MTG Salvation

Quote from ns92 »

I believe those counters will come in mostly vs combo and control. Vs combo, negate is almost strictly better since you dont need to counter creatures...referring to say, storm and ad nauseum. Verses control, we dont really care about creature, since we can get islandwalk, so again negate works better. I'd also say that against UWR control, they kill everything we have and could flash in snapcaster to make them have equal creatures

Quote from ketoglutarate »

Quote from skeeler87 »

Can anyone explain why Negate sees more play than Unified Will currently???

I find that I'm virtually guaranteed to have more creatures than my opponent when Unified Will is going to be good in a MU and it just seems too powerful to be able to counter an opponents big creature or big planeswalker to sub it out for Negate instead.

The broad-spectrum countersspells Merfolk has access to are:

• Disdainful Stroke
• Deprive
• Negate
• Unified Will

In addition to other common but narrower counterspells:

• dispel
• ceremonious rejection
• spell pierce
• swan song
• commandeer
• flashfreeze

Different players choose different options, and in different quantities (they can also split the counterspells. I also see a "seasonal" trend, a periodic shift of the preferred choices, mainly depending on the metagame.
Here are the major factors that cotribute to counterspell choice:

• player's inclination
• manabase (No UU if you run a playset of Cavern of Souls!)
• metagame: prevalence of must-answer creatures (Primeval Titan, Craterhoof Behemoth.. you get the idea)
• metagame: prevalence of key colourless spells
• metagame: prevalence of big mana deck
• timing at which counterspell are needed (unified will is best against game-closing drops in the middle/late game, while negate can be used even when the board is not yet filled - this is the case of burn, or reanimator combos - and require the counterspell to be online asap)
• slots you can dedicate to counterspells (as not to overboard the side with cards that will never be used with enough profit)

Awesome! Thanks so much for answering in such detail!

Just wanted to chime in with some notes from my initial testing of Tropical Fish: we had a bit of a rough start with the 2-drop centric build I advocated for initial testing in my article, and I've since pinpointed the cause: Merfolk Branchwalker was underperforming, big time. I've since replaced it with Merrow Reejerey (so 16 total Lord effects in the 75), and the deck's performance has perked up quite a bit. If you do go for this variant, so far I've had the most success with 16 Lords.

So I'm actually going to step away from Merrow and try Phantasmal Image in it's spot for a week and see how it does. I know it's not the same as having all sixteen Lords but I want to see what kind of explosive interactions I can have with it hopefully copying Lords I've already played.

Rothgar, do you have a list or a link to one?

Here's my latest list. I got a 5-0 in a friendly league with it last night (picture attached), so it's doing pretty well.

Great thanks...how are you feeling without 4x mutavault?

ive had this deck forever and all i was missing was 4 lord of atlantis and ill use 4 merfolk mistbinder instead

i also needed 4 silvergill adept because i never could find some but that will change tomorow

anyone tried a one or two of Kumena, tyrant of orazca? or is he a win more card or does he comes out too late? thoughts?

edit: oops i thought he cost 4 not 3 lol so why not include him as a one of?

Quote from tbone2177 »

Great thanks...how are you feeling without 4x mutavault?

I'm also curious about this as well because even though the Mana is a bit difficult, Mutavault is something I would like to have with an additional 4 Lords in the deck. I also would like to know how Dismember did with all the fetches and shocks.

Quote from tbone2177 »

Great thanks...how are you feeling without 4x mutavault?

To be honest, more Vaults would just get in the way. This version of the deck abhors drawing more than 3-4 lands in my experience, and you need most of those to produce U and/or G mana to cast your spells.

I mulled 5 times in a match against Shadow and 4 more in a 4:1 friendly mtgo league just now.
I hate when shuffler decides my fate. If only my deck was as consistent as any Valakut deck in a world: zero cantrips and library manipulation and 100% casting Titan as soon as 6th mana arrives... Never not have it.

Won against Eldrazi and Taxes, second Shadow, Mardu Pyromancer and UR Kiln combo.

Did 4-1 last night at Lgs with mono blue.

I`ll post list later, but for now I have to say: DISMEMBER is very necessary. Won against GW Company and Counters Company combo with it. If it was Spell Pierce on my hand I would lose

Greetings,

Kinda new to the fish pool. Just curious to know if it's necessary to have removal in the main aka Dismember or is it better to just have moreof creatures and protection like Spell Pierce instead?

Depends on the meta your playing in. If there is lots of creature decks then run dismember, if there is lots of control and spell based combo then run spell pierce.

Personally I run spell pierce as our creatures can often out-class our opponents creatures and we can chump block and vial in a lord as removal.

I usually recommend Dismember, as Spell Pierce is kind of shaky against Company decks and Storm, which can ramp right by it.

Spell-slots I'd consider are Dismember, Vapor Snag, Negate, Unified Will, Dispel, and Ceremonious Rejection. Spell Pierce can't stop the things that need to be stopped these days. I'm considering Invasive Surgery, but I'm not sure it's good enough against the decks with the main targets.

What are the targets for Invasive Surgery?

Quote from rothgar13 »

Just wanted to chime in with some notes from my initial testing of Tropical Fish: we had a bit of a rough start with the 2-drop centric build I advocated for initial testing in my article, and I've since pinpointed the cause: Merfolk Branchwalker was underperforming, big time. I've since replaced it with Merrow Reejerey (so 16 total Lord effects in the 75), and the deck's performance has perked up quite a bit. If you do go for this variant, so far I've had the most success with 16 Lords.

Interesting because I've noted the same thing about Branchwalker. Though I haven't tried adding the Reejerrey's back in. I'll give that a go.

Maybe I need to focus more on tempo then aggro with this deck as well. I sit there with a fist full of two drops and want to jam them all asap. But even with a opening Vial and decent lands it's hard to get them all out.

I know we're not likely to ever see one, but I'm really missing the Merfolk equivalent of the Mantis Rider. Something that can be boosted and flies to be a nuisance. A Gaea's Skyfolk reprint would have been rad. Might give Shaper Apprentice a go. And then come back to earth after the experiment fails heh.

Quote from FANAttIC »

What are the targets for Invasive Surgery?

I'd imagine Scapeshift/Thoughtseize but that seems like a pretty narrow band.

How crucial is Master of the Waves? Is he more of a meta call? There are times I find I sideboard him out completely. Now I just feel like doing -2 Master of the Waves +2 whatever else makes me better able to handle my meta.

Is this crazy or is Master of the Waves crucial?

Since Merfolk runs so many creatures, is their not any interesting equip/enchantments to run?

Equipment is subpar, precisely because we run so many creatures. Our threats are inherently replaceable. If you look at the decks that run equipment or enchantments successfully, it's a handful of threats with a bunch of support spells. In Merfolk, the opposite is true.

@Rasselas: The Master has become a bit more of a metagame call of late, but I generally still recommend 3-4 copies if you're on mono-U Merfolk. I've opted for configurations without it, and they're not quite as strong against the field as the ones with the Master.