Given your list, I'd probably go for +2 Dispel, +2 Tidebinder Mage, -4 Master of Waves. The Kira doesn't do much, but we really don't have anything to bring in for her (maybe a Negate?).
The thing is that in my experience with the matchup, even when you have the mana for Master of Waves, you still don't feel great about slapping him down, because chump-blocking opens you up to eating a Temur Battle Rage as opposed to playing a 3-drop and holding up disruption. Kira may not be great, but at least it doesn't cost 4.
I run 4 mainboard vapor snag and bring an unsummon from the sideboard as well as 2 dispels and 2 tidebinder. Remove kira and 4 master. This has been a favorable matchup for me so far.
I will never accept Unsummon as a viable card in Modern.
Not before playing max number of Snag, Harbinger and Tidebinder, 1 or 2 Dismember and up to 2 Echoing Truth, in 75.
If anyone plays all of those, THEN I could see Unsummon in conversation.
I don't know. On the one hand I'm inclined to agree with you, but on the other hand Petr Sochurek reached for the Unsummon once he had the 4 Vapor Snags, so maybe there's something to it? I don't know. But I'm certainly not going to reach for Unsummon over Echoing Truth in my sideboard.
Im going to try a build with echoing truth over unsummon for comparison, but the U vs. 1U has worked out well for me so far, especially vs. DSZoo. I use Petr's build so also dont have a SB for Affinity (although unsummon works there too).
To expand on the point. I often find myself on T3/T4 with 2 Islands and a Mutavault. Leaving that mana up allows me to Snag/Unsummon after either a spreading seas or remand. Dismember does little vs. Death's Shadow and reduces your life total to dangerous levels.
Mana efficiency is certainly a point in favor of unsummon but the versatility of echoing truth is huge.
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I am usually posting from my phone. I will usually be brief and there may be typos.
12/1/2004: Yes, you're allowed to have a deck consisting of sixty Relentless Rats and nothing else.
So Mogis is in the middle of a guitar solo, and then Phenax jumps in with
"I like big butts and I cannot lie..."
Decks:
BFZ Standard
Nothing yet Modern RBWMardu BurnWBR Legacy UUUPTSD NoughtUUU EDH WUDaxos VoltronUW UBRJeleva - Oops all your spellsRBU UBUVela, the Ninja Clad (retired)UBU
You beat WU Control by playing through Æther Vial. Try to dodge the counterspells, pressure him while holding creatures in hand to dodge Supreme Verdict, and cantrip as much as you can to keep your hand full. If you don't have Vial, you play just enough creatures to force him to Verdict, then reload as necessary.
As for Hurkyl's Recall, I'm of the belief that it should always be in your sideboard. Affinity is always going to be around, and you're too soft to it without Hurkyl's.
WMCQ today, 66 people, 7 rounds.
Started with bye and wins against Company Spirits, GR Tron and Jund, all 2:0.
Then lost 1:2 against Turbo Valakut (3 Anger of the Gods and few Titans later...).
Then lost the die roll against Nykthos Green. He started with second turn Garruk AND Courser. Turn 4 he has 7 creatures and Garruk ready to explode on my face.
I started perfectly with Cursecatcher, Lord, Reej and then had a choice of Reej, Catcher and Waves in hand (3 Islands and Muta in play) while he had 5 untapped creatures.
I saw 2 different lines of play, chose to unload Waves but his Overrun was for exactsies. The problem was that I didn't saw the third line: play second Reej - tap one creature, play Catcher tap two more creatures, which leaves him with only 2 blockers against 3 attackers to save Garruk. If Garruk was neutralized I could untap and resolve Master for million. That mistake cost me top8.
I won game 2 on timely Spreading Seas and lost game 3 because mulls and too early Titans.
At 4:2 I was out, beat the mirror in five minutes and finished ninth (clear cut) with 15 points.
Nykthos Green easily cruised to a first place, it was quick and brutal.
Round 1 vs Tron Eldrazi 2-1 Won
Round 2 vs Affinity 2-1 Won
Round 3 vs Bant company Knight 0-2 Loss
Round 4 vs Burn 2-1 Won
Round 5 vs Eldrazi Aggro 2-1 Won
Round 6 vs Zoo 2-0 Won
Round 7 vs Affinity 2-1 Won
Top 8 Quarter Final vs BR Eldrazi 0-2 Loss
Most interesting thing is basically NO sideboard cards for Affinity (save Echoing truth)...you think he just avoided that deck all day or can harbinger of the tides do that much work?
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"I hope to have such a death—lying in triumph upon the broken bodies of those who slew me."
—Radha, Keldon warlord
Chances are he just dodged it. It's very rare that a deck without Hurkyl's faces Affinity multiple times and ends up doing well. Let me also take this opportunity to thank everyone who has submitted reports. Keep 'em coming, and congratulations!
Been working on making a Sea's claim build. I'm not convinced the card belongs mainboard, but the land hate plan is one of my favorite aspects of Merfolk so I think the build will really suit me. I'm fairly convinced I've developed the 75 I want to try, but I haven't done any testing aside from playing against myself yet. Having a little bit of trouble figuring out some of my sideboard plans, so help would be appreciated.
The main deck is fairly stock, but it's the maindeck I've liked the most out of every variation I've played and it fits well with the sideboard so I'm sticking with it. Now for notes/explanations on the card choices:
No Kira - Kira's a great card, don't get me wrong, but she often just feels really clunky in too many matchups. Mainboard, I'd rather not have her due to consistency issues and how poor she often feels against aggressive decks and sideboard she just doesn't cover any of the real weaknesses I want covered.
No Phantasmal Image - Same general concept as Kira, phantasmal image can have a really high ceiling, but he also causes some consistency issues. I tend to prefer focusing on consistency when building the deck so he doesn't make the cut for me.
Spell Pierce - Has applications against basically everything and is particularly important going against combo. It can be dead in some matchups (if they just ramp out of range before we get the chance to use it or empty their hand to quickly like Affinity), but even against Affinity (the primary matchup I'd actually call spell pierce nearly dead) I need to be very lucky to take game one anyway so it doesn't make a huge difference. Remand is solid, but I much prefer my interaction to be 1 cmc and one of my favorite parts of this build is that all of it is. These have been great for me so I'm sticking to them.
Removal - The build is pretty removal light overall. Dismember is great, but I'm not a fan of the card mainboard (it's bad far more often than vapor snag). In the board, I chose gut shot over dismember for my single removal spell a couple reasons. Dismember is better against grindy decks like Abzan and Jund, but I already have all my land hate to bring in there so by the time I'm bringing in Dismember the cards I'm taking out are getting better in the matchup (I'd be taking out creatures like Cursecatcher / Harbinger for it, they aren't amazing in the matchup but they're still creatures). It's also better against Merfolk and possibly Death's Shadow Zoo/Eldrazi (though with both of those I might be in a similar situation to Jund/Abzan), but I don't think that outweighs the strength gut shot has against Infect/Affinity/Abzan Company/Elves/etc. since I'd rather have more coverage there. Gut Shot is more narrow, but with the rest of my board in place it just hits the matchups I want to hit with that removal slot. Similarly vapor snag is even more broad than dismember and I'm just not a fan of it in the board, despite it's synergy with the land hate (another reason I feel fine going removal light, in the matchups I'd particularly care about something like dismember I'm likely bringing in the land hate package and my vapor snags/harbingers have a good chance of turning into pseudo-permanent removal).
Counterspells - I generally want 4-6 counterspells in a merfolk list, depending on what counterspells they are and how many I'm running mainboard. With 2 Pierce mainboard and 3 dispel side, I feel I have really solid protection from combo (especially since its all one mana and easy to fit into my gameplan). I also don't feel like I need any more broad counterspells because of the way the land hate package deals with the kind of things I want to hit postboard that dispel won't be able to handle (example - Tron, where Negate would be great to take care of walkers). The land package allowing me to comfortably go all in on dispels for my sideboard counters and hit basically everything I need them to is really nice.
Land Hate Package - I wanted some room in the sideboard for something other than the land hate/Hurkyl's (I consider Hurkyl's pretty mandatory), so I didn't go the full 4 tec edge/4 seas claim. I cut one from each because of how they affect different matchups and I think I'm happy with that combination. In my testing when I bring the package in I hit multiple land hate spell fairly consistently (and when I only want sea's claim the 7 seas effects are enough - not to mention that I get to call the deck 7 seas Merfolk).
Grafdigger's Cage - I don't like not having at least one gy hate piece and I think that one grafdiggers cage serves me better than an additional land hate card or removal, for example. I chose Cage over Relic because I already have enough to bring in against the decks where Relic is better (aside from Living End which I feel fine against anyways) and the matchups cage is better I particularly wanted a little more against (shutting down CoCo, for instance - I have dispels, but that never feels like a clean answer since they might just not have a coco/chord and I'm stuck holding it up incase). I also generally think Grafdigger's is the generally better hate card, it's just that Relic surpasses it when we need a card we can bring in for more generally, which isn't what I need hear considering how general the dispel + land hate package is and what matchups it hits hardest.
So from there, onto sideboard planning (looking pretty much only at t1 decks, since it'd be too huge a wall of text otherwise):
Jund----
The Land Hate package should be particularly excellent here so I think the Jund matchup will be even better than usual (and I consider it a mathcup we're well positioned in to begin with). Considering the huge presence of Jund, this should be a huge positive.
Still our weakest matchup, but 4 Harbinger's mainboard helps. I'm also running 2x Vapor Snag which are great in the matchup and the full 4 Hurkyl's in the board. The singleton Gut Shot can also be incredible in this matchup (steel overseer is a problem for us, for instance, and gut shot is absurd against it). I won't say I'm well positioned here, it's not really feasible for us to be well positioned in the matchup, but I think this build has an above average Affinity matchup as far as Merfolk goes.
In: 4x Hurkyl's Recall, 1x Gut Shot
Out: 2x Spell Pierce, 3x Master of Waves/Cursecatcher
Not entirely sure what combination of Master of Waves/Cursecatcher I should be taking out here (I think they are the next weakest cards in the matchup after pierce, but each still serves a valid role).
Infect----
Tons of interaction and cheap counterspells makes me feel great about my Infect matchup. It doesn't take much of a board presence to race them and the build is more than capable of interacting with them enough to delay and pull out a win.
In: 3x Dispel, 1x Gut Shot
Out: 4x Master of Waves
Burn----
This matchup should be incredible. 7-8 seas offers tons of potential free wins against them, with each seas effect acting as essentially a stone rain (they have almost no generic mana cost in their spells). Combine that with our natural gameplan and 5 cheap counterspells and this seems like it will be insane. There's a small nonbo between the seas effects and cursecatcher/pierce (in that cursecatcher and pierce just give them something to use their dead lands on if the land hate plan is going strong), but each part of that is individually so strong against them that I don't think it should be an issue. The only question is what I should be taking out. I think Merrow Reejerey is a solid choice to take out because he's a bit slow and we often don't need to actually do that much damage to them so we don't need extra lords, but beyond that I'm a bit lost. One Master of Waves can probably come out despite how game ending he can be (he's still slow a bit and multiples can be really bad), but he's strong enough that I don't want to bring out more than one, especially with how he synergizes with the seas effects. For my last card, I'm really just not sure what to take out (possibly even just a pierce for the nonbo mentioned above?).
This is where I'm really having trouble coming up with a plan. I'm fairly certain my matchup is fantastic here. It was already great before and the stuff I have that I can bring in against them is way better than my previous build (and the maindeck is the same). The question is just what the hell that should be since there are so many possibilities. I've liked my land hate against them in the path (when I was running just Spreading Seas + Tec Edge), so sea's claim seems like it could be an improvement to that, but I'm not entirely sure because the draw a card is huge in making that not just feel like I'm putting myself at a card disadvantage. Dispel is also obviously great at protecting my creatures and stopping huge spells like a potential cryptic (though they don't always run that). Grafdigger's cage is also great at shutting down snapcasters and their main win condition, so I think I'd want that (it does put me down a card since it doesn't help my own gameplan much, but I think that's more than worth it for that combination of shutting down their gameplan). Reejerey, Harbinger, and Vapor Snag (despite being able to save creatures) are all not great here, and that gives 10 slots which is exactly enough to bring in the sideboard cards I mentioned I might want, but taking out 8 creatures seems like it might just leave me too creature light (20 creatures + 4 mutavaults) so I'm not convinced on it. It's entirely possible that really just is enough to get the job done when they have to work through 10 land hate spells and 5 strong counters that pair with them, but I feel like it'd require substantial testing before I'm convinced it's the correct path (though when I think of replacing each card individually it seems better each time so it just might be). Advice and suggestions/reasoning here would be greatly appreciated.
Possible In: 3x Tectonic Edge, 3x Sea's Claim, 3x Dispel, 1x Grafdigger's Cage
Possible Out: 4x Merrow Reejerey, 4x Harbinger of the Tides, 2x Vapor Snag
Dredge----
I've found I really like our place in this matchup. I haven't heard much about it, but my intuition says Sea's claim should be solid here as well (from what I've seen conflagrate is our real issue and we can keep them off the mana for it fairly easily with sea's claim, the islandwalk is also huge in the matchup). Grafdigger's card also puts in work here. The only issue here is what to bring out. Bounce effects are amazing against them, Lords are particularly amazing here as well. There's just nothing to take out. I could take out just about anything for Grafdigger's Cage and feel like it's an upgrade, but I don't know what's actually by itself something I want less than Sea's Claim, so I'm not sure what to board here. Once again, suggestions/reasoning would be appreciated.
Eldrazi----
Already feel well positioned here, but I'm not sure how to board against them in general. Dispel seems like an upgrade to Spell Pierce since almost all their interaction is instants, but they also have Ancient Stirrings and Engineered Explosives so I'm not sure there. Land hate also seems solid, but so is the rest of my gameplan so I'm not sure what I should be bringing in/what it would be better than.
Death's Shadow Zoo----
Really easy to color screw them so the Sea's Claim come in. Dispel is also great at preventing their combo (our main fear since we can kill them incredibly easy with all the damage they do to themselves). Master of Waves is slow and so is Reejerey (and we don't need the extra pump there very often), so those are my cuts.
The mirror is pretty generally a tossup either way, though having 4x Harbinger maindeck is something I like and makes me feel favored if the opponent doesn't. Not sure if dispel should be brought in over the spell pierce (since there is the possibility of hitting a vial. Gut Shot isn't great, but feels like an upgrade to spell pierce. Leaving Spreading Seas in since it at least hits mutavault if their mana is already great and gives MoW devotion (so I think it's better than Pierce and anything I would bring in).
Not a tier one deck (though it basically is by how close it is), but I want to mention it because of how insane I think this matchup is with the build. Spell Pierce mainboard, 10 land hate spells, this matchup seems like we'd be unstoppable. Just taking out the Snags (only hit Wurmcoil, which we can attack through with all the seas) and Master of Waves (a bit too slow for what we want).
I'll leave things there since I basically covered all the matchups I really have questions on for the build. Any suggestions on a card I might've overlooked to include would be more than welcome (and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about card choices I might've overlooked addressing). If you think my reasoning is off for my sideboard plans I'd love to hear why, and help on the matchups I'm unsure on would be especially appreciated.
Additional SB for Infect:
+3 Sea's Claim
-3 Merrow Reejerey
There might be an argument to take out some number of Spreading Seas instead of all of the Merrow Reejereys, or changing the number of Seas effects between drawn and play. Removing their Inkmoth Nexus for 1 CMC has generally been more helpful than the 3 CMC Lord, especially if your SB plan here involves holding up mana for Dispel or Spell Pierce. If other 7/8 Seas folks have any experience with this, please let me know!
I wish I had been playing 7 or 8 Seas before now! I used to play at a LGS full of decks with sensitive mana, specifically Jund!
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Modern CETronC WUBGRHumansWUBGR UMerfolkU GUInfectGU RBGxDredgeRBGx
I'm thinking Wistful Selkie as anyone that has played with or against Fish knows that Silvergill Adept is one of the best cards in the deck so why not 8?
I worry about how 3-drop centric your curve is currently. I understand that the best way to get value of out Collected Company is to stack up the 3-drop count, but 10 3-drops and 4 4-drops is probably a bit much for a 20-land manabase to handle. I also think you're not working with enough G sources, so I would toss in a couple of Breeding Pools. Last but not least, Phantasmal Image is a nonbo with Kira.
I worry about how 3-drop centric your curve is currently. I understand that the best way to get value of out Collected Company is to stack up the 3-drop count, but 10 3-drops and 4 4-drops is probably a bit much for a 20-land manabase to handle. I also think you're not working with enough G sources, so I would toss in a couple of Breeding Pools. Last but not least, Phantasmal Image is a nonbo with Kira.
I didn't think of Phantasmal with Kira but that is easy fixed, I'll just drop Phantasmal for 2 Breeding Pools. That gives me 8 sources of Green, with the draw in the deck and the fact you only NEED it for CoCo due to Vial I think I can hit 1 Green fine.
The deck is heavy on 3 drops but as you said, CoCo. You've also got the fact that you can always just bump up a Vial to 3. This deck is heavier on card advantage than a bunch of other decks due to the extra draw and CoCo. I think dropping the current crop of 3 drops might hurt it's ability to perform.
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Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Not before playing max number of Snag, Harbinger and Tidebinder, 1 or 2 Dismember and up to 2 Echoing Truth, in 75.
If anyone plays all of those, THEN I could see Unsummon in conversation.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPzcXT2lOK8
And I would personally play unsummon before echoing truth
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
To expand on the point. I often find myself on T3/T4 with 2 Islands and a Mutavault. Leaving that mana up allows me to Snag/Unsummon after either a spreading seas or remand. Dismember does little vs. Death's Shadow and reduces your life total to dangerous levels.
Decks:
BFZ Standard
Nothing yet
Modern
RBWMardu BurnWBR
Legacy
UUUPTSD NoughtUUU
EDH
WUDaxos VoltronUW
UBRJeleva - Oops all your spellsRBU
UBUVela, the Ninja Clad (retired)UBU
Check out my CafePress shop
As for Hurkyl's Recall, I'm of the belief that it should always be in your sideboard. Affinity is always going to be around, and you're too soft to it without Hurkyl's.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Started with bye and wins against Company Spirits, GR Tron and Jund, all 2:0.
Then lost 1:2 against Turbo Valakut (3 Anger of the Gods and few Titans later...).
Then lost the die roll against Nykthos Green. He started with second turn Garruk AND Courser. Turn 4 he has 7 creatures and Garruk ready to explode on my face.
I started perfectly with Cursecatcher, Lord, Reej and then had a choice of Reej, Catcher and Waves in hand (3 Islands and Muta in play) while he had 5 untapped creatures.
I saw 2 different lines of play, chose to unload Waves but his Overrun was for exactsies. The problem was that I didn't saw the third line: play second Reej - tap one creature, play Catcher tap two more creatures, which leaves him with only 2 blockers against 3 attackers to save Garruk. If Garruk was neutralized I could untap and resolve Master for million. That mistake cost me top8.
I won game 2 on timely Spreading Seas and lost game 3 because mulls and too early Titans.
At 4:2 I was out, beat the mirror in five minutes and finished ninth (clear cut) with 15 points.
Nykthos Green easily cruised to a first place, it was quick and brutal.
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
1 Vapor Snag
2 Sea's Claim
2 Dismember
Creatures (28)
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
2 Harbinger of the Tides
1 Tidebinder Mage
1 Phantasmal Image
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Master of Waves
13 Island
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
4 Mutavault
2 Tidebinder Mage
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Dispel
3 Negate
2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
100 player, 7 round.
Round 1 vs Tron Eldrazi 2-1 Won
Round 2 vs Affinity 2-1 Won
Round 3 vs Bant company Knight 0-2 Loss
Round 4 vs Burn 2-1 Won
Round 5 vs Eldrazi Aggro 2-1 Won
Round 6 vs Zoo 2-0 Won
Round 7 vs Affinity 2-1 Won
Top 8 Quarter Final vs BR Eldrazi 0-2 Loss
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=107550
Most interesting thing is basically NO sideboard cards for Affinity (save Echoing truth)...you think he just avoided that deck all day or can harbinger of the tides do that much work?
—Radha, Keldon warlord
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Additional SB for Infect:
+3 Sea's Claim
-3 Merrow Reejerey
There might be an argument to take out some number of Spreading Seas instead of all of the Merrow Reejereys, or changing the number of Seas effects between drawn and play. Removing their Inkmoth Nexus for 1 CMC has generally been more helpful than the 3 CMC Lord, especially if your SB plan here involves holding up mana for Dispel or Spell Pierce. If other 7/8 Seas folks have any experience with this, please let me know!
I wish I had been playing 7 or 8 Seas before now! I used to play at a LGS full of decks with sensitive mana, specifically Jund!
CETronC
WUBGRHumansWUBGR
UMerfolkU
GU
InfectGURBGx
DredgeRBGx4x AEther Vial
Enchantment (4)
4x Spreading Seas
Instant (4)
4x Collected Company
Creature (26)
4x Cursecatcher
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Wistful Selkie
2x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Land (22)
2x Cavern of Souls
4x Botanical Sanctum
4x Breeding Pool
2x Flooded Grove
6x Island
4x Mutavault
I'm thinking Wistful Selkie as anyone that has played with or against Fish knows that Silvergill Adept is one of the best cards in the deck so why not 8?
Edit - Updated
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
I didn't think of Phantasmal with Kira but that is easy fixed, I'll just drop Phantasmal for 2 Breeding Pools. That gives me 8 sources of Green, with the draw in the deck and the fact you only NEED it for CoCo due to Vial I think I can hit 1 Green fine.
The deck is heavy on 3 drops but as you said, CoCo. You've also got the fact that you can always just bump up a Vial to 3. This deck is heavier on card advantage than a bunch of other decks due to the extra draw and CoCo. I think dropping the current crop of 3 drops might hurt it's ability to perform.