Threads of Disloyalty is not very good at all. I'd rather play 4 Sea's Claim with 4 Master of Waves to beat decks like Zoo and Jund. A couple of Recalls may be warranted for affinity, but I've beat them without that card.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
In a local meta where you know what the regulars are playing, I would say that U/W can be a pretty safe and good deck to play since you know exactly what you need to beat and the cards you need to draw from you sideboard to shore up some wins.
But, at the moment I don't ever see myself taking U/W to an PPTQ, an IQ, or a GP since there is too much variation with the deck and it can just lose to a wider range of decks due to the more narrow list of cards it utilizes. Mono-blue's strength is how so many of the cards catch multiple decks more or less equally making none of our match ups a super blow out. You can in fact still win against affinity without going u/w or playing recalls. Some secret tech would have to be discovered or a new card would be printed for me to even consider it.
There could be a shift since U/W does have a bit of an advantage in the mirror by playing less islands, with Merfolk now being t1 that might come into play somehow. but I'll reserve that change for when I see it.
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
i lost to affinity the same way I always lose plating or ravager or overseer + I draw <2 pieces of interactive removal. I don't think its worth sideboarding cards for the matchup either since you need 4 narrow slots. I basically don't plan to beat affinity except when the deck craps on itself or I god draw them. Which I think is the correct approach for any major tournament (e.g. affinity <10% of meta).
I only sided in siege once and didn't draw it so I cant report back. I have traditionally played Kira's in those spots and was very unhappy with them. I would be interested in trying Spellskites or Chalices (maybe a 2nd song) instead of the sieges. Not that they are bad necessarily, but they might be too narrow.
Just getting back into Modern, and I really like the look of Merfolk. Was hoping I could get some help from the folks here on a solid sideboard and possibly any changes to the decklist. Here's what I'm looking at maindeck:
Not really sure what to put in the sideboard. The local meta is alot of R/U and Grixis Twin, various Trons, Merfolk, and Burn with a scattering of G/W Hatebears, Jund, CoCo Elves, and just a couple of Scapeshift. Should I have copies 3 and 4 of Vapor Snag, Dismember, and/or Spell Pierce there? I was leaning pretty heavily towards at least a few if not a full 4 Tidebinder Mage and/or Hibernation for CoCo Elves/Hatebears/Jund, maybe an extra Master of Waves, Mizzium Skin, and/or Dispel for Burn. Tidebinder also seem good against Burn. So if I go with something like
That would leave 5 slots open and should already have me shored up against Jund, Burn, CoCo, and Hatebears, right? What about Twin, Tron, and the mirror? Just the extra Dismembers, Vapor Snags, and/or Spell Pierce? Not sure about Scapeshift either, but it seems to be a bad MU anyway and there aren't many of them floating around here. Any help would be appreciated!
In a local meta where you know what the regulars are playing, I would say that U/W can be a pretty safe and good deck to play since you know exactly what you need to beat and the cards you need to draw from you sideboard to shore up some wins.
But, at the moment I don't ever see myself taking U/W to an PPTQ, an IQ, or a GP since there is too much variation with the deck and it can just lose to a wider range of decks due to the more narrow list of cards it utilizes. Mono-blue's strength is how so many of the cards catch multiple decks more or less equally making none of our match ups a super blow out. You can in fact still win against affinity without going u/w or playing recalls. Some secret tech would have to be discovered or a new card would be printed for me to even consider it.
There could be a shift since U/W does have a bit of an advantage in the mirror by playing less islands, with Merfolk now being t1 that might come into play somehow. but I'll reserve that change for when I see it.
The only appeal to UW Merfolk to me has been to use of Worship. I've yet to test it myself but it seems to be very strong in a deck playing 4x mutavault main deck.
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Modern UMerfolk WDeath and Taxes BRBliztkrieg GStompy
- - -
"Rock is overpowered. Paper is fine."
-Scissors
So against the big 7 decks of the format (burn,jund,affinity,merfolk,grixis control, twin, tron rg) i add 6-8 cards for each of the matchups which make me feel quite comfortable. The problem is i have nothing for the mirror. 0 in 0 out. And only add 2 hurkyls and maybe a relic or spell pierce for affinity. So what sideboard additions should i make to strengthen my affinity and mirror matches? And would it be taking away too much from my other matchups which right now are mostly positive.
The flashfreezes seems like one of the Most contestable slots to me. Red dominates modern completly so they seem fanatstic, but i wonder if a card like mana leak would be morre versatile or spell snare? Certainly snare would be great vs merfolk and affinity, but its crazy conditional and doesnt do what flashfreeze does against twin, living end and Coco decks...
I haven't played Merfolk in a while. I've been on either Grixis Delver or Burn, but decided to go back to Fish after repeatedly feeling that if you don't t1 a Delver then the deck sucks. Before the tournament I joked with a friend about the list, noting how thrown together a lot of the numbers were. Tec Edge main was especially suspect, and I said I'd count out the times it helped vs. the times I was caught off blue. I didn't own Minamo or Oboro, and would've played both if I'd found them for trade. I also would've played second Spellskite if I had found it before I left home (it was hiding in an EDH deck ><).
Round 1 I crushed a newer Soul Sisters player. When I realized he didn't know that my creatures triggered Soul's attendant the round was in the bag.
Round 2 I took down Infect. We have answers for every threat they cast. Seas their inkmoth. Tidebind their noble/glistener. Snag and Dismember as 1 mana removal that ruins their whole day. Spell pierce for days.
Round 3 I shuffled up against a kindly mono Blue Tron player. A random deck check saw that he had left a sb card in his main. Maindeck tec edge breaks up Tron in the one game we played, but it was overkill. He was dead to rights either way.
At 3-0 I sit across from a friend playing Bogles. We briefly consider drawing, but I want to play it out. The winner can double draw into top 8. G1 I get crushed, but Chalice on 1 ends any chance he had in G2. G3 we both mull and I keep a spotty hand with countermagic. He has a bogle but no first strike and trades some umbras off in chump block mode. I'm able to counter the important auras (mostly Daybreak Coronet). I tick a vial to 4 with Master of Waves in hand and draw spreading seas for turn. I've got board control but am at 3 life. He has only a dryad arbor, a plains and a forest on board, and I know he has 2 rancors in hand, and a card he didn't play last turn. I draw spreading seas. If he draws a third green source he can double Rancor his Dryad Arbor and I'm forced to trade my board just blocking. I draw a spreading seas and am left with a decision. If I spreading seas his forest he can't double rancor. But if I spreading seas his Dryad Arbor and he doesn't know that it's still a creature... I take the riskier play and spreading seas the Dryad Arbor. He asks, "So it's an Island?" I pause for a second. "Yes," I say. It is. It's a 1/1 Land Creature - Island Dryad. He untaps, plays a horizon canopy, and taps his Arbor to sac the Canopy and draw a card. Conscience catches up to me, conveniently after he taps the Arbor. "Let's call a judge," I say, and I let the judge explain what I already knew: that Arbor is a still creature. He has his next turn to draw something, but missing that attack lets me build up my board, and I swing for lethal the turn before he draws Coronet. I feel a bit of a pang, but in a match for top 8, whoever the person across the table is is your opponent. Ethical? I answered his question honestly and played to win. So did I call a judge to cover a guilty conscience? Not sure.
I double draw into the 4th seed. I could've played for 1st seed in round 6 but decide not to rely on breakers in the case of a loss.
My opponent is a strong player that i've played against a few times in the past. He's on Abzan. Typical dumb Abzan. He comments that he's tired of top 8ing with his brews and falling short, so he decided to go with a regular ol' tier 1 deck this time. Top seed is on the play. My hand is: Vial, Vial, Island, Island, Mutavault, Merrow, Merrow. Ugh. I tank for a long time but keep it. He mulls. 4 out of my first 6 draws are lands. His 6 thoughtsiezes, decays, dismembers, lingering souls and Rhinos me into submission.
Game 2 my hand is 3 2-mana lords, some countermagic, 1 island and 1 tectonic edge. UGH. Don't do me like this T. Edge! I keep it and my opponent mulls to 5. It takes me a few extra turns to hit double blue, but I eventually get it going and win a game that was way closer than it needed to be. 13 blue sources not looking so hot...
Game 3 I'm on the draw. My hand is a good one that lacks anything tricky: just lords and masters (no counters, vials, or removal) and my opponent mulls to 6. Turns out, his hand was thoughtseize, Maelstrom, and 4 lands. His draws were nuts. He lands a turn 2 dark confidant. I draw a dismember and skip playing a lord to take it out. I get 3 lords on board, and am going to threaten lethal the next turn. He topdecks his 1-of Damnation. Board gone. I recover with a Master of Waves, with 2 more Master of Waves in hand. He plays his 6th land. Maelstrom Pulses and plays his topdecked 1-of Choke. Choke. My board is 3 locked islands and a mutavault. My lack of nonbasics does me in. He rips a siege rhino into a lingering souls and that's all he wrote. Did he topdeck his 2 perfect 1-ofs in a row? Yep. Would I have won the match if i'd built my deck better? Yep. It was a tough beat, but sometimes it rolls that way.
Might tweek the numbers in the board a bit, but that's the gist. Kira is better when there are lots of lightning bolts running around. Dismember in the main is fine, but there's lots of Ad Nauseam and other combo going around, and I like going to Spell Pierce in the main, esp if I cut Kira. Darkslick helps vs. choke and let's me put E. Explosives on 2 and take less damage from dismember. Relic split feels better, and I like Monastery Siege in the side in order to grind.
YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
hello all. long time lurker. Been playing merfolk in various formats for a few years now. The mirror has been happening much more,and the mirror is my least understood/played matchup. Any advice there? Ive heard of ppl boarding out Lord of Atlantis, but without many board slots for the mirror, it just leaves you with less threats, imo. Lean heavier on wanderwines et al?
Also, ive been boarding out master of waves every burn matchup, deeming it too slow. Seems everyone here thinks its the best card vs. burn. Am I that wrong? too many times master just seems to be a 5/6th turn play, which isnt what I want in my opener against goblinguide.dec.
To continue the convo about harbringer, I had my doubts at first, but now I almost always want to draw one. They can be the blowout everyone talks about(disrupting the twin combo, vialing it in against a pumped scooz or tasigur), or they can just provide valuable tempo. Bouncing a bird turn two, or making a burn playing recast guide seem like minor plays but the tempo is real. Card is good.
hello all. long time lurker. Been playing merfolk in various formats for a few years now. The mirror has been happening much more,and the mirror is my least understood/played matchup. Any advice there? Ive heard of ppl boarding out Lord of Atlantis, but without many board slots for the mirror, it just leaves you with less threats, imo. Lean heavier on wanderwines et al?
Also, ive been boarding out master of waves every burn matchup, deeming it too slow. Seems everyone here thinks its the best card vs. burn. Am I that wrong? too many times master just seems to be a 5/6th turn play, which isnt what I want in my opener against goblinguide.dec.
To continue the convo about harbringer, I had my doubts at first, but now I almost always want to draw one. They can be the blowout everyone talks about(disrupting the twin combo, vialing it in against a pumped scooz or tasigur), or they can just provide valuable tempo. Bouncing a bird turn two, or making a burn playing recast guide seem like minor plays but the tempo is real. Card is good.
Vs Burn I suggest at least 2x Master of Waves. The card is a bit clunky but very powerful anyway. Merfolk is never going to win by turn 4-5 so your plan is to stay alive until then and Master of Waves will be a quick finisher or excellent stabilizer.
This deck just seems like a lot of fun, I dont mean to be contributing to its sudden growth in popularity. I was just doing research on how to get into modern and found some cool videos. I am surprised to see it suddenly growing in popularity. I assume new additions to established modern decks are somewhat rare, so Harbinger of the Tides just boosted it a bit. The fact that it matches up very well to the current meta is helping. But from what I see Boggles has some really good win ratios as well, better than Merfolk - and is nearly a hard counter to merfolk. All it will take is a new flood of Boggles and Merfolk will be a pain to play.
The thing is boggles is super inconsistent and requires a very specific set of cards to beat us. They're super fragile to spreading seas due to a low land count and get wrecked by the current meta. Modern Nexus has them as 1% of the paper meta and not really worth playing around. It's a difficult match-up if you're not prepared for it( I would get wrecked with my current sideboard) but the majority of boggle players are just not very good in my experience. If you have a high elf meta then play tidebinder's mainboard over harbinger or have a split.
Being the local Bogle player in our shop, I've always had a hard time with our local Merfolk player since he always has a Spreading Seas in hand which yeah, sucks for me. Well anyway, just to add, it is true that the deck (Bogles) is very inconsistent and really needs a good opening hand to beat Merfolk. Merfolk is more consistent. Don't worry so much about Bogles, not a lot of players like playing it and the usual Sideboard for other decks covers it anyway (i.e. Spellskite, etc.) So just chill. Still love my Bogles deck though. Hahaha.
"but the majority of boggle players are just not very good in my experience"
Sigh. Every time I forget why I leave MTGSalvation. Then I remember. FNM Heroes trying to beat bad players on budget decks. God forbid we get actual analysis into a matchup.
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YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
I played in the Starcity Games 5K Modern Premiere IQ this weekend with Merfolk. 8 rounds of swiss with a cut to top 8, roughly 250 people. I placed 19th with a record of 6-2, my loses coming at the hands of Bogles and Twin. The tournament was a lot fun and I played against a lot of smart opponents. I'll try to remember as much as I can and write a report sometime after work, not sure how detailed it'll be since I also played Legacy over the weekend! I'll try to do my best.
Oh ty, I'll stay with mono U version. Just sometimes felt need a secure choice for an event like GP without byem and junds, merfolk, affinity, grixis/twins play something better than merfolk....or old italian version with 4 recall, 4 spellskite, 4 spell piece and 3(idk).
But i think its not a problem, jst need face it and let merfolks do their jobs. hahah
Jokes aside, Boggles requires you to outrace them and hope to disrupt WW so they can't cast Daybreak Coronet. I find that using Chalice of the Void on one is also just game over for them.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Also, ive been boarding out master of waves every burn matchup, deeming it too slow. Seems everyone here thinks its the best card vs. burn. Am I that wrong?
Burn has been tough for me. I have found Master of Waves to be the primary card I need to stabilize the board against burn. Once I get there, I tend to win more often than not. I have just been struggling to stall long enough. I usually run 3 MoW in main, I bring in a 4th from SB when playing Burn. Based on the suggestions, playing an early control game and having a heavy Tidebinder Mage and MoW deck is what I am trying. I guess the other thing I have been experimenting with is ticking Aether Vial up to four in that matchup because MoW is that important for me and I want to hold up land for counters to get him in if needed.
P.S. - Though I am not certain, Phantasmal Image feels like a good card to me in this matchup. In addition to the typical use of copying a Lord, I also have been targeting TB Mage, MoW and even their Eidolon.
i've had a lot of success against burn and always side in the 4th master of waves. it's instant stabilization and they can almost never get rid of it. the trick is to resolve one before you get below about 5 life.
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Modern UMerfolkU WUBRGPeopleGRBUW U Turbo Turns U UB Fae BU WBG Aristocrats GBW
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Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
But, at the moment I don't ever see myself taking U/W to an PPTQ, an IQ, or a GP since there is too much variation with the deck and it can just lose to a wider range of decks due to the more narrow list of cards it utilizes. Mono-blue's strength is how so many of the cards catch multiple decks more or less equally making none of our match ups a super blow out. You can in fact still win against affinity without going u/w or playing recalls. Some secret tech would have to be discovered or a new card would be printed for me to even consider it.
There could be a shift since U/W does have a bit of an advantage in the mirror by playing less islands, with Merfolk now being t1 that might come into play somehow. but I'll reserve that change for when I see it.
UMerfolkU
Legacy
UMerfolkU
Commander
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB
i lost to affinity the same way I always lose plating or ravager or overseer + I draw <2 pieces of interactive removal. I don't think its worth sideboarding cards for the matchup either since you need 4 narrow slots. I basically don't plan to beat affinity except when the deck craps on itself or I god draw them. Which I think is the correct approach for any major tournament (e.g. affinity <10% of meta).
I only sided in siege once and didn't draw it so I cant report back. I have traditionally played Kira's in those spots and was very unhappy with them. I would be interested in trying Spellskites or Chalices (maybe a 2nd song) instead of the sieges. Not that they are bad necessarily, but they might be too narrow.
">Helping to Invent Thopter/Depths in Old Ext
Creator of the Magic Humor Videos:
The Vintage Metagame The Original
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Silvergill Adept
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Master of Waves
2 Spell Pierce
2 Vapor Snag
2 Dismember
4 Spreading Seas
4 Aether Vial
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
13 Island
Not really sure what to put in the sideboard. The local meta is alot of R/U and Grixis Twin, various Trons, Merfolk, and Burn with a scattering of G/W Hatebears, Jund, CoCo Elves, and just a couple of Scapeshift. Should I have copies 3 and 4 of Vapor Snag, Dismember, and/or Spell Pierce there? I was leaning pretty heavily towards at least a few if not a full 4 Tidebinder Mage and/or Hibernation for CoCo Elves/Hatebears/Jund, maybe an extra Master of Waves, Mizzium Skin, and/or Dispel for Burn. Tidebinder also seem good against Burn. So if I go with something like
2 Hibernation
1 Master of Waves
2 Mizzium Skin
2 Dispel
That would leave 5 slots open and should already have me shored up against Jund, Burn, CoCo, and Hatebears, right? What about Twin, Tron, and the mirror? Just the extra Dismembers, Vapor Snags, and/or Spell Pierce? Not sure about Scapeshift either, but it seems to be a bad MU anyway and there aren't many of them floating around here. Any help would be appreciated!
The only appeal to UW Merfolk to me has been to use of Worship. I've yet to test it myself but it seems to be very strong in a deck playing 4x mutavault main deck.
UMerfolk
WDeath and Taxes
BRBliztkrieg
GStompy
- - -
"Rock is overpowered. Paper is fine."
-Scissors
-2 relic of progenitus
-3 tidebinder mage
-2 flashfreeze
-2 tectonic edge
-1 spellpierce
-2 hurkyls recall
-1 hibernation
-2 spellskite
So against the big 7 decks of the format (burn,jund,affinity,merfolk,grixis control, twin, tron rg) i add 6-8 cards for each of the matchups which make me feel quite comfortable. The problem is i have nothing for the mirror. 0 in 0 out. And only add 2 hurkyls and maybe a relic or spell pierce for affinity. So what sideboard additions should i make to strengthen my affinity and mirror matches? And would it be taking away too much from my other matchups which right now are mostly positive.
The flashfreezes seems like one of the Most contestable slots to me. Red dominates modern completly so they seem fanatstic, but i wonder if a card like mana leak would be morre versatile or spell snare? Certainly snare would be great vs merfolk and affinity, but its crazy conditional and doesnt do what flashfreeze does against twin, living end and Coco decks...
UR storm
U merfolk
RUBW Affinity
You have useful cards vs Merfolk such as Tidebinder Mage and Tectonic Edge (to help curve out)
Read #5 to deal with Merfolk:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/tier-2-modern/220260-merfolk?comment=7806
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Merrow Reejerey
4 Master of Waves
2 Harbinger of the Tides
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 AEther Vial
3 Vapor Snag
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Dismember
4 Spreading Seas
Land
13 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Negate
2 Swan Song
2 Spell Pierce
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Tidebinder Mage
1 Spellskite
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
I haven't played Merfolk in a while. I've been on either Grixis Delver or Burn, but decided to go back to Fish after repeatedly feeling that if you don't t1 a Delver then the deck sucks. Before the tournament I joked with a friend about the list, noting how thrown together a lot of the numbers were. Tec Edge main was especially suspect, and I said I'd count out the times it helped vs. the times I was caught off blue. I didn't own Minamo or Oboro, and would've played both if I'd found them for trade. I also would've played second Spellskite if I had found it before I left home (it was hiding in an EDH deck ><).
Round 1 I crushed a newer Soul Sisters player. When I realized he didn't know that my creatures triggered Soul's attendant the round was in the bag.
Round 2 I took down Infect. We have answers for every threat they cast. Seas their inkmoth. Tidebind their noble/glistener. Snag and Dismember as 1 mana removal that ruins their whole day. Spell pierce for days.
Round 3 I shuffled up against a kindly mono Blue Tron player. A random deck check saw that he had left a sb card in his main. Maindeck tec edge breaks up Tron in the one game we played, but it was overkill. He was dead to rights either way.
At 3-0 I sit across from a friend playing Bogles. We briefly consider drawing, but I want to play it out. The winner can double draw into top 8. G1 I get crushed, but Chalice on 1 ends any chance he had in G2. G3 we both mull and I keep a spotty hand with countermagic. He has a bogle but no first strike and trades some umbras off in chump block mode. I'm able to counter the important auras (mostly Daybreak Coronet). I tick a vial to 4 with Master of Waves in hand and draw spreading seas for turn. I've got board control but am at 3 life. He has only a dryad arbor, a plains and a forest on board, and I know he has 2 rancors in hand, and a card he didn't play last turn. I draw spreading seas. If he draws a third green source he can double Rancor his Dryad Arbor and I'm forced to trade my board just blocking. I draw a spreading seas and am left with a decision. If I spreading seas his forest he can't double rancor. But if I spreading seas his Dryad Arbor and he doesn't know that it's still a creature... I take the riskier play and spreading seas the Dryad Arbor. He asks, "So it's an Island?" I pause for a second. "Yes," I say. It is. It's a 1/1 Land Creature - Island Dryad. He untaps, plays a horizon canopy, and taps his Arbor to sac the Canopy and draw a card. Conscience catches up to me, conveniently after he taps the Arbor. "Let's call a judge," I say, and I let the judge explain what I already knew: that Arbor is a still creature. He has his next turn to draw something, but missing that attack lets me build up my board, and I swing for lethal the turn before he draws Coronet. I feel a bit of a pang, but in a match for top 8, whoever the person across the table is is your opponent. Ethical? I answered his question honestly and played to win. So did I call a judge to cover a guilty conscience? Not sure.
I double draw into the 4th seed. I could've played for 1st seed in round 6 but decide not to rely on breakers in the case of a loss.
My opponent is a strong player that i've played against a few times in the past. He's on Abzan. Typical dumb Abzan. He comments that he's tired of top 8ing with his brews and falling short, so he decided to go with a regular ol' tier 1 deck this time. Top seed is on the play. My hand is: Vial, Vial, Island, Island, Mutavault, Merrow, Merrow. Ugh. I tank for a long time but keep it. He mulls. 4 out of my first 6 draws are lands. His 6 thoughtsiezes, decays, dismembers, lingering souls and Rhinos me into submission.
Game 2 my hand is 3 2-mana lords, some countermagic, 1 island and 1 tectonic edge. UGH. Don't do me like this T. Edge! I keep it and my opponent mulls to 5. It takes me a few extra turns to hit double blue, but I eventually get it going and win a game that was way closer than it needed to be. 13 blue sources not looking so hot...
Game 3 I'm on the draw. My hand is a good one that lacks anything tricky: just lords and masters (no counters, vials, or removal) and my opponent mulls to 6. Turns out, his hand was thoughtseize, Maelstrom, and 4 lands. His draws were nuts. He lands a turn 2 dark confidant. I draw a dismember and skip playing a lord to take it out. I get 3 lords on board, and am going to threaten lethal the next turn. He topdecks his 1-of Damnation. Board gone. I recover with a Master of Waves, with 2 more Master of Waves in hand. He plays his 6th land. Maelstrom Pulses and plays his topdecked 1-of Choke. Choke. My board is 3 locked islands and a mutavault. My lack of nonbasics does me in. He rips a siege rhino into a lingering souls and that's all he wrote. Did he topdeck his 2 perfect 1-ofs in a row? Yep. Would I have won the match if i'd built my deck better? Yep. It was a tough beat, but sometimes it rolls that way.
Next weekend I plan to sleeve up this:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Master of Waves
2 Harbinger of the Tides
1 Phantasmal Image
4 AEther Vial
3 Vapor Snag
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spell Pierce
4 Spreading Seas
Land
12 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Spell Pierce
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Tidebinder Mage
2 Spellskite
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Monastery Siege
2 Dismember
Might tweek the numbers in the board a bit, but that's the gist. Kira is better when there are lots of lightning bolts running around. Dismember in the main is fine, but there's lots of Ad Nauseam and other combo going around, and I like going to Spell Pierce in the main, esp if I cut Kira. Darkslick helps vs. choke and let's me put E. Explosives on 2 and take less damage from dismember. Relic split feels better, and I like Monastery Siege in the side in order to grind.
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
Also, ive been boarding out master of waves every burn matchup, deeming it too slow. Seems everyone here thinks its the best card vs. burn. Am I that wrong? too many times master just seems to be a 5/6th turn play, which isnt what I want in my opener against goblinguide.dec.
To continue the convo about harbringer, I had my doubts at first, but now I almost always want to draw one. They can be the blowout everyone talks about(disrupting the twin combo, vialing it in against a pumped scooz or tasigur), or they can just provide valuable tempo. Bouncing a bird turn two, or making a burn playing recast guide seem like minor plays but the tempo is real. Card is good.
http://youtu.be/O8HHGndxrYY
Read #5 to deal with Merfolk:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/tier-2-modern/220260-merfolk?comment=7806
Vs Burn I suggest at least 2x Master of Waves. The card is a bit clunky but very powerful anyway. Merfolk is never going to win by turn 4-5 so your plan is to stay alive until then and Master of Waves will be a quick finisher or excellent stabilizer.
Being the local Bogle player in our shop, I've always had a hard time with our local Merfolk player since he always has a Spreading Seas in hand which yeah, sucks for me. Well anyway, just to add, it is true that the deck (Bogles) is very inconsistent and really needs a good opening hand to beat Merfolk. Merfolk is more consistent.
Sigh. Every time I forget why I leave MTGSalvation. Then I remember. FNM Heroes trying to beat bad players on budget decks. God forbid we get actual analysis into a matchup.
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
But i think its not a problem, jst need face it and let merfolks do their jobs. hahah
Cast Hibernation. The end.
Jokes aside, Boggles requires you to outrace them and hope to disrupt WW so they can't cast Daybreak Coronet. I find that using Chalice of the Void on one is also just game over for them.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Burn has been tough for me. I have found Master of Waves to be the primary card I need to stabilize the board against burn. Once I get there, I tend to win more often than not. I have just been struggling to stall long enough. I usually run 3 MoW in main, I bring in a 4th from SB when playing Burn. Based on the suggestions, playing an early control game and having a heavy Tidebinder Mage and MoW deck is what I am trying. I guess the other thing I have been experimenting with is ticking Aether Vial up to four in that matchup because MoW is that important for me and I want to hold up land for counters to get him in if needed.
P.S. - Though I am not certain, Phantasmal Image feels like a good card to me in this matchup. In addition to the typical use of copying a Lord, I also have been targeting TB Mage, MoW and even their Eidolon.
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Yes, but it's good vs only 1 deck... Merfolk
U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW