Seems their advantage, generally. They're a creature-based combo deck that frequently goes off by turn 3, and we don't pack the type of disruption that impacts them much. The advantage isn't that large though, and we tend to improve relative to them in games 2 and 3, but the advantage is still slightly theirs.
We've long had access to that sort of effect in Triton Shorestalker, and that's never been considered worthy of inclusion. This deck is really good at evading blockers, so the beef is much better.
I noticed that combinations of Kira/kopala are never more than 2. Does anyone run this slot as a 3 of? I’m still new to the deck and am finding my way in my meta, but red/black decks are propular where I play and man is there a lot of post board removal. Pretty happy with my overal results so far though. So many bolts!
Went 0-2 tonight at lgs. Round 1 was mirror match but he got nut draws while i got land screwed. Round 2 was Abzan where game 1 was mana screw and g2, the Grim Flayer got big and i couldnt deal with it because my blockers kept getting removed.
I know its not an in-depth recap but there really was not much to explain. When i last played two weeks ago I got mana flooded in the majority of my games. When i checked my deck there were 20 lands in there. I thought it was too much, considered 18 but decided 19 was a safe bet. I will admit it was probably a mistake to keep a one lander (mutavault) g2 vs merfolk, despite having a vial and a Speaker, as he did the same t1 play but drew into his lands.
When I spoke to the merfolk player afterwards, I asked him about his build and he said he wasnt running the new lord because he always felt 12 was enough. I saw him use Branchwalker and it did a good silvergil impression by picking up a land. He did have Kumena but he was winning anyway so i cant say how good it was.
Even though i wanted to experiment with the numbers of some of the stuff in the deck, i did not have much of an opportunity to do so tonight and im still not sure if it's a good idea going forward. I may reconsider branchwalker at 2 the most.
not in this deck. It is another 2 mana spell, but we have 2524 of this allready. If you want hate, pressure and low mana try relic main. 1 mana is better then 2 for merfolk
That's not necessarily true. Chalice can be played on 0 to counter 0 cost spells like Living End, and Chalice on 1 can all but shut down decks that rely on 1-drops like Infect or Elves or Burn.
The question is how much of the field is like that right now, and is the usual suite of countermagic post-board more than enough?
News flash! Ensnaring Bridge banned, JTMS unbanned in Modern on MTGO! O_O
It's one guy bull*****ting. There hasn't been a mtgo beta active since Monday.
Edit; My bad, I misread. I thought you were saying I was full of it. The original post is in question. I get you. Sorry. I was too excited at the prospect of no more bridge!
News flash! Ensnaring Bridge banned, JTMS unbanned in Modern on MTGO! O_O
It's one guy bull*****ting. There hasn't been a mtgo beta active since Monday.
Will I get in trouble for linking Reddit in here? Check the Modern subreddit. There's a post on it with a screen shot. Granted, it's beta, but if this goes live this could turn Modern on its head.
I saw it. It's a photoshop. There hasn't been a beta for several days.
Consistency versus power? I'm not sure if I'd rather have Push, Path, or Bolt, all things considered. But Push seems really good, if you don't think Dismember is good enough.
I know this reply is a little late jonpaul99, but in general it's probably best to just play what you want to play. There are quite a few merfolk players on this thread with different levels of experience as well as a ton of meta variations based on your specific locale.
It's probably worth mentioning that Nikachu is a very skilled and seasoned pilot of the Merfolk deck. It's possible that he will be successful with certain deck decision that the majority of Merfolk players may struggle with.
If you did end up playing Coco-folk, please report on how it went!
So, BBE is back and could cause a Jund resurgence. I wonder if we'll soon be dusting off our Tidebinder Mages. What do you guys think? Is it too weak considering how rampant bolt, push and brutality are?
Negate may be at a premium now too what with Jace being back. I've not had a tremendous amount of trouble with U control decks though, and I wonder if his presence will change how we handle these matchups.
So, BBE is back and could cause a Jund resurgence. I wonder if we'll soon be dusting off our Tidebinder Mages. What do you guys think? Is it too weak considering how rampant bolt, push and brutality are?
Negate may be at a premium now too what with Jace being back. I've not had a tremendous amount of trouble with U control decks though, and I wonder if his presence will change how we handle these matchups.
Up in the air how the meta will respond... but I lean more towards control actually pushing mid-range out of the format. We will see hyper-aggro lists, combo and JTMS lists.
The question is going to be whether this is good or bad for Fish. More blue in the meta has traditionally been a good thing for us; Islandwalk is still a thing. But with not only but JTMS but Opt also in the format we could be looking at Miracle lists casting instant-speed Terminus and flying over the top. I'm not sure we really want to see an uptick in things like Affinity, B/R Hollow One and other speedy decks, which is probably not a good thing. We may be forced to choose between more removal (Snag etc) to deal with aggro and counters (spell pierce) in main to battle the heavy hitters and that is not a particularly good place for us to be.
I'd actually be happy if Jund took a larger piece of the pie; I think seasoned Fish players actually have a pretty good matchup, although it takes a bit of practice to navigate it properly.
I really don't know hot to feel about the unbannings as merfolk player.
On one side, with JtMS unbanned UW Control list maybe start cutting a few Supreme Verdicts to make room for Jace and the default midrange decks will be Grixis DS/Sultai/Temur, which isn't *that* bad because islandwalk is alway welcomed.
On the other side, it's Jace the Mind Sculptor, card is totally busted.
BBE into K-Command/C-Brutality/LoTV sound bad, maybe we need to sleeve up field of ruin in the maindeck as a 1 or 2 of.
Maybe we will need to return Copter + Kira duo. They are great against both cards, work gloriously together and does the job against Humans (block flyers and Reflector can't tempo us out) and Affinity (block flyers and Etched).
I think JtMS is not over the curve of the format, but he is going to have an impact. And I think the impact of BBE may turn out to be minimal. If JtMS promotes more people playing Blue, that's probably good for us. But not if it also means Affinity.
I feel it's a net positive for now. But if JtMS is off the list, expect SFM and a few other things to follow.
Probably a not ever gonna happen, but if for some reason they unbanned Mental Misstep, i'd be pretty happy with that. But with Jace in the format now, that could be very bad, so extremely Doubtful
i am a little leery now of Miracles being a possible thing in modern, but we will see i guess. turn 3 Bridge, Turn 4 Jace.. does not seem fun
The unbanning of BBE and JtMS are very strong incentives to return to the classic mono-U list; grindy decks are better than ever, and we need to grind in turn. They will drag us into the midgame with their spot removal almost by default, and we need to make sure we're comfortable there. I'm also considering either Kira or Kopala to be very helpful in the coming months. I had fun with my little Tropical experiment, but the winds of change do not favor it.
I had fun with my little Tropical experiment, but the winds of change do not favor it.
That's interesting because -- while Mono-U seems to be better vs. Jund, I would guess the lower to the ground UG deck had a better control (at least non red versions)/JTMS matchup.
MoW seems pretty clunky against Jace.
He doesn't match up terrifically against Jace himself, but he squares up much better against the shell Jace is likely to be in, which I predict will be a Jeskai deck with a plethora of cheap spot removal. Dodging Bolt, Helix, and Electrolyze is big game.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Flooded Strand
1x Polluted Delta
4x Botanical Sanctum
4x Island
2x Cavern of Souls
3x Mutavault
2x Breeding Pool
Creatures: 32
4x Kumena's Speaker
4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
3x Harbinger of the Tides
4x Merfolk Mistbinder
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
3x Merrow Reejerey
2x Watertrap Weaver
4x Aether Vial
Enchantments: 4
4x Spreading Seas
Instants: 1
1x Dismember
2x Echoing Truth
3x Relic of Progenitus
3x Natural State
3x Dispel
4x Negate
1x Ceremonious Rejection
Went 0-2 tonight at lgs. Round 1 was mirror match but he got nut draws while i got land screwed. Round 2 was Abzan where game 1 was mana screw and g2, the Grim Flayer got big and i couldnt deal with it because my blockers kept getting removed.
I know its not an in-depth recap but there really was not much to explain. When i last played two weeks ago I got mana flooded in the majority of my games. When i checked my deck there were 20 lands in there. I thought it was too much, considered 18 but decided 19 was a safe bet. I will admit it was probably a mistake to keep a one lander (mutavault) g2 vs merfolk, despite having a vial and a Speaker, as he did the same t1 play but drew into his lands.
When I spoke to the merfolk player afterwards, I asked him about his build and he said he wasnt running the new lord because he always felt 12 was enough. I saw him use Branchwalker and it did a good silvergil impression by picking up a land. He did have Kumena but he was winning anyway so i cant say how good it was.
Even though i wanted to experiment with the numbers of some of the stuff in the deck, i did not have much of an opportunity to do so tonight and im still not sure if it's a good idea going forward. I may reconsider branchwalker at 2 the most.
That's not necessarily true. Chalice can be played on 0 to counter 0 cost spells like Living End, and Chalice on 1 can all but shut down decks that rely on 1-drops like Infect or Elves or Burn.
The question is how much of the field is like that right now, and is the usual suite of countermagic post-board more than enough?
Standard:
UR Ral Combo
Modern:
U Merfolk
R Goblins
Commander
RB Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
R Feldon of the Third Path
It's one guy bull*****ting. There hasn't been a mtgo beta active since Monday.
Edit; My bad, I misread. I thought you were saying I was full of it. The original post is in question. I get you. Sorry. I was too excited at the prospect of no more bridge!
I saw it. It's a photoshop. There hasn't been a beta for several days.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
It's probably worth mentioning that Nikachu is a very skilled and seasoned pilot of the Merfolk deck. It's possible that he will be successful with certain deck decision that the majority of Merfolk players may struggle with.
If you did end up playing Coco-folk, please report on how it went!
U Merfolk
UBR Delver
Negate may be at a premium now too what with Jace being back. I've not had a tremendous amount of trouble with U control decks though, and I wonder if his presence will change how we handle these matchups.
The question is going to be whether this is good or bad for Fish. More blue in the meta has traditionally been a good thing for us; Islandwalk is still a thing. But with not only but JTMS but Opt also in the format we could be looking at Miracle lists casting instant-speed Terminus and flying over the top. I'm not sure we really want to see an uptick in things like Affinity, B/R Hollow One and other speedy decks, which is probably not a good thing. We may be forced to choose between more removal (Snag etc) to deal with aggro and counters (spell pierce) in main to battle the heavy hitters and that is not a particularly good place for us to be.
I'd actually be happy if Jund took a larger piece of the pie; I think seasoned Fish players actually have a pretty good matchup, although it takes a bit of practice to navigate it properly.
On one side, with JtMS unbanned UW Control list maybe start cutting a few Supreme Verdicts to make room for Jace and the default midrange decks will be Grixis DS/Sultai/Temur, which isn't *that* bad because islandwalk is alway welcomed.
On the other side, it's Jace the Mind Sculptor, card is totally busted.
BBE into K-Command/C-Brutality/LoTV sound bad, maybe we need to sleeve up field of ruin in the maindeck as a 1 or 2 of.
I feel it's a net positive for now. But if JtMS is off the list, expect SFM and a few other things to follow.
It'll be interesting times for the school.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
i am a little leery now of Miracles being a possible thing in modern, but we will see i guess. turn 3 Bridge, Turn 4 Jace.. does not seem fun
GHardened Steel
WUBRG Slivers
U Merfolk
Legacy
G Hardened Steel
GUWB Counter Slivers
UMerfolk
CG Eldrazi
Commander
WUB Sydri, Galvanic Genius
WUBRGSliver Overlord
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
That's interesting because -- while Mono-U seems to be better vs. Jund, I would guess the lower to the ground UG deck had a better control (at least non red versions)/JTMS matchup.
MoW seems pretty clunky against Jace.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers: