Four is too many. 0-1 is too few. I believe 2 is just right and 3 is Fair IMO (especially if you fear a heavy Jund Meta). You can always SB another one if you want. The decks that its really good in is against Jund, Zoo, and U/R Delver. I don't like MoW against any Combo decks or extremely fast decks which there are many of.
I like your deck. I like the many, many 1 drops. LOVE No Vial (It's good in your deck without). I also like 4 MOW in your deck. It's the final push, and with so many 1 drops you will need a finality and even 4 MOW is fine here.
The flaw in your deck, is the lack of Spreading Seas. Without them your 1 drops will be brickwalled by almost any creature. I would seriously try to make some room for them.
There was an article on tcgplayer yesterday going over different decks that have finished 3-1 or better in MTGO. He featured three merfolk decks, which all looked weak for some reason. Could just be me though.
Be a lemming hunter. Don't be a lemming. Really, all you had to do was explain to him the popularity metric, not give him the lemming hunter manifesto...
This deck has no one-drops, and a blink sub-theme. Epochrasite has been strong against removal heavy decks and is good at blocking Etched Champion. The blink cards can double up on Master of Waves tokens, upgrade Epochrasite, draw a card, or help dodge removal.
I've borrowed an Travis Woo idea, and added another Merfolk combo. Puresight Merrow can untap after helping draw a card with Sky Hussar. It also can untap infinitely with a Paradise Mantle to set the top card of your deck or make a Wake Thrasher large. Maybe one of these decks can inspire some other good ideas. Questions, comments and complaints welcome.
I like your out of the box thinking. Having a mini combo in the deck seems like fun with no real drawback with Puresight Merrow and Paradise Mantle might even speed up our deck. I don't know about Sky Hussar however.
Wake Thrasher is neat because you don't even need Lords to make him huge. Untapping 3 Land (or 4) plus a randomly tapped Vial is pretty good.
cheebamunky—I've been contemplating a UW build myself, and I like some of the ideas from your "Skyfish" deck. I don't know that I'm sold on the 3 Sky Hussar, though. How often does that combo actually pay off for you when you play the deck? It seems like it would usually require you tapping down another fish in addition to your Puresight Merrow, making it unable to attack. Have you looked at putting any Sygg, River Guide into the deck? Seems like he would be a good way to protect your lords (or a pumped Wake Thrasher), especially considering you're not running any countermagic in the main.
A 3-card combo in an aggro deck without filtering and no combo redundancy? I'm sorry to be a buzzkill but no, that's not going to work
In less silly news, I want to discuss sideboards a little bit more:
-What do you guys think about Swan Song versus Spell Pierce? While I like Swan Song for being a hard counter, I fear the token might be too relevant; having to counter an early game spell against UWr or Twin, the damage becomes quite relevant
-Is it worth it to keep in Vapor Snag against UWr? All their creatures have powerful etb abilities which makes bouncing them a bad idea, but bouncing your own guys to save them from removal is great. I'm having a lot of trouble finding what to take out against UWr
-Where do you guys take out Spreading Seas against? Specifically versus twin and affinity, keeping twin off double red and locking down affinity's manlands is nice but it seems kind of underwhelming.
-is grafdigger's cage worth it against storm? It doesn't kill pyromancer's ascension but locking them off Past in Flames is nice. If it's not, I'm thinking of taking them out as right now they'r eonly good versus pod.
Bring Swan Song only against Combo decks and infect. It's better to give them a 2/2 Flier then it is to lose the game. Take out spreading seas against Twin you should be running spellskites/swans songs/spell pierce/vapor snags so you shouldn't worry about keeping them off double red. Keep Spreading Seas against Affinity.. It's a reliably answer to their manlands and them switching to the kill you with infect plan. And besides it grants you islandwalk which is relevant because they might just go to the block with a creature sack with Arcbound Ravager plan. Grafdigger's Cage against Storm is just okay. Vapor Snag is fine against U/W/R control you just need practice with it.
Even though my Local Meta is diverse we only get 12 players on average for our events. But there is only usually 1 or 2 people running the same Archetype or at least a variance of a deck. Usually the field is Affinity, Tron Gifts(UW), Gr Tron, Boggles, UWR Midrange, UWR control, Merlia Pod, Amulet of Vigor, Faeries, A burn list every now and then, Merfolk (me), UR Twin and UW control are the typical components for our small events. Skill level also varies.
Sb Plan
Affinity: In: 2 Chalice of the Void, 3(4) Hurkly's Recall
Out: 2 Spell Pierce, 2 Relic of Progenitus, 1 Spreading Seas, (1 dismember for 4th Recall)
The loss of life from Dismember can be huge for them, so I think its best to take it out over a cursecatcher? Cutting one still leaves me with 3 SS to hit their Inkmoths, may be wrong but I think I want spells that can actually interact a little with their plan whether than a can-trip that probably will just switch their mana colors around. Spell Pierce is also a super dead card.
Between keeping them off Tron and trying to not let them do anything with graveyard, you just want to out race them the best you can while avoiding wrath effects. Keeping in a few snags will help you if they manage to drop a Wurmcoil or save one of our guys, but other than that our removal is bad. The deck that is at my LSG plays Wurmcoil, Elesh Norn, Eldrazi and Iona for creatures. He uses Gifts to force you to put a Elesh Norn into grave either with unburial rites or whatever spell he needs. It's a tough match if you don't find your GY hate.
Boggles: In: 2 Chalice of the Void (set to 1) 3 Spellskite *one switching to a 2nd Hibernation*, 1 Hibernation *see Spellskite*, 1 Spell Pierce
Out: 1 Dismember, 4 Vapor Snags, 2 Relic of Progenitus
*Note: I've played against boggles and in each instance I have kept in two removal because he would occasionally try to kill me with a non-hexproof creature. I would then kill/bounce it with a removal spell... Maybe keeping in two snags for this MU to save our dudes/Potentially blow them out if the don't have Hexproof dude. Just a rough MU overall.
Haven't played against Gr Tron nor, know what they would even run. I would think something like: In: 2 Kira, Great Glass-spinner for removal, 1 Spell Pierce to try to counter whatever topend threat that's not a creature, and 1(2) hibernation's if their threats are Green Based.
Out would be dependent on what I saw game 1.
UWR Midrange: In: 2 Spellskite, 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, 2 Chalice of the Void (at 1)
Out: 2 Phantasmal Image, 1 Vapor Snag, 1 Spreading Seas, 1 Curecatcher, 1 Merrow Reejerey
You still want you snags to bounce their blockers pre-blocks to clear your path (if you don't have islandwalk). You don't want to cut to many copies of 1 card because you don't want to lower the consistence. Cutting 1 copy of 1 card, and 1 of another if a way to do this. It might not be the right way to do it, but I still need more testing for this MU. CotV at 1 might also mean you do just simply cut the snags.
UWR Control: In: See above. Add 1 Spell pierce and take out 1 more Snag/Dismember is you take out all 4 snags already. They do have Colonnade so leaving the Dismember might be right.
Merlia Pod: In: 1 Grafdigger's Cage, 1 Tidebinder Mage, 2 Hibernation
Out: 2 Spell Pierce, 1 Spreading Seas, 1 Cursecatcher
Birthing Pod being *usually* the only card we can counter with Spell Pierce, I think it's right to board them out. 1 seas comes out to make space for Tidebinder and Cursecatcher comes out for Cage. I think the only way to really win this is to push damage as fast as we can.
Kikki Pod: I Don't know. I think you just hope to race them as best you can or Dodge the MU.
Amulet of Vigor: In: 2 Chalice of the Void (set to 0), Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, 2 Hibernation, 1 Tidebinder Mage
Out: 2 Relic of Progenitus, 2 Vapor Snag, 1 Dismemeber, 2 Spreading Seas
Chalice at 0 takes care of their pacts, Kira takes care of their removal, Hibernation and tidebinder are tricks for when they swing with Titan.
Relic doesn't do anything in this MU, Snag is a delay which is why I leave 2 in, Dismember doesn't kill titan, and Spreading seas are mostly just a cantrip since they bounce their lands back and you lose SS. I would only play SS when your swinging for lethal and need the Islandwalk.
UW Control: See UWR Control
UR Twin: In: 2 SpellSkite, 2 Chalice of the void(set to 1), 1 Swan Song
Out: 2 Relic of Progenitus, 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Phantasmal Image
It's hard to keep a two color deck off one color, so 2 seas come out. Image isn't exactly what I want to do because it doesn't stop them, but can allow us to push more damage, which is one I would leave 1 in.
TarmoTwin: I have NO Experience with this build, but would assume the same SB plan as UR Twin + tidebinder mage and - a Merrow Reejerey.
Thanks for reading guys. Im not saying any of these plans are the best. Just working with how my build is setup. Most of these are also just speculation on how I think I should SB.
To answer Bearscape, I like Swan Song as a 1 of, because as stated, the token can make a difference. I like hard counterspells though, and most the time wish that spell pierce didn't say "pay 2 to counter". I also try to take out some number so Spreading Seas if they have blue. I don't think you really need to ever take out all 4 because it cantrips.
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"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
I playtested merfolk today and remand is very good in conjunction with spreading seas and silvergill adept. I've played with spellpierce for awhile and I think it's time to either put in it in the sideboard or get rid of it. Vaporsnag is really good as well. I know there's different card options for merfolk but I think going as aggro as possible with disruption works the best. That being said, dakra mystic was kind of so so cuz the topdecks in modern are so good, tho it does help you out if your stuck or flooded with land.
military intelligence vs sygg vs bident of thassa? I think military intellegence can give a card advantage but the draw back is it needs 2 creatures to attack. it is also somewhat similar to silvergill
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Military Intelligence seems pretty good... until you start thinking about what you'd take out of the deck to play it. We currently run something like 20 lands, 14 noncreature spells, and 26 creatures. The noncreature spell package is already pretty tight, with Vials, Seas, Snags, and Pierces. I don't want to mess with any of that. So that leaves creatures. Do you think you want to take out Merfolk from the deck to play Military Intelligence?
Last night, just for kicks, I proxied up some Military Intelligence and ran it in my list, taking out my Phantasmal Images and subbing in some Shorestalkers as extra 1-drops, just to try to max out the number of attacking creatures at any point. I played a few games against my friend's Tezzeret deck, and just found Military Intelligence lacking. Sometimes it would just get countered (whereas if we were running more creatures, we could cast them with Cavern or Vial them in), sometimes it would be on board and I wouldn't have two creatures to attack with, sometimes it would just be unprofitable to attack with two creatures because of blocks.
I was pretty excited when I saw the card spoiled, but, when I thought about how it might fit into our deck and tested it out, it just seemed really weak. I mean, if you compare it to Silvergill... Silvergill draws a card right away and gives us a body to beat down with (and can be vialed in for free). Military Intelligence requires you to have two dudes attack before you ever get to draw a card. Sure, you can potentially draw two or three cards off of Military Intelligence, but, if you're attacking with multiple guys on multiple turns, odds are you're already winning pretty hard.
How do you guys feel about Dakra Mystic? It's ability can be relevant, for example, in games that are in stalemate while you're looking for a Spreading Seas to make your dudes unblockable, or just for extra gas in the mid-game
Chalice is fantastic against tron, it's the reason I've been trying to fit a third Chalice in my sideboard. Putting it on 1 makes aome tron players just scoop
Other than that tron is indeed a strange matchup. You want to go above their pyroclasms but can get destroyed by oblivistone. You want to Spell Pierce their boardwipes and Karn but it gets useless the moment they get tron up. Your Vapor Snags are useless but you need to keep a few in to not just fold to Wurmcoil.
Personally I go -2 kira -2 Vapor Snag +2 pithing +2 chalice against them, but the chalices are much better on the play than on the draw.
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The flaw in your deck, is the lack of Spreading Seas. Without them your 1 drops will be brickwalled by almost any creature. I would seriously try to make some room for them.
I ran Merfolk without Seas once, it's not pretty
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=11812
Be a lemming hunter. Don't be a lemming.
Really, all you had to do was explain to him the popularity metric, not give him the lemming hunter manifesto...
Originally posted by MemoryLapse and DotMatrix
Twitch channel
4 Wanderwine Hub
4 Mutavault
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Master of Waves
3 Restoration Angel
3 Merrow Reejerey
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Epochrasite
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Spreading Seas
4 AEther Vial
2 Momentary Blink
3 Hibernation
2 Negate
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Stony Silence
2 Spellskite
2 Detention Sphere
This deck has no one-drops, and a blink sub-theme. Epochrasite has been strong against removal heavy decks and is good at blocking Etched Champion. The blink cards can double up on Master of Waves tokens, upgrade Epochrasite, draw a card, or help dodge removal.
Now, for the crazy one:
4 Wanderwine Hub
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Mutavault
1 Moorland Haunt
3 Sky Hussar
2 Wake Thrasher
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Puresight Merrow
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Cosi's Trickster
4 Cursecatcher
3 Path to Exile
4 Spreading Seas
2 Paradise Mantle
2 Hibernation
2 Negate
1 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Spellskite
2 Relic of Progenitus
I've borrowed an Travis Woo idea, and added another Merfolk combo. Puresight Merrow can untap after helping draw a card with Sky Hussar. It also can untap infinitely with a Paradise Mantle to set the top card of your deck or make a Wake Thrasher large. Maybe one of these decks can inspire some other good ideas. Questions, comments and complaints welcome.
Wake Thrasher is neat because you don't even need Lords to make him huge. Untapping 3 Land (or 4) plus a randomly tapped Vial is pretty good.
In less silly news, I want to discuss sideboards a little bit more:
-What do you guys think about Swan Song versus Spell Pierce? While I like Swan Song for being a hard counter, I fear the token might be too relevant; having to counter an early game spell against UWr or Twin, the damage becomes quite relevant
-Is it worth it to keep in Vapor Snag against UWr? All their creatures have powerful etb abilities which makes bouncing them a bad idea, but bouncing your own guys to save them from removal is great. I'm having a lot of trouble finding what to take out against UWr
-Where do you guys take out Spreading Seas against? Specifically versus twin and affinity, keeping twin off double red and locking down affinity's manlands is nice but it seems kind of underwhelming.
-is grafdigger's cage worth it against storm? It doesn't kill pyromancer's ascension but locking them off Past in Flames is nice. If it's not, I'm thinking of taking them out as right now they'r eonly good versus pod.
First, here's my current list:
3 Mutavaults
15 Island
20 lands
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
3 Merrow Reejerey
2 Master of Waves
2 Phantasmal image
23 creautres
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
4 Vapor Snag
2 Spell Pierce
2 Relic of Progenitus (Flex Slots)
1 Dismember
17 spells
1 Swan Song
1 Spell Pierce
2 Kire, great glass-Spinner
1 Hibernation (2nd will probably come from a Spellskite)
3 SpellSkite
1 Tidebinder Mage
3 Hurkly's recall (4th will probably come from a tidebinder mage)
2 Chalice of the Void
Even though my Local Meta is diverse we only get 12 players on average for our events. But there is only usually 1 or 2 people running the same Archetype or at least a variance of a deck. Usually the field is Affinity, Tron Gifts(UW), Gr Tron, Boggles, UWR Midrange, UWR control, Merlia Pod, Amulet of Vigor, Faeries, A burn list every now and then, Merfolk (me), UR Twin and UW control are the typical components for our small events. Skill level also varies.
Sb Plan
Affinity: In: 2 Chalice of the Void, 3(4) Hurkly's Recall
Out: 2 Spell Pierce, 2 Relic of Progenitus, 1 Spreading Seas, (1 dismember for 4th Recall)
The loss of life from Dismember can be huge for them, so I think its best to take it out over a cursecatcher? Cutting one still leaves me with 3 SS to hit their Inkmoths, may be wrong but I think I want spells that can actually interact a little with their plan whether than a can-trip that probably will just switch their mana colors around. Spell Pierce is also a super dead card.
Tron Gifts UW: In:1 Swan Song, 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Grafdigger's Cage
Out:2 Vapor Snag, 1 Dismember, 1 Cursecatcher, 1 Merrow Reejerey
Between keeping them off Tron and trying to not let them do anything with graveyard, you just want to out race them the best you can while avoiding wrath effects. Keeping in a few snags will help you if they manage to drop a Wurmcoil or save one of our guys, but other than that our removal is bad. The deck that is at my LSG plays Wurmcoil, Elesh Norn, Eldrazi and Iona for creatures. He uses Gifts to force you to put a Elesh Norn into grave either with unburial rites or whatever spell he needs. It's a tough match if you don't find your GY hate.
Boggles: In: 2 Chalice of the Void (set to 1) 3 Spellskite *one switching to a 2nd Hibernation*, 1 Hibernation *see Spellskite*, 1 Spell Pierce
Out: 1 Dismember, 4 Vapor Snags, 2 Relic of Progenitus
*Note: I've played against boggles and in each instance I have kept in two removal because he would occasionally try to kill me with a non-hexproof creature. I would then kill/bounce it with a removal spell... Maybe keeping in two snags for this MU to save our dudes/Potentially blow them out if the don't have Hexproof dude. Just a rough MU overall.
Haven't played against Gr Tron nor, know what they would even run. I would think something like: In: 2 Kira, Great Glass-spinner for removal, 1 Spell Pierce to try to counter whatever topend threat that's not a creature, and 1(2) hibernation's if their threats are Green Based.
Out would be dependent on what I saw game 1.
UWR Midrange: In: 2 Spellskite, 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, 2 Chalice of the Void (at 1)
Out: 2 Phantasmal Image, 1 Vapor Snag, 1 Spreading Seas, 1 Curecatcher, 1 Merrow Reejerey
You still want you snags to bounce their blockers pre-blocks to clear your path (if you don't have islandwalk). You don't want to cut to many copies of 1 card because you don't want to lower the consistence. Cutting 1 copy of 1 card, and 1 of another if a way to do this. It might not be the right way to do it, but I still need more testing for this MU. CotV at 1 might also mean you do just simply cut the snags.
UWR Control: In: See above. Add 1 Spell pierce and take out 1 more Snag/Dismember is you take out all 4 snags already. They do have Colonnade so leaving the Dismember might be right.
Merlia Pod: In: 1 Grafdigger's Cage, 1 Tidebinder Mage, 2 Hibernation
Out: 2 Spell Pierce, 1 Spreading Seas, 1 Cursecatcher
Birthing Pod being *usually* the only card we can counter with Spell Pierce, I think it's right to board them out. 1 seas comes out to make space for Tidebinder and Cursecatcher comes out for Cage. I think the only way to really win this is to push damage as fast as we can.
Kikki Pod: I Don't know. I think you just hope to race them as best you can or Dodge the MU.
Amulet of Vigor: In: 2 Chalice of the Void (set to 0), Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, 2 Hibernation, 1 Tidebinder Mage
Out: 2 Relic of Progenitus, 2 Vapor Snag, 1 Dismemeber, 2 Spreading Seas
Chalice at 0 takes care of their pacts, Kira takes care of their removal, Hibernation and tidebinder are tricks for when they swing with Titan.
Relic doesn't do anything in this MU, Snag is a delay which is why I leave 2 in, Dismember doesn't kill titan, and Spreading seas are mostly just a cantrip since they bounce their lands back and you lose SS. I would only play SS when your swinging for lethal and need the Islandwalk.
UW Control: See UWR Control
UR Twin: In: 2 SpellSkite, 2 Chalice of the void(set to 1), 1 Swan Song
Out: 2 Relic of Progenitus, 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Phantasmal Image
It's hard to keep a two color deck off one color, so 2 seas come out. Image isn't exactly what I want to do because it doesn't stop them, but can allow us to push more damage, which is one I would leave 1 in.
TarmoTwin: I have NO Experience with this build, but would assume the same SB plan as UR Twin + tidebinder mage and - a Merrow Reejerey.
Thanks for reading guys. Im not saying any of these plans are the best. Just working with how my build is setup. Most of these are also just speculation on how I think I should SB.
To answer Bearscape, I like Swan Song as a 1 of, because as stated, the token can make a difference. I like hard counterspells though, and most the time wish that spell pierce didn't say "pay 2 to counter". I also try to take out some number so Spreading Seas if they have blue. I don't think you really need to ever take out all 4 because it cantrips.
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
Last night, just for kicks, I proxied up some Military Intelligence and ran it in my list, taking out my Phantasmal Images and subbing in some Shorestalkers as extra 1-drops, just to try to max out the number of attacking creatures at any point. I played a few games against my friend's Tezzeret deck, and just found Military Intelligence lacking. Sometimes it would just get countered (whereas if we were running more creatures, we could cast them with Cavern or Vial them in), sometimes it would be on board and I wouldn't have two creatures to attack with, sometimes it would just be unprofitable to attack with two creatures because of blocks.
I was pretty excited when I saw the card spoiled, but, when I thought about how it might fit into our deck and tested it out, it just seemed really weak. I mean, if you compare it to Silvergill... Silvergill draws a card right away and gives us a body to beat down with (and can be vialed in for free). Military Intelligence requires you to have two dudes attack before you ever get to draw a card. Sure, you can potentially draw two or three cards off of Military Intelligence, but, if you're attacking with multiple guys on multiple turns, odds are you're already winning pretty hard.
Other than that tron is indeed a strange matchup. You want to go above their pyroclasms but can get destroyed by oblivistone. You want to Spell Pierce their boardwipes and Karn but it gets useless the moment they get tron up. Your Vapor Snags are useless but you need to keep a few in to not just fold to Wurmcoil.
Personally I go -2 kira -2 Vapor Snag +2 pithing +2 chalice against them, but the chalices are much better on the play than on the draw.