I like them because there is at least one boggles player at my store/ event I go to and I like having them for that MI. Plus as you mentioned, they are good in other MU's.
Both are good options, although I'd recommend that if you run Chalice, you should run 3 or 4; you need them on t2 otherwise they come too late. Also, you need to adjust the rest of your deck to it; run less 1 mana counterspells and removal (negate or mana leak instead of spell pierce, dismember instead of vapor snag), so you don't have a big bunch of dead cards in your deck after siding.
Round 1: 2-0 vs American kiki-control (1-0)
Round 2: 2-1 vs Affinity (2-0)
Round 3: 0-2 vs B/G Rock (2-1)
Round 4: 2-0 vs 4c gifts (3-1)
Round 5: 2-0 vs Scapeshift (4-1)
Round 6: 2-0 vs B/G rock (5-1)
Round 7: 2-0 vs Tarmo twin (6-1)
Round 8: 2-1 vs Small zoo (7-1)
Round 9: 0-2 vs U/R twin (7-2)
My tiebreakers were bad and I was sitting at 8th place after 8 rounds and couldn't ID in. Got killed by exarch and kiki, with annul sitting in my hand.
I ended up finishing 12th. Not bad for my first Modern PTQ.
I like your list, especially the 1-of annul, but I wouldn;t want to have all my countermagic at 1 mana with chalice in the side. Also maybe run one or two kira?
I dont bring in counters against decks that i will need chalice set to 1. Also, the reason why I don't like kira is that it just dies too easily to combust, anger of gods, abrupt decay. Also, I prefer spellskite as if you have it in your hand and vial set on 2, twin will never be able to go off, unless it is with kiki. I'm trying annul in place of a 3rd swan song because I feel like I want a bit of tron and affinity hate without taking too much away from my twin/storm matchup.
I got to play with my new merfolk deck today against my affinity deck. Unfortunately, I didn't have the red spells and lands. I was simply trying to gauge the deck to get a feel for it again. We splashed Dakra, Master of Waves, Bounce, and Counter spells and overall we felt it was still lacking something, but we couldn't figure out that that lack was. I suggested splashing a color into it and we decided upon red. What do you guys think?
people have brought up before splashing into red, but personally, I don't feel it's good enough. grim lavamancer might be good, as cursecatcher isnt always the best.
I feel that the best thing red can do in the current meta is throw out bolts and sweepers like crazy, but sweepers hurt us too. izzet charm might be deserving of a slot somewhere. You would also consider not having all your electrolyzes sideboarded.
[blood moon[/card] is also pretty good, though it stops mutas and such.
I too have come to the conclusion that mindbreak trap is good, but against the decks we really like it against (read: tron) we won't always have the four mana up, or it will slow us down immensely having to be careful and keep 4 mana open.
I will stick with my U/W build, as I think white is the best color to splash (black isn't bad, but you're mostly getting bob).
I agree that white is the best splash. I just disliked that I don't have a fetch to snag a white colored source. So, I was going with the next best choice. lol As for the SB, Electrolyze crushes Affinity and Mindbreak Trap is for combo decks going off after multiple spells such as storm, and...they can't come to me right now, but there's a few.
If I go white I'll throw in Path to Exile, Stoney Silence, Rest in Peace, Ghostly Prison, etc...
If I splashed I'd probably go for Black. Thoughtseize and Bob are just rreeallly nasty in our deck. Sadly it's also a really expensive splash however
Im on mono blue now but i like Uw as well. As far as Ub is concerned... Well i dont have Bobs... but i think Thoughtseize and NOT PAYING 4 LIFE FOR EVERY DISMEMBER IS APPEALING.
Haven't been browsing this thread (or playing) much lately. Wondering where Cursecatcher stands at the moment. See it's used on MTGO a great deal, but it still seems like a pretty mediocre card to me. Has the meta changed?
cursecatcher is still used, usually three are run.
It's not bad, and at the very least, its a one drop merfolk, but it can be useful with its ability.
There is enough aggro that cursecatcher is not exactly a star, but its relevant enough to retain, especially with no truly better alternatives.
Its not really great, but its not worth cutting completely yet, for the most part.
The Cursecatcher debate comes up often. In my opinion, the deck really does need a one-drop to reap the benefits of the two-drop lords. Cursecatcher is the best of the bunch. Yes, it's only a 1/1, but that's the best we can get from a one-drop Merfolk and it quickly becomes larger. The ability might not seem that sexy, but it can protect your better threats temporarily (and in some cases slow down combo). That's really all you need it to do. If it serves as an aggressive threat by being a one-drop 2/2 or 3/3, and buys you a turn with the ability, it's doing its job.
That said, this deck might be positioned better online than in paper. Jund is a more common matchup offline and it's not a great one for us. Affinity is common in both metas and is pretty miserable (that said, skill and experience with the matchup can improve things quite a bit). There seem to be fewer blue decks to prey on right now. We're certainly not hated out of the meta or anything, but with the rise of Jund we're slightly worse off than we were a few months ago.
anyone excited about ensoul artifact for those double triple vial draws?
So I've been off the deck for a while now but still following the thread here and there--its the same stuff being talked about since forever, but I have a few choice words of wisdom now that I can see things from the other side.
1. Most merfolk players don't know how to play their deck as well as they think they do, or play magic in general. Before you go crazy trying to find the 'missing card', its most likely you just need to get to know your deck and the format better. This isn't an insult but a general observation on most of the players I've seen. I hope this understood, I've just never been misplayed against so badly by any other deck pilot as I have with merfolk players.
2. If you run skaab ruinator, I think dakra mystic might be worth another look. a 5/6 that only dies to really basically path and sorta decay is totally solid. My big takeaway since leaving the deck for now has been that the deck gets countered by ...removal--and in modern there is a lot! Too many times it only takes one path to ruin a really good merfolk draw and get your lords into bolt range...who all the sudden are swinging into snapcasters without islandwalk and trading... I think this feeling is why people got so into master of waves, he sorta gives the deck some resilience in its creatures (besides kira which everyone knows isn't really the best, though good).
The sideboard was made without much knowledge of the local meta, but it was adequate for tonight's matches.
I'm not terribly convinced with Cosi's Trickster, but I liked having the extra one-drops, really.
I've seen a lot of lists with one Kira, one Thassa, but Thassa really underpeformed in play-testing. For people who use her - what do you feel the card adds to Merfolk? Perhaps I'm not using it properly.
I'm a bit tired of seeing it brought up again and again so I'm going to be blunt; stop playing Dakra Mystic, she is unplayable. There are too many decks right now that benefit from the graveyard, most importantly UWr which is exactly the deck you'd want a lategame draw ability against.
I'm a bit tired of seeing it brought up again and again so I'm going to be blunt; stop playing Dakra Mystic, she is unplayable. There are too many decks right now that benefit from the graveyard, most importantly UWr which is exactly the deck you'd want a lategame draw ability against.
I agree. She's just not that great and there has not been a single game that I have once said, jeez, I think Dakra Mystic would be good right here.
So I played in two more gpt's this weekend. Finished 2-3 both times. My losses came from very close games not having a bounce spell (literally not having a bounce to save me from dyeing to swing lethal the following turn). Lost both win-and ins to affinity Played in my stores first no proxy modern Monday night and took first (4-1 because the only undefeated player lost to the pairdown) so I had best breakers in 12 pointers. Looking to keep practicing the affinity MU to get better at it.
Good job cantthinkofagoodname for your good run at the PTQ.
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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 find that it's often better to cast Hurkyl's Recall on your own main phase and attack with the whole team rather than wait for their attack phase. Vapor Snag, on the other hand, is typically best used on whatever is wearing a Cranial Plating, or whatever they try to put their Ravager counters on.
I've already said how I don't think Dakra Mystic is playable in this deck. Ensoul Artifact is an even worse choice. We have no artifacts other than Vial so it will be a dead card more often than not, and it's not that great even when we have Vial (has all of the usual Aura problems and they can get a 2-for-1 with creature OR artifact removal!)
I don't really get the Skaab Ruinator love I'm seeing either, and I don't plan to test it unless someone else is having a lot of success with it. It was always an overhyped card in Standard because you just rarely ever have three creatures in your graveyard. Why is it going to be better now? Sure, Merfolk runs a lot of creatures, but that's nothing new, plenty of aggro decks have done that. Sure, Dakra Mystic might make it better in some corner case, but then you're running two bad cards and hoping to draw both of them. The only upside I can see here is that you can Vial it in. That's not a bad play, but we need to be able to play our game when we don't have a Vial out. Seems to be very good in specific corner cases, but it's not good in the general case. What am I missing here?
I personally was looking at Skaab Ruinator as a 1-of since it can be a tough threat to deal with for UWr late in the game. However, considering we often want to run gravehate versus them and they can bounce it to make it hard to recast, it isn't really worth it. You generally don't want too many spells above 2 mana and sharing the 3-drop slot means it has to compete with Kira and Reejerey. And as the final nail in the coffin, Master of Waves does what Ruinator does better and against more decks so if I'd REALLY want an extra threat versus UWr I can better just run a fourth MoW
Honestly right now I don't think there is not much worth experimenting with. Alkerion and I were talking about Disrupting Shoal again: he loves it and I hate it, so that could use some feedback from other players. Other than that however... the Theros one-drops are both inferior to Cursecatcher and, just as with affinity, every card that doesn't fit our synergy weakens it, which is an argument against basically every non-merfolk card. What people need to do now is build with the pieces that have proven to be effective and then play enough to learn how the deck works; know when to play what two-drop on turn 2, know when to hold up countermagic and most importantly know when the boardstate is powerful enough that it doesn't require any more merfolk
As was posted before, Dakra Mystic with ruinator might be useful, but dakra mystic on its own is not better than cursecatcher, I agree.
Nakhla: Your sideboard looks good, though moving kira to the mainboard would free up 2 slots, which might be needed as you have nothing vs affinity.
I don't think you need 6 one drops, and you don't have path to exile/ghost quarters to trigger your cosi's.
I used to use Thassa, the idea being that she is a great top deck because of the scry engine, she can get rid of late game lands/vials/etc.
She can also make a lone attacker unblockable if you don't have islandwalk which isnt bad, and she is situationally a 5/5 indestructible, but the scry is the most important part. That being said, she is too easy to reduce to nothing more than a three mana scry engine, and thus is not really worth a slot in the deck. She seems to have disappeared from most modern lists anyhow.
I don't really get the Skaab Ruinator love I'm seeing either, and I don't plan to test it unless someone else is having a lot of success with it. It was always an overhyped card in Standard because you just rarely ever have three creatures in your graveyard. Why is it going to be better now? Sure, Merfolk runs a lot of creatures, but that's nothing new, plenty of aggro decks have done that. Sure, Dakra Mystic might make it better in some corner case, but then you're running two bad cards and hoping to draw both of them. The only upside I can see here is that you can Vial it in. That's not a bad play, but we need to be able to play our game when we don't have a Vial out. Seems to be very good in specific corner cases, but it's not good in the general case. What am I missing here?
I tested it out a little and it feels like every match you would want it for has scavenging ooze or path. It's a decent pivot, but only if you're vialing it in, and at that point it probably is better as something a little more synergistic like a Thassa or an extra Kira.
On the topic of cute singletons though, has anyone tried running a Voidmage Prodigy? It vials in on two, can be reasonably casted without vial, and its worst demands a bolt, path, or abrupt decay that would otherwise be headed for one of our lords
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Both are good options, although I'd recommend that if you run Chalice, you should run 3 or 4; you need them on t2 otherwise they come too late. Also, you need to adjust the rest of your deck to it; run less 1 mana counterspells and removal (negate or mana leak instead of spell pierce, dismember instead of vapor snag), so you don't have a big bunch of dead cards in your deck after siding.
I like your list, especially the 1-of annul, but I wouldn;t want to have all my countermagic at 1 mana with chalice in the side. Also maybe run one or two kira?
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
2 Spellskite
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Cursecatcher
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
4 Spell Pierce
4 Lightning Bolt
MANA 20
4 Mutavault
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents
8 Island
2 Spellskite
1 Relic of Progenitus
4 Electrolyze
2 Echoing Truth
2 Swan Song
4 Mindbreak Trap
I got to play with my new merfolk deck today against my affinity deck. Unfortunately, I didn't have the red spells and lands. I was simply trying to gauge the deck to get a feel for it again. We splashed Dakra, Master of Waves, Bounce, and Counter spells and overall we felt it was still lacking something, but we couldn't figure out that that lack was. I suggested splashing a color into it and we decided upon red. What do you guys think?
YOUTUBE CHANNEL: GOBOTS
grim lavamancer might be good, as cursecatcher isnt always the best.
I feel that the best thing red can do in the current meta is throw out bolts and sweepers like crazy, but sweepers hurt us too.
izzet charm might be deserving of a slot somewhere. You would also consider not having all your electrolyzes sideboarded.
[blood moon[/card] is also pretty good, though it stops mutas and such.
I too have come to the conclusion that mindbreak trap is good, but against the decks we really like it against (read: tron) we won't always have the four mana up, or it will slow us down immensely having to be careful and keep 4 mana open.
I will stick with my U/W build, as I think white is the best color to splash (black isn't bad, but you're mostly getting bob).
If I go white I'll throw in Path to Exile, Stoney Silence, Rest in Peace, Ghostly Prison, etc...
YOUTUBE CHANNEL: GOBOTS
Im on mono blue now but i like Uw as well. As far as Ub is concerned... Well i dont have Bobs... but i think Thoughtseize and NOT PAYING 4 LIFE FOR EVERY DISMEMBER IS APPEALING.
It's not bad, and at the very least, its a one drop merfolk, but it can be useful with its ability.
There is enough aggro that cursecatcher is not exactly a star, but its relevant enough to retain, especially with no truly better alternatives.
Its not really great, but its not worth cutting completely yet, for the most part.
That said, this deck might be positioned better online than in paper. Jund is a more common matchup offline and it's not a great one for us. Affinity is common in both metas and is pretty miserable (that said, skill and experience with the matchup can improve things quite a bit). There seem to be fewer blue decks to prey on right now. We're certainly not hated out of the meta or anything, but with the rise of Jund we're slightly worse off than we were a few months ago.
Thassa's Rebuff
It's unplayable. Too inconsistent. Just play Mana Leak instead. Rebuff is worse than Leak more often than it's better.
So I've been off the deck for a while now but still following the thread here and there--its the same stuff being talked about since forever, but I have a few choice words of wisdom now that I can see things from the other side.
1. Most merfolk players don't know how to play their deck as well as they think they do, or play magic in general. Before you go crazy trying to find the 'missing card', its most likely you just need to get to know your deck and the format better. This isn't an insult but a general observation on most of the players I've seen. I hope this understood, I've just never been misplayed against so badly by any other deck pilot as I have with merfolk players.
2. If you run skaab ruinator, I think dakra mystic might be worth another look. a 5/6 that only dies to really basically path and sorta decay is totally solid. My big takeaway since leaving the deck for now has been that the deck gets countered by ...removal--and in modern there is a lot! Too many times it only takes one path to ruin a really good merfolk draw and get your lords into bolt range...who all the sudden are swinging into snapcasters without islandwalk and trading... I think this feeling is why people got so into master of waves, he sorta gives the deck some resilience in its creatures (besides kira which everyone knows isn't really the best, though good).
3. I think MOW is GREAT sideboard material.
4. Merfolk is never getting that one drop.
First time playing Merfolk!
2-1 VS. WUR Twin
0-2 VS. UR Twin
2-1 VS. Merfolk
2-0 VS. UR Delver
Really enjoying playing the deck, though still getting to know it better. I played with the following:
4 Cursecatcher
2 Cosi's Trickster
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Master of Waves
4 Aether Vial
4 Vapor Snag
2 Spell Snare
4 Spreading Seas
Lands:
14 Islands
4 Mutavault
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Swan Song
2 Dismember
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2 Spellskite
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Echoing Truth
2 Tidebinder Mage
The sideboard was made without much knowledge of the local meta, but it was adequate for tonight's matches.
I'm not terribly convinced with Cosi's Trickster, but I liked having the extra one-drops, really.
I've seen a lot of lists with one Kira, one Thassa, but Thassa really underpeformed in play-testing. For people who use her - what do you feel the card adds to Merfolk? Perhaps I'm not using it properly.
UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU's prison: blue is the new orange is the new black.
BSidisi, Undead VizierB: Bis zum Erbrechen
GTitiania, Protector Of ArgothG: Protecting Argoth, by blowing it up!
GYisan, The Wanderer BardG: Gradus Ad Elfball.
Duel EDH: Yisan & Titania.
In Progress: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV duel; Grenzo, Dungeon Warden Doomsday.
I agree. She's just not that great and there has not been a single game that I have once said, jeez, I think Dakra Mystic would be good right here.
So I played in two more gpt's this weekend. Finished 2-3 both times. My losses came from very close games not having a bounce spell (literally not having a bounce to save me from dyeing to swing lethal the following turn). Lost both win-and ins to affinity
Good job cantthinkofagoodname for your good run at the PTQ.
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
I've already said how I don't think Dakra Mystic is playable in this deck. Ensoul Artifact is an even worse choice. We have no artifacts other than Vial so it will be a dead card more often than not, and it's not that great even when we have Vial (has all of the usual Aura problems and they can get a 2-for-1 with creature OR artifact removal!)
I don't really get the Skaab Ruinator love I'm seeing either, and I don't plan to test it unless someone else is having a lot of success with it. It was always an overhyped card in Standard because you just rarely ever have three creatures in your graveyard. Why is it going to be better now? Sure, Merfolk runs a lot of creatures, but that's nothing new, plenty of aggro decks have done that. Sure, Dakra Mystic might make it better in some corner case, but then you're running two bad cards and hoping to draw both of them. The only upside I can see here is that you can Vial it in. That's not a bad play, but we need to be able to play our game when we don't have a Vial out. Seems to be very good in specific corner cases, but it's not good in the general case. What am I missing here?
Honestly right now I don't think there is not much worth experimenting with. Alkerion and I were talking about Disrupting Shoal again: he loves it and I hate it, so that could use some feedback from other players. Other than that however... the Theros one-drops are both inferior to Cursecatcher and, just as with affinity, every card that doesn't fit our synergy weakens it, which is an argument against basically every non-merfolk card. What people need to do now is build with the pieces that have proven to be effective and then play enough to learn how the deck works; know when to play what two-drop on turn 2, know when to hold up countermagic and most importantly know when the boardstate is powerful enough that it doesn't require any more merfolk
Nakhla: Your sideboard looks good, though moving kira to the mainboard would free up 2 slots, which might be needed as you have nothing vs affinity.
I don't think you need 6 one drops, and you don't have path to exile/ghost quarters to trigger your cosi's.
I used to use Thassa, the idea being that she is a great top deck because of the scry engine, she can get rid of late game lands/vials/etc.
She can also make a lone attacker unblockable if you don't have islandwalk which isnt bad, and she is situationally a 5/5 indestructible, but the scry is the most important part. That being said, she is too easy to reduce to nothing more than a three mana scry engine, and thus is not really worth a slot in the deck. She seems to have disappeared from most modern lists anyhow.
I tested it out a little and it feels like every match you would want it for has scavenging ooze or path. It's a decent pivot, but only if you're vialing it in, and at that point it probably is better as something a little more synergistic like a Thassa or an extra Kira.
On the topic of cute singletons though, has anyone tried running a Voidmage Prodigy? It vials in on two, can be reasonably casted without vial, and its worst demands a bolt, path, or abrupt decay that would otherwise be headed for one of our lords