I'm thinking about Merfolk Stompy. I want to try something with the Sol lands and Coralhelm Commander. I think Jolting Merfolk should be a part of the deck, as it is easily cast. Ditto for Chrome Mox. Strong equipment such as Swords and Jitte as well. No Chalice or anything too specialized. Just powerful drops that abuse Sol lands. Perhaps I can include Saprazzan Skerry....thoughts?
Is this a good base? I'm also tempted to opt for Cunning Wish over FoF and build a wishboard with Disrupting Shoa, Commandeer, and Time Stop. Fun blue spells that play well with Skerry and the Sol lands.
that is a heck of a lot of colorless lands for a deck that has a pretty hefty blue requirement on a lot of its cards. And they all have drawbacks that make them really stink for a deck that really relies on its tempo. Having lands enter the battlefield tapped is going to slow you down considerably, and having lands that don't let you play others without dying is just going to leave you mana-screwed more than win you games.
Basically, you've made yourself an extremely unstable manabase that doesn't make your deck any faster. In fact, I think it will actually make you slower.
Also, without aether vial, 16 lands is waaaaaaay too few.
jolting merfolk not that great for a lot of reasons;
1- he's expensive
2- he's not that wonderful at combat
3- he won't last very long, as his only merit is tapping stuff. and once you start using that ability, he will last only a turn or two.
4- merrow reejerey is simply better in almost every single way.
I know the sol lands are interesting, but you would be better just running 20 islands. There's a reason why 0 competitive legacy merfolk decks are running those lands. The only card that could work is the chrome mox.
It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
How do I speed out Swords etc? Extraplanar Lens and Chrome Mox, perhaps? It would let me go back to a reliance on strictly Islands. I want to play sturdy Mer with big, flashy spells.
Chrome mox will help increase your decks speed a little bit by itself. It shouldn't, however, replace any slots you have for lands already. 20 islands and 4 chrome mox should work ok.
If money isn't an issue, then aether vial would indirectly help you get equipment out quick because you're not tapping out to play your creatures. If you want to put a heavy focus on beating people down with swordfish (hah, its a pun) you could possibly splash white for stoneforge mystics. Again though, its not budget friendly.
Another hidden thing about merrow reejerey- he can untap your lands, so once you get him online you should have an easy time playing all your creatures. I know it doesn't exactly speed the swords out, but it leaves more mana open so you can play your swords and merfolk side by side, which is kinda of like speeding them out.
At 2 mana to play and equip, umezawa's is the cheapest and most broken of the equipment. Running 4 of them would make playing all those equipment that much cheaper which would speed them out a little bit easier.
Unfortunately, blue isn't well know for its mana acceleration outside of a few older/expensive cards. High tide could work, but there really isn't any way of playing equipment equipment faster than turn 2, but then again, you really don't need them out earlier than that.
The one thing I would like to point out though, is that merfolk don't really need the equipment to be good at beatdown. Its not that you should cut the equipment, but your deck should focus on getting out lots of little fish people more than putting out one fish with an equipment. If you really want to play with sword equiped dudes, decks like maverick and caw-blade are designed for that sort of thing and will do it better than a merfolk deck ever will.
It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
I am putting together a millfolk deck and I was wondering if Devout Invocation is worth playing as a one of in the deck maybe as an alternate win-con that has synergy with the rest of the deck. Any thoughts on that?
Considering I'm not playing Mutavault and Wasteland for budget reasons (but I have 4 aether vial from my goblin deck however), how many lands should I play : 19 or 20 ?
Okay doing some quick math here; adding an extra island would give you a 75% chance of drawing more than two islands in the first draw, while keeping it at 19 islands would keep it at 72%. Keep this in mind this is in the first draw. Personally you don't need more than two islands in your first draw (because of aether vial and your good amount of other free goodies). You will have a 94+% chance of drawing an island no matter what though, so that is okay.
However, I don't feel that it would be comfortable playing on two lands with this deck, in case you need to daze or cast things like propaganda. By the third turn, there's a good 5% chance that you won't draw three islands. What this means is that propaganda would become a pretty late draw. Also, using the same math, aether vial is at 39% in the first drop, which is pretty important since you need it to cast things without mana.
All in all, 20-22 lands should be more worth, since being able to cast things is always nice. They give you a nice back-up, and raise the probability of drawing islands by a good 10-15%, meaning you won't get mana screwed.
(This is all done with hypergeometric distribution, assuming a deck size of 60 and draws of 7, 8, 9, testing both 19, 20 and 22 lands.)
I am putting together a millfolk deck and I was wondering if Devout Invocation is worth playing as a one of in the deck maybe as an alternate win-con that has synergy with the rest of the deck. Any thoughts on that?
Devout Invocation puts out an army of 4/4 flyers. Running Lord of Atlantis will give you as big of an army with fish. While they don't have evasion, if you have enough fish to tap out for DI, you should have enough fish to kill the other guy with really, really big fish.
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So I've been messing around with merfolk off and on since fallen empires, but really came back to it around 2008 with lorwyn. Back in the day I had a deck that had 4 lord of atlantis, 4 clones and 4 vesuvan dopplegangers, even though lord of atlantis wasn't technically a merfolk at the time. I guess the principal of modern merfolk hasn't really changed much, heh. Anyways, I've been looking for somewhere to park my legacy merfolk deck while my wastelands and FoW go play somewhere else. And I think i've settled on a full aggro build:
Descendants' path and mutavault combo nicely to grab an occasional Bloodline Shaman or Phantasmal Image.
Bloodline Shaman and Merrow Reejerey= instant fun.
I do have most of the other competitive spells but to be honest... i find this self milling build to just be really fun.
Why play daze or dismember when you can play more merfolk? I'd probably run tidal courier if it wasn't so hard to get to 4 mana in a 20 land deck. Alternatively, Standstill's kind of meh without the mana denial and tempo suite, and brainstorm is in another deck. I'm thinking about cutting coralhelm commander for either wake thrasher or aquitect's will because I always seem to be tapped out for mana. It's a shame bloodline shaman can't pull out tribal spells. Alas, this deck actually shapes up to have quite the nice late game... And is pretty casual for the multiplayer environment.
standard mill deck with some nice life loops to boot...i feel like this is missing something..maybe some generals to beef up all the 1/1's..open to suggestions
(i thought there were 4 Mana Leaks in here but apparently there's only 3..might have lost 1)
i'm pretty sure i exchanged the straight cancels and put them in my Myr Swarm deck.
standard mill deck with some nice life loops to boot...i feel like this is missing something..maybe some generals to beef up all the 1/1's..open to suggestions
(i thought there were 4 Mana Leaks in here but apparently there's only 3..might have lost 1)
i'm pretty sure i exchanged the straight cancels and put them in my Myr Swarm deck.
Intruder Alarm + Schoolmaster + tap outlet = infinite critters/infinite mil. (i'd swap Commerce for this)
Since its a "combo" deck, digging for the right cards is key, so Ponder should be a card to consider. Broken Ambitions is a counter that fits mil strategies. (clash helps digging)
I'd consider Merrow Reejerey, with its pump and untap power. Summon the School is recurrable, so 4-of seems too much. I'd go with 3-of.
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I've always wanted to get a fish deck together, so here is my attempt at a casual fish deck. One thing I'm insure about is the mana, though. Does that balance look right to you guys? I'm shooting for a very aggro-oriented merfolk deck that is capable of holding it's own in both 1v1 play and multiplayer games.
Rebuilding mostly aggro, casual Merfolk deck. My ex gave away all of my cards so I'm being forced to start my Magic collection from scratch and starting first with building some Merfolk for casual Multiplayer with friends. Thoughts, help, and constructive criticism welcome
4 Cursecatcher
4 Judge's Familiar (?)
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Jolting Merfolk or 3 Rootwater Thief
4 Brainstorm
X Fact or Fiction
3 Disrupting Shoal
2 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Saprazzan Skerry
4 Chrome Mox
Is this a good base? I'm also tempted to opt for Cunning Wish over FoF and build a wishboard with Disrupting Shoa, Commandeer, and Time Stop. Fun blue spells that play well with Skerry and the Sol lands.
Basically, you've made yourself an extremely unstable manabase that doesn't make your deck any faster. In fact, I think it will actually make you slower.
Also, without aether vial, 16 lands is waaaaaaay too few.
jolting merfolk not that great for a lot of reasons;
1- he's expensive
2- he's not that wonderful at combat
3- he won't last very long, as his only merit is tapping stuff. and once you start using that ability, he will last only a turn or two.
4- merrow reejerey is simply better in almost every single way.
I know the sol lands are interesting, but you would be better just running 20 islands. There's a reason why 0 competitive legacy merfolk decks are running those lands. The only card that could work is the chrome mox.
If money isn't an issue, then aether vial would indirectly help you get equipment out quick because you're not tapping out to play your creatures. If you want to put a heavy focus on beating people down with swordfish (hah, its a pun) you could possibly splash white for stoneforge mystics. Again though, its not budget friendly.
Another hidden thing about merrow reejerey- he can untap your lands, so once you get him online you should have an easy time playing all your creatures. I know it doesn't exactly speed the swords out, but it leaves more mana open so you can play your swords and merfolk side by side, which is kinda of like speeding them out.
At 2 mana to play and equip, umezawa's is the cheapest and most broken of the equipment. Running 4 of them would make playing all those equipment that much cheaper which would speed them out a little bit easier.
Unfortunately, blue isn't well know for its mana acceleration outside of a few older/expensive cards. High tide could work, but there really isn't any way of playing equipment equipment faster than turn 2, but then again, you really don't need them out earlier than that.
The one thing I would like to point out though, is that merfolk don't really need the equipment to be good at beatdown. Its not that you should cut the equipment, but your deck should focus on getting out lots of little fish people more than putting out one fish with an equipment. If you really want to play with sword equiped dudes, decks like maverick and caw-blade are designed for that sort of thing and will do it better than a merfolk deck ever will.
Okay doing some quick math here; adding an extra island would give you a 75% chance of drawing more than two islands in the first draw, while keeping it at 19 islands would keep it at 72%. Keep this in mind this is in the first draw. Personally you don't need more than two islands in your first draw (because of aether vial and your good amount of other free goodies). You will have a 94+% chance of drawing an island no matter what though, so that is okay.
However, I don't feel that it would be comfortable playing on two lands with this deck, in case you need to daze or cast things like propaganda. By the third turn, there's a good 5% chance that you won't draw three islands. What this means is that propaganda would become a pretty late draw. Also, using the same math, aether vial is at 39% in the first drop, which is pretty important since you need it to cast things without mana.
All in all, 20-22 lands should be more worth, since being able to cast things is always nice. They give you a nice back-up, and raise the probability of drawing islands by a good 10-15%, meaning you won't get mana screwed.
(This is all done with hypergeometric distribution, assuming a deck size of 60 and draws of 7, 8, 9, testing both 19, 20 and 22 lands.)
Devout Invocation puts out an army of 4/4 flyers. Running Lord of Atlantis will give you as big of an army with fish. While they don't have evasion, if you have enough fish to tap out for DI, you should have enough fish to kill the other guy with really, really big fish.
Thanks to Darth Monkey and SGT_Chubbz at Damnation Studios for the sig and banner.
Descendants' path and mutavault combo nicely to grab an occasional Bloodline Shaman or Phantasmal Image.
Bloodline Shaman and Merrow Reejerey= instant fun.
I do have most of the other competitive spells but to be honest... i find this self milling build to just be really fun.
Why play daze or dismember when you can play more merfolk? I'd probably run tidal courier if it wasn't so hard to get to 4 mana in a 20 land deck. Alternatively, Standstill's kind of meh without the mana denial and tempo suite, and brainstorm is in another deck. I'm thinking about cutting coralhelm commander for either wake thrasher or aquitect's will because I always seem to be tapped out for mana. It's a shame bloodline shaman can't pull out tribal spells. Alas, this deck actually shapes up to have quite the nice late game... And is pretty casual for the multiplayer environment.
(i thought there were 4 Mana Leaks in here but apparently there's only 3..might have lost 1)
i'm pretty sure i exchanged the straight cancels and put them in my Myr Swarm deck.
9 Plains
2 Glacial Fortress
4 Mothdust Changeling
4 Drowner Of Secrets
4 Stonybrook Schoolmaster
4 Judge Of Currents
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Merrow Commerce
Instants 15
2 Force Spike
2 Mana Tithe
4 Daze
3 Mana Leak
4 Ensnare
4 Summon The School
B: The Walking Dead
BU: Myr Swarm
UW:Merfolk Madness
Intruder Alarm + Schoolmaster + tap outlet = infinite critters/infinite mil. (i'd swap Commerce for this)
Since its a "combo" deck, digging for the right cards is key, so Ponder should be a card to consider.
Broken Ambitions is a counter that fits mil strategies. (clash helps digging)
I'd consider Merrow Reejerey, with its pump and untap power.
Summon the School is recurrable, so 4-of seems too much. I'd go with 3-of.
16 island
4 mutavault
Creatures:
4 merfolk sovereign
4 master of the pearl trident
4 merrow reejerey
4 wake thrasher
4 silvergill adept
4 tidal warrior
4 aether vial
4 aquitect's will
4 standstill
4 counterspell
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3 Aquitect's Will
4 Counterspell
2 Merrow Commerce
2 Ponder
4 Cursecatcher
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
2 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Silvergill Adept
2 Stonybrook Banneret
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
2 True-Name Nemesis