Headed out to FNM. Trying to keep my expectations tempered after my BW Eldrazi Taxes were thrashed last week but I have a good feeling about Merfolk.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Game 3 - Lost after double Rack and Lili Veil locked me down to death.
Blue Moon
My final match of four. I'm actually surprised by how poorly I did. Both games he got multiple Thing in the Ice out (2nd game he had ALL FOUR), which kept setting me back. Merfolk kept dying to spot removal too and Kira was too slow to help.
Now for the good news:
Wins
Bridgevine
I lost the first game after he got double Bridge from Below in his graveyard and started churning out an army of token zombies. I removed 2 Reejerey, 2 Kira, and a Vial to put in 3 Relic of Progenitus & 2 Surgical Extraction.
Game 3, he mulled down to 4; I again managed to land Spreading Seas on curve and got 16 damage on board turn 4 with the help of Reejerey. He was forced to use Bontu's Last Reckoning to wipe but I had enough lords left in my hand to finish the job on turn 6.
Ponza
Game 1, I steamrolled once I got Spreading Seas out.
Game 2, Choke hit the board right before I drew a Rejeerey -_-
Game 3, I had two Spreading Seas in my opening hand. I turned his Utopia Sprawl'd forest into an island. He kept a low land hand, so he fetch shocked himself to get Stomping Ground out. I turned that into another island and swung for lethal the turn after thanks to all my lords.
Thoughts
I did okay but I was hoping to do better, especially against Blue Moon. Oddly, I never had to use Mistcaller's ability against Bridgevine but the threat of it on the field was useful. 8 Rack was a miserable matchup. Besides counters and Hurkyl, I had zero answers to his enchantments or artifacts. I had a massive board Game 2 but couldn't do anything because of double Ensnaring Bridge and got Rack'd to death.
To be fair, I've only played at this store once a week for a month now, and there are a lot of old players who started showing up again. There are 2 KCI players, and multiple control players, but now there are more midrange & combo players. I'm seriously considering building Tropical Fish (I have all the important pieces) because monoblue has almost no permanent answers to artifacts or enchantments besides counters (that I'm aware of). I could've won game 2 of 8 Rack if I had artifact hate, with 5 tokens, 2 lords, master of waves, and 3 other merfolk.
I realize that would make my manabase much weaker to Blood Moon, but considering the high number of artifact deck players (there was even an Affinity player today, but I mercifully was not matched against him) now in my meta, I need more versatility.
On a random note, I usually get extremely nervous at events, even low pressure ones like FNM, but I wasn't nearly as much this time around, so that's a nice little silver lining.
Shoutout to all the posters in this thread, especially those that gave me advice and feedback. Looking forward to next Friday and hoping I do better!
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Before I pass out for the night, gonna leave both my initial Tropical Fish list (based on cards I have available ATM) & a reworked monoblue Fish based on what I went up against today. Would love some input, thanks in advance fish fam~
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Question, what're people's opinions on the core creatures for Tropical Fish? Having a huge amount of trouble trying to keep the deck to 60 right now while also having 4 Vials, 4 Seas, and 4 Peek.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Pretty simple stuff. Lots of land hate, lots of beef, and just enough interaction to make it all stick. If your meta is looking heavy on the BGx, Burn, and Tron, give this a spin.
Heading to FNM tonight with the list in my previous post, yay for not being sick any more~
EDIT
Tonight we had 17 players total in Modern, which was nice, but I got paired up with some of the worst matchups imo. Affinity, then KCI, 8 Rack (only match I won, redeemed myself from last week at least), and Burn.
I went 1-3 and placed dead last in FNM rankings, which was not a fun feeling, but at least I got to see some of my buddies again which was nice. Going to try Spirits for a bit, still trying to find a Modern deck to settle on.
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Rothgar, I have some questions about the way your list has changed, since I've been away from both Modern and Merfolk for a bit.
1. Why are your using Coralhelm Commander? That always seemed like a lot of mana for an easily removed creature.
2. Are the Chalices designed to fight something specific, or are they a catch-all?
3. Have you felt the loss of Harbinger against the various graveyard decks?
4. Eight man-lands looks like a lot. Is this all about beating UW Control?
5. Is Relic actually better than Cage these days?
6. Does Tec. Edge really do enough to be worth the slots?
That list is the MHayashi special - he's had a lot of success with it over the past year, and I bust it out whenever I'm not feeling comfortable with my own list. As you can see from my previous post, I'm off it now, but that list almost never disappoints me.
His list is designed rather differently from "classic Merfolk" in that it's really not trying to aggro opponents out - it's trying to slow them down with Chalices, then slowly overwhelm them with Fish. Coralhelm is neat in that it's a card you can feed any excess mana to, and the Chalices keep it from getting picked off too easily. It's not a card I would run without Chalices, but with them it has a purpose. Ditto for the Faerie Conclaves.
Harbinger is straight-up not very good right now - the "tapped creature" restriction was bugging me more every day, until I finally decided to part ways with him. There isn't a graveyard deck in Modern that I think is favored against us (one of the perks of being able to jam 3-4 Relics in a sideboard), so parting ways with it hasn't hurt overly much.
TecEdge is a card I'm ambivalent about at the moment. I'm choosing to jam it in my 8-Seas because I'm looking to punish
Pretty simple stuff. Lots of land hate, lots of beef, and just enough interaction to make it all stick. If your meta is looking heavy on the BGx, Burn, and Tron, give this a spin.
Great list. A question about the SB: why both venser, shaper savant and echoing truth? Are they useful in combination or do you side in one of them?
I like Venser and E-Truth because there are matchups where I would side in one, but not the other. Examples where E-Truth gets the nod are decks like Storm (buzz off, Goblin tokens) and Burn (you need some kind of response to Bridge, and Venser's on the slow side while not interacting especially well with cheap burn spells), whereas Venser gets the nod against UW Control (can send a Terminus or a planeswalker back while providing a body, can be brought in off a Vial on 4, and is perhaps our most efficient way to interact with Verdict). And of course, there are many matchups (Hollow One, Humans, Spirits, Hardened Scales, Mardu Pyromancer, Shadow, Tron) in which I jam them both.
Hey Team,
I'm new in MTG Salvation, newish to MTG again (I was into it during Invasion, took some time, bought a few packs of Shards, now I'm back) and as you can guess I'm getting into Modern by getting into Fish. I have a deck, but I'm wondering if anyone has any resources wrt current archetypes that I can read up on before bringing my deck to a FNM. (I watch Nikachu's awesome stuff when I can, and I'm only acquainted with how Tron and, like, 8-Whack Goblins works (and what cards they typically run).
Does anyone know where else I can primers for the big archetypes in modern right now so I can study up before walking into a FNM for the first time in 15 years with a Merfolk deck? Any info would be greatly appreciated!
Hey Team,
I'm new in MTG Salvation, newish to MTG again (I was into it during Invasion, took some time, bought a few packs of Shards, now I'm back) and as you can guess I'm getting into Modern by getting into Fish. I have a deck, but I'm wondering if anyone has any resources wrt current archetypes that I can read up on before bringing my deck to a FNM. (I watch Nikachu's awesome stuff when I can, and I'm only acquainted with how Tron and, like, 8-Whack Goblins works (and what cards they typically run).
Does anyone know where else I can primers for the big archetypes in modern right now so I can study up before walking into a FNM for the first time in 15 years with a Merfolk deck? Any info would be greatly appreciated!
-Shoebaccha
It depends on your LGS meta, but to give you an example, my LGS has multiple KCI, Burn, & Bridgevine players, Jeskai Midrange, Jeskai Control, Elves, another Merfolk player, RG Ponza, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, BW 8 Rack, and Humans. Besides Merfolk, I run Death & Taxes and UW Spirits.
Generally if you hunt around the Modern forums here on MTG Salvation, you should be able to find a current tier list. One of the key questions you need to answer for yourself is whether you want to run Mono-U Merfolk, or Tropical (GU) Merfolk. Mono-U is much more tempo-oriented and requires good match-up knowledge, skill, and patience; Tropical is a bit more aggro, but has a larger variety of sideboard options and helps the deck have a more even playing field with some of the worst matchups for Mono-U, namely Affinity, and in my experience, KCI. I would recommend the below list from rothgar as a starting point for a customized Mono-U list and go from there.
Pretty simple stuff. Lots of land hate, lots of beef, and just enough interaction to make it all stick. If your meta is looking heavy on the BGx, Burn, and Tron, give this a spin.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
I don't think the Devotion is the main problem, personally. It's that casting Master on 19 lands is a pain. I've had much more consistent results with 20. I increasingly think that what I want to do with UG is to cut the Mutavaults altogether (to make the mana smooth), run 18 lands (so that the gas flows constantly), and just run cards like Shapers' Sanctuary in the sideboard to combat the removal.dec types.
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Went 2-2; my wins were both 2-1s.
I won against Bridgevine & Ponza, lost 1-2 against 8 Rack, got smoked 0-2 by Blue Moon (dude had great hand & draws both rounds).
Let's get the sad stuff out of the way first.
Losses
8 Rack
My first match. I won the first game by breaking through with Master of Waves and 5 tokens before they could set up.
I boarded out 4 Mistcaller & 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, added 2 Ceremonious Rejection, 2 Unified Will, & 2 Hurkyl's Recall.
Game 2 - Lost after they set up double Ensnaring Bridge & Liliana of the Veil, kept discarding their own hand once they had the enchantment version of The Rack out.
Game 3 - Lost after double Rack and Lili Veil locked me down to death.
Blue Moon
My final match of four. I'm actually surprised by how poorly I did. Both games he got multiple Thing in the Ice out (2nd game he had ALL FOUR), which kept setting me back. Merfolk kept dying to spot removal too and Kira was too slow to help.
Now for the good news:
Wins
Bridgevine
I lost the first game after he got double Bridge from Below in his graveyard and started churning out an army of token zombies. I removed 2 Reejerey, 2 Kira, and a Vial to put in 3 Relic of Progenitus & 2 Surgical Extraction.
2nd game I managed to land Spreading Seas on curve and also had a Surgical Extraction in my opening hand. As soon as Bridge from Below went into the grave, I extracted it which saved my bacon. Merfolk Trickster did work here by tapping down his Vengevine whenever it came back.
Game 3, he mulled down to 4; I again managed to land Spreading Seas on curve and got 16 damage on board turn 4 with the help of Reejerey. He was forced to use Bontu's Last Reckoning to wipe but I had enough lords left in my hand to finish the job on turn 6.
Ponza
Game 1, I steamrolled once I got Spreading Seas out.
Game 2, Choke hit the board right before I drew a Rejeerey -_-
He played a Chandra, Torch of Defiance and got Inferno Titan out with the exile draw ability, then swung for lethal next turn.
Game 3, I had two Spreading Seas in my opening hand. I turned his Utopia Sprawl'd forest into an island. He kept a low land hand, so he fetch shocked himself to get Stomping Ground out. I turned that into another island and swung for lethal the turn after thanks to all my lords.
Thoughts
I did okay but I was hoping to do better, especially against Blue Moon. Oddly, I never had to use Mistcaller's ability against Bridgevine but the threat of it on the field was useful. 8 Rack was a miserable matchup. Besides counters and Hurkyl, I had zero answers to his enchantments or artifacts. I had a massive board Game 2 but couldn't do anything because of double Ensnaring Bridge and got Rack'd to death.
To be fair, I've only played at this store once a week for a month now, and there are a lot of old players who started showing up again. There are 2 KCI players, and multiple control players, but now there are more midrange & combo players. I'm seriously considering building Tropical Fish (I have all the important pieces) because monoblue has almost no permanent answers to artifacts or enchantments besides counters (that I'm aware of). I could've won game 2 of 8 Rack if I had artifact hate, with 5 tokens, 2 lords, master of waves, and 3 other merfolk.
I realize that would make my manabase much weaker to Blood Moon, but considering the high number of artifact deck players (there was even an Affinity player today, but I mercifully was not matched against him) now in my meta, I need more versatility.
On a random note, I usually get extremely nervous at events, even low pressure ones like FNM, but I wasn't nearly as much this time around, so that's a nice little silver lining.
Shoutout to all the posters in this thread, especially those that gave me advice and feedback. Looking forward to next Friday and hoping I do better!
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
2 Jungleborn Pioneer
3 Kumena's Speaker
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Merfolk Trickster
2 Merrow Reejerey
3 Mistcaller
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Botanical Sanctum
2 Breeding Pool
4 Cavern of Souls
6 Island
2 Mutavault
3 Polluted Delta
Other
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
2 Unified Will
2 Echoing Truth
2 Heroic Intervention
2 Kopala, Warden of Waves
3 Natural State
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Shapers' Sanctuary
2 Surgical Extraction
4 Lord of Atlantis
3 Master of Waves
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merfolk Trickster
2 Merrow Reejerey
4 Mistcaller
3 Phantasmal Image
4 Silvergill Adept
2 Cavern of Souls
12 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Wanderwine Hub
Other
4 Aether Vial
4 Peek
4 Spreading Seas
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Echoing Truth
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Kopala, Warden of Waves
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sea's Claim
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Unified Will
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
i read that as buttf**ks. haha
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfx2kA8gok&feature=emb_logo
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3RYiZJFCK0
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j18HlKybrm8&feature=emb_logo
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiAEzfAgpbI
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vNr_4ubfMg
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwpxraL-g
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8MyVNLVYNw
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-M5ffoArnY
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_yQEBOPi_w&feature=emb_logo
extended - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLpUB9zpyr4&feature=emb_logo
The long awaited LoA in a new art.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
On a random note, any tips for the Blue Moon matchup? Got smoked by em last FNM with my monoblue fish, surprisingly.
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
1. Why are your using Coralhelm Commander? That always seemed like a lot of mana for an easily removed creature.
2. Are the Chalices designed to fight something specific, or are they a catch-all?
3. Have you felt the loss of Harbinger against the various graveyard decks?
4. Eight man-lands looks like a lot. Is this all about beating UW Control?
5. Is Relic actually better than Cage these days?
6. Does Tec. Edge really do enough to be worth the slots?
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
4 Kumena's Speaker
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Merfolk Trickster
2 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
Lands
4 Botanical Sanctum
2 Breeding Pool
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
2 Mutavault
2 Polluted Delta
4 Aether Vial
2 Spell Pierce
4 Spreading Seas
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Dispel
3 Echoing Truth
4 Natural State
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Surgical Extraction
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Just wanted to pop in and report that I've had some success with a list going really heavy on the land hate, as follows:
4 Aether Vial
Creatures (28)
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Master of Waves
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Sea's Claim
4 Spreading Seas
Lands (20)
16 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Deprive
2 Echoing Truth
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
Pretty simple stuff. Lots of land hate, lots of beef, and just enough interaction to make it all stick. If your meta is looking heavy on the BGx, Burn, and Tron, give this a spin.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
This looks like a pretty classic 8-Seas list. The only weird-looking thing is the Venser.
What happened to the prior one that looked so strange? I'd still be curious about the answers to the above 6 questions.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
Heading to FNM tonight with the list in my previous post, yay for not being sick any more~
EDIT
Tonight we had 17 players total in Modern, which was nice, but I got paired up with some of the worst matchups imo. Affinity, then KCI, 8 Rack (only match I won, redeemed myself from last week at least), and Burn.
I went 1-3 and placed dead last in FNM rankings, which was not a fun feeling, but at least I got to see some of my buddies again which was nice. Going to try Spirits for a bit, still trying to find a Modern deck to settle on.
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
That list is the MHayashi special - he's had a lot of success with it over the past year, and I bust it out whenever I'm not feeling comfortable with my own list. As you can see from my previous post, I'm off it now, but that list almost never disappoints me.
His list is designed rather differently from "classic Merfolk" in that it's really not trying to aggro opponents out - it's trying to slow them down with Chalices, then slowly overwhelm them with Fish. Coralhelm is neat in that it's a card you can feed any excess mana to, and the Chalices keep it from getting picked off too easily. It's not a card I would run without Chalices, but with them it has a purpose. Ditto for the Faerie Conclaves.
Harbinger is straight-up not very good right now - the "tapped creature" restriction was bugging me more every day, until I finally decided to part ways with him. There isn't a graveyard deck in Modern that I think is favored against us (one of the perks of being able to jam 3-4 Relics in a sideboard), so parting ways with it hasn't hurt overly much.
TecEdge is a card I'm ambivalent about at the moment. I'm choosing to jam it in my 8-Seas because I'm looking to punish
I like Venser and E-Truth because there are matchups where I would side in one, but not the other. Examples where E-Truth gets the nod are decks like Storm (buzz off, Goblin tokens) and Burn (you need some kind of response to Bridge, and Venser's on the slow side while not interacting especially well with cheap burn spells), whereas Venser gets the nod against UW Control (can send a Terminus or a planeswalker back while providing a body, can be brought in off a Vial on 4, and is perhaps our most efficient way to interact with Verdict). And of course, there are many matchups (Hollow One, Humans, Spirits, Hardened Scales, Mardu Pyromancer, Shadow, Tron) in which I jam them both.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
I'm new in MTG Salvation, newish to MTG again (I was into it during Invasion, took some time, bought a few packs of Shards, now I'm back) and as you can guess I'm getting into Modern by getting into Fish. I have a deck, but I'm wondering if anyone has any resources wrt current archetypes that I can read up on before bringing my deck to a FNM. (I watch Nikachu's awesome stuff when I can, and I'm only acquainted with how Tron and, like, 8-Whack Goblins works (and what cards they typically run).
Does anyone know where else I can primers for the big archetypes in modern right now so I can study up before walking into a FNM for the first time in 15 years with a Merfolk deck? Any info would be greatly appreciated!
-Shoebaccha
It depends on your LGS meta, but to give you an example, my LGS has multiple KCI, Burn, & Bridgevine players, Jeskai Midrange, Jeskai Control, Elves, another Merfolk player, RG Ponza, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, BW 8 Rack, and Humans. Besides Merfolk, I run Death & Taxes and UW Spirits.
Generally if you hunt around the Modern forums here on MTG Salvation, you should be able to find a current tier list. One of the key questions you need to answer for yourself is whether you want to run Mono-U Merfolk, or Tropical (GU) Merfolk. Mono-U is much more tempo-oriented and requires good match-up knowledge, skill, and patience; Tropical is a bit more aggro, but has a larger variety of sideboard options and helps the deck have a more even playing field with some of the worst matchups for Mono-U, namely Affinity, and in my experience, KCI. I would recommend the below list from rothgar as a starting point for a customized Mono-U list and go from there.
Hope this helps!
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Why Master of Waves if you're running UG?
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers: