For me, it has sentimental value because I played against it a lot with a buddy and learned how to play Modern in this manner. I like the card draw, and a part of me loves the fact that it has a legitimate shot against nearly every deck and is relatively a budget deck (relative to a lot of tier 1 decks). I love the tribal concept... I enjoy theme decks and Merfolk is the most legitimate/competitive... instead of being a mashup of cards, we have a lot of cards that have a lot of "flavor" contextually; I would say Tron and Affinity nearly have tribal-style themes to them, but those are the exceptions. The theme/tribal idea is one reason why I love Soul Sisters so much, too (and that deck is competitive too, just isn't good against combo/non-interactive decks, which I loathe).
I would also like to see a new Lord of Atlantis card, with a female lord, or maybe at least something that looks more sinister/powerful. Master of Waves just seems like it is serious the LORD of the deck, if that makes sense.
(We tend to call him "Master of Babes" and I don't know if that's original or not)>
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention about why I picked up Merfolk:
We tend to have shorter matches, so at a GP, you don't suffer from as much mental fatigue as the strategies/decks that can go to time. Plus, having time to eat between matches is a plus as well.
Most (good) tron players will side out karn against us
Ostone is definitely their strongest card against us, especially since it clears Seas as well
It's true that GQ is better versus tron even if they play 2 basics now, but tec edge is better against all the other decks you want to side it in against. It also helps keeping spell pierce live
I would say that Tec Edge is more potent then Ghost Quarter in Merfolk overall and specifically against Tron. The reasons are that when combined with spreading seas your opponent (ie. Tron) will have to go to 4 lands ensuring that your Tec Edge hits a Tron piece. This is important as once they get to 5 lands they can O Stone your team – so keeping them down on lands is very important. Ghost quarter is pretty bad here - they will get to 5 lands sooner and that is where they really need to be to beat Merfolk. If you can delay them, even a bit on O stone the match is yours.
It sure is worse against Infect and Affinity (Merfolk wasnt winning that matchup anyway) but it is much preferable to Ghost Quarter against BGx – and it is often the difference between winning and losing..(also great against Scapeshift over GQ)
But here's the thing - that both assumes that you got a Spreading Seas (which you might not) and that effectively paying 2 and sacrificing a land didn't hurt your tempo (which it might have). Ghost Quarter is the superior standalone piece, because it's less of a tempo hit (only effectively costs 1), and because it doesn't require other cards to work properly. If you get the Edge but no Seas... you're in trouble. Furthermore, in hands where Tron has to play or have already fetched their Forest (and they only have 1), Ghost Quarter becomes Strip Mine. TecEdge can claim no such improvement. The fact that it's better against Infect (which is a common matchup that's roughly 50/50 and thus in need of tools to tip us over the top) and Affinity (our worst matchup, where we'll take all the help we can get) seals it for me. I already feel like we have an edge over BGX (as my trial results showed) and over Scapeshift (because they're slow and we can interact with their counterspells and sweepers), so I don't really feel the need to reinforce what's already a strength.
Most (good) tron players will side out karn against us
Ostone is definitely their strongest card against us, especially since it clears Seas as well
It's true that GQ is better versus tron even if they play 2 basics now, but tec edge is better against all the other decks you want to side it in against. It also helps keeping spell pierce live
I would say that Tec Edge is more potent then Ghost Quarter in Merfolk overall and specifically against Tron. The reasons are that when combined with spreading seas your opponent (ie. Tron) will have to go to 4 lands ensuring that your Tec Edge hits a Tron piece. This is important as once they get to 5 lands they can O Stone your team – so keeping them down on lands is very important. Ghost quarter is pretty bad here - they will get to 5 lands sooner and that is where they really need to be to beat Merfolk. If you can delay them, even a bit on O stone the match is yours.
It sure is worse against Infect and Affinity (Merfolk wasnt winning that matchup anyway) but it is much preferable to Ghost Quarter against BGx – and it is often the difference between winning and losing..(also great against Scapeshift over GQ)
But here's the thing - that both assumes that you got a Spreading Seas (which you might not) and that effectively paying 2 and sacrificing a land didn't hurt your tempo (which it might have). Ghost Quarter is the superior standalone piece, because it's less of a tempo hit (only effectively costs 1), and because it doesn't require other cards to work properly. If you get the Edge but no Seas... you're in trouble. Furthermore, in hands where Tron has to play or have already fetched their Forest (and they only have 1), Ghost Quarter becomes Strip Mine. TecEdge can claim no such improvement. The fact that it's better against Infect (which is a common matchup that's roughly 50/50 and thus in need of tools to tip us over the top) and Affinity (our worst matchup, where we'll take all the help we can get) seals it for me. I already feel like we have an edge over BGX (as my trial results showed) and over Scapeshift (because they're slow and we can interact with their counterspells and sweepers), so I don't really feel the need to reinforce what's already a strength.
Interesting thoughts - but are you really going to ghost quarter their forest? Even if you don't hit a seas (I run seas claim in the board as well - so im likely going to hit a seas effect) they often have grove or a basic out - thus they will get to 4 lands triggering tec edge. As I said I think its more important to stop them hitting 5 lands to prevent O stone - but for sure ghost quarter has its place and its up for debate - I obviously lean to Tec Edge - if the meta shifts - I may lean on ghost quarter.
As far as infect goes - I already have seas effects - I dont bring in additional land destruction.
On another point I dont think we are in a great place against Jund - Junk is a better matchup for sure - it cant be much more then slightly favourable for us - in both matchups tec edge is vastly superior..
I'm not going to hit their Forest. I mentioned it because if they happen to play it in order to hit an early Ancient Stirrings or Sylvan Scrying (or if they fetch it after I hit them with the Quarter the first time), Ghost Quarter becomes Strip Mine for the rest of the game. TecEdge will always have its limitations. You're right that each has their perks and that it's a matter of choice, but I prefer Ghost Quarter because it's safer in the maindeck (can fetch you U in a pinch), and because I don't have to wait till the midgame to get it going.
I haven't dropped a game to Jund, let alone a match, in a while. Bringing in 4 Tidebinder Mage and 2 Relic of Progenitus slams the door shut on them in my experience. I highly recommend it.
It wasn't the art (blue creature in blue water in front of blue background is not for me) or Pack Rat playstyle or cheapness or many other reasons that were mentioned.
2 things was: when I saw Silvergill Adept got printed, all i wanted was to go turn 1 Ancestral Vision, turn 2 Adept, turn 3 Sage's Dousing, turn 4 Cryptic Command, turn 5 Reveillark. and I did
(you now you are doing something right if you have to discard on turn 5-6 without being manascrewed :D)
Second reason was that I thought how funny is that Lord of Atlantis is mana cheaper than his counterparts while blue wasn't a creature color.
Back during Lorwyn block my friends and I each chose a creature type for us to brew and so we had diverse decks, this was back during high school. My friends chose Kithkin, Giants, Elves, Faeries, Elementals, and I picked merfolk. The art on the merfolk was gorgeous and I always really liked fish, yeah merfolk weren't all that competitive back then but I stuck with the deck.
I used to play the U/W Legacy "fish" deck with Ninja of the Deep Hours, Jötun Grunt, Mishra's Factory, Aether Vial, Jitte, Augury Adept, Spiketail Hatchling, (this was back when Force of Will was $20) you get the idea...so I learned what would become the playstyle for Merfolk early on and made it so much easier for me to play the deck once it became slightly more competitive thanks to Master of the Pearl Trident when that was printed.
It isn't a combo deck, I don't like playing a deck that can go to time often or where I just sit there playing solitaire wasting my opponent's time.
I like Tribal decks, I'm an ex-Slivers player and fiddled around with Elves a few times while I have tribal EDH decks now because that is just what I find fun.
My reason: I love counterspells. Proper permission control sadly doesn't work in the format. Except twin maybe, but I hate the twin combo and really prefer UW versions anyway (please reprint Balance!).
Also I really liked Lord of Atlantis way back when I got into the game with 4th edition. He immediately struck me as one of the most powerful creatures printed and I tried several times to make a deck around him in the ice age through urza era. Of course there was not enough synergy and I was very happy to see that he has come into his well deserved spotlight when I got back into the game 17 years later.
I had started using on Feb,2015. The reason was simple. It was relatively cheap deck then. In addition, there weren't any player using it around me. Doing something different from them seemed interesting to me.
The more I use Merfolk deck, the more reluctant I become to use other modern decks. Merfolk is such an addictive and powerful deck!
New question: What are the chances to you guys that we get some new fish toys to work with?
I think it's difficult because we already have enough good merfolks now.
The things will change, if we get a merfolk that needs us to change the way we build our deck like, well……, True-Name Nemesis
I had started using on Feb,2015. The reason was simple. It was relatively cheap deck then. In addition, there weren't any player using it around me. Doing something different from them seemed interesting to me...
New question: What are the chances to you guys that we get some new fish toys to work with?
A creature is going to have to be really good to crack our current rotation. The only place I can imagine something fitting in is as a replacement for either Cursecatcher or Merrow Reejerey, as those are our core spots where we could use the most improvement. We're probably not getting something as potent as True-Name Nemesis, so I'd say that it'd have to be something like a flying creature (a Faerie Miscreant-equivalent, or maybe a UU flying Lord that doesn't grant islandwalk; basically, a Coralhelm Commander that stays as a 2/2, but doesn't force me to pay mana for the effects I really want), or a creature that protects other creatures (a Benevolent Bodyguard with hexproof instead of protection would be mighty good, as it would save creatures from the likes of Abrupt Decay). I could also get behind a Tidal Warrior reprint.
I've been playing modern for just over a year and have been trying to find a deck that best fits my play style. I made the investment into a lot of modern staples, so I could change decks relatively easily as opposed to buying into decks like Tron or Affinity, which are the only decks you find most of those cards in. I tried Jeskai, Twin, Jund/Junk and like them all, but I wanted to play a more linear aggressive strategy (all of those other decks are much more reactive with the exception of Twin). Somebody at my LGS was trading a bunch of his cards, including most of the core of Merfolk. Having seen the deck played by others, there was something about it that drew me in. It's definitely a linear, aggressive strategy. It's highly synergistic, but it can also play a control/tempo game post-board.
Plus, the card art is pretty kick-ass in a lot of cases.
Private Mod Note
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"What doesn't grow, dies. And what dies grows the Tarmogoyf."
Current Decks: Modern: BRG Jund BRG Legacy: UBG BUG UBG
I like Merfolk because I'm a fan of solid aggro decks that aren't glass cannon, ones that can be explosive and win quickly or can go the long game against control.
In game 3 against twin when you mention you had 3 lands and a vial on 2 which you tick up to 3, after he cast the splinter twin on his turn, how did you flash in harbinger without vial and only 3 land?
With only 3 land, keeping the vial on 2 wouldn't have saved you anyway since he would tap it down eot preventing you from being able to bounce his pestermite in response to a twin activation.
Maybe you just forgot to mention you played a 4th land? That would make everything make sense.
Thanks for the report, Crypto_SC. That was a tough time to lose track of the situation against Kiki Chord, unfortunately (I've dropped some winnable games to them thanks to bad keeps myself, and it's always frustrating because if we're both on our A-game, we are clearly favored). Are there multiple players packing Worship in your meta? If so, I'd consider putting Vapor Snag back in - because it's life loss, it ignores Worship once you have them down to 1 (I've won some games/matches that way).
Unless we go back to Lorwyn, Theros (really early to go back again) or Dominaria I highly doubt we will be seeing any new Merfolk cards, maybe there is a chance with Ravnica sometime in the future since they showed us Zegana but even then I doubt there would be any good mono blue ones. Alara didn't have any, Mirrodin didn't have any, Innistrad doesn't have any, Kamigawa didn't have any, and if we went back to Tarkir really early they didn't have any either so :/
The other problem is just lack of reprints, Wanderwine hub is like $10 and Cursecatcher is $15. Even if Lorwyn is full of reprints we need that to keep this deck available for new players since since outside of Lord of Atlantis most of our deck was only printed once.
I would also like to see a new Lord of Atlantis card, with a female lord, or maybe at least something that looks more sinister/powerful. Master of Waves just seems like it is serious the LORD of the deck, if that makes sense.
(We tend to call him "Master of Babes" and I don't know if that's original or not)>
We tend to have shorter matches, so at a GP, you don't suffer from as much mental fatigue as the strategies/decks that can go to time. Plus, having time to eat between matches is a plus as well.
But here's the thing - that both assumes that you got a Spreading Seas (which you might not) and that effectively paying 2 and sacrificing a land didn't hurt your tempo (which it might have). Ghost Quarter is the superior standalone piece, because it's less of a tempo hit (only effectively costs 1), and because it doesn't require other cards to work properly. If you get the Edge but no Seas... you're in trouble. Furthermore, in hands where Tron has to play or have already fetched their Forest (and they only have 1), Ghost Quarter becomes Strip Mine. TecEdge can claim no such improvement. The fact that it's better against Infect (which is a common matchup that's roughly 50/50 and thus in need of tools to tip us over the top) and Affinity (our worst matchup, where we'll take all the help we can get) seals it for me. I already feel like we have an edge over BGX (as my trial results showed) and over Scapeshift (because they're slow and we can interact with their counterspells and sweepers), so I don't really feel the need to reinforce what's already a strength.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Interesting thoughts - but are you really going to ghost quarter their forest? Even if you don't hit a seas (I run seas claim in the board as well - so im likely going to hit a seas effect) they often have grove or a basic out - thus they will get to 4 lands triggering tec edge. As I said I think its more important to stop them hitting 5 lands to prevent O stone - but for sure ghost quarter has its place and its up for debate - I obviously lean to Tec Edge - if the meta shifts - I may lean on ghost quarter.
As far as infect goes - I already have seas effects - I dont bring in additional land destruction.
On another point I dont think we are in a great place against Jund - Junk is a better matchup for sure - it cant be much more then slightly favourable for us - in both matchups tec edge is vastly superior..
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
I haven't dropped a game to Jund, let alone a match, in a while. Bringing in 4 Tidebinder Mage and 2 Relic of Progenitus slams the door shut on them in my experience. I highly recommend it.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
It wasn't the art (blue creature in blue water in front of blue background is not for me) or Pack Rat playstyle or cheapness or many other reasons that were mentioned.
2 things was: when I saw Silvergill Adept got printed, all i wanted was to go turn 1 Ancestral Vision, turn 2 Adept, turn 3 Sage's Dousing, turn 4 Cryptic Command, turn 5 Reveillark. and I did
(you now you are doing something right if you have to discard on turn 5-6 without being manascrewed :D)
Second reason was that I thought how funny is that Lord of Atlantis is mana cheaper than his counterparts while blue wasn't a creature color.
Back during Lorwyn block my friends and I each chose a creature type for us to brew and so we had diverse decks, this was back during high school. My friends chose Kithkin, Giants, Elves, Faeries, Elementals, and I picked merfolk. The art on the merfolk was gorgeous and I always really liked fish, yeah merfolk weren't all that competitive back then but I stuck with the deck.
I used to play the U/W Legacy "fish" deck with Ninja of the Deep Hours, Jötun Grunt, Mishra's Factory, Aether Vial, Jitte, Augury Adept, Spiketail Hatchling, (this was back when Force of Will was $20) you get the idea...so I learned what would become the playstyle for Merfolk early on and made it so much easier for me to play the deck once it became slightly more competitive thanks to Master of the Pearl Trident when that was printed.
It isn't a combo deck, I don't like playing a deck that can go to time often or where I just sit there playing solitaire wasting my opponent's time.
I like Tribal decks, I'm an ex-Slivers player and fiddled around with Elves a few times while I have tribal EDH decks now because that is just what I find fun.
UMerfolkU
Legacy
UMerfolkU
Commander
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB
Also I really liked Lord of Atlantis way back when I got into the game with 4th edition. He immediately struck me as one of the most powerful creatures printed and I tried several times to make a deck around him in the ice age through urza era. Of course there was not enough synergy and I was very happy to see that he has come into his well deserved spotlight when I got back into the game 17 years later.
I had started using on Feb,2015. The reason was simple. It was relatively cheap deck then. In addition, there weren't any player using it around me. Doing something different from them seemed interesting to me.
The more I use Merfolk deck, the more reluctant I become to use other modern decks. Merfolk is such an addictive and powerful deck!
I think it's difficult because we already have enough good merfolks now.
The things will change, if we get a merfolk that needs us to change the way we build our deck like, well……, True-Name Nemesis
UMerfolkU
BWBW TokensBW
Double meanings are fun
Magic really is a drug.
A creature is going to have to be really good to crack our current rotation. The only place I can imagine something fitting in is as a replacement for either Cursecatcher or Merrow Reejerey, as those are our core spots where we could use the most improvement. We're probably not getting something as potent as True-Name Nemesis, so I'd say that it'd have to be something like a flying creature (a Faerie Miscreant-equivalent, or maybe a UU flying Lord that doesn't grant islandwalk; basically, a Coralhelm Commander that stays as a 2/2, but doesn't force me to pay mana for the effects I really want), or a creature that protects other creatures (a Benevolent Bodyguard with hexproof instead of protection would be mighty good, as it would save creatures from the likes of Abrupt Decay). I could also get behind a Tidal Warrior reprint.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
I've been playing modern for just over a year and have been trying to find a deck that best fits my play style. I made the investment into a lot of modern staples, so I could change decks relatively easily as opposed to buying into decks like Tron or Affinity, which are the only decks you find most of those cards in. I tried Jeskai, Twin, Jund/Junk and like them all, but I wanted to play a more linear aggressive strategy (all of those other decks are much more reactive with the exception of Twin). Somebody at my LGS was trading a bunch of his cards, including most of the core of Merfolk. Having seen the deck played by others, there was something about it that drew me in. It's definitely a linear, aggressive strategy. It's highly synergistic, but it can also play a control/tempo game post-board.
Plus, the card art is pretty kick-ass in a lot of cases.
Current Decks:
Modern: BRG Jund BRG
Legacy: UBG BUG UBG
UMerfolkU
BWBW TokensBW
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
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
With only 3 land, keeping the vial on 2 wouldn't have saved you anyway since he would tap it down eot preventing you from being able to bounce his pestermite in response to a twin activation.
Maybe you just forgot to mention you played a 4th land? That would make everything make sense.
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
Sad... I know
Modern
UGWRB Humans
G Mono-Green Tron
UWBR Ad Nauseam
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Beat Merfolk 2-0. Game 1 he had Lord of Atlantis, and I had Master of Pearls, so mine were bigger. Game 2 same.
Beat Grixis Twin 2-0. Game win was super Grindy. Game 2 beat him with 2 lords and a Cursecatcher.
Lost to U-Tron 1-2. Able to rush him game 1, games 2 and 3 he spits out several ratchet bombs and O-Stones.
Beat a Token/Soul Sister Hybrid 2-1. Extremely tough match. Spreading seas helped me get there.
The other problem is just lack of reprints, Wanderwine hub is like $10 and Cursecatcher is $15. Even if Lorwyn is full of reprints we need that to keep this deck available for new players since since outside of Lord of Atlantis most of our deck was only printed once.
UMerfolkU
Legacy
UMerfolkU
Commander
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB