MTG Salvation

Quote from zarvlad »

Any opinions/tests on Ashiok? I'm really tempted to replace 1-2 relics with him.

I was debating it, but the fact that he costs 3 mana to exile the graveyard as opposed to 1 mana with Relic makes me really reluctant to give him a shot. But, he does provide search hate and devotion for Master of Waves, so there's that.

I'm certainly going to test it, but it won't be at the expense of Relic. We'll always be in the market for cheap graveyard hate. However, search hate that can double as extra graveyard hate sounds pretty good. Venser isn't as good as he normally is in my list now that I don't have 4s to justify setting my Vial on, so maybe I'll swap it out and see what happens.

Ashiok being 3 CMC is the major turn off for me. I feel like the search denial part of him comes down too late to be relevant.

Like against Tron, he comes down after the fact against Expedition Map and Sylvan Scrying.

Might be fine against Dredge, Storm and Titan builds to mill through key threats, but at the same time, I feel like that's only ever effective on the play.

I ran it out for a test last night, and I came to a similar conclusion. We have better options against Tron and control, and the likes of Titan decks and other decks relying heavily on tutors aren't quite common enough to justify its inclusion. It's a handy card to keep in mind should the metagame context change, though. I'd recommend picking them up and keeping them in the tacklebox.

Would we want to run Flusterstorm...?

http://mythicspoiler.com/mh1/cards/flusterstorm.html

Quote from iSergiant »

Would we want to run Flusterstorm...?

http://mythicspoiler.com/mh1/cards/flusterstorm.html

Honestly, I think it may be a bit situational. Firstly, it only targets instants and sorceries. Secondly, the fact that we are a deck that seeks to capitalize on Aether Vial, makes the storm mechanic awkward, since half of the spells we "use" don't even add to the storm count. The count will only really go above 1-2 in counter wars. I'd personally rather stick to a hard counter.

Granted, this opinion is without any testing. Just conjecture here. It does do solid work in Legacy, so testing is definitely in order at least.

We're running 2 in the sideboard. Literally every blue deck in the format is going to play this card. Winning counterspell wars is good, and Flusterstorm wins pretty much any counter war it's involved in (and the few that it doesn't usually involve another Flusterstorm). Modern Storm also doesn't run hand attack, so pulling it in that matchup is lights out (not that I expect Storm to be much of a deck now that this is in the format, but still).

And how about Force of Negation? http://mythicspoiler.com/mh1/cards/forceofnegation.html

After thinking about it and reading up on the storm mechanic, I've changed my mind on Flusterstorm. It may not be as format warping in Modern as it is in Legacy, but it's definitely gonna be a good sideboard answer to Control decks, Storm, and any other deck that simply relies on casting a lot of instants and sorceries (perhaps Burn, Infect, Pheonix, etc.) It may be a bit weak against Tron, Humans, Spirits, etc. since they don't rely on Instants and sorceries.

I actually didn't know that Storm counts your opponent's spells too. Xp lol

Now if it only didn't cost $30+ per copy...

Quote from iSergiant »

And how about Force of Negation? http://mythicspoiler.com/mh1/cards/forceofnegation.html

Definitely testing that. Not sure whether it'll be main or side, but I think it's an upgrade to Spell Pierce.

I don't have a merfolk deck, but speaking for a friend who does not have an account here. Is FoN good as a one or two in the main? Or is this purely a sideboard card?

We probably won't know until we actually get to test it. I know some people are going to be doing some hard testing of it in the mono-U version, and I am certainly excited for it in the UG version. How many is unknown though.

I'm going to start with 4 main, and see how that goes. I don't anticipate running fewer than 4 copies given how much fast stuff currently inhabits the format. The main question to me is main or side.

FoN is like th eonly reason to return to merfolk at this point, that and canopies.

I'm doing pretty well without either of those cards, though they will of course help.

On the subject of MTGSalvation's closure and what that means for the primer, I'll be migrating the information over to a Google document. Please be patient, as some reformatting will be required during the transition.

Thanks for all your contributions Rothgar! Would love to see a write up about your recent 5-0!

Yeah, I've never tought Merfolk wasn't a viable option, but in the last year I struggled to see a reason to play my beloved pet-deck (from the legacy standstill era, something like 10 years ago) over other better positioned tribes (AKA Spirits).

Today with the canopies and the much needed card selection from benthic biomancer, we are less likely to flood and force of negation will be a premium tempo play; a play that Spirits will make less consistently for multiple reasons:
1) their lands don't double up as threats, while we can play up to 8 (unlikely, at the moment 5 to 6 seems to be the right number) cyclers and 4 manlands: a minus 1 in a spirit shell is much more punishing.
2) they play from 11 to 18 non-blue spells, and more lands, so the forces are less likely to be active.

Now the matter on the other premium tribe, humans, is much more complex
. They use to lose from spirits but have fairly good mups across the board, the fact is that they gain ALMOST nothing from the new set, except maybe from the pseudo kira changeling wich is surprisingly underwhelming in the nowadays field.

All these things together brought hope to my little shattered fish player's heart and might be the factors to a second merfolk rising.

I'm sorry for my bad english.

Quote from rothgar13 »

I'm doing pretty well without either of those cards, though they will of course help.

On the subject of MTGSalvation's closure and what that means for the primer, I'll be migrating the information over to a Google document. Please be patient, as some reformatting will be required during the transition.

I've been playing around with (proxies of) Force of Negation and Unsetteled Mariner with quite interesting results so far. Looking at your Simic list makes me want to give this one a go:



I might want to make space for the extra seas since this list isn't getting the extra from Mistbinder, but at the same time First strke and Lifelink might just do it to let them through or force the opponent to chump.

With a white splash you might want some PtE in the 75, and Force of Negation in the mainboard. That's too Strong.

Quote from GrimDucky »

Thanks for all your contributions Rothgar! Would love to see a write up about your recent 5-0!

Thanks, GrimDucky. We'll do one last writeup soon.

Quote from TheGreatGig »

Yeah, I've never tought Merfolk wasn't a viable option, but in the last year I struggled to see a reason to play my beloved pet-deck (from the legacy standstill era, something like 10 years ago) over other better positioned tribes (AKA Spirits).

Today with the canopies and the much needed card selection from benthic biomancer, we are less likely to flood and force of negation will be a premium tempo play; a play that Spirits will make less consistently for multiple reasons:
1) their lands don't double up as threats, while we can play up to 8 (unlikely, at the moment 5 to 6 seems to be the right number) cyclers and 4 manlands: a minus 1 in a spirit shell is much more punishing.
2) they play from 11 to 18 non-blue spells, and more lands, so the forces are less likely to be active.

Now the matter on the other premium tribe, humans, is much more complex
. They use to lose from spirits but have fairly good mups across the board, the fact is that they gain ALMOST nothing from the new set, except maybe from the pseudo kira changeling wich is surprisingly underwhelming in the nowadays field.

All these things together brought hope to my little shattered fish player's heart and might be the factors to a second merfolk rising.

I'm sorry for my bad english.

I don't necessarily think Humans and Spirits are better positioned than we are, honestly. I play all 3 decks, and Merfolk holds up better against decks like Tron and Phoenix than either of the other tribes, and those decks are very much at the forefront of the current metagame. UW Control is also doing pretty well, and we're better than Humans there as well in my opinion. Force and Canopy lands will definitely help, though.

Quote from zarvlad »

Quote from rothgar13 »

I'm doing pretty well without either of those cards, though they will of course help.

On the subject of MTGSalvation's closure and what that means for the primer, I'll be migrating the information over to a Google document. Please be patient, as some reformatting will be required during the transition.

I've been playing around with (proxies of) Force of Negation and Unsetteled Mariner with quite interesting results so far. Looking at your Simic list makes me want to give this one a go:

rothgar13's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Benthic Biomancer 4 Sejiri Merfolk 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Master of the Pearl Trident 4 Unsettled Mariner 4 Merfolk Trickster 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Deprive 4 Aether Vial 2 Spreading Seas	4 Wanderwine Hub 4 Hallowed Fountain 2 Cavern of Souls 4 Flooded Strand 4 Island	Sideboard 2 Dismember 3 Echoing Truth 2 Phyrexian Revoker 2 Relic of Progenitus 2 Rest in Peace 4 Force of Negation

I might want to make space for the extra seas since this list isn't getting the extra from Mistbinder, but at the same time First strke and Lifelink might just do it to let them through or force the opponent to chump.

I think UW Merfolk is worth experimenting with again thanks to Mariner, but Sejiri Merfolk is just too weak a card. Note that it requires a Plains, so unless you specifically have Hallowed Fountain on the battlefield, it's just a plain old 2/1 for 2, which is unacceptably bad. I'd run more Lords, Sygg, River Guide, or a useful planeswalker (splashing white gives us access to Teferi, Time Raveler, which I think is pretty good) instead.

Quote from TheGreatGig »

With a white splash you might want some PtE in the 75, and Force of Negation in the mainboard. That's too Strong.

Path has been bad for our Seas plan for a long time; giving the opponent extra basic lands rarely is a net-positive for a true tempo deck. See Nikachu's video on the topic for details.