Thanks, and congrats on the finish! I notice you're not on Relic. I can certainly see the value of Cage (Elves/Dredge/Reanimator/Past in Flames). Are you not really concerned about other things like Deathrites, Goyfs, RG Lands, etc.?
Congrats on your success, ehhh! Great to see a fellow Merfolk player doing well.
thanks! - this deck is great in legacy.. it requires alot of knowledge of the format actually took me awhile to figure out what to play around but there are alot of good matchups and the rough matchups are winnable which makes it a Tier 1 in my book.
Cage is so important vs the matchups you want it in. Deathright / Goyf aren't what you need to be worried about TNN is what you want to draw in that matchup not relic - IMO sb cards are what you want to draw to basically Hinder your opponent from doing what they want Cage is just way more versatile also and important in the matchups you want it.. Relic seems too slow tbh - VS dredge they can beat it if you can't break it immediately
In addition, the need to babysit relic with 1 open mana is an issue. BR reanimator forces gravehate nowadays to be active ASAP. We're in a world where the giant sledgehammer that is RIP is too slow.
After all these tournaments, can you comment on some numbers: 4 Image, 2 Copter, 1 Gemstone, 2 Back to Basics? Do you find them optimal? Would you change anything? Tnx.
The problem with Crypt is that you still need to actually get to a main phase in order to deploy it. Might as well deploy the card with more raw power instead. For turn0 the best option is Surgical.
Against Elves you also want Cage to stuff GSZ and NO. Phantasmal Images get popped way too easily when they're not TNNs so side them out. I have won a couple of times by copying a craterhoof(muahahaha), but that is not exactly what you would call a reasonable game plan.
Bring in Venser against Lands if you have him. You want all the ways to bounce marit lage you can get your hands on.
Against Delver you also want Jitte and Echoing Truth. Jitte can be a little slow but it's still really good.
Don't bring in needle against UW control. There's nothing in UW control we really need to needle so badly that it's worth the risk of it getting stuffed by our own chalices (Jace is not really an issue unless you're already very losing). Bring in dismember for mentor, you can't let them untap with that if you can so help it. Jitte is also good for making every dude into a major threat and thus not have to overcommit to the board.
Do bring in needle against Reanimator (always name griselbrand). Flusterstorm is also good.
D&T is rough. Dismember is the best card in the matchup and Truth is really good too. 99% of the time, name sword of fire and ice with needle. It's tempting to name Mom or Jitte or whatever else is on board, but that's usually actually wrong. Null rod used to be great since it took out all their equipment and vial at the same time, but nowadays with no tops floating around it's not as good.
Bring in back to basics against Eldrazi. It's a little slow for handling the initial onslaught, but it still does a lot of good work by hampering their follow-ups. Eldrazi players tend to take it with TKS over pretty much anything else, so it can help kind of protect your actually more critical TNN or phantasmal image.
As much as I like the in-depth discussion about the deck and the choices made, the reverb in your discussion partner's audio makes it very difficult to listen to. Hopefully that's addressed in any future videos.
So hello, I have been playing Merfolk for years and started playing just before Avacyn Restored was released and i mainly play in a very combo metagame and this is my list i was hoping for an opinion on the sideboard and think that two jitte's and copters are nice to have because they are major threats and drawing them is hard when you only have one in the deck.
creature
4 cursecatcher
4 master of the pearl trident
4 lord of Atlantis
4 silvergill adept
4 true-name nemisis
4 phantasamal image
instants
4 force of will
artifacts
4 aether vial
4 chalice of the void
2 umezawa's jitte
2 smugler's copter
land
9 islands
1 Oboro, palace in the Clouds
4 cavern of souls
4 Mutavault
2 Wasteland
sideboard
1 Flusterstorm
1 Gilded Drake
2 Back to Basics
2 Dismember
2 Echoing truth
2 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Grafdiggers cage
3 relic of progentsis
Hey everyone! I'm new to playing fish in legacy, although I'm a long time modern fish player. Is there an updated/more recent primer anywhere that I ought to read to get aquatinted with the deck? I'm just wondering if there are any interesting tricks that I might not be aware of, or meta choices I wouldn't know about by just looking at lists.
I've been meaning to write one, but to be honest I think I need to get more familiar with some of the flex cards before I do. In the meantime, ehhh's video above is a pretty good way to get started.
I've slowly been working on this. It's still quite incomplete, but it should still be more useful than the utterly outdated old primers.
lazygenius22: Your mana is very fragile. With only 9 basic islands, you now have to care about wasteland and especially blood moon.. as well as *your own* back to basics. I personally consider 11 the bare minimum. Oboro is really cool in modern, but in legacy it's too much of a liability.
Hi i want to share the list i play IRL and on MTGO. The slots are the result of extensive testing and deckbuilding, with it i have been winning and toping on most local tournaments and make several 5-0 and 4-1 on MTGO. The sideboard may change a little if i know what meta to expect, but on general basis it would stay the same.
Lands 20:
11 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Mishra's Factory
Creatures 28:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 True-Name Nemesis
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Phantasmal Image
Would love to hear your opinion guys, not english native so forgive any grammar errors.
Spells 12:
4 Aether Vial
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
Sideboard 15:
2 Misdirection
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Dismember
2 Grip of Phyresis
2 Chill
1 Cursed Totem
2 Grafdigger's Cage
Private Mod Note
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Competitive Merfolk Player, Focus on Legacy but also play Modern.
A lot of people are running Smuggler's Copter now in your Harbinger slots. If you've tested it, can you explain why have you decided against running it?
The list has already 8 cards that you can't exile to FoW, adding more would be complicated for the deck consistency. I wouldn't change harbinger, it does a different and necessary function to the deck, it gives us the tempo we need to fight delver decks. The flex slots where Copter could come in would be Clique, but it's too awesome in most matchups, against combo it's a treath that prevent them from going off and against fair decks it stops that sorcery answer to your board. Maybe if the meta shifts radically and we no longer need things like harbinger, vial or chalice, it could come to the mainboard.
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Competitive Merfolk Player, Focus on Legacy but also play Modern.
Copter has been pretty good for most of us. Harbinger's an option, but Legacy just doesn't have enough creatures that I care about for me to maindeck it (though I could see it being useful in a meta infested with Dark Depths decks). I was jamming Harbinger at the start of my MTGO journey, but I cut them because they just didn't do enough.
I'm honestly a little surprised that Harbinger is good enough for you to justify a full playset. I know that it's decent. I'm just saying it's not that like FoW, TNN, or Silvergill: cards that easily justify a playset.
I get you guys, I was extremely skeptical about even playing harbinger on the first place, i started testing 2 on main until i realize that it solve almost all problems the deck has against creature decks. It shines against all delvers and it gives you a way out when they do t1 delver on the play and it flips, it gives us decent matchup (or at least a chance when they combo fast) against anything that try to cheat Marit Lage into play (Lands, 4c Loam, Maveric, BG Depths). Also knowing that an opossing fatty it's not going to pressure you (like Gurgmag or Mandrils) let's you get all agressive with TNN. You can also **** Reanimator and S&T really bad in the right situations (happend a lot of times). And where all of that don't apply, its a decent merfolk to cast T2 (having 3 Thougness with a Lord make it very easy to connect a hit t3 against non-island decks, the same with 4 thoughtness con t4) and it can be pitched to FoW.
It short, it's a solid card that i think merfolk need right now (of course that it may not be necessary in a local meta with lot of creatureless decks).
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Competitive Merfolk Player, Focus on Legacy but also play Modern.
So it's good against most tall and cheaty creatures (bouncing Emrakul only after she Annihilates us is not the best defense), and much less useful against smaller and wider creatures like Mentor, Pyromancer, Stoneforge, and Deathrite. You make a decent argument for it, but the consistency and filtering that Copter gives is worth a lot too, not to mention the extra attack vector in a sorcery-proof flier. I'm probably happy letting it hang out in my sideboard for now.
So it's good against most tall and cheaty creatures (bouncing Emrakul only after she Annihilates us is not the best defense), and much less useful against smaller and wider creatures like Mentor, Pyromancer, Stoneforge, and Deathrite. You make a decent argument for it, but the consistency and filtering that Copter gives is worth a lot too, not to mention the extra attack vector in a sorcery-proof flier. I'm probably happy letting it hang out in my sideboard for now.
Of course that bouncing Emarakul its not the best defence, but if you have more than 6 permanents you can easily bounce it, sacrifice 6, keep 1/2 threaths and win the game from there; basically harbinger would be giving you the chance to win an unwinnable situation (sorta like Image does). Happend more than a few time testing IRL against S&T.
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Competitive Merfolk Player, Focus on Legacy but also play Modern.
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2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
thanks! - this deck is great in legacy.. it requires alot of knowledge of the format actually took me awhile to figure out what to play around but there are alot of good matchups and the rough matchups are winnable which makes it a Tier 1 in my book.
Cage is so important vs the matchups you want it in. Deathright / Goyf aren't what you need to be worried about TNN is what you want to draw in that matchup not relic - IMO sb cards are what you want to draw to basically Hinder your opponent from doing what they want Cage is just way more versatile also and important in the matchups you want it.. Relic seems too slow tbh - VS dredge they can beat it if you can't break it immediately
Twitch channel
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:
Twitch channel
Bring in Venser against Lands if you have him. You want all the ways to bounce marit lage you can get your hands on.
Against Delver you also want Jitte and Echoing Truth. Jitte can be a little slow but it's still really good.
Don't bring in needle against UW control. There's nothing in UW control we really need to needle so badly that it's worth the risk of it getting stuffed by our own chalices (Jace is not really an issue unless you're already very losing). Bring in dismember for mentor, you can't let them untap with that if you can so help it. Jitte is also good for making every dude into a major threat and thus not have to overcommit to the board.
Do bring in needle against Reanimator (always name griselbrand). Flusterstorm is also good.
D&T is rough. Dismember is the best card in the matchup and Truth is really good too. 99% of the time, name sword of fire and ice with needle. It's tempting to name Mom or Jitte or whatever else is on board, but that's usually actually wrong. Null rod used to be great since it took out all their equipment and vial at the same time, but nowadays with no tops floating around it's not as good.
Bring in back to basics against Eldrazi. It's a little slow for handling the initial onslaught, but it still does a lot of good work by hampering their follow-ups. Eldrazi players tend to take it with TKS over pretty much anything else, so it can help kind of protect your actually more critical TNN or phantasmal image.
Twitch channel
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
creature
4 cursecatcher
4 master of the pearl trident
4 lord of Atlantis
4 silvergill adept
4 true-name nemisis
4 phantasamal image
instants
4 force of will
artifacts
4 aether vial
4 chalice of the void
2 umezawa's jitte
2 smugler's copter
land
9 islands
1 Oboro, palace in the Clouds
4 cavern of souls
4 Mutavault
2 Wasteland
sideboard
1 Flusterstorm
1 Gilded Drake
2 Back to Basics
2 Dismember
2 Echoing truth
2 Harbinger of the Tides
2 Grafdiggers cage
3 relic of progentsis
I will link as soon as i look up how do do it.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
lazygenius22: Your mana is very fragile. With only 9 basic islands, you now have to care about wasteland and especially blood moon.. as well as *your own* back to basics. I personally consider 11 the bare minimum. Oboro is really cool in modern, but in legacy it's too much of a liability.
Twitch channel
Lands 20:
11 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Mishra's Factory
Creatures 28:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 True-Name Nemesis
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Phantasmal Image
Would love to hear your opinion guys, not english native so forgive any grammar errors.
Spells 12:
4 Aether Vial
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
Sideboard 15:
2 Misdirection
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Dismember
2 Grip of Phyresis
2 Chill
1 Cursed Totem
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
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.
It short, it's a solid card that i think merfolk need right now (of course that it may not be necessary in a local meta with lot of creatureless decks).
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
Of course that bouncing Emarakul its not the best defence, but if you have more than 6 permanents you can easily bounce it, sacrifice 6, keep 1/2 threaths and win the game from there; basically harbinger would be giving you the chance to win an unwinnable situation (sorta like Image does). Happend more than a few time testing IRL against S&T.