MTG Salvation

Both have their own pro and con's.

Explosives is also strong vs. Affinity and Zoo.

Three more placings in relevant tournaments.
"We" didn't win, of course, but at least it is a good news (200+ players each).

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=14448&iddeck=106642
http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=14460&iddeck=106789
http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=14420&iddeck=106427

Spellskites were doing some work, one Dismember total, Recalls aplenty, not an Edge in sight.
I wish some of those guys come here and tell us how it all went.

I made a bit of a variant. The idea of this deck is to crank out some islandwalking Merfolk, turn your opponent's lands into islands, and then Choke those island s out. It's a new idea (to me at least,) so I could use as much feedback as possible.



Lands
The lands are all non- Island to avoid our own Choke . Tectonic Edge is in there for aid in land control. The Forest is there incase we have to search our library for a basic land. There are only 20, because of Aether Vial and Birds of Paradise .

Creatures
Merfolk, and Birds of Paradise for mana.

Other Spells
Aether Vial to get creatures out. Spell Pierce to counter cheaply. Spreading Seas and Sea's Claim to make Island s and Choke to keep them tapped.

Again, any feed back is helpful.

That manabase just looks like a nightmare. You only have 8 lands that produce colored mana at the start of the game.

Most of the time, your deck just won't do anything. I see what you're trying to get at here, but you'll need to learn a lot about deckbuilding before attempting something that ambitious. One of the most important aspects of deckbuilding is having a reliable manabase that will allow you to play the game. With this, you're going to frequently draw seven cards, see no blue or green source, and be forced to mulligan.

aquitect's will still works with choke.
I think 20 lands + 4 vials + 3 BoP is excessive, but if you feel it's needed, that's your choice.
cold-eyed selkie is easier to cast in u/g, and a reasonable card to keep up with them playing lands.
I think your sideboard also needs to be changed, less options for the deck and more cards to help certain matchups. ex: you will almost never side in reejerey, because you dont have anything to cut for it, and its not amazing vs any specific deck.

Perhaps the UW Fetchland will let the most popular 2-color Merfolk build be better than 1-color?

It might allow people to see the advantages of W/U fish, but I don't think it'll be the turning point to make every merfolk deck w/u.
That being said, I'll still be getting a set.

Having access to better removal like PtE seems great. I run a few dismembers cause I feel I need something for that one creature that is an issue.

I was going to post my list, but I can't get the tags to work right.

Quote from Kikurek »

spell pierce main deck is really bad ( at least currently) my current version:
8 lords
4 masters
2 kira
1 reejereye
2 relic
2 remand
4 dismember
1 vapor snag
4 cursecatcher
4 seas
4 adept
4 vial
4 mutavault
16 island
sb: 4 edge 4 recall 3 spell pierce 3 tidebinder 1 kira - I was already sick of loosing to the idiots with affinity, so i though really hard about how to play recalls, while still having acces to all the cards i want and this is my solution.

How is having 4 Dismember working? Seems like that is a lot of life loss

Hey, good to see you back! I have to say I have really been enjoying the list Martin Juza posted based on your list. I was hoping you might be able to answer a couple of questions about your new build because I do like having affinity hate but I'd like to know how big the sacrifice is.

• What is 4 dismember like maindeck? I will agree that I have been enjoying the maindeck dismembers replacing some of the snags, but the lifeloss is pretty severe and I felt like playing 3 maindeck was really pushing it. How often do you just end up losing to decks like twin because you draw 3 dismembers and can't play them all without dealing 12 to yourself? Is there any consideration do you think to playing some number of Darkslick shores just to cast dismembers if you don't want to take damage?
• As much as I like Relic, playing 1 maindeck has felt a little experimental to me and playing 2 maindeck feels very bold. Is it really that good and if so why? Is Reejerey really that bad in your opinion?
• What are your thoughts on Mana Leak vs Remand? To be honest I've been playing 2 Mana Leaks rather than Remands and I've enjoyed playing them so much more. It feels a lot better to neutralize something like a wrath or scapeshift rather than delaying it and then just losing to it next turn anyways.
• Lastly how much do the 4 recalls hurt your sideboard? It seems fairly decent, but losing 2 counterspells, a removal/bounce spell, and a Reejerey to make room for 4 recalls seems like a big sacrifice.

If you have the time I would love to know the answers to some of these questions. I have to say I really did like your build that Martin Juza wrote about but I can't help but feel like there was still some refinement to be made and I'd love to nail those down. Thanks man!

Super excited about the w/u fetch! I think this makes U/W folk quite a bit better. One card that was not accessible with the splash before is Sejiri Merfolk but I want this card to beat the other aggro decks that are faster.

I play sejiri merfolk as a four-of in white/blue fish anyways, and honestly, it really is amazing. It's also quite good vs all he burn popping up recently.
I dont play seachromes though, just hubs, fountains, mutas and basics.

Quote from Kikurek »

sb: 4 edge 4 recall 3 spell pierce 3 tidebinder 1 kira - I was already sick of loosing to the idiots with affinity, so i though really hard about how to play recalls, while still having acces to all the cards i want and this is my solution.

Does this mean that you bring in the tectonic edges more often to maybe help solve issues that can't be covered with this SB setup? Also, does tidebinder come in as a 2/2 bear in MU's such as twin?

I appreciate the response, though I do ask that you give I and the players here on the forum a little more respect than that. Some of us on the forum are very new to the deck and others have been playing it for more than a year. I have a decent amount of experience with the deck and know how to play the most common matchups. I agree that the main weakness of mana leak is that in long games you just draw a dead card, but I've really found that against decks like UWR their card quality as a whole is better than ours and in that case it's more beneficial to 1-for-1 than to draw an extra lord that they can still electrolyze. A ton of their cards are 2-for-1s or better, so denying them the 2-for-1 is way stronger, though I do understand your and Mr Juza's point and why you might disagree.

I'll give your new list a shot, card for card, and see for myself I suppose. Also, I'll test out how darkslick shores work, if LD or the shores themselves become an issue then it's good to know. Thanks for always keeping us up to date, I enjoyed your last list and I probably will do the same with this one.

Okay I see your point, remand may be better, I'll give it a second test. And I suppose I'll trust your testing on the shores, though it really is a shame. I can't help but feel really uneasy about playing a card that costs 4 life with no way to mitigate the damage. Thanks for your help man!

So now that Zoo has better fetches I expect it to shift back to zoo a bit--what would you recommend then?


I think 2 snags, 2 dismember is the way to go. You never actually want more than one dismember a game and its dead the second zoo has you in burn range which makes it totally trash (also relevant in any snap/bolt matchup).

snare and pierce are still the way to go, with remand being the only other option. A lot of times an unanswered cursecatcher and the threat of a spell pierce is all the timewalk you need to get the win. I've sat on the other side of the table facing down double cursecatcher, missed my third land drop for a turn and lost due to that--pierce helps you win on the margins which is where you want to be. You want to make that third land drop to activate mutavault or drop another lord AND hold someone off of the third turn response with a single mana.

I really like dismember but against something hyper aggro Dismember sets you back regardless. Wouldn't splashing white for PtE's be worth it? Plus it opens up other cards for sideboard options.

Remember guys: The flex spots in the deck are tuned to what your local meta is. Kikurek's build may be tuned perfectly to his metagame, while it will not be for mine. The core of the deck is the same regardless. It's the flex spots and personal choice for the last spots.