary benefits from Reef Shaman

[BVB09]

Thank you for your replies :)
I couldn't find much about sideboarding in your article, maybe I missed some part, I'd check!
I know maybe is asking to much, but could you tell us how did you SB against Elves? Against Miracles? And Jund?
Do you take the Dazes if on the draw and the Cursecatchers on the play? That's my normal strategy unless against combo, but I'd love to hear yours.
Thank you :)

[SupREME-10]

Awesome write up and congrats. You could easily use your post to update the primer for this thread. WoW

As a 3+ year player of Merfolk I have to agree with your thinking almost 100%. I like the Vision Charm Maindeck idea and would shove this into the Normal Spell Pierce slot in a heartbeat (wait, I already did that). Vision Charm is stupid good at times and 1-2 in a deck can easily make weird things go your way, so this is something to consider.

Swan Song as a 4 off I am not 100% sold on yet, maybe because I am still stuck on Flusterstorm vs Storm decks which for some reason I see a lot of still. I might do a 3-2 split on them (no Spell Pierce in my SB either) but anyway this is just me.

Loved the run down -- Wow, where were you 3 ago when I first started playing this deck.

PS -- I most certainly learned a few things from your rundown, or at least got some super reminders; but, I can't believe how many people never thought to Copy their own Mutavault with a Vialed PI... it's a mana boost and if your short this has been and is a super viable way to get your Merrow Reejerey on the table (oh and now you can use it for the TNN as well).

Thanks again for sharing.

[Windmill]

OK: So that was a fantastic read that you so much for the effort you put into that, and thank you so much for making it an interesting read too. Love the jokes

Learning about the cool tricks I could pull with Cavern of Souls (especially the Daze-lotus petal trick, and get-a-2/2-bird-for-1 trick) was ESPECIALLY nifty. It makes me feel so much better playing the daze and swan song, because it helps squeeze as much value as I can out of a format that you need to. I think you have a real talent Greg for making the most out of all of your cards.

Here are my thoughts:

1. Aether Vial: I've just found this card to be so good I'd never cut it or go to 3, personally. You can perform amazing tricks and avoid counters but most importantly, you can unload your hand incredibly fast. Without the vial, we are so much slower than most other decks that have their own form of ramp, such as Deathrite Shaman. This is like our own Shaman, we can unload stupidly fast this way.

2. I think you're quite likely right that in a proper tournament, perhaps Wasteland just isn't as great as it used to be, as people play around it and you need to be throwing threat-after-threat. I think that might be why some of us have had disagreements so much on the card. I know I only have access to a local meta and there are no professional legacy events where I live. So the play skill is much lower. Wasteland lets you punish these players greatly and gets them stuck on 1-2 lands, especially on the play. And my fish rarely get countered. It would however make Miracles very sad

3. I think that we probably need just enough 1-drops to curve out, because none of these (besides maybe cursecatcher in the right match-up?) are what we want to top-deck, and I see so many 1-drops in your list! My thoughts would be that there are too many. How many do we need to play to be hitting a 1-drop in the vast majority of our opening hands? With 8 1-drops (4 cursecatcher, 4 vial) I feel I almost always start with some form of 1-drop so I get to curve out.

4. Did you ever feel like your lack of card advantage was hurting you? One thing I've noticed is just that Merfolk lacks card advantage compared to pretty much all other legacy decks. We used to have standstill, but even that was iffy. In our discussions, we've been throwing Sygg, River Cutthroat around a lot. What do you think?

5. Did you ever wish you had more blade-hate in your MD? I've been wrecked by Sword of Fire & Ice before on several occasions. If I'd had a way to deal with the equipment, it'd have been easy to outrace them. I noticed a distinct lack of blade hate (2 pieces that could work for it) in your SB. I can deal with a Jitte, but a SoFI just is just such brutal card advantage.

6. Llawan, Cephallid Empress is so classic and SUCH a blow-out! How often did you get to cast her? Without Wasteland being a goal I can see getting to cast her much more so, and against Delver decks that would be brutal. I've got a 16-man local tourney coming up, and I know there'll be delver and at least a mirror Merfolk, it makes me want to play her :)

Thanks!

[SupREME-10]

Statistically you need 11 cards that are 1 drops to ensure 1 in each opening hand. I will not go through the math but with 10 in his deck Greg should normally get 1 but not always.

16 man local event will have 50% net decking top tier decks and building as close as they can with the cards they own. RUG Delver or Canadian should be in your field as well as BUG and stoneblade and show & tell in some form or another. From there expect at least 4+ decks to beat with the rest of the field being 2nd tier decks and may be 2 homebrew decks. Sligh (burn) is super cheap and elves (without cradle) is also cheap so expect to see those. Pox is cheap and disruption works so expect that as well or maybe a form of The Gate. I do more 16 - 32 person events and that is my experience in that regard. If your area aloows 10 - 12 proxies then expect more top decks and people like to utube and play what they see so as Greg mentioned his weird or subtle plays will catch them iff guard.

Sygg is viable in merfolk for the card draw and you can replace cosi's if your area is light on fetchlands etc. I like sygg in the local scene but even with sygg the cavern and swan song both help you retain creatures and can assist in your goal to land 3 damage and draw the extra card. If you go this route the 4th vial becomes more relevant as you are up to 17 - 18 creatures at the 2 drop zone.

Wasteland remains less important than cavern as you area will also have less utility lands and wateland cannot get you any double u dudes. Cavern works and you need to focus on improving your flow not disrupting your opponents flow. Greg hit the nail on the head with this and his vision charm which I use MD can also turn all lands of one type into islands for a turn so it can deal with utility lands very well too.

I am on my phonr so I will cut there. But you need a solid SB plan ahead of time. When facing delver cut x and put in y. Detail it out and that really could be the next phase in this discussion.

Cheers, Ken

[Windmill]

Statistically you need 11 cards that are 1 drops to ensure 1 in each opening hand. I will not go through the math but with 10 in his deck Greg should normally get 1 but not always.

16 man local event will have 50% net decking top tier decks and building as close as they can with the cards they own. RUG Delver or Canadian should be in your field as well as BUG and stoneblade and show & tell in some form or another. From there expect at least 4+ decks to beat with the rest of the field being 2nd tier decks and may be 2 homebrew decks. Sligh (burn) is super cheap and elves (without cradle) is also cheap so expect to see those. Pox is cheap and disruption works so expect that as well or maybe a form of The Gate. I do more 16 - 32 person events and that is my experience in that regard. If your area aloows 10 - 12 proxies then expect more top decks and people like to utube and play what they see so as Greg mentioned his weird or subtle plays will catch them iff guard.

Sygg is viable in merfolk for the card draw and you can replace cosi's if your area is light on fetchlands etc. I like sygg in the local scene but even with sygg the cavern and swan song both help you retain creatures and can assist in your goal to land 3 damage and draw the extra card. If you go this route the 4th vial becomes more relevant as you are up to 17 - 18 creatures at the 2 drop zone.

Wasteland remains less important than cavern as you area will also have less utility lands and wateland cannot get you any double u dudes. Cavern works and you need to focus on improving your flow not disrupting your opponents flow. Greg hit the nail on the head with this and his vision charm which I use MD can also turn all lands of one type into islands for a turn so it can deal with utility lands very well too.

I am on my phonr so I will cut there. But you need a solid SB plan ahead of time. When facing delver cut x and put in y. Detail it out and that really could be the next phase in this discussion.

Cheers, Ken

Cheers for this - really helpful, thanks!

I ended up posting this thread in reddit. It is at the top of the MTG subreddit http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/com...nd_at_scg_las/

[Shough]

@ greghatch - Thank you sir for taking the time to write that post. It was an excellent read. Nice to have some fresh insight on folk with TNN!

[f7eleven]

My one thing I like most from your posts is the interaction of Cavern/Daze, turning the latter into a Force Spike//Lotus Petal split card, like you said. As someone who's considered GHOST QUARTER as extra Wastelands.. I have a hard time letting go of the LD. I'll often Wasteland opposing Wastelands while holding Mutavault to clear the way. You lose this capability, but now with Caverns, you CAN'T waste untapped wastelands anymore anyway. Will need to keep thinking about this change from Wasteland to Cavern and I guess try it out, but right now, to me, it feels even more wrong than cutting Vial.

Thanks again for your insights!