I have a question for you, have you tested this deck at all? Have you tried other Merfolk over those cards? Which decks are they better against. No offense, but if you aren't joking you really need to look at Legacy more and look at how this deck works, none of those are really viable choices except for maybe sideboard Seasinger and Tidal Warrior.
The remaining cards you suggested stand no chance of being competitive in the current Legacy environment, they are all fine in casual, but not in tournament play. I would recommend trying to test this deck out yourself or at least read about the deck in its primer here or on The Source and learn about card choices for it.
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I currently play only two formats, what I play in them is:
Legacy: Domain Zoo, RGW Zoo, Merfolk, Solidarity, Mono Black Aggro
EDH: Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Ive been debating this for the longest time. Hope to get some input from you guys. What do you guys think is the better version to run Mono U vs UW in an unclear meta. I also really want to improve the deck's overall chances against goblins/red aggros, which version would be superior then? Any tested opinions?
From experience on MWS, a particularly annoying matchup is Enchantress, especially if you don't have a solidly fast opening hand. I seemed to have no problems with beating goblins with a standard mono blue list. The one deck that does seem to give me problems is enchantress; the massive card draw, elephant grass, runed halo, oblivion ring, then that one enchantment that makes them immune to damage and untargetable. What are sideboard options to improve this matchup?
As powerful as the new lackey is though, goblins will have to sacrifice an optimal curve to put him in.
Not really because the current mono-red Goblin has that 3 open slots that are usually dedicated for 2-drop Goblins (Mogg War Marshall, Stingscouger or Goblin Tinker). The new lackey is broken if left unchecked.
Lets go back to merfolks, I used to run a Merfolk deck that runs the CounterTop engine. With Lullmage Mentor, I think CounterTop merfolk has a shot
Lullmage Mentor reads as:
Lullmage Mentor 1UU
Creature - Merfolk Wizard (R)
Whenever a spell or ability you control counters a spell, you may put a 1/1 blue Merfolk creature token onto the battlefield.
Tap seven untapped Merfolk you control: Counter target spell
2/2
The second ability sucks but couple this with the available lords that we have, you could make an army of big merfolks in no time!
I would imagine CounterTop Merfolk as less aggressive but more controling.
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Thanks for spiderboy4 of High~Light_Studios for the kick ass avatar.
Thanks for DarkNightCavalier of HotPS for the exceptional signature.
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
I want an explanation at least on why you all choose not to include Sunken City and Unstable Mutation?
Is Honor Of The Pure a terrible card? It seems to be under your judgements. Why does it cost $20 if it's so horrible? Sunken City is damn nearly the identical thing and it's the only thing blue has that compares. Black has Bad Moon and white used to have Crusade both see play in Legacy all the time and I see them in just about every Legacy night I go to. I see people with like $1.5k decks that run Crusade. So what is wrong with Sunken City please explain?
Do you just follow the crowd? It's not a cumulative upkeep it is payed one time. Except that on the turn you cast it it boosts your merfolk an insane amount. It effectively deals an extra 4 to 5 damage with one shot, seriously. And yes I have played this deck I told you the only cards I am missing from the list is Lord Of Atlantis. Seems like a good strategy to me. Maybe I am blind is Sunken City not identical to Bad Moon and Crusade.
This is a very creature heavy deck so why is it not included?
I bet you're all going to say Sunken City is amazing now or something? Placed 8th out of 41 with 4 maindeck Sunken City and 4 maindeck Unstable Mutation?
Instead of discounting what I say because of my username maybe listen to me instead? And hear me out.
Go ahead and ignore me if you want but it's right there he top 8'd with a Merfolk deck running 4 Sunken City and 4 Unstable Mutation.
Ball Lightning is 6 damage for RRR.
I don't choose to play with that card myself, but I've gotten 6 damage to the head without an answer multiple times.
Is there another card that does that? NO. That is why it sees some play. Things are not as black and white as you suggest.
*
Just think about it. You have creatures in your hand. You're not that far from winning. You can play a Sunken City or you can play a creature. What should you play? Knowing that if you play your Sunken City and it is unanswered it accelerates the amount of damage you deal like a turn and half do you play a creature instead?
Except Merfolk Sovereign costs 3 and Sunken City costs 2, and the other two cards you suggested are already in playset inside that deck.
ZING!
Oh and Tarmogoyf is an expensive card, and it makes all decks it is played in cost an extra $200. I seldom see it.
I'm lucky that I opened one from a pack, but I will probably not play with it as I think I need to cast them in multiples to make them playable. The first and only goyf I would play would get killed. I would have won against decks running goyf easily had they not played a 2nd or 3rd goyf. You can't answer everything all the time which is why decks running FOUR of them do so well.
I might even play Dandan in this deck but I am a bit crazy for doing that as it is not a merfolk.. it is STILL a creature with a static 4 power body for 2 though. So.. I would need 2 Lords in play at once to make anything else I play better.
What is maindeck'd here? Seasinger. Why? It effectively removes a card from the opposing board. Is that good? yes. So why not consider it? So it's from Fallen Empires BIG DEAL.
I want an explanation at least on why you all choose not to include Sunken City and Unstable Mutation?
Is Honor Of The Pure a terrible card? It seems to be under your judgements. Why does it cost $20 if it's so horrible? Sunken City is damn nearly the identical thing and it's the only thing blue has that compares. So what is wrong with Sunken City please explain?
Fair enough. Lets do a REAL comparison of the two. Lets see what they share in common.
They both give +1/+1 to creatures, and that's the only thing they have in common.
Honor of the Pure Costs W1 thus making it EASIER to cast out in multi-colored decks giving it a flexibility that Sunken City does not have.
Now you're probably thinking "Well that's stupid Merfolks gonna be 1 color anyway I don't see that as an issue." well, this IS the COMPETITIVE sub-forums, so our threats are FAR different then the casual circuit and because of that we may run Wasteland or Rishadan Port or Mutavault" target="blank">Mutavault. My point is we won't be running 100% islands and that 2 UU might be a problem. NOW Blue does have solutions to some of those issues, but now you're over compensating for a measly +1/+1 with additional card slots and taking AWAY from it's focus and over con volute the deck.
Now correct me if I'm wrong Sunken City gives ALL blue creatures the bonus right? So in a mirror match, hell in any match that has blue you're purposely giving your opponent an edge, and that pretty much defeats the purpose, right? Right. Cause Honor of the Pure only supports your creatures not the opponents.
Lastly... upkeep. For +1/+1 UU is a KILLER, so assuming you pull it out on turn 2, turn 3 you're gonna be left with 1 mana while your opponent is gonna have all 3 or 4 to play with... not worth slowing down a deck thats meant to be fast for such minimal gain.
Maybe I am blind is Sunken City not identical to Bad Moon and Crusade.
I think you might be cause those do not have upkeeps. But let me ask you now, using my POX example what would you play since you're running Wasteland for POX. Cursade or Honor of the Pure?
I hope by now you're beginning to see its value atleast in standard.
I bet you're all going to say Sunken City is amazing now or something? Placed 8th out of 41 with 4 maindeck Sunken City and 4 maindeck Unstable Mutation?
Instead of discounting what I say because of my username maybe listen to me instead? And hear me out.
Go ahead and ignore me if you want but it's right there he top 8'd with a Merfolk deck running 4 Sunken City and 4 Unstable Mutation.
Yes, TOP 8 in a tournament that took place close to 2 years ago, and the meta has changed quite a bit during that time. And people probably weren't realizing the power of Tarmogoyf" target="blank">Tarmogoyf at the time, no I know they weren't. Try finding something recent with Merfolks and lets look at the list.
Fair enough. Lets do a REAL comparison of the two. Lets see what they share in common.
They both give +1/+1 to creatures, and that's the only thing they have in common.
Honor of the Pure Costs W1 thus making it EASIER to cast out in multi-colored decks giving it a flexibility that Sunken City does not have.
Now you're probably thinking "Well that's stupid Merfolks gonna be 1 color anyway I don't see that as an issue." well, this IS the COMPETITIVE sub-forums, so our threats are FAR different then the casual circuit and because of that we may run Wasteland or Rishadan Port or Mutavault" target="blank">Mutavault. My point is we won't be running 100% islands and that 2 UU might be a problem. NOW Blue does have solutions to some of those issues, but now you're over compensating for a measly +1/+1 with additional card slots and taking AWAY from it's focus and over con volute the deck.
Now correct me if I'm wrong Sunken City gives ALL blue creatures the bonus right? So in a mirror match, hell in any match that has blue you're purposely giving your opponent an edge, and that pretty much defeats the purpose, right? Right. Cause Honor of the Pure only supports your creatures not the opponents.
Lastly... upkeep. For +1/+1 UU is a KILLER, so assuming you pull it out on turn 2, turn 3 you're gonna be left with 1 mana while your opponent is gonna have all 3 or 4 to play with... not worth slowing down a deck thats meant to be fast for such minimal gain.
Is there anything else you want to know?
I think you might be cause those do not have upkeeps. But let me ask you now, using my POX example what would you play since you're running Wasteland for POX. Cursade or Honor of the Pure?
I hope by now you're beginning to see its value atleast in standard.
Yes, TOP 8 in a tournament that took place close to 2 years ago, and the meta has changed quite a bit during that time. And people probably weren't realizing the power of Tarmogoyf" target="blank">Tarmogoyf at the time, no I know they weren't. Try finding something recent with Merfolks and lets look at the list.
No I'm pretty sure people saw it RIGHT AWAY. but anyway..
Sunken City has an upkeep. We covered that. Who said you had to pay the upkeep?
Ok,
Also, it is UU. You're right. Wasteland is meta dependent and for me wasteland would matter little. I was actually considering Mana Vortex. For my meta this is great because Mana Vortex sucks all the lands away not just non basics. A lot of the decks I play against (ok so I'm talking about a couple players in my meta in particular) when they play with fetches they have basics too, and they also have stuff like Ghost Quarter so yes they come prepared. I've played back to basics a lot like Blood Moon and I was surprised how easily they could recover.
And no sorry I said Tolaria West I keep misreading that card. Does not work in tandem with the Transmute it is a new card for me I like just got it.
Justifying playing Sunken City in a deck like Merfolk is so bad, it makes me wonder if you're actually sane in comparing Sunken City with Honor of the Pure.
This is the Competitive forum. Deck construction should not be limited by budget reasons or for playing bad cards for some other reason.
There should no justification for wanting to play suboptimal cards in competitive play. At all.
Sunken City is not run for several reasons, several of which have been covered already.
Upkeep: Fish doesn't want to have it's mana tapped when it could spending that on other things. Why don't you just sack it then? Because you just wasted a card. As a tribal creature deck, you need lasting affects.
Non-Creature: Why run it when you can run another lord in it's place that gets a boost from the other lords? Oh, also, enchantments can't attack. No, Sunken City does not serve as another lord. It doesn't replace any of the lords.
Counterbalance Splash Damage: The format is well equipped to deal with that ever present UU Enchantment. Why open yourself to being hit by the splash? Yes, creatures are hit, but you deal with that by running more creatures.
Threat: A lord by itself is a threat, to a certain degree. Sunken City is not if you have no creatures.
2 for 1: You open yourself up to be 2 for 1'd. Why give your opponent free card advantage in a format well equipped to deal with creatures? Also, the temporary boost off of it isn't worth the damage. Especially when you can run alot more lords to simply give your creatures a bigger boost that won't kill them in the long run.
Not a threat: If you have no creatures to stick it on, it isn't dealing any extra damage.
Island dependent: If they don't have an island, and you can't turn one of their lands into an island, you're sunk. While many Legacy decks run Islands, some do not. You've got a fair game against the ones running Islands. Why sacrifice all your other matchups?
Not a Merfolk: Doesn't get the Lord boosts. One-two lords in play makes any of your creatures on par or better.
No reason to play Sunken City over a Merfolk Sovereign and no reason to run that many +1/+1 cards in the same deck.
belive me, i've tried to use Sunken City and it wasn't very good. For every one time that it is actually good, theres probably 3 situations that it isn't.
The second ability sucks but couple this with the available lords that we have, you could make an army of big merfolks in no time!
I would imagine CounterTop Merfolk as less aggressive but more controling.
The 2nd ability does suck pretty badly. It's similar to that elf druid that had you tap 7 druids so you could take control of an opponent's lands. If you have 7 critters on the board, the only reason you'd want to tap them is to attack.
I wouldn't see the mage in the current decklist though, he's just subpar. Zendikar will bring us other merfolk, hopefully something we can really debate about.
Speaking of new cards, what do you guys think about Mindbreak Trap?
The 2nd ability does suck pretty badly. It's similar to that elf druid that had you tap 7 druids so you could take control of an opponent's lands. If you have 7 critters on the board, the only reason you'd want to tap them is to attack.
I wouldn't see the mage in the current decklist though, he's just subpar. Zendikar will bring us other merfolk, hopefully something we can really debate about.
Speaking of new cards, what do you guys think about Mindbreak Trap?
In practice, I kind of think that the mana cost compared to the above cards and the issue w/ Orim's ChANT may make it too weak in comparison. I hope this doesn't go down as the block in which all the fun that is normally blue is made hideously slow and awkward as a punishment for having enjoyed Cryptic Command and flash faeries (why isn't black getting splash damage for faeries?). Wasn't Kamigawa block mono blue so awesome! All those 8 mana 2/2 and 3/2 flyers that did nifty things if you bounced all your land back to your hand and died before you could lay them back out again?
If Legacy burn picks up the new Chandra for late game, though, that's another point in favor of side-boarding. Except that you'd probably rather just have Chill. Or Hydroblast.
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Playing: UB Infect or whatever Ali Aintrazi brews in Standard, Reanimator in Legacy and not playing Fail Format.
If you have 7 critters on the board, the only reason you'd want to tap them is to attack.
Is there any chance Merrow Commerce could be useful? I love the card, but I have never found a great use for it...unless you're running some weird lockdown-Opposition deck....just a thought I'd like some feedback on.
I also thought Arcane Laboratory would make it pretty funny. Obviously too many things need to be going on, but it might be funny in a more casual setting.
Here's a tournament report that I wrote but was not published anywhere. Enjoy.
(A bit of an Introduction. My name is Peter Johnson. I am a decent Magic player from Cleveland, Ohio. I'm 19, and I go to school in Cincinnati. I do well on occasion, but have never made Top 8 of a PTQ, or anything other than an MSS. I would love to play on the Pro Tour, if only once. My favorite part of Magic is tournaments, cube drafts, and meeting new players.)
I love Legacy, it’s probably my favorite constructed format. I think that Wizards has done a remarkable job with their selection of card bannings. Every type of deck is viable: aggro has Goblins, Zoo, Burn; control has Counterbalance decks and lock decks; midrange has Tempo Threshold and Merfolk; Combo has Storm and Ichorid. Plus, there are those kooky decks that can work like Enchantress and 43 Lands. Heck, I saw a Stasis deck that started off in the X-0 bracket for a few rounds, and there was a Helldozer deck doing very well. There’s something for everybody in the format, yet all of the decks seems very fair and beatable.
For this tournament, I chose to play Merfolk. I played Merfolk at GP Chicago, and finished 6-3 (no byes) after losing to my opponent with one life, playing for Day 2.
Merfolk is an awesome deck; it provides a quick clock with agressive creatures, while using counterspells and mana denial to disrupt opponents' plans. In addition, your land base is very resilient since it plays so many basic lands, which is unique among most decks in Legacy. Playing a ton of basic lands gives you an edge over any deck that takes advantage of Legacy manabases, like Dragon Stompy, or any decks that also pack Wasteland and Stifle. Plus, you get to play Aether Vial, which is absurd.
Here’s the list I registered:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
3 Wake Thrasher
4 Aether Vial
4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Stifle
2 Echoing Truth
12 Island
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
Sideboard
3 Back to Basics
3 Propaganda
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Hydroblast
A few notes about the decklist:
- The Wake Thrashers should probably be Merfolk Sovereigns, or at least a 2-1 split. Wake Thrasher is good, but it is often sided out, and the cases in which it is better than Merfolk Sovereign is probably fewer than the cases in which the extra lords are better. That being said, the Merfolk Sovereigns do cost double-blue. I don't think that the manabase would have to be fiddled with to accomodate the extra lords, but it is something I have not tested.
- Some people are taking Stifles out of the deck in favor of more Merfolk, or other utility cards (like Jitte, Misdirection, etc.). I am a pretty big fan of Stifle. Cutting it seems to weaken your mana denial plan, which can win games by itself. Plus, it's a nice answer to random triggers like Aether Vial, Survival, Charbelcher, Manabond, etc. I Stifled a point of damage from a Keldon Marauders in this tournament. Not the best use of the card, but it just shows that it is rarely dead.
- Echoing Truth is sort of a catch-all bounce spell. I would highly recommend playing two maindeck bounce spells, whether it's Echoing Truth, Wipe Away, or Rushing River. It can bounce an annoying artifact or enchantment than gets through your counters, and it is also a great tempo tool to get your attackers through unmolested. It's also a random "out" to Ichorid and sometimes Engineered Plague. I rarely boarded them out.
- I am also a proponent of the full four Mutavault and Wasteland. Playing four Wastelands maximizes your mana denial strategy, and it will almost always have a nice target in Legacy. Mutavault is also awesome. This is a creature deck, and Mutavault is essentially four more creatures that you get to play. Playing the full four maximizes aggressiveness and makes your Standstills that much better.
- The sideboard was pretty good for me, except for Back to Basics. It was very hit-or-miss during the tournament. I usually only board it against Lands and Counterbalance, and it is not even that great against 3-color versions of the deck. I will look for some sort of replacement to this in the future, I am thinking Spell Snare.
Now, let's get to the action, shall we?
Round 1 vs. Dustin Patton, playing UGBW Counterbalance. Generally, the Counterbalance matchups are pretty good for Merfolk, and they are one of the reasons to play the deck. Versions with a black splash are worse, since they have access to more spot removal and Engineered Plague. I've found that the four-color version is pretty easy to beat since your mana denial plan is very effective.
Game 1: I resolve a turn 1 Aether Vial with a Daze, and spend two of my next three turns Wastelanding his land drops and Stifling a fetch land. Cursecatcher, Lord of Atlantis and Mutavault take him down quickly while he tries to find mana.
SB: +3 Back to Basics, -3 Wake Thrasher. Wake Thrasher (or Merfolk Sovereign) is probably the card you board out most. He is generally your weakest creature, and the rest of your Merfolk can usually provide enough pressure to get the job done. I bring in Back to Basics here since he has a maximum of two basics in his deck.
Game 2: I keep a creature-light hand, and after my Lord of Atlantis goes farming, I stall out on creatures except for a lone Cursecatcher. He is on nine life, but his Dark Confidant stops dealing him damage after he gets Top, and starts beating with a Goyf. Another Goyf joins the party and smash me quickly.
Game 3: I mull to six, and have a turn 1 Cursecatcher, followed by a turn 2 Standstill. He immediately breaks the Standstill with a Brainstorm, so I have a full hand. I stifle two more fetches this game, and start slowly beating with Cursecatcher. In the meantime, I resolve a Back to Basics, locking down two of his lands. Later in the game, I play Merrow Reejerey to quicken my clock. He fetches for a fourth land to play a Rhox War Monk with one mana up. I let it resolve, and hit it with a end of turn Echoing Truth, and he packs them in.
1-0, 2-1
Round 2 vs. Brendon playing Eva Green. Merfolk's matchup against agressive black decks is pretty bad. They have lots of disruption with their discard spells, and too many threats for your hard counters. Additionally, they generally have enough removal so that you cannot race them. In a nutshell, they have too many must-counters and their creatures outclass yours.
Game 1: I win the roll and start with a Cursecatcher. On his turn 2, he plays Dark Ritual and plays Hypnotic Specter. Ouch. I try for a Lord of Atlantis to race, but he Snuffs Out that plan. Hippie hits me 5 times, while I proceed to draw no more creatures. He plays Tarmogoyf and Nantuko Shade to make me scoop faster.
SB: +3 Propaganda, +3 Relic of Progenitus, -3 Stifle, -3 Wake Thrasher. Looking back, I probably should have sided in Jitte over the Relics. The Relics are only really good for shrinking Tarmogoyfs, while Jitte can kill his Shades and Hippies. I sided in Propaganda to try to stop his aggression, allowing him only one attack per turn.
Game 2: I get a few early beats in after he Thoughtsiezes a Daze from me. He drops double Nantuko Shade, then an Engineered Plague to kill two Silvergills and a Cursecatcher. His second Plague comes down the next turn to really seal the deal.
1-1, 2-3
Round 3 vs. Zach Gray with Lands. I haven't played much against this deck, but the key is to be very agressive before they can assemble some kind of lock. Make sure you use your Wastelands for maximum effectiveness, since they have about 40 targets for them in their deck. Post board it is easier, as you have access to Back to Basics and Graveyard hate, but remember, they are probably boarding in Krosan Grips and Ancient Grudges, so be careful.
Game 1: He mulligans to six. I get a good start with an Aether Vial. He Gambles for a Loam on turn 1, and plays it on turn 2, while I start Vialing in Cursecatcher and Silvergill Adept to start the beats. He dredges and plays Loam, and I Force it, and add a Lord or Atlantis end of turn. I swing in for a bunch of damage, play a Standstill, draw three when he plays a Seismic Assualt, and Force it to win.
SB: +3 Back to Basics, +3 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Tormod's Crypt, -3 Stifle, -3 Wakethrasher, -2 Echoing Truth. Lands is a very graveyard-based deck, with Life from the Loam, fetch lands, Gamble, and some running Intuition. I knew that the Lands deck was going to be well-represented, so I made sure I had a bunch of graveyard hate. Back to Basics is pretty obviously good here. The Stifles can be useful against things like Maze of Ith and Manabond, but are not as good as the SB cards. I would probably board out Standstills against most decks like this, but I did not see any man-lands Game 1.
Game 2: I mulligan to six and start with a Vial into Cursecatcher and Silvergill Adept. He plays Exploration, and I land a Relic of Progenitus to nip away a Life from the Loam and some cycling lands after that. He stops playing lands after he gets 3 or 4 in play. I slowly beat with my two Merfolk. At some point he Gambles, and with 6 cards in hand, he discards Burning Wish. I can't be certain, but I am pretty sure I got lucky there. Eventually, I stick a Back to Basics, which doesn't really matter since he's not really doing anything. As he draws nearer to sleeping with the fishes (see what I did there?), he plays Glacial Chasm, pays for it once, them packs them in, having no action apparently.
2-1, 4-3
Round 4 vs. Kyle Stewart with Mono-Red Burn. This matchup is swingy. The keys to the matchup are controlling their early creatures, then assembling a quick clock to beat them to death before they throw enough burn at your face. Creature-light hands will be punished.
Game 1: I mulligan to six. He suspends Rift Bolt, and nails me for three after I play a Vial.
He plays a Keldon Marauders. I ramp Vial and play another land. I take a Marauders swing, and he plays another. The next turn, I vial in a Silvergill to chump block, but it eats a Magma Jet. On my turn, I vial in another Silvergill, then play a Lord of Atlantis to start some beats of my own. He combos Flame Javelin with my life total, putting me to seven. I Vial in a Reejery then play another Lord of Atlantis, and attack him to two. He has two cards in hand, and Fireblasts me. I Force, and he scoops.
SB: +2 Umezawa's Jitte, +2 Hydroblast, -3 Stifle, -1 Wakethrasher. The Stifles are useless here, while Jitte can gain me life and keep the equipped creature out of burn range, and Hydroblast for obvious reasons.
Game 2: The same start occurs, with him playing Keldon Marauders on turns 2 and 3. I have a Vial, but this time I am able to play a Silvergill on turn 2 to chump the Marauder. I play another Silvergill and vial in a Lord, but Lord eats a red blast. I let the Marauders hit me. I vial in a Wake Thrasher and start beating face. He Magma Jets me, then Flame Javelins me down to seven. He then Incinerates my Wake Thrasher the turn before he would die to it. Fortunately, I have a Cursecatcher and another lord to play. He topdecks a Fireblast, meaning that if he would have Incinerated me, he would have gotten game 2, since I did not have a Force.
3-1, 6-3
Round 5 vs. Jon Oaks playing Dragon Stompy. This matchup is pretty easy for Merfolk. You can usually tell if your going to win by turn 2. The only way they can beat you is with Trinishpere and Chalice. Other than that, they have inferior creatures, seven or eight Blood Moon effects that are generally useless against you, and their all-in strategy is bad against Daze and Force. Post board, it can get harder as they can board in Red Blasts and sweepers like Pyroclasm and Pyrokinesis.
Game 1: I lose the roll and he mulligans to six. He looks pretty unhappy when he has to mulligan and with the six he keeps. I usually am happy to mulligan, since it usually means I am making a correct decision when given one, less so that I am down a card. One of the keys to this matchup is Trinisphere. If that card resolves, they basically have a three turn window to crush you before you can even put up a defense. I open with a Force, but I don't need it as he has no turn 1 play. I play a Vial. He drops a Jitte on Turn 2 and another Ancient Tomb. I play two Silvergills, and basically beat him to death with no actions from him. After playing a third Ancient Tomb and dropping two Jittes from his hand onto the table, he concedes.
SB: +2 Umezawa's Jitte, +2 Hydroblast, -3 Stifle, -1 Wake Thrasher. You could probably board in Back to Basics for some more Merfolk, if you wanted. Hydroblast comes in against their sweepers, and Jitte can either remove theirs or keep your creatures in command.
Game 2: I keep a Force-less hand with a Vial. He plays an Ancient Tomb, removes Spirit Guide and plays... a morph. Whew. I play my Vial and take a hit from the morph, and then a second. On his third attack, I vial in Silvergill Adept. He pitches to morph up Gathan Raiders, and I Hydroblast it. I get two Reejerys into play, along with a Wake Thrasher, and he only hinders me by blasting my Thrasher. This is a situation where the Merfolk Sovereign would have been better. If I had gotten two Reejereys and a Sovereign into play, he would need at least two sweepers to touch anything on my board, whereas Wake Thrasher just gets in for a few more points of damage.
4-1, 8-3
Round 6 vs. Joseph Cruz playing Ichorid. Like most matches with Ichorid, you have a pretty terrible Game 1. Your only hope game 1 is to counter their early discard outlets, assemble a quick clock, and hope to remove their Bridge from Belows with Cursecatcher. It's by no means impossible, but it's tricky.
Game 1: I win the roll and play a land. He plays a Careful Study on Turn 1, I am holding Daze and Force. I make a misplay by Forcing it instead of Dazing it. I think I wanted to rip a land and play Silvergill Adept to get some pressure going, but that is quite greedy, and it makes my Daze bad if he gets another land. Justice prevails, and I dont draw a land, and he has a second Careful Study after playing his second land. He goes nuts over the next few turns and easily kills me.
SB: +3 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Tormod's Crypt, +2 Propaganda, -3 Stifle, -3 Wake Thrasher, -1 Merrow Reejerey. The artifacts come in for obvious reasons. Propaganda is also quite good in this matchup, I probably should have boarded in the third. Ichorid players generally sideboard in artifact hate, but little or no enchantment hate. With Propaganda, they need to assemble two lands (which can be tough given your Wastelands) to attack you with one creature.
Game 2: He mulligans to five and I have a turn 1 Cursecatcher. I Daze his Careful Study, then waste his City of Brass. He doesn't have another land, but I don't have pressure. I beat with cursecatcher until he gets to eight cards and pitches a Golgari Thug. Thankfully, Lord of Atlantis joins the party to beat enough damage in before his graveyard shenanagans get going.
Unfortunately, my opponent was given a game loss for insufficient randomization while mulliganing game 3. He was riffle shuffling with the card faces towards himself. Even though he was looking away and clearly not cheating, the judges gave him a game loss. I saw this happen a few times at GenCon. Make sure you always shuffle face down multiple times before presenting.
5-1, 10-4
Round 7 vs. Lee Bower playing Merfolk. The mirror is an interesting beast. Aether Vial is the card you most want in play, as it allows you to quickly assemble board position, and allows for instant-speed lord shenanagans. This is another matchup where Sovereign is better than Wake Thrasher, in most cases. Try to make sure you have more creatures than they do.
Game 1: I lose the roll. He goes for turn 1 Vial, I Force. My turn 1 Vial resolves. I guess I'm just good. He plays the first creature in the form of Lord of Atlantis. Fortunately, that gives my Silvergill Adept and Wake Thrasher that I vial in +1/+1 and cakewalk.
SB: +2 Umezawa's Jitte, +2 Propaganda, -3 Stifle, -1 Standstill. Jittes come in since this is creature mirror. Stifle only really gets Vial and Wasteland, and I board out one Standstill since there's a chance it can be a dead draw.
Game 2: We have a nice game of creature combat, swinging back and forth with merfolk. I have a slight edge on creatures and life. On three lands, he plays Jitte, with three cards in hand. I am holding Double Daze. The situation on the board is that I can probably win the game if the Jitte does not get equipped this turn. For some reason, I convince myself that he is holding a land, and Daze the Jitte. He Dazes back, picking up an untapped land. I Daze back, if only to make him sacrifice his Cursecatcher. He drops in his land he picked up, equips, and kills one of my lords. Nice punt, Pete. Threads of Disloyalty on my Cursecatcher seals it.
Game 3: I get far ahead on creatures with my Vial, and start beating down. He stabilizes a bit through some creature trading. I gain an upper edge by wasting a Mutavault when I had one of my own in play. I draw a Jitte, play and equip it. I am a bit light on mana and creatures, so I can't attack with Mutavault and have to trade my Silvergill with Jitte for a Sovereign. I equip my Cursecatcher the next turn with Jitte and tap out to attack with Mutavault and the Cursecatcher into an open board. Jitte gets Echoing Truthed, but my Cursecatcher becomes a 5/5 and takes him down to 3. He impressively plays two blockers the next turn, but I pluck a Lord of Atlantis off the top and Vial it in for the win.
6-1, 12-5
Afterwards, I talk with Lee about boarding out Lord of Atlantis in the mirror. He says that he boarded all of his out, since the card can obviously help out your opponent more than it can help you. I am of the mind that in the mirror you simply want more Merfolk in your deck than your opponent. If you have more creatures than them, Lord is always better for you. Ben Wienburg (who split the prizes in this event, nice job!) tells me I'm an idiot and should board out two of them. In my defense, I don't really have anything else to board into the mirror. Propaganda isn't really that great, but Jittes are obviously insane.
After Round 7, I was very much hoping to be able to draw into the finals. unfortunatlely, there were about 11 people at X-1 or better, and I was in eigth after seven rounds, so I had to play it out.
Round 8 vs. UGB Counterbalance. This deck is the worst matchup of the Counterbalance decks, but still not too bad. Their manabase is more stable, and they have more removal. You need to beat them down quickly before their Dark Confidants and Tarmogoyfs stop you.
Game 1: I get the nuts by Forcing through my T1 Vial, and follow it up with a T2 Standstill. My vial puts plenty of creatures into play, and his Dark Confidant can't catch him up.
SB: -3 Wake Thrasher, +3 Back to Basics. This is a mistake. His version of Counterbalance was very stable on mana, as could be seen by his Wastelands. I should have simply stuck to my maindeck, or at most boarded Jittes. Back to Basics is good against the four-color Counterbalance decks and a few other things, but Spell Snare might just be better against more things.
Game 2: I get a nice start again with a Vial, and start smashing face. As he is getting low on life, he finds a Smother for my Lord of Atlantis, and I can't find any other creatures. I was told by my opponent after the match that I missed a Mutavault attack, which may have cost me the game since he ended the game at 3 life. His Dark Confidant found two Tarmogoyfs to end me quickly.
Game 3: I keep a very mediocre hand, and my double Back to Basics are dead cards. I can't find creatures once again, and Tarmogoyfs knock me right out of Top 8 contention. This game wasn't close.
6-2, 13-7
13th place.
Overall, I was pretty happy with my performance. Merfolk is insane, and I would play the deck again in my next Legacy event without hesitation. In my opinion the deck is Tier 1, and can go toe-to-toe with pretty much any deck. The only matchup in which Merfolk felt like a dog was the GB matchup. I think that with a little tweaking, and avoiding those obvious misplays I talked about, I can do very well with this deck.
SUPER BONUS: Post-tournament happenings.
After that, I evacuated the building for the GenCon fire alarm. I heard there was a bomb threat, some Yu-gi-Oh players prank pulled it, and that an oven somewhere was smoking. After the mass nerd Exodus, I collected my sweet Top 16 prize of a Chinese Portal: Three Kingdoms pack, an Italian Legends Pack, and an Italian Revised Pack. More on that to come.
I moved back into the TCG hall to watch the Top 8 of the PTQ with some friends from Columbus. We talked about bad beat stories, Vintage, and absurd trades. My friend from Cincinnati Mike Belfatto was playing 5-Color Control and Rich from Columbus was playing Baneslayer combo in the Top 8. I was told that the combo is that when one of your Baneslayers dies, you play another one, thus comboing out. Furthermore, Baneslayer combos with your opponent's face, by not only removing five of their life points, but also adding five to yours. Now THAT'S synergy.
Shortly afterwards, we got a 3v3 cube draft going with some of my friends from Cleveland and two of the guys from Columbus. I draft a pretty nutty UBGR deck with all kinds of platinum hits like Pernicious Deed, Broodmate Dragon, Puppeteer Clique, and Profane Command. I beat Rich's UW deck, although his Calciderm beats my face in game 1. I play Andrew next, who has an insane UB reanimator deck, making the best use of Compulsion I have ever seen. Game 1 isn't close, as he draws about 10 cards off of a Mulldrifter with Spitting Image and proceeds to Yosei me twice. I get game two with some Puppeteer Clique action and Lavalanching for the win. I get lucky game 3 as he can't find blue. I play against a GBW midrange deck in Round 3, and easily win 2-0. Game 2 went very long, and my opponent activated Library of Alexandria about 9 times. At one point, he swing with Genesis, and I block with a 3/2 Puppeteer Clique, and get back his Reveillark (he has Teneb in the graveyard, and I have Vesuvan Shapeshifter in mine). I flashback by Strangling Soot to kill the Reveillark. Seeing what is about to happen, he kills my Puppeteer Clique. Boo! I don't know about you, but killing my Reveillark to reanimate a Shapeshifter to get a Teneb to hit him the next turn to get back his Reveillark again seemed fun. Don't worry though, I had Profane Command to kill him.
Teammate extraordinare Aaron Wyant won a single game in three matches with his GRw Zoo deck. He even proved my prediction true of Cascading a Wurm into a 0/0 Apocalypse Hydra. Fortunately, my friend Brian was able to put together a 2-1 record with three Moxen, Tezzeret, and a bunch of Dragons, propelling us to victory at about 4 in the morning.
The next day, I shopped around my packs to the dealers. As I was only able to get about $15 a pack for them, I decided to just bust them. I continued my hot streak and got an Imperial Recruiter out of the Portal pack. The other two were duds, the Revised containing Millstone and the Legends Pack containing some God-forsaken rare; it was either a Kobold or something to do with Banding, and the uncommons had nothing to do with countering a spell and then adding mana during your next precombat main phase. After complaining out loud about dealers paying $50 for a card that they were selling for $100 and more, I got a free business lesson from Gerry Thompson and Cedric Phillips regarding dealers. Apparently, these dealers are trying to turn a profit to pay for the absurd cost of a booth at GenCon, and to feed their families, or whatever. Luckily, I was able to find a gentleman to pay me $75 for the Recruiter.
GenCon was absolutely awesome, I had a blast. I met some awesome Magic players, played a new format (Vintage), did well in Legacy, and got some sweet stories for the good-story-basket.
I've been boarding out vials, stifles, E-truths, and a single Lord of Atlantis for the Lands matchup. I've been happy with bringing in a couple of misdirections to compliment the Back to Basics strategy.
There are actually a few non-blue matchups where I've found myself boarding out vials. I think it's a good move a lot of the time.
Just to let you know that imperial recruiters go for about $150 to $200 each
other than that, good job on your merfolk deck
That might be true for English ones, but all the dealers were selling the Chinese/Japanese for $100-$110, so I don't think they're worth any more than that.
I've been boarding out vials, stifles, E-truths, and a single Lord of Atlantis for the Lands matchup. I've been happy with bringing in a couple of misdirections to compliment the Back to Basics strategy.
There are actually a few non-blue matchups where I've found myself boarding out vials. I think it's a good move a lot of the time.
Interesting. You don't think Standstill is worse given their man-lands and Wastelands? What other matches do you board out the vials? What do you board in against Counterbalance decks (as I said in the report, I have been liking BtB less and less against CB)?
Oh totally forgot about that Tidal Courier xP. I'll try and get a set of 4, run the Shoals and see how that works. I don't have any Standstills either, that will actually help a TON.
I have a question for you, have you tested this deck at all? Have you tried other Merfolk over those cards? Which decks are they better against. No offense, but if you aren't joking you really need to look at Legacy more and look at how this deck works, none of those are really viable choices except for maybe sideboard Seasinger and Tidal Warrior.
The remaining cards you suggested stand no chance of being competitive in the current Legacy environment, they are all fine in casual, but not in tournament play. I would recommend trying to test this deck out yourself or at least read about the deck in its primer here or on The Source and learn about card choices for it.
I currently play only two formats, what I play in them is:
Legacy: Domain Zoo, RGW Zoo, Merfolk, Solidarity, Mono Black Aggro
EDH: Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Trade Thread
Not really because the current mono-red Goblin has that 3 open slots that are usually dedicated for 2-drop Goblins (Mogg War Marshall, Stingscouger or Goblin Tinker). The new lackey is broken if left unchecked.
Lets go back to merfolks, I used to run a Merfolk deck that runs the CounterTop engine. With Lullmage Mentor, I think CounterTop merfolk has a shot
Lullmage Mentor reads as:
The second ability sucks but couple this with the available lords that we have, you could make an army of big merfolks in no time!
I would imagine CounterTop Merfolk as less aggressive but more controling.
Thanks for spiderboy4 of High~Light_Studios for the kick ass avatar.
Thanks for DarkNightCavalier of HotPS for the exceptional signature.
Is Honor Of The Pure a terrible card? It seems to be under your judgements. Why does it cost $20 if it's so horrible? Sunken City is damn nearly the identical thing and it's the only thing blue has that compares. Black has Bad Moon and white used to have Crusade both see play in Legacy all the time and I see them in just about every Legacy night I go to. I see people with like $1.5k decks that run Crusade. So what is wrong with Sunken City please explain?
Do you just follow the crowd? It's not a cumulative upkeep it is payed one time. Except that on the turn you cast it it boosts your merfolk an insane amount. It effectively deals an extra 4 to 5 damage with one shot, seriously. And yes I have played this deck I told you the only cards I am missing from the list is Lord Of Atlantis. Seems like a good strategy to me. Maybe I am blind is Sunken City not identical to Bad Moon and Crusade.
This is a very creature heavy deck so why is it not included?
http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=11595
I bet you're all going to say Sunken City is amazing now or something? Placed 8th out of 41 with 4 maindeck Sunken City and 4 maindeck Unstable Mutation?
Instead of discounting what I say because of my username maybe listen to me instead? And hear me out.
Go ahead and ignore me if you want but it's right there he top 8'd with a Merfolk deck running 4 Sunken City and 4 Unstable Mutation.
I don't choose to play with that card myself, but I've gotten 6 damage to the head without an answer multiple times.
Is there another card that does that? NO. That is why it sees some play. Things are not as black and white as you suggest.
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Just think about it. You have creatures in your hand. You're not that far from winning. You can play a Sunken City or you can play a creature. What should you play? Knowing that if you play your Sunken City and it is unanswered it accelerates the amount of damage you deal like a turn and half do you play a creature instead?
ZING!
Oh and Tarmogoyf is an expensive card, and it makes all decks it is played in cost an extra $200. I seldom see it.
I'm lucky that I opened one from a pack, but I will probably not play with it as I think I need to cast them in multiples to make them playable. The first and only goyf I would play would get killed. I would have won against decks running goyf easily had they not played a 2nd or 3rd goyf. You can't answer everything all the time which is why decks running FOUR of them do so well.
I might even play Dandan in this deck but I am a bit crazy for doing that as it is not a merfolk.. it is STILL a creature with a static 4 power body for 2 though. So.. I would need 2 Lords in play at once to make anything else I play better.
In fact here is another interesting list..
http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=23766
What is maindeck'd here? Seasinger. Why? It effectively removes a card from the opposing board. Is that good? yes. So why not consider it? So it's from Fallen Empires BIG DEAL.
Then i don't see why you are posting in the proven competitive forums at all.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
can we not feed the troll?!?!?
please... this is getting idiotic...
if the troll wants to run a subpar deck, let the troll run it
anyways at the end of the day, your not the one whos going to lose...
back on merfolks, pre-zendikar, does anyone run countertop merfolk here?
Thanks for spiderboy4 of High~Light_Studios for the kick ass avatar.
Thanks for DarkNightCavalier of HotPS for the exceptional signature.
I would rather spend $200 on rent.
Sorry
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Whatevr..
I just though Sunken City could be liege numbers 8-12. Keep your lords and all. consider it. thats all.
Fair enough. Lets do a REAL comparison of the two. Lets see what they share in common.
They both give +1/+1 to creatures, and that's the only thing they have in common.
Honor of the Pure Costs W1 thus making it EASIER to cast out in multi-colored decks giving it a flexibility that Sunken City does not have.
Now you're probably thinking "Well that's stupid Merfolks gonna be 1 color anyway I don't see that as an issue." well, this IS the COMPETITIVE sub-forums, so our threats are FAR different then the casual circuit and because of that we may run Wasteland or Rishadan Port or Mutavault" target="blank">Mutavault. My point is we won't be running 100% islands and that 2 UU might be a problem. NOW Blue does have solutions to some of those issues, but now you're over compensating for a measly +1/+1 with additional card slots and taking AWAY from it's focus and over con volute the deck.
NOW you might ask yourself this "Just run all blue you don't need those other types of lands." Now if I'm playing a POX player and he has out Mishra's Factory a swamp and Volrath's Stronghold and then plays Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth" target="blank">Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth What's gonna be more important +1/+1 or Wasteland? Exactly.
Now correct me if I'm wrong Sunken City gives ALL blue creatures the bonus right? So in a mirror match, hell in any match that has blue you're purposely giving your opponent an edge, and that pretty much defeats the purpose, right? Right. Cause Honor of the Pure only supports your creatures not the opponents.
Lastly... upkeep. For +1/+1 UU is a KILLER, so assuming you pull it out on turn 2, turn 3 you're gonna be left with 1 mana while your opponent is gonna have all 3 or 4 to play with... not worth slowing down a deck thats meant to be fast for such minimal gain.
Is there anything else you want to know?
I think you might be cause those do not have upkeeps. But let me ask you now, using my POX example what would you play since you're running Wasteland for POX. Cursade or Honor of the Pure?
I hope by now you're beginning to see its value atleast in standard.
Yes, TOP 8 in a tournament that took place close to 2 years ago, and the meta has changed quite a bit during that time. And people probably weren't realizing the power of Tarmogoyf" target="blank">Tarmogoyf at the time, no I know they weren't. Try finding something recent with Merfolks and lets look at the list.
No I'm pretty sure people saw it RIGHT AWAY. but anyway..
Sunken City has an upkeep. We covered that. Who said you had to pay the upkeep?
Ok,
Also, it is UU. You're right. Wasteland is meta dependent and for me wasteland would matter little. I was actually considering Mana Vortex. For my meta this is great because Mana Vortex sucks all the lands away not just non basics. A lot of the decks I play against (ok so I'm talking about a couple players in my meta in particular) when they play with fetches they have basics too, and they also have stuff like Ghost Quarter so yes they come prepared. I've played back to basics a lot like Blood Moon and I was surprised how easily they could recover.
And no sorry I said Tolaria West I keep misreading that card. Does not work in tandem with the Transmute it is a new card for me I like just got it.
This is the Competitive forum. Deck construction should not be limited by budget reasons or for playing bad cards for some other reason.
There should no justification for wanting to play suboptimal cards in competitive play. At all.
Sunken City is not run for several reasons, several of which have been covered already.
Unstable Mutation isn't run for the following.
Dandan? Ugh.
Please, don't mention such sub-par cards.
(Siggy adapted, DarkHunter1357 (deviantART))
belive me, i've tried to use Sunken City and it wasn't very good. For every one time that it is actually good, theres probably 3 situations that it isn't.
The 2nd ability does suck pretty badly. It's similar to that elf druid that had you tap 7 druids so you could take control of an opponent's lands. If you have 7 critters on the board, the only reason you'd want to tap them is to attack.
I wouldn't see the mage in the current decklist though, he's just subpar. Zendikar will bring us other merfolk, hopefully something we can really debate about.
Speaking of new cards, what do you guys think about Mindbreak Trap?
On paper, it's a reasonable answer to Volcanic Fallout, Great Sable Stag and at least helps a little bit against ANT.
In practice, I kind of think that the mana cost compared to the above cards and the issue w/ Orim's ChANT may make it too weak in comparison. I hope this doesn't go down as the block in which all the fun that is normally blue is made hideously slow and awkward as a punishment for having enjoyed Cryptic Command and flash faeries (why isn't black getting splash damage for faeries?). Wasn't Kamigawa block mono blue so awesome! All those 8 mana 2/2 and 3/2 flyers that did nifty things if you bounced all your land back to your hand and died before you could lay them back out again?
If Legacy burn picks up the new Chandra for late game, though, that's another point in favor of side-boarding. Except that you'd probably rather just have Chill. Or Hydroblast.
For FNM reports, Legacy reports and commentary: http://justindz.tumblr.com
Is there any chance Merrow Commerce could be useful? I love the card, but I have never found a great use for it...unless you're running some weird lockdown-Opposition deck....just a thought I'd like some feedback on.
I also thought Arcane Laboratory would make it pretty funny. Obviously too many things need to be going on, but it might be funny in a more casual setting.
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
(A bit of an Introduction. My name is Peter Johnson. I am a decent Magic player from Cleveland, Ohio. I'm 19, and I go to school in Cincinnati. I do well on occasion, but have never made Top 8 of a PTQ, or anything other than an MSS. I would love to play on the Pro Tour, if only once. My favorite part of Magic is tournaments, cube drafts, and meeting new players.)
I love Legacy, it’s probably my favorite constructed format. I think that Wizards has done a remarkable job with their selection of card bannings. Every type of deck is viable: aggro has Goblins, Zoo, Burn; control has Counterbalance decks and lock decks; midrange has Tempo Threshold and Merfolk; Combo has Storm and Ichorid. Plus, there are those kooky decks that can work like Enchantress and 43 Lands. Heck, I saw a Stasis deck that started off in the X-0 bracket for a few rounds, and there was a Helldozer deck doing very well. There’s something for everybody in the format, yet all of the decks seems very fair and beatable.
For this tournament, I chose to play Merfolk. I played Merfolk at GP Chicago, and finished 6-3 (no byes) after losing to my opponent with one life, playing for Day 2.
Merfolk is an awesome deck; it provides a quick clock with agressive creatures, while using counterspells and mana denial to disrupt opponents' plans. In addition, your land base is very resilient since it plays so many basic lands, which is unique among most decks in Legacy. Playing a ton of basic lands gives you an edge over any deck that takes advantage of Legacy manabases, like Dragon Stompy, or any decks that also pack Wasteland and Stifle. Plus, you get to play Aether Vial, which is absurd.
Here’s the list I registered:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
3 Wake Thrasher
4 Aether Vial
4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Stifle
2 Echoing Truth
12 Island
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
Sideboard
3 Back to Basics
3 Propaganda
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Hydroblast
A few notes about the decklist:
- The Wake Thrashers should probably be Merfolk Sovereigns, or at least a 2-1 split. Wake Thrasher is good, but it is often sided out, and the cases in which it is better than Merfolk Sovereign is probably fewer than the cases in which the extra lords are better. That being said, the Merfolk Sovereigns do cost double-blue. I don't think that the manabase would have to be fiddled with to accomodate the extra lords, but it is something I have not tested.
- Some people are taking Stifles out of the deck in favor of more Merfolk, or other utility cards (like Jitte, Misdirection, etc.). I am a pretty big fan of Stifle. Cutting it seems to weaken your mana denial plan, which can win games by itself. Plus, it's a nice answer to random triggers like Aether Vial, Survival, Charbelcher, Manabond, etc. I Stifled a point of damage from a Keldon Marauders in this tournament. Not the best use of the card, but it just shows that it is rarely dead.
- Echoing Truth is sort of a catch-all bounce spell. I would highly recommend playing two maindeck bounce spells, whether it's Echoing Truth, Wipe Away, or Rushing River. It can bounce an annoying artifact or enchantment than gets through your counters, and it is also a great tempo tool to get your attackers through unmolested. It's also a random "out" to Ichorid and sometimes Engineered Plague. I rarely boarded them out.
- I am also a proponent of the full four Mutavault and Wasteland. Playing four Wastelands maximizes your mana denial strategy, and it will almost always have a nice target in Legacy. Mutavault is also awesome. This is a creature deck, and Mutavault is essentially four more creatures that you get to play. Playing the full four maximizes aggressiveness and makes your Standstills that much better.
- The sideboard was pretty good for me, except for Back to Basics. It was very hit-or-miss during the tournament. I usually only board it against Lands and Counterbalance, and it is not even that great against 3-color versions of the deck. I will look for some sort of replacement to this in the future, I am thinking Spell Snare.
Now, let's get to the action, shall we?
Round 1 vs. Dustin Patton, playing UGBW Counterbalance. Generally, the Counterbalance matchups are pretty good for Merfolk, and they are one of the reasons to play the deck. Versions with a black splash are worse, since they have access to more spot removal and Engineered Plague. I've found that the four-color version is pretty easy to beat since your mana denial plan is very effective.
Game 1: I resolve a turn 1 Aether Vial with a Daze, and spend two of my next three turns Wastelanding his land drops and Stifling a fetch land. Cursecatcher, Lord of Atlantis and Mutavault take him down quickly while he tries to find mana.
SB: +3 Back to Basics, -3 Wake Thrasher. Wake Thrasher (or Merfolk Sovereign) is probably the card you board out most. He is generally your weakest creature, and the rest of your Merfolk can usually provide enough pressure to get the job done. I bring in Back to Basics here since he has a maximum of two basics in his deck.
Game 2: I keep a creature-light hand, and after my Lord of Atlantis goes farming, I stall out on creatures except for a lone Cursecatcher. He is on nine life, but his Dark Confidant stops dealing him damage after he gets Top, and starts beating with a Goyf. Another Goyf joins the party and smash me quickly.
Game 3: I mull to six, and have a turn 1 Cursecatcher, followed by a turn 2 Standstill. He immediately breaks the Standstill with a Brainstorm, so I have a full hand. I stifle two more fetches this game, and start slowly beating with Cursecatcher. In the meantime, I resolve a Back to Basics, locking down two of his lands. Later in the game, I play Merrow Reejerey to quicken my clock. He fetches for a fourth land to play a Rhox War Monk with one mana up. I let it resolve, and hit it with a end of turn Echoing Truth, and he packs them in.
1-0, 2-1
Round 2 vs. Brendon playing Eva Green. Merfolk's matchup against agressive black decks is pretty bad. They have lots of disruption with their discard spells, and too many threats for your hard counters. Additionally, they generally have enough removal so that you cannot race them. In a nutshell, they have too many must-counters and their creatures outclass yours.
Game 1: I win the roll and start with a Cursecatcher. On his turn 2, he plays Dark Ritual and plays Hypnotic Specter. Ouch. I try for a Lord of Atlantis to race, but he Snuffs Out that plan. Hippie hits me 5 times, while I proceed to draw no more creatures. He plays Tarmogoyf and Nantuko Shade to make me scoop faster.
SB: +3 Propaganda, +3 Relic of Progenitus, -3 Stifle, -3 Wake Thrasher. Looking back, I probably should have sided in Jitte over the Relics. The Relics are only really good for shrinking Tarmogoyfs, while Jitte can kill his Shades and Hippies. I sided in Propaganda to try to stop his aggression, allowing him only one attack per turn.
Game 2: I get a few early beats in after he Thoughtsiezes a Daze from me. He drops double Nantuko Shade, then an Engineered Plague to kill two Silvergills and a Cursecatcher. His second Plague comes down the next turn to really seal the deal.
1-1, 2-3
Round 3 vs. Zach Gray with Lands. I haven't played much against this deck, but the key is to be very agressive before they can assemble some kind of lock. Make sure you use your Wastelands for maximum effectiveness, since they have about 40 targets for them in their deck. Post board it is easier, as you have access to Back to Basics and Graveyard hate, but remember, they are probably boarding in Krosan Grips and Ancient Grudges, so be careful.
Game 1: He mulligans to six. I get a good start with an Aether Vial. He Gambles for a Loam on turn 1, and plays it on turn 2, while I start Vialing in Cursecatcher and Silvergill Adept to start the beats. He dredges and plays Loam, and I Force it, and add a Lord or Atlantis end of turn. I swing in for a bunch of damage, play a Standstill, draw three when he plays a Seismic Assualt, and Force it to win.
SB: +3 Back to Basics, +3 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Tormod's Crypt, -3 Stifle, -3 Wakethrasher, -2 Echoing Truth. Lands is a very graveyard-based deck, with Life from the Loam, fetch lands, Gamble, and some running Intuition. I knew that the Lands deck was going to be well-represented, so I made sure I had a bunch of graveyard hate. Back to Basics is pretty obviously good here. The Stifles can be useful against things like Maze of Ith and Manabond, but are not as good as the SB cards. I would probably board out Standstills against most decks like this, but I did not see any man-lands Game 1.
Game 2: I mulligan to six and start with a Vial into Cursecatcher and Silvergill Adept. He plays Exploration, and I land a Relic of Progenitus to nip away a Life from the Loam and some cycling lands after that. He stops playing lands after he gets 3 or 4 in play. I slowly beat with my two Merfolk. At some point he Gambles, and with 6 cards in hand, he discards Burning Wish. I can't be certain, but I am pretty sure I got lucky there. Eventually, I stick a Back to Basics, which doesn't really matter since he's not really doing anything. As he draws nearer to sleeping with the fishes (see what I did there?), he plays Glacial Chasm, pays for it once, them packs them in, having no action apparently.
2-1, 4-3
Round 4 vs. Kyle Stewart with Mono-Red Burn. This matchup is swingy. The keys to the matchup are controlling their early creatures, then assembling a quick clock to beat them to death before they throw enough burn at your face. Creature-light hands will be punished.
Game 1: I mulligan to six. He suspends Rift Bolt, and nails me for three after I play a Vial.
He plays a Keldon Marauders. I ramp Vial and play another land. I take a Marauders swing, and he plays another. The next turn, I vial in a Silvergill to chump block, but it eats a Magma Jet. On my turn, I vial in another Silvergill, then play a Lord of Atlantis to start some beats of my own. He combos Flame Javelin with my life total, putting me to seven. I Vial in a Reejery then play another Lord of Atlantis, and attack him to two. He has two cards in hand, and Fireblasts me. I Force, and he scoops.
SB: +2 Umezawa's Jitte, +2 Hydroblast, -3 Stifle, -1 Wakethrasher. The Stifles are useless here, while Jitte can gain me life and keep the equipped creature out of burn range, and Hydroblast for obvious reasons.
Game 2: The same start occurs, with him playing Keldon Marauders on turns 2 and 3. I have a Vial, but this time I am able to play a Silvergill on turn 2 to chump the Marauder. I play another Silvergill and vial in a Lord, but Lord eats a red blast. I let the Marauders hit me. I vial in a Wake Thrasher and start beating face. He Magma Jets me, then Flame Javelins me down to seven. He then Incinerates my Wake Thrasher the turn before he would die to it. Fortunately, I have a Cursecatcher and another lord to play. He topdecks a Fireblast, meaning that if he would have Incinerated me, he would have gotten game 2, since I did not have a Force.
3-1, 6-3
Round 5 vs. Jon Oaks playing Dragon Stompy. This matchup is pretty easy for Merfolk. You can usually tell if your going to win by turn 2. The only way they can beat you is with Trinishpere and Chalice. Other than that, they have inferior creatures, seven or eight Blood Moon effects that are generally useless against you, and their all-in strategy is bad against Daze and Force. Post board, it can get harder as they can board in Red Blasts and sweepers like Pyroclasm and Pyrokinesis.
Game 1: I lose the roll and he mulligans to six. He looks pretty unhappy when he has to mulligan and with the six he keeps. I usually am happy to mulligan, since it usually means I am making a correct decision when given one, less so that I am down a card. One of the keys to this matchup is Trinisphere. If that card resolves, they basically have a three turn window to crush you before you can even put up a defense. I open with a Force, but I don't need it as he has no turn 1 play. I play a Vial. He drops a Jitte on Turn 2 and another Ancient Tomb. I play two Silvergills, and basically beat him to death with no actions from him. After playing a third Ancient Tomb and dropping two Jittes from his hand onto the table, he concedes.
SB: +2 Umezawa's Jitte, +2 Hydroblast, -3 Stifle, -1 Wake Thrasher. You could probably board in Back to Basics for some more Merfolk, if you wanted. Hydroblast comes in against their sweepers, and Jitte can either remove theirs or keep your creatures in command.
Game 2: I keep a Force-less hand with a Vial. He plays an Ancient Tomb, removes Spirit Guide and plays... a morph. Whew. I play my Vial and take a hit from the morph, and then a second. On his third attack, I vial in Silvergill Adept. He pitches to morph up Gathan Raiders, and I Hydroblast it. I get two Reejerys into play, along with a Wake Thrasher, and he only hinders me by blasting my Thrasher. This is a situation where the Merfolk Sovereign would have been better. If I had gotten two Reejereys and a Sovereign into play, he would need at least two sweepers to touch anything on my board, whereas Wake Thrasher just gets in for a few more points of damage.
4-1, 8-3
Round 6 vs. Joseph Cruz playing Ichorid. Like most matches with Ichorid, you have a pretty terrible Game 1. Your only hope game 1 is to counter their early discard outlets, assemble a quick clock, and hope to remove their Bridge from Belows with Cursecatcher. It's by no means impossible, but it's tricky.
Game 1: I win the roll and play a land. He plays a Careful Study on Turn 1, I am holding Daze and Force. I make a misplay by Forcing it instead of Dazing it. I think I wanted to rip a land and play Silvergill Adept to get some pressure going, but that is quite greedy, and it makes my Daze bad if he gets another land. Justice prevails, and I dont draw a land, and he has a second Careful Study after playing his second land. He goes nuts over the next few turns and easily kills me.
SB: +3 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Tormod's Crypt, +2 Propaganda, -3 Stifle, -3 Wake Thrasher, -1 Merrow Reejerey. The artifacts come in for obvious reasons. Propaganda is also quite good in this matchup, I probably should have boarded in the third. Ichorid players generally sideboard in artifact hate, but little or no enchantment hate. With Propaganda, they need to assemble two lands (which can be tough given your Wastelands) to attack you with one creature.
Game 2: He mulligans to five and I have a turn 1 Cursecatcher. I Daze his Careful Study, then waste his City of Brass. He doesn't have another land, but I don't have pressure. I beat with cursecatcher until he gets to eight cards and pitches a Golgari Thug. Thankfully, Lord of Atlantis joins the party to beat enough damage in before his graveyard shenanagans get going.
Unfortunately, my opponent was given a game loss for insufficient randomization while mulliganing game 3. He was riffle shuffling with the card faces towards himself. Even though he was looking away and clearly not cheating, the judges gave him a game loss. I saw this happen a few times at GenCon. Make sure you always shuffle face down multiple times before presenting.
5-1, 10-4
Round 7 vs. Lee Bower playing Merfolk. The mirror is an interesting beast. Aether Vial is the card you most want in play, as it allows you to quickly assemble board position, and allows for instant-speed lord shenanagans. This is another matchup where Sovereign is better than Wake Thrasher, in most cases. Try to make sure you have more creatures than they do.
Game 1: I lose the roll. He goes for turn 1 Vial, I Force. My turn 1 Vial resolves. I guess I'm just good. He plays the first creature in the form of Lord of Atlantis. Fortunately, that gives my Silvergill Adept and Wake Thrasher that I vial in +1/+1 and cakewalk.
SB: +2 Umezawa's Jitte, +2 Propaganda, -3 Stifle, -1 Standstill. Jittes come in since this is creature mirror. Stifle only really gets Vial and Wasteland, and I board out one Standstill since there's a chance it can be a dead draw.
Game 2: We have a nice game of creature combat, swinging back and forth with merfolk. I have a slight edge on creatures and life. On three lands, he plays Jitte, with three cards in hand. I am holding Double Daze. The situation on the board is that I can probably win the game if the Jitte does not get equipped this turn. For some reason, I convince myself that he is holding a land, and Daze the Jitte. He Dazes back, picking up an untapped land. I Daze back, if only to make him sacrifice his Cursecatcher. He drops in his land he picked up, equips, and kills one of my lords. Nice punt, Pete. Threads of Disloyalty on my Cursecatcher seals it.
Game 3: I get far ahead on creatures with my Vial, and start beating down. He stabilizes a bit through some creature trading. I gain an upper edge by wasting a Mutavault when I had one of my own in play. I draw a Jitte, play and equip it. I am a bit light on mana and creatures, so I can't attack with Mutavault and have to trade my Silvergill with Jitte for a Sovereign. I equip my Cursecatcher the next turn with Jitte and tap out to attack with Mutavault and the Cursecatcher into an open board. Jitte gets Echoing Truthed, but my Cursecatcher becomes a 5/5 and takes him down to 3. He impressively plays two blockers the next turn, but I pluck a Lord of Atlantis off the top and Vial it in for the win.
6-1, 12-5
Afterwards, I talk with Lee about boarding out Lord of Atlantis in the mirror. He says that he boarded all of his out, since the card can obviously help out your opponent more than it can help you. I am of the mind that in the mirror you simply want more Merfolk in your deck than your opponent. If you have more creatures than them, Lord is always better for you. Ben Wienburg (who split the prizes in this event, nice job!) tells me I'm an idiot and should board out two of them. In my defense, I don't really have anything else to board into the mirror. Propaganda isn't really that great, but Jittes are obviously insane.
After Round 7, I was very much hoping to be able to draw into the finals. unfortunatlely, there were about 11 people at X-1 or better, and I was in eigth after seven rounds, so I had to play it out.
Round 8 vs. UGB Counterbalance. This deck is the worst matchup of the Counterbalance decks, but still not too bad. Their manabase is more stable, and they have more removal. You need to beat them down quickly before their Dark Confidants and Tarmogoyfs stop you.
Game 1: I get the nuts by Forcing through my T1 Vial, and follow it up with a T2 Standstill. My vial puts plenty of creatures into play, and his Dark Confidant can't catch him up.
SB: -3 Wake Thrasher, +3 Back to Basics. This is a mistake. His version of Counterbalance was very stable on mana, as could be seen by his Wastelands. I should have simply stuck to my maindeck, or at most boarded Jittes. Back to Basics is good against the four-color Counterbalance decks and a few other things, but Spell Snare might just be better against more things.
Game 2: I get a nice start again with a Vial, and start smashing face. As he is getting low on life, he finds a Smother for my Lord of Atlantis, and I can't find any other creatures. I was told by my opponent after the match that I missed a Mutavault attack, which may have cost me the game since he ended the game at 3 life. His Dark Confidant found two Tarmogoyfs to end me quickly.
Game 3: I keep a very mediocre hand, and my double Back to Basics are dead cards. I can't find creatures once again, and Tarmogoyfs knock me right out of Top 8 contention. This game wasn't close.
6-2, 13-7
13th place.
Overall, I was pretty happy with my performance. Merfolk is insane, and I would play the deck again in my next Legacy event without hesitation. In my opinion the deck is Tier 1, and can go toe-to-toe with pretty much any deck. The only matchup in which Merfolk felt like a dog was the GB matchup. I think that with a little tweaking, and avoiding those obvious misplays I talked about, I can do very well with this deck.
SUPER BONUS: Post-tournament happenings.
After that, I evacuated the building for the GenCon fire alarm. I heard there was a bomb threat, some Yu-gi-Oh players prank pulled it, and that an oven somewhere was smoking. After the mass nerd Exodus, I collected my sweet Top 16 prize of a Chinese Portal: Three Kingdoms pack, an Italian Legends Pack, and an Italian Revised Pack. More on that to come.
I moved back into the TCG hall to watch the Top 8 of the PTQ with some friends from Columbus. We talked about bad beat stories, Vintage, and absurd trades. My friend from Cincinnati Mike Belfatto was playing 5-Color Control and Rich from Columbus was playing Baneslayer combo in the Top 8. I was told that the combo is that when one of your Baneslayers dies, you play another one, thus comboing out. Furthermore, Baneslayer combos with your opponent's face, by not only removing five of their life points, but also adding five to yours. Now THAT'S synergy.
Shortly afterwards, we got a 3v3 cube draft going with some of my friends from Cleveland and two of the guys from Columbus. I draft a pretty nutty UBGR deck with all kinds of platinum hits like Pernicious Deed, Broodmate Dragon, Puppeteer Clique, and Profane Command. I beat Rich's UW deck, although his Calciderm beats my face in game 1. I play Andrew next, who has an insane UB reanimator deck, making the best use of Compulsion I have ever seen. Game 1 isn't close, as he draws about 10 cards off of a Mulldrifter with Spitting Image and proceeds to Yosei me twice. I get game two with some Puppeteer Clique action and Lavalanching for the win. I get lucky game 3 as he can't find blue. I play against a GBW midrange deck in Round 3, and easily win 2-0. Game 2 went very long, and my opponent activated Library of Alexandria about 9 times. At one point, he swing with Genesis, and I block with a 3/2 Puppeteer Clique, and get back his Reveillark (he has Teneb in the graveyard, and I have Vesuvan Shapeshifter in mine). I flashback by Strangling Soot to kill the Reveillark. Seeing what is about to happen, he kills my Puppeteer Clique. Boo! I don't know about you, but killing my Reveillark to reanimate a Shapeshifter to get a Teneb to hit him the next turn to get back his Reveillark again seemed fun. Don't worry though, I had Profane Command to kill him.
Teammate extraordinare Aaron Wyant won a single game in three matches with his GRw Zoo deck. He even proved my prediction true of Cascading a Wurm into a 0/0 Apocalypse Hydra. Fortunately, my friend Brian was able to put together a 2-1 record with three Moxen, Tezzeret, and a bunch of Dragons, propelling us to victory at about 4 in the morning.
The next day, I shopped around my packs to the dealers. As I was only able to get about $15 a pack for them, I decided to just bust them. I continued my hot streak and got an Imperial Recruiter out of the Portal pack. The other two were duds, the Revised containing Millstone and the Legends Pack containing some God-forsaken rare; it was either a Kobold or something to do with Banding, and the uncommons had nothing to do with countering a spell and then adding mana during your next precombat main phase. After complaining out loud about dealers paying $50 for a card that they were selling for $100 and more, I got a free business lesson from Gerry Thompson and Cedric Phillips regarding dealers. Apparently, these dealers are trying to turn a profit to pay for the absurd cost of a booth at GenCon, and to feed their families, or whatever. Luckily, I was able to find a gentleman to pay me $75 for the Recruiter.
GenCon was absolutely awesome, I had a blast. I met some awesome Magic players, played a new format (Vintage), did well in Legacy, and got some sweet stories for the good-story-basket.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Thanks for reading.
Mad props to Spiderboy at HighLight for the sig!
Check out my drafting vids at MTGOvideos!
other than that, good job on your merfolk deck
Thanks for spiderboy4 of High~Light_Studios for the kick ass avatar.
Thanks for DarkNightCavalier of HotPS for the exceptional signature.
I've been boarding out vials, stifles, E-truths, and a single Lord of Atlantis for the Lands matchup. I've been happy with bringing in a couple of misdirections to compliment the Back to Basics strategy.
There are actually a few non-blue matchups where I've found myself boarding out vials. I think it's a good move a lot of the time.
That might be true for English ones, but all the dealers were selling the Chinese/Japanese for $100-$110, so I don't think they're worth any more than that.
Interesting. You don't think Standstill is worse given their man-lands and Wastelands? What other matches do you board out the vials? What do you board in against Counterbalance decks (as I said in the report, I have been liking BtB less and less against CB)?
Mad props to Spiderboy at HighLight for the sig!
Check out my drafting vids at MTGOvideos!
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