Batterskull can be a challenge. It's big, and it has vigilance, which means we both need Spreading Seas to evade it, and Harbinger of the Tides needs an assist from Merrow Reejerey in order to bounce it. That said, I don't think that Stoneforge Mystic will be unbanned. Its base power level is just too high for Modern.
I think Coralhelm Commander is a lot better than most people are giving it credit for. Still, it is out of date. Better merfolk got printed since then. The best being Master of Waves.
Stoneforge Mystic possibly could get unbanned. It wouldn't be as busted as in legacy because they cannot fetch Umezawa's Jitte, it's banned in modern. She will still be great but I think we can manage with our Vapor Snags and Dismembers to deal with Batterskull. Batter skull is also in really bad shape in modern right now thanks to Kologhan's Command.
On the other hand she might have been made the promo to appeal to commander players that previously weren't willing to cough up so much money on her. If you want to play with her innocently then she looks like the perfect commander card.
Now that I think of it... Sword of Fire and Ice is a problem :S
Is Sygg, River Cutthroat so bad he's not even worth mentioning anywhere in the primer? Don't get me wrong, I see the flaws with the card: 1 power, likely win-more draw effect, can basically only be run as a one-of, what he would have to replace in the deck, etc. On the plus side he's got a big butt, which can put him out of bolt range and make him a decent blocker. He's also perhaps the best target for Minamo's effect, but that's harldy worth mentioning. He can deter fetching into shocks and is a high priority target for removal because of the threat of card advantage.
I almost didn't bother posting this because I don't want to get bogged down in discussion about competitively unplayable cards, but as far as the uncommonly played merfolk go he's one of the best. He's a UU merfolk with a draw effect, which makes him at least as good as Thassa in my eyes.
Sygg, River Cutthroat wasn't considered because of his weak P/T stats and win-more draw effect, yes. We're not a Burn deck, so we don't have that "damage without attacking" reach that would make him decent. The interaction with fetches and shocks is cute, but given that a lot of people EOT fetch their shocks to dodge paying 2 life (or fetch + shock earlier in the game than Sygg could feasibly be out), I don't think it would come up much outside of a Dismember (which could be aimed at Sygg, thus spoiling the benefit). Thassa, God of the Sea has its faults, but it is at least much more resilient than Sygg. I don't think he's worth playing, honestly.
In the lands section of the primer wouldn't it be a good idea to include mutavault?
And also explaining the Mutavault CCommand trick?
And on a related note. Could someone explain det Muta CCommand interaction again, as i can't find it on the old thread?
Mutavault is not in the Lands section of the primer because it's considered a core card in the deck. However, this has made me notice that I haven't written up a blurb for it in the Core section. I'll fix that.
The Mutavault vs. Cryptic Command interaction is as follows: you can typically dodge a Cryptic's tap-the-team effect with your Vault by declaring that you are entering the combat phase after main phase 1. Typically, a Cryptic player will then cast their Cryptic in order to tap your team. Once that's done, you can animate and attack with your Mutavault. One thing to note is that if your opponent waits until you animate your Vault to Cryptic, you're out of luck.
Okay, so I just realized that IF Stoneforge is unbanned, we would actually play her. UW Merfolk would finally be a thing. Vial her in at end of turn, grab swords or batterskull. Activate her easily when we untap.
I had been toying with the idea of a Sword in the SB in the past. Which would we play? SoFaI for more damage and CA? SoLaS against burn and for more resiliency? SoWaP for general speed?
Okay, so I just realized that IF Stoneforge is unbanned, we would actually play her. UW Merfolk would finally be a thing. Vial her in at end of turn, grab swords or batterskull. Activate her easily when we untap.
And this right here is why Stoneforge Mystic will never be unbanned in Modern. It's so good, it probably makes the WU splash the best Merfolk deck available... and it's not even a Merfolk! Not gonna happen.
Last FNM I faced the mirror match. On the play I played an Island and said go. He played a Mutavault and an Aether Vial. I countered his Aether Vial with a Spell Pierce. He was left with a hand full of creatures and one more Mutavault.
That felt really good 8-)
I still wait to live the dream of randomly some FNM including Merfolk Assassin in my sideboard, and having it matter in the mirror! One day...
I'm back on the merfolk swim team now that I finally found a Foil Minamo, School at Water's Edge. I went 4-1 last night facing Merfolk(W), Grixis Twin(L), Grixis Control(W), UR Twin(W) and Jund(W). 8 seas utterly destroyed the Grixis control and Jund decks, easy 2-0 for the fish. People also love my foil 7th edition islands.
Swan Song's stopped the Twin decks cold. They cast twin/keranos and you give them the bird
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I've been playing 8 seas Fish since modern's inception. It is a good choice if you expect a lot of three color or non-blue decks.
EDIT: People, including myself, are still dumbfounded that this deck is tier one. Makes me so proud to instill fear into the hearts of modern players when I say "Island, Aether Vial GO"
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Gonna head off the ban/unban discussion before it starts. Keep it in the banlist thread. Even making it as a joke can quickly spiral a thread into nonstop banlist talk, detracting from development and strategy.
Hopefully we'll bounce back next month. As I said on the ModernNexus thread, the meta is ripe for us (lots of Twin, Burn, and Jund; decreasing Affinity) to move back up to the top of the heap.
Looking at the changes, there isn't much shame in going to Tier 2 when Infect and Grixis Twin came with us. Huge lol at Grixis Delver going from Tier 2 to developing competitive.
I don't know about that. We won GPs, Top8'd in others, and were generally in contention througout 2015. That sounds very Tier 1-like. Even now, we missed the Tier 1 cutoff by 0.1% (it was 5%, and we're sitting at 4.9%). I predict this will be a blip on the radar, and that we'll bounce right back.
Hopefully we'll bounce back next month. As I said on the ModernNexus thread, the meta is ripe for us (lots of Twin, Burn, and Jund; decreasing Affinity) to move back up to the top of the heap.
My problem is the amount of local Tron. I'd pretty much rather see Affinity at this point than Tron. If I don't get matched up against Tron, or there's none playing in a given night, I've won a 5 round tournament playing out to 1st place. Nights where there's 3-4 GR Tron players...things don't go as well =/
If mystic gets unban, what do you guys think will be the equipment decks will start using? Batterskull? Are we really that afraid of Batterskull?
Evil Beware!....We have waffles.
"In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks." Calvin & Hobbes Quotes
Calvin : You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
Hobbes : What mood is that?
Calvin : Last-minute panic.
Decks I'm playing:
Modern: U Merfolk
Standard: I dislike Standard ATM
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Stoneforge Mystic possibly could get unbanned. It wouldn't be as busted as in legacy because they cannot fetch Umezawa's Jitte, it's banned in modern. She will still be great but I think we can manage with our Vapor Snags and Dismembers to deal with Batterskull. Batter skull is also in really bad shape in modern right now thanks to Kologhan's Command.
On the other hand she might have been made the promo to appeal to commander players that previously weren't willing to cough up so much money on her. If you want to play with her innocently then she looks like the perfect commander card.
Now that I think of it... Sword of Fire and Ice is a problem :S
Sygg, River Cutthroat wasn't considered because of his weak P/T stats and win-more draw effect, yes. We're not a Burn deck, so we don't have that "damage without attacking" reach that would make him decent. The interaction with fetches and shocks is cute, but given that a lot of people EOT fetch their shocks to dodge paying 2 life (or fetch + shock earlier in the game than Sygg could feasibly be out), I don't think it would come up much outside of a Dismember (which could be aimed at Sygg, thus spoiling the benefit). Thassa, God of the Sea has its faults, but it is at least much more resilient than Sygg. I don't think he's worth playing, honestly.
Mutavault is not in the Lands section of the primer because it's considered a core card in the deck. However, this has made me notice that I haven't written up a blurb for it in the Core section. I'll fix that.
The Mutavault vs. Cryptic Command interaction is as follows: you can typically dodge a Cryptic's tap-the-team effect with your Vault by declaring that you are entering the combat phase after main phase 1. Typically, a Cryptic player will then cast their Cryptic in order to tap your team. Once that's done, you can animate and attack with your Mutavault. One thing to note is that if your opponent waits until you animate your Vault to Cryptic, you're out of luck.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
And this right here is why Stoneforge Mystic will never be unbanned in Modern. It's so good, it probably makes the WU splash the best Merfolk deck available... and it's not even a Merfolk! Not gonna happen.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
I still wait to live the dream of randomly some FNM including Merfolk Assassin in my sideboard, and having it matter in the mirror! One day...
12 Island
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Mutavault
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Support
4 Æther Vial
4 Spreading Seas
4 Sea's Claim
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Cursecatcher
4 Master of Waves
3 Merrow Reejerey
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
2 Spell Pierce
3 Swan Song
2 Vapor Snag
3 Echoing Truth
2 Hibernation
3 Tidebinder Mage
Swan Song's stopped the Twin decks cold. They cast twin/keranos and you give them the bird
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
EDIT: People, including myself, are still dumbfounded that this deck is tier one. Makes me so proud to instill fear into the hearts of modern players when I say "Island, Aether Vial GO"
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
- Triple color protection on MoW
- Aggro/burn protection
- CONTROLLED card advantage
That last one is the tipping point for me. Drawing a card is fantastic, drawing a lord or MoW after they have been removed is even better
To learn more about the December metagame update, reflecting data collected throughout November, check out the following post below:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/566735-modern-metagame-breakdown-and-discussion-updated?comment=906
Gonna head off the ban/unban discussion before it starts. Keep it in the banlist thread. Even making it as a joke can quickly spiral a thread into nonstop banlist talk, detracting from development and strategy.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers: