0 Cavern of Souls in a metagame where Jeskai is Tier 1 and Grixis is Tier 2? Living a bit dangerously there, don't you think?
Grixis plays with little to no counters. The UWR version does play with them, but we still play with Vial. I don't want the Caverns to make the rest of the deck clunky. They WILL side out some number of counters as well because they will assume we play wth Cavern and they know I have Vial.
Funny thing is, as I was listening to the deck Tech video I just kept thinking "all the interactions he is talking about, and cards he is mentioning work out so well for Merfolk"
I know those of us watching the video are working with better info than the player is, but I don't think it was a very tight game. Not the fastest draws either though, especially Game 1.
Bushwhacker Zoo
Play
+1 Master of Waves
+1 Tidebinder Mage
+2 Tectonic Edge
-4 Aether Vial
Why tech edge here? Isn't this deck perfectly content with 4 lands?
EDIT: Or maybe I should watch video?
Ad Nauseam
-4 Dismember
-4 Spreading Seas
+2 Gut Shot
+1 Spell Pierce
+2 Negate
+3 Tectonic Edge
What are the gutshots for?
If I remove Aether Vial, I usually want a few lands to help me curve out. Ad Nauseam can stall a turn by playing Angel's Grace reducing their life total to one from a lethal attack. Gut Shot allows us to kill them on their upkeep next turn.
3-2 in my first course through the "competitive" league
RD1: Bant Eldrazi (piloted by Pascal Maynard ) 2-0
RD2: Infect 2-1
RD3: Zoo 1-2 (i had bad mulligans and got crushed by ghor-clan rampager)
RD4: Kiki Chord 1-2 (punted game 3 )
RD5: Jeskai Nahiri 2-1 (crushed him G1 then 2 super close games)
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Modern U Merfolk U WUBRGPeopleGRBUW U Turbo Turns U UB Fae BU WBG Aristocrats GBW
When Merfolk guy blocked Finks at 17:35 I snap closed my browser, that was grotesque
Since I can't/won't watch to the end I am missing a point in posting link to this.
When Merfolk guy blocked Finks at 17:35 I snap closed my browser, that was grotesque
Since I can't/won't watch to the end I am missing a point in posting link to this.
yeah i wanted to barf at that too. he won that game though.
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Modern U Merfolk U WUBRGPeopleGRBUW U Turbo Turns U UB Fae BU WBG Aristocrats GBW
3-2 in my first course through the "competitive" league
RD1: Bant Eldrazi (piloted by Pascal Maynard ) 2-0
RD2: Infect 2-1
RD3: Zoo 1-2 (i had bad mulligans and got crushed by ghor-clan rampager)
RD4: Kiki Chord 1-2 (punted game 3 )
RD5: Jeskai Nahiri 2-1 (crushed him G1 then 2 super close games)
swapped out 2 of my 3 vapor snags for dismembers and added a 2nd kira to the board and went through again. 4-1
beat G/R Tron 2-1, Bogles 2-1, Jeskai Control (no nahiri i think, he never cast it at least) 2-1, Bant Eldrazi 2-1. Lost to Jeskai Nahiri control 0-2
The Bogles win was so satisfying since it was the first time i've played against it since getting beat in the semi-finals at SCG states. Maindeck echoing truth won me Game 1. He had a Gladecover scout with an ethereal armor and a daybreak coronet on it. bounced the armor for the blowout to win game 1. Game 3 i left the 1 vapor snag in and it won me the game. cursecatcher blocked a huge suited up lifelinker without trample and i bounced it before damage to prevent him from gaining 9 life. won on the crack back.
1 maindeck Echoing Truth is a staple for me in this deck for the foreseeable future. It wins me games where i otherwise would lose all the time.
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Modern U Merfolk U WUBRGPeopleGRBUW U Turbo Turns U UB Fae BU WBG Aristocrats GBW
This was his first night piloting this deck. He normally runs R/G Tron, so I was happy to see this instead. He kept what he thought would be good hands, but they ended up being too slow. I got him pretty easily both games.
Round 2, Possibility Storm Combo, 2-0
Game 1 I just beat him to death before he even tried for his combo, nothing fancy. Game 2, I draw 1 Mutavault and 6 blue cards. Mulligan to 6, draw 1 Mutavault and 5 blue cards. I go to 5, draw 5 lands and a Swan Song. I keep. End up drawing a few creatures and a Sea's Claim and Spreading Seas. I keep him off red for a while, beat him down to 7 with lethal on board for the next turn and one island untapped. His turn he finally gets his red and casts Possibility Storm, I Swan Song it.
Round 3, Infect (BUG varient), 2-1
Game 1 I manage to keep dropping chump blockers and finally get him. Game two, he gets out a turn two Blighted Agent. I try to Snag it after he pumps, but he casts Simic Charm to give it hexproof. He kills me next turn. Game three goes a little more like game one. I manage to keep blocking his stuff and have a Spell Pierce in hand for when he tries to pump for lethal. I get him.
Round 4, Scapeshift (4-color RGUW Bring to Light)
Game 1 I manage to out race his combo. Game two is super grindy. He wipes my board, I start recovering with Silvergill Adepts, but he lands a Huntmaster of the Fells. I had a Spreading Seas on him, but no lords. He has Huntmaster, the Wolf token, and a Snapcaster. I tap down his Huntmaster with a Tidebinder, but if I swing in we trade evenly. Next turn, same state, 2 Silvergills and one Tidebinder. We draw-go for a few turns. I should have swung in earlier, but I was hoping to draw a lord for the islandwalk. I never did and by the time I started swinging it was too late. Game three I just had a blazing fast hand, killed him on turn five. I believe it was T1 Aether Vial into T2 Cursecatcher/Silvergill into T3 Reejerey/Master of the Pearl Trident into T4 Reejerey.He landed a Obstinate Baloth, which bought him a turn, but I was just too fast for him.
Good stuff, Alien Misprint, especially on dropping Bring to LightScapeshift. As for the Game 2 against BUG Infect... this is why many of us recommend to use bounce/removal on their creatures during your main phase, as it minimizes the consequences of getting blown out (though in your case, it might not have mattered).
Round 1 vs. Junk (2-0)
Coasted pretty easily. A T3 Reejery/Phimage on game 1 lead to 5x Lords in play on T4 with a Cursecather, Tidebinder & Mutavault to boot. Game 2 was a little slower, but same basic result; lots of lords leading up to MoW.
-3 Vial, +3 Tec Edge, +1
Round 2 vs. Mono Black Devotion (2-0)
Took some early hits from Gravecrawler & Bloodghast, but after a few turns my dudes where bigger than his dudes. Harbinger helped keep devotion down by bouncing a Messenger and MoW sealed the deal. Game 2 played out pretty similarly.
-3 Tidebinder, +2 Relic, +1 Graffdiggers Cage.
Round 3 vs. R/G Tron (1-2)
Game 1 I was able to keep Tron offline with Seas and had a fairly clear avenue. Fortunately he never managed to pop Oblivion Stone. Game 2 I had Mutavault & an Island but could never find my 2nd blue source while holding a handful of lords. Managed to get off 2 Seas's effects and a Tec edge, but once Stone popped and Tron went online it was all over. Game 3 I Phimaged Ulamog and we traded blows a few turns. I was at 25 life with 26 cards in my deck, he had 4 life and 2 cards left in his. He top decked an Oblivion Stone, targed my Phimage to get rid of it and then got rid of me. Sad way to go.
-3 Tidebinder, -2 MoW, -3 Reejery, +3 Tec Edge, +2 Echoing Truth, +3 Unified Will
Round 4 vs. Zoo (1-2)
On the draw I kept a 1 land hand with Vial, not knowing what I was up against. I think I was dead T3. On the play I Spreading Seas'd his 1 land and he scooped a few turns later. On the draw again for game 3; mulled to 5 unable to find blue sources of mana. Got rolled again.
-4 Vial (on the draw), +2 Tec Edge, +2 Dispel. +4 Vial (on the play), -2 Tec Edge, -2 Reejery.
Notes: I had major issues finding double blue with only 19 lands. Even the games/matches I won I had a couple of 1 landers that I kept due to Vial and when I did have 2 lands one of them always seemed to be a Mutavault. Maybe just variance, but I'm going back to 20 just the same.
Last time I played Tidebinder was amazing in the meta at my LGS. Today he was a grizzly bear that almost always would have been better off being just about any other card. Granted I managed to avoid Abzan (which I'd previously seen a TON of) and I died so fast to Zoo that he never got a chance to do anything, but based on what I saw he's probably headed back to SB.
Didn't get a ton of opportunities to test out Unified Will, but I attribute that more to my mana issues. I never remember thinking "I wish this were a Negate". Dispel on the other hand would have been much useful had it been a Spell Pierce.
Didn't miss Recall at all. Not a lot of Affinity at any of the shops I frequent and Lantern Control is even more rare. I'm OK taking my chances atm. Surprisingly I didn't miss Kira either, but I guess having 33 creatures in your deck will do that. Easy to simply play another one.
The 2x Dismembers never entered my deck, but based on what I saw I'm not sure Snag would have either. Still, I think if I'm going to skimp on the removal I'm happier to have a hard answer for something like Kalitas. Harbinger/Tidebinder(+Phimage)/ETruth do a good enough job of dealing with most other threats I'd be snagging anyway.
Which btw, Echoing Truth is still awesome. If I were gonna put some sorta removal back in MB (maybe in place of Tidebinder) this is probably what it would be. Soooo versatile.
Overall I thought I actually played well - no real glaring errors in play. I could perhaps be a bit more aggressive with mulls, but feel keeping 1 landers with Vial is kinda justifiable and when I did mull things didn't seem to improve. Spent most of the night battling my mana base, but these things happen. *shrug*
Thanks for the report! On the subject of 19 vs. 20 lands, MerfolkJoe ran a pretty detailed mathematical analysis as part of his testing of Sea Gate Wreckage (which you can find here) that established that 20 lands was pretty convincingly the way to go. Some builds can get away with 19, but overall I'm recommending 20. And yeah, if you're going to be skipping out on Hurkyl's Recall, Echoing Truth is definitely the way to go. Super versatile card.
YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Anyone counting might notice that my mainboard currently has 61 cards: this is because I want the fullplayset of Tidebinders in my 75, and want to have 22 lands in matchups where I side out vial. The singleton tectonic edge in the main can also move to side as I believe the difference between 19 and 20 lands is arbitrary, but I do want 22 lands total.
So the question is: what is the worst card out of these 76 that I should cut?
Thanks for the report! On the subject of 19 vs. 20 lands, MerfolkJoe ran a pretty detailed mathematical analysis as part of his testing of Sea Gate Wreckage (which you can find here) that established that 20 lands was pretty convincingly the way to go.
Well done Merfolk Joe. This whole experiment was very in-depth and extremely insightful. I probably would of missed this video if Rothgar hadn't re-posted it here. At the moment I don't regularly visit your videos or channel, but this video has shown me what I have been missing out on. You seem like a very knowledgeable fish player, and I look forward to watching more of your videos.
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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
Funny thing is, as I was listening to the deck Tech video I just kept thinking "all the interactions he is talking about, and cards he is mentioning work out so well for Merfolk"
I know those of us watching the video are working with better info than the player is, but I don't think it was a very tight game. Not the fastest draws either though, especially Game 1.
Why tech edge here? Isn't this deck perfectly content with 4 lands?
EDIT: Or maybe I should watch video?
What are the gutshots for?
RD1: Bant Eldrazi (piloted by Pascal Maynard ) 2-0
RD2: Infect 2-1
RD3: Zoo 1-2 (i had bad mulligans and got crushed by ghor-clan rampager)
RD4: Kiki Chord 1-2 (punted game 3 )
RD5: Jeskai Nahiri 2-1 (crushed him G1 then 2 super close games)
U Merfolk U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW
When Merfolk guy blocked Finks at 17:35 I snap closed my browser, that was grotesque
Since I can't/won't watch to the end I am missing a point in posting link to this.
yeah i wanted to barf at that too. he won that game though.
U Merfolk U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW
swapped out 2 of my 3 vapor snags for dismembers and added a 2nd kira to the board and went through again. 4-1
beat G/R Tron 2-1, Bogles 2-1, Jeskai Control (no nahiri i think, he never cast it at least) 2-1, Bant Eldrazi 2-1. Lost to Jeskai Nahiri control 0-2
The Bogles win was so satisfying since it was the first time i've played against it since getting beat in the semi-finals at SCG states. Maindeck echoing truth won me Game 1. He had a Gladecover scout with an ethereal armor and a daybreak coronet on it. bounced the armor for the blowout to win game 1. Game 3 i left the 1 vapor snag in and it won me the game. cursecatcher blocked a huge suited up lifelinker without trample and i bounced it before damage to prevent him from gaining 9 life. won on the crack back.
1 maindeck Echoing Truth is a staple for me in this deck for the foreseeable future. It wins me games where i otherwise would lose all the time.
U Merfolk U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Mutavault
1 Wanderwine Hub
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
8 Island
Creatures 29
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Tidebinder Mage
2 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
3 Master of Waves
4 Spreading Seas
4 Aether Vial
2 Dismember
2 Spell Pierce
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Vapor Snag
4 Sea's Claim
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2 Swan Song
Round 1, Green Moon (Land Destruction), 2-0
This was his first night piloting this deck. He normally runs R/G Tron, so I was happy to see this instead. He kept what he thought would be good hands, but they ended up being too slow. I got him pretty easily both games.
Round 2, Possibility Storm Combo, 2-0
Game 1 I just beat him to death before he even tried for his combo, nothing fancy. Game 2, I draw 1 Mutavault and 6 blue cards. Mulligan to 6, draw 1 Mutavault and 5 blue cards. I go to 5, draw 5 lands and a Swan Song. I keep. End up drawing a few creatures and a Sea's Claim and Spreading Seas. I keep him off red for a while, beat him down to 7 with lethal on board for the next turn and one island untapped. His turn he finally gets his red and casts Possibility Storm, I Swan Song it.
Round 3, Infect (BUG varient), 2-1
Game 1 I manage to keep dropping chump blockers and finally get him. Game two, he gets out a turn two Blighted Agent. I try to Snag it after he pumps, but he casts Simic Charm to give it hexproof. He kills me next turn. Game three goes a little more like game one. I manage to keep blocking his stuff and have a Spell Pierce in hand for when he tries to pump for lethal. I get him.
Round 4, Scapeshift (4-color RGUW Bring to Light)
Game 1 I manage to out race his combo. Game two is super grindy. He wipes my board, I start recovering with Silvergill Adepts, but he lands a Huntmaster of the Fells. I had a Spreading Seas on him, but no lords. He has Huntmaster, the Wolf token, and a Snapcaster. I tap down his Huntmaster with a Tidebinder, but if I swing in we trade evenly. Next turn, same state, 2 Silvergills and one Tidebinder. We draw-go for a few turns. I should have swung in earlier, but I was hoping to draw a lord for the islandwalk. I never did and by the time I started swinging it was too late. Game three I just had a blazing fast hand, killed him on turn five. I believe it was T1 Aether Vial into T2 Cursecatcher/Silvergill into T3 Reejerey/Master of the Pearl Trident into T4 Reejerey.He landed a Obstinate Baloth, which bought him a turn, but I was just too fast for him.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Modern Merfolk vs:
Jund (Match One)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTO2_0UVQpM
Jund (Match Two)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R-ssykTg7s
Infect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL_UKXf8lkM
Eldrazi and Taxes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1K-Xap-o7k
GR Devotion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=079MAw6n_l0
Grixis Control
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROWoTQmFdTM
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
4x Silvergill Adept
3x Harbinger of the Tide
3x Tidebinder Mage
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
4x Phantasmal Image
3x Merrow Reejery
4x Master of Waves
4x Spreading Seas
4x Mutavault
2x Cavern of Souls
1x Oboro
1x Minamo
2x Wanderwine Hub
9x Island
3x Tec Edge
3x Unified Will
2x Dispel
2x Relic
1x Graffdigger's Cage
2x Dismember
2x Echoing Truth
Round 1 vs. Junk (2-0)
Coasted pretty easily. A T3 Reejery/Phimage on game 1 lead to 5x Lords in play on T4 with a Cursecather, Tidebinder & Mutavault to boot. Game 2 was a little slower, but same basic result; lots of lords leading up to MoW.
-3 Vial, +3 Tec Edge, +1
Round 2 vs. Mono Black Devotion (2-0)
Took some early hits from Gravecrawler & Bloodghast, but after a few turns my dudes where bigger than his dudes. Harbinger helped keep devotion down by bouncing a Messenger and MoW sealed the deal. Game 2 played out pretty similarly.
-3 Tidebinder, +2 Relic, +1 Graffdiggers Cage.
Round 3 vs. R/G Tron (1-2)
Game 1 I was able to keep Tron offline with Seas and had a fairly clear avenue. Fortunately he never managed to pop Oblivion Stone. Game 2 I had Mutavault & an Island but could never find my 2nd blue source while holding a handful of lords. Managed to get off 2 Seas's effects and a Tec edge, but once Stone popped and Tron went online it was all over. Game 3 I Phimaged Ulamog and we traded blows a few turns. I was at 25 life with 26 cards in my deck, he had 4 life and 2 cards left in his. He top decked an Oblivion Stone, targed my Phimage to get rid of it and then got rid of me. Sad way to go.
-3 Tidebinder, -2 MoW, -3 Reejery, +3 Tec Edge, +2 Echoing Truth, +3 Unified Will
Round 4 vs. Zoo (1-2)
On the draw I kept a 1 land hand with Vial, not knowing what I was up against. I think I was dead T3. On the play I Spreading Seas'd his 1 land and he scooped a few turns later. On the draw again for game 3; mulled to 5 unable to find blue sources of mana. Got rolled again.
-4 Vial (on the draw), +2 Tec Edge, +2 Dispel. +4 Vial (on the play), -2 Tec Edge, -2 Reejery.
Notes: I had major issues finding double blue with only 19 lands. Even the games/matches I won I had a couple of 1 landers that I kept due to Vial and when I did have 2 lands one of them always seemed to be a Mutavault. Maybe just variance, but I'm going back to 20 just the same.
Last time I played Tidebinder was amazing in the meta at my LGS. Today he was a grizzly bear that almost always would have been better off being just about any other card. Granted I managed to avoid Abzan (which I'd previously seen a TON of) and I died so fast to Zoo that he never got a chance to do anything, but based on what I saw he's probably headed back to SB.
Didn't get a ton of opportunities to test out Unified Will, but I attribute that more to my mana issues. I never remember thinking "I wish this were a Negate". Dispel on the other hand would have been much useful had it been a Spell Pierce.
Didn't miss Recall at all. Not a lot of Affinity at any of the shops I frequent and Lantern Control is even more rare. I'm OK taking my chances atm. Surprisingly I didn't miss Kira either, but I guess having 33 creatures in your deck will do that. Easy to simply play another one.
The 2x Dismembers never entered my deck, but based on what I saw I'm not sure Snag would have either. Still, I think if I'm going to skimp on the removal I'm happier to have a hard answer for something like Kalitas. Harbinger/Tidebinder(+Phimage)/ETruth do a good enough job of dealing with most other threats I'd be snagging anyway.
Which btw, Echoing Truth is still awesome. If I were gonna put some sorta removal back in MB (maybe in place of Tidebinder) this is probably what it would be. Soooo versatile.
Overall I thought I actually played well - no real glaring errors in play. I could perhaps be a bit more aggressive with mulls, but feel keeping 1 landers with Vial is kinda justifiable and when I did mull things didn't seem to improve. Spent most of the night battling my mana base, but these things happen. *shrug*
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
4 Mutavault
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Harbinger of the Tides
3 Merrow Reejerey
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Master of Waves
4 Spreading Seas
2 Spell Pierce
1 Vapor Snag
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Negate
2 Gut Shot
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tidebinder Mage
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Dispel
1 Pithing Needle
Making room for Tec Edge seems mandatory, so down on Hurkyl's and hope to dodge affinity.
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Master of Waves
2 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2 Tidebinder Mage
Spells 13
4 AEther Vial
4 Spreading Seas
3 Dismember
2 Spell Pierce
9 Island
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
2 Wanderwine Hub
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Tectonic Edge
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Negate
2 Tidebinder Mage
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Dispel
Anyone counting might notice that my mainboard currently has 61 cards: this is because I want the fullplayset of Tidebinders in my 75, and want to have 22 lands in matchups where I side out vial. The singleton tectonic edge in the main can also move to side as I believe the difference between 19 and 20 lands is arbitrary, but I do want 22 lands total.
So the question is: what is the worst card out of these 76 that I should cut?
Well done Merfolk Joe. This whole experiment was very in-depth and extremely insightful. I probably would of missed this video if Rothgar hadn't re-posted it here. At the moment I don't regularly visit your videos or channel, but this video has shown me what I have been missing out on. You seem like a very knowledgeable fish player, and I look forward to watching more of your videos.
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