This might have been answered before, but are there any real uses for Pithing Needle in the SB?
Birthing Pod? Kiki-Jiki? Celestial Collonade? Cranial Plating? These are cards that get played sometimes, right?
Uhhh, Desolate Lighthouse? Scavenging Ooze? Grim Lavamancer? Spellskite? Sparkmage? Pridemage? Archmage? Viscera Seer? There's a lot of targets, some better than others, but multiples even are rarely dead weight.
This might have been answered before, but are there any real uses for Pithing Needle in the SB?
Birthing Pod? Kiki-Jiki? Celestial Collonade? Cranial Plating? These are cards that get played sometimes, right?
Uhhh, Desolate Lighthouse? Scavenging Ooze? Grim Lavamancer? Spellskite? Sparkmage? Pridemage? Archmage? Viscera Seer? There's a lot of targets, some better than others, but multiples even are rarely dead weight.
I just havent seen it in a lot of lists and was wondering why. Though i think a lot of what you listed, we already have anwers to MB..
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Modern UMerfolkU UTronU GRTronRG UBRKruel KommandRBU
funny how you can run 12 of one card and never see it.
I'd love to do a 'would you keep this hand against...' exercise here.
I've seen in other primers, a section dedicated to what hands to keep and when to mulligan. Might be useful here for people just jumping in. I've learned the hard way to not keep 1 landers, even if you have vial and all the fish you want..
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Modern UMerfolkU UTronU GRTronRG UBRKruel KommandRBU
This might have been answered before, but are there any real uses for Pithing Needle in the SB?
Birthing Pod? Kiki-Jiki? Celestial Collonade? Cranial Plating? These are cards that get played sometimes, right?
Uhhh, Desolate Lighthouse? Scavenging Ooze? Grim Lavamancer? Spellskite? Sparkmage? Pridemage? Archmage? Viscera Seer? There's a lot of targets, some better than others, but multiples even are rarely dead weight.
I just havent seen it in a lot of lists and was wondering why. Though i think a lot of what you listed, we already have anwers to MB..
Sideboard is designed to sure up hard/bad matchups. Affinity is a very bad matchup, and removing CP makes life a lot easier. Lots of people have been complaining about Pod. Eliminating that simplifies things. Even if we have mainboard and sideboard cards that are good against them, it doesn't much matter. You don't always draw them all, and none of them are a guarantee. And Needle gives you one more thing that makes those things easy, and if drawn alongside those things the game would be even better for you.
But as with any sideboard, gotta make choices. Some people just don't like Needle because it only stops 1 thing, which your opponent may or may not draw(only 4/60 at most). Compared to something like Steel Sabotage which while not AS detrimental to CP, can also do SOMETHING if your opponent never draws a CP.
So I took thassa out, whilst top deck manipulation is something this deck can always use, I felt she was expensive, and very slow. I might change that back eventually, seeing as I am not adverse to having one floating around, but I don't think she helps any matchups, she sort of just sits there, and I suppose can help you get back into the game if you over committed, but then you could have probably done better by not over committing. I ran 2 MD tidebinders before and moved them to the side, against a lot of MUs they are just bears, and tbh you play two out of three games with your SB cards, so not having them in the main should not be the end of the world. I also moved Kira to the side, it does very little outside of UR Delver and UWR matchups, and again, a whopping threee mana, just so much.
I put in two dismember and a fourth reejerey for them. Dismembers still help our gameplan by removing blockers, or otherwise disrupting combo decks for one COLOURLESS mana, which is sweet, and the reejerey costs the same as kira and thassa, only it does more, and with 3 phantasmal and 4 reejerey, you know you'll get some sick reejerey tapping shenanigans if the game goes long.
If I had the cards, I'd probably cut one mutavault and one island for two cavern of souls. This would serve to compensate a bit for the control matchups where kira can also do a lot of work, and I don't think I want to ever see more than 2 mutavaults, so three still seems like a good number. Will look into acquiring those. The decklist above is obviously not a shoe in for just any meta, and I might even change some of the cards and numbers if I rock up at an event and see a lot of zoo or something, but otherwise I think it's a pretty reliable list. Still not sure about cursecatchers, but I like having a t1 play that is an alternative to aether vial, and I also like t1 vial, t2 lord with a cursecatcher ready to vial in. Just feels good. 4 Spreading Seas does seem right, the cantrip and land disruption combined just do a lot, and that is without considering devotion and island walk.
Do people still play cursecatcher in merfolk? I cut it weeks ago and haven't looked back.
A lot of people are now moving towards dropping it, but I'm not so sure if it's a good plan. I read the article on channelfireball by Jacob Van Leunen a page or so back and while I think his build has some pretty clear issues to work through I intend on experimenting with a similar build in the future. The problem with the "no cursecatcher" approach is that you're basically forfeiting the deck's ability to kill on turn 4 which can be bad in a format packed to the brim with very un-interactive decks that aim to kill in 4 turns or faster. With cursecatcher and a lord-heavy hand you can get trivially easy turn 4 kills, barring disruption, and without it turn 4 kills are next to impossible.
The counterpoint to that is that even with the cursecatcher start the turn 4 kill is fragile and your opponent can take you off the t4 kill without skipping a beat; for that reason it makes more sense to shoot for a turn 5 win while keeping your opponent off the turn 4 win. I'm a little more partial to that strategy since a single lightning bolt can literally ruin your kill and your opponent can then combo. Against twin, for example, I've had mixed results trying to play the aggro game and great results playing tempo. I just put a couple of smaller creatures on board and force them to answer it or die. If they don't I beat them down, and if they do I untap and dump my hand of millions of lords before they have an opportunity to do anything about it. I really want to make a build that can play both the crazy-fast beat down plan and the tempo game and the first culprit getting cut to make this happen is, unfortunately, spreading seas. When it works it works and when it doesn't it's a real flop. I'm not so sure that this means cutting it is the right play but it's something I'd like to try. As much as I don't like cursecatcher he's really necessary to make our deck's good draws work.
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Modern UMerfolk GBWMelira PodRIP GBW Abzan Midrange GBR Jund Midrange
I'm thinking of taking Merfolk apart for the time being. I have everything I need except Mutavault and Cursecatcher. It is very annoying at how high their prices have gotten, I just can't afford that. It is getting ridiculous. I remember when I first saw Merfolk in action, it was a cheap option to play, was cheaper than Affinity (I mean before the crazy prices on Mox Opal). At this moment I'm waiting for them to reprint Cursecatcher at the very least to lower its price, and waiting for Mutavault to rotate out of standard so it falls to a FAIR price.
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Modern: U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
Do people still play cursecatcher in merfolk? I cut it weeks ago and haven't looked back.
A lot of people are now moving towards dropping it, but I'm not so sure if it's a good plan. I read the article on channelfireball by Jacob Van Leunen a page or so back and while I think his build has some pretty clear issues to work through I intend on experimenting with a similar build in the future. The problem with the "no cursecatcher" approach is that you're basically forfeiting the deck's ability to kill on turn 4 which can be bad in a format packed to the brim with very un-interactive decks that aim to kill in 4 turns or faster. With cursecatcher and a lord-heavy hand you can get trivially easy turn 4 kills, barring disruption, and without it turn 4 kills are next to impossible.
The counterpoint to that is that even with the cursecatcher start the turn 4 kill is fragile and your opponent can take you off the t4 kill without skipping a beat; for that reason it makes more sense to shoot for a turn 5 win while keeping your opponent off the turn 4 win. I'm a little more partial to that strategy since a single lightning bolt can literally ruin your kill and your opponent can then combo. Against twin, for example, I've had mixed results trying to play the aggro game and great results playing tempo. I just put a couple of smaller creatures on board and force them to answer it or die. If they don't I beat them down, and if they do I untap and dump my hand of millions of lords before they have an opportunity to do anything about it. I really want to make a build that can play both the crazy-fast beat down plan and the tempo game and the first culprit getting cut to make this happen is, unfortunately, spreading seas. When it works it works and when it doesn't it's a real flop. I'm not so sure that this means cutting it is the right play but it's something I'd like to try. As much as I don't like cursecatcher he's really necessary to make our deck's good draws work.
There's a big problem with this logic, which is that if you're using CC for the turn-4 kill, then it's basically just a beat-stick? A glorified Merfolk of the Pearl Trident? And ignoring the part which actually makes CC a unique card which is the spike effect. If you want it for the spike effect, that is what you should focus on. If you want it as a beatstick, you have far better options. Primarily Cosi's Trickster, but also Spy, Tideshaper and Shorethief.
I'm thinking of taking Merfolk apart for the time being. I have everything I need except Mutavault and Cursecatcher. It is very annoying at how high their prices have gotten, I just can't afford that. It is getting ridiculous. I remember when I first saw Merfolk in action, it was a cheap option to play, was cheaper than Affinity (I mean before the crazy prices on Mox Opal). At this moment I'm waiting for them to reprint Cursecatcher at the very least to lower its price, and waiting for Mutavault to rotate out of standard so it falls to a FAIR price.
Cursecatcher is, more often than not, NOT run in successful lists. It does what it does great, but it's not a necessary component of the deck for Modern like it is in Legacy.
Waiting on those Mutavaults is fair though. I think they're quite necessary for the deck to operate optimally. The deck does work without it though, just loses a bit of power. They should drop after they rotate out of standard since they see a ridiculous amount of play in those decks.
My experiments with running signal pest have been pretty promising, I also like aether spellbomb enough to recommend testing it. both take the list in slightly different directions. Do some real testing against a bunch of matchups and see what you think.
Signal pest is kinda cool with lord heavy hands and is a total lightning bolt magnet and saves a lot of lords--its a good one drop off of mutavault and single island hands and can be cast off of cavern unlike say early turn 3 kira. it maintains and even strengthens turn 4 kills as a pseudo lord. it does get hit by every sweeper but a well timed one took out every cursecatcher too, smart opponents would just play around the spike. I like the pest in more aggro oriented lists.
Spellbomb is another good one drop, makes twin an even better matchup, keeps lavamancer and the combo at bay. I even used it to bounce cliques because we are a fairly clique-proof deck, I'm much more worried about the body than the disruption when we are so redundant. In general this gets nasty starting around turn three when you can start to bounce and snare, cycle and hold up a counter or snag, bounce snag, bounce blockers and vial in a lord to totally ruin combat for a creature heavy deck. Against zoo its hilarious because they really won't be able to out tempo you and they can't really use removal against the artifact. Remand gets better with spellbomb too because you can nearly keep a creature off the board 'forever'. The added ability to draw into more cards is good, I don't know if its better than just being another creature, but spellbomb draw is nice when I board out a spreading seas or something against the mirror--really fun to bounce master of the pearl trident in the mirror and block like a boss. the build ends up being a little slower, but its more resilient to being run over by creature decks. I've also bounced MOWs that i've played early and then recast them when my devotion count is higher (for the win mind you!)
What I'm really finding out is that mutavault go, island go are just not acceptable first turn plays for me. without a vial first turn something else needs to be happening, so while cursecatcher is drawing flac as not good enough I love it as a first turn play that has synergy with our lords and an occasionally relevant ability. I stand firm that this deck wants at least one first turn play outside of vial, and any of the three can be solid.
edit: this little test cost me $4, while I have the catchers and am still pretty happy with them as an option, for cheepos maybe this is the way to go.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
I'm learning that basically there is never a time that you actually want to cast thirst if you keep a decent or good hand. do you want it as your third turn play? I'd rather reejery or thassa or kira or lord and hold up a pierce or snag--pretty much every time. I think that I'd nearly never want to discard a pest, just vials or lands. Yeah its good and gets rid of extra dead draws but...it feels like a 'lose not as bad card' or a 'i'll keep this shaky hand' card. that's why thassa is gaining or losing (idk) traction in the deck, its all upside of filtering dead late draws and can be a creature--for the same mana cost.
we really want the closest thing to standstill... if a merfolk gets printed that lets you crack a hatched plans, that'll be the nuts.
There's a big problem with this logic, which is that if you're using CC for the turn-4 kill, then it's basically just a beat-stick? A glorified Merfolk of the Pearl Trident? And ignoring the part which actually makes CC a unique card which is the spike effect. If you want it for the spike effect, that is what you should focus on. If you want it as a beatstick, you have far better options. Primarily Cosi's Trickster, but also Spy, Tideshaper and Shorethief.
Well that's not to say that I would never use cursecatcher if the option was presented to me. If my opponent went for a firespout on their t3 or pyroclasm t2 that I was not prepared for I would sacrifice cursecatcher in a heartbeat to save my other creatures. If an opponent tried to combo and I have an opportunity to stop it with cursecatcher I'll take it. The point is cursecatcher is mostly a beatstick, it's true, but the secondary ability he has outclasses the secondary abilities our other 1-drops have in my eyes so he's still the best option regardless. As much as I'd love to give cosi's trickster a shot I don't think it would be terribly effective.
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Modern UMerfolk GBWMelira PodRIP GBW Abzan Midrange GBR Jund Midrange
Got first at a small modern tournament last night. Planeswalkerpoints.com says it's my first ever undefeated event with >3 rounds.
Round 1 - standard monored burn: Went to three games, and the games I won I was at 1 and 2 life. Sort of weird. Perhaps I should have blocked more aggressively? But that'd make me lose a lord to a 1-mana 2-power creature. Spellskite would have been useful, but I didn't sideboard, out of pity.
Round 2 - RWU control: I don't remember much. I know I did Merrow Reejerey + 3xIsland + Mutavault = cast 2 lords and attack with Mutavault. Cursecatcher was really good. However, before the match, and before knowing what I played, he said he didn't have an anti-merfolk sideboard.
Round 3 - GB Goodstuff: Spreading Seas made Obliterator sad. I kept a hand with 3 vapor snags, then he did Inquisition of Kozilek->Surgical Extraction, which was pretty funny. I liked Echoing Truth (from sideboard) better than Vapor Snag. Allstar of the round was Cold-Eyed Selkie. Maybe a less aggro and more control merfolk build would mainboard Echoing Truth?
Round 4 - GWB (Melira?) Pod: Perhaps the most fun three games I've ever played, in terms of strategy/math involved for each side. Once, I had two Silvergill Adepts, he had Kitchen Finks with a counter and a Noble Hierarch, then played Orzhov Pontiff to wipe my board; then I used Phantasmal Image to wipe his board. He had utility creatures to destroy my Aether Vials; should those be sideboarded out against GW?
If you won in the end vs Burn then you must have made the right decision to not block with your creatures. As for the round 4 trick, that is awesome. Good to see the image destroying him with his own creatures. And yes, Merfolk is doing well because most decks aren't packing hate for it. They are too worried about the other top tier decks.
As a side note, is it worth including at least 1 sword of some kind in the SB ? I own a Sword of Light and Shadow and really want to use it. Seems way to slow, but with unblockable creatures it could potentially help in the long matches. My favorite example would be sticking it on a Master of Waves.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
Just today, with my 4 Image merfolk list online, I've one a game using nothing but Predator Dragon and another game with 2 Wurmcoil Engines
I also had a game against Soul Sisters with 3 images in my opening hand..
Making every match a(bad)mirror match is so much fun!
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Modern UMerfolkU UTronU GRTronRG UBRKruel KommandRBU
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Modern
UMerfolkU
UTronU
GRTronRG
UBRKruel KommandRBU
Birthing Pod? Kiki-Jiki? Celestial Collonade? Cranial Plating? These are cards that get played sometimes, right?
Uhhh, Desolate Lighthouse? Scavenging Ooze? Grim Lavamancer? Spellskite? Sparkmage? Pridemage? Archmage? Viscera Seer? There's a lot of targets, some better than others, but multiples even are rarely dead weight.
I just havent seen it in a lot of lists and was wondering why. Though i think a lot of what you listed, we already have anwers to MB..
Modern
UMerfolkU
UTronU
GRTronRG
UBRKruel KommandRBU
I've seen in other primers, a section dedicated to what hands to keep and when to mulligan. Might be useful here for people just jumping in. I've learned the hard way to not keep 1 landers, even if you have vial and all the fish you want..
Modern
UMerfolkU
UTronU
GRTronRG
UBRKruel KommandRBU
Sideboard is designed to sure up hard/bad matchups. Affinity is a very bad matchup, and removing CP makes life a lot easier. Lots of people have been complaining about Pod. Eliminating that simplifies things. Even if we have mainboard and sideboard cards that are good against them, it doesn't much matter. You don't always draw them all, and none of them are a guarantee. And Needle gives you one more thing that makes those things easy, and if drawn alongside those things the game would be even better for you.
But as with any sideboard, gotta make choices. Some people just don't like Needle because it only stops 1 thing, which your opponent may or may not draw(only 4/60 at most). Compared to something like Steel Sabotage which while not AS detrimental to CP, can also do SOMETHING if your opponent never draws a CP.
16 Island
4 Mutavault
Creatures 24
4 Master of the pearl trident
4 Lord of atlantis
4 Silvergill adept
2 Master of Waves
4 Merrow Reejerey
3 Phantasmal image
3 Cursecatcher
4 Aether vial
2 Spell pierce
4 Spreading seas
4 Vapor snag
2 Dismember
2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
2 Tidebinder mage
1 Spell pierce
1 Grafdigger's cage
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Steel Sabotage
2 Spellskite
2 Chalice of the Voide
2 Hurkyl's Recall
So I took thassa out, whilst top deck manipulation is something this deck can always use, I felt she was expensive, and very slow. I might change that back eventually, seeing as I am not adverse to having one floating around, but I don't think she helps any matchups, she sort of just sits there, and I suppose can help you get back into the game if you over committed, but then you could have probably done better by not over committing. I ran 2 MD tidebinders before and moved them to the side, against a lot of MUs they are just bears, and tbh you play two out of three games with your SB cards, so not having them in the main should not be the end of the world. I also moved Kira to the side, it does very little outside of UR Delver and UWR matchups, and again, a whopping threee mana, just so much.
I put in two dismember and a fourth reejerey for them. Dismembers still help our gameplan by removing blockers, or otherwise disrupting combo decks for one COLOURLESS mana, which is sweet, and the reejerey costs the same as kira and thassa, only it does more, and with 3 phantasmal and 4 reejerey, you know you'll get some sick reejerey tapping shenanigans if the game goes long.
If I had the cards, I'd probably cut one mutavault and one island for two cavern of souls. This would serve to compensate a bit for the control matchups where kira can also do a lot of work, and I don't think I want to ever see more than 2 mutavaults, so three still seems like a good number. Will look into acquiring those. The decklist above is obviously not a shoe in for just any meta, and I might even change some of the cards and numbers if I rock up at an event and see a lot of zoo or something, but otherwise I think it's a pretty reliable list. Still not sure about cursecatchers, but I like having a t1 play that is an alternative to aether vial, and I also like t1 vial, t2 lord with a cursecatcher ready to vial in. Just feels good. 4 Spreading Seas does seem right, the cantrip and land disruption combined just do a lot, and that is without considering devotion and island walk.
Thoughts please. Thanks.
Modern
UMerfolkU
UTronU
GRTronRG
UBRKruel KommandRBU
A lot of people are now moving towards dropping it, but I'm not so sure if it's a good plan. I read the article on channelfireball by Jacob Van Leunen a page or so back and while I think his build has some pretty clear issues to work through I intend on experimenting with a similar build in the future. The problem with the "no cursecatcher" approach is that you're basically forfeiting the deck's ability to kill on turn 4 which can be bad in a format packed to the brim with very un-interactive decks that aim to kill in 4 turns or faster. With cursecatcher and a lord-heavy hand you can get trivially easy turn 4 kills, barring disruption, and without it turn 4 kills are next to impossible.
The counterpoint to that is that even with the cursecatcher start the turn 4 kill is fragile and your opponent can take you off the t4 kill without skipping a beat; for that reason it makes more sense to shoot for a turn 5 win while keeping your opponent off the turn 4 win. I'm a little more partial to that strategy since a single lightning bolt can literally ruin your kill and your opponent can then combo. Against twin, for example, I've had mixed results trying to play the aggro game and great results playing tempo. I just put a couple of smaller creatures on board and force them to answer it or die. If they don't I beat them down, and if they do I untap and dump my hand of millions of lords before they have an opportunity to do anything about it. I really want to make a build that can play both the crazy-fast beat down plan and the tempo game and the first culprit getting cut to make this happen is, unfortunately, spreading seas. When it works it works and when it doesn't it's a real flop. I'm not so sure that this means cutting it is the right play but it's something I'd like to try. As much as I don't like cursecatcher he's really necessary to make our deck's good draws work.
UMerfolkGBW
Melira PodRIPGBW Abzan Midrange
GBR Jund Midrange
EDH
GBR Prossh
U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
EDH:
G Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Fighting for Rivendell
WU Brago, King Eternal, Long Live the King
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Worship the Dragon
There's a big problem with this logic, which is that if you're using CC for the turn-4 kill, then it's basically just a beat-stick? A glorified Merfolk of the Pearl Trident? And ignoring the part which actually makes CC a unique card which is the spike effect. If you want it for the spike effect, that is what you should focus on. If you want it as a beatstick, you have far better options. Primarily Cosi's Trickster, but also Spy, Tideshaper and Shorethief.
Cursecatcher is, more often than not, NOT run in successful lists. It does what it does great, but it's not a necessary component of the deck for Modern like it is in Legacy.
Waiting on those Mutavaults is fair though. I think they're quite necessary for the deck to operate optimally. The deck does work without it though, just loses a bit of power. They should drop after they rotate out of standard since they see a ridiculous amount of play in those decks.
Signal pest is kinda cool with lord heavy hands and is a total lightning bolt magnet and saves a lot of lords--its a good one drop off of mutavault and single island hands and can be cast off of cavern unlike say early turn 3 kira. it maintains and even strengthens turn 4 kills as a pseudo lord. it does get hit by every sweeper but a well timed one took out every cursecatcher too, smart opponents would just play around the spike. I like the pest in more aggro oriented lists.
Spellbomb is another good one drop, makes twin an even better matchup, keeps lavamancer and the combo at bay. I even used it to bounce cliques because we are a fairly clique-proof deck, I'm much more worried about the body than the disruption when we are so redundant. In general this gets nasty starting around turn three when you can start to bounce and snare, cycle and hold up a counter or snag, bounce snag, bounce blockers and vial in a lord to totally ruin combat for a creature heavy deck. Against zoo its hilarious because they really won't be able to out tempo you and they can't really use removal against the artifact. Remand gets better with spellbomb too because you can nearly keep a creature off the board 'forever'. The added ability to draw into more cards is good, I don't know if its better than just being another creature, but spellbomb draw is nice when I board out a spreading seas or something against the mirror--really fun to bounce master of the pearl trident in the mirror and block like a boss. the build ends up being a little slower, but its more resilient to being run over by creature decks. I've also bounced MOWs that i've played early and then recast them when my devotion count is higher (for the win mind you!)
What I'm really finding out is that mutavault go, island go are just not acceptable first turn plays for me. without a vial first turn something else needs to be happening, so while cursecatcher is drawing flac as not good enough I love it as a first turn play that has synergy with our lords and an occasionally relevant ability. I stand firm that this deck wants at least one first turn play outside of vial, and any of the three can be solid.
edit: this little test cost me $4, while I have the catchers and am still pretty happy with them as an option, for cheepos maybe this is the way to go.
And like what JPo said, more fodder for Thirst for Knowledge. Time to test it!
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
we really want the closest thing to standstill... if a merfolk gets printed that lets you crack a hatched plans, that'll be the nuts.
Well that's not to say that I would never use cursecatcher if the option was presented to me. If my opponent went for a firespout on their t3 or pyroclasm t2 that I was not prepared for I would sacrifice cursecatcher in a heartbeat to save my other creatures. If an opponent tried to combo and I have an opportunity to stop it with cursecatcher I'll take it. The point is cursecatcher is mostly a beatstick, it's true, but the secondary ability he has outclasses the secondary abilities our other 1-drops have in my eyes so he's still the best option regardless. As much as I'd love to give cosi's trickster a shot I don't think it would be terribly effective.
UMerfolkGBW
Melira PodRIPGBW Abzan Midrange
GBR Jund Midrange
EDH
GBR Prossh
Round 1 - standard monored burn: Went to three games, and the games I won I was at 1 and 2 life. Sort of weird. Perhaps I should have blocked more aggressively? But that'd make me lose a lord to a 1-mana 2-power creature. Spellskite would have been useful, but I didn't sideboard, out of pity.
Round 2 - RWU control: I don't remember much. I know I did Merrow Reejerey + 3xIsland + Mutavault = cast 2 lords and attack with Mutavault. Cursecatcher was really good. However, before the match, and before knowing what I played, he said he didn't have an anti-merfolk sideboard.
Round 3 - GB Goodstuff: Spreading Seas made Obliterator sad. I kept a hand with 3 vapor snags, then he did Inquisition of Kozilek->Surgical Extraction, which was pretty funny. I liked Echoing Truth (from sideboard) better than Vapor Snag. Allstar of the round was Cold-Eyed Selkie. Maybe a less aggro and more control merfolk build would mainboard Echoing Truth?
Round 4 - GWB (Melira?) Pod: Perhaps the most fun three games I've ever played, in terms of strategy/math involved for each side. Once, I had two Silvergill Adepts, he had Kitchen Finks with a counter and a Noble Hierarch, then played Orzhov Pontiff to wipe my board; then I used Phantasmal Image to wipe his board. He had utility creatures to destroy my Aether Vials; should those be sideboarded out against GW?
18 island
01 cavern of souls
02 mutavault
Creatures
04 cursecatcher
04 silvergill adept
04 lord of atlantis
04 master of the pearl trident
04 merrow reejerey
01 coralhelm commander
01 cold-eyed selkie
01 kira, great glass spinner
01 phantasmal image
01 master of waves
04 aether vial
04 spreading seas
03 spell pierce
03 vapor snag
04 spellskite
02 relic of progenitus
03 hurkyl's recall
01 steel sabotage
02 swan song
03 echoing truth
Modern: U M'Olk; B Goodstuff
If you won in the end vs Burn then you must have made the right decision to not block with your creatures. As for the round 4 trick, that is awesome. Good to see the image destroying him with his own creatures. And yes, Merfolk is doing well because most decks aren't packing hate for it. They are too worried about the other top tier decks.
As a side note, is it worth including at least 1 sword of some kind in the SB ? I own a Sword of Light and Shadow and really want to use it. Seems way to slow, but with unblockable creatures it could potentially help in the long matches. My favorite example would be sticking it on a Master of Waves.
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
I also had a game against Soul Sisters with 3 images in my opening hand..
Making every match a(bad)mirror match is so much fun!
Modern
UMerfolkU
UTronU
GRTronRG
UBRKruel KommandRBU