http://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/breakdown/modern http://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/28k-games-of-modern-analyzed
Mtggoldfish just posted an interesting article in which they analysed 28k games of modern. They concluded that "Merfolk is basically the anti-Tron ; it has good matchups against most of the popular decks but really struggles against tier two options like Living End and Boggles".
In the match-up grid for the 10 most played decks, Merfolk has bad matchup against Affinity, Grixis Control, Anafenza Company, and Living End. In my opinion, the most surprising thing in this table is the fact that our worst matchup is against Anafenza Company (38.71%) and Affinity matchup is not as hopeless as I initially thought (46.43%).
For the Affinity matchup,has anyone tested Spell Snare? It hoses most of the threats in Affinity and is not a dead SB cards in other matchup.
no way are we bad against grixis control. You have island walk and 2 guys can out race them. Also run relix maindeck it stomps anything with snapcaster or delve. All you do is deal with the turn 2 tasigur or angler and win against grixis control. They have a poor long game because you have insane threat density and 10 cantrips game 1. Game 2 they can't resolve key early spells. Burn and affinity are the worst match ups imo.
it feels so good to watch them delve away their whole yard for a turn 2 Tasigur and then hitting it with a vapor snag
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Modern UMerfolkU WUBRGPeopleGRBUW U Turbo Turns U UB Fae BU WBG Aristocrats GBW
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/breakdown/modern http://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/28k-games-of-modern-analyzed
Mtggoldfish just posted an interesting article in which they analysed 28k games of modern. They concluded that "Merfolk is basically the anti-Tron ; it has good matchups against most of the popular decks but really struggles against tier two options like Living End and Boggles".
In the match-up grid for the 10 most played decks, Merfolk has bad matchup against Affinity, Grixis Control, Anafenza Company, and Living End. In my opinion, the most surprising thing in this table is the fact that our worst matchup is against Anafenza Company (38.71%) and Affinity matchup is not as hopeless as I initially thought (46.43%).
For the Affinity matchup,has anyone tested Spell Snare? It hoses most of the threats in Affinity and is not a dead SB cards in other matchup.
no way are we bad against grixis control. You have island walk and 2 guys can out race them. Also run relix maindeck it stomps anything with snapcaster or delve. All you do is deal with the turn 2 tasigur or angler and win against grixis control. They have a poor long game because you have insane threat density and 10 cantrips game 1. Game 2 they can't resolve key early spells. Burn and affinity are the worst match ups imo.
it feels so good to watch them delve away their whole yard for a turn 2 Tasigur and then hitting it with a vapor snag
Yesterday I dismembered a turn 2 tasigur with a mutavault, and followed up lord into master of the pearl trident. That was game lol.
Using Vapor Snag on Tasigur is pretty sweet, but I'm not sure anything will ever beat the look on a Delver Players's face when they cast a turn 2 Treasure Cruise and you cast the Remand you held up mana for.
I'm going to play merfolk in a modern tournament on the weekend. Been a while since I played merfolk (or modern). What's with all the tectonic edges I see in peoples sideboards? Can you fill me in what they are for, and what you typically take out for them? Thanks!
Depends what your deck looks like. Against Amulet Bloom, in general you just want to put a clock as fast as possible on the board. You sort of have to hope they don't have a nut draw which they won't more often than not. Vialing in a Tidebinder Mage before the declare attacks step helps a lot. Play around Pyroclasm postboard by putting two lords into play immediately instead of Silvergill Adept into Lord. Side out Spreading Seas, side in all counterspells, Side out Dismember, keep in Vapor Snag. I don't know what your deck looks like so this is all I can think of off the top of my head.
Depends what your deck looks like. Against Amulet Bloom, in general you just want to put a clock as fast as possible on the board. You sort of have to hope they don't have a nut draw which they won't more often than not. Vialing in a Tidebinder Mage before the declare attacks step helps a lot. Play around Pyroclasm postboard by putting two lords into play immediately instead of Silvergill Adept into Lord. Side out Spreading Seas, side in all counterspells, Side out Dismember, keep in Vapor Snag. I don't know what your deck looks like so this is all I can think of off the top of my head.
Also it is important to remember if you have several lords Dismember plus block works just fine as well. Cursecatcher is really the key card as it shuts down the hive mind plan. Also it is important to remember to save a spreading seas to alpha strike if possible in game 1. Additionally remember dismember costs four life, but it saves you 10 damage off a double striking titan so it reads gain 6 life..
What you say about Cursecatcher is good. However if you're trying to block with dismember then I think it's a sign things are going very wrong. Dismember isn't flexible enough and sort of requires you to create a situation where it is good. Spreading seas is okay if they don't have Amulet out but I would rather it wasn't in the deck at all. If there is a Titan in your way then Vapor Snag, Tidebinder Mage, or Merrow Reejerey will deal with it.
I'm going to play merfolk in a modern tournament on the weekend. Been a while since I played merfolk (or modern). What's with all the tectonic edges I see in peoples sideboards? Can you fill me in what they are for, and what you typically take out for them? Thanks!
4x Tectonic Edge is for Tron, Scapeshift, and Grixis Twin. Often we are siding out Aether Vial and side in a few Tectonic Edges to help us curve out while still being useful for killing enemy lands. Sometimes some are thrown in to guarantee we curve out smoothly.
I'm going to play merfolk in a modern tournament on the weekend. Been a while since I played merfolk (or modern). What's with all the tectonic edges I see in peoples sideboards? Can you fill me in what they are for, and what you typically take out for them? Thanks!
4x Tectonic Edge is for Tron, Scapeshift, and Grixis Twin. Often we are siding out Aether Vial and side in a few Tectonic Edges to help us curve out while still being useful for killing enemy lands. Sometimes some are thrown in to guarantee we curve out smoothly.
I'm just copy and pasting what I've said maybe 10 times now
"Spellskite is a very overrated card against good players. For example against Boggles and Infect they are EXPECTING spellskite to come in and they are already siding in artifact hate or removal (Boggles sides in all paths and dismembers)(Infect now sides in Dismember as well). Spellskite is quite good vs Twin (Combust or Rending Volley cannot target it) It's very so-so vs burn because it will cost us life to prevent some damage. We cannot redirect half their spells, if they attack and we block it dies to Searing Blaze or Searing Blood. Lastly it puts no pressure on the board.
Like it's okay but it's not as amazing as it looks. I generally treat the card like Chalice of the Void and it simply doesn't have that effect. All that being said the price of Spellskite has gone down a lot and I would be interested in seeing how good or bad he really is.
One thing I do like about Spellskite instead of Chalice on 1 is that I can play Vapor Snag and Spell Pierce comfortably.
In regards to protecting your creatures if you play Spellskite you might as well have just played a lord instead. What else are you trying to protect?"
I'm going to play merfolk in a modern tournament on the weekend. Been a while since I played merfolk (or modern). What's with all the tectonic edges I see in peoples sideboards? Can you fill me in what they are for, and what you typically take out for them? Thanks!
4x Tectonic Edge is for Tron, Scapeshift, and Grixis Twin. Often we are siding out Aether Vial and side in a few Tectonic Edges to help us curve out while still being useful for killing enemy lands. Sometimes some are thrown in to guarantee we curve out smoothly.
There are so many controls decks that I see your need for Kira, Great Glass Spinner. At the same time I think you need more Tidebinders main to deal with the Slivers/Allies (I'm assuming they both use green) while naturally nailing the Abzan/Podless Pod. I might remove a Master of Waves or a Kira. It's sort of hard to remove anything because the deck looks fine. I would remove the Pithing Needle for a 4th Tectonic Edge. Or maybe I saw duplicates of that dumb fairies deck.
8 Rack- This is how it goes. There is a 40% chance they will draw Ensnaring Bridge. That means you're winning 60% of the time. Put as fast of a clock as possible on the board. Try not to mulligan (cards in hand is important) so if you have 2 decent creatures and 5 lands that's a keep.
Slivers/Allies- They operate similarly, they use the synergy of their creatures on the board to screw you over. Kill them with Dismember. Make sure the board is empty and tap them down with Tidebinder Mage. These match ups are aggressive and fast so you likely want to side out Cursecatcher on the draw because that Cursecatcher mana is better spent on Dismember/Vapor Snag/Aether Vial. You probably don't want Kira (unless they have a lot of removal) or 1 Master of Waves either because of how slow they are. I assume they are both playing CoCo so side in Dispel. I guess cards you also want are Dismember, Tidebinder Mage, and maybe a Tectonic Edge.
Bogels- Hope he mulligans to nothing. You'll win 50% of the matches purely because the deck is unstable.
Martyr- The deck cannot win unless they have Ghostly Prison. I know I side in all Tectonic Edge (to play around Ghostly Prison and keep their lands near 4 mana) and Spell Pierce (for Prison and Wrath of God). Side out Snags, Dismembers (edit*, all of them), Tidebinder Mage, Relic (it interacts with them but its not so important), and maybe 1 Master of Waves. I can't remember if we want Kira or not. She can block that stupid Serra's Ascendant. On paper it looks like we should lose badly but unless I've run super hot (which maybe I have) I've only lost once against this. When we have enough creatures on board they cannot gain enough life.
Hey ctaylor33, Thanks for the kind words! I just went 4-0 a couple days a go with my normal build. Triton Shorestalker is great because people hesitate to waste burn/removal on it early on, but then it can become a 4/4 unblockable quicker than they are comfortable admitting. I use 5x one-drop Merfolk and that usually ends up being 3x Cursecatcher 2x of the Shorestalker. I see the Shorestalker as a 5th and 6th Mutavault that doesn't happen to get pumped Master of Waves.
So, I read an article where Travis Woo wrote about a guy that was playing hate vs blue to bring the price of Disrupting Shoals down because of his Ninjabeardelver.
I'm tired of losing my crap to mass removal and crap that keeps getting Snapcasters or whatever else. Answer - Surgical Extraction main.
It was a test. I left in in every game.
Match 1 (Jund)
Game 1
I was able to Extract his Lightning Bolt. He attacked Turn 3 into Phantasmal 'Goyf. I got him to 1 and he stabilized with a Scavenging Ooze.
(took out Phantasmal Images for Tidebinders, Tec Edges)
Game 2
I drew into 3 Spreading Seas and kept taking out his black. He gets a Lavamacer and Liliana out for a good lock.
0-1
Match 2 (Collected Naya)
Game 1
I was able to Extract Path and Kitchen Finks. Got lucky, drew a Spreading Seas for win.
(left Images in because he said he was playing 8 removal - Took out Vials, 2 Spreading Seas for Counterspells and Tidebinders).
Game 2
Tidebinder his Voice of Resurgence. Phantasmal Tidebinder his Eternal Witness. Phantasmal Tidebinder his Eternal Witness. Then, he Path's my normal Tidebinder. Then, with the Collected Company (plays Eternal Witness) returning Path to Exile to kill the Phantasmals. Hibernate. Forgot, sided that in. It cleared the way for win.
1-1
Match 3 (USA CONTROL)
Game 1
Surgical Extraction on his Lightning Bolt, then, Surgical Extraction on Supreme Verdict.
It was a slow process but I got there.
(Took out Images and Spreading Seas for Counterspells, Spellskite, Kira)
Game 2
He curved into everything perfect. Had all the removal. Verdicted twice and Wrathed once. Colonnade for win.
Game 3
Vials at 2, 3 and 4. Remand were big in saving stuff. Extracted whiffed on Bolt due to Snapcaster but got the Verdicts. Mutavault won that one.
2-1
Match 4 (Grishoalbrand)
I WON. Does it matter how?!?!
I swear, I play this deck, piloted by different guys 1-2 a week.
Game 1
Exiled his Shoals. Harbingered Griselbrand. Pecked away.
Game 2
I countered the spells that searched for the pieces. I copied Griselbrand and drew 7 new cards. Had answers. Extraction denied by Noxious Revival.
Finished 3-1 for 6 packs.
I like Surgical Extraction because it took a lot of removal away form opponents. I think I'm going to try again with 3 Extraction. (1 side?)
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Currently playing:
Modern: UR Dragonfish
Legacy: Merfolk
Tiny Leaders: Mono Anafenza
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it feels so good to watch them delve away their whole yard for a turn 2 Tasigur and then hitting it with a vapor snag
U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW
Yesterday I dismembered a turn 2 tasigur with a mutavault, and followed up lord into master of the pearl trident. That was game lol.
Below is the build I would like to use as a base on Friday night when Ill be making my debut into the modern scene
1 Oboro, Palace in the clouds
1 Minamo, School at water's edge
4 Wanderwine hub
11 Islands
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Harbinger of the Tide
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Master of the Waves
4 Spreading Seas
2 Dismember
2 Spell Pierce
1 Vapor Snag
Im going into an unknown meta, so I need some sideboard advise.
I was thinking
What do I put in the final 5 slots?
Thanks guys!
2-3 Tectonic Edge and 2-3 Tidebinder Mage are always solid especially going in blind, Tron and BGx tend to be around.
Spell Pierce on Cranial Plating or Lightning Helix are also honourable mentions
This is even less true now with harbringer. Though to be fair less able players are going to always struggle against Living end.
My sales thread: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/trading-post/details/1651-ktk-for-sale
http://youtu.be/BEkMG0G7tgo
Sorry if it's inappropriate to post in the Modern section but I figure everyone here would want to see it anyway.
Also it is important to remember if you have several lords Dismember plus block works just fine as well. Cursecatcher is really the key card as it shuts down the hive mind plan. Also it is important to remember to save a spreading seas to alpha strike if possible in game 1. Additionally remember dismember costs four life, but it saves you 10 damage off a double striking titan so it reads gain 6 life..
4x Tectonic Edge is for Tron, Scapeshift, and Grixis Twin. Often we are siding out Aether Vial and side in a few Tectonic Edges to help us curve out while still being useful for killing enemy lands. Sometimes some are thrown in to guarantee we curve out smoothly.
Heres my GP Copenhagen list + sideboard guide to help you figure out where Tectonic Edges are good and what is sided out for them (never other lands).
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/tier-2-modern/220260-merfolk?comment=7353
Hi Nikachu. I noticed you don't have Spellskite in your SB. What are your thoughts on it? Thanks in advance.
"Spellskite is a very overrated card against good players. For example against Boggles and Infect they are EXPECTING spellskite to come in and they are already siding in artifact hate or removal (Boggles sides in all paths and dismembers)(Infect now sides in Dismember as well). Spellskite is quite good vs Twin (Combust or Rending Volley cannot target it) It's very so-so vs burn because it will cost us life to prevent some damage. We cannot redirect half their spells, if they attack and we block it dies to Searing Blaze or Searing Blood. Lastly it puts no pressure on the board.
Like it's okay but it's not as amazing as it looks. I generally treat the card like Chalice of the Void and it simply doesn't have that effect. All that being said the price of Spellskite has gone down a lot and I would be interested in seeing how good or bad he really is.
One thing I do like about Spellskite instead of Chalice on 1 is that I can play Vapor Snag and Spell Pierce comfortably.
In regards to protecting your creatures if you play Spellskite you might as well have just played a lord instead. What else are you trying to protect?"
Cool thanks. That's a very useful sideboard plan. What are the wanderwine hubs for? Choke?
My sales thread: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/trading-post/details/1651-ktk-for-sale
8 Rack- This is how it goes. There is a 40% chance they will draw Ensnaring Bridge. That means you're winning 60% of the time. Put as fast of a clock as possible on the board. Try not to mulligan (cards in hand is important) so if you have 2 decent creatures and 5 lands that's a keep.
Slivers/Allies- They operate similarly, they use the synergy of their creatures on the board to screw you over. Kill them with Dismember. Make sure the board is empty and tap them down with Tidebinder Mage. These match ups are aggressive and fast so you likely want to side out Cursecatcher on the draw because that Cursecatcher mana is better spent on Dismember/Vapor Snag/Aether Vial. You probably don't want Kira (unless they have a lot of removal) or 1 Master of Waves either because of how slow they are. I assume they are both playing CoCo so side in Dispel. I guess cards you also want are Dismember, Tidebinder Mage, and maybe a Tectonic Edge.
Bogels- Hope he mulligans to nothing. You'll win 50% of the matches purely because the deck is unstable.
Martyr- The deck cannot win unless they have Ghostly Prison. I know I side in all Tectonic Edge (to play around Ghostly Prison and keep their lands near 4 mana) and Spell Pierce (for Prison and Wrath of God). Side out Snags, Dismembers (edit*, all of them), Tidebinder Mage, Relic (it interacts with them but its not so important), and maybe 1 Master of Waves. I can't remember if we want Kira or not. She can block that stupid Serra's Ascendant. On paper it looks like we should lose badly but unless I've run super hot (which maybe I have) I've only lost once against this. When we have enough creatures on board they cannot gain enough life.
Choke, Boil, and now preventing islandwalk from opposing Merfolk
Twitch Channel - https://www.twitch.tv/moontimedweller
MODERN - Mono-Blue Merfolk & 7-Forest Goblin Charbelcher
LEGACY - Ruby Storm & Burn
PAUPER - Zombies, Bogles, & Burn
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Harbinger of the Tides
3 Merrow Reejerey
2 Master of Waves
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Vapor Snag
2 Dismember
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
1 Minamo
1 Oboro
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
10 Islands
Side
2 Spell Pierce
1 Hibernation
2 Remand
1 Dispel
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2 Spellskite
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Tidebinder Mage
2 Relic of Progenitus
So, I read an article where Travis Woo wrote about a guy that was playing hate vs blue to bring the price of Disrupting Shoals down because of his Ninjabeardelver.
I'm tired of losing my crap to mass removal and crap that keeps getting Snapcasters or whatever else. Answer - Surgical Extraction main.
It was a test. I left in in every game.
Match 1 (Jund)
Game 1
I was able to Extract his Lightning Bolt. He attacked Turn 3 into Phantasmal 'Goyf. I got him to 1 and he stabilized with a Scavenging Ooze.
(took out Phantasmal Images for Tidebinders, Tec Edges)
Game 2
I drew into 3 Spreading Seas and kept taking out his black. He gets a Lavamacer and Liliana out for a good lock.
0-1
Match 2 (Collected Naya)
Game 1
I was able to Extract Path and Kitchen Finks. Got lucky, drew a Spreading Seas for win.
(left Images in because he said he was playing 8 removal - Took out Vials, 2 Spreading Seas for Counterspells and Tidebinders).
Game 2
Tidebinder his Voice of Resurgence. Phantasmal Tidebinder his Eternal Witness. Phantasmal Tidebinder his Eternal Witness. Then, he Path's my normal Tidebinder. Then, with the Collected Company (plays Eternal Witness) returning Path to Exile to kill the Phantasmals.
Hibernate. Forgot, sided that in. It cleared the way for win.
1-1
Match 3 (USA CONTROL)
Game 1
Surgical Extraction on his Lightning Bolt, then, Surgical Extraction on Supreme Verdict.
It was a slow process but I got there.
(Took out Images and Spreading Seas for Counterspells, Spellskite, Kira)
Game 2
He curved into everything perfect. Had all the removal. Verdicted twice and Wrathed once. Colonnade for win.
Game 3
Vials at 2, 3 and 4. Remand were big in saving stuff. Extracted whiffed on Bolt due to Snapcaster but got the Verdicts. Mutavault won that one.
2-1
Match 4 (Grishoalbrand)
I WON. Does it matter how?!?!
I swear, I play this deck, piloted by different guys 1-2 a week.
Game 1
Exiled his Shoals. Harbingered Griselbrand. Pecked away.
Game 2
I countered the spells that searched for the pieces. I copied Griselbrand and drew 7 new cards. Had answers. Extraction denied by Noxious Revival.
Finished 3-1 for 6 packs.
I like Surgical Extraction because it took a lot of removal away form opponents. I think I'm going to try again with 3 Extraction. (1 side?)
Modern: UR Dragonfish
Legacy: Merfolk
Tiny Leaders: Mono Anafenza