MTG Salvation

What's your guy's opinion on Remand?

I've seen remand in a lot of decklists. I guess the draw is very nice. Personally I'm going for spell pierce to get rid of a spell for good (and for 1 mana). Spell pierce is good to counter things early and when your opponent casts big things with most of their mana Its probably weakest vs green when your opponent has a ton of mana, though I dont think merfolk struggle too much against green. Remand can counter spells in all situations, but they are only delaying the problem. If you counter Splinter Twin you're only buying yourself a little more time. Maybe a little more time is all you need though. I have also heard good things about Deprive so I picked up some of these as well.

Generally speaking 2 mana counterspells are bad in merfolk because it is just less efficient use of our mana, using a Reejerey trigger to keep 1 open after playing a lord is a lot easier and beneficial than needing to hold up 2 mana and not adding to the board. I personally don't like remand and haven't missed it in my list. I really want to like deprive, but the UU sometimes leaves it dead in my hands (thanks muta)

Other people swear by remand and would never cut it from their deck, it is more on you and how you play the deck. If you don't mind plinking away and playing a bit more control than remand works but if you are more aggro/tempo than it can just slow you down as opposed to spell piece or swan song.

What spells are you guys typically wanting to counter?

Quote from SilvergillMaster »

I keep 2 chalice in my SB for infect, they do help some vs affinity if you have it in your opener and drop it on 0 it can slow them just enough to make them play a bit more a fair game.

Chalice vs Affinity on the draw is pretty bad unless you play with recalls, Chalice vs infect is always good play or draw...in my experience. Making them do damage the hard way allows us to speed up since they play islands anyway.

Yea I think Chalice might just not be reliable enough if its dependent on play or draw for me. I think I'll have to max or play 3 Hurkyl's or have some number of Steel Sabotage if I'm going to keep playing Fish at my LGS because I always run hot until Affinity comes in and ruins my day...

Won't get to go for another couple of weeks though since I'll be out of town so I guess we'll see what happens.

Platinum Angel swings into a vial on 2. feels good man.

Quote from oaomcg »

Platinum Angel swings into a vial on 2. feels good man.

This is why when my Harbingers come in the mail (been 4 weeks now since my pre-order...) I'm switching my Tidebinders out.

Congrats to all the fish players that got us promoted to tier 1! Lets keep it going....but not too much....lol.

So long time player of merfolk, since Lorwyn block, and I'm headed to the starcitygames open in Charlotte in 2 weeks but I don't know what I need or should have in my side. Here is my list what do you guys think?

Quote from Dytundar »

@FANAttIC, thanks for the response. I have been running Tidebinder in the main and I SB any others I have. But TB seems to get bolted or otherwise removed pretty quickly after locking something down. I hate it the most is when it gets hit with Searing Blood or with a pumped Searing Blaze. Is the best plan to just try and race them?

No your line is too deal with their creatures first. They are the recurring sources of damage. Then get to kira and/or master of waves as soon as possible. Basically you want to force them to have an all burn hand too win. You will lose a straight race to goblin guide and swiftspear. You need to deal with their first few creatures.

Soooooo... feedback on harbinger anyone? How is it testing thus far?

Burn is my secondary outta nowhere deck... lol.

If burn is a real problem for you... a couple if dispels in ur SB won't hurt I guess. They stop the 2 for 1 burn spells. Mizzium skin also stops them but can protect ur while team in a pinch as the utility is amazing and it's seldom a dead card.

Harbinger has a very strong psychological effect as well; Ive found players who are aware of it become very reluctant to attack; one jund player was the perfect example, who never attacked with his Tasigur and rather large Scavenging Ooze because he was too afraid I'd bounce them. I didn't have it and if he had attacked twice he would've won.

Also, I need some help with my sideboard for Saturday's PPTQ:



My meta is something lik this: I expect 2-3 infect, 1 bogles, 2 burn, 2-3 BGx/CoCo, 2 Twin, 2 Tron, 1 Grixis Control, 1 Ad Nauseam and 1-2 Affinity.

I'm doubting I need the Hurkyl's Recall, as they only hit affinity and splashhate ad nauseam. I'd really like to play Chalice of the Void but I feel you either play 3 of those or none.

Won a 50 person pptq with above. Got very lucky in the t8.

Beat GR Titan, Esper Gifts, KikiChord and Infect in the Swiss while losing to Affinity.

Harbinger was excellent. Maindeck Skite was fantastic. Loved the 5 counters.

Quote from toor »

Mo-town's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards

Won a 50 person pptq with above. Got very lucky in the t8.

Beat GR Titan, Esper Gifts, KikiChord and Infect in the Swiss while losing to Affinity.

Harbinger was excellent. Maindeck Skite was fantastic. Loved the 5 counters.

Mainboard Skite can be odd since it doesn't attack at all, but is an ok trick G1 for certain MU. Was it ever a dead card for you?

also, not sure as to why your decklist isn't showing up

Quote from Tipsygiggle »

No your line is too deal with their creatures first. They are the recurring sources of damage. Then get to kira and/or master of waves as soon as possible. Basically you want to force them to have an all burn hand too win. You will lose a straight race to goblin guide and swiftspear. You need to deal with their first few creatures.

@Tipsygiggle thanks! I am going to try holding back dumping my hand and instead slow down the creature attacks first. I think I might be trying to play too aggressive instead of maybe more of a control game to stall until I get to Master of Waves. One thing I have tried that worked well was I used Aether Vial to play Phantasmal Image and make a copy of their Eidolon of the Great Revel. They had to deal with it right away so wasted a burn spell on the copy and took 4 damage as a result. Thank you for the advice.

Hopefully its viewable now (I hate the formatting on this forum).


I only drew the spellskite twice in game 1 and once it saved a lord shortening clock by one turn. THe other time I still lost to affinity though it was fine.
I desperately wanted to draw it vs Poison and Boggles. While I like relic as a card it doesn't help your bad/close game 1 matchups. Spellskite can theoretically be dead/less valuable but those are in matchups where your g1 is much better.

Can you share your thoughts on why you lost to affinity? I want to know what do you think you could have done differently to win. I have 6 affinity players at one of the stores I frequent so I can offer you some help with that matchup if you need it, but you sound like a pretty good player

Also how was Monastery Siege?

In a field with junds, twin and affinity, should try UW merfolks?
What u think about Threads of Disloyalty in sideboard?



thanks !