MTG Salvation

Yo guys, should we take Phantasmal Image off the primer? It won't kill emrakul and geist and kiki jokki anymore.

That kinda sucks.

Quote from Ninjitsu500

Yo guys, should we take Phantasmal Image off the primer? It won't kill emrakul and geist and kiki jokki anymore.

That kinda sucks.

But it counts as another lord. Why would you take it out?

Quote from paagrio

But it counts as another lord. Why would you take it out?

...or a tarmogoyf copy or a geist of st. traft copy or... you get the idea. Still seems worth the slots to me...

Where's this update as to why it won't kill them?

Edit: Just found it.... Wow.

Well, I'm still gonna like PI in my folk deck. After I sideboard in Kira, he's an excellent trade with any creature. Also, combined with AEther Vial he is an automatic Eldrazi counter.

Quote from SaintS

Can you link it please?

New Legend and Planeswalker Rules update

The "legend rule," rule 704.5k for those of you following along at home, is changing. Under the current rules, any time two or more legendary permanents with the same name were on the battlefield, they would all be put into their owners' graveyards as a state-based action. Under the new rules, any time two or more legendary permanents with the same name are controlled by a player, that player chooses one of them and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards as a state-based action.

The new rule 704.5j will state that if a player controls two or more Planeswalkers that share a Planeswalker type, that player chooses one and the rest are put into their owner's graveyards as a state-based action. Again, you no longer have to worry about what other players control.

So now it is only checked by each individual player and what the opponent or other players control will have no effect on what you have in play. Also, if you were to not realize you had two legends with the same name in play, you would lose the one of your choice and not both.

In terms of PI it could be quite tricksy. Imagine vialing in a PI to target Iona, but in some cases I think PI could actually be better with this new rule. I.E. They drop an OMG game over legend, you EOT vial PI to copy and get to swing first. In terms of Emmy if he is hardcast then definitely not as good, but if they tricked emmy into play and don't get to swing first...

Quote from Tribal

Well, I'm still gonna like PI in my folk deck. After I sideboard in Kira, he's an excellent trade with any creature. Also, combined with AEther Vial he is an automatic Eldrazi counter.

PI is still sacrificed if Kira is in play when they target him.

Interesting black splash, how well do you think it helped?
Did clique really pull its weight? Would thoughtsieze or inquizition have worked better?
I don't think tar pit was needed without the Lords bonuses.
Were spreading seas shoved to the sb because they weren't useful?

So my LGS is finally starting modern this Friday. I haven't competitively tested out my Modern Merfolk list, so I wanted to get some feedback on it. I would assume (since the locals only play Standard) that I'm going to run into mostly creature based strategies, but I could be wrong... maybe the modern lurkers will explode out of the area... who knows??

Anyways, here's the list. Comments are appreciated as always (:



Not liking the sideboard, I haven't tweaked it in months so I'll be updating that a bit. Thanks guys.

Quote from JPoJohnson

So my LGS is finally starting modern this Friday. I haven't competitively tested out my Modern Merfolk list, so I wanted to get some feedback on it. I would assume (since the locals only play Standard) that I'm going to run into mostly creature based strategies, but I could be wrong... maybe the modern lurkers will explode out of the area... who knows??

Anyways, here's the list. Comments are appreciated as always (:

Modern MerfolkMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Lands (21) 6 Island 1 Plains 4 Seachrome Coast 4 Wanderwine Hub 2 Cavern of Souls 4 Mutavault Creatures (25) 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Master of the Pearl Trident 4 Cursecatcher 3 Phantasmal Image 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner 1 Sygg, River Cutthroat	Other Spells (13) 4 Path to Exile 3 Spell Pierce 4 AEther Vial 2 Spell Snare	Sideboard 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner 3 Spreading Seas 2 Spellskite 2 Torpor Orb 2 Relic of Progenitus 1 Dismember 2 Pithing Needle 2 Hurkyl's Recall

Not liking the sideboard, I haven't tweaked it in months so I'll be updating that a bit. Thanks guys.

With cutthroat main, do you think playing Spreading Seas main would be a good idea? I know it is just the singleton, but with seas main upping to 2 cutthroats could be good.

However, when you typically board in seas do you leave PtE in as well or substitute? The disruption factor that seas can provide is strong and the guaranteed damage, but then PtE counteracts the land hosing. Debatable on that since the removal can outweigh the land disruption.

Do you think the white splash would be improved with changing the land base a little and adding Sejiri Merfolk instead of only PtE?

Also, you will more than likely run into burn especially if there are people newer to modern so I would recommend Leyline of Sanctity.

Quote from Dr. Tager

With cutthroat main, do you think playing Spreading Seas main would be a good idea? I know it is just the singleton, but with seas main upping to 2 cutthroats could be good.

However, when you typically board in seas do you leave PtE in as well or substitute? The disruption factor that seas can provide is strong and the guaranteed damage, but then PtE counteracts the land hosing. Debatable on that since the removal can outweigh the land disruption.

Do you think the white splash would be improved with changing the land base a little and adding Sejiri Merfolk instead of only PtE?

Also, you will more than likely run into burn especially if there are people newer to modern so I would recommend Leyline of Sanctity.

If I go mono-blue, that's definitely what I would do. Also, Leyline would be an auto 4of if I could get my hands on a playset somewhere!

I keep switching to mono-blue with Spreading Seas and Vapor Snag, but I find myself losing more often in playtesting than with white splash. It makes no sense to me since I never bring in my board and it should do better. Meh:-/

Quote from JPoJohnson

If I go mono-blue, that's definitely what I would do. Also, Leyline would be an auto 4of if I could get my hands on a playset somewhere!

I keep switching to mono-blue with Spreading Seas and Vapor Snag, but I find myself losing more often in playtesting than with white splash. It makes no sense to me since I never bring in my board and it should do better. Meh:-/

What do you find about the white splash to strengthen your match ups? What have you been testing against? Also, with mono-blue do you play Vedalken Shackles?

If splashing white I am always tempted to put in sejiri for the life gain and the first strike.

Path to Exile and the sideboard options are the biggest reasons I chose to splash white. I don't understand though.... looking at the lists I feel that mono blue is much stronger, but I always perform better with the white splash. Makes no sense to me.

If you splash white, sejiri is worth the land tweaks. It's good against Aggro wars, or burn. Also vialing it in to block stuff is fun. Personally white does better because vapor snag isn't removal. It gives you two turns best, and hurts them for 1 damage, but path removes the thing entirely. Vapor snag would be better in a black version with discard spells.

Been testing the following Mono-U decklist and really liking the results. Found it in a daily from a couple weeks back. I really like the maindeck Spellskite after a bit of testing. I'm a little surprised because I didn't expect it to do the job against so many decks, but it does. I've had a few games (minority) struggle with mana so I'm not sure if I'd try to increase it to 20 lands and go from there or what.



Thoughts?

Quote from JPoJohnson

Been testing the following Mono-U decklist and really liking the results. Found it in a daily from a couple weeks back. I really like the maindeck Spellskite after a bit of testing. I'm a little surprised because I didn't expect it to do the job against so many decks, but it does. I've had a few games (minority) struggle with mana so I'm not sure if I'd try to increase it to 20 lands and go from there or what.

rubi32's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Lands (19) 13 Island 4 Mutavault 2 Cavern of Souls Creatures (27) 4 Cursecatcher 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Master of the Pearl Trident 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merrow Reejerey 3 Phantasmal Image 4 Spellskite	Other Spells (14) 3 Remand 2 Thirst for Knowledge 4 AEther Vial 3 Spreading Seas 2 Relic of Progenitus	Sideboard (15) 1 Spreading Seas 2 Relic of Progenitus 3 Threads of Disloyalty 2 Hurkyl's Recall 1 Grafdigger's Cage 2 Negate 1 Pithing Needle 2 Dispel

Thoughts?

Playing Cavern of Souls is not worth it. A 1 instead of a U can hurt in some situations (plus, you can usually avoid counterspells with Aether Vial). I also feel like your other spells are a bit clunky for a 19 land deck (maybe 20 lands?). I do like the Spellskite-Thirst for Knowledge interaction, though. Have you thought of playing Vapor Snag or Spell Pierce? I also think Dispel could work.

Quote from rubi32

Playing Cavern of Souls is not worth it. A 1 instead of a U can hurt in some situations (plus, you can usually avoid counterspells with Aether Vial). I also feel like your other spells are a bit clunky for a 19 land deck (maybe 20 lands?). I do like the Spellskite-Thirst for Knowledge interaction, though. Have you thought of playing Vapor Snag or Spell Pierce? I also think Dispel could work.

Ended up going 3-0 at my FNM. We only had a small handful of people show up since it's the LGS's first week, so I hope more show up this upcoming week!

Dispel is a great card and I've included it sideboard for when I'll need it. I was in trouble with mana 1 time, but I only need 2 lands to really start chugging and I had 3 Adepts in my hand so I was able to burn through a fair chunk of my library to get to a second island (One land was a mutavault). I still won that game going alpha on him after I dropped a few lords. Due to this, I feel like having 19 lands is ok. We'll see with further testing of course. The one reason I feel I get away with less lands than many other merfolk decks running modern is because I have quite a bit of draw that is lacking from other decks (Relic of Progenitus, Thirst for Knowledge, Remand, and Spreading Seas to name a few).

Lastly, I never had an issue getting an island because I had a Cavern of Souls instead of an Island and, in fact, it saved me in 2 games (untapping cavern with Merrow Reejerey's trigger to protect from counters). I can't see me wanting to remove any of the current cards.

In the end, happy with the deck's performance and won't be making any changes to it this week unless someone posts a great suggestion before Friday. I guess we'll see how this Friday goes and see if it needs any changes at that point! (:

JPoJohnson, curious, why don't you run Coralhelm Commander?

I've recently put together a mono U merfolk deck, gonna try it out for the first time this thursday in a modern tourney. It looks like this:



I need some spellskites for sure, gotta make room for those somehow. Just wondering why you don't run the coralhelm commander, he seems pretty good and is good for flying defense. One of the players in my playgroup runs a infect deck with some plague stingers that he pumps up with stuff like giant growth and groundswell, and if I don't have any flying defense I get beaten quite quickly. I use vapor snags to bounce those guys back to his hand after he pumps them, but that's all I really have for it if I don't get the coralhelm commanders out.

Quote from ctoph

JPoJohnson, curious, why don't you run Coralhelm Commander?

I've recently put together a mono U merfolk deck, gonna try it out for the first time this thursday in a modern tourney. It looks like this:

JPoJohnson's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Lands 16 Island 4 Mutavault Creatures 4 Coralhelm Commander 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Master of the Pearl Trident 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Cursecatcher 2 Merrow Reejerey 2 Phantasmal Image	Other Spells 4 Mana Leak 2 Spell Pierce 4 Vapor Snag 4 Spreading Seas	Artifacts 4 Aether Vial

I need some spellskites for sure, gotta make room for those somehow. Just wondering why you don't run the coralhelm commander, he seems pretty good and is good for flying defense. One of the players in my playgroup runs a infect deck with some plague stingers that he pumps up with stuff like giant growth and groundswell, and if I don't have any flying defense I get beaten quite quickly. I use vapor snags to bounce those guys back to his hand after he pumps them, but that's all I really have for it if I don't get the coralhelm commanders out.

I try to win before he even matters. Nuts draw, I win Turn 4 before I'd even have the opportunity to sink mana in him and make a difference. Also, there is a lot of cheap removal in the format that can simply remove him from the playing field after I sink a load of mana into him. It looks like you've dropped out a few Merrow Reejerey and Phantasmal Image which both slow down your clock and your field control (I love dropping Image to copy Merrow and then drop a Cursecatcher to actually gain mana by casting the spell, or gaining an attacker via Mutavault, or gaining a blocker via Mutavault during the second main phase as well as mana for Remand.

I liked Vapor Snag at one point and ran it as a 4-of... but I realized that I was playing that instead of something else that put pressure on them. I would prefer to play a less reactionary-aggro deck. Dropping another lord or turning their land into an island makes them have to be on the defensive.


Basically... the punchline goes like this:
1. Coralhelm is too slow for the tempo you want to set.
2. Vapor Snag isn't increasing threats and putting the opponent on the defensive as well as being a dead card against several decks in the format.

Hope that helps you understand my thoughts with the deck as I play it. I realize there are different strats to playing the 'folk and that they all work, just in a different way. I personally think this is one of the best streamlined lists at the moment:nod:

Thanks for the input. I made most of this deck a couple years back before modern was even a format, and my buddies have got back into the game recently and told me my merfolk might still be viable with some changes so I threw this together.

I like your explanation of vapor snag. I think I'm thinking to much about my playgroup's meta rather than the game as a whole. That infect deck can usually get me at 10 counters before I'm able to bring his life down to 0, which is why I needed the vapor snag to a) blow all his mana on one turn pumping b) make him blow his pump spells, and c) stay alive obviously. After one snag I'm usually able to pull out the victory before he can get the 10 counters.

Maybe I'll swap out the commanders and try running a couple more Merrow Reejereys and Phantasmal Images. Toss the snags into the sideboard for some spellskites and graveyard hate.

Not sure if I can make the tourney this thursday, but will be at the one next thursday and post results.