The only annoying thing is that neither my Splinter Twin opponents respected my bluffs. Also Round 3 and 4 felt like rogue decks. I might be wrong about the Grixis one though if it was actually Twin.
The only annoying thing is that neither my Splinter Twin opponents respected my bluffs. Also Round 3 and 4 felt like rogue decks. I might be wrong about the Grixis one though if it was actually Twin.
I'm on Twin now and it's better to just play Level 1 with the deck and 'make them show it to you.' Also, Merfolk run Remand as the counter of choice so getting Twin Remanded isn't so bad vs insta win.
That's fine for the Twin's Perspective to just go for it. However if we had Vapor Snag which is very much a Merfolk card then they would be crippled. Even then I don't mind bluffing anyway. If they have it and I tap out I lose 100% If I don't tap out then they will not go for it some % of the time which will give us time to find a dismember or drop a lord for he win.
Playing Twin directly into open Countermana is usually a sign of them having two copies in hand.
A bird Token is not as hard to handle as the Combo itself. Therefore you should not feel pressured to tap out there!
Most lists, not yours though, have limited interaction Preboard. The chances of getting bluffed are pretty high! So in the first game, this early Twin would not necessarily tell you that he got a second Twin in hand.
Additionally i felt like Silvergil Adept became a lot worse in this deck. you weeded out your creaturesuit Postboard so heavily, that you encountered several occasions, when you couldn't cast the best creature in our deck!
I couldn't be sure that he had a 2nd Twin in the deck because he seemed to have shown me that he will not respect a removal spell and play his combo right into a trump anyway. Therefore I didn't feel he represented a 2nd twin all that much. I could be wrong though and I'll consider it in the future.
Many Merfolk decks have 4 Vapour Snag in their list so they by default have the perfect interaction preboard.
It is complete variance that I didn't get to hardcast my silvergill Adept. Against combo I take out a ton of Merfolk to make room for interaction and it usually doesn't matter.
Infect is an hard matchup whitout the vial but it is certainly better than the affinity matchup.
We got tidebinder mage, spellskite , vapor snag, dismember, spell pierce , spreading sea and chalice of the void to disrupt them. I think it is enough, especialy on the play.
But i don't get the removal spell after the opponent combat step , normally i just deal with infect on my own turn.
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
4 Æther Vial
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Master of Waves
4 Tidebinder Mage
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Spreading Seas
4 Dismember
2 Relic of Progenitus
13 Island
4 Mutavault
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Sideboard
2 Merrow Reejerey
4 Spell Pierce
2 Swan Song
4 Tectonic Edge
3 Chalice of the Void
Faced 2x Abzan, 1 Affinity, 1 Matyr of Sands.
I have video footage but my computer is taking forever to process them and I want to go to sleep. I'll upload them to youtube when I wake up.
I decided to trust you and took your deck, changed 2 merrow for 2 hurkrecall, removed a spreading seas for 1 thassa, and gave it a first go for merfolk since FRF, and went 4-0 vs Scapeshift, Burn, D&T and ad naseum
Maybe the deck is not terrible in the new metagame, but i dodged the big guys so who knows, but of course i will try again.
What do yall think about Sideboarding against burn?
Their Artifact removal can hit Vials and Sideboarded Chalices. And you need Vial to play around Chalices.
- Play no artifacts and force them to have dead cards from the artifact removal?
- Play both, force them to have it, and if they do they get a 1for1+damage. Unless you get vial on 2, but then you're stuck waiting for a vial to cast your 2 drops because they probably used their removal on a vial before you could cast a Chalice with 4 mana.
Casting Vapor Snag in response to all their pump leaves them with an empty hand so you are slightly less screwed if they draw another Infect guy, if you just bounce an Elf on your turn they could play a second one or animate their Inkmoths. Yes, this plan is shut down by Vines or Apostle's Blessing, but that is still true if we bounce it on our turn. If it works for you then on reason to change it, but bluffing Snag when they go to combat forces them to pass or go for it putting the match up on our terms.
What about use Reality Shift instead of Dismember?, with the raise of Abzan decks, Pro black will be maindecked in several decks, and yo don't need pay 4 life to cast it..
Nikachu, I'm curious about you cutting those cards. It seems to me that spreading seas or relic would deserve to get cut over lord or dismember.
With 4 tec edges, you shouldnt need to worry about colonnades nearly as much.
I think people cut phantasmal image because they are making room for non-creature spells, and it is generally the worst card in the deck. It hasnt really gotten worse, but running more interaction certainly has.
Phantasmal Image is a very Powerful card. At the same time it is a high variance card. It can sometimes be dead in your hand or you run a large risk of getting 2 for 1'd when you cast him. The fact that a single target makes you sacrifice him is quite significant so long as Electrolyze, Path to Exile (you won't get the land), and Dark Blast are cards in Modern.
Overall it just isn't consistent enough to be taken seriously at the moment. But his time could come.
@Cody_X Because against control we are on the long game mana screw plan. With 4x Spreading Seas and 4x Tectonic Edges you can easily turn a 3 color control deck into a mono U deck. At that point they cannot cast hardly anything in their hand and you walk over them.
Relic deals with Snapcaster Mage which is one of the best resources that a control deck has against a creature deck like ours. The lords overall are not so important. We are generally beating down with 1 or 2 bears in play anyway because committing more to the board runs the risk of a board sweeper.
I've never played against an Allies deck but I would assume it is a synergetic deck and the best way to proceed to to kill almost anything that hits the table while playing as fast of a clock as possible. Beat their face in before they reassemble their synergy.
Using spreading seas on UW duals is perfectly fine. You cut him off of Supreme Verdict and other Wrath mana. I probably would keep them in for Colonnade alone.
First, thanks to Nikachu for making his videos. Always great to see more Merfolk content online. As for myself, I play the deck exclusively in paper, competitively, and on Cockatrice for testing. Here are a few of my observations in the current meta:
1. I've come to the opinion that Spell Pierce does not deserve a place in our 75. We run less than a full playset, so it is unlikely we'll start with it in our opening hand. And even if we do manage to draw it in our starting seven, our opponent could easily just open with a bunch of creatures. Spell Pierce is total garbage as a late-game top deck, even worse than drawing that third aether vial. Pierce is nearly useless against Scapeshift, which I consider to be one of our toughest matchups.
Spell Piercing a turn-3 pod was pretty much the best thing Spell Pierce could do in Modern. Now that Pod is gone, Pierce has become that much worse.
When we play counterspells, we want them to hit more targets, more of the time. For this reason, I run a full playset of Negates in the side (hits Scapeshift, Planeswalkers, the last few burn spells that would normally have killed us...), and two Spell Snares in the side (specifically for Eidolon of the Great Revel, but pretty much every deck in Modern runs high-value 2-drop spells, so Snare is an excellent option).
We need all of our cards to be at least *good* (if not great) all the time. By running a starting 60 cards that have play against virtually all decks at virtually all times, we give ourselves the best chance for success.
2. For a similar reason (too situational), I no longer run Phantasmal Images at all. Sure, a lot of times he copies a lord and seems like the best possible card. But many other times you're just stuck with him in hand without any good things to copy. Or he gets blown out by a Pestermite or Electrolyze.
3. Chalice was amazing against the Delver/Cruise meta, but we have better answers against all the other decks. Don't get me wrong, I love Chalice and was one of its biggest proponents a month ago. But in a world of Siege Rhinos and Splinter Twins, Chalice is too often not pulling its weight. Yes, Chalice can help against Affinity, certainly one of our weakest matchups. But Hurkyl's Recall hits them harder, and also has a lot of value against Tron variants and the odd Tezzeret or Eggs deck. Chalice is terrible against Modern Burn, because they run so many 2-drops.
4. Master of Waves is clearly the card in our deck with the greatest ability to affect the board state by itself. After turn three, he is our best top deck. I disagree with running fewer than four.
5. Reejerey is often better than our Islandwalk lords, pumping our team while also allowing us to use our mana more efficiently by playing creatures AND leaving mana up to cast other spells on the opponents turn. Or he allows us to tap down our opponents' blockers when we don't have Islandwalk online. Again, I disagree with playing fewer than four.
6. With all the Abrupt Decays in the format, I'm convinced that Kira is a terrible choice (while Spellskite, if for Burn, Infect, and Twin alone, is an excellent choice - Spellskite is always the better card with Vial, as well). I've decided to run one Monastery Siege in the main, and it's been pretty great so far. It's almost an auto-win against Burn, since they're almost always on two, or, at most, three lands. It also makes Thoughtseizes and Inquisitions cost three mana, and Abrupt Decays cost four mana. The second copy in the board comes in against any deck that plays spells that target us or our stuff. Against decks that don't do that, the copy in the maindeck allows us to filter our draws every turn if we draw it game one, which is pretty amazing. Against Scapeshift, it helps us dig for our boarded-in counterspells.
7. A friend of mine has been learning Bloom Titan, so I've gotten some testing in against that deck. Bounce is obviously good, since it throws a Titan back to our opponent's hand after they tapped out to use their pump lands. Dismember is actually insane against Titan, because, even when fully pumped, he is a 3/1 double strike after Dismember. With a couple of lords out, we can just eat the Titan then. Vialing in a Tidebinder pre-combat to lock down a Titan is one of our best plays.
Until recently, I thought it was smart to board out all of our Spreading Seas against Bloom Titan, since they can so easily bounce their lands and kill our Seas. However, after testing, I've realized that we should keep in two Seas in games two and three. Bloom Titan sides in cards like Thragtusk and Hornet Queen to stall the board and gain time until they can piece together a Titan or Hive Mind kill. It's pretty typical in these games to have a board full of lords with no profitable attacks because of a bunch of deathtouch insects or Thragtusks/beast tokens blocking the way. For this reason, Spreading Seas is our worst card in the early game, but our best card in the late game.
Note - in game one, when you have all your Spreading Seas still in the deck, you should hold them until an opponent casts a Slaughter or Summoner's Pact. They'll often cast the pacts with exact colored mana (B or GG, respectively) to pay during their next upkeep. If you put a Seas on their green or black source, you can nab an easy win.
Spellskite can be great against Bloom Titan, because he can steel Sunhome and Stronghold activations, keeping attacking Titans at a reasonable size. I'm still not sure, however, how many Skites we want in the deck against Bloom Titan, because our main plan is still to beat face. Still testing.
Cursecatchers are indispensable, since we can sack them to counter a Hive Mind pact copy, and live to play another turn.
I think our plan shouldn't be to try to counter their Amulet or Summer Blooms, but to attempt to interact with Titan. Dismember and blocking often makes short work of him, and bouncing a Titan is often a Timewalk. Locking him down with a Tidebinder accomplishes both goals of slowing them down while beating them to death.
I like the idea on Monastery Siege, it would take some testing but it does hold some promise. If we are on defense holding up counters it gives us draw and on the offense it helps protect our dudes arguably better than Kira can right now. I think 4 master of waves in the main is too greedy, if we are stuck on 3 land and with no vial or having to tick vial up to 4 just to cast the 2-3+ in our hand we are in poor shape. I'd almost always rather see a lord than a Master since lords gives up a clock that turn while Master has a wait a whole turn giving our opponent a draw and time to respond before he can do anything. He is by no means bad, I just don't feel he warrants a 4 of in the main.
Almost all competitive Modern Merfolk lists run 4x Master of Waves. That number is pretty well-established as being effective. The only lists that run fewer than 4x Master of Waves are the ones that play Phantasmal Image, but those are few and far between compared to the lists with 4x Master of Waves.
Remember, Monastery Siege is not just about protecting our dudes, but about protecting us. Kira does nothing against Burn, whereas Monastery Siege stops that deck dead in its tracks. And Siege is much better against Abzan, as it taxes Thoughtseize and Inquisition, and forces our opponent to pay 4 mana if they want to Abrupt Decay anything.
The 'other' mode on Siege is good as well (draw/discard). I like the card better than Kira vs any deck running Abrupt Decay. I have 2 in my sideboard permanently and 2 also in my Twin.dec
After playing Merfolk and literally grinding out every single win with every little edge, it's ridiculous how easy Twin is to play. The deck plays itself and gets nonsense, free wins from nowhere.
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Rd.1 http://youtu.be/WOR13-bw-RM (UR Twin)
Rd.2 http://youtu.be/QzAsyVwag9Q (UR Twin)
Rd.3 http://youtu.be/Y-SHq9vQ_YE (Soldiers/humans/soul sisters)
Rd.4 http://youtu.be/hGLFMsrwvSo (Grixis ???)
The only annoying thing is that neither my Splinter Twin opponents respected my bluffs. Also Round 3 and 4 felt like rogue decks. I might be wrong about the Grixis one though if it was actually Twin.
I'm on Twin now and it's better to just play Level 1 with the deck and 'make them show it to you.' Also, Merfolk run Remand as the counter of choice so getting Twin Remanded isn't so bad vs insta win.
I couldn't be sure that he had a 2nd Twin in the deck because he seemed to have shown me that he will not respect a removal spell and play his combo right into a trump anyway. Therefore I didn't feel he represented a 2nd twin all that much. I could be wrong though and I'll consider it in the future.
Many Merfolk decks have 4 Vapour Snag in their list so they by default have the perfect interaction preboard.
It is complete variance that I didn't get to hardcast my silvergill Adept. Against combo I take out a ton of Merfolk to make room for interaction and it usually doesn't matter.
We got tidebinder mage, spellskite , vapor snag, dismember, spell pierce , spreading sea and chalice of the void to disrupt them. I think it is enough, especialy on the play.
But i don't get the removal spell after the opponent combat step , normally i just deal with infect on my own turn.
Maybe i'm just missing something
I decided to trust you and took your deck, changed 2 merrow for 2 hurkrecall, removed a spreading seas for 1 thassa, and gave it a first go for merfolk since FRF, and went 4-0 vs Scapeshift, Burn, D&T and ad naseum
Maybe the deck is not terrible in the new metagame, but i dodged the big guys so who knows, but of course i will try again.
Their Artifact removal can hit Vials and Sideboarded Chalices. And you need Vial to play around Chalices.
- Play no artifacts and force them to have dead cards from the artifact removal?
- Play both, force them to have it, and if they do they get a 1for1+damage. Unless you get vial on 2, but then you're stuck waiting for a vial to cast your 2 drops because they probably used their removal on a vial before you could cast a Chalice with 4 mana.
UMerfolkU
Legacy
UMerfolkU
Commander
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB
+4 Tectonic Edge
+3 Spell Pierce
+2 Swan Song
-4 Dismember
-4 Tidebinder Mage
-1 Lord of Atlantis
A lot of lands is not a problem. You'll be sacrificing some
MODERN
GRIXIS FAERIES
FISH
NAYA BURN
STANDARD
RABBLE RED
E D H
OCEAN MASTER LORTHOS
Daretti's House of Artifacts AND LAND DESTRUCTION
SIDISI VALUE
With 4 tec edges, you shouldnt need to worry about colonnades nearly as much.
I think people cut phantasmal image because they are making room for non-creature spells, and it is generally the worst card in the deck. It hasnt really gotten worse, but running more interaction certainly has.
Overall it just isn't consistent enough to be taken seriously at the moment. But his time could come.
Relic deals with Snapcaster Mage which is one of the best resources that a control deck has against a creature deck like ours. The lords overall are not so important. We are generally beating down with 1 or 2 bears in play anyway because committing more to the board runs the risk of a board sweeper.
Using spreading seas on UW duals is perfectly fine. You cut him off of Supreme Verdict and other Wrath mana. I probably would keep them in for Colonnade alone.
My current list:
3 Cavern of Souls
11 Island
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
4 Mutavault
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Creatures
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Master of Waves
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
1 Spellskite
1 Tidebinder Mage
1 Dismember
1 Echoing Truth
1 Monastery Siege
4 Spreading Seas
3 Vapor Snag
4 Æther Vial
1 Dismember
3 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Monastery Siege
4 Negate
2 Spell Snare
2 Spellskite
2 Tidebinder Mage
1. I've come to the opinion that Spell Pierce does not deserve a place in our 75. We run less than a full playset, so it is unlikely we'll start with it in our opening hand. And even if we do manage to draw it in our starting seven, our opponent could easily just open with a bunch of creatures. Spell Pierce is total garbage as a late-game top deck, even worse than drawing that third aether vial. Pierce is nearly useless against Scapeshift, which I consider to be one of our toughest matchups.
Spell Piercing a turn-3 pod was pretty much the best thing Spell Pierce could do in Modern. Now that Pod is gone, Pierce has become that much worse.
When we play counterspells, we want them to hit more targets, more of the time. For this reason, I run a full playset of Negates in the side (hits Scapeshift, Planeswalkers, the last few burn spells that would normally have killed us...), and two Spell Snares in the side (specifically for Eidolon of the Great Revel, but pretty much every deck in Modern runs high-value 2-drop spells, so Snare is an excellent option).
We need all of our cards to be at least *good* (if not great) all the time. By running a starting 60 cards that have play against virtually all decks at virtually all times, we give ourselves the best chance for success.
2. For a similar reason (too situational), I no longer run Phantasmal Images at all. Sure, a lot of times he copies a lord and seems like the best possible card. But many other times you're just stuck with him in hand without any good things to copy. Or he gets blown out by a Pestermite or Electrolyze.
3. Chalice was amazing against the Delver/Cruise meta, but we have better answers against all the other decks. Don't get me wrong, I love Chalice and was one of its biggest proponents a month ago. But in a world of Siege Rhinos and Splinter Twins, Chalice is too often not pulling its weight. Yes, Chalice can help against Affinity, certainly one of our weakest matchups. But Hurkyl's Recall hits them harder, and also has a lot of value against Tron variants and the odd Tezzeret or Eggs deck. Chalice is terrible against Modern Burn, because they run so many 2-drops.
4. Master of Waves is clearly the card in our deck with the greatest ability to affect the board state by itself. After turn three, he is our best top deck. I disagree with running fewer than four.
5. Reejerey is often better than our Islandwalk lords, pumping our team while also allowing us to use our mana more efficiently by playing creatures AND leaving mana up to cast other spells on the opponents turn. Or he allows us to tap down our opponents' blockers when we don't have Islandwalk online. Again, I disagree with playing fewer than four.
6. With all the Abrupt Decays in the format, I'm convinced that Kira is a terrible choice (while Spellskite, if for Burn, Infect, and Twin alone, is an excellent choice - Spellskite is always the better card with Vial, as well). I've decided to run one Monastery Siege in the main, and it's been pretty great so far. It's almost an auto-win against Burn, since they're almost always on two, or, at most, three lands. It also makes Thoughtseizes and Inquisitions cost three mana, and Abrupt Decays cost four mana. The second copy in the board comes in against any deck that plays spells that target us or our stuff. Against decks that don't do that, the copy in the maindeck allows us to filter our draws every turn if we draw it game one, which is pretty amazing. Against Scapeshift, it helps us dig for our boarded-in counterspells.
7. A friend of mine has been learning Bloom Titan, so I've gotten some testing in against that deck. Bounce is obviously good, since it throws a Titan back to our opponent's hand after they tapped out to use their pump lands. Dismember is actually insane against Titan, because, even when fully pumped, he is a 3/1 double strike after Dismember. With a couple of lords out, we can just eat the Titan then. Vialing in a Tidebinder pre-combat to lock down a Titan is one of our best plays.
Until recently, I thought it was smart to board out all of our Spreading Seas against Bloom Titan, since they can so easily bounce their lands and kill our Seas. However, after testing, I've realized that we should keep in two Seas in games two and three. Bloom Titan sides in cards like Thragtusk and Hornet Queen to stall the board and gain time until they can piece together a Titan or Hive Mind kill. It's pretty typical in these games to have a board full of lords with no profitable attacks because of a bunch of deathtouch insects or Thragtusks/beast tokens blocking the way. For this reason, Spreading Seas is our worst card in the early game, but our best card in the late game.
Note - in game one, when you have all your Spreading Seas still in the deck, you should hold them until an opponent casts a Slaughter or Summoner's Pact. They'll often cast the pacts with exact colored mana (B or GG, respectively) to pay during their next upkeep. If you put a Seas on their green or black source, you can nab an easy win.
Spellskite can be great against Bloom Titan, because he can steel Sunhome and Stronghold activations, keeping attacking Titans at a reasonable size. I'm still not sure, however, how many Skites we want in the deck against Bloom Titan, because our main plan is still to beat face. Still testing.
Cursecatchers are indispensable, since we can sack them to counter a Hive Mind pact copy, and live to play another turn.
I think our plan shouldn't be to try to counter their Amulet or Summer Blooms, but to attempt to interact with Titan. Dismember and blocking often makes short work of him, and bouncing a Titan is often a Timewalk. Locking him down with a Tidebinder accomplishes both goals of slowing them down while beating them to death.
UMerfolkU
Legacy
UMerfolkU
Commander
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB
Remember, Monastery Siege is not just about protecting our dudes, but about protecting us. Kira does nothing against Burn, whereas Monastery Siege stops that deck dead in its tracks. And Siege is much better against Abzan, as it taxes Thoughtseize and Inquisition, and forces our opponent to pay 4 mana if they want to Abrupt Decay anything.
After playing Merfolk and literally grinding out every single win with every little edge, it's ridiculous how easy Twin is to play. The deck plays itself and gets nonsense, free wins from nowhere.