Tbh i like the 2 jace and 2 dtt better. When I have 2 jaces in my hand i go meh. Sure it is a backup if it gets countered but I'd rather have a Dtt for the dig effect. Also jace can't find you top and cb whereas Dtt can find you all 3. Generally I also resolve top and cb first which dtt helps with. Resolving jace with top+cb put is much easier. Also jace doesn't do much by itself. But hey I only just started playing miracles. Love theory crafting tho.
Well I did some play testing this week with the baleful strix and snapcaster. Findings for strix/black:
1) At first people think I'm playing a wierd variant of sharless BUG which gives me an "conditional advantage"
2) Destroys reanimator and to a degree show and tell. (Btw I didn't have FOW when playing vs reanimator lol)
3) Strong verse midrange/aggro decks. Specially with misdirection. Bait the decays.
4) win rate vs elves/storm type combo decks are the same as snapcaster variants.
Howeve
1) dies to multiple blast effects (painter combo) becuase no red splash
2) mirror match up is weaker.
Notes
1) haven't tested vs dnt, merfolk, sharless BUG and other decks
2) running pretty much the same list as Philip with black instead/strix for snaps. Duress in sideboard.
Overall I think black splash helps with certain matchups but not so good with others. Give and take.
For the decks that run snapcaster mage, can you run baleful strix instead? The reason being snapcaster is usually used for ponder, brainstorm, swords to plowshares. Strix essentially does two things for us, destroy a creature AND dig one card deeper. Where as snapcaster does one OR the other, dig deeper than strix (by two cards but with a sensei's divining top out snaping into ponder is same as one draw) or exile a creature. Having strix on the field discourages attacks so gives us valuable time and a terminus would allow us to reuse strix's card draw ability later on while people will just attack through a snapcaster. Also strix does not have flash and assuming black splash is easy.
Does this reasoning to have strix over snapcaster have a point?
Hmm I get what you are trying to say. Play tested and seems like the more earlier you use foil the more tempo loss because you can't hit a land every turn for the first three turns (I only need 3-4 lands). Also as you said its 3 cards for one but if we run standstill it shouldn't be that bad because we can play it the next turn since we will be ahead in board position.
HOWEVER It is great for late game, which we can now get to due to TNN chump blocking, where we don't need half the cards we draw. I makes our Vial draws not that bad if we are holding a foil. Honestly I haven't tried this enough with combo archetypes that pack disruption but against BUG, RUG delver type decks which plays a low count of creatures, it works wonders when we counter their tarmogoyf (turn 3 if they play around your daze) which by now we have enough threats on the battlefield and in our hand since we have the option to throw away NON blue cards (22 cards! and most of these will be dead cards if a Vial is out or a dead cards later on).
I don't play cavern of souls. Is there a big difference? I thought the whole point of merfolk was to play basic lands so we are not as weak to wastes. I play 14 Island and 4 mutavaults so never really had a problem getting my blues. In fact I often over flood with 2-3 extra Island.
I have thought about 3 chalice as a sideboard option along with 3 back to basic. Pretty much chalice shuts/slows down brainstorm + fetch shuffle and elves.
Have you play tested this out or can you test this out? I didn't think it was that effective at first either... Untill I got foils and stopped procxeying FOW
I run the main creature core. 14 Island, 4 Mutavaults, 3 Standstill, 4 Daze, 4 Foil.
I'm running standstill, foil, mutavault. Now what are your thoughts on foil? I know that other fair decks like delver will need FOW but for merfolk I would rather discard an Island (since we become mana flooded quite quickly.. need only 3 lands), a useless daze or a Aether vial later on in the game. Also it can be hard casted later. If we are using FOW the bad cards to discard would be cursecatcher or daze. Against combo I FOW will be better since we wont need as much threats but foil shouldn't set us back to much. Whereas against aggro decks we really need to keep up the threat density so wouldn't foil be preferred?
What do you mean by extra turn? I never had any experience with Fow and the like but wouldn't foil be better because you can counter opposing Fow and discard your extra island and Aether vial and daze? (All dead cards later on). Against combo it will probably set back but once you can get a land down you can continue to counter with swan song. Now Shoal seems unstable becuase the only one drop blue we are running is curse catcher or preordain. It's can counter cmc 2 easily but not abrupt decay. Misdirection is very good but for some matchups (abrupt decay and hymn to tourach).
Any idea what the single Fow is for or just budget and cannot afford more? What do you think about using foil, disrupting shoal andmisdirection? How important is Fow in merfolk?
From playing Merfolk standstill seems like a win more card and is only good if you are running mutavault or can pump creatures faster or an active vial. Side board is pretty basic. Graveyard hate for dredge and submerge and jitteswan songfor combo elves and combo decks such as TES and show and tell. Another weak match up is death and taxes but if you have true-name nemesis it should be your win. Running diverts or misdirection should be high win rate against delver. Against counterbalance you should not even have to worry. Pretty much death and taxes and elves are your worst match up. Death and taxes don't let him get his jitte running (u can stop him with true name unless he brings out a flyer like serra angel.) Battle skull, just vapor snag. You are the aggro where they are the control here. Phantasmal Image can bring out your own jitte to counter theirs. Against elves you want to get an jitte out. You lose when he combos of so make sure you counter his glimpse of nature, destroy his sentinel nettle, womboite symboite (I spelt it wrong, just google check). Submerge works apparently but i never used it so i don't know what to target on.
Like I said this deck is r/w and If you add in steamvents and island instead of plains and forget the white cards, it is possible to become an izzit control deck POST sideboard so that's where the chimera comes in. This is good a against it's bad matchup such as wrath effects.
This deck already produce more tokens then white can early to mid game as well with haste. Only 14 cards don't contribute to building tokens. 8 of these 12 cards allows us another way to win via counters the other 6 is great for removal to mass removal, the scry is the key to not get mana flooded. I do agree with you that black destroy (not sacrifice) or flames of firebrand is very good against this deck although I haven't tested yet. Maybe not so because we are trading 1 mana drops for a 2 mana/3 mana destroy and maybe can overwhelm faster. I have thought about boros charm and warleader helix although that's a different strategy with guttersnipe ultising a burn deck. Launch is rather an enabler for an overloaded dynacharge. I think spear is too slow, I'd rather put down a guttersnipe and I'm not doing that already. Purpose seems like a legit choice but not sure what to cut then.
Actually on second thought boros charm is very good and have just included in the main board.
This deck is ridiculously fast and can deal 20+ damage around turn 3-4 assuming no blockers although blockers do not pose much of a threat either. Correct me if I'm wrong but it is probably one of the fastest and consistent aggro in standard right now. However it's weak to cards like bile blight and token removers. It is not as weak to single destroy (eg doom blade as one might think). Low curve with the max cmc at 3. Half the deck is one drops and some removal but most of all it is very efficient (I'll explain this later).
Idea is to swarm with tokens (token mode) and Dynacharge everything. If that's not possible the deck can switch tactic and make creatures with +1/+1 counters using Nivmagus Elemental and Satyr Hoplite (counter mode) which can also grow very fast, possibly a 9/10 and 5/5 attacking on turn 3. Since this deck builds so fast, the opponent won't even dare to attack you unless he has vigilance.
The deck can always get in Titan's strength and the like since there are so many tokens to chose from during combat phase. You can exile your own spells for Nivmagus Elemental counters while at the same time getting heroic from Akroan Crusader and Satyr Hoplite. Imagine casting one Coordinated Assault with those creatures in play. That would mean 2 token/+1 counter and 2 +1/+1 counter, all for just one mana... And Young Pyromancer is not considered yet! With Launch the Fleet the deck is able to produce 10+ token by turn 4! 1st turn Akroan Crusader, 2 turn Akroan Crusader and Coordinated Assault, 3 turn Launch the Fleet producing 7 tokens in total and the two heroics, 4 turn Dynacharge and attack with 27 damage in one turn. Most deck can only produce maybe 4 creatures by this turn 4? So good luck blocking...
Like all decks this deck has its weakness which include -1/-1 board clear (eg bile blight). However if this is the case then one can switch to +1 counter mode. It is also weak to life link and vigilance (not so much)in token mode. Since life link slows the deck down (tokens can't kill the life linkers) and allows the opponent to build up mana which is more fatal for us compared to other decks.
However above all, the coolest thing one can do is post sideboard. Now I haven't totally figured this out yet but it seems possible to change to Izzet (anax and cymede isn't as good and may not be included) bring in counter spells, bounce, burn, guttersnipe which can be game breaking messing up the opponent's side boarding due to very different tempo and indirect or evasion damage. So you could play as an aggro and switch into Izzet control with burn, counter, token chump block until spellheart chimera is played and pose a 3 turn clock.
So now please share your insight and how to make this deck better everyone
Sorry, new to the forums.I tried going all in for heroic but then that means I wont get any value from my lightening STRIKE (thanks). Red usually losses if 1) No evasion 2)Well it of cards. If i plane to use bestow on red, green for example can get larger creatures and stomp me. That's why i'm not keen to run bestow on red. Although satyr hoplite seems like a good card to make a better deck. Guttersnipe doesn't work as well due to the high mana cost/only one devotion. However it allows me to deal indirect dama to go for the winatures can be blocked to go for the win. For example 1 guttersnipe + 1 magma jet + 1 and lightning strike = 9 damage at turn 3 and 4.
The idea of this deck came from a draft game. How well do you think this deck will do in competitions and FNM. Any suggestions as to make the deck better will be welcomed however I would like to keep it mono red and not use overly expensive cards (aka boros-reckoner). Feel free to change what the deck does (eg invest more in devotion).
At the moment it seems like i am able to create tokens fast due to Akroan and Young's and the many 1 drop instants i have. GUttersnipe helps with burn as well and the magma jet allow me to scry for Dynacharge (+token = gg).
I feel iffy about Ash zealot (although its a strong 2-drop) and fanatic of Mogis and therefore thunderous might because i don't have good devotion 3 drop.
Thanks guys! I'm new to the forum so I'm pretty impressed by the community already. I see now that standstill is used for mutavault which provide mana early on and prevents mana flooding later. That causes preordian to be less useful and by removing it the whole deck more efficient. I have another question which is I have heard that standstill vs brainstorm merfolk are totally different. Why?
This a legacy deck built on a budget. Meaning i have not access to FOW, TNN or Mutavault. The deck list allows for pretty decent aggro and a little control and swarm with 10+ creatures around turn 4-6.
The deck:
Artifacts
4 Aether Vials
Creature
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Wistful Silkie
2 Phantasmal Image
Spells
4 Daze
4 Preordain
4 Standstill
2 Acquitect's will
Land
17 Island
Silvergill and Merrow Reejerey allows the deck to combo out a lot of merfolks. Preordain stops land flooding. Standstill for even more card draw.
What I want to know is if there is a need to have both Preordain and standstill together? Are there better options to increase kill speed? Any suggestion is welcome. Thanks.
1) At first people think I'm playing a wierd variant of sharless BUG which gives me an "conditional advantage"
2) Destroys reanimator and to a degree show and tell. (Btw I didn't have FOW when playing vs reanimator lol)
3) Strong verse midrange/aggro decks. Specially with misdirection. Bait the decays.
4) win rate vs elves/storm type combo decks are the same as snapcaster variants.
Howeve
1) dies to multiple blast effects (painter combo) becuase no red splash
2) mirror match up is weaker.
Notes
1) haven't tested vs dnt, merfolk, sharless BUG and other decks
2) running pretty much the same list as Philip with black instead/strix for snaps. Duress in sideboard.
Overall I think black splash helps with certain matchups but not so good with others. Give and take.
Does this reasoning to have strix over snapcaster have a point?
HOWEVER It is great for late game, which we can now get to due to TNN chump blocking, where we don't need half the cards we draw. I makes our Vial draws not that bad if we are holding a foil. Honestly I haven't tried this enough with combo archetypes that pack disruption but against BUG, RUG delver type decks which plays a low count of creatures, it works wonders when we counter their tarmogoyf (turn 3 if they play around your daze) which by now we have enough threats on the battlefield and in our hand since we have the option to throw away NON blue cards (22 cards! and most of these will be dead cards if a Vial is out or a dead cards later on).
I don't play cavern of souls. Is there a big difference? I thought the whole point of merfolk was to play basic lands so we are not as weak to wastes. I play 14 Island and 4 mutavaults so never really had a problem getting my blues. In fact I often over flood with 2-3 extra Island.
I have thought about 3 chalice as a sideboard option along with 3 back to basic. Pretty much chalice shuts/slows down brainstorm + fetch shuffle and elves.
Have you play tested this out or can you test this out? I didn't think it was that effective at first either... Untill I got foils and stopped procxeying FOW
I run the main creature core. 14 Island, 4 Mutavaults, 3 Standstill, 4 Daze, 4 Foil.
Also I have updated the deck + sideboard which works much better.
4 AEther Vial
Creature
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Phantasmal Image
3 Daze
4 Preordain
3 Standstill
3 Vapor Snag
3 Divert
Lands
18 Island
3 Chalice of the void
3 Swan Song
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Back to Basics
1 Manriki-Gusari
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Propaganda
This deck already produce more tokens then white can early to mid game as well with haste. Only 14 cards don't contribute to building tokens. 8 of these 12 cards allows us another way to win via counters the other 6 is great for removal to mass removal, the scry is the key to not get mana flooded. I do agree with you that black destroy (not sacrifice) or flames of firebrand is very good against this deck although I haven't tested yet. Maybe not so because we are trading 1 mana drops for a 2 mana/3 mana destroy and maybe can overwhelm faster. I have thought about boros charm and warleader helix although that's a different strategy with guttersnipe ultising a burn deck. Launch is rather an enabler for an overloaded dynacharge. I think spear is too slow, I'd rather put down a guttersnipe and I'm not doing that already. Purpose seems like a legit choice but not sure what to cut then.
Actually on second thought boros charm is very good and have just included in the main board.
I present to you R/W Token Aggro
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Satyr Hoplite
4 Nivmagus Elemental
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Anax and Cymede
Spells
4 Titan's Strength
4 Coordinated Assault
4 Dynacharge
4 Magma Jet
4 Launch the Fleet
2 Boros Charm
4 Sacred Foundry
9 Mountain
7 Plains
Maybe Board
1 Weapon Surge
1 Turn//Burn
1 Guttersnipe
1 Izzet Charm
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Steam Augury
1 Chained to the Rocks
1 Spellheart Chimera
Idea is to swarm with tokens (token mode) and Dynacharge everything. If that's not possible the deck can switch tactic and make creatures with +1/+1 counters using Nivmagus Elemental and Satyr Hoplite (counter mode) which can also grow very fast, possibly a 9/10 and 5/5 attacking on turn 3. Since this deck builds so fast, the opponent won't even dare to attack you unless he has vigilance.
The deck can always get in Titan's strength and the like since there are so many tokens to chose from during combat phase. You can exile your own spells for Nivmagus Elemental counters while at the same time getting heroic from Akroan Crusader and Satyr Hoplite. Imagine casting one Coordinated Assault with those creatures in play. That would mean 2 token/+1 counter and 2 +1/+1 counter, all for just one mana... And Young Pyromancer is not considered yet! With Launch the Fleet the deck is able to produce 10+ token by turn 4! 1st turn Akroan Crusader, 2 turn Akroan Crusader and Coordinated Assault, 3 turn Launch the Fleet producing 7 tokens in total and the two heroics, 4 turn Dynacharge and attack with 27 damage in one turn. Most deck can only produce maybe 4 creatures by this turn 4? So good luck blocking...
Like all decks this deck has its weakness which include -1/-1 board clear (eg bile blight). However if this is the case then one can switch to +1 counter mode. It is also weak to life link and vigilance (not so much)in token mode. Since life link slows the deck down (tokens can't kill the life linkers) and allows the opponent to build up mana which is more fatal for us compared to other decks.
However above all, the coolest thing one can do is post sideboard. Now I haven't totally figured this out yet but it seems possible to change to Izzet (anax and cymede isn't as good and may not be included) bring in counter spells, bounce, burn, guttersnipe which can be game breaking messing up the opponent's side boarding due to very different tempo and indirect or evasion damage. So you could play as an aggro and switch into Izzet control with burn, counter, token chump block until spellheart chimera is played and pose a 3 turn clock.
So now please share your insight and how to make this deck better everyone
At the moment it seems like i am able to create tokens fast due to Akroan and Young's and the many 1 drop instants i have. GUttersnipe helps with burn as well and the magma jet allow me to scry for Dynacharge (+token = gg).
I feel iffy about Ash zealot (although its a strong 2-drop) and fanatic of Mogis and therefore thunderous might because i don't have good devotion 3 drop.
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young's pyromancer
4 Guttersnipe
3 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Titan's Strength
3 Coordinated assualt
4 Magma Jet
2 Lightening Bolt
4 Dynacharge
2 Dragon Mantle
2 Thunderous Might
The deck:
Artifacts
4 Aether Vials
Creature
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Wistful Silkie
2 Phantasmal Image
Spells
4 Daze
4 Preordain
4 Standstill
2 Acquitect's will
Land
17 Island
Silvergill and Merrow Reejerey allows the deck to combo out a lot of merfolks. Preordain stops land flooding. Standstill for even more card draw.
What I want to know is if there is a need to have both Preordain and standstill together? Are there better options to increase kill speed? Any suggestion is welcome. Thanks.