Merfolk = awesomes. Cold-eyed selkie is insane card advantage with a lord or two out. Very champ against faeries. I've been trying to throw a merfolk deck together since seeing the new lord, never thought of splashing white for sideboard tech though, very cool. I originally wanted to play grimoire thief to bad it doesn't do much good though. wake thrasher equals hax under m10 rules. no mana burn allows you to tap your lands at the end of your opponents turn (beginning of the end step, sounds weird to say) giving lots of free boost. I think i might play merfolk at the MTGsalvation chapmionships. Has anyone started a thread for this deck in the standard forums?
I feel inclined to comment on the U/W versus the U/B version... although the U/B gets discard which wrecks fairies, white gets dispeller's capsule and other artifact and enchantment, which is good against affinity to a degree and, more importantly, pithing needle, which is more common then kataki, war's wage for hate I'm guessing, although path to exile can take out a kataki. As for fae, it only takes 4 mana to get the two pieces out if you draw them, so maybe run things like gigadrowse, mana short and, most importantly, when it's released, silence to beat them? Also, silence works wonders against the dragonstorm matchup, as does ethersworn canonist, obviously.
Also, two random ideas:
First, could there be a slower build based around tezzeret, the seeker? It could run 3 of each combo piece and 2-3 tezz, and then it could have a few silver bullets to grab and maybe a little bit more acceleration. Not sure what could be cut, though, so I'm not sure how good it would be.
First mana short isnt extended legal. And for pithing needle we can just repeal it or cause them to discard it using duress or thoughtseize. Though it is an issue. Gigadrowse could be a good idea, though the only match it would make a difference really is faeries. Also with black you can play one of its removal spells to take out kataki.
As we haven't really got any real test results from either version its hard to tell which one it better. I personally like the U/B for time sieve, but canonist is a good reason to play U/W
I don't think any of those stations are needed. Tokens themselves are already a kill condition and a control mode due to life gain. Even if you don't combo, you can make 4-5 tokens per turn, while gaining 4-5 life per turn.
I've been testing and liked more the UB version. Duress really impressed me and helped take out those god damn annoying EEs.
True enough, the tokens usually are enough to win against noncombo decks.
The only reason I'd play the u/w build is to play canonist. If you can get it out faeries can't win counter wars anymore and you can play draw-go till you get your combo together. The thoughtseize and duress are very useful though. Also i guess time sieve is better than iron works and the stations
if I were to splash another color, which would be better - W or B? W will give me the option to play ***, Canonists and Aven Mindcensors while B will give me Duress, Thoughtseize, Damnation.
Well that depends on which combo piece you want to play. If you want to play with time sieve you need black. Ironworks lets you play white.Black makes the fairy match up better thanks to the discard. Though white is probably better for other match ups. But fairy seems to be on of the harder ones as it is. Though canonist might work well in that match up to. I shall test it a bit myself and see. Might try grinding station over iron works for white.
Edit: What do you guys think of blasting station turns our tokens into removal but it might be a slow win condition though so I dunno.
ThiS2Vi was talking about the improvement in Dstorm by putting in Karrthus (BHellkites can deal 5dmg and attack same turn)...newer builds will be definitely using Karrthus...means that roflthopter will have to be either faster/more disruption...
Obviously we just play chalice at 9
but seriously, i don't see a way to play faster than DStorm because you need 4-5 mana before you can combo off, depending if you play iron works or sieve. Against DStorm we will have to play disruption. Hopefully the life gain and chump blockers from foundry will help us win this match up.
Well even against fog decks time sieve is fine because they can only fog 7 times really, and you would have at least 20 turns to kill them so the other 13 odd times they cant fog, im sure you can win. Maybe against a person with no cards in hand and has ensnaring bridge out. But thats the kind of thing repeal is for.
Grinding station seems like an interesting idea. I think its slower in the fact that you dont get to mill them right away, with time sieve you basicly win the turn you activate it. With grinding station you need a couple of turns. But still its an interesting idea.
Well I guess we shall have to just play heavy disruption against DStorm. I've been play testing against faeries and it seems like a horrible match up unless you can get foundry to stick. Heres the build i'm testing against http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=25679.
Against faeries i sb
+4 duress
+1 thoughtseize
+4 spell snare
-3 repeal
-4 smother
-2 time sieve
Time sieve isnt needed in this match up really cuz if you can get a foundry to stick and they don't have an active jitte you pretty much have the game set for you. Though faeries doesn't let the happen easily...
I doubt Annul will EVER become a staple. Their are a lot of cards for the same cost that are a lost better tuned to the format.
Well I just mention annul due to the most probable rise of affinity. I'd be tempted to slap anyone who played a playset of annul and spell snare. That would just be to evil against this deck.
Well there is a reason TEPS was played over DStorm, though I did not play either so I can't say much about that. So I guess that means trickbind becomes sb staple then after rotation to replace stifle. Well I don't see people siding that in just to counter transmute. I think with DStorm going to be popular the control build of RoflThopter is going to be a be a better choice, I could be wrong though. Who thinks Annul is going to become a sb staple or even md?
I used strange inversion due to taking out red of the build. You would want the raven's crime/loam engine if your using time stretch for sure because you would have to draw a land every turn other wise in order to replay it, which would stop you from drawing into win. In fact even corrupt is better off with the loam engine due to needing to cast it several times in order to win. As your only win is triggering helix multiple times you really need the engine for this to win against fast decks since you have little disruption. If you really want to you can replace thought hemorrhage with cranial extraction. And finally you should up the thirst for knowledge to 4 as its better than research due to being an instant
Well if we play heavy control the only artifact hate that will be hard to deal with will be shattering spree and the one with split second, i forget what its called. Also what is our game against affinity? I haven't play tested against it yet but from what i know about affinity it might be to fast. Though i guess countering plating and enforcers will keep us alive for the most part. Spell snare is a pain in the ass for this deck...
Well once TEPS rotates out, along with stifle, the reason to run its substitute trickbind pretty much leaves. Though i guess dragonstrom could replace it, but thats slower than TEPS and easier to disrupt so it probably won't see much play. After rotation this will probably be one of if not the best combo deck in extended imho. Unfortuanatly there will probably be a lot of artifact hate in the format due to affinity coming to the top again. But I think with duress and thoughtseize we should be able to fight through it.
The deck is probably better off with your main colours being black and blue with a green splash. That way you can play with life from the loam with raven's crime letting you play it repeatedly more often. Possibly replace compulsive research with Thirst for knowledge as its instant, though you may want to play both for the extra discard. life from the loam works well as it's dredge works with getting cards in your graveyard. Looks like an interesting deck, and with a good hand could even start winning by turn 4. I'll put together a deck list in a bit and see what you think of it.
Its a rough list, basicly after getting a few mana out and a helix in hand you want to dump your deck. I put a single Golgari Grave-Troll for the high dredge number. The only issue i can think of for the deck idea is getting a second crime into the graveyard. Smallpox might be a card to think of, extra discard and control, but the double black might make it hard without a strang mana base. Also its kinda weak to graveyard hate, but thats not to common right now. Seems like a fun deck though.
First mana short isnt extended legal. And for pithing needle we can just repeal it or cause them to discard it using duress or thoughtseize. Though it is an issue. Gigadrowse could be a good idea, though the only match it would make a difference really is faeries. Also with black you can play one of its removal spells to take out kataki.
As we haven't really got any real test results from either version its hard to tell which one it better. I personally like the U/B for time sieve, but canonist is a good reason to play U/W
True enough, the tokens usually are enough to win against noncombo decks.
The only reason I'd play the u/w build is to play canonist. If you can get it out faeries can't win counter wars anymore and you can play draw-go till you get your combo together. The thoughtseize and duress are very useful though. Also i guess time sieve is better than iron works and the stations
Well that depends on which combo piece you want to play. If you want to play with time sieve you need black. Ironworks lets you play white.Black makes the fairy match up better thanks to the discard. Though white is probably better for other match ups. But fairy seems to be on of the harder ones as it is. Though canonist might work well in that match up to. I shall test it a bit myself and see. Might try grinding station over iron works for white.
Edit: What do you guys think of blasting station turns our tokens into removal but it might be a slow win condition though so I dunno.
Obviously we just play chalice at 9
but seriously, i don't see a way to play faster than DStorm because you need 4-5 mana before you can combo off, depending if you play iron works or sieve. Against DStorm we will have to play disruption. Hopefully the life gain and chump blockers from foundry will help us win this match up.
Here's the deck I'm using...
4 Sword of the Meek
2 Time Sieve
3 Talisman of Dominance
3 Thoughtseize
3 Repeal
4 Rune snag
4 Remand
4 Smother
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Seat of the Synod
5 Island
2 Swamp
4 Watery Grave
4 Underground River
1 Academy Ruins
1 Thoughtseize
4 Spell Snare
3 Trickbind
4 Duress (yes i know not available till M10 but thats not to long from now)
3 Extirpate
+4 duress
+1 thoughtseize
+4 spell snare
-3 repeal
-4 smother
-2 time sieve
Time sieve isnt needed in this match up really cuz if you can get a foundry to stick and they don't have an active jitte you pretty much have the game set for you. Though faeries doesn't let the happen easily...
Well I just mention annul due to the most probable rise of affinity. I'd be tempted to slap anyone who played a playset of annul and spell snare. That would just be to evil against this deck.
EDIT:
Heres a rough idea for a deck list.
4 Raven's Crime
2 Cruel Ultimatum
2 Time Stretch
1 Corrupt
4 Thoughtseize
2 Compulsive Research
3 Life from the Loam
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Strange Inversion
4 Spellweaver Helix
4 Chrome Mox
1 Golgari Grave-Troll
25 Land
Its a rough list, basicly after getting a few mana out and a helix in hand you want to dump your deck. I put a single Golgari Grave-Troll for the high dredge number. The only issue i can think of for the deck idea is getting a second crime into the graveyard. Smallpox might be a card to think of, extra discard and control, but the double black might make it hard without a strang mana base. Also its kinda weak to graveyard hate, but thats not to common right now. Seems like a fun deck though.