I played at the GP, my first tournament in years and did..... very poorly. I lost a couple of tight games where I got a bit unlucky or I punted. I played against:
round 1: UR Delver (very close loss--I had lethal on board and was at 6 life facing down a Stormchaser Mage to which he proceeded to cast 5 spells to get me)
round 2: MUD (he barely got there game 1 with Platinum Emperiom and game 2 I for some unknown reason let a Metalworker resolve and proceeded to lose quite quickly.
round 3: I destroyed a Reanimator list, nothing special here as Chalice of the Void + pressure is bad news for them.
round 4: I lost a tight one to Burn and had a pretty bad screw-up where I didn't tick up the Aether Vial.
round 5: I win against Eldrazi in two games.
round 6: I lose to Stoneforge Mystic (esper stoneblade) both game 1 and 2.
So.... I left feeling pretty dejected and was about to sell all my Fish stuff right there on the spot, especially after I was walking around the top tables and noticed Volcanic Island after Brainstorm after Delver of Secrets, etc. But, Zalfirir what is your list? I am anxious to see it! I never really felt completely out of any matchup but at the same time the deck seemed a little underpowered.
This is only my second Legacy GP (Lille and Prague) and after lucking out on the first, variance got me HARD on the second.
Two GPs in a row and I played against 0 Miracles, 6 Death&Taxes and 1 Elves total.
After one of the dreaded Plains-Vial players equipped white doublestriker with Sword of Fire&Ice, I had a slimmer of hope because of my board (some Lords and TNNs), but then he Vialed in another Mystic for Basilisk Collar?!
I dejectedly extended my hand and somehow wished him good luck...
Then a friend took my list while playing Merfolk for the first time, entered a Marquee Star Legacy event on Sunday and crushed it playing against only Islands.dec.
He won 5 and a half boxes. I lived through him and was more proud than jealous
Wow, Basilisk Collar in D&T is certainly out of left field. What was your record in those 6 D&T matches? I like and play both decks, but I always feel like the matchup is very swingy and hard to predict.
I know I am 2-0 in the first but can't remember the third result there and 0-3 on the second, hating every second of it.
I even won some games by Forcing Vial and Wastelanding only land but I knew the horrors will keep coming.
So 2-4 or 3-3.
I just want to play against Lossetts of the world, instead of Enevoldsens. Is that so much to ask?
I have been wondering the same thing. Vial helps with the speed of the deck (which sometimes matters) and it helps avoid counterspells (sometimes, if no Caverns) and it helps you play creatures and disruption at the same time (Wasteland, Dismember, Daze, etc.) and sometimes allows for tricks.
However, sometimes you just need more beats/disruption and less of what Vial offers. And drawing 2 is almost never good. It sorta acts like a land or mana and with 20/21 land already it means we are running 24 which seems like a lot for a deck with as low a curve as ours. I am new to the deck, though, so I don't have the years experience playing with it. Still, these are some of my observations.
I sometimes have 3 Vials postboard in order to jam a Jitte. It's not something to be feared, but I still want the 4 in the main to maximize the tempo beats plan on G1.
My other primary deck, D&T is considering dropping to 3 Moms, but Mom in D&T is more often totally dead (MUD, Eldrazi, arguably Miracles) than Vial in Merfolk. I'd only go 3 Vial in a deck with a manabase geared towards casting our cards, i.e. 12-13 Islands and 4 Caverns. This in turn pretty much removes the possibility of running Wasteland in meaningful quantities, which is itself a trade-off.
I've experimented with 3 vials before in a much more aggressive list with 4 catchers and 3 tidal warriors for a total of 10 1-drops. That style is something I'm tempted to try again, but right now I'm still high on Reej shenanigans. Actually being able to use a vial on 1 consistently feels really really good, as is consistently having *something* to do T1. The acceleration in development Vial gives us is powerful, but ultimately it's not crucial to our game plan. We don't abuse it like D&T does.
The more significant thing about the 5-0 league list is the reduction of chalices to just 2 copies. Not sure what to make of that yet. It could be right to shave chalices, or he could have just ran really hot that day. Something to keep an eye on, in any case.
Take the Japanese list with a grain of salt - it's very clearly *heavily* metagamed. More significant than the 3 vials is the complete lack of cursecatcher. That's a hard read for the kind of meta that would put 2 Jund, an Eldrazi, and a Lands into top8. Miracles is probably also as popular there as it is everywhere else.
I have bought almost all of the cards needed to port my Modern Merfolk into Legacy Merfolk, but I have still not bought Wasteland and Flusterstorm. My question is, how important is Flusterstorm? I think it is quite expensive and want to be absolutely sure that I need it.
I'm not the most veteran player out there but in say 500 matches, I don't recall a time that Flusterstorm did something that Spell Pierce couldn't have. I run only 1 Flusterstorm in the SB and honestly, I was thinking of cutting it for Mindbreak Trap since it does almost the same thing vs ANT but also has applications against the faster decks like TES, Belcher, Oops, Tin Fins.
Just curious what kind of KMCs you use, and how you shuffle. Dragonshields are probably best for riffle shufflers, as they are pretty much bulletproof. I happen to dislike the feel. I pile shuffle and mash shuffle, and my KMC Perfect Fit + KMC Hyper Mat combo has never seen a split sleeve across 30+ rounds. My sleeves generally need to be replaced because of eventual stickiness and grime rather than damage. I'm not lobbying for you to give KMC another try; just trying to understand what led to the poor sleeve performance that you saw.
I dunno why, but I've always had the impression that gloss sleeves just aren't as hardy as matte ones, across all brands. Same as Curby, I've been using KMC hyper-mattes forever with zero issues.
Before the players meeting, I went over my list and realized I almost put 3 Caverns / 12 Islands instead of 4 and 11. That could have been a game loss; always check your decklist even if you're sure you know it! Also, I decided to give KMC sleeves a shot as I heard they fit double sleeves. The deck sleeved up nice enough, but these sleeves sucked ass. I broke no less than 8 sleeves and the rest ended up in terrible condition. Will never use KMC again; Dragonshield for life.
R3: 0-2 vs Grixis Midrange
G1, he plays Grim Lavamancer. I played Chalice on 1, he casts Rise // Fall and I fail to counter it with Cursecatcher for some stupid reason. I see Deathrite Shaman and Liliana of the Veil before he burns me to death. G2, I sideboarded thinking it was an Jund deck and that he might have Abrupt Decay / Goyf. Turns out, I needed to leave Chalice in the deck, and Deathrite + Lavamancer killed me. This deck was weird and I had no idea what I was doing here.
R4: 2-0 vs Storm
Finally, we're paired with something favorable. Chalice on 0 and 1 ended G1 in short order. G2, I had 2 Chalices in my opening hand and drew a third. He was able to deal with them using discard spells and Abrupt Decay, but I pressured him with Mutavault over several turns down to 14. He only had a single Infernal Tutor left in hand which had to go for Ad Nauseam, and he ended up dying to Ad Nauseam failing to draw him a winning hand, revealing Past in Flames at 4 life.
R5: 2-0 vs Reanimator
G1 I don't know what he was doing, but he was at 11 life by the time he was finally able to Reanimate an Iona and was facing down a True-Name Nemesis which killed him first. G2, we had Relic + Cage + Vial + Image + Drake. With all of those hate cards, there was no way he was going to get / keep a threat on his side of the board.
R6: 1-2 vs Mono Black Reanimator
G1, he goes for Thoughtseize into Entomb into Iona to end the game in short order. G2, I am on the play and drop Cage, to which he concedes. G3, I kept Force + Drake + 2 Mutas + Wasteland + Island; basically a perfect hand for most reanimator decks. He had Chancellor of the Annex into Entomb into Animate Dead. I never had a chance to put the Cage into Play :\
At this point, I was out of prizes, and while normally I'd have kept playing for practice, the sleeves were irritating me so much with how completely *****ty they were that I dropped and went home to resleeve my deck back in Dragonshields. These stupid KMCs could not even survive half a tournament worth of rounds.
As far as the deck, I think Dismember needs to be in the maindeck, probably over 1 Wasteland and maybe a second replacing Daze. There seem to be more midrange type decks than previously; it's not like before where every other round was Delver / Miracles
I hate dragon shields because they billow like mad, same with the kmc outers, i use ultra pro because they are cheap(initial and replacing) until i find something better and never billow..
my kmc sleeves when not using foils curl like foils do and make shuffling rough and destroy sleeves.
Just curious what kind of KMCs you use, and how you shuffle. Dragonshields are probably best for riffle shufflers, as they are pretty much bulletproof. I happen to dislike the feel. I pile shuffle and mash shuffle, and my KMC Perfect Fit + KMC Hyper Mat combo has never seen a split sleeve across 30+ rounds. My sleeves generally need to be replaced because of eventual stickiness and grime rather than damage. I'm not lobbying for you to give KMC another try; just trying to understand what led to the poor sleeve performance that you saw.
I pile shuffle to count my deck at the start of each round, and mash shuffle as I don't like bending my cards. I am pretty gentle on the cards while shuffling. This is the exact one that I had; I don't care for the matted version of sleeves, I like the smooth feel.
Supers are pretty eh, Hyper mats are way better for mash shuffling than both supers and Dragonshields. I also notice dragonshields tend to get bent corners after a while mash shuffling; Hyper mats are the only sleeves I've used where this doesn't happen to me at all.
Edited to remove image tags from post due to quoting image leeching. No warning issued.
- Teia
I was also at the GP! I think I met two of you... I was the Aussie guy!
I went in with no byes and had a pretty solid run, I thought. I won r1 against a weird UW delver deck, lost r2 to Shardless (bad hands and just ugh, that matchup, so soon!) then lost r3 against Enchantress (was NOT expecting that. very annoying, I had taken Echoing Truth out of my board to have another Back to Basics but really wished the whole day I had it in there). I beat Affinity r4 and Delver r5, then lost to DnT then won r7 against another delver, then r8 against Omnitell (such a good run). I only had to get one more blue matchup in round 9 to day 2.... and I played against DnT. I went down, mulliganed to 5 both games, really really disappointing luck. I had a lot of fun, though! I was only playing 3 vial and it was definitely a mistake, I should have been playing 4. I would have added an echoing truth to my SB and cut a Back to Basics if I could do it over again, but I feel like I played well and just got super unlucky to hit a DnT in the final round. I played vintage the next day unpowered with Merfolk and went 2-3, losing the last round to a mirror match (?!?!) which was also super unfortunate that I drew real bad. Still, all in all a ridiculously fun and rewarding weekend.
Just a reminder, everyone, that discussion of sleeves and shuffling is better suited to Magic General than the Legacy Merfolk thread. Also, a reminder that the [img] tag is to be used specifically with image hosting sites, not other sites like KMC's.
Legacy has a few major differences from Modern. The first is that creatures and removal are fewer and farther between, and that combo decks and other "fast kills" come together quite a bit faster. In order for us to keep pace, we trim the creature count a bit as compared to Modern, and pack more counterspells. The metagame also looks quite a bit different - lots more U, lots more card selection (so maindecks are tighter), and quite a bit more power concentrated on lands and land hate. In fact, several of the most successful decks in the format (and by that I mean Grixis Delver and Death & Taxes) make no bones about how their strategy is based on hating on lands. As far as a list goes, here's what I've been piloting to some nice success:
1. I'm running a ton of counterspells (4 Chalice of the Void, 4 Daze, 4 Force of Will) because the decks I'm aiming to hate on the most are ones that run lots of cantrips like Brainstorm and Ponder, which the Chalice stops nicely. I've also found that I'm pretty good at putting pressure on my opponents thanks to my "Blue Stompy" creature base. This encourages them to jam spells once they have just enough to pay them, and that's when Daze tags them. Force is pretty self-explanatory - there are cards in this format you simply lose to if they resolve, and you want that emergency "no" button to deal with them.
2. My creature base is pretty focused on pump effects and evasion, which is why I include the Reejerey in addition to the islandwalking Lords (which don't help you evade things if there are no Islands on the table). It gets sided out in certain matchups, but overall I'd say he helps a lot. These are totally a flex slot choice, though, and you'll see anything from Phantasmal Image to Vendilion Clique in that spot.
3. Because I run Daze in the main and Submerge in the side, I pack as many Islands as I can reasonably fit in the mana base. In order to compensate for not having Wasteland, I employ both Back to Basics and Spreading Seas.
4. Speaking of Spreading Seas, that one's a bit of an experiment at the moment. It's been doing decently well against the likes of Eldrazi, Lands, and even Nic Fit.
4. Some of the cards that do the most damage to this deck do so through activated abilities (think cards like Stoneforge Mystic or Thespian's Stage). Needle helps deal with those.
5. I've noticed that this deck (as currently configured) is pretty soft to grindy attrition decks in Game 1. Be prepared to side your Vials, Chalices, and sometimes even Forces out against those matchups.
Yeah, the Spreading Seas has put in a surprising amount of work. I completely stymied a Lands player that was really relying on The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale to keep him alive, and it's bought me mass evasion a couple of times.
Unsubstantiate is no good in Legacy. The slot it'd replace is the one currently filled by Echoing Truth, but it lacks the crucial words "nonland permanent" to properly perform in that slot. Echoing Truth is the deck's "safety blanket", the existence of it in the deck means that we're never in a straight no-out situation to things like Moat, Ensnaring Bridge, or double Engineered Plague.
I was one of the biggest fans of Warping Wail here. The card itself is plenty powerful and I was pretty much always pleased whenever I cast it. The trouble that made me move away from Wail is the greedy, clunky manabase required to have sufficient colorless sources. One of the biggest advantages of the deck is that we mostly don't care about Blood Moon or Wasteland from our opponents. With jamming the 10 minimum nonbasics required to make Wail work as well as the colorless requirement of Wail itself, those cards start actually mattering.
I personally have always played 2 Wasteland in my 75. Only 2 because it being a colorless source in a deck full of UUx spells is kind of annoying. You don't win off screwing the opponent off mana as much as you'd think either (At least I don't). IMO It's mainly for annoying lands like Glacial Chasm, Karakas, Port, Cloudpost, cutting an opponent off a color etc.
I went to a small event today and since I enjoy reading people's tournament reports I figured I'd write one to "give back" kind of. I didn't keep notes during the events so everything is based off of memory. Comments on SB strategy and anything else are most welcome!
Round 1 vs Lands 2-0
G1: He tanks a bunch on his his mulligan decision but decides to keep. He leads "Misty, go" and I put him on Shardless since that's what he was on last time we played. But he eot fetch for Taiga and cycles a thicket, so the gig is up. His T2 is again "land, go" and even though he doesn't appear to have 1 drops, I choose to make Chalice on 1. Over the next 2-3 turns he then proceeds to make a Marit Lage while I make Silvergil into TNN. However, there is hope because I have Clique+Image in hand. So, he attacks, and Clique sees 3x Gamble (!), Loam, Tabernacle, Grove, Maze, Mox Diamond. I take Loam since this can find him P. Fire. On my turn I make a Marit Lage and proceed to beat him down with TNN hoping he doesn't find the P. Fire which he doesn't.
SB: +3 Relic, +2 Wasteland, +2 Back to Basics, +1 Pithing Needle, -4 Cursecatcher, -1 Jitte, -2 Cliques, -1 Lord of Atlantis
G2: He leads with Exploration and proceed to empty his hand, making some Ports in the hope to slow me down until he finds action but I had T1 Vial. When he was down to 1 card in hand, I was afraid it was Punishing Fire and after hesitating, I decided to make him have it and played the Lord instead of the Silvergil *facepalm*. However, I didn't get punished (no pun intented) since he didn't have it. He then kept drawing blanks and got quickly dispatched.
Round 2 vs Burn 2-0
G1: He has T1 foil Goblin Guide but I have T2 white bordered Chalice.
G2: I keep a hand with Chalice, Vial x2 and lands and get there after locking him out with Chalice on 1&2.
Note: He had a card I'd never seen before. 1R, Sorcery: Each players loses 4 life.
Round 3 vs Jund 2-1
G1: I mull to 5 and get wrecked.
SB: Everything in except Cage and Swan Song, -1 Jitte, -4 Cursecatcher, -4 Aether Vial, -4 Chalice of the Void.
G2: He got stuck on Grove, Bayou, Wasteland for a while in this game and was unable to answer my crap at the rate that I was dumped it on the table. His life total reads 18, 15, 6, dead.
G3: I have an opener full of sideboard cards that match up perfectly against what he'd doing: He leads with Deathrite into Deathrite into Bob and I go Needle (naming Deathrite) into Warping Wail your Bob into Back to Basics. He eventually fetched for Badlands to Pyroblast himself out of the Back to Basics lock but I had Spell Pierce, etc.
Round 4 vs Infect 0-2
G1: I'm on the play and I know he's on infect. I keep a hand with Chalice as the only disruption, hoping it'd be good enough. Alas, he makes a Blighted Agent, dumps some 1 drops into my Chalice and make it Become Immense. *sigh*
SB: +2 Warping Wail, +2 Wasteland, +1 Pithing Needle, +2 Dismember, +1 Spell Pierce, +1 Swan Song, -4 True-Name, -3 Lord of Atlantis, -2 Master of the Pearl Trident
G2: T1: island, go. T1: Glistener Elf, go. T2: Silvergil Adept (playing around Daze with my Chalice), Daze. T2: Invigorate, Berserk? blearg.
Note: I've only played against infect maybe 4 times including this one and I don't think I've taken a game off of them. Am I supposed to ship any hand that doesn't have tons of interaction, then play draw-go with them? Any tip would be appreciated regarding this matchup.
Cut to top 4, I am top seed (hence I'm on the play every G1).
Semi vs Burn 2-0
Same story as above. I have Chalice in my opener both games and the poor lad doesn't have Smash to Smithereens in his 75.
Finals vs Jund 1-2
G1: This time his deck function properly. The Hymn to Tourach gets sung, fishes get punished, decayed and pulsed left and right, etc.
G2: This game was wild. We both drew about half our decks. At one point the board his clogged and we're both hellbent so he decides to crack his Pernicious Deed to wipe everything but a Liliana off the board. But he then proceeds to draw lands for basically the rest of the game while I eventually overpower his Lilly with a Clique in responses to +1.
G3: Back to Basics gets Abruptly Decayed and then we see a repeat of G1.
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round 1: UR Delver (very close loss--I had lethal on board and was at 6 life facing down a Stormchaser Mage to which he proceeded to cast 5 spells to get me)
round 2: MUD (he barely got there game 1 with Platinum Emperiom and game 2 I for some unknown reason let a Metalworker resolve and proceeded to lose quite quickly.
round 3: I destroyed a Reanimator list, nothing special here as Chalice of the Void + pressure is bad news for them.
round 4: I lost a tight one to Burn and had a pretty bad screw-up where I didn't tick up the Aether Vial.
round 5: I win against Eldrazi in two games.
round 6: I lose to Stoneforge Mystic (esper stoneblade) both game 1 and 2.
So.... I left feeling pretty dejected and was about to sell all my Fish stuff right there on the spot, especially after I was walking around the top tables and noticed Volcanic Island after Brainstorm after Delver of Secrets, etc. But, Zalfirir what is your list? I am anxious to see it! I never really felt completely out of any matchup but at the same time the deck seemed a little underpowered.
Two GPs in a row and I played against 0 Miracles, 6 Death&Taxes and 1 Elves total.
After one of the dreaded Plains-Vial players equipped white doublestriker with Sword of Fire&Ice, I had a slimmer of hope because of my board (some Lords and TNNs), but then he Vialed in another Mystic for Basilisk Collar?!
I dejectedly extended my hand and somehow wished him good luck...
Then a friend took my list while playing Merfolk for the first time, entered a Marquee Star Legacy event on Sunday and crushed it playing against only Islands.dec.
He won 5 and a half boxes. I lived through him
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
I even won some games by Forcing Vial and Wastelanding only land but I knew the horrors will keep coming.
So 2-4 or 3-3.
I just want to play against Lossetts of the world, instead of Enevoldsens. Is that so much to ask?
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/daily-magic-update/update-2016-06-14
They both did good with 3 Vial. Is that something to talk about or just wrong?
However, sometimes you just need more beats/disruption and less of what Vial offers. And drawing 2 is almost never good. It sorta acts like a land or mana and with 20/21 land already it means we are running 24 which seems like a lot for a deck with as low a curve as ours. I am new to the deck, though, so I don't have the years experience playing with it. Still, these are some of my observations.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
The more significant thing about the 5-0 league list is the reduction of chalices to just 2 copies. Not sure what to make of that yet. It could be right to shave chalices, or he could have just ran really hot that day. Something to keep an eye on, in any case.
Take the Japanese list with a grain of salt - it's very clearly *heavily* metagamed. More significant than the 3 vials is the complete lack of cursecatcher. That's a hard read for the kind of meta that would put 2 Jund, an Eldrazi, and a Lands into top8. Miracles is probably also as popular there as it is everywhere else.
Twitch channel
I'm not the most veteran player out there but in say 500 matches, I don't recall a time that Flusterstorm did something that Spell Pierce couldn't have. I run only 1 Flusterstorm in the SB and honestly, I was thinking of cutting it for Mindbreak Trap since it does almost the same thing vs ANT but also has applications against the faster decks like TES, Belcher, Oops, Tin Fins.
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
Twitch channel
I hate dragon shields because they billow like mad, same with the kmc outers, i use ultra pro because they are cheap(initial and replacing) until i find something better and never billow..
my kmc sleeves when not using foils curl like foils do and make shuffling rough and destroy sleeves.
Supers are pretty eh, Hyper mats are way better for mash shuffling than both supers and Dragonshields. I also notice dragonshields tend to get bent corners after a while mash shuffling; Hyper mats are the only sleeves I've used where this doesn't happen to me at all.
Edited to remove image tags from post due to quoting image leeching. No warning issued.
- Teia
I went in with no byes and had a pretty solid run, I thought. I won r1 against a weird UW delver deck, lost r2 to Shardless (bad hands and just ugh, that matchup, so soon!) then lost r3 against Enchantress (was NOT expecting that. very annoying, I had taken Echoing Truth out of my board to have another Back to Basics but really wished the whole day I had it in there). I beat Affinity r4 and Delver r5, then lost to DnT
Legacy has a few major differences from Modern. The first is that creatures and removal are fewer and farther between, and that combo decks and other "fast kills" come together quite a bit faster. In order for us to keep pace, we trim the creature count a bit as compared to Modern, and pack more counterspells. The metagame also looks quite a bit different - lots more U, lots more card selection (so maindecks are tighter), and quite a bit more power concentrated on lands and land hate. In fact, several of the most successful decks in the format (and by that I mean Grixis Delver and Death & Taxes) make no bones about how their strategy is based on hating on lands. As far as a list goes, here's what I've been piloting to some nice success:
4 Æther Vial
4 Chalice of the Void
Creatures (24)
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 True-Name Nemesis
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
Lands (20)
4 Cavern of Souls
12 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Back to Basics
2 Echoing Truth
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spreading Seas
2 Submerge
1 Umezawa's Jitte
So, a quick synopsis of my choices:
1. I'm running a ton of counterspells (4 Chalice of the Void, 4 Daze, 4 Force of Will) because the decks I'm aiming to hate on the most are ones that run lots of cantrips like Brainstorm and Ponder, which the Chalice stops nicely. I've also found that I'm pretty good at putting pressure on my opponents thanks to my "Blue Stompy" creature base. This encourages them to jam spells once they have just enough to pay them, and that's when Daze tags them. Force is pretty self-explanatory - there are cards in this format you simply lose to if they resolve, and you want that emergency "no" button to deal with them.
2. My creature base is pretty focused on pump effects and evasion, which is why I include the Reejerey in addition to the islandwalking Lords (which don't help you evade things if there are no Islands on the table). It gets sided out in certain matchups, but overall I'd say he helps a lot. These are totally a flex slot choice, though, and you'll see anything from Phantasmal Image to Vendilion Clique in that spot.
3. Because I run Daze in the main and Submerge in the side, I pack as many Islands as I can reasonably fit in the mana base. In order to compensate for not having Wasteland, I employ both Back to Basics and Spreading Seas.
4. Speaking of Spreading Seas, that one's a bit of an experiment at the moment. It's been doing decently well against the likes of Eldrazi, Lands, and even Nic Fit.
4. Some of the cards that do the most damage to this deck do so through activated abilities (think cards like Stoneforge Mystic or Thespian's Stage). Needle helps deal with those.
5. I've noticed that this deck (as currently configured) is pretty soft to grindy attrition decks in Game 1. Be prepared to side your Vials, Chalices, and sometimes even Forces out against those matchups.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
I was one of the biggest fans of Warping Wail here. The card itself is plenty powerful and I was pretty much always pleased whenever I cast it. The trouble that made me move away from Wail is the greedy, clunky manabase required to have sufficient colorless sources. One of the biggest advantages of the deck is that we mostly don't care about Blood Moon or Wasteland from our opponents. With jamming the 10 minimum nonbasics required to make Wail work as well as the colorless requirement of Wail itself, those cards start actually mattering.
Twitch channel
Modern UMerfolkU
Legacy UMerfolkU
Standard XWhatever's GoodX
Twitch Highlight: https://www.twitch.tv/tuxdev/v/76740399
Decklist: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mtgo-merfolk-1/
Twitch channel
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Phantasmal Image
4 True-Name Nemesis
2 Vendilion Clique
Artifacts
4 AEther Vial
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
12 Island
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Mutavault
2 Wasteland
Instants
4 Force of Will
1 Echoing Truth
2 Wasteland
2 Warping Wail
2 Back to Basics
2 Dismember
3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Spell Pierce
1 Swan Song
1 Pithing Needle
Round 1 vs Lands 2-0
G1: He tanks a bunch on his his mulligan decision but decides to keep. He leads "Misty, go" and I put him on Shardless since that's what he was on last time we played. But he eot fetch for Taiga and cycles a thicket, so the gig is up. His T2 is again "land, go" and even though he doesn't appear to have 1 drops, I choose to make Chalice on 1. Over the next 2-3 turns he then proceeds to make a Marit Lage while I make Silvergil into TNN. However, there is hope because I have Clique+Image in hand. So, he attacks, and Clique sees 3x Gamble (!), Loam, Tabernacle, Grove, Maze, Mox Diamond. I take Loam since this can find him P. Fire. On my turn I make a Marit Lage and proceed to beat him down with TNN hoping he doesn't find the P. Fire which he doesn't.
SB: +3 Relic, +2 Wasteland, +2 Back to Basics, +1 Pithing Needle, -4 Cursecatcher, -1 Jitte, -2 Cliques, -1 Lord of Atlantis
G2: He leads with Exploration and proceed to empty his hand, making some Ports in the hope to slow me down until he finds action but I had T1 Vial. When he was down to 1 card in hand, I was afraid it was Punishing Fire and after hesitating, I decided to make him have it and played the Lord instead of the Silvergil *facepalm*. However, I didn't get punished (no pun intented) since he didn't have it. He then kept drawing blanks and got quickly dispatched.
Round 2 vs Burn 2-0
G1: He has T1 foil Goblin Guide but I have T2 white bordered Chalice.
SB: +1 Spell Pierce, +1 Warping Wail, -1 Vendilion Clique, -1 Echoing Truth
G2: I keep a hand with Chalice, Vial x2 and lands and get there after locking him out with Chalice on 1&2.
Note: He had a card I'd never seen before. 1R, Sorcery: Each players loses 4 life.
Round 3 vs Jund 2-1
G1: I mull to 5 and get wrecked.
SB: Everything in except Cage and Swan Song, -1 Jitte, -4 Cursecatcher, -4 Aether Vial, -4 Chalice of the Void.
G2: He got stuck on Grove, Bayou, Wasteland for a while in this game and was unable to answer my crap at the rate that I was dumped it on the table. His life total reads 18, 15, 6, dead.
G3: I have an opener full of sideboard cards that match up perfectly against what he'd doing: He leads with Deathrite into Deathrite into Bob and I go Needle (naming Deathrite) into Warping Wail your Bob into Back to Basics. He eventually fetched for Badlands to Pyroblast himself out of the Back to Basics lock but I had Spell Pierce, etc.
Round 4 vs Infect 0-2
G1: I'm on the play and I know he's on infect. I keep a hand with Chalice as the only disruption, hoping it'd be good enough. Alas, he makes a Blighted Agent, dumps some 1 drops into my Chalice and make it Become Immense. *sigh*
SB: +2 Warping Wail, +2 Wasteland, +1 Pithing Needle, +2 Dismember, +1 Spell Pierce, +1 Swan Song, -4 True-Name, -3 Lord of Atlantis, -2 Master of the Pearl Trident
G2: T1: island, go. T1: Glistener Elf, go. T2: Silvergil Adept (playing around Daze with my Chalice), Daze. T2: Invigorate, Berserk? blearg.
Note: I've only played against infect maybe 4 times including this one and I don't think I've taken a game off of them. Am I supposed to ship any hand that doesn't have tons of interaction, then play draw-go with them? Any tip would be appreciated regarding this matchup.
Cut to top 4, I am top seed (hence I'm on the play every G1).
Semi vs Burn 2-0
Same story as above. I have Chalice in my opener both games and the poor lad doesn't have Smash to Smithereens in his 75.
Finals vs Jund 1-2
G1: This time his deck function properly. The Hymn to Tourach gets sung, fishes get punished, decayed and pulsed left and right, etc.
G2: This game was wild. We both drew about half our decks. At one point the board his clogged and we're both hellbent so he decides to crack his Pernicious Deed to wipe everything but a Liliana off the board. But he then proceeds to draw lands for basically the rest of the game while I eventually overpower his Lilly with a Clique in responses to +1.
G3: Back to Basics gets Abruptly Decayed and then we see a repeat of G1.