Twisted Image is interesting, but I'll still roll with Gut Shot if that is the sorta sb tech I'm looking for. Not really concerned with Kiki Chord. Abzan Company is a much bigger problem IMO and I'd rather be able to hit Viscera Seer along with Bob, Snapcaster and a buncha other targets.
I've tried Ratchet Bomb and it's not terrible, just seems like we have better options. Definite no to EE. Good card, bad fit.
As for Needle vs. counter spells in the R/G Tron matchup... neither? The more I play this matchup the more convinced I am the best strategy is to simply kill them. Fast. IF I am playing Needle then I am naming O-Stone like 99% of the time instead of trying to guess between Karn/Ugin/Ulamog. Again, just trying to kill them fast so protecting our creatures is critical to that strategy. But I've actually been testing out 2x Hurkyls and 3x Steel Sabotage in my SB for a while and so far I like it. Against Tron I bring in the 3x Sabatoge but otherwise stay as threat heavy as I can and prioritize lords over other 2-drops. My results have been a bit mixed, but I still feel like I'm on the right track. Mebbe I'm just crazy. *shrug*
I actually really like the look of this sideboard from a Merfolk deck that recently took down a Modern IQ with 3(!) Fish decks in the Top 8--including an all fish finals. Doesn't seem like it was crafted specifically for such an incestuous metagame. I might try something like this for the Classic this weekend.
FLASH
Target creature gets -x/0, x= cards in your graveyard.
This could be actually played by merfolk. Its Instant speed, can deal with medium big creatures, gives devotion and can be sacced to dromokas command instead of seas.
Not caring about our graveyard is one of the nice things about Merfolk, doubt that card sees any play. If it cantripped then MAYBE
Agreed. Independence from the graveyard is a feature, not a bug, and we should treasure it. In any event, even Scour the Laboratory's best-case scenario isn't something we covet particularly hard, and Spontaneous Mutation feels like kind of a dud in every matchup save Jund and maybe Tron (and they can remove it).
Would a Snapcaster Merfolk truly be an auto-include? We have precious few noncreature spells, and most of them are Vials and Seas. I disagree - not using the graveyard opens up the strongest graveyard hate (which tends to have double-sided effects), which lets us hose many an opponent. There would have to be one heck of an effect available for me to consider mining the graveyard for value (hence why I'm not a fan of cards like Skaab Ruinator).
I think the point is that we would love to use the graveyard as a resource if: (1) it substantially improved on our current game plan and (2) it wouldn't make us significantly vulnerable to graveyard hate. I haven't seen a card yet that satisfies both conditions.
I think the point is that we would love to use the graveyard as a resource if: (1) it substantially improved on our current game plan and (2) it wouldn't make us significantly vulnerable to graveyard hate. I haven't seen a card yet that satisfies both conditions.
That's fair. I can agree with this.
As for the E&T list... it's mostly a matchup I win by out-aggroing them. Prize hands with lots of Lords, side in Dismembers and Pithing Needles to shut down Eldrazi Displacers if you have them (otherwise, consider Dispel to swat away Path to Exile), and just go right at them. Their creatures are smaller than ours.
Phimage - because I was trying to jam as many Lords as possible, as quickly as possible 4 was an auto-include.
Reej - at 3x felt a little wrong, but w/ 2x Kira I didn't want another 3 drop and the Phimage allows for explosive plays.
Tidebinder/Harbinger - my only real source of creature removal with no removal spells in main or SB.
Aquitect's Will - In the absence of Spreading Sea's I still wanted *some* way to enable Islandwalk if necessary, but didn't want to draw multiples.
Unified Will - in such a creature heavy deck seemed like a safe bet over Negate and while I favor Spell Pierce in main I want a hard answer in my SB.
Cage/Relic - Was more concerned with Nahiri/Chord than Goyf/Snapcaster etc. Don't see a ton of GY based decks in my meta.
Recall/SS - I see more R/G Tron and Lantern Control than I do Affinity, so I've been favoring Steel Sabotage recently. Would not do this at a large tourney.
Westvale Abbey - a 34 creature deck seems as good a time as any to give it a whirl lol. Dropped a Mutavault in order to keep my blue sources high and I'm essentially replacing 1 threat with another.
Cavern - With very few non-creature spells running 3 seems reasonable.
The matches...
Round 1 vs. Mardu Nahiri (1-2)
Game 1: On the draw, but have Vial in hand w/ Cursecatcher, Silvergil, Lord, Phimage and 2 lands. He keeps picking off creatures w/ spot removal, but I keep playing more threats and eventually overrun him.
Game 2: +2 Unified Will, +2 Cage, -2 Harbinger, -2 Tidebinder
He boards in 2 additional Anger's (4 total) and an extra Damnation. He draws into 3x Anger's early and I don't have an answer.
Game 3: I kept a hand with Island/Muta and Cursecatacher, Silvergil, Silvergil, Lord, Lord but get can't find that 2nd blue source for a while and the game goes longer than I want. He cast's anger the turn before I would have been able to jam my 3rd Lord.
Notes: Anger absolutely wrecked me. Never found either of my counters or Cage. Spell Pierce would have been useful. Also never saw either Aquitect's Will and definitely missed Spreading Sea's here. Not only where Lingering Soul tokens particuarly pesky in keeping me from pushing through lethal or killing Nahiri, but not being able to keep him off double red for Anger was a major problem in games 2&3 after he boarded.
Round 2 vs. USA control (2-0)
Game 1: I play lords. I swing.
Game 2: Pretty much the same.
Notes: Not much to say; my friend was playing kind of a weird Nahiri control homebrew and it just didn't do much of anything. He was clearly frustrated with some of his draws and appeared to get flooded both games. I went Silvergil, Silvergil, Silvergil, Will hitting all my cantrips for card advantage while he was drawing lands.
Round 3 vs. Kiki-Chord (1-2)
Game 1: I get off to a good start with Vial, Cursecatcher, Lord, Phimage, Reej & MoW. I'm able to slam down MoW and flash in Phimage. The following turn I drop another MoW giving me 24x 4/3 tokens and an army of fish.
Game 2: I have 2x Island with Cursecatcher, Harbinger, Kira, Reej, MoW. Draw another Harbinger & Reej. I bounce his birds a few times with Harbingers but can't find that 3rd land I need. I try to clone his Birds, but he kills it. Several more turns pass, I finally get the land I need but get killed by the combo.
Game 3: I find every creature that is not a lord. Have an army of fish that can't swing through 0/4 and 0/5 walls. No combo this time, but I have no answer for Revilark & Resto Angel punching me in the balls for 7 dmg every turn.
Notes: This guy frequently wins at our local shop, but I've traditionally done very well against his deck by simply killing him quickly. A little bit of variance here getting stuck on lands and then no lords, but as far as deck tech goes I again missed the reliable island walk. With no Snag/Dismember (or even Reej triggers) I was a bit stuck and had no answers for flyers.
Round 4 vs. Fish (2-0)
I actually kinda felt bad for the guy. No wasted slots on Spreading Sea's. Able to Phimage his lords as well as my own. In the aggro race I had the clear advantage.
Overall it was a pretty big fail. The lack of Island walk wasn't a problem until I ran into a wall (literally). The lack of kill spells were fine until I got killed by flyers. The lack of counters were OK except when I needed them against sweepers & combo. So uhh.. basically as long as my opponent didn't do anything at all and left me alone to build my army I was just fine. The rest of the time... not so much. *shrug*
For the second week in a row I got wrecked by Soul Sisters!!! Can anyone help me on this matchup? I feel like the only thing that helps after sideboard is a Chalice. Any advice?! =/
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Decks Modern UGWRB Humans G Mono-Green Tron UWBR Ad Nauseam
What's the best sideboard for a blind meta? Main board, I have the standard core, 2 Tidebinders, 3 Reegerey, 2 Vapor Snag, 2 Dismember, and 1 Image since it probably matters. My LGS has a bit of everything.
For the second week in a row I got wrecked by Soul Sisters!!! Can anyone help me on this matchup? I feel like the only thing that helps after sideboard is a Chalice. Any advice?! =/
As CoBTyrannon noted, this is a race - prize hands with lots of Lords and Spreading Seas. Harbinger of the Tides and Vapor Snag on an Ajani's Pridemate or an Archangel of Thune is a tempo blowout, so you should save it for that. Dismembers should hit the Sisters. Postboard, Chalice of the Void is amazing if you have it. Otherwise, Dispels to hit their Path to Exiles and Negates for Spectral Procession feel nice. Master of Waves is hit-or-miss here - it can be good to conjure up a bunch of blockers when all you're trying to do is sneak damage past their ground game and hold off a Pridemate, but it's useless against fliers, and generally gives them a pile of life. I sometimes side them out.
What's the best sideboard for a blind meta? Main board, I have the standard core, 2 Tidebinders, 3 Reegerey, 2 Vapor Snag, 2 Dismember, and 1 Image since it probably matters. My LGS has a bit of everything.
Do you have any Harbinger of the Tides in the main? If you do, you're probably looking at something like this:
TecEdge shores you up against Jeskai/Jund/Scapeshift/Tron, Dispel and Skite come in against Burn and Infect, Relic helps against Jund and Snapcaster decks, Negate shores up combo/control, and of course the Recall is your fighting chance against Affinity. If you don't have Harbingers, I'd try something like this instead:
The matchups that suffer the most from having no Harbingers are Burn, Infect, and Zoo (with Death & Taxes being affected to some extent), so we're going to double down on shoring those up in this sideboard, at the expense of some TecEdges, which usually come in for matchups where we're already favored.
I'd also like to take a moment to heartily recommend a 4th Merrow Reejerey. G1 is where Merfolk tries to goldfish the aggro kill, so you need max Lords for max consistency.
I was looking at the latest decks, and Harbinger was decidedly absent, but I do have a set. The Reegerey was cut for an Image, which I think is more versatile than a 4th 3 drop, and if that one Reegerey is my only lord, than I was probably losing anyway at that point.
I have to ask, why Tech Edge instead of Ghost Quarter? GQ seems far more versitile and easier to use. Sure, they get a basic out of it, but if you're killing a man/shockland, its well worth it. This is especially true against Affinity, who rarely hits 4 lands anyway.
The SB I threw together was:
Cage
Kira #3
Tide binder #3
Spellskite x2
Relic x2
Gutshot x2
Ghost Quarter x2
Recall x4
Round 1 vs. Death Cloud
Game 1
I really had no idea what I was up against so I played pretty conservatively and beat down with a Cursecatcher and Silvergil Adept. I was a little tight on land when I needed to drop more threats since I didn't see a Vial in the opener. Situations like this, when your resources are tight, favor the argument to run 20 lands over 19 and Spell Pierce main over Remand. Eventually I'm able to get there with more threats than he has answers to. I also got to Vapor Snag a Treetop Village after he made his land drop which felt great.
Sideboard
I didn't see many creatures. Threats were Treetop Village and Planeswalkers.
Out: 3 Harbinger of the Tides
In: 2 Kira 1 Remand
Game 2
I mulligan to 5 after back to back no landers. I deploy a couple threats, but Death Cloud, Small Pox, Liliana and Garruk are too much for me to handle after starting off down a couple cards.
Game 3
I keep a strong opener and am able to use Spreading Seas to keep him off black land for long enough to gain a tempo advantage with my Aether Vial. He had a Maelstrom Pulse in hand, but didn't see another swamp to cast it until the damage had been done. I over run him with island walkers a few turns later.
Round 2 vs. Jeskai Nahiri
Game 1
I lead off with a vial and am able to deploy more threats than he has removal for. I forced him in to situations where he had to down tick Nahiri and block with a Colonnade to stay alive. Also, sandbagging spreading seas to attack colors he was weak on felt strong.
Pretty much a repeat of game 1. I was able to remand a serum visions cast off a snapcaster which felt awesome. I played around anger of the gods until I had a critical mass of lords in my hand and two mutavaults on the board to present lethal regardless of a sweeper. The turn before the final turn of the game I was able to flood the board with lords and MoW, thanks to a vial and Reejerey triggers, and I attack for 10 damage between 1 Merrow Reejerey and 1 Mutavault putting him to 1.
Round 3 vs. Death's Shadow
Game 1
This match up is a little scary since they can be so explosive. Luckily they hurt them selves so much that if you can hold off the initial onslaught you don't have to do much work. I am able to sacrifice a few blockers and force him to burn pump spells to keep his threats alive. I slowly clog up the ground keeping vial on two with two Harbinger in hand and it is enough to get there with only one or two attacks.
I left one remand in for Become Immense and even though Master of Waves is slow, I don't want to spend two mana on a card that doesn't provide me a blocker or interact with his creatures in this match up so I cut the Spreading Seas instead.
Game 2
I aggressively mulligan a great hand if I didn't know what I was up against. It had 2 land and a bunch of threats, but I had no interaction. My 6 drew me in to a few threats, a couple land and a dispel. The mulligan paid off as I had enough threats to clog up the ground and a dispel to take care of any finisher. Reejerey was great this game allowing me to cast threats while leaving one mana open for the dispel.
Overall I really like the build. I'm very interested in continuing to test Remand, but I can see issues with it. Two mana can be pretty expensive at times, but when Remand is good it feels great. Always having a grip full of cards made it feel like I couldn't lose. If Remand starts to become a liability though, it's easily replaced by going back to Spell Pierces main and negate in the board. 19 land seemed ok. There were times when it was tight, but everything worked out for me this time. I'm not sure what I would cut to fit a 20th land back in though, possibly the Phantasmal Image. It's a tough call though because when Image was copying Reejerey it was amazing.
I hope this insight helps anyone who is curious out.
This makes it almost certain you have W by turn 2 and UU pretty quick as well. You lose the Caverns, but I think that's the cost of wanting to play white spells.
I also consider Suppression Field to be one of the most undervalued SB cards in the format. It's good for 80% of the things that Stony Silence hits, and also hits a bunch of things that Stony Silence won't.
It seems terrible and might lose you a lot of games Just two wanderwines but 4 seachromes as well as no way of fetching an untapped Plains for a rescue path are big weaknesses here. With 5 fetchies the amount of fetchable lands is 2 Islands!!!! -.-
With no intention of having a fetchable white source, we don't need fetches at all. All of them could just be an island and save you life in the process.
4 Paths main are probably too much. I would try 2 Paths, one Dismember main.
I was looking at the latest decks, and Harbinger was decidedly absent, but I do have a set. The Reegerey was cut for an Image, which I think is more versatile than a 4th 3 drop, and if that one Reegerey is my only lord, than I was probably losing anyway at that point.
I have to ask, why Tech Edge instead of Ghost Quarter? GQ seems far more versitile and easier to use. Sure, they get a basic out of it, but if you're killing a man/shockland, its well worth it. This is especially true against Affinity, who rarely hits 4 lands anyway.
The SB I threw together was:
Cage
Kira #3
Tide binder #3
Spellskite x2
Relic x2
Gutshot x2
Ghost Quarter x2
Recall x4
Most people prefer TecEdge over GQ, because they reduce the landcount.
There are a lot of matchups in which it matters if they have less lands than before.
Scapeshift with 7 or 8. Control with 6 (Snapcaster Verdict) and Tron, Hardcast biggies.
LOL this is why I need to double check lists <.>. I forgot the hallowed fountains. I don't like the basic plains. (I dont have mountains in jund so I know what the "risks" are). This mana base leaves me with 5 ways to get the one plains I need without losing life. the paths help most of the time. I really like removal and having the dismembers in the side help if I want to change up the removal and play the land destruction game or it gives the option for 6-7 removal cards which is nice to have.
I've tried Ratchet Bomb and it's not terrible, just seems like we have better options. Definite no to EE. Good card, bad fit.
As for Needle vs. counter spells in the R/G Tron matchup... neither? The more I play this matchup the more convinced I am the best strategy is to simply kill them. Fast. IF I am playing Needle then I am naming O-Stone like 99% of the time instead of trying to guess between Karn/Ugin/Ulamog. Again, just trying to kill them fast so protecting our creatures is critical to that strategy. But I've actually been testing out 2x Hurkyls and 3x Steel Sabotage in my SB for a while and so far I like it. Against Tron I bring in the 3x Sabatoge but otherwise stay as threat heavy as I can and prioritize lords over other 2-drops. My results have been a bit mixed, but I still feel like I'm on the right track. Mebbe I'm just crazy. *shrug*
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Dispel
3 Gut Shot
2 Negate
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Tidebinder Mage
Not caring about our graveyard is one of the nice things about Merfolk, doubt that card sees any play. If it cantripped then MAYBE
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:
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
That's fair. I can agree with this.
As for the E&T list... it's mostly a matchup I win by out-aggroing them. Prize hands with lots of Lords, side in Dismembers and Pithing Needles to shut down Eldrazi Displacers if you have them (otherwise, consider Dispel to swat away Path to Exile), and just go right at them. Their creatures are smaller than ours.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
3x Harbinger of the Tides
2x Tidebinder Mage
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
4x Phantasmal Image
2x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
3x Meerow Reejery
4x Master of Waves
4x Aether Vial
2x Aquitect's Will
Lands (20)
3x Mutavault
1x Westvale Abbey
3x Cavern of Souls
1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
2x Wanderwine Hub
9x Island
2x Hurkyl's Recall
3x Steel Sabotage
3x Tectonic Edge
2x Unified Will
2x Dispel
2x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Relic of Progenitus
A few notes about card choices...
Phimage - because I was trying to jam as many Lords as possible, as quickly as possible 4 was an auto-include.
Reej - at 3x felt a little wrong, but w/ 2x Kira I didn't want another 3 drop and the Phimage allows for explosive plays.
Tidebinder/Harbinger - my only real source of creature removal with no removal spells in main or SB.
Aquitect's Will - In the absence of Spreading Sea's I still wanted *some* way to enable Islandwalk if necessary, but didn't want to draw multiples.
Unified Will - in such a creature heavy deck seemed like a safe bet over Negate and while I favor Spell Pierce in main I want a hard answer in my SB.
Cage/Relic - Was more concerned with Nahiri/Chord than Goyf/Snapcaster etc. Don't see a ton of GY based decks in my meta.
Recall/SS - I see more R/G Tron and Lantern Control than I do Affinity, so I've been favoring Steel Sabotage recently. Would not do this at a large tourney.
Westvale Abbey - a 34 creature deck seems as good a time as any to give it a whirl lol. Dropped a Mutavault in order to keep my blue sources high and I'm essentially replacing 1 threat with another.
Cavern - With very few non-creature spells running 3 seems reasonable.
The matches...
Round 1 vs. Mardu Nahiri (1-2)
Game 1: On the draw, but have Vial in hand w/ Cursecatcher, Silvergil, Lord, Phimage and 2 lands. He keeps picking off creatures w/ spot removal, but I keep playing more threats and eventually overrun him.
Game 2: +2 Unified Will, +2 Cage, -2 Harbinger, -2 Tidebinder
He boards in 2 additional Anger's (4 total) and an extra Damnation. He draws into 3x Anger's early and I don't have an answer.
Game 3: I kept a hand with Island/Muta and Cursecatacher, Silvergil, Silvergil, Lord, Lord but get can't find that 2nd blue source for a while and the game goes longer than I want. He cast's anger the turn before I would have been able to jam my 3rd Lord.
Notes: Anger absolutely wrecked me. Never found either of my counters or Cage. Spell Pierce would have been useful. Also never saw either Aquitect's Will and definitely missed Spreading Sea's here. Not only where Lingering Soul tokens particuarly pesky in keeping me from pushing through lethal or killing Nahiri, but not being able to keep him off double red for Anger was a major problem in games 2&3 after he boarded.
Round 2 vs. USA control (2-0)
Game 1: I play lords. I swing.
Game 2: Pretty much the same.
Notes: Not much to say; my friend was playing kind of a weird Nahiri control homebrew and it just didn't do much of anything. He was clearly frustrated with some of his draws and appeared to get flooded both games. I went Silvergil, Silvergil, Silvergil, Will hitting all my cantrips for card advantage while he was drawing lands.
Round 3 vs. Kiki-Chord (1-2)
Game 1: I get off to a good start with Vial, Cursecatcher, Lord, Phimage, Reej & MoW. I'm able to slam down MoW and flash in Phimage. The following turn I drop another MoW giving me 24x 4/3 tokens and an army of fish.
Game 2: I have 2x Island with Cursecatcher, Harbinger, Kira, Reej, MoW. Draw another Harbinger & Reej. I bounce his birds a few times with Harbingers but can't find that 3rd land I need. I try to clone his Birds, but he kills it. Several more turns pass, I finally get the land I need but get killed by the combo.
Game 3: I find every creature that is not a lord. Have an army of fish that can't swing through 0/4 and 0/5 walls. No combo this time, but I have no answer for Revilark & Resto Angel punching me in the balls for 7 dmg every turn.
Notes: This guy frequently wins at our local shop, but I've traditionally done very well against his deck by simply killing him quickly. A little bit of variance here getting stuck on lands and then no lords, but as far as deck tech goes I again missed the reliable island walk. With no Snag/Dismember (or even Reej triggers) I was a bit stuck and had no answers for flyers.
Round 4 vs. Fish (2-0)
I actually kinda felt bad for the guy. No wasted slots on Spreading Sea's. Able to Phimage his lords as well as my own. In the aggro race I had the clear advantage.
Overall it was a pretty big fail. The lack of Island walk wasn't a problem until I ran into a wall (literally). The lack of kill spells were fine until I got killed by flyers. The lack of counters were OK except when I needed them against sweepers & combo. So uhh.. basically as long as my opponent didn't do anything at all and left me alone to build my army I was just fine. The rest of the time... not so much. *shrug*
Deck: Untitled Deck
//Main
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
3 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Master of Waves
4 Path to Exile
4 Spreading Seas
4 Æther Vial
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Wanderwine Hub
4 Mutavault
4 Seachrome Coast
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Dismember
2 Tidebinder Mage
//Sideboard
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Spell Pierce
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Dismember
Display deck statistics
Modern
UGWRB Humans
G Mono-Green Tron
UWBR Ad Nauseam
RRRAshling, the PilgrimRRR
UUUThadda Adel, AcquisitorUUU
As CoBTyrannon noted, this is a race - prize hands with lots of Lords and Spreading Seas. Harbinger of the Tides and Vapor Snag on an Ajani's Pridemate or an Archangel of Thune is a tempo blowout, so you should save it for that. Dismembers should hit the Sisters. Postboard, Chalice of the Void is amazing if you have it. Otherwise, Dispels to hit their Path to Exiles and Negates for Spectral Procession feel nice. Master of Waves is hit-or-miss here - it can be good to conjure up a bunch of blockers when all you're trying to do is sneak damage past their ground game and hold off a Pridemate, but it's useless against fliers, and generally gives them a pile of life. I sometimes side them out.
Do you have any Harbinger of the Tides in the main? If you do, you're probably looking at something like this:
4 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Negate
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
4 Tectonic Edge
TecEdge shores you up against Jeskai/Jund/Scapeshift/Tron, Dispel and Skite come in against Burn and Infect, Relic helps against Jund and Snapcaster decks, Negate shores up combo/control, and of course the Recall is your fighting chance against Affinity. If you don't have Harbingers, I'd try something like this instead:
2 Echoing Truth
4 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Negate
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
2 Tidebinder Mage
The matchups that suffer the most from having no Harbingers are Burn, Infect, and Zoo (with Death & Taxes being affected to some extent), so we're going to double down on shoring those up in this sideboard, at the expense of some TecEdges, which usually come in for matchups where we're already favored.
I'd also like to take a moment to heartily recommend a 4th Merrow Reejerey. G1 is where Merfolk tries to goldfish the aggro kill, so you need max Lords for max consistency.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
I have to ask, why Tech Edge instead of Ghost Quarter? GQ seems far more versitile and easier to use. Sure, they get a basic out of it, but if you're killing a man/shockland, its well worth it. This is especially true against Affinity, who rarely hits 4 lands anyway.
The SB I threw together was:
Cage
Kira #3
Tide binder #3
Spellskite x2
Relic x2
Gutshot x2
Ghost Quarter x2
Recall x4
Might as well post the list.
4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of Waves
3x Merrow Reegerey
3x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2x Tidebinder Mage
1x Phantasmal Image
4x Spreading Seas
2x Dismember
2x Vapor Snag
9x Island
4x Mutavault
2x Cavern of Souls
2x Darkslick Shores
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1x Wanderwine Hub
RRRAshling, the PilgrimRRR
UUUThadda Adel, AcquisitorUUU
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Cursecatcher
4 Master of Waves
3 Harbinger of the Tides
1 Phantasmal Image
Spells
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
2 Vapor Snag
2 Remand
1 Dismember
10 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Wanderwine Hub
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Dispel
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Dismember
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2 Remand
Round 1 vs. Death Cloud
Game 1
I really had no idea what I was up against so I played pretty conservatively and beat down with a Cursecatcher and Silvergil Adept. I was a little tight on land when I needed to drop more threats since I didn't see a Vial in the opener. Situations like this, when your resources are tight, favor the argument to run 20 lands over 19 and Spell Pierce main over Remand. Eventually I'm able to get there with more threats than he has answers to. I also got to Vapor Snag a Treetop Village after he made his land drop which felt great.
Sideboard
I didn't see many creatures. Threats were Treetop Village and Planeswalkers.
Out: 3 Harbinger of the Tides
In: 2 Kira 1 Remand
Game 2
I mulligan to 5 after back to back no landers. I deploy a couple threats, but Death Cloud, Small Pox, Liliana and Garruk are too much for me to handle after starting off down a couple cards.
Game 3
I keep a strong opener and am able to use Spreading Seas to keep him off black land for long enough to gain a tempo advantage with my Aether Vial. He had a Maelstrom Pulse in hand, but didn't see another swamp to cast it until the damage had been done. I over run him with island walkers a few turns later.
Round 2 vs. Jeskai Nahiri
Game 1
I lead off with a vial and am able to deploy more threats than he has removal for. I forced him in to situations where he had to down tick Nahiri and block with a Colonnade to stay alive. Also, sandbagging spreading seas to attack colors he was weak on felt strong.
Sideboard:
Out: 3 Harbinger of the Tides, 1 Phantasmal Image, 2 Vapor Snag, 1 Dismember
In: 3 Dispel, 2 Kira, 2 Remand
Game 2
Pretty much a repeat of game 1. I was able to remand a serum visions cast off a snapcaster which felt awesome. I played around anger of the gods until I had a critical mass of lords in my hand and two mutavaults on the board to present lethal regardless of a sweeper. The turn before the final turn of the game I was able to flood the board with lords and MoW, thanks to a vial and Reejerey triggers, and I attack for 10 damage between 1 Merrow Reejerey and 1 Mutavault putting him to 1.
Round 3 vs. Death's Shadow
Game 1
This match up is a little scary since they can be so explosive. Luckily they hurt them selves so much that if you can hold off the initial onslaught you don't have to do much work. I am able to sacrifice a few blockers and force him to burn pump spells to keep his threats alive. I slowly clog up the ground keeping vial on two with two Harbinger in hand and it is enough to get there with only one or two attacks.
Sideboard:
In: 3 Dispel, 2 Dismember
Out: 1 Remand, 4 Spreading Seas
I left one remand in for Become Immense and even though Master of Waves is slow, I don't want to spend two mana on a card that doesn't provide me a blocker or interact with his creatures in this match up so I cut the Spreading Seas instead.
Game 2
I aggressively mulligan a great hand if I didn't know what I was up against. It had 2 land and a bunch of threats, but I had no interaction. My 6 drew me in to a few threats, a couple land and a dispel. The mulligan paid off as I had enough threats to clog up the ground and a dispel to take care of any finisher. Reejerey was great this game allowing me to cast threats while leaving one mana open for the dispel.
Overall I really like the build. I'm very interested in continuing to test Remand, but I can see issues with it. Two mana can be pretty expensive at times, but when Remand is good it feels great. Always having a grip full of cards made it feel like I couldn't lose. If Remand starts to become a liability though, it's easily replaced by going back to Spell Pierces main and negate in the board. 19 land seemed ok. There were times when it was tight, but everything worked out for me this time. I'm not sure what I would cut to fit a 20th land back in though, possibly the Phantasmal Image. It's a tough call though because when Image was copying Reejerey it was amazing.
I hope this insight helps anyone who is curious out.
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
2 Seachrome Coast
4 Flooded Strand
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Wanderwine Hub
4 Mutavault
This makes it almost certain you have W by turn 2 and UU pretty quick as well. You lose the Caverns, but I think that's the cost of wanting to play white spells.
I also consider Suppression Field to be one of the most undervalued SB cards in the format. It's good for 80% of the things that Stony Silence hits, and also hits a bunch of things that Stony Silence won't.
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
LOL this is why I need to double check lists <.>. I forgot the hallowed fountains. I don't like the basic plains. (I dont have mountains in jund so I know what the "risks" are). This mana base leaves me with 5 ways to get the one plains I need without losing life. the paths help most of the time. I really like removal and having the dismembers in the side help if I want to change up the removal and play the land destruction game or it gives the option for 6-7 removal cards which is nice to have.
So below is the list corrected:
Deck: Untitled Deck
//Main
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
3 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Master of Waves
4 Path to Exile
4 Spreading Seas
4 Æther Vial
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Harbinger of the Tides
1 Wanderwine Hub
4 Mutavault
4 Seachrome Coast
2 Island
3 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Dismember
2 Tidebinder Mage
2 Hallowed Fountain
//Sideboard
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Spell Pierce
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Dismember
Display deck statistics
Enjoy
Stop Worrying About Blood Moon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uxl7bRvnnk
8 Rack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHnCJxM2aQ4
Grixis Delver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doT0u_JM8O8
Grixis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTE60T-KEBo
Esper Control
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEmqdOCJw5g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip-KIHqbgPA
Esper Thopter Foundry Combo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZgh9W96pt0
Jund
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX5OgRYClWw
Abzan Company
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQa5mlAY61Q
Naya Company w/ Nahiri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW830HC2Y5I
Scapeshift (Bring to Light)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6FZK30EKZU
Grishoalbrand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObCobVFXCvc
Mono Green Devotion (NykWave)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOihpwi2uJw
Mono Black Devotion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLEpDLU_2Hc
A fun match against UW Hexproof
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX6ivUmO-gg
Goblins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-qxtxTakZA
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers: