No way to confirm is this is real life or just fantasy, but apparently two blocks from now, magic might go to Atlazan, an Atlantean like plane...SURELY we'll get some cool 'folk out of that block, yes?
Are you starting to see a big rise in Dredge and other graveyard dependent decks online like I am?? Especially in Legacy, but I've seen a spike in Modern too.
Also, is there a specific reason you pulled Minamo, School at Water's Edge? I know it wasn't really a big deal to run it anyway, but it just kinda stood out by not being there. You have essentially the same mainboard I do, I like it a lot!
I don't really see a ton more graveyard dependant decks in modern; I do in Legacy though. There is no Minamo to fight against the blood moon decks. The card is less likely to vapor snag a Kira than it is to be a mountain. I added a non basic in the form of Cavern anyway.
No way to confirm is this is real life or just fantasy, but apparently two blocks from now, magic might go to Atlazan, an Atlantean like plane...SURELY we'll get some cool 'folk out of that block, yes?
Gonna level with you bud, you made some decisions and comments I disagree with here. The first was not taking out Spreading Seas - it's mostly dead in the matchup. Seasing a Celestial Colonnade is not that good a play, and you can't count on them getting stuck on land like they did in this match. The second was Unified Will - it counters everything but Supreme Verdict, which makes his life a lot more difficult. You got the win and that's great, but I don't think your process was entirely sound.
Sea's won't ever be dead vs a 3 color deck with manlands and a loot land. PLus it adds to the synergy of MoW.
Unified Will is up in the air. I won't be concerned with Verdict, lists run 1 or none in the sideboard. More common is Anger. Will counters a diverse number of threats: Visions, PaKN, Nahiri, and Anger.
Pretty much the easiest 3-x I've ever had tonight. Some of the better players from my lgs were missing and I "lucked" into some freebies.
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: 2-0 vs. budget aristocrats.
My opponent was clearly a newer player with a terrible home brew. He "lucked" into beating his girlfriend (who was even newer than him) in round 1, which is the only reason we got paired up. Not much else to say.
Round 3: 2-0 vs. U/W control
Game 1: Was able to jam 3 lords early without having to worry too much about board wipes. I did Spell Pierce a Wrath, but had 2x mutas on the board along with a silvergill and 2x MoW in my hand and a pair of Vials on the board so wasn't particularly worried either way.
Game 2: -2 Spreading Seas, -1 Harbinger, +3 Unified Wills. I opted to keep a dense creature count to play around verdict rather than worry about trying to Relic a Snapcaster and worked fine. Managed to keep pressure on with just a Cursecatcher & Muta. Unified Willed a Snapcaster and finally vialed in a Lord for the kill while still holding a handful of creatures.
Notes: Not sure if he was playing without or simply didn't draw Ancestral Visions, but made my job a lot easier. He also played a Hollowed Fountain both games making my job super easy.
Round 4: 2-0 vs. Dredge
Game 1: I kept a hand with Island, Muta, Vial, Spreading Seas & 3x Silvergills. My opponent evidently kept a hand with zero dredgers and got off to a slow start while I was nothing but gas. T1 Vial, T2 Seas to take him off red then started dropping Fish until I drew into a Lord. Smooth sailing,
Game 2: -4 Cursecatcher, -3 Reej, -1 Vial, +3 Relic, +3 Tidebinder, +2 Snag. Considering myself lucky after his slow start game 1 I boarded hard for answers after seeing Lotleth Troll & Vengevine. He dredges for 8 (or something) putting 2x Amalgams, 2x Vengevines & 2x Gravecawlers into his gy and taps out for Lotleth. I play and pop relic. GG.
Note: Harbinger did work both games.
Pretty sad competition tonight, but I was pleased with both Spell Pierce in main and Unified Will out of board. My list was very close to Nikachus, but I opted for 1x Phimage over the 4th Reej and only ran 3x Relic so I could have a 3rd Tidebinder. Given my meta I can probably scale back on Gut Shot to add the 4th Relic back in and maybe even a Graffdiggers cage or 2, but I'm afraid the one time I do Affinity or Elves will make a surprise appearance. Ah well.
At this point, I'm willing to accept the loss to them if they do show up. They're less abundant than they've ever been. I'm really considering dropping my Hurkyl's Recalls for Sea's Claims in this metagame.
I dropped Hurkyls many months ago. Switched them for Gut Shots and Steel Sabotages, still somewhat useful against them but have other applications.
Affinity is usually prepared with Thoughtseize or Spell Pierce for my Recall and they are in low numbers at my LGS because of abundance of hate (red is the most played color).
I'm kinda tempted to test Repeal. It's a pretty versatile card that while a little more expensive has lots of targets in this meta and cantrips. It can buy early tempo and help smooth out the deck, similar to Remand IF it has enough valid 0 or 1 cmc targets. I had pretty good success with it against Affinity & Lantern, but it should have game against things like Elves, Infect, Zoo & Burn. It can also deal with things like Bridge in a longer match.
Or maybe I'm just crazy and it's not worth the cost. *shrug*
Below is a patchy report on what I remeber from a "4-round swiss cut to Top 4" Sunday Tournament @ my LGS today. After playing a lot of Eldrazi recently and facing Tron (my LGS loves tron), RG Ponza and Valakut (BTL; RG) decks I've felt that id get more mileage out of U Merfolk.
ROUND 1 vs Grixis Delver
I managed to sea's his only red source and he never draws another - I Harbinger'd an early delver and later dismember it - taking 7 damage before killing him. Game 2 he never drew anything much relevant besides a couple of bolts - Harbinger bouncing Delver and MoW easily close out the match.
SB'ing IN - 2x Gut Shot; 3x Spell Pierce; 2x Relic (cant remember exactly what I sided out). MVP - Harbinger and MoW..
ROUND 2 vs Orzhov 'Rogue'
Game 1 was pretty easy as I just Islandwalked to victory - however I didn't see much - just Bobs, Thalia and Kytheon. Game 2 I see Vial, Bobs, Brimaz, Displacer, Blade Splicer - Gut Shot keeps his Bob and Splicer in check for awhile - however my opponent is flickering a surviving Blade Splicer and lands a Worship (argh) which I cant answer. Sadly I never turn on Islandwalk which would have got me there prior to his Worship hitting the table. Game 3 Im hoping I can answer a Worship - fortunately for me he can't land Worship on the critical turn as he is forced to GQ one of my Mutavaults (dropping him 1 mana) and his own Thalia taxes him to the losers column.
SB IN - 1x E-Truth; 2x Gut Shot; 1x Unified Will. MVP - Gut Shot; opponents Thalia!
ROUND 3 vs Ad Nauseum
It takes me 2 turns to realize that the Darkslick Shores does not mean Delver. Not feeling good about Ad Nauseum. At all. Somehow I draw an army of Cursecatchers and steam roll him with gas before he can go off with Phyrexian Unlife on the table. Game 2 I draw a 7 with lots of interaction and not much gas - I keep. He opens with 2 Duress turns which means I lose my Unified will but I spell pierce the 2nd one to preserve my Echoing Truth. Im chipping away with Cursecatchers and a Harbinger. On the critical turn after hitting with a beefier board which now includes Lords I drop him to exactly zero with Unlife on the table. In the 2nd Main Phase I E-Truth his Unlife which he responds to by casting Ad Nauseum - fortunately my 2x Cursecatchers and back-up Spell Pierce tax his mana enough to prevent Ad Nauseum from resolving (1 ape was not enough).
ROUND 4 vs Junk (Flayer, Hierarch version - No Rhino's or Bob's). I could ID but I'm second overall and would prefer to be on the play in the top 4 - I feel like Junk is a great matchup for Merfolk.
Game 1 I greedily keep a 1-lander with Spreading Sea's and Silvergil - I have 2x 1 cmc plays - Cursecatcher and Snag. I do not draw a second land. Game 2 and 3 I don't remember much other then Tec Edges and having Islandwalk doing the job - TB Mage also awesome at tapping down Finks, Flayer's in one of the games where I didnt have islandwalk..
TOP 4 - SEMI-FINAL vs Death's Shadow Zoo
I know this will be tough - playing Chalice, Explosives or Worship - is usually how I beat this deck (playing Eldrazi) - however in their absence I have a decent amount of bounce spells/dudes and TB Mage. During game 1 my opponent draws only a couple of Swifty's which were bounced or otherwise dealt with despite playing several Git Probes, Baubles and Street Wraith's. He pretty much kills himself and it takes 2 or 3 swings with whatever Merfolk I had in play to win. Game 2 he's on the play and I just cant keep up - everything I play is chumping fodder that just delays the inevitable. It's during this game that I realize that Spreading Sea's is really bad against Sui Zoo - I side it out game 3. Game 3 comes down to him needing to push through lethal or dieing on the crack-back. He has Swifty and Nacatl with 4 mana open - however he is at 3 life - so he may have to pay actual mana for some of his spells - of which he has a pretty huge clutch - 5 cards in hand. I have 1 blue mana open and hold Pierce and E-Truth. He swings with everything and I have 2 Silvergil's and Master of Waves with 3 elemental tokens. I block with everything hoping to survive and knowing my Mutavaults will get me there if all my dudes die and Im alive to swing with them. In the end he just cant get there - at least 1 pump spell short - his previous main phase bauble and Git Probe plays didn't find him enough pump or lands to play around Pierce and deliver lethal.
MVPs - Spell Pierce, Snag
FINAL vs JUNK
This was the same guy from round 4. Really not much to say - Junk is a pretty easy matchup when you colour/land screw with Sea's and Tec Edge - I also had a Relic game 2 that kept a lot of his cards pretty impotent. Having said that if he drew a 2nd Path for my 2nd MoW I may have been in trouble - but he didn't and that was that.
//Mana
11 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Wanderwine Hub
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
//Creatures
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of Waves
4 Harbinger of the Tides
3 Tidebinder Mage
2 Merrow Reejerey
Anyone have any experience against this new esper transcendent deck. I played it yesterday and it seemed like a favorable match up for us, but I'm not sure because my opponent wasn't playing well.
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Um. Uh....omgimsoexcite!!
Incoming merfolk looter reprint and that's it, or creature type "fish" to mess with us
This should be awesome for us. Here's to hoping!
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Finally! I feel neglected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPzcXT2lOK8
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Unified Will is up in the air. I won't be concerned with Verdict, lists run 1 or none in the sideboard. More common is Anger. Will counters a diverse number of threats: Visions, PaKN, Nahiri, and Anger.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: 2-0 vs. budget aristocrats.
My opponent was clearly a newer player with a terrible home brew. He "lucked" into beating his girlfriend (who was even newer than him) in round 1, which is the only reason we got paired up. Not much else to say.
Round 3: 2-0 vs. U/W control
Game 1: Was able to jam 3 lords early without having to worry too much about board wipes. I did Spell Pierce a Wrath, but had 2x mutas on the board along with a silvergill and 2x MoW in my hand and a pair of Vials on the board so wasn't particularly worried either way.
Game 2: -2 Spreading Seas, -1 Harbinger, +3 Unified Wills. I opted to keep a dense creature count to play around verdict rather than worry about trying to Relic a Snapcaster and worked fine. Managed to keep pressure on with just a Cursecatcher & Muta. Unified Willed a Snapcaster and finally vialed in a Lord for the kill while still holding a handful of creatures.
Notes: Not sure if he was playing without or simply didn't draw Ancestral Visions, but made my job a lot easier. He also played a Hollowed Fountain both games making my job super easy.
Round 4: 2-0 vs. Dredge
Game 1: I kept a hand with Island, Muta, Vial, Spreading Seas & 3x Silvergills. My opponent evidently kept a hand with zero dredgers and got off to a slow start while I was nothing but gas. T1 Vial, T2 Seas to take him off red then started dropping Fish until I drew into a Lord. Smooth sailing,
Game 2: -4 Cursecatcher, -3 Reej, -1 Vial, +3 Relic, +3 Tidebinder, +2 Snag. Considering myself lucky after his slow start game 1 I boarded hard for answers after seeing Lotleth Troll & Vengevine. He dredges for 8 (or something) putting 2x Amalgams, 2x Vengevines & 2x Gravecawlers into his gy and taps out for Lotleth. I play and pop relic. GG.
Note: Harbinger did work both games.
Pretty sad competition tonight, but I was pleased with both Spell Pierce in main and Unified Will out of board. My list was very close to Nikachus, but I opted for 1x Phimage over the 4th Reej and only ran 3x Relic so I could have a 3rd Tidebinder. Given my meta I can probably scale back on Gut Shot to add the 4th Relic back in and maybe even a Graffdiggers cage or 2, but I'm afraid the one time I do Affinity or Elves will make a surprise appearance. Ah well.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Affinity is usually prepared with Thoughtseize or Spell Pierce for my Recall and they are in low numbers at my LGS because of abundance of hate (red is the most played color).
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
Or maybe I'm just crazy and it's not worth the cost. *shrug*
ROUND 1 vs Grixis Delver
I managed to sea's his only red source and he never draws another - I Harbinger'd an early delver and later dismember it - taking 7 damage before killing him. Game 2 he never drew anything much relevant besides a couple of bolts - Harbinger bouncing Delver and MoW easily close out the match.
SB'ing IN - 2x Gut Shot; 3x Spell Pierce; 2x Relic (cant remember exactly what I sided out). MVP - Harbinger and MoW..
ROUND 2 vs Orzhov 'Rogue'
Game 1 was pretty easy as I just Islandwalked to victory - however I didn't see much - just Bobs, Thalia and Kytheon. Game 2 I see Vial, Bobs, Brimaz, Displacer, Blade Splicer - Gut Shot keeps his Bob and Splicer in check for awhile - however my opponent is flickering a surviving Blade Splicer and lands a Worship (argh) which I cant answer. Sadly I never turn on Islandwalk which would have got me there prior to his Worship hitting the table. Game 3 Im hoping I can answer a Worship - fortunately for me he can't land Worship on the critical turn as he is forced to GQ one of my Mutavaults (dropping him 1 mana) and his own Thalia taxes him to the losers column.
SB IN - 1x E-Truth; 2x Gut Shot; 1x Unified Will. MVP - Gut Shot; opponents Thalia!
ROUND 3 vs Ad Nauseum
It takes me 2 turns to realize that the Darkslick Shores does not mean Delver. Not feeling good about Ad Nauseum. At all. Somehow I draw an army of Cursecatchers and steam roll him with gas before he can go off with Phyrexian Unlife on the table. Game 2 I draw a 7 with lots of interaction and not much gas - I keep. He opens with 2 Duress turns which means I lose my Unified will but I spell pierce the 2nd one to preserve my Echoing Truth. Im chipping away with Cursecatchers and a Harbinger. On the critical turn after hitting with a beefier board which now includes Lords I drop him to exactly zero with Unlife on the table. In the 2nd Main Phase I E-Truth his Unlife which he responds to by casting Ad Nauseum - fortunately my 2x Cursecatchers and back-up Spell Pierce tax his mana enough to prevent Ad Nauseum from resolving (1 ape was not enough).
SB IN - 1x E-Truth; 1x Unified Will; 4x Spell Pierce. MVPs - Cursecatcher, E-Truth, Spell Pierce.
ROUND 4 vs Junk (Flayer, Hierarch version - No Rhino's or Bob's). I could ID but I'm second overall and would prefer to be on the play in the top 4 - I feel like Junk is a great matchup for Merfolk.
Game 1 I greedily keep a 1-lander with Spreading Sea's and Silvergil - I have 2x 1 cmc plays - Cursecatcher and Snag. I do not draw a second land. Game 2 and 3 I don't remember much other then Tec Edges and having Islandwalk doing the job - TB Mage also awesome at tapping down Finks, Flayer's in one of the games where I didnt have islandwalk..
SB IN: 3x Tec Edge; 2x Relic; 2x Dismember; 2x Gutshot; 1x E-Truth. OUT - 2x Catcher; 4x Vial; 2x Island; 2x Vapor Snag.
TOP 4 - SEMI-FINAL vs Death's Shadow Zoo
I know this will be tough - playing Chalice, Explosives or Worship - is usually how I beat this deck (playing Eldrazi) - however in their absence I have a decent amount of bounce spells/dudes and TB Mage. During game 1 my opponent draws only a couple of Swifty's which were bounced or otherwise dealt with despite playing several Git Probes, Baubles and Street Wraith's. He pretty much kills himself and it takes 2 or 3 swings with whatever Merfolk I had in play to win. Game 2 he's on the play and I just cant keep up - everything I play is chumping fodder that just delays the inevitable. It's during this game that I realize that Spreading Sea's is really bad against Sui Zoo - I side it out game 3. Game 3 comes down to him needing to push through lethal or dieing on the crack-back. He has Swifty and Nacatl with 4 mana open - however he is at 3 life - so he may have to pay actual mana for some of his spells - of which he has a pretty huge clutch - 5 cards in hand. I have 1 blue mana open and hold Pierce and E-Truth. He swings with everything and I have 2 Silvergil's and Master of Waves with 3 elemental tokens. I block with everything hoping to survive and knowing my Mutavaults will get me there if all my dudes die and Im alive to swing with them. In the end he just cant get there - at least 1 pump spell short - his previous main phase bauble and Git Probe plays didn't find him enough pump or lands to play around Pierce and deliver lethal.
MVPs - Spell Pierce, Snag
FINAL vs JUNK
This was the same guy from round 4. Really not much to say - Junk is a pretty easy matchup when you colour/land screw with Sea's and Tec Edge - I also had a Relic game 2 that kept a lot of his cards pretty impotent. Having said that if he drew a 2nd Path for my 2nd MoW I may have been in trouble - but he didn't and that was that.
//Mana
11 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Wanderwine Hub
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
//Creatures
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of Waves
4 Harbinger of the Tides
3 Tidebinder Mage
2 Merrow Reejerey
//Non-creature spells
4 Æther Vial
4 Spreading Seas
2 Vapor Snag
1 Dismember
//Sideboard
SB: 4 Spell Pierce
SB: 3 Tectonic Edge
SB: 2 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 Gut Shot
SB: 2 Dismember
SB: 1 Unified Will
SB: 1 Echoing Truth
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver