I've had a reasonable amount of success against uwr control (around 60/40) and a 50/50 matchup against the geist versions.
I tend to shave a spreading seas or two depending on the day along with going down to 1 snag (still reasonable to hit your own guy). P-image is cut to 1 or 0 (from 2), as is commander. This shuffles around depending on how my opponent has played. Thing is...we're already advantaged in the matchup due to vial, mutavault, Master of Waves and Kira (if you're playing her). I board in 1 pierce, 1 unified will, and 1 swan song (leaving the 2nd out) usually to give a little bit of pyroclasm/electrolyze/Gideon protection.
Against the midrange version, I still haven't come up with a great plan. Images stay in here as it's pretty good to copy clique and very good to copy geist. Snags aren't great as all their creatures have etb abilities though.
The matchup against control is definitely better than against midrange as we have a lot more time to draw outs if our opponent plans on killing with only colonnade + burn. Geist/clique is a much, much faster clock.
Good to see a newer build of Merfolk being played. It seems the deck is liking Master of Waves as a quick game ender. I know there has been much debate about Merrow Reejery, but in most of the games I play, he is not much different than Merfolk Sovereign. Would Sovereign be a more viable option now considering that it is 1UU instead of single U? I will be testing it in order to better abuse the power of Master and Thassa, which seem so good not to use.
Funny enough I was watching Michael Jacob's stream and managed to catch Ree playing him in Round 4. Well done man.
I have thought about merfolk sovereign, but Reejerey is a far better lord. He doesn't provide devotion quite as much but you can have absolute nut draws where you draw a million lords and overwhelm your opponent with 3-4 merfolk at once + mutavault when you could normally only play 1. Alternatively you can tap down problematic blockers your opponent controls, like goyf or wurmcoil, when you have no islandwalk. If I were ever to play merfolk sovereign it wouldn't be over reejerey but some other card. That said, I think options like phantasmal image, coralhelm commander, thassa, and master of waves are all better than sovereign so it's unlikely to get a spot in the deck.
So the 2/1 that when it untaps gives a creature -3/-0 till end of turn...worth playing maindeck or even sideboard? Its cost is efficient.
I'd say it isn't worth the while. We aren't untapping in their turn and we don't care about their power that much on our own turn. Of course, it becomes more relevant if we don't have Islandwalk turned on, but then that raises the question of how that 2/1 lived to untap in the first place if the combat situation was one where the power reduction is the difference between chump and trade
I noticed Joel Larsson played only 3 Curscatchers and no counters main. I've seen most of the recent lists run snags and spreading seas but no Spell Pierces. I've always been glad to have Pierce in my opening hand so I run 3, but is the deck looking to be more of a permanent based deck?
I noticed Joel Larsson played only 3 Curscatchers and no counters main. I've seen most of the recent lists run snags and spreading seas but no Spell Pierces. I've always been glad to have Pierce in my opening hand so I run 3, but is the deck looking to be more of a permanent based deck?
Well the reasoning as I understand it is that most of the cards that you want to counter, at least pre-board, are cards that have something to do with instant-win combos and nearly every instant win combo in modern involves a creature that can be vapor snagged in response. For example splinter twin, kiki pod, and melira pod all rely on creatures to combo. Since most of these combos can be stopped with creature disruption anyways why not play a card that stops them AND can accomplish something against creature decks?
The only decks where spell pierces really matter are against storm, living end, and scapeshift and against scapeshift the pierce is not enough on its own to stop scapeshift anyways since they'll have 3-4 mana open as they cast it. As a sideboard card against control decks and decks like storm spell pierce is very powerful, however against most decks in the format it's terrible. I maindeck 1 just because if I happen to draw it there's usually at least one place I can use it in a game. That said, against most decks in the format I would never want to draw two in a single game. Also since most merfolk decks are now leaning towards a more creature heavy build (a change which I fully endorse) something has to go in the maindeck and between snag, pierce, vial, and seas the pierces are the clear loser.
If there were a counterspell that was both cheap and effective against most decks in the format I would play it in an instant, however until that time creature bounce/removal is the best piece of disruption available.
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Modern UMerfolk GBWMelira PodRIP GBW Abzan Midrange GBR Jund Midrange
I was looking through the posted dailies and noticed a distinct lack of merfolk in most of the recent ones (and a sort of totally different looking field). Something is happening, any ideas?
I saw a lot of UW midrange, infect, not a lot of pod or even jund.
I noticed Joel Larsson played only 3 Curscatchers and no counters main. I've seen most of the recent lists run snags and spreading seas but no Spell Pierces. I've always been glad to have Pierce in my opening hand so I run 3, but is the deck looking to be more of a permanent based deck?
I really like having Spell Pierce main too, but 3 is probably too many. 4 copies of Vapor Snag/Dismember come before any pierces, so it's hard to run too many without shaving spots that should be used for threats.
1-2 is reasonable though. In fact, I would go so far as to say at least one copy should be maindeck. Saves SB space, is rarely dead and can outright win the game. Tempest accurately says most of the instant win combos use creatures so Vapor Snag works against them, but you can only run 4 and Spell Pierce can be Snags 5-6 against Twin or maybe counter Pod. Burn, Living End, Infect, Auras, Instant Reanimator and Storm are all fringe decks but Pierce is very good against them, along with stopping most removal against the more popular decks like UWR, Jund, etc.
Just my 2 cents. I've been a huge fan of the card since it was first spoiled though so I'm probably a bit biased.
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Just looking through some stuff, trying to find a possible replacement for Phantasmal Image since it dies so easily. What are people's thoughts in Cryptoplasm?
I know he is not at the two drop spot, but double blue helps with Thassa and MoW. Plus we can change him up if need be.
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Modern UMerfolkU UTronU GRTronRG UBRKruel KommandRBU
Just looking through some stuff, trying to find a possible replacement for Phantasmal Image since it dies so easily. What are people's thoughts in Cryptoplasm?
I know he is not at the two drop spot, but double blue helps with Thassa and MoW. Plus we can change him up if need be.
Image is fragile but 2 CMC is what makes the card good. Very good rate for a clone and it plays nice with Vial. A few other things: the clone effect occurring at your upkeep with Cryptoplasm prevents you from using it for Vial-related "tricks" as you can with image and it doesn't play nice with the ETB effects of MoW or Adept.
And Cryptoplasm will have the mana cost of whatever it's copying, as will image. Ideally either would be copying MotPT or LoA so they would provide the same devotion to blue.
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Tempest: Cage = <3
Hadn't considered it for the green devotion matchup until that match with mj.
Reejery > soveirgn for more general utility including, say, casting a lord & attacking w/mutavault on 3 lands.
I'm still not convinced on reejery in the deck, but I ran 2 in a de yesterday and did things 2/4 games I drew them (allowed for mana in one game where it mattered, tapped mj's primeval Titan to speed up lethal by a turn). In that second situation, reejery upped the outs to winning that turn from more than half of the spells left in the deck to a bit over half of the whole deck. It helped the percentages, but still felt like a win-more. I'll play more w/ reejery when I have time (in the middle of the busiest time at work, working 11 days in a row + school).
Bat: Some people have adapted to the deck. There's more hate in sweepers, a couple more EEs, and the twin grinders (and some of the random players) have figured out the keys to the matchup. I've been having a harder time as a whole online and this seems to be a good couple of weeks to put down the deck for a time (online at least). It's still certainly strong enough (still cashing the majority of events), but it's not as ridiculously well-positioned as it was a month ago or so when its popularity exploded.
Jabez: The downsides to p-image are redcap, exarch/pestermite triggers, and electrolyze (and kind of path if you're low on u but that comes up much less often). The upside is 2cmc. 2 cmc in a deck full of 2-cost lords + vial is much more valuable than 3-cost clones. In cryptoplasm's case, it also doesn't copy on etb which takes away a lot of the utility you get with other clones. Not shifting on etb means you lose out on immediate pumps as a lord and other utility (other = dark confidant draws, blocking goyfs, triggers/blocking w/ both flavors of pod's creatures, fending off twin for a turn if they're using twin and you have vial, wurmcoil trades, snapcaster targets, etc...and that's just stuff I've done over the last 3 events...I've also copied an Emrakul with annihilator on the stack before).
Basically, there are no better clones than image for this deck. It is only a definite downside when everyone is running electrolyze.
@Ree: The thing about Reejerey is that he isn't played for his tap or untap ability it's about the fact that the point of this deck is play lots of lords, and honestly master of the pearl trident and lord of atlantis are just not enough alone. Playing Reejerey drastically increases consistency. If there were another 2 mana lord (not counting coralhelm which requires level up to become a lord) then I would probably play it over reejerey, but for the time being it's the third best lord available. If you have 1 lord of atlantis or master in play all your other creatures already have islandwalk so merrow reejerey is another anthem to get more damage in. I've always liked Reejerey and think it's great for this deck; when considering all the other cards to play over reejerey there really isn't a better option other than a 4th master of waves.
Also, there are almost no turn 4, 20 damage kills in Merfolk without aether vial or reejerey. With Reejerey, however, and a nutty hand you can get turn 4 kills if you feel like the coast is clear. And the tapping ability is pretty relevant too, just tonight I managed to tap down two wurmcoil engines and swing for game with a thassa and merrow reejerey without islandwalk.
Another thing I've found is that Thassa is amazing in this deck. She survives sweepers so when your opponent sweeps on turn 4 to keep from dying you can immediately play a lord or two and swing for 5. The scry has often been a godsend to keep from flooding and making creatures unblockable for 2 is ocassionally very relevant when all you need to do is force in a few more points of damage without islandwalkers.
@Ree: The thing about Reejerey is that he isn't played for his tap or untap ability it's about the fact that the point of this deck is play lots of lords, and honestly master of the pearl trident and lord of atlantis are just not enough alone. Playing Reejerey drastically increases consistency. If there were another 2 mana lord (not counting coralhelm which requires level up to become a lord) then I would probably play it over reejerey, but for the time being it's the third best lord available. If you have 1 lord of atlantis or master in play all your other creatures already have islandwalk so merrow reejerey is another anthem to get more damage in. I've always liked Reejerey and think it's great for this deck; when considering all the other cards to play over reejerey there really isn't a better option other than a 4th master of waves.
Also, there are almost no turn 4, 20 damage kills in Merfolk without aether vial or reejerey. With Reejerey, however, and a nutty hand you can get turn 4 kills if you feel like the coast is clear. And the tapping ability is pretty relevant too, just tonight I managed to tap down two wurmcoil engines and swing for game with a thassa and merrow reejerey without islandwalk.
I'm in 100% agreement with Tempest about Reejerey; the tap/untap is just icing on the cake. I want at least 12 lords to make sure I'm consistently beating face. The tap/untap is also way more than a "win more" ability. Without getting islandwalk going, I am able to tap down defending creatures (like a huge Goyf or creatures with deathtouch) or untap land for the cantrips I need to dig for Spreading Seas.
With that being said, here is my decklist I used last night to go 4-0-1
I attribute a lot of my success to the fact that I didn't have to face Affinity at all night; and I didn't make any game-costing play errors, which helps.
Sygg actually did serious work on the games I was able to get him out. There are so many decks in modern that ping themselves that he triggered quite a few times. Moreover, I could see my opponents playing around taking three damage to avoid me drawing a card!
As I alluded to above, Reejerey does serious work as another lord and in his tap/untap ability. I don't see myself running less than 4 anytime soon. And there were zero games when I thought, "Damn, I wish I had Coralhelm Commander instead."
As a personal, unrelated commentary: After going up against 2 Jund decks, and a total of 3 decks playing/splashing Deathrite Shaman (and that's just last night!), I would be okay if it got banned. I'm not going to write letters or be the person to spearhead the effort... I'm just saying I think a ban is understandable. That card is STUPIDLY good.
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http://www.twitch.tv/svmtv/b/497000954
EDH: SYGG, RIVER CUTTHROAT(U/B)
I tend to shave a spreading seas or two depending on the day along with going down to 1 snag (still reasonable to hit your own guy). P-image is cut to 1 or 0 (from 2), as is commander. This shuffles around depending on how my opponent has played. Thing is...we're already advantaged in the matchup due to vial, mutavault, Master of Waves and Kira (if you're playing her). I board in 1 pierce, 1 unified will, and 1 swan song (leaving the 2nd out) usually to give a little bit of pyroclasm/electrolyze/Gideon protection.
Against the midrange version, I still haven't come up with a great plan. Images stay in here as it's pretty good to copy clique and very good to copy geist. Snags aren't great as all their creatures have etb abilities though.
The matchup against control is definitely better than against midrange as we have a lot more time to draw outs if our opponent plans on killing with only colonnade + burn. Geist/clique is a much, much faster clock.
Good to see a newer build of Merfolk being played. It seems the deck is liking Master of Waves as a quick game ender. I know there has been much debate about Merrow Reejery, but in most of the games I play, he is not much different than Merfolk Sovereign. Would Sovereign be a more viable option now considering that it is 1UU instead of single U? I will be testing it in order to better abuse the power of Master and Thassa, which seem so good not to use.
I have thought about merfolk sovereign, but Reejerey is a far better lord. He doesn't provide devotion quite as much but you can have absolute nut draws where you draw a million lords and overwhelm your opponent with 3-4 merfolk at once + mutavault when you could normally only play 1. Alternatively you can tap down problematic blockers your opponent controls, like goyf or wurmcoil, when you have no islandwalk. If I were ever to play merfolk sovereign it wouldn't be over reejerey but some other card. That said, I think options like phantasmal image, coralhelm commander, thassa, and master of waves are all better than sovereign so it's unlikely to get a spot in the deck.
UMerfolkGBW
Melira PodRIPGBW Abzan Midrange
GBR Jund Midrange
EDH
GBR Prossh
I'd say it isn't worth the while. We aren't untapping in their turn and we don't care about their power that much on our own turn. Of course, it becomes more relevant if we don't have Islandwalk turned on, but then that raises the question of how that 2/1 lived to untap in the first place if the combat situation was one where the power reduction is the difference between chump and trade
seriously super let down.
Kiora's Follower
i dont see how this is pushed
Well the reasoning as I understand it is that most of the cards that you want to counter, at least pre-board, are cards that have something to do with instant-win combos and nearly every instant win combo in modern involves a creature that can be vapor snagged in response. For example splinter twin, kiki pod, and melira pod all rely on creatures to combo. Since most of these combos can be stopped with creature disruption anyways why not play a card that stops them AND can accomplish something against creature decks?
The only decks where spell pierces really matter are against storm, living end, and scapeshift and against scapeshift the pierce is not enough on its own to stop scapeshift anyways since they'll have 3-4 mana open as they cast it. As a sideboard card against control decks and decks like storm spell pierce is very powerful, however against most decks in the format it's terrible. I maindeck 1 just because if I happen to draw it there's usually at least one place I can use it in a game. That said, against most decks in the format I would never want to draw two in a single game. Also since most merfolk decks are now leaning towards a more creature heavy build (a change which I fully endorse) something has to go in the maindeck and between snag, pierce, vial, and seas the pierces are the clear loser.
If there were a counterspell that was both cheap and effective against most decks in the format I would play it in an instant, however until that time creature bounce/removal is the best piece of disruption available.
UMerfolkGBW
Melira PodRIPGBW Abzan Midrange
GBR Jund Midrange
EDH
GBR Prossh
I saw a lot of UW midrange, infect, not a lot of pod or even jund.
I really like having Spell Pierce main too, but 3 is probably too many. 4 copies of Vapor Snag/Dismember come before any pierces, so it's hard to run too many without shaving spots that should be used for threats.
1-2 is reasonable though. In fact, I would go so far as to say at least one copy should be maindeck. Saves SB space, is rarely dead and can outright win the game. Tempest accurately says most of the instant win combos use creatures so Vapor Snag works against them, but you can only run 4 and Spell Pierce can be Snags 5-6 against Twin or maybe counter Pod. Burn, Living End, Infect, Auras, Instant Reanimator and Storm are all fringe decks but Pierce is very good against them, along with stopping most removal against the more popular decks like UWR, Jund, etc.
Just my 2 cents. I've been a huge fan of the card since it was first spoiled though so I'm probably a bit biased.
I know he is not at the two drop spot, but double blue helps with Thassa and MoW. Plus we can change him up if need be.
Modern
UMerfolkU
UTronU
GRTronRG
UBRKruel KommandRBU
Image is fragile but 2 CMC is what makes the card good. Very good rate for a clone and it plays nice with Vial. A few other things: the clone effect occurring at your upkeep with Cryptoplasm prevents you from using it for Vial-related "tricks" as you can with image and it doesn't play nice with the ETB effects of MoW or Adept.
And Cryptoplasm will have the mana cost of whatever it's copying, as will image. Ideally either would be copying MotPT or LoA so they would provide the same devotion to blue.
Hadn't considered it for the green devotion matchup until that match with mj.
Reejery > soveirgn for more general utility including, say, casting a lord & attacking w/mutavault on 3 lands.
I'm still not convinced on reejery in the deck, but I ran 2 in a de yesterday and did things 2/4 games I drew them (allowed for mana in one game where it mattered, tapped mj's primeval Titan to speed up lethal by a turn). In that second situation, reejery upped the outs to winning that turn from more than half of the spells left in the deck to a bit over half of the whole deck. It helped the percentages, but still felt like a win-more. I'll play more w/ reejery when I have time (in the middle of the busiest time at work, working 11 days in a row + school).
Bat: Some people have adapted to the deck. There's more hate in sweepers, a couple more EEs, and the twin grinders (and some of the random players) have figured out the keys to the matchup. I've been having a harder time as a whole online and this seems to be a good couple of weeks to put down the deck for a time (online at least). It's still certainly strong enough (still cashing the majority of events), but it's not as ridiculously well-positioned as it was a month ago or so when its popularity exploded.
Jabez: The downsides to p-image are redcap, exarch/pestermite triggers, and electrolyze (and kind of path if you're low on u but that comes up much less often). The upside is 2cmc. 2 cmc in a deck full of 2-cost lords + vial is much more valuable than 3-cost clones. In cryptoplasm's case, it also doesn't copy on etb which takes away a lot of the utility you get with other clones. Not shifting on etb means you lose out on immediate pumps as a lord and other utility (other = dark confidant draws, blocking goyfs, triggers/blocking w/ both flavors of pod's creatures, fending off twin for a turn if they're using twin and you have vial, wurmcoil trades, snapcaster targets, etc...and that's just stuff I've done over the last 3 events...I've also copied an Emrakul with annihilator on the stack before).
Basically, there are no better clones than image for this deck. It is only a definite downside when everyone is running electrolyze.
Also, there are almost no turn 4, 20 damage kills in Merfolk without aether vial or reejerey. With Reejerey, however, and a nutty hand you can get turn 4 kills if you feel like the coast is clear. And the tapping ability is pretty relevant too, just tonight I managed to tap down two wurmcoil engines and swing for game with a thassa and merrow reejerey without islandwalk.
Another thing I've found is that Thassa is amazing in this deck. She survives sweepers so when your opponent sweeps on turn 4 to keep from dying you can immediately play a lord or two and swing for 5. The scry has often been a godsend to keep from flooding and making creatures unblockable for 2 is ocassionally very relevant when all you need to do is force in a few more points of damage without islandwalkers.
UMerfolkGBW
Melira PodRIPGBW Abzan Midrange
GBR Jund Midrange
EDH
GBR Prossh
I'm in 100% agreement with Tempest about Reejerey; the tap/untap is just icing on the cake. I want at least 12 lords to make sure I'm consistently beating face. The tap/untap is also way more than a "win more" ability. Without getting islandwalk going, I am able to tap down defending creatures (like a huge Goyf or creatures with deathtouch) or untap land for the cantrips I need to dig for Spreading Seas.
With that being said, here is my decklist I used last night to go 4-0-1
15 Island
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Mutavault
Creatures
2 Master of Waves
2 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Merrow Reejerey
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
4 Cursecatcher
3 Spreading Seas
4 Vapor Snag
4 Aether Vial
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spellskite
1 Master of Waves
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Spreading Seas
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Annul
1 Spell Pierce
1 Unified Will
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Damping Matrix
1 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
I attribute a lot of my success to the fact that I didn't have to face Affinity at all night; and I didn't make any game-costing play errors, which helps.
Sygg actually did serious work on the games I was able to get him out. There are so many decks in modern that ping themselves that he triggered quite a few times. Moreover, I could see my opponents playing around taking three damage to avoid me drawing a card!
As I alluded to above, Reejerey does serious work as another lord and in his tap/untap ability. I don't see myself running less than 4 anytime soon. And there were zero games when I thought, "Damn, I wish I had Coralhelm Commander instead."
As a personal, unrelated commentary: After going up against 2 Jund decks, and a total of 3 decks playing/splashing Deathrite Shaman (and that's just last night!), I would be okay if it got banned. I'm not going to write letters or be the person to spearhead the effort... I'm just saying I think a ban is understandable. That card is STUPIDLY good.