Ohh ok. That makes much sense. I have the cards to build either of the three, but i started leaning towards OmniTell because it looks more fun to play with lol
Ohh ok. That makes much sense. I have the cards to build either of the three, but i started leaning towards OmniTell because it looks more fun to play with lol
Omnitell might well be more fun for you to play, but don't expect it to win any popularity contests! I'd terrorize my local meta with either of the other two decks before bringing in Omnitell. Let the non-white decks start playing MD Karakas before you bring mono blue to the table.
Infect is a pretty tough matchup because they play like a RUG deck (with worse countermagic) that can assemble 10 poison in an unpredictable fashion. Against RUG I would just board in my Defense Grids and hope for a strong seven. They board out Lightning Bolts, making their damage output pretty predictable.
I haven't figured out the best plan against Infect, but it surely does not involve Defense Grid. They'll just let it resolve, untap, swing and unload a grip of pump spells without a care in the world. It is a punt along the lines of casting a Show and Tell against a Charbelcher player who has a LED sitting on the field.
I gotta say, the deck feels insane. Instead of going down either the Labman path for the Release the Ants path, this list opts to just chain Emrakuls. With Dig Through Time, Cunning Wish, and Intuition, you just cast an Emrakul, take an extra turn, attack, find and play another, and that's usually gg.
I gotta say, the deck feels insane. Instead of going down either the Labman path for the Release the Ants path, this list opts to just chain Emrakuls. With Dig Through Time, Cunning Wish, and Intuition, you just cast an Emrakul, take an extra turn, attack, find and play another, and that's usually gg.
How often has playing only 3 Emrakul impeded your ability to find a 2nd Emrakul with Intuition? I tested out Monastery Mentor on Cockatrice against myself on a deck rather like yours, and MM Deathblade often got out more than 6 permanents and could regularly still have lethal after one Emrakul swing (but luckily, since I have Eladamri's Call in the Wishboard, not two swings). I'd imagine UR Delver starts with Young Pyromancer would be similarly difficult to handle with only one Emrakul.
Yeah i'm aware of Eladamri's Call, but the sideboard space is just insanely tight. I found running Dig Through Time in the board in that slot fills the same role, but is more versatile. If 1 Emrakul swing didn't do it and you have a Wish in hand, I usually just wish for Dig and go from there, until i find another Emrakul. Intuition can grab 2xEmmy, and Dig, and then go from there. Dig is just absurdly good here. Even with Omniscience and just 1 Dig you have a very high probability of just ripping through your deck until you find whatever you need.
I guess to answer the question more specifically though; How often? Never.. At least not yet. If Omniscience is in play and you can find Dig you're good to go.
What's your list looking like?
*edit*
Here's a great example of how sweet Dig Through Time is. Just the other day i was playing against Enchantress. I cast Show n Tell, and put and Omniscience into play. He puts an O-Ring into play. With the O-Ring trigger on the stack i chained Digs into a Wish into Trickbind. The same play can be done for Flickerwisp, Ashen Rider, Griselbrand, etc.
I'm just really surprised there's not a single mention of Dig on this thread, It's just so crazy.
There's a lot more action on the subject of DTT over on The Source, but less there than one would expect.
The trouble is that the Magical gods gave us these great draw spells, this much is true, but at the same time they inflicted upon us a metagame in which MD red blasts is normal. This can be problematic for the mono-U combo deck, even one as nutty as Omnitell.
I haven't really been having a problem with Red Blasts to be honest. I agree that 1 mana hard counters are no joke, but between all of our own countermagic, Boseiju, Defense Grids, and solid playing, you can generally find/ make a window.
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Not just the Tendo King, the power of the Galactic Leyline surpasses that of the Tempa Emperor, No!, It's magnificent power is even greater than that!
So i decided to start keeping track of how i was actually doing with the deck. I felt like i was kicking ass, but i wanted to see what the real data says.. Since i started recording matches, here's where I'm at
-------------------------------x-x
Enchantress 2-1
Death n Taxes 1-2
Jund 2-0
Omnitell 2-0
-------------------------------3-1
UWR control 1-2
Rites Reanimator 2-1
Red Recruiter MUD 2-1
Grixis Delver 0-2 -(Triple counter blowout both games)
-------------------------------2-2
Elves 2-0
Valukut Nic-Fit 2-0
UR Delver 2-0
Black Maverick 1-2 -(Epic Punt, then Mull-5)
-------------------------------3-1
MUD 2-0
I had split them up into sets of 4 to mimic online dailys, and our local events.
So far 9/4 overall, which is ok. But this is cokatrice results, and those were some random decks..
The 3rd one down i almost went undefeated, but i ****ed myself against Maverick, then proceeded to mull into oblivion, so that kind of sucked.
I'm gonna keep on keeping track of every game i play though. It should get more interesting with more data.
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Not just the Tendo King, the power of the Galactic Leyline surpasses that of the Tempa Emperor, No!, It's magnificent power is even greater than that!
I've seen Jace in a few sideboards before, but i haven't seen it much lately.
Now that Cruise is gone though the meta is gonna shake up a bit. No more worrying about Red Elemental Blast being everywhere, but discard is a thing again, so those Leylines become good again.
Really though, this deck is insane. Coming from playing storm combo for so long, it's crazy to play a combo deck where the combo is soooo eeaasy to set up, and is just so resilient and powerful. As huge of a storm fan as i am, i see myself playing mono U Omnitell for a good while unless something drastic happens in Legacy. My win ratio is just ridiculous. I feel like you just win against anything that isn't blue, and even there you have a great chance.
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Not just the Tendo King, the power of the Galactic Leyline surpasses that of the Tempa Emperor, No!, It's magnificent power is even greater than that!
I've seen Jace in a few sideboards before, but i haven't seen it much lately.
Now that Cruise is gone though the meta is gonna shake up a bit. No more worrying about Red Elemental Blast being everywhere, but discard is a thing again, so those Leylines become good again.
Really though, this deck is insane. Coming from playing storm combo for so long, it's crazy to play a combo deck where the combo is soooo eeaasy to set up, and is just so resilient and powerful. As huge of a storm fan as i am, i see myself playing mono U Omnitell for a good while unless something drastic happens in Legacy. My win ratio is just ridiculous. I feel like you just win against anything that isn't blue, and even there you have a great chance.
Good to know, I come from playing manaless dredge and there are some interactions that I'm trying to get used to in this deck. I was looking at your list above and was wondering if you thought about a MD intuition? and if 3 spell pierce has worked well or if they should be more cantrips or even something like daze? Also I was wondering what your SB plan is for some of the main decks that you see. Since you used to play storm what is a good strategy for this deck to take against a storm deck? Thanks!
I have thought about a md Intuition in this list, but i played it in an older OmniTell list with Dream halls in it, and i don't know, i just never really liked it main. At 3 mana it can be pretty slow. I think you can either go with Wish, or Intuition, and Wish is just soo good here. It's something I've seen other decks play though, so if you wanted to give it a shot yourself, you might end up liking it.
The 3 Spell Pierce have been incredibly effective for me. I did run Daze in my original draft of the list, but in testing, they just always came up short for me. I decided to switch to Pierce because they are good at protecting the combo, but are a little better than Daze at disrupting the opponent as well. In testing they feel more versatile, and effective than Daze was. I wouldn;t drop them for more cantrips because the deck already has a ton of deck manipulation.
As for sideboarding it's generally pretty straight forward.
Against Storm and Discard decks i'll bring in Leylines(and Flusterstorms for storm)
And that's pretty much it.
It's important to remember the Trickbind trick though. That's one of the main reasons this deck is better than the other Snt decks. The opponent will often put into play creatures off SnT that will try and mess you up with EtB effects. Flickerwisp, Reclamation Sage, Ashen Rider, Oblivion Ring, etc can all be answered with the Etb on the stack by using Brainstorm, and Dig Through Time, to find Cunning Wish for Trickbind on the ability. This is huge, and has come up a ton of times in games for me.
Since the ban on Cruise, here's what i've been running..
Dropped maindeck Boseiju, and a Probe, for 2 Lotus Petals. This has felt really amazing. It helps speed up the deck, and makes for the pretty explosive plays. Also fuels Dig through Time.
The other change is swapping Pact out for Misdirection. Pact can get awkward when you're taking extra turns with Emrakul.
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Not just the Tendo King, the power of the Galactic Leyline surpasses that of the Tempa Emperor, No!, It's magnificent power is even greater than that!
In two weeks I'll be taking my mono-u Merfolk deck against a local meta with a lot of omnitell. Which is frustrating because even though Merfolk is a hate-on-combo deck, this match-up is still very hard because it is so resilient to hate. If I have a goldfish hand that can kill in 4 turns that means I'm not drawing counters and will lose. My opponents normally blank my painful counters by assembling extra mana with their insane card sculpting cards, and so my cursecatcher and dazes become useless. I'm only left with FoW to counter this deck, and of course I've only got 4 in the main.
Against SneakyShow I can use Phantasmal Image to good effect, but this doesn't work against your deck.
FYI opponents are usually on the Release the Ants victory route in this meta. Which is harder to hate on. At least with PI I can have a vial on 2 and PI in hand, get my own emrakul, sack 6 permanents and then hit back for victory next turn.
Do you have any ideas for how I could combat this deck? Vendilion Clique in the main seems like a reasonable card to either:
a) Take their Omniscience in response to casting S&T (using Cavern of Souls to make it uncounterable if I'm lucky)
b) Put it in with S&T and hope they don't have a hand of cantrips and that I can take their combo piece and that they draw land (and can delay them a turn to bash them to death)
In two weeks I'll be taking my mono-u Merfolk deck against a local meta with a lot of omnitell. Which is frustrating because even though Merfolk is a hate-on-combo deck, this match-up is still very hard because it is so resilient to hate. If I have a goldfish hand that can kill in 4 turns that means I'm not drawing counters and will lose. My opponents normally blank my painful counters by assembling extra mana with their insane card sculpting cards, and so my cursecatcher and dazes become useless. I'm only left with FoW to counter this deck, and of course I've only got 4 in the main.
Against SneakyShow I can use Phantasmal Image to good effect, but this doesn't work against your deck.
FYI opponents are usually on the Release the Ants victory route in this meta. Which is harder to hate on. At least with PI I can have a vial on 2 and PI in hand, get my own emrakul, sack 6 permanents and then hit back for victory next turn.
Do you have any ideas for how I could combat this deck? Vendilion Clique in the main seems like a reasonable card to either:
a) Take their Omniscience in response to casting S&T (using Cavern of Souls to make it uncounterable if I'm lucky)
b) Put it in with S&T and hope they don't have a hand of cantrips and that I can take their combo piece and that they draw land (and can delay them a turn to bash them to death)
Thoughts?
V. Clique works like a charm in response to SnT (it should draw the counterspell unless we got (un)lucky and accumulated SnT targets in hand), but beware--we can cast instants (including Cunning Wish, Trickbind, and Dig Through Time) in response to V. Clique's ability after we get Omni out. (This means that cheating in V. Clique is less likely to win you the game than casting it in response to SnT.)
I think sideboard Swan Songs are better overall. They also draw counterspells (Swan Song our SnT or perhaps our DTT), they're cheaper than V. Clique, and they work if we have both Emrakul and Omni in hand.
Chalice of the Void Merfolk builds can stifle our digging ability with Chalice on X = 1. We need the nuts pretty fast or we have to Wish for bounce.
Yes, I definitely would rather have a hand full of counters instead. It is just that swan song is the main is kind of bad. In going into this meta, I have 4 flexi spots and I'm kind of tempted to run 4 Cliques because then I can use that against lots of decks (hits other combo, can block a flipped Delver, is a general threat and can take equipment) AND have a reasonable chance against Omni which I'm sure to vs. 1-2+ times.
In sideboard, I board out 4 x TNN and can bring in 4 slots which I planned to be counters. I could board out 4 other cards (4 Lords?) to bring in 4 CotV if I'm on the play too, you think that sounds good?
I must ask, am I playing the deck wrong? Goldfished with the deck and it just seems as though you rarely find show & tell to cheat out your victory. The 2 real games I've played with it I got lucky and got it out turn 2 and 3. It just seems that the deck isn't as efficient as I first thought. Should I keep muliganing until I get a combo piece or 2? I'm gonna try it again tonight with a mate and if I do not like how it plays, I will probably go back to Reanimator, as I can brutally and efficiently always get something to win the game on the field turn 2. Reason why I am trying this deck is because I want a deck that plays Emrakul in it haha.
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Modern: U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
I must ask, am I playing the deck wrong? Goldfished with the deck and it just seems as though you rarely find show & tell to cheat out your victory. The 2 real games I've played with it I got lucky and got it out turn 2 and 3. It just seems that the deck isn't as efficient as I first thought. Should I keep muliganing until I get a combo piece or 2? I'm gonna try it again tonight with a mate and if I do not like how it plays, I will probably go back to Reanimator, as I can brutally and efficiently always get something to win the game on the field turn 2. Reason why I am trying this deck is because I want a deck that plays Emrakul in it haha.
Some will disagree with me and that's fine, but no, the deck is very inconsistent. I've played it a ton and too many times you either have no SnT or nothing to put into play with it. Dig spells don't always get you what you need. I've tried keeping hands with just a couple of land and one Brainstorm or Ponder. I've tried aggressively mulliganing. The deck is a glass cannon with counter backup but it's still a glass cannon.
I still enjoy playing it, but I accept the deck for what it is.
Wow, not only do I disagree, but I savagely disagree.. First off, it depends on which version of the deck you're talking about. The UR version can play Burning Wish to have access to Show and Tell from the board, and the Mono U version can opt to play some number of Dream Halls to add redundant combo pieces. I don't actually like Halls though, and in my opinion, that version is actually the least consistent, mostly due to too many clunky combo pieces. The most recent Mono U versions which have been considerable streamlined with Dig Through Time, and intuition, or Cunning Wish run incredibly consistent. If you can't find your combo pieces with 15 cantrips, Dig Through Times, and Tutors you're doing something very wrong. Yes the deck is most certainly a linear combo deck, but in no way is it a "glass cannon". Glass Cannon deck's are decks like Belcher, and Oops All Spells, which aim purely to combo off as fast as possible with little to no disruption.
Tournament results disagree too, and even a humble pilot like myself came within a hair's breadth of an SCG top 8 with Omnitell back when it was running Dream Halls. I, personally, like Dream Halls and I do miss it a little. It's only slow when your opponent is a fast deck, and it can serve as both a Show and Tell and Omniscience when all you need to do is Enter the Infinite.
This deck plays differently from other combo decks. The kill is never going to match the ease, simplicity, and elegance of Reanimator's. That deck wins off of two spells, and Entomb + Reanimate are each only one mana. Exhume does a very good Reanimate impression, and even Careful Study is highly efficient. With so much redundancy, there's little need for digging spells. 4 Ponder is a (solid) variant of Reanimator, not the main line. You can realistically fire 1, maybe 2 cantrips to find the missing piece before the opponent might start to make life difficult. A pilot who needs to cantrip more than that just to find the combo either got very unlucky, was on a mull to 5 already, or should have shipped the hand.
Omnitell does not work like this at all. Most games, the pilot spends all of his/her available mana casting cantrips off of basic Islands for the first 1-3 turns. You see a ton of cards, which is necessary due to the nature of the combo (requiring 3 for SnT, Omniscience, and a business spell). These cards that you see don't exist in a vacuum, and their valuation can shift dramatically from play to play. Sometimes you need to change gears, and often an incorrect early decision can punish you with a loss.
The deck is not a glass cannon at all, it has serious results behind it. It might be possible that if the deck is being perceived this way, it is due either to a build with too many frills and fancy stuff or to cantrip decisions that could have been made differently.
I've only got a little bit of the sideboard so far since I am testing. I am struggling finding how to survive an onslaught of attackers when digging for Show & Tell, usually me ending up dying a turn or 2 before being able to grab one.
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Modern: U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
I would say 4 Lotus Petal is way overkill. For a long time i actually ran none and felt fine, i think 0-2 is the right number, as you don't want to draw too many useless cards. Petal is good for ramping out a fast combo, and for fueling DTT, but pretty bad everywhere else. So i would drop some of those for Gitaxian Probes. if you are really having trouble finding SnT maybe try playing some md Intuition. Honestly though i play this deck A LOT, and rarely have trouble finding my combo. What aggro decks are beating you down so fast in Legacy? I really don't understand how you're having such difficulty. It's got to be just bad luck, bad cantrip sequencing, or a little of both.
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Not just the Tendo King, the power of the Galactic Leyline surpasses that of the Tempa Emperor, No!, It's magnificent power is even greater than that!
I would say 4 Lotus Petal is way overkill. For a long time i actually ran none and felt fine, i think 0-2 is the right number, as you don't want to draw too many useless cards. Petal is good for ramping out a fast combo, and for fueling DTT, but pretty bad everywhere else. So i would drop some of those for Gitaxian Probes. if you are really having trouble finding SnT maybe try playing some md Intuition. Honestly though i play this deck A LOT, and rarely have trouble finding my combo. What aggro decks are beating you down so fast in Legacy? I really don't understand how you're having such difficulty. It's got to be just bad luck, bad cantrip sequencing, or a little of both.
Tried it against my mate who plays both MUD COMBO (but plays it as an aggro plan against me) and Burn. The wins & loses were 50/50 each.
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Modern: U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
Omnitell might well be more fun for you to play, but don't expect it to win any popularity contests! I'd terrorize my local meta with either of the other two decks before bringing in Omnitell. Let the non-white decks start playing MD Karakas before you bring mono blue to the table.
Infect is a pretty tough matchup because they play like a RUG deck (with worse countermagic) that can assemble 10 poison in an unpredictable fashion. Against RUG I would just board in my Defense Grids and hope for a strong seven. They board out Lightning Bolts, making their damage output pretty predictable.
I haven't figured out the best plan against Infect, but it surely does not involve Defense Grid. They'll just let it resolve, untap, swing and unload a grip of pump spells without a care in the world. It is a punt along the lines of casting a Show and Tell against a Charbelcher player who has a LED sitting on the field.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
4 Omniscience
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Dig Through Time
3 Cunning Wish
3 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
7 Island
3 City of Traitors
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Flusterstorm
2 Defense Grid
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Dig Through Time
1 Intuition
1 Pact of Negation
1 Echoing Truth
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Sapphire Charm
1 Trickbind
I gotta say, the deck feels insane. Instead of going down either the Labman path for the Release the Ants path, this list opts to just chain Emrakuls. With Dig Through Time, Cunning Wish, and Intuition, you just cast an Emrakul, take an extra turn, attack, find and play another, and that's usually gg.
How often has playing only 3 Emrakul impeded your ability to find a 2nd Emrakul with Intuition? I tested out Monastery Mentor on Cockatrice against myself on a deck rather like yours, and MM Deathblade often got out more than 6 permanents and could regularly still have lethal after one Emrakul swing (but luckily, since I have Eladamri's Call in the Wishboard, not two swings). I'd imagine UR Delver starts with Young Pyromancer would be similarly difficult to handle with only one Emrakul.
I guess to answer the question more specifically though; How often? Never.. At least not yet. If Omniscience is in play and you can find Dig you're good to go.
What's your list looking like?
*edit*
Here's a great example of how sweet Dig Through Time is. Just the other day i was playing against Enchantress. I cast Show n Tell, and put and Omniscience into play. He puts an O-Ring into play. With the O-Ring trigger on the stack i chained Digs into a Wish into Trickbind. The same play can be done for Flickerwisp, Ashen Rider, Griselbrand, etc.
I'm just really surprised there's not a single mention of Dig on this thread, It's just so crazy.
How about the relevancy of Leyline right now?
The trouble is that the Magical gods gave us these great draw spells, this much is true, but at the same time they inflicted upon us a metagame in which MD red blasts is normal. This can be problematic for the mono-U combo deck, even one as nutty as Omnitell.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
-------------------------------x-x
Enchantress 2-1
Death n Taxes 1-2
Jund 2-0
Omnitell 2-0
-------------------------------3-1
UWR control 1-2
Rites Reanimator 2-1
Red Recruiter MUD 2-1
Grixis Delver 0-2 -(Triple counter blowout both games)
-------------------------------2-2
Elves 2-0
Valukut Nic-Fit 2-0
UR Delver 2-0
Black Maverick 1-2 -(Epic Punt, then Mull-5)
-------------------------------3-1
MUD 2-0
I had split them up into sets of 4 to mimic online dailys, and our local events.
So far 9/4 overall, which is ok. But this is cokatrice results, and those were some random decks..
The 3rd one down i almost went undefeated, but i ****ed myself against Maverick, then proceeded to mull into oblivion, so that kind of sucked.
I'm gonna keep on keeping track of every game i play though. It should get more interesting with more data.
Now that Cruise is gone though the meta is gonna shake up a bit. No more worrying about Red Elemental Blast being everywhere, but discard is a thing again, so those Leylines become good again.
Really though, this deck is insane. Coming from playing storm combo for so long, it's crazy to play a combo deck where the combo is soooo eeaasy to set up, and is just so resilient and powerful. As huge of a storm fan as i am, i see myself playing mono U Omnitell for a good while unless something drastic happens in Legacy. My win ratio is just ridiculous. I feel like you just win against anything that isn't blue, and even there you have a great chance.
Good to know, I come from playing manaless dredge and there are some interactions that I'm trying to get used to in this deck. I was looking at your list above and was wondering if you thought about a MD intuition? and if 3 spell pierce has worked well or if they should be more cantrips or even something like daze? Also I was wondering what your SB plan is for some of the main decks that you see. Since you used to play storm what is a good strategy for this deck to take against a storm deck? Thanks!
The 3 Spell Pierce have been incredibly effective for me. I did run Daze in my original draft of the list, but in testing, they just always came up short for me. I decided to switch to Pierce because they are good at protecting the combo, but are a little better than Daze at disrupting the opponent as well. In testing they feel more versatile, and effective than Daze was. I wouldn;t drop them for more cantrips because the deck already has a ton of deck manipulation.
As for sideboarding it's generally pretty straight forward.
Against combo i'll bring in Flusterstorms
Against Tempo, and Control- Grid and Boseiju
Against Storm and Discard decks i'll bring in Leylines(and Flusterstorms for storm)
And that's pretty much it.
It's important to remember the Trickbind trick though. That's one of the main reasons this deck is better than the other Snt decks. The opponent will often put into play creatures off SnT that will try and mess you up with EtB effects. Flickerwisp, Reclamation Sage, Ashen Rider, Oblivion Ring, etc can all be answered with the Etb on the stack by using Brainstorm, and Dig Through Time, to find Cunning Wish for Trickbind on the ability. This is huge, and has come up a ton of times in games for me.
Since the ban on Cruise, here's what i've been running..
4 Omniscience
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
3 Gitaxian Probe
3 Dig Through Time
3 Cunning Wish
3 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
7 Island
3 City of Traitors
2 Lotus Petal
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Flusterstorm
2 Defense Grid
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Dig Through Time
1 Intuition
1 Misdirection
1 Echoing Truth
1 Sapphire Charm
1 Trickbind
1 Surgical Extraction
Dropped maindeck Boseiju, and a Probe, for 2 Lotus Petals. This has felt really amazing. It helps speed up the deck, and makes for the pretty explosive plays. Also fuels Dig through Time.
The other change is swapping Pact out for Misdirection. Pact can get awkward when you're taking extra turns with Emrakul.
In two weeks I'll be taking my mono-u Merfolk deck against a local meta with a lot of omnitell. Which is frustrating because even though Merfolk is a hate-on-combo deck, this match-up is still very hard because it is so resilient to hate. If I have a goldfish hand that can kill in 4 turns that means I'm not drawing counters and will lose. My opponents normally blank my painful counters by assembling extra mana with their insane card sculpting cards, and so my cursecatcher and dazes become useless. I'm only left with FoW to counter this deck, and of course I've only got 4 in the main.
Against SneakyShow I can use Phantasmal Image to good effect, but this doesn't work against your deck.
FYI opponents are usually on the Release the Ants victory route in this meta. Which is harder to hate on. At least with PI I can have a vial on 2 and PI in hand, get my own emrakul, sack 6 permanents and then hit back for victory next turn.
Do you have any ideas for how I could combat this deck? Vendilion Clique in the main seems like a reasonable card to either:
a) Take their Omniscience in response to casting S&T (using Cavern of Souls to make it uncounterable if I'm lucky)
b) Put it in with S&T and hope they don't have a hand of cantrips and that I can take their combo piece and that they draw land (and can delay them a turn to bash them to death)
Thoughts?
V. Clique works like a charm in response to SnT (it should draw the counterspell unless we got (un)lucky and accumulated SnT targets in hand), but beware--we can cast instants (including Cunning Wish, Trickbind, and Dig Through Time) in response to V. Clique's ability after we get Omni out. (This means that cheating in V. Clique is less likely to win you the game than casting it in response to SnT.)
I think sideboard Swan Songs are better overall. They also draw counterspells (Swan Song our SnT or perhaps our DTT), they're cheaper than V. Clique, and they work if we have both Emrakul and Omni in hand.
Chalice of the Void Merfolk builds can stifle our digging ability with Chalice on X = 1. We need the nuts pretty fast or we have to Wish for bounce.
Yes, I definitely would rather have a hand full of counters instead. It is just that swan song is the main is kind of bad. In going into this meta, I have 4 flexi spots and I'm kind of tempted to run 4 Cliques because then I can use that against lots of decks (hits other combo, can block a flipped Delver, is a general threat and can take equipment) AND have a reasonable chance against Omni which I'm sure to vs. 1-2+ times.
In sideboard, I board out 4 x TNN and can bring in 4 slots which I planned to be counters. I could board out 4 other cards (4 Lords?) to bring in 4 CotV if I'm on the play too, you think that sounds good?
U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
EDH:
G Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Fighting for Rivendell
WU Brago, King Eternal, Long Live the King
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Worship the Dragon
Some will disagree with me and that's fine, but no, the deck is very inconsistent. I've played it a ton and too many times you either have no SnT or nothing to put into play with it. Dig spells don't always get you what you need. I've tried keeping hands with just a couple of land and one Brainstorm or Ponder. I've tried aggressively mulliganing. The deck is a glass cannon with counter backup but it's still a glass cannon.
I still enjoy playing it, but I accept the deck for what it is.
This deck plays differently from other combo decks. The kill is never going to match the ease, simplicity, and elegance of Reanimator's. That deck wins off of two spells, and Entomb + Reanimate are each only one mana. Exhume does a very good Reanimate impression, and even Careful Study is highly efficient. With so much redundancy, there's little need for digging spells. 4 Ponder is a (solid) variant of Reanimator, not the main line. You can realistically fire 1, maybe 2 cantrips to find the missing piece before the opponent might start to make life difficult. A pilot who needs to cantrip more than that just to find the combo either got very unlucky, was on a mull to 5 already, or should have shipped the hand.
Omnitell does not work like this at all. Most games, the pilot spends all of his/her available mana casting cantrips off of basic Islands for the first 1-3 turns. You see a ton of cards, which is necessary due to the nature of the combo (requiring 3 for SnT, Omniscience, and a business spell). These cards that you see don't exist in a vacuum, and their valuation can shift dramatically from play to play. Sometimes you need to change gears, and often an incorrect early decision can punish you with a loss.
The deck is not a glass cannon at all, it has serious results behind it. It might be possible that if the deck is being perceived this way, it is due either to a build with too many frills and fancy stuff or to cantrip decisions that could have been made differently.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
4 Omniscience
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Lotus Petal
3 Dig Through Time
2 Cunning Wish
4 Spell Pierce
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
8 Island
3 City of Traitors
1 Dig Through Time
1 Stifle
1 Echoing Truth
I've only got a little bit of the sideboard so far since I am testing. I am struggling finding how to survive an onslaught of attackers when digging for Show & Tell, usually me ending up dying a turn or 2 before being able to grab one.
U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
EDH:
G Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Fighting for Rivendell
WU Brago, King Eternal, Long Live the King
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Worship the Dragon
Tried it against my mate who plays both MUD COMBO (but plays it as an aggro plan against me) and Burn. The wins & loses were 50/50 each.
U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
EDH:
G Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Fighting for Rivendell
WU Brago, King Eternal, Long Live the King
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Worship the Dragon