MTG Salvation

We have Natural State and that could be catastrophic for Bogles in combat. We even have a possibility to run EE if Bogles ever become a menace.
For Titanshift we have more speed than U and equal chance to run needed counterspells, if pilot so desires.
I would rather skip Counters Company and Blood Moon decks.

Quote from FANAttIC »

We have Natural State and that could be catastrophic for Bogles in combat. We even have a possibility to run EE if Bogles ever become a menace.
For Titanshift we have more speed than U and equal chance to run needed counterspells, if pilot so desires.
I would rather skip Counters Company and Blood Moon decks.

Thanks for your feedback.

Usually there are enough Auras to safely attack through the best one being destroyed, although I understand how getting rid of the lifelink Aura can allow for a big swing back. I have lost exactly one time to Merfolk with Bogles and it included not drawing a single land (1 drawn in 2 games the turn before lethal) and getting Spreading Seas'd in games 1 and 3. I can see beating Titanshift. Sometimes they just don't draw Scapeshift, Prime Time, Summoner's Pact, or Sweltering Suns (in time). Also Scapeshift itself is very vulnerable to SB cards, although Prime Time is just VERY good (similar to against GDS).

I can certainly see Counters Company being a rough matchup, especially pre SB. I guess theoretically Blood Moon decks that play them early like Storm or RW Prison can be tough, but it seems that Aether Vial can alleviate some of that at least (not to mention, leaving up Natural State if fearful). I realize that if Blood Moon does come down, Natural State and Green Merfolk are shut off until Aether Vial (for the creatures) comes down.

How about Human Company or Elves? I'm trying to come up with a deck to run at FNM where there are 3 UG Merfolk players (out of 16 or so players) and there's going to be Jeskai Queller as well (I'm guessing some people will jump on it and there's already 2).

*I have to admit that I've mostly only run against Mono Blue, but there's no more of that at my FNM. I've only played against UG Merfolk 6 times so far - 2-0 with Titanshift, 2-0 with Knightfall, 2-1 and 1-2 with Human Company, 0-2 with RUG Marvel, and 2-1 with Bogles.

Who says we are tier 2? We can obviously win with any random card.
People wanted Bantfolk, there it is: http://www.hareruyamtg.com/en/k/kD38505S/

Is UG the way to go with Merfolk currently? Or is Mono U still competitive too? Is it just a matter of preference?

Quote from ctaylor33 »

Is UG the way to go with Merfolk currently? Or is Mono U still competitive too? Is it just a matter of preference?

Oh man, you asked the question-that-cannot-be-asked!

Just kidding. There is a rift here on the merfolk thread with people that think U/G merfolk is clearly better and the way to go, people that think the list is just too recent and you need to give it 'more time', and people that think it is a choice dependant on the meta.

Regardless, if you take a look at recent decklists popping up in events (https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/merfolk) almost all of them are U/G. That might be because the meta is favorable to it, because everyone is trying a new thing or because the list is just better. You can playtest and decide for yourself.

My personal opinion: U/G is better. Its lower mana cost, greater card selection/advantage, lower number of lands and better access to sideboard cards put it over the top of monoblue. The only real disadvantages that come with it is some akwardness with the mana in some games, extra damage from fetch/shock lands and blood moon matchups. You could play a manabase without fetches and shocks (using caverns and territories), but I think the fetch mana base is better to guarantee use of green sideboard cards (and even non-creature blue sideboard cards). If you're not using green sideboard cards and many non-blue sideboard cards, you can ditch the fetchland manabase to preserve your life total.

I just had this conversation with a guy at our LGS and since I hadn't been paying attention to modern as of late, I told him the wrong answer. Ugh. I think the best way to put is mono blue is always the best merfolk deck, unless another color gives you access to silver gill adept 5-8...lol. Granted its not exactly SGA, but its close and if there is one thing fish love to do, its cantrip. So this leads me to my question: has anyone had any luck with Deeproot Champion? I know he seems geared much more for a tempo build than the standard aggro fish that have kinda become the norm, but he seems good. Currently trying him in a flooding variant where I'm running all the standard stuff except for the instants, plus Branchwalker and Champion with 4 Spreading Seas and 4 Sea's Claim. Champ will grow off of the enchantments and vials. But honestly I'm torn. Kumena's Speaker just seems better. 2/2 for 1 is aggro gold, especially when you can expect it to grow...

This person qualified for Pro Tour: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/840387#paper

Just lose to Elves in a very close game, he topdeck elvish champion and smiled. I was "what?? He cant beat me with that"

Then, he pointed my shockland UG island/FOREST..........that sucked

Man, Sygg, River Cutthroat looks good. Also Cryptic Command seems interesting. The Tap all creatures and bounce for grindy matchups or the counterspell works for me. Wonder how many times he was able to play it though.

Interesting how the 1-off call of Kira and Kopala seems to be giving good results.

I think Cryptic Command has potential, but it will demand a reorganization of the manabase if it is to be cast consistently. I have no idea how that person managed to cast a 1UUU spell with only 13 U sources.

Edit: Added Oboro to the U source count.

If I twisted the manabase around to play it, I would maindeck it. Cryptic is extremely flexible.

I just starting putting together the Green splash and I have a question about Natural State. You are definitely bringing it against Affinity and Lantern... but what about the occasional Blood Moon or even Stony Silence? I guess we want something like 6-8 targets to bring in 2-3 Natural States?

I noticed a few of the more recent successful Mono U lists were running Phantasmal Image. Is it time for that card to make a comeback?

I remember getting hammered on here for suggesting that UG was a bad option - it seems people are finally coming around to the fact that Mono- U is superior.

The reason I stated that UG was a bad option was that the green merfolk simply arent good enough to destroy your mana base over - turns out that this is exactly what ppl that play competitively are accepting.

Those that brew and have limited competitive experience will always advocate for 'thinking out of the box' and this is fine and dandy. However, the reality is that seasoned players of the archetype arent the 'dinosaurs' you think we are - we have good reasons based on experience to make the statements that we do.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FishMTG/comments/7fr3dp/feeling_like_ug_is_more_trouble_than_its_worth/?st=JAIN81PS&sh=23fd0399

Further to this Nikachu is of a similar mind regarding this problem.

EDIT: furthermore you cannot play Dismember in a UG list - another huge problem with abandoning the well proven mono U list

WHAT! I JUST SPENT $3 ON UNCOMMONS and 20 MINUTES DIGGING NATURAL STATE OUT OF MY GREEN COMMON BOX

I'm still curious about Rivals of Ixalan and what they will bring to the table. Right now even if UG is not as strong as mono-blue, it's already this good with only half the new merfolk released. When the other half comes it's going to get really interesting to see where the deck goes. Just keeping my fingers crossed that Wizards doesn't create a problem like they did with Eldrazi, as merfolk is already powerful in modern.

I have been playing a decent amount with death and taxes, and I find it funny the criticism that the death and taxes matchup got harder. Leonin arbiter can only fall on turn 2, so even if you a fetch land in hand you will have the opportunity to crack it before the arbiter hits play. I honestly don't understand what is the problem that people are having against Death and Taxes.

Blood Moon is a real issue though. I think more so to us because, without vial, it automatically locks all mutavaults and all green spells in your hand. If you have just one basic island in play, it also locks a good chunk of the blue spells. I can absolutely agree that a meta full of blood moons is a meta where monoblue might fare better. I'm just not sure how prevalent such a meta is.

The rest of the complaints in the reddit thread don't make much sense to me: if you lose to RG ponza is because the deck is removal spells + land destruction. It is certainly not an easy matchup. I suppose some lists play blood moon main, which might be what puts it over the top. People complaining about losing to scapeshift: it is a hard matchup for merfolk, no matter what list you're talking about. Finally, burn: green has some of the best sideboard spells against burn. If people are losing to burn is because they chose not to address this problem on sideboard.

Aside from that, I disagree from the beggining with people who cut cursecatchers from the tropical fish list. I think the slot where people are playing phantasmal images/kiras/kopalas should be a slot for cursecatchers/interaction.

Regardless, I feel like the complain about blood moon on the mana base is valid, but I'm not sure to what extent. Most decks in modern play with more than one color, and players have learned to play around stuff that hurts their mana base. For christ sake, the humans deck is the most fragile thing ever against blood moon, and it is putting up results. I'm not sure how much of these bad u/g results are just merfolk players unwilling to reconsider their patterns of play to avoid getting screwed by their manabase.

Has anyone been considering a return to remand? I see a lot of jeskai and while it isn’t a bad matchup remand is just so good against it. I also like it against storm . I’m thinking 1:1 mb:sb . I’m on U btw

Spells are way too efficient these days to be playing Remand for tempo on Merfolk. I like Disdainful Stroke and Dispel as the two counters I rely on for a general meta, apart from Ceremonious Rejection of course. When I played Remand, I never got to play it on turn two, where it is its most valuable tempo play. Also I never finished the games the next turn I played it on mid-game so I never got the value out of it. Only on Living End I was glad to see it around. Maybe it can work on certain metas, I just don't think I would use it.

Quote from Ashiok »

I have been playing a decent amount with death and taxes, and I find it funny the criticism that the death and taxes matchup got harder. Leonin arbiter can only fall on turn 2, so even if you a fetch land in hand you will have the opportunity to crack it before the arbiter hits play. I honestly don't understand what is the problem that people are having against Death and Taxes.

The match did get harder. Not just Leonin Arbiter is a trouble with Ghost Quarter, which is effectively hurting your mana base on a hit with no green basics by the way, but also Aven Mindcensor got a better chance against Tropical on non-Eldrazi taxes lists. I just think UG improved against Affinity, which turned from almost unwinnable to not-so-close, but it got worse against more decks we didn't have problems with. That is what the Reddit post says and its not worth the trade for me. Mana base are getting more greedy with 5C Humans and other stuff running around, so we will be facing Moons more often. Might as well run a list that gets around it. Green is indeed the best splash for Merfolk at the moment, just not worth the trouble. Let's wait for Rivals, like everybody else says.