MTG Salvation

Quote from rothgar13 »

I don't think Naban will do much for us, to be honest. At this point, I don't think I can play all of the Merfolk I want to, so non-Merfolk are just out of the question. I think that once you start messing around with it, you end up in a different deck.

4 is definitely overkill, but a singleton copy (or *maybe* 2) isn't any worse than Kira, Clique or Looter Scooter which have all been embraced by large segments of the Merfolk community. A good argument could be made for Naban offering greater synergy than any of those other three.

I think the better question will be whether it's playable without vial on board. Doubling up triggers is awesome, but unlike those other 3 cards I mentioned Naban doesnt offer any natural interaction or evasion on its own and running it out on T2 right into Bolt/Push feels bad. You practically need vial at the ready to make sure you get at least some value in the 3 seconds Naban is on the board.

Still, getting him down on T3/T4 with Vial, Trickster or counterspell backup could prove a powerful mid-game engine.

I had small pause from Modern (a month or so) but returned today for Modern League (paper).
5 rounds, no top8. I expected lots of Affinity, Lantern and other creature decks so I wanted Ballista package to mow (not MoW) them down.

Mulled to 4 against GR haste deck, then drew 8 lands in game 2 but my 3/3 Ballista and other fish got mass removed, which was not expected from small creature beatdown deck. Luckily, he gave me the win because he had better things to do 0:2 2:0

R2 vs Jund
He accidentally dropped BBE and Swamp (the odds...) so I knew to keep the one lander, I got there because I had more material. Nice play was when he -2 Liliana my only dude on turn 3, turn 4 there is Ballista with 2 counters 1 counter
Then triple Seas into Kira sealed his fate. 2:0

Hollow one dumped his hand on turn2 for 12 power, which is just stupid.
I kept one lander and started with Cursecatcher, countered his Looting, but I had no second land on turn2 for my Relic which just watched him Looting 2 Bloodghasts, cycle Street Wraith into 2 Hollow Ones... I guess there is a reason why H One is legal? 0:2

Living End in round 4 was fun. I applied just enough pressure to make him do it while keeping gas in hand. He Ended then I traded with his creatures just enough to have some attackers and still have dead dudes if he decides to End again. Vial is important in all that. Won game1 and kept funny hand (onelander, triple Vial, Relic, Cursecatcher, Lord). I expected his Ingot Chewer to destroy the first Vial so other artifacts have more chance to do stuff. But he didn't have it so Pierce, 2 Cursecatchers, Negate and Relic stopped him from comboing of. 2:0

RG Ponza had slow start so I cast 2 Waves which are more or less indestructible, he died with 5 lands and 2 red Titans in hand.
Game2 I kept noVial, twolander. 2 Adepts drew nothing and I got Choked. After discarding 3 Waves eot I managed to draw Vial, play it with Oboro (mvp obv) and populate the board. He drew lands. 2:0

4:1, I was 12th out of 94 players in the League, probably moving up after today, 7 more tournaments until Masters and Invitational (new one on the menu).
I have to make space for Tricksters but there is time until next Modern.

I have been considering buying into merfolk for modern. I have a lot of the pieces. Only need to get a new set of vials, vaults and small amounts of other things. Just got back into playing. Want a deck that will last and be competitive for a while. Is merfolk worth getting back into now? I am not trying to win a gp or anything big but want to have a good shot every Fnm.

Quote from Dead_folk »

I have been considering buying into merfolk for modern. I have a lot of the pieces. Only need to get a new set of vials, vaults and small amounts of other things. Just got back into playing. Want a deck that will last and be competitive for a while. Is merfolk worth getting back into now? I am not trying to win a gp or anything big but want to have a good shot every Fnm.

Eldrazi Tron seems best overall. it can mana ramp, drop large undercoated creatures, is proactive and can play control.

Quote from Dead_folk »

I have been considering buying into merfolk for modern. I have a lot of the pieces. Only need to get a new set of vials, vaults and small amounts of other things. Just got back into playing. Want a deck that will last and be competitive for a while. Is merfolk worth getting back into now? I am not trying to win a gp or anything big but want to have a good shot every Fnm.

Merfolk can definitely do all of those things (according to the Day 2 breakdown of GP Hartford, we had 4 pilots make it), and reinforcements are on the horizon with Merfolk Trickster.

Quote from truth_bomb »

Quote from Dead_folk »

I have been considering buying into merfolk for modern. I have a lot of the pieces. Only need to get a new set of vials, vaults and small amounts of other things. Just got back into playing. Want a deck that will last and be competitive for a while. Is merfolk worth getting back into now? I am not trying to win a gp or anything big but want to have a good shot every Fnm.

Eldrazi Tron seems best overall. it can mana ramp, drop large undercoated creatures, is proactive and can play control.

This is the Merfolk thread, you seem to be lost. And as someone who dabbles in E-Tron on the side, I can tell you that its positioning is kind of shaky right now. It does not like to face classic Tron, and it goes belly-up against Humans (2 matchups where Merfolk has a ton of game).

Speaking of which, Humans has been tough for me. Any advice?

Tidebinder Mage and good old Vapor Snag put in a lot of work against Humans. If you face them a lot, Snag gains a lot of value. It pops Phantasmal Image, resets Champion of the Parish, and sends Mantis Rider packing.

Hi! First time poster here at MTGSalvation. I've recently picked up Mono-U Merfolk and started playing in Friendly Leagues on MTG (this is my first foray into modern). I'm not great with a deck and after 5-6 leagues I'm slightly below .500 win percentage overall. I am looking for advice on SB as well as start to better understand all the matchups and what are the important cards in each matchup. I'm running a list similar to the one Shadowwarrior346 posted on the previous page and it can be found below (basically no cavern of souls). Here are some notes/thoughts from my most recent league.

Match 1: Skred (Lost 0-2)
I played a creature each of the first 4 turns but they were all removed. I dropped two creatures on turn 5 but because I did not have a lord, I was stonewalled by a bedlam reveler. He stabilized from this point on and wiped my board with anger of the gods, and then cleaned up the remaining creatures I played with point removal and Pia/Kiraan Nalaar.

In game 2, I played curse catcher (removed) -> silvergill -> meerow. This was probably a mistake because I gave him a 2 for 1 with Anger of the Gods. From this point all he had removals for all of my subsequent threats and I lost.

SB: -4 Spreading Seas // +3 Tidebinder +1 Kira

In retrospect, I would have sided in the Relics to shut down Bedlam Reveler and just ride out their removals, perhaps holding back so anger of the gods isn't too much of a blow out. I'm not sure Tidebinder really does anything. If Bedlam Reveler hits it's likely that I've lost since he's getting a lot of card advantage and he can trade 1 for 1 or better.

Match 2: Humans(Lost 1-2)

The human deck did not have their nut draw in any of their games. I drew pretty good starting hands. The two games I lost played out pretty much the same way. I had on-curve plays but I did not have vial. He had one or more vials, with 1-2 reflector mages and 2-3 phantasmal images. He would play the reflector mage to bounce my lords and his creatures power and toughness lined up pretty well against my creatures. I had a chance but in game 1 I didn't expect him to have 3 phantasmal images. In the game that I won he had on curve plays without much synergy (Thalia doesn't do too much against fish) and I also had vial to play multiple creatures on turn 3.

SB: -4 cursecatchers -2 spell pierce // +1 dismember +3 tidebinder +2 kira

I thought Kira would block out most of his tricks once it lands. I think with the current list I will go with this SB again.

Match 3: 8 Whack(Won 2-0)

Both games played out in similar ways. After taking some hits and playing around removal by delaying creature drops for a turn with spell pierce in hand, the buffed fishies just completely stonewalled their small goblins.

SB: -1 spreading seas -2 dismember // +3 tidebinder mage

Match 4: Grixis Death Shadow(Won 2-0)

The opponent kept a no-land hand with 3 street wraiths and proceeded to whiff on lands over their next 6 draws, prompting them to forfeit game 1. I actually had no idea what deck was being played but it turned out to be Grixis Death Shadow. In game 2, I had a hand full of two drops and lords. He played 4 or 5 discard spells and took him down to a pretty low life total. I had one or two creatures on board but since he just had discard spells he ended up dying from his own fetch/shocks/thoughtseizes/streetwraiths.

I did side in 3 relics since they were playing street wraith but I was unsure about the deck since I did not see any lands. In the future against GDS I think I would side in the relics and side out the 2 dismember, but I'm not sure what the third card I should be siding out is

Match 5: GW Company (?)(Won 1-2)

I absolutely hate playing against this deck. I aggro'd him out in G1 and proceeded to play 2 grindy games where he had fairground wardens to keep him alive for just long enough before drawing Worship. I felt like I had to play pretty aggressive and would trade in some creatures for damage. However, I fell just short both the games I lost. He won with 2 minutes left on his clock and I was about to pull my hair out. I'm very unsure about what the sideboarding plan for this match up should be. I brought in the tidebinders mages and dismember as well as 1 kira. I think I should have gone with all counters and play both spell pierce and negates to catch worship.

Overall I'm having a lot of fun playing this deck and the modern format in general. Looking forward to putting in some work and getting better results!

You need to side in countermagic against Skred, not Tidebinders. Their weakness is not being able to resolve their big bombs. If he's on the Bedlam Reveler variant, you should definitely also side in Relics, but beware: not every Skred pilot is on that plan. I generally find Dismember to be poor in this matchup, as they only have a handful of creatures and you're often better off racing them. If decks like this are what you face regularly, I recommend Unified Will over Negate, as it catches anything they play.

I think your sideboard plan against Humans is fine, you just got a bit unlucky. I will say that 3 Dismembers in the 75 feels like a lot to me, and I would recommend something a bit more painless (like Echoing Truth) in the sideboard instead of the 3rd copy. As a bonus, it also helps beat Worship.

I would also keep Dismember in against Grixis Shadow - it's hit-or-miss against the Shadow itself, but it's excellent against the Delve threats, which shuts down one of their angles of attack. The cards I side out there are Aether Vial (lines up poorly with discard) and Spreading Seas (blue deck).

As an also-Skred player, I will agree: Tidebinder on Stormbreath Dragon is annoying for the turn it takes me to find a removal spell, and that's it. Countermagic is better, but still not great. You need to stick something like a MoW, and that's not a guaranteed path to victory either. I generally feel Skred is really favored over Merfolk-like 65-35. Still, there aren't many Skred players generally, so you probably don't have to worry much about this matchup.

Makes sense, it did feel like Skred is pretty hard. It seems like the plan should be to just race. There's no point playing around Anger of the Gods early on because if we don't have the board presence anyway we cannot win?

I do like echoing truth in the SB instead of a 3rd dismember. Paying the life is a bit more expensive than I had originally thought. The primer guide says Kira should come out against humans but I feel like reflector mage can just be game ending when they flash it in with vial that having 1 or 2 kira might be worth it.

I think I understand why but the reason vial is bad against discard is because it's taking up the space of another "playable" right? And yeah duh Spreading Seas totally forgot about that for GDS

Skred Red is slow Moon deck. How is that 65-35 over Merfolk? I have 4 MoW and I won 6-1 in games in the last 3 matches (deck is rare so not many chances to play more against it).
Ultra slow walkers which can be easily killed, pronotblue dragons and useless Moons in game1.
They have removal but they have no pressure to win before MoW comes and our counters still work.
Am I alone in this?

It can't beat Merfolk on its fastest starts, but Merfolk does not always have those starts. The deck has tons of removal--8-to-12 single target effects, 3 sweepers, and some kind of additional anti-creature effect (Chandra, PnKN) are common in the MB. MoW is not a sufficient clock on its own, and will sometimes itself be blocked by Eternal Scourge, Hangarback Walker, or the like. It's tough to do 20 points quickly under those circumstances. Finally, a point needs to be made about Koth: he is not an "ultra slow walker." He costs 4 mana and can ultimate 2 turns later, which is faster than most. That ultimate basically means creature-based decks lose on the spot, and other decks can still find it hard to beat.

It's not unwinnable, but it is definitely not in Merfolk's favor.

Nah, man. Skred is lunch. I'm something like 9-3 against the deck, and while my losses have been close, my wins have not been. That deck folds like a cheap tent to pressure + countermagic, especially when the pressure can't be removed with Bolts. 1-for-1 removal has never beaten Merfolk, so just save your counterspells for the 'walkers and sweepers and watch them flounder.

Koth never lived more than 1 turn, he can't protect itself, but ok, everyone has different experience.

Remove Soul/Essence Scatter are generally considered to be a bit too narrow. A lot of the spells that bother us aren't creatures, or come down too quickly to be caught by a 2-mana counterspell. I've been rocking Unified Will to great success for some time now, and I can recommend that if you have mainboard Spell Pierces.

Unified will goes fantastically with master of waves.

IDK why more fish lists don't lean more towards a devotion subtheme. It seems like condescend and gigadrowse with Nykthos and a bunch of blue pips in your permanants would be pretty awesome.

Also, grand architect along with being a blue creature lord let's your creatures tap for 2 colorless to be spent on artifacts and artifact ability costs. Steel hellkite? Turn three wurmcoil Engine? Early platinum emperion? Blightsteel Colossus?

All seem pretty sweet. Just saying.

FANAttIC has been experimenting with Grand Architect for Walking Ballista, which is pretty interesting. My general feeling is that this sort of thing requires your permanents to go relatively undisturbed. When that happens with the current list, the opponent is dead. Nykthos in particular is far too slow, and introduces colorless mana issues when you don't have the requisite devotion to make its activation profitable.

Has anyone brewed a mono U list with Merfolk Trickster and Damping Sphere? I'm really excited about these new tools from Dominaria!

I wouldn't use Nykthos for the reason indicated: too many lands that don't produce U can leave us in a bad spot. That said, the Grand Architect approach is interesting... It's not fully synergistic but Ballista provides a nice potential workaround to things like Bridge or removal for things like Devoted Druid.