Null Rod is basically a must have as a 3-of in the SB right now. It can come in for any Storm-based deck, artifact-based combo deck, or artifact-based aggro deck. Turns out that's quite a bit of the format right now.
So merfolk got shut out of the top 16 this time... what happened? Lots of combo still...? Anyone who was there that knows what transpired or are the tides turning against merfolk.
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"Heterological" is heterological if and only if "heterological" is autological
[Legacy]
ANT
Imperial Painter
Our combo MU definitely isn't positive. Null Rod would definitely come in vs. MUD, Affinity, Storm, High Tide (maybe; you'd only hit Candelabra), Belcher, and really and deck packing a ****wad of artifacts.
Is Null Rod the best choice considering it turns our Vials off? Do we really even have that bad of a combo matchup?
I don't think we have a bad combo matchup, I think it's pretty good but def not a bi or anything,
I got worked in the tournament today and I don't think I will run null rod again. Painter just blasts it with servant on blue. Shutting off vials is pretty bad, in any matchupll.. I would not board in null rod vs high tide to try to beat something they really don't even need to win. Not to mention they have tutors for their bounce/win condition. Needle is probably better, not great but at least you can name different stuff and it costs 1 mana almost doing the same thing. needle plating/tezz/candle and grindstone/welder
I'm also pretty convinced that Merfolk without standstill is pretty bad. Sure it is bad/not great in our bad matchups, but it makes our good matchups (combo, control, blue) not as good. I'm also pretty convinced that 20 lands is not enough, 21/22 is the right amount.
I also feel pretty naked playing Merfolk without echoing truth in my sb
ps I should have played the 1 emrakul tech in my sb
Just got back from the 5k in Atlanta, I finished in 11th place but for some reason they don't have my decklist posted on their webpage. I did get a feature match in the 9th round which they didn't post
Round 1 - Aluren
Game one I was on the play led with turn 1 vial into cursecatcher. He never cast anything relevent other then cabal therapy naming merrow reejerey and a few dig spells I drop a few lords the game is over in a few turns. Game two he had to pitch intuition to fow because I hard casted rejereey baiting out his fow. I vialed in another reejerey and had a lord out on the board with curse catcher and adept, game ended shortly after.
Round 2 - Belcher
Game one I was on the play and kept a vial, daze, daze, cursecatcher, lord, island, island hand. I led with vial and passed turn he played petal and chrome mox which i went to daze he pitched a guide and went off ending in burning wish for empty the warrens. Games two and three hyroblast and fow took care of buisness.
Round 3 - Pyromancer's Acension
Yes this is a deck. Game one was strange he just played a lot of dig spells and bolted my duders, but didn't play anything relevent. I put him on Counterbalance because he had trops and volacanic islands, so I didn't board in my three relics. So game two I still had no idea what he was on and he goes to cryptic command my team which I spell pierced. He then untaps and plays ascension which gets fow and plays another behind it. I vialed in Kira eot, and he manages to get ascension active and tries to shoot kira with the bolt and its copy i let the first resolve and fow the 2nd, he dies in two turns to shrouded smurfs.
Round 4 - Affinity
I'm on the draw with an opening hand of vial, cursecatcher, fow, fow, coralhelm, wasteland, island. He leads with ancient tombs into chalice set at one, I fow pitching fow. I untap wasteland his tombs and he doesn't play another land. Game two he mulls to 6 and I keep my seven with no fow in hand. He goes turn one tombs into chalice at one again. It resolved but I went into punt mode and tried to cast cursecatcher, it gets countered and I go on tilt when he plays etched champion turn two and beats my face in with cranial plating shortly after. Game three I'm on the play and I had turn one vial with daze he plays city traitors and gets and active crucible with the double city and we go back and forth until I resolve a Jitte which wipes his entire board and I Sower his loadstone golem.
Round 5 - Dredge
I already knew he was playing dredge because I was scouting the top tables and saw he was running stifle out the board but no pithing needle. So game one he mulls to five on the play. I was racing him with double curse catcher, adept, and lord. I kept wastelanding his underground seas and he finally gets zealot in the yard but only has one land and couldn't dread returns because of the two cursecatchers. Game two I had the nuts, with opening hand cursecatcher, relic, and fow. I popped my first relic early because I saw Iona, Llawan, and dread return in the yard. I naturally drew into my second relic and he tries to stifle when I go to pop it but I spell pierced and got there.
Round 6 - High Tide, Alix Hatfield
Game one I was able to turn one vial and curve into curse catcher, adept, reejerey, with mutavault and disrupt him enough to win. I sideboarded wrong in this matchup by not bringing in relics which would have helped immensely. I kept a hand without any counter magic but I had a very reasonable clock with vial and double curse catcher and reejerey, and coralhelm. I drew into spell pierce but he was able to go off the turn he needed to before I could kill him. Game three I had to mull to five on the play keeping a hand that consisted of daze, spell pierce, vial, island, and wasteland, I definately didn't get there.
Round 7 - Zoo - Pat Cox
I was mulled to 6 on the draw and kept the loosest hand ever. One land mutavault hand with no vial, yes it was terrible. I never drew a second land and found 3/3 cats clawing my eyes out. Game two I kept my opening seven and was able to race thanks to triple reejerey and sovereigns and sower. Game three I was on the back foot the whole game due to him opening up with ape, nacatl, nacatl, and lavamancer. I stabalize the board thanks to double submerge but he just had all the 5 removal spells to kill my kira and path all my other guys.
Round 8 - Affinity
Game one he just starts off with vault into springleaf drum. I decide to waste his vault on my first turn and he untaps plays mox opal and says go, I get too far ahead on the board when he finally drops etched champion. Game two he mulls and drops his hand with triple memnite, he tries to toughcast which I spell pierced. I get Jitte on board and drop my hand thanks to vial and double reejerey, he scoops up.
Round 9 - B/W hatebears
I got a feature match this round but they don't seem to have it on the starcity website. I already know what my opponent is playing because of scouting earlier. I keep a double wasteland hand with vial. The match was super awkward because I just kept pushing damage through with my cursecatcher tag teamed up with sovereigns. I was surprised he edict me instead of himself to kill the bob so I swung with sovereigns putting him to one and played factory, bob flipped vial. Game two I get thoughtseized and my hand ripped apart by sculler. He gets active Jitte and fire/ice sword and I die shortly after. Game three was awkard because we both get vial on turn one but he runs stonforge mystic out into my fow when he could have just waited a turn to vial it in and I have no answer other then my misers wipe away for jitte or f/i sword. Also there was a turn in the match when he vials in revoker but the judge misinterpreted that I was responding to the revoker when I was trying to respond to the vial. SO, my coralhelm gets stranded in my hand, which almost cost me the match. Luckily I was able to draw out of my mana screw. Also I had a clutch daze on his jitte. The reason I was taking time during my turns was due to me doing math to see if he could race with Jotun Grunt. I had a faster clock and kept my my fingers crossed that he couldn't draw the removal for coralhelm, he never did.
I finished in 11th place, for some reason I don't my decklist posted on Starcity's webpage which sucks but hopfully I'll get a chance to see my feature match when they upload on ggslive. The only thing on the day I wished I had was stifle somewhere in my 75.
jblaze could you post your list? I'm gonna be playing at a GP trial this saturday and I'm curious as to what your 75 looked like.
edit: Also, I was looking at the Merfolk build that came in 7th at SCG LA. 21 lands (which I like), but dropped standstill for 2 Kira and 2 Sower. Not so sure I like this, but I also don't exactly understand how standstill works when playing combo which is what I'm pretty worried about playing. To me, it seems like dropping standstill slows our clock. Anybody give me some tips on this?
Here is my decklist. I would probably cut the Sower from the maindeck and maybe something else to fit in two Stifles, and cut a Llawan for another Jitte.
The B/W bears matchup hinges really on them resolving a mystic to get Jitte or sword.
Don't waste the slots. I just write it off as an auto-loss, generally. You could put a one-of Emrakul in there, but why bother? If you get there, you get there. If you don't, then why worry?
If you also see a lot of affinity, null rod is a good choice.
Well for one, if you expect a lot of Painter decks, probably bring some other deck if possible. It's just a bad matchup. You could try Hurkyl's Recall but it doesn't do a whole lot of good. People have mentioned Null Rod but it forces you to side out your Vials and they can just play Painter naming blue and Pyroblast it anyways.
Honestly? I say throw an Emrakul in your sideboard. It's impossible for them to win through this without an additional combo piece to remove your graveyard while Em is in it, which gives them another thing to be searching for and another thing you have a chance to counter. They can still just destroy all of your permanents with Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, though, as I experienced at GP Columbus, which gives you yet another "must counter" spell of there's, which includes Goblin Welder, any combo piece if the other piece is down, and/or any search mechanism for the second combo piece. Ugh.
So in short, if you have Needles in the board bring those in, Null Rods the same, bring in an Emrakul, and hopefully you've got some BEBs/Hydroblasts to bring in as well, since these counter their REBs/Pyroblasts, Goblin Welders and Jaya Ballards.
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Legacy Decks I'm Currently Running:
U Merfolk U UGW NO Bant UGW UGWRB Dredge! UGWRB
Other Legacy Decks I Own:
RGW Zoo! RGW BGW Junk BGW RGWB Aggro Loam RGWB BW Deadguy BW W Death & Taxes (almost!) W GW Green & Taxes GW BGW Junk & Taxes BGW
Null rod is terrible, it turns off vial. If you're worried about affinity just make sure you pack at least 2x Jittes in your board. Sower is also really good against them. Cards you don't let resolve are plating and Tez. You can race a 2/2 Etched champion. Also don't be gun shy about turn 1 wastelanding them if you see they don't have a turn one play
What should I put in my SB to beat Painter Servant?
Dmel hit it pretty well. You should have rebs in your sb and maybe some of the artifacts mentioned (null rod/needle) which are not good btw. I have echoing truth in my sb which is okay vs them. But echoing truth is probably going to be replaced with recall vs the artifact decks.
Believe it or not Kira is pretty good vs painter, takes 2 rebs to kill your creatures and we def are the beat down in this matchup. But even then they could get the nuts with LED and just win.
Btw standstill is good vs painter
edit Emrakul is better then blessing at least if you draw it you can put it in with their show and tell :/
So I'm gonna be running UW merfolk this saturday at a Grand Prix Trial, that I know for sure. What I'm not sure about, is exactly where I want to go with the deck. Last time I ran UW I did a Stoneforge Mystic package in the sideboard and I'm debating if its worth running this mainboard:
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
This is what I planned on doing last time I played UW but chickened out. I'm not sure how it will affect the synergy of the deck and I feel it might make some matchups worse in game 1 by slowing the clock.
If I decide not to run the package mainboard, I probably won't run it at all because it takes up so many sideboard slots and I'd rather have my sideboard look more like this:
Basically, I look at it like this. If I ran SFM package sideboard, I would only be bringing it in against aggro decks. But, the combo isn't always totally efficient and pretty mana intensive for a deck like this. Instead, I might as well have the most solid removal (6 swords and 2 Jittes) all at an extremely affordable casting cost. Powder Keg is for affinity allowing me to blow up all their lands and memnites/ornithopters. Keg paired with swords makes me feel a lot better about that MU. The rest is pretty self explanatory but if anybody feels I'm missing or overlooking something please let me know since this will be my first real event outside of playing at my local store.
So far, it seems like the Stoneforge package really disrupts your tempo (need to spend turns 2, 3, and 4 to play Stoneforge, Sword/Jitte, equip) and I'm not sure yet whether or not it's actually worth it.
Isnt the point that you get STP and SFMystic equipment package? I would think the STP's and SFMystic equipment package is worth it versus various matchups, doesn't it strengthen them?
Isnt the point that you get STP and SFMystic equipment package? I would think the STP's and SFMystic equipment package is worth it versus various matchups, doesn't it strengthen them?
Like I said, I only did a tiny amount of playtesting. I played a few games against the mirror, and what typically ended up happening was that by turn 4/5 I'd have Stoneforge and 1-2 Merfolk with one guy being equipped by SoFI or Jitte, while he'd just have a whole bunch of dudes all outside burn range and I just end up being swarmed to death.
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
4 Submerge
Not sure what to do with the last thee slots.
Experimental Kraj
I'd like to pair this down a little bit... and fit an extra sower of temptation the Emrakul is just for Painter's combo. Maybe it's not that strong.
[Legacy]
ANT
Imperial Painter
Experimental Kraj
[Legacy]
ANT
Imperial Painter
I don't think we have a bad combo matchup, I think it's pretty good but def not a bi or anything,
I got worked in the tournament today and I don't think I will run null rod again. Painter just blasts it with servant on blue. Shutting off vials is pretty bad, in any matchupll.. I would not board in null rod vs high tide to try to beat something they really don't even need to win. Not to mention they have tutors for their bounce/win condition. Needle is probably better, not great but at least you can name different stuff and it costs 1 mana almost doing the same thing. needle plating/tezz/candle and grindstone/welder
I'm also pretty convinced that Merfolk without standstill is pretty bad. Sure it is bad/not great in our bad matchups, but it makes our good matchups (combo, control, blue) not as good. I'm also pretty convinced that 20 lands is not enough, 21/22 is the right amount.
I also feel pretty naked playing Merfolk without echoing truth in my sb
ps I should have played the 1 emrakul tech in my sb
I'll have a tournament write up tomorrow.
Game one I was on the play led with turn 1 vial into cursecatcher. He never cast anything relevent other then cabal therapy naming merrow reejerey and a few dig spells I drop a few lords the game is over in a few turns. Game two he had to pitch intuition to fow because I hard casted rejereey baiting out his fow. I vialed in another reejerey and had a lord out on the board with curse catcher and adept, game ended shortly after.
Round 2 - Belcher
Game one I was on the play and kept a vial, daze, daze, cursecatcher, lord, island, island hand. I led with vial and passed turn he played petal and chrome mox which i went to daze he pitched a guide and went off ending in burning wish for empty the warrens. Games two and three hyroblast and fow took care of buisness.
Round 3 - Pyromancer's Acension
Yes this is a deck. Game one was strange he just played a lot of dig spells and bolted my duders, but didn't play anything relevent. I put him on Counterbalance because he had trops and volacanic islands, so I didn't board in my three relics. So game two I still had no idea what he was on and he goes to cryptic command my team which I spell pierced. He then untaps and plays ascension which gets fow and plays another behind it. I vialed in Kira eot, and he manages to get ascension active and tries to shoot kira with the bolt and its copy i let the first resolve and fow the 2nd, he dies in two turns to shrouded smurfs.
Round 4 - Affinity
I'm on the draw with an opening hand of vial, cursecatcher, fow, fow, coralhelm, wasteland, island. He leads with ancient tombs into chalice set at one, I fow pitching fow. I untap wasteland his tombs and he doesn't play another land. Game two he mulls to 6 and I keep my seven with no fow in hand. He goes turn one tombs into chalice at one again. It resolved but I went into punt mode and tried to cast cursecatcher, it gets countered and I go on tilt when he plays etched champion turn two and beats my face in with cranial plating shortly after. Game three I'm on the play and I had turn one vial with daze he plays city traitors and gets and active crucible with the double city and we go back and forth until I resolve a Jitte which wipes his entire board and I Sower his loadstone golem.
Round 5 - Dredge
I already knew he was playing dredge because I was scouting the top tables and saw he was running stifle out the board but no pithing needle. So game one he mulls to five on the play. I was racing him with double curse catcher, adept, and lord. I kept wastelanding his underground seas and he finally gets zealot in the yard but only has one land and couldn't dread returns because of the two cursecatchers. Game two I had the nuts, with opening hand cursecatcher, relic, and fow. I popped my first relic early because I saw Iona, Llawan, and dread return in the yard. I naturally drew into my second relic and he tries to stifle when I go to pop it but I spell pierced and got there.
Round 6 - High Tide, Alix Hatfield
Game one I was able to turn one vial and curve into curse catcher, adept, reejerey, with mutavault and disrupt him enough to win. I sideboarded wrong in this matchup by not bringing in relics which would have helped immensely. I kept a hand without any counter magic but I had a very reasonable clock with vial and double curse catcher and reejerey, and coralhelm. I drew into spell pierce but he was able to go off the turn he needed to before I could kill him. Game three I had to mull to five on the play keeping a hand that consisted of daze, spell pierce, vial, island, and wasteland, I definately didn't get there.
Round 7 - Zoo - Pat Cox
I was mulled to 6 on the draw and kept the loosest hand ever. One land mutavault hand with no vial, yes it was terrible. I never drew a second land and found 3/3 cats clawing my eyes out. Game two I kept my opening seven and was able to race thanks to triple reejerey and sovereigns and sower. Game three I was on the back foot the whole game due to him opening up with ape, nacatl, nacatl, and lavamancer. I stabalize the board thanks to double submerge but he just had all the 5 removal spells to kill my kira and path all my other guys.
Round 8 - Affinity
Game one he just starts off with vault into springleaf drum. I decide to waste his vault on my first turn and he untaps plays mox opal and says go, I get too far ahead on the board when he finally drops etched champion. Game two he mulls and drops his hand with triple memnite, he tries to toughcast which I spell pierced. I get Jitte on board and drop my hand thanks to vial and double reejerey, he scoops up.
Round 9 - B/W hatebears
I got a feature match this round but they don't seem to have it on the starcity website. I already know what my opponent is playing because of scouting earlier. I keep a double wasteland hand with vial. The match was super awkward because I just kept pushing damage through with my cursecatcher tag teamed up with sovereigns. I was surprised he edict me instead of himself to kill the bob so I swung with sovereigns putting him to one and played factory, bob flipped vial. Game two I get thoughtseized and my hand ripped apart by sculler. He gets active Jitte and fire/ice sword and I die shortly after. Game three was awkard because we both get vial on turn one but he runs stonforge mystic out into my fow when he could have just waited a turn to vial it in and I have no answer other then my misers wipe away for jitte or f/i sword. Also there was a turn in the match when he vials in revoker but the judge misinterpreted that I was responding to the revoker when I was trying to respond to the vial. SO, my coralhelm gets stranded in my hand, which almost cost me the match. Luckily I was able to draw out of my mana screw. Also I had a clutch daze on his jitte. The reason I was taking time during my turns was due to me doing math to see if he could race with Jotun Grunt. I had a faster clock and kept my my fingers crossed that he couldn't draw the removal for coralhelm, he never did.
I finished in 11th place, for some reason I don't my decklist posted on Starcity's webpage which sucks but hopfully I'll get a chance to see my feature match when they upload on ggslive. The only thing on the day I wished I had was stifle somewhere in my 75.
edit: Also, I was looking at the Merfolk build that came in 7th at SCG LA. 21 lands (which I like), but dropped standstill for 2 Kira and 2 Sower. Not so sure I like this, but I also don't exactly understand how standstill works when playing combo which is what I'm pretty worried about playing. To me, it seems like dropping standstill slows our clock. Anybody give me some tips on this?
Retired
Legacy:
GRUB Lands
Modern:
U Tron
RG Tron
RG Ponza
It's weird that the 11th spot is empty.
[Legacy]
ANT
Imperial Painter
The B/W bears matchup hinges really on them resolving a mystic to get Jitte or sword.
4x Wasteland
1x Mishra's factory
12x Island
4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Merrow Reejerey
4x Coralhelm Commander
2x Merfolk Sovereigns
2x Kira, the Glass Spinner
1x Sower of Temptation
4x Force of Will
1x Spell Pierce
4x Aether Vial
3x Submerge
3x Hydroblast
3x Relic of Progenitus
2x Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Spell Pierce
1x Wipe Away
1x Sower of Temptation
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=399504
If you also see a lot of affinity, null rod is a good choice.
1x Gaea's Blessing or 1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
[Legacy]
ANT
Imperial Painter
Honestly? I say throw an Emrakul in your sideboard. It's impossible for them to win through this without an additional combo piece to remove your graveyard while Em is in it, which gives them another thing to be searching for and another thing you have a chance to counter. They can still just destroy all of your permanents with Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, though, as I experienced at GP Columbus, which gives you yet another "must counter" spell of there's, which includes Goblin Welder, any combo piece if the other piece is down, and/or any search mechanism for the second combo piece. Ugh.
So in short, if you have Needles in the board bring those in, Null Rods the same, bring in an Emrakul, and hopefully you've got some BEBs/Hydroblasts to bring in as well, since these counter their REBs/Pyroblasts, Goblin Welders and Jaya Ballards.
U G W NO Bant U G W
U G W R B Dredge! U G W R B
B G W Junk B G W
R G W B Aggro Loam R G W B
B W Deadguy B W
W Death & Taxes (almost!) W
G W Green & Taxes G W
B G W Junk & Taxes B G W
Momir Vig
Brion Stoutarm
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Arcum Daggson
Dmel hit it pretty well. You should have rebs in your sb and maybe some of the artifacts mentioned (null rod/needle) which are not good btw. I have echoing truth in my sb which is okay vs them. But echoing truth is probably going to be replaced with recall vs the artifact decks.
Believe it or not Kira is pretty good vs painter, takes 2 rebs to kill your creatures and we def are the beat down in this matchup. But even then they could get the nuts with LED and just win.
Btw standstill is good vs painter
edit Emrakul is better then blessing at least if you draw it you can put it in with their show and tell :/
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
This is what I planned on doing last time I played UW but chickened out. I'm not sure how it will affect the synergy of the deck and I feel it might make some matchups worse in game 1 by slowing the clock.
If I decide not to run the package mainboard, I probably won't run it at all because it takes up so many sideboard slots and I'd rather have my sideboard look more like this:
1x Swords to Plowshare (3 mainboard)
2x Path to Exile
2x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Spell Pierce
2x Hibernation
3x Tormod's Crypt
2x Powder Keg
Basically, I look at it like this. If I ran SFM package sideboard, I would only be bringing it in against aggro decks. But, the combo isn't always totally efficient and pretty mana intensive for a deck like this. Instead, I might as well have the most solid removal (6 swords and 2 Jittes) all at an extremely affordable casting cost. Powder Keg is for affinity allowing me to blow up all their lands and memnites/ornithopters. Keg paired with swords makes me feel a lot better about that MU. The rest is pretty self explanatory but if anybody feels I'm missing or overlooking something please let me know since this will be my first real event outside of playing at my local store.
Retired
Legacy:
GRUB Lands
Modern:
U Tron
RG Tron
RG Ponza
U G W NO Bant U G W
U G W R B Dredge! U G W R B
B G W Junk B G W
R G W B Aggro Loam R G W B
B W Deadguy B W
W Death & Taxes (almost!) W
G W Green & Taxes G W
B G W Junk & Taxes B G W
Momir Vig
Brion Stoutarm
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Arcum Daggson
Hm... Esper fish? Seems kinda greedy. I've been testing this out a little (and by a little, I mean I've played one match total.)
3x Flooded Strand
3x Polluted Delta
3x Island
3x Tundra
4x Wasteland
4x Mutavault
3x Cursecatcher
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Coralhelm Commander
4x Merrow Reejerey
4x Silvergill Adept
3x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Force of Will
4x Daze
4x Aether Vial
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
So far, it seems like the Stoneforge package really disrupts your tempo (need to spend turns 2, 3, and 4 to play Stoneforge, Sword/Jitte, equip) and I'm not sure yet whether or not it's actually worth it.
ゆっくりしていってね!!!
Like I said, I only did a tiny amount of playtesting. I played a few games against the mirror, and what typically ended up happening was that by turn 4/5 I'd have Stoneforge and 1-2 Merfolk with one guy being equipped by SoFI or Jitte, while he'd just have a whole bunch of dudes all outside burn range and I just end up being swarmed to death.
Maybe I was just playing it wrong.
ゆっくりしていってね!!!